Since the expansion has come out there has been little to no discussion about the speed of tanking weapons other then between some of tanks in my guild and myself.  In the Burning Crusade your choice was a fast weapon or nothing else; no slow one-handed weapons with tanking stats dropped.  In Wrath of the Lich King we have a multitude of slow tanking weapon choices: there is the Crescent of Brooding Fury or the Infantry Assault Blade or even Broken Promise, all of which are 2.5 or 2.6 speed which has been completely unheard of in the days of TBC.

I’ve done a little math and some theorycrafting, and here are my findings.

• Heroic Strike’s bonus damage does not scale with weapon speed. While your white swing will hit harder, do more damage and thus threat, the extra damage from Heroic Strike Rank 13 is still only 495.  Doing a little math here means that an average Heroic Strike with Broken Promise is roughly 1034* and with Slayer of the Lifeless is around 785*, which is a different of about 24%.  Seems like Broken Promise is the winner until you factor in that Heroic Strike eats up your next white swing, making it so that Slayer of the Lifeless hits 40% more often and therefore 40% more Heroic Strikes.
• The faster the weapon, the more you get out of Judgement of Light. The amount of healing received from Judgement of Light is the same whether you use a 3.8 speed two-hander or dual-wield 1.5 speed daggers; JoL procs on hits.  It is safe to assume then that the faster your weapon the more often you will be proccing JoL.  More healing is good.
• Heroic Strike is still a rage dump. If you have over 40 rage, which in Wrath is often, use Heroic Strike.  With a slower weapon you run the risk of your HS swing coming slower then incoming damage and incoming rage.  Remember that any rage over 100 is wasted damage and threat!
• What about bigger Devastates? Devastate is a waste of a global cooldown if you’re trying to put out maximum damage (remember damage = threat) unless you are refreshing Sunders. Otherwise, use Concussion Blow or Shockwave.  If those are on cooldown, use Devastate to try to get some Sword and Board procs.

My verdict then?  Faster weapons win out, hands down.  Even if a faster weapon were to generate a little less threat, I would take one for the bonus healing recieved from Judgement of Light.

Not to mention that Slayer wins out of Broken Promise because it looks like a sword, not a dragon’s penis.

*Note: These numbers are before buffs and stats like Strength or AP.  I’m also completely discounting the other stats on both of these swords, I am merely using them as examples for speed and damage and since they are found in rougly the same tier of raiding.

Update: It figures that after I write this long tirade, I get Broken Promise instead of Slayer of the Lifeless.  The World of Warcraft gods are cruel and evil.

Popularity: 37% [?]

You’ve just hit 80! Congratulations! But I can see you asking yourself, “now what?” Well, read along. I’m going to assume in this guide that you leveled as Fury or Arms and haven’t picked up a single piece of tanking gear along the way and you are a loner with no friends who can craft anything for you.

Drops from heroics and badge items will be included in another post later this week.

Step One – Reputation

The very first thing you’re going to want to do is make sure you’ve done all of the quests in Dragonblight that have to do with the Wyrmrest Accord, this will save you massive amounts of time getting to Revered and picking up their amazing tanking pieces. I completely missed the long question chain that starts with A Strange Device and it cost me; don’t be like me. This quest chain also leads to the ability to do the Wyrmrest Accord daily which you should run every day until that magical limit has been reached.

• Honored – Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions
• Revered – Breastplate of the Solemn Council
• Revered – Sabatons of Draconic Vigor

Make sure to pick up your tabard and wear it in level 80 dungeons!  Once you hit Revered, switch it out with the Argent Crusade Tabard and start working your way to Revered with them for the helm enchant.

Step Two – Crafted BoE Items

If you know a blacksmith, are a blacksmith, or have some gold laying around to spend on the Auction House, then I highly recommend getting these pieces to bump you up to the defense cap. These items should last you quite a while until you replace them with pieces from Naxx and heroics.

