[5.4] Protection Warrior

[pld]

Thanks for the replies! Really appreciate it.

Eddy - took a look at your armory and had a few more questions if you don't mind.

1. Is there a reason you currently have the DPS cloak equipped over the Tank one? Is the DPS cleave proc > the parry? (is this just something you do for farm content for added DPS?) Ditto for the metagem choice.

2. Is there a reason you're using the Inscribed VO gem in your helm vs. Stalwart like you use elsewhere?

3. I'm currently using the same Glyphs with the exception of (my) Glyph of Unending Rage vs. (your) Glyph of Resonating Power. Is the 20 extra Rage not worth it? It was nice being able to SBlock and then follow up with a full SBarr.

4. Is the 4P not worth it? The 2P looks pretty nice, but from my limited knowledge of Prot Warrior, the 4P seems a little meh.

5. Understood that balancing dodge/parry isn't really necessary, but should I be concerned about running into DRs at any point or is it just avoidance all the way? Does Mastery or Crit ever come into play?

My thought was that perhaps you were going for a max DPS on farm content build hence the "non-traditional" gems, gearing choices, etc? Btw, congrats on the 200 mounts. Just got that last week myself!

[idefiler6]

Thanks for the replies! Really appreciate it.

Eddy - took a look at your armory and had a few more questions if you don't mind.

1. Is there a reason you currently have the DPS cloak equipped over the Tank one? Is the DPS cleave proc > the parry? (is this just something you do for farm content for added DPS?) Ditto for the metagem choice.

2. Is there a reason you're using the Inscribed VO gem in your helm vs. Stalwart like you use elsewhere?

3. I'm currently using the same Glyphs with the exception of (my) Glyph of Unending Rage vs. (your) Glyph of Resonating Power. Is the 20 extra Rage not worth it? It was nice being able to SBlock and then follow up with a full SBarr.

4. Is the 4P not worth it? The 2P looks pretty nice, but from my limited knowledge of Prot Warrior, the 4P seems a little meh.

5. Understood that balancing dodge/parry isn't really necessary, but should I be concerned about running into DRs at any point or is it just avoidance all the way? Does Mastery or Crit ever come into play?

My thought was that perhaps you were going for a max DPS on farm content build hence the "non-traditional" gems, gearing choices, etc? Btw, congrats on the 200 mounts. Just got that last week myself!

1 & 2: He used full out avoidance, tank gems and tank cloak for progress. What you're seeing is some kind of off set. Best not to follow the armories of top tanks because they may or may not be in their usual tank setup.

3: Glyphs are fight-dependent as are talents.

4: 4piece sucks. You barely gain a thing from it, and the stats on the tier gear is crap compared to warforged offpieces.

5: DR's are irrelevant, you want the rating only for riposte value, and you want to stack parry for the DPS value of HtL. Crit and Mastery would come into play if you were using a crit or mastery build. Otherwise they're mostly irrelevant, unless you can find a way to fit them in at the very end of hit/exp > parry > dodge.

[Promdates]

1. Is there a reason you currently have the DPS cloak equipped over the Tank one? Is the DPS cleave proc > the parry? (is this just something you do for farm content for added DPS?) Ditto for the metagem choice.

2. Is there a reason you're using the Inscribed VO gem in your helm vs. Stalwart like you use elsewhere?

It would seem as if he's in some form of a dps style tank outfit. Utilizing Thok's Tail Tip, Skeer's, the DPS Cloak/Meta to try to squeeze a bit more damage. Not optimal for progression at all.

[aHeeRo]

Is Storm bolt a thing for Prot warriors? Like Viable on any fight?

[Roshar]

Is Storm bolt a thing for Prot warriors? Like Viable on any fight?

Only Blackfuse for the Shredders I think.

[Masternewt]

I want to use protection warrior for Challenge Modes, so the gear is mostly ToT/SoO LFR. Looking around, there are various suggestions on what to gem for - some say parry, others say mastery. I'm leaning towards parry, since pure avoidance seems to be the go-to choice for most tanks that I checked up. However, I'm not sure if avoidance way is so popular only because it's the most viable in end raiding and maybe mastery would be better for CMs (gear lvl 463).

Thanks!

[idefiler6]

I want to use protection warrior for Challenge Modes, so the gear is mostly ToT/SoO LFR. Looking around, there are various suggestions on what to gem for - some say parry, others say mastery. I'm leaning towards parry, since pure avoidance seems to be the go-to choice for most tanks that I checked up. However, I'm not sure if avoidance way is so popular only because it's the most viable in end raiding and maybe mastery would be better for CMs (gear lvl 463).

Thanks!

Thankfully, we have a thread for that!

[Deleted]

Only Blackfuse for the Shredders I think.

Only just, tbh with the health nerf just take DR + BB which is up for every shredder

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the replies! Really appreciate it.

Eddy - took a look at your armory and had a few more questions if you don't mind.

