[Prot] Trinket Woes and Cooldown Rotation

[Lichdom 18]

Hi folks. First time poster here with a bit of a conundrum.

 

I just started running a dwarf prot warrior. Started tanking LFRs and more recently doing Flex. I run PuGs exclusively as my guild doesn't raid. I'm looking for some advice over my trinkets.

 

I started gearing up recently and for quite a while, I was running withRelic of Niuzao and Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage. At the start of my gearing, the stam boost from both was all I was looking at. However, as I tried to squeeze every last bit of survivability from my gear, I made a macro to ensure I used the trinkets as often as possible. The macro evolved into a cooldown rotation macro that I really liked. It went something like this:

 

 

Start:

Secs          

0          Relic of Niuzao

10        Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage

25        Demoralizing Shout

35        Shield Wall

47        Stoneform

55        No cds running

60        Relic of Niuzao

70        Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage

85        Demoralizing Shout

95        Demoralizing Banner

110      No cds running

120      Relic of Niuzao

130      Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage

145      Demoralizing Shout

155      Shield Wall

167      Stone Form

175      No cds running

180      Relic of Niuzao

190      Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage

205      Demoralizing Shout

215      Last Stand (Use when needed in the next 25 seconds)

240      Restart macro with Relic of Niuzao

 

As you can see, with this rotation, I was able to have some kind of cooldown, either minor or major, running approximately 90% of the time, indefinitely. Since all my "Oh ****" buttons were spoken for, I macro'ed a Healthstone+Armor potion combo to act as my emergency cooldown.

 

I liked the setup and felt that, combined with proper usage of Shield Block/Barrier, it helped smooth my incoming damage significantly during my early gearing when I was tanking LFR SoO wing 4 with barely ilvl 496. However, as I started to gear up, the low item level of these trinkets held me back from getting into better pugs. Unfortunately, there aren't any higher ilvl trinkets that are suitable replacements in that they have short CD defensive cooldowns. Without these two trinkets, the whole rotation is shafted.

 

I got a couple of other tanking trinkets from LFR that I use to boost my ilvl when needed to get into groups, namely Juggernaut's Focusing Crystal and Vial of Living Corruption. I find myself switching trinkets quite often. I don't like gear switching often and I'd like to be settled on my gear set. Should I just abandon the old trinkets and the cooldown rotation I setup? Or should I stick with it and accept the ilvl hit?

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[Estarriol 167]

The cooldown rotation setup is interesting, but I'd advise against it. While it's awesome that you have yourself covered 90% of the time, CDs are often something that are needed at specific times. It's better to have a lesser uptime on your CDs if they're used when needed than have them up when unnecessary. This way you can react to the fight at hand. I'm really liking how much thought I'm seeing you put into your tanking though. 

 

Unfortunately, I can't tell you to use X and Y trinkets all of the time. Tank trinkets are highly situational. JFC and VoLC are both great trinkets and they'll do you well most of the time. I'd hold onto Lao Chin's if you hit a spot where you really need the stam. For Niuzao's, start saving up your Timeless coins. There's a great upgrade Resolve of Niuzao that you can buy with coins. 40k, IIRC. I actually use it frequently. It's fantastic on Protectors, Nazgrim, Garrosh, and a few others. It allows you to have a burst of threat as well as additional rage and dodge. Hold onto your Relic until you get the Resolve.

 

As soon as you can, try to get Rook's Unlucky Talisman. It's a great trinket for Juggernaut, tanking Rook on Protectors, Thok, and Paragons.

[Lichdom 18]

Thanks for the input. I guess you're right. Also, since we don't really have long duration single tanking encounters anymore, I imagine that a long term rotation isn't very useful.

 

I'll aim for Resolve of Niuzao and Rook's Unlucky Talisman and add them to my collection of trinkets to swap in as needed.

 

Thanks again!

[bangorme 0]

 

Unfortunately, I can't tell you to use X and Y trinkets all of the time. Tank trinkets are highly situational. JFC and VoLC are both great trinkets and they'll do you well most of the time. I'd hold onto Lao Chin's if you hit a spot where you really need the stam. For Niuzao's, start saving up your Timeless coins. There's a great upgrade Resolve of Niuzao that you can buy with coins. 40k, IIRC. I actually use it frequently. It's fantastic on Protectors, Nazgrim, Garrosh, and a few others. It allows you to have a burst of threat as well as additional rage and dodge. Hold onto your Relic until you get the Resolve.

 

I looked at the Resolve of Niuzao, but it gave up stamina for mastery.  Since I'm running an avoidance build I didn't think I needed all that mastery.

[ragebarr 153]

I looked at the Resolve of Niuzao, but it gave up stamina for mastery.  Since I'm running an avoidance build I didn't think I needed all that mastery.

 

You can reforge the mastery on the Resolve on whatever you want, be it dodge or parry. Plus, even in an avoidance build mastery isn't an horrible stat. On top of that, the "on use" of the resolve fit perfectly into your avoidance build.

[Estarriol 167]

And stam's not all that necessary except under a few conditions.