• Tempered Saronite Belt – 6x Cobalt Bars, 5x Saronite Bars
• Tempered Saronite Bracers - 13x Saronite Bars
• Tempered Saronite Gauntlets – 14x Saronite Bars
• Saronite Bulwark – 14x Saronite Bars

Total materials: 46 Saronite Bars, 6 Cobalt Bars.
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Popularity: 41% [?]

There has been a lot of false information spread around the bowels of the internet lately about what the actual stat caps are for a tanking warrior at level 80.  I’ve read up on TankSpot, Elitist Jerks and Something Awful (I highly recommend all of these links, by the way) to bring you the end-all-be-all of what you should be looking for as a tank in terms of your stats.

Defense for raiding: 540
Defense for heroics: 535
Hit (level 83 boss): 295 raiting
Expertise (remove dodges): 25
Expertise (remove parries): 57

If you would rather look at raiting required then these are the numbers you need:

Defense: 689 defense rating
Expertise (dodge): 205 expertise rating
Expertise (parry): ~500 expertise rating
Hit: 295 hit rating

Here’s stat conversion at level 80:

1% hit = ~32.8 hit rating
1% dodge/parry reduction = ~32.8 expertise rating
1 expertise = 8.1975 expertise rating
1 defense = 4.9 defense rating

Popularity: 20% [?]

This topic recently came up in a thread on TankSpot so I figured I’d give it a go myself in writing something up about it, perhaps I’ll even make it an on-going series of subject matter here provided anyone is interested.

There are exactly two instances I can think of off of the top of my head where it is okay to taunt a mob off of another tank.  Hopefully you guys will help me think of a couple more.

1. Boss strategy. When a boss encounter calls for it, like Vashj.  When the main tank gets rooted (pre-Warbringer anyway) or stunned during Phase 1 or 3, it’s important for the OT to immediately pick her up.
2. To preserve another tank. When you might be out of range of healers and the tank that has a mob is about to die.  A good example of this is the Infernals that drop during Kaz’rogal and Azgalor trash in Hyjal.  Another example was on our Illidan kill last night; one of our Flame tanks went down and I stepped in long enough for the first one to die, then the living Flame tank taunted it back off of me.

This means that if the situation you find yourself in doesn’t fall into one of the top two categories, do not taunt off of another tank. I don’t care if you’re a better tank or better geared or whatever the excuse is, it is a slap in the face of the other tank if you do this.  On a very basic level you are saying to that tank that you do not trust them to do their job.*

We all accidentally taunt, just because you do doesn’t make you a terrible tank but please apologize for it.  A quick, “sorry about that, Bob the Tank” in Vent can help smooth it all over and stop a potential flare-up from occurring.  And believe me when I say that they will know what you’re apologizing for.

There is one situation in which taunting off of another tank’s target is acceptable, though it still isn’t the best idea in the world, and that is AOE tanking.  As far as I’m concerned in these hectic situations as long as the mobs are not on the DPS or the healers it not a problem and you should not take someone taunting off of you personally, you should be happy that you are all doing your job and not allowing the raid to take unnecessary damage.

*If you really don’t trust the other tank, instead of taunting off of them stop bringing them to raids.

Popularity: 16% [?]

With the advent of patch 3.0 and the upcoming expansion, no doubt everyone reading this is well aware that the way Warriors have been tanking has been completely turned on it’s head.  I went from putting out around 1200 to 1300 TPS on a boss to around 3000 TPS pretty quick and I’m sure most of you have seen a similar increase.  Our “oh crap” buttons are on lower cooldowns, our talents are fun and exciting, our gemming choices are actually going to be choices and our AOE abilities have been buffed to the moon.  That’s all well and good but the problem facing many is this: how do you use all of these new abilities to their maximum potential?