1. Is there a reason you currently have the DPS cloak equipped over the Tank one? Is the DPS cleave proc > the parry? (is this just something you do for farm content for added DPS?) Ditto for the metagem choice.

2. Is there a reason you're using the Inscribed VO gem in your helm vs. Stalwart like you use elsewhere?

3. I'm currently using the same Glyphs with the exception of (my) Glyph of Unending Rage vs. (your) Glyph of Resonating Power. Is the 20 extra Rage not worth it? It was nice being able to SBlock and then follow up with a full SBarr.

4. Is the 4P not worth it? The 2P looks pretty nice, but from my limited knowledge of Prot Warrior, the 4P seems a little meh.

5. Understood that balancing dodge/parry isn't really necessary, but should I be concerned about running into DRs at any point or is it just avoidance all the way? Does Mastery or Crit ever come into play?

My thought was that perhaps you were going for a max DPS on farm content build hence the "non-traditional" gems, gearing choices, etc? Btw, congrats on the 200 mounts. Just got that last week myself!

Sorry for the late replies but I'll try answer the questions!

1) Yeah just general faffing about, for some bosses I'll use this gearing setup although more often than not I'm using the Tank meta due to how strong it is and how little DPS gain there is from the DPS meta. I personally find the DPS gain from the cloak to be fairly significant however. I try to log out in full tank gear whenever possible but if I've been doing some late night LFR anarchy or messing about I'll tend to forget occasionally

2) The helmet is one from my DPS set that I occasionally use for full out pushing on fights but mostly for soloing or doing stuff with my gf

3) I personally prefer the DPS and burst gain off the TC glyph, I've never really used unending rage that much... I guess from a mitigation perspective it *IS* superior but I often find that SBar automatically just dumping as much rage as it can into barrier to be a little frustrating and I prefer a playstyle where I will delay my attack slightly until after a Block + Sbar so I am already building up rage for the next Block. I never really find myself rage capping so that element wouldn't really factor in as you can always easily dump rage into a heroic strike which is off the GCD anyway, I'd estimate over a 10 minute fight to have probably around 50-100 rage overcapped at most.

4) I personally don't like the 4 set, I think you will see yourself getting better and more consistent rage generation from using the offset pieces with perfect itemization rather than getting a lot of mastery off the tier pieces

5) DR is minimal at best on the order of significantly less than 1% from balancing the stats as opposed to going full Parry so its best to just take the DPS gain and go with that. Mastery imho is a fairly redundant way of gearing when you have a decent stat budget from ilevel, ~525+. Crit does provide insane rage generation and more DPS than avoidance but I personally find it to be a bit too much of a "yolo spec" due to how much more damage you will need to be mitigating using shield barrier with that extra rage generation and unless your healers are extremely competent or overgeared you will more than likely loose DPS by having to dump rage into Sbar as opposed to Block + Heroic Strike just to stay alive or atleast take the same damage as an avoidance geared tank. This is basically why I much prefer the avoidance build, especially for farm raids

Ty for the gz on the mounts!

- - - Updated - - -

It would seem as if he's in some form of a dps style tank outfit. Utilizing Thok's Tail Tip, Skeer's, the DPS Cloak/Meta to try to squeeze a bit more damage. Not optimal for progression at all.

I would say that depends on the fight, I think that's a rather narrow and oddly passive-aggressive way of viewing things :P I would argue that for most fights Thok's is going to be BiS simply due to the DPS gain you get from it, which is undeniably significant. On fights such as paragons aswell where burning a target in a certain amount of time is beneficial to the entire raid, DPS becomes even more important. I would say this tier more than most has a lot of burns for certain tactics to be viable and aside from Thok and the occasional burst from Garrosh, there really isn't a lot of tank damage

[Teye]

In my opinion, the 4 set is only useful for 2 things. Solo tanking Thok and solo soaking Malk's cleave.

With Thok, towards the end of phase 1 your vengeance is so high that you literally no longer need heals if you have enough Rage. If you pop Demo Shout right around 18 stacks, you'll have the rage to carry through to 29 stacks without any other CDs at all.

Malk's Cleave is a pain in the ass to generate rage against normally, because Riposte falls off near the end and we can't Crit Block. If you Demo Shout right at the beginning, you'll have plenty of rage for the last 6 or 7 seconds when Riposte has fallen.

These two things literally only matter for progression, once you're past them you can get rid of the 4 set completely.

[Deleted]

Only Blackfuse for the Shredders I think.

- Besides Siegecrafter (where a sole dragon roar won't crit for 40% of the shredders hitpoints on 10m) i also used it on klaxxi progression to reliable pick up newly spawned bosses due to the lack of tricks/md and dps cloaks occassionally bypassing taunt+heroic throw by a mile. Nowadays (with a decent strat for them, for the first kill we left rikkal alive for almost 4-5 bosses ugh) i just prefer avatar during scorpion, reaching almost 10 million damage per swipe.
- for Nazgrim progression: i went into it with a full stun build for better add control. With our +20-30 ilvl this isn't necessary any longer, they die quick enough.
- if you have trouble picking up adds on Malkorok this might be a useful tool as well, but as long as your owl uses it's starfall glyph and your ranged dps hold back until the blobs reach the middle you should be fine.

