Thok tank-swapping with a War

[Embermoon]

We ran a flex the other night, with me tanking on my bear, and a buddy on his 536 prot war. I seemed to be fine with 3 stacks of fearsome roar, but whenever he would have even 2 stacks, his health bar would take huge swings, and then he'd die. Consistently. Our tanks are both alts, for us, and the strat (as given to us by the GM) was to take 3 stacks before swapping.

Note that the GM's main is a blood DK, and she's always paired up with our brewmaster.

Any other time, my prot war buddy is a decent tank. Here's what I'm wondering, with this fight, in particular:

- Is there any reason to go to three stacks, before taunting? Why not taunt on one stack?

- I'm told that prot wars don't have any active mitigation to speak of, but is there any reason that a fully gemmed & enchanted 536 prot war, on flex should be taking significant spike damage?

[Coldpro]

1) No reason to go to 3 stacks unless vengeance whoring. We usually go to 2 in normal and it works out fine.

2) Most of the damage your prot war should be taking will be melee damage, which can be mitigated by keeping Shield Block up as much as possible. Try to line Shield Barrier up with his roar, and it should prevent most of the damage.

If your buddy is taking a ton of spike damage on flex, I'd be willing to bet he's either gemmed/reforged wrong, or is doing something wrong rotationally.

[Deleted]

- I'm told that prot wars don't have any active mitigation to speak of, but is there any reason that a fully gemmed & enchanted 536 prot war, on flex should be taking significant spike damage?

What the hell?
We have shieldblock and shieldbarrier, both really really good AM.

The only reason he's taking loads of spike damage is cause of poor play.
Im willing to bet he has sub 10% shieldblock uptime and barriers you can count on both hands.

[Senen]

We ran a flex the other night, with me tanking on my bear, and a buddy on his 536 prot war. I seemed to be fine with 3 stacks of fearsome roar, but whenever he would have even 2 stacks, his health bar would take huge swings, and then he'd die. Consistently. Our tanks are both alts, for us, and the strat (as given to us by the GM) was to take 3 stacks before swapping.

That's rather fun, I'm tanking with a bear mate and he usually was the one to die at 2 or 3 stacks during the first p1 (he seems to manage 4 stacks during the ice p1, but the first p1 is a problem) so now I tank the boss until 6 stacks and then we go to p2.

Shield Barrier is amazingly good on Thok. I try to keep using SB for as long as possible for dps purpose (glyph of heavy repercussion) but around 3-4 stacks I start using more and more SBar. You have so much Vengeance, SBar absorbs are HUGE.
Anyway, there should be enough time between two p1 to use Demoralizing Shout and Shield Wall and have them back for the next p1 (that's probably not true for Last Stand, though) so he should use them at 2 stacks if you go for 3 stacks so that it ends around the moment when you taunt back the boss.

[Kortiah]

To be honest as a 536 prot war he can even solo tank flex Thok ...
Just have to spam 60-rage SBarriers when you're at 3+ stacks and it'll get through without any major trouble providing your healers aren't playing with one hand.

I did it while having 530-535 back then and was actually surprised I could pull this off (had recently switched to war prot after a year break).

He's either not having a proper cooldown management (blowing Shield wall/Demo shout early comes to mind), or poor rage generation (Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate, don't use Heroic Strike if not free).

[Frozendekay]

Yep, poor play for sure. Last stand into Demoralizing for first 3 stacks, if he does more then pop a shield wall. Keep Sblock up, spam barriers, damage is very manageable. Prot warriors probably have the most AM out of any class atm, deaths are almost always your own fault.

[Gliff]

We ran a flex the other night, with me tanking on my bear, and a buddy on his 536 prot war. I seemed to be fine with 3 stacks of fearsome roar, but whenever he would have even 2 stacks, his health bar would take huge swings, and then he'd die. Consistently. Our tanks are both alts, for us, and the strat (as given to us by the GM) was to take 3 stacks before swapping.

Note that the GM's main is a blood DK, and she's always paired up with our brewmaster.

Any other time, my prot war buddy is a decent tank. Here's what I'm wondering, with this fight, in particular:

- Is there any reason to go to three stacks, before taunting? Why not taunt on one stack?

- I'm told that prot wars don't have any active mitigation to speak of, but is there any reason that a fully gemmed & enchanted 536 prot war, on flex should be taking significant spike damage?

They are retarded. Barrier is the best AM in the game for that fight.

[Deleted]

Always taken three in ALL difficulties, guess he isnt building up rage for a shield barrier for the application of the stacks and maybe isnt using cds properly

Without logs its hard to say anything.

[CSINada]

Had lower ilvl when we first killed it on normal, tanked whole 1st phase which was around 7-8 stacks, no problem if You chain cds correctly (additional sacri is always nice from pala or pain suppresion from priest). Still if he dies at 3 stacks he is doing something wrong, with shield wall up when 3rd stacks hits in, there is no way he will die.

[vidas]

Thok hits hard. Call externals, manage CDs, use active mitigation properly.