Single-target Rotation

There really isn’t a way to say, “do this, then this, then this” anymore since everything a tank does now is based entirely on circumstances.  I know in many ways this has always been the case but it’s never been like that more than it is now.  That said, your priorities should always be:

• Shield Slam, including Sword and Board procs. If Shield Slam is up, use it.  No excuses.  This ability does the most damage and puts out the most threat of any move in our threat arsenal.  Learn it, live it, love it, use it.  Often.
• Revenge. If Revenge is up and Shield Slam is on cooldown, use Revenge.  Revenge costs only two rage with Focused Rage talented and does a ton of damage which means tons of threat.  If you have Glyph of Revenge (and you should) you will also use Heroic Strike immediately after Revenge.  In fact, to make sure you never miss a Heroic Strike I recommend using this macro which I blatantly stole from Kadomi who stole it from someone over at Veneretio’s site, TankingTips.com:

/castsequence reset=2 Revenge, !Heroic Strike

• Devastate. If Shield Slam and Revenge are cooling down, start throwing out Devastates.  Make sure you use
• Shield Block. I don’t use this necessarily every cooldown, but it’s pretty close.  I want to make sure that I’m using it when Shield Slam is available, otherwise I’ve wasted precious seconds where I could have used another Shield Slam or a Sword and Board proc to push out even more threat.  Shield Block is especially useful to use at the beginning of a pull so that your DPS can lay into your target right away.
• Shield Bash. If you have two points in Gag Order your Shield Bash increases the damage your Shield Slam does to a target by 10%.  That’s like having the T6 4-piece set bonus with the push of a button.  Try to throw this up early in a fight to get maximum use out of it and don’t worry about it affecting your rotation because Shield Bash is off of the global cooldown now!

Multi-target Rotation

Here we are as warriors, no target limit on Thunder Clap and with our cool new ability Shockwave.  This means we can do instances in the same way that only Protection paladins used to be in the past – with absolutely no crowd control.  That isn’t to say it was impossible, I’ve done a dungeon without crowd control plenty of times and I’m sure most of you have too; the difference is that now it’s fun and it’s manageable.

• Charge. This step is actually optional and not recommended in a sitation where you could aggro further groups but man is it fun.
• Thunder Clap. You want to lay out a Thunder Clap immediately to get a handle on the mobs and to get that cooldown ticking away.
• Shockwave. Pile the mobs up in front of you and give ‘em a Shockwave to the face.
• Cleave. Cleave repeatedly, over and over until the cooldown is down for…
• Thunder Clap. At this point, you rinse and repeat until everything is dead.

Don’t forget you have other abilities you can be using during this time as well!  Use Shield Block to make Damage Shield hit harder, throw out Shield Slams and Devastates as well.  Above all else, always be doing something to maximize your threat.

Note: If you woud like to take a look at a more in-depth video about pulling, look no further than the Video Pulling Guide by Ciderhelm of TankSpot.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Last night my guild did a run of 7/9 bosses in BT, downing both Reliquary of Souls and Mother when we had never seen either of those bosses before.  To top it all off, we downed Mother when 50% of the raid wasn’t wearing any shadow resist gear and the other 50% had maybe 110 resist tops.  We had an alchemist in the raid who made 20 or so Shadow Resist potions that the DPS and healers drank at when Mother hit 50% health.  I have no idea how effective that was but we killed her and that’s what matters.

I have to be honest: the trash leading up to both of those bosses are an absolute blast with the new Protection changes, and the trash in Hyjal was so much more fun when we ran that on Tuesday.  I had never seen any of that trash so being able to not only see the new content but tank it all was exhilarating.

Now some bragging: I got my Onslaught Shoulderguards!  I have never been a fan of the look of the Destroyer Shoulderguards so this is a change I’m pretty happy with for both the upgrade and the anesthetics.  Unfortunately my T5 looked better with the rest of my gear so I’m back to rollin’ through instances in a clownsuit but the shoulders were such a huge upgrade I just don’t care.

