Prot Warrior having trouble with Threat... any help?

[LinksLife]

Before I even ask this: I am not the best tank ever, I don't pretend I am. I doubt I'm even a good tank when it comes to gear. I'm not completely hit capped, nor Expertise capped. I would like to think that when it comes to skill, my 5+ years as a Prot Warrior has given me enough experience to know how to play a tank.

However, since this patch, I am having a serious issue with holding shit. I know Blizz said it wasn't going to be spamming Thunderclap anymore, but I've tried a lot of stuff. Tabbing, SS, Rend, Thunderclap, Shockwave, etc. It probably doesn't help that I lag like a mofo on this shitty laptop (college student... huzzah.) but even still... it's getting a crazy. Am I the only one having issues? Or am I completely sucking balls, and a failure as a tank?

[Xuany]

If your talking about Heroics then it's probably not you, more of the fact that you have 3 autistic man children AoEing w/o even thinking. They normally could care less about you and just attempt to destroy the mobs. If this is in a raid then you have some problems and you should tell them to slow their roll, the point of this patch was for DPS to watch their aggro again. Just remember this won't fly come cataclysm and they'll learn real fast when they are constantly one shot.

[LinksLife]

This is true... I guess it doesn't matter TOO much since these changes are mostly for 85 and the mobs are going down before anyone can die... but it just seems that in heroics anyways, a tank isn't really needed. I have yet to enter a raid yet, but I know my guild would slow down if needed.

I don't know... at first I really liked the idea of Blood and Thunder, but right now it just doesn't seem worth it. The GCD used to get rend on a target, and then Thunderclap just seems too long before shit goes flying off in every direction.

[shibs]

personally i dont use blood and thunder and can hold aggro fine. Try cleaving at the start of the pull, thunder-clapping, shockwave, cleave, devastate. Should hold aggro on the 1st mob fine, target the other mobs and devistate them if needed (mainly if the health is going down). Only Time I lose aggro doing this is when a warlock/mage/boomkin attacks off target every pull (in which case i stop tanking the mobs after a warning, mainly b/c its annoying and they dont need to attack off target for any reason).

[Deleted]

Charge > Cleave > Rend(If you have B&T) > Thunder Clap > Cleave > Shockwave

In my honest oppinion B&T is actually a really nice little skill. It's hard to really notice it but the initial rend tick happens immediately on applying it. So you rend your first target and it hits for say 600 instantly or over 1k if it's a crit. Hitting Thunderclap next and you're getting around 2k~ with the Thunderclap and