Protection Warrior 10m

[Decision 7]

So as the title says I'm a 10m raiding prot warrior and I'm here to ask you guys for a few advice.

I'm feeling that I'm getting bursted down way to quick even when I'm actively using SB/SBar so I started looking at the stat prio I'm using.

Currently I've prioritized 7.5% hit > 15% exp > mastery > stam > parry > dodge.

This prio is for everything, reforges, gems and enchants.

However as I said I'm getting bursted and healers are having a hard time to react, especially on ji-kun and tortos heroic.

So my idea on this was to get rid of my mastery gems/enchants and go for stamina instead to prevent the "realistic damage taken"

Now I want your advice on wether it's good or plain horrible to go stamina on 10m and if it's worth taking stamina, will my stat prio change to prefer parry over mastery? And will my rotation be more filled with SBar?

Any advice or opinions, good or bad is more than welcome.

This is my armory if you're interested. http://eu.battle.net...císìon/advanced

[ragebarr 153]

Well, first of all, I am definitely not the greatest prot warrior around, so I might actually say something really stupid, but I do think I've read/played enough on my offspec to have a bit of insight about it :)

I think that the stat priority you have is pretty much the best you can have. Unless I am mistaken, the only 2 reason where you would want to go stam over mastery is unavoidable magic damage (for which you should have backup stam trinkets in your bags anyway imo) OR cutting edge progression tanking, where you go in raids very undergeared and almost everything can one-shot you.

If you are not in these situations (which neither of the fights you are talking about are) mastery is BY FAR your best avoidance stat. Even in the event where you'd decide to go stam>mastery, parry would still be way below mastery.

My take on this is keep your actual priority.

Now, for the "getting bursted" issue, I would dare to say this is just something you and your healers will have to learn to deal with. These fights hurt, (even on normal, both tanks in my raid group had to learn to deal with Snapping Bite/Bats/Talon Rake) so you *need* to have cooldowns available. Talon Rake on Ji-Kun and Bats/Snapping Bite on Tortos are all on very predictable timers, so both you *and* your healers need to have these timers on their screen to be able to react in time and to know when to expect damage.

However, nothing actually stops you from trying stam and seeing how it feels, you'll just have less control on the damage input you recieve, which is why I would not recommend it.

-Rage

[Estarriol 167]

Hi, Decision,

I took a look at your armory briefly. Without logs I can't say for sure what is going on, but in your post it seems that you are preferring SBlk over SBar. Generally this is a good idea. However, Tortos' Snapping Bite and Ji-kun's Talon Rake cannot be blocked. You must have a SBar in place for those abilities. With Ji-kun, you must also always have a CD up for every Rake. If you are taking 3 Rakes per timespan that you are tanking, I would reccommend using Demo shout for the first, Last Stand for the second, and Shield Wall for the third. On Tortos Heroic, do not ever use SBlk. Absorb shields prevent you from blocking and his bite cannot be blocked. Since you should always have the crystal buff up, using SBlk is a serious waste of rage. Always have SBar up for every single Bite.

At your gear level, that will probably be good enough. I would not feel comfortable with that alone, though. I went with hard stam gems for Horridon, Tortos, and Ji-kun. I would recommend that you do the same and also equip a stam trinket for those fights. I would not recommend prioritizing parry over mastery in your reforges. Remember to rotate CDs duing Quake Stomps and Rockfalls!

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Estarriol

[Tarazet 144]

Hi, Decision,

I took a look at your armory briefly. Without logs I can't say for sure what is going on, but in your post it seems that you are preferring SBlk over SBar. Generally this is a good idea. However, Tortos' Snapping Bite and Ji-kun's Talon Rake cannot be blocked. You must have a SBar in place for those abilities. With Ji-kun, you must also always have a CD up for every Rake. If you are taking 3 Rakes per timespan that you are tanking, I would reccommend using Demo shout for the first, Last Stand for the second, and Shield Wall for the third. On Tortos Heroic, do not ever use SBlk. Absorb shields prevent you from blocking and his bite cannot be blocked. Since you should always have the crystal buff up, using SBlk is a serious waste of rage. Always have SBar up for every single Bite.

At your gear level, that will probably be good enough. I would not feel comfortable with that alone, though. I went with hard stam gems for Horridon, Tortos, and Ji-kun. I would recommend that you do the same and also equip a stam trinket for those fights. I would not recommend prioritizing parry over mastery in your reforges. Remember to rotate CDs duing Quake Stomps and Rockfalls!

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Estarriol

This is excellent advice and even though I've never tanked as a Warrior, I got lots of good information and ideas that I can use from this post.

I should mention that on Chick-un (my pet name for her), you also want to use any abilities you have to dodge or parry melee attacks more frequently, since each one that lands will stack a DoT on you. I believe that if it is blocked, it will still apply the DoT. As a Druid, I found it better to keep my dodge buff up to manage the DoT applications and use cooldowns on Talon Rake.

[Estarriol 167]

Speaking of druids, if your comp has one, their symbiosis would be very useful for you to have on both Tortos and Chick-un (can this be her official new name?) I haven't noticed that the DoT damage is especially noticable, but you can fill out your rotation with SBlk between Rakes as you will minimize your damage intake. Always be sure to have 60 rage ready for Rakes.