Wrath of the Lich King is where, to me, the protection warrior really came into its own. Mind you, my experience with the game started only a few months before the end of the Burning Crusade and thus I cannot relate to prior versions. I leveled this first character as a protection warrior teamed up with first a priest and then a mage. Leveling was slow, the amount of damage I could generate was quite laughable as I was reminded of once when I went to PvP as Protection. The tauren shaman just looked at me, proceeded to wipe out my colleagues and even took the time to laugh at me before leaving me, alive, unharmed but properly dishonoured.
The Wrath of the Lich King patch changed this dramatically. No longer were we the indestructible peashooters of old. We were now juggernauts of raw, unstoppable power! Even raiding at the end of the expansion changed dramatically. One did not have to respec to complete puny dailies; you could do it as a tank using tank skills, gather the enemies and grind them down using our impressive arsenal of tricks. I leveled as protection in Wrath of the Lich King and the experience was completely different from my first 70 levels.
A juggernaut of unstoppable power!
On our old server, a protection warrior was first to reach 80 and it was no surprise to me. I was the first in our guild to achieve this new plateau. I have been tanking every encounter available in this expansion since. Some patches were quite disappointing, others were like candy. Tank classes went up and down. Through it all, the warrior remained a solid choice: never being the worst but also never the favorite.
I have tried a few other classes in the meantime with only the Death Knight making it to 80 and going on to become a Kingslayer. The DK was fun and each class has their strengths and weaknesses (yes, even pallies, my old nemesis). They were interesting but they always seemed to be lacking something. I’ll try to explain now what is so wonderful about the warrior with a specific focus on the protection warrior.
The Mobility
The warrior has unmatched mobility in the field. The protection warrior (through the talent Warbringer) does not only have the ability to charge – it can also intercept an enemy or intervene back to a raid member. I would suggest that this is really what defines a warrior tank. They feel fast. Suppose a patrol comes in behind your healer; just charge at them, thunderclap, and then intercept back to your original group. The other tanking classes have tools to do something similar. Death Knights can put Death and Decay at a distance to get the attention of the new pack, and pallies can throw their shields. Yes, any of those would work, but they could never feel as active as the warrior’s technique.
Our Tools
For many new players, the warrior feels overwhelming. I use about 36 buttons to control all of my abilities. When changing stances, it will add even more to the number. It is a wonderful challenge to master them. For me, the iconic raid instance showing the raw power of the warrior tank is Trial of the Crusader. No one else could stun lock any mob like the warrior can. At the time, we had the following stuns or interrupts:
- Concussion Blow
- Shield Bash
- Heroic Throw (talented to silence)
- Shockwave
- Charge
- Intercept
- Revenge (Since then it has been changed to no longer stun the target)
- Pummel (if you actually decided to change stance in all of this)
- Intimidating Shout
Again, keeping track of them all was not the easiest, but in the hands of someone who knew the class well, that gave you one less target to worry about. The warrior even came with his own fear breaking ability. Who could ask for more?
The other fight in this instance that showcased the warrior’s abilities was the last fight against Anub’Arak. No, the fun part of the fight was not fighting Anub himself. It was fighting the adds – those giant ants that spawned on often opposite sides of the room. Who better to pick those up than a warrior using his charge? That same warrior could then control the adds and stop their shadow strike by stunning them with shockwave.
The Rage
Now this will sound bizarre for most as the rage is one of the things warriors complain about the most. The tank starts a fight with nothing to fuel his abilities? Yes, it can be as bad as it sounds. Having a pack of new enemies charging your group as you stand there, not enough rage to thunderclap, no range to charge, berserker rage on cooldown… No, not fun at all. This also makes the warriors a rather poor off-tank when he’s not receiving damage. No damage means little rage and so your dps is very limited. But the warrior is also the only tank who actually becomes stronger as a fight goes on. Once that rage bar is close to full, heroic strikes come in and its aggro generation is quite remarkable. To me, the rage that many consider an issue, is actually another great challenge, a tactical puzzle to figure out for each fight.
Other reasons
I could go on and on about other reasons why the warrior is the best class out there but I think the main reason is it’s a very active and complex playstyle. It’s definitely not for everyone. I raid with some tanks who actually have the time to chat while tanking. To a warrior, this is almost impossible to fathom as every global cooldown is important which is probably a reason why protection warriors seem to have a reputation as being all business. Or it could just be me.
Let’s not forget Spell Reflection, too! That and Warbringer are probably my favourite abilities of the Warrior protection tree.
I really love how big and flexible the Warrior toolkit has become. Warriors have always had a lot of buttons, but it seems to me like they fell behind on group-tanking during Burning Crusade. A lot of folks don’t seem to have realized how great Warrior AoE tanking really has become in this latest expansion. It’s not easy to do well, but gosh, it’s powerful.
I’m excited to hear more of your warrior wisdom!
Oh yes, I do love spell reflection too! I will admit though that this love is mostly in PvP where having a mage kill themselves is a great amount of fun. The problem with Spell reflection is that most bosses are immuned to its effect which makes the ability often pointless in raids other than reflecting a Lich Slap.
I think you have it right when you’re saying “It’s not easy to do well, but gosh, it’s powerful.” This can be applied to most things warrior. AoE tanking as a warrior is currently not anywhere near as easy as say a Frost Death Knight. It can be done but it does require more work.
And thanks for the good words, Lara!
Great analysis about the strengths of warrior tanking Voss! I love the playstyle of the warrior, and their HUGE toolkit. In the proper hands, a well-played warrior is a well-oiled machine.
One of my favorite examples of how dominating warrior tanking can be was when Halls of Reflection had just come out, and people were just starting to recognize the corner method as the “correct” method. In my experience, this has been the one time warriors have completely outshone their competitors. Marcko of Just My Two Copper posted a video of his warrior tanking the place out in the room and absolutely destroying the place. I believe he had PVP DPS gear with a shield, and put out 4.5k DPS. Watching him tank the place in a frenzy of charges, stuns and stomps is a thing of beauty. (the video is here if interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4JJazqvW1k)
One more reason to like a warrior – at baby levels, a warrior in heirloom gear can literally chain Victory Rush procs together and mow down and entire countryside of equal-level foes, one-shotting each one and proccing a new Victory Rush. It’s an amazing feeling.
Thanks Rades!
I had never seen the video but yes (thanks for the link!) but yes it’s definitely stuff I have done.
Of course, being married to a mage, you learn very fast that she likes me to pile things together and not run all over the place like in that video. Tends to make her AoE miss and I’m told that’s not a good thing.
Pulling that kind of dps in a heroic can fairly easily be done now. One of the best instances for pulling incredible numbers is CoS. With Voss equipped with what I call his “threat set” (defense at 520 only and a ton of dps pieces and trinkets), I usually end the instance top dps or second when someone is very awake and well equipped. I just use charge and intercept to move from group to group so that only a blinking mage can keep up. I would not recommend for a new tank to do this, of course, or to be under defense cap for a heroic. But with the gear Voss has, he has about 43k HP in that threat set so it makes up for the stray crits he might get.
You’re completely right about the low level warrior. I just levelled one to 26 recently and I have no problem at all taking on enemies that are 5 levels higher than he is. I might do a post soon about levelling a new tank. Basically, for new tanks the problem they’ll most often face is threat, not survivability. This is why a levelling tank should focus more on the threat abilities of the tree more so than to invest his precious talent points in gaining a 1% bonus to dodge.
Hey Voss, I’d be interested in reading a “new tank” primer. I know when I made my warrior tank I took ever health/defense/survival talent that was available, out of paranoia that I would be crushed and die horribly, wiping a group.
Also, what about the viability of leveling as Protection? I’ve heard that it’s actually fine and just as fast as Fury/Arms, with the bonus that you can get instant tank queues if you want a break from questing.
I’ll second Rades’s interest in a warrior tank primer! I know the world will be changing soon, but surely there must be some basics that will carry over with only minor revision?
I took your advice, Voss, and spent some talent points on threat instead of mitigation, and even only a few points made a HUGE difference for me. I had a lot fewer threat problems, and was no less survivable. So, count me as a satisfied customer.
I’d also be interested in a new-tank primer! One of the classes I’ve always wanted to play is a warrior (as a tank) but have succeeded only in the first part (I play Arms) because, imo, the quintessential tank IS the warrior. They’re the Original, the Tanky and the Awesome. And I want so badly to play one – but also well. I keep wussing out of leveling as a tank because I am afraid of failing miserably and everyone in Azeroth pointing and laughing. >.>
Looking forward to more! Glad to see you have a blog
Thanks for the idea, guys!
Just used it for my next post
And thanks for the good words, Anea! Check out the next post and I hope it’s a good start. And don’t hesitate to let me know if it’s not clear, helpful or any good.
Hey welcome to blogging. I had heard you might be thinking about starting up soon! Warriors are like a foreign language to my castery-healery self. I wonder if you can shed some light on them at last!
Just a note, though, I can’t seem to get you in my feed reader. :\
I’m not even going to bother commenting on Warrior Tanking –that’s Soul’s job.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Voss!