I was then faced with the dilemma of gemming.  As you guys recall from my previous post about tanking gemming in the expansion, I said that hit gems into yellow slots and strength/stamina gems into red slots would probably be the way to go.  Old habits die hard, though, and I ended up socketing for two +15 stamina gems and ignoring the socket bonus.

I just don’t know if it’s worth it at this point in the game to completely change the way I’m gemming because, frankly, threat has not been an issue since the patch went live so I might as well socket for survivability, right?

Popularity: 8% [?]

I’ve been doing a lot of research and I think that with all of the changes to the class as a whole my brain has imploded.  After my fifth of sixth iteration of a tanking spec, I have decided that this is the build I’m going to be using for main tanking at level 80.

Titan’s Grip with Last Stand and Shield Mastery.  Awwww yeah.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I was looking through the gem list over on WoWHead today and I have to say that I’m very, very impressed with what Blizzard is bringing to the table.  While the standard gemming practice in the Burning Crusade, is (at least until late-T6) to stack stamina, stamina, and some more stamina while forsaking all socket bonuses, I do not foresee this being the case in Wrath of the Lich King.

Why do I think this, you ask?

Tons of Stamina is on Everything

Every single piece of tank-like gear I have found is loaded with stamina, for instance:

• Tempered Titansteel Helm (crafted): 168 stamina
• Tempered Titansteel Treads (crafted): 120 stamina
• Titansteel Shield Wall (crafted): 69 stamina
• Armored Titanium Goggles (crafted): 111 stamina
• Slayer of the Lifeless (Naxx 10-man): 57 stamina

That’s a ton of stamina, and all of those items are able to be obtained very early in the Wrath of the Lich King raiding game.

But most importantly, we will not longer need to have massive stamina pools because…

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Popularity: 20% [?]

Old and Busted: Powerful Earthstorm Diamond

New Hotness: Eternal Earthstorm Diamond

It’s no secret that with patch 3.0, a lot of tanking warriors are going to have some problems getting back to the defense softcap.  We’ll be swapping in some trinkets with high defense rating (read: Scarab of Displacement) permanently, the problem with this is that it’s going to drastically cut down on our ability to freely swap out items for added versatility depending on the situation we find ourselves in.

Enter the new Lord of the Warrior Tanking Meta Gems, the Eternal Earthstorm Diamond!  She’s quite the beauty, no?  With the +12 defense raiting it’ll help you get back up to 490 defense and the 10% bonus to Shield Block Value will be absolutely amazing for our our future threat and survivability.  The best part is that it’s a percentage so it’ll just keep getting better as your gear improves.

Popularity: 6% [?]

We all know the great stigma attached with running in pick up groups for instances; the people are morons, the people there can’t play their classes, the crowd control is terrible, etc, etc.  This stigma is there and well-known because, well, generally it’s deserved.  I hear constant complaining about running in PUGs but there are two streaks of silver lining in the murky cloud that people don’t often see.

It Will Make You a Better Tank

The bottom line is that when you have to deal with the Mage that just has to Pyroblast when you pull or the Hunter that can’t trap or the Warlock that DoTs everything so he can top the DPS meters it makes you a better tank.  You learn to use all of your abilites and how to use every single trick you have to keep mobs stuck on you.

I was recently asked by a guild member, who just dinged 70 and wants to tank, for some tips of the trade.  I told him to go PUG.  PUG a lot.  PUG until your eyes bleed because the things you learn while PUGing are invaluable and will serve you for as long as you play the game and continue to have bosses punch you around.

I believe this topic has been hit on by other tanking bloggers but the other reason that people go to PUGs and is often overlooked is because…

It is a Valuable Recruiting Method

Yes, you will run into many groups where you can’t stand a single person in it.  But every now and then you’ll run into the diamond in the rough; that player who is in the guild that recruited him when he was level 1 but who knows how to play his class and is great to be around.  The type of person you want to bring into your guild.

Popularity: 7% [?]