Can't think of another situation right now, sorry.

@Teye
I never bothered with it, can you give us some actual numbers for the 4p?

[Deleted]

Only Blackfuse for the Shredders I think.

Nopes. Stormbolt is not even useful on siegecrafter anymore.

[Gliff]

Nopes. Stormbolt is not even useful on siegecrafter anymore.

Just to clarify, it's just as effective as it always was, just not needed anymore.

[Nouway]

Hello there! I would like to ask some questions.

1- Regarding BB x Avatar. Is BB always the best choice when it comes to highest overall damage output?

I've always been using Avatar because my raid composition has 3 or more warriors (its a 25 group), so I could trigger Avatar and benefit from its damage increase alongside with Skull Banners for the whole duration. 20% extra damage + 20% increased critical damage for 24 seconds seems to be massively high!

2- About the meta-gem. Also related to increased damage output, is the STR + 3% critical damage meta gem the best choice or does the legendary DPS meta gem is still better?

I remember the legendary DPS meta gem has been nerfed for tanks a while ago. I was wondering if someone tested both to see which would perform better.

Thanks!

[Deleted]

Hello there! I would like to ask some questions.

1- Regarding BB x Avatar. Is BB always the best choice when it comes to highest overall damage output?

I've always been using Avatar because my raid composition has 3 or more warriors (its a 25 group), so I could trigger Avatar and benefit from its damage increase alongside with Skull Banners for the whole duration. 20% extra damage + 20% increased critical damage for 24 seconds seems to be massively high!

2- About the meta-gem. Also related to increased damage output, is the STR + 3% critical damage meta gem the best choice or does the legendary DPS meta gem is still better?

I remember the legendary DPS meta gem has been nerfed for tanks a while ago. I was wondering if someone tested both to see which would perform better.

Thanks!

1) Well in most situations BB is quite a bit ahead of avatar. However there are certain situations where BB can overtake it such as Paragons if you are in the scorpion or generally under any high vengeance circumstances from stacking debuffs which will then fall off. For the most part though i would suggest just running with BB

2) The legendary DPS meta was nerfed but you will still get a bit more DPS out of that one than the STR Crit damage one

[Deleted]

for 2.
Singletarget it's the leg meta hands down, still up to 4% of your overall damage. Multitarget it should be the old dps meta for obvious reasons: Thunderclap, bladestorm, revenge and deep wounds all can crit.

But honestly giving up 20% flat damage reduction for that? Meh...

And for the dps cloak: don't forget that you give away about 1%-riposte crit in exchange, so it's quite a bit less damage gain than shown in the log. +if somebody screws up (either you or your external cooldown giver) it saves a battleress, maybe even the whole raid. Just looking at a rather mediocre raid tonight i still got one procc during the 'all kills', last week the same. And it allows me to play more recklessly, knowing that i've "one extra life" if necessary.

[Nouway]

Thanks for the answers!!

I also prefer to use the tanking cloak because it "safely" allows me to play recklessly.. I wont switch it anytime soon, even on farm bosses. The tanking meta gem is awesome and I wont throw it away for some DPS boost.

I will try using BB more often on my next raid. As the main tank, I'm flooded with huge Vengeance pools and indeed the BB might perform better.

Thanks again!

[meteo]

And for the dps cloak: don't forget that you give away about 1%-riposte crit in exchange, so it's quite a bit less damage gain than shown in the log. +if somebody screws up (either you or your external cooldown giver) it saves a battleress, maybe even the whole raid. Just looking at a rather mediocre raid tonight i still got one procc during the 'all kills', last week the same. And it allows me to play more recklessly, knowing that i've "one extra life" if necessary.

1280.25 crit rating if you reforge to dodge and use an avoidance gem. If you don't reforge to dodge, it's only 983.25 crit

991 crit + gem on the DPS cloak.

The difference is small. Very small.

[Bryce]

Quick question, the 2p T16 is that a passive or does it only heal after you shield block or shield barrier something?

[idefiler6]

Quick question, the 2p T16 is that a passive or does it only heal after you shield block or shield barrier something?

It's passive, meaning you don't have to actively heal yourself. You get healed for a % of the damage absorbed/blocked every time you block/absorb using those abilities.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

It's passive, meaning you don't have to actively heal yourself. You get healed for a % of the damage absorbed/blocked every time you block/absorb using those abilities.

Specifically, it's 30% of the damage absorbed by Shield Barrier or Shield Block.

So if you absorb/block 100,000 damage, you'll get a nifty 30,000 heal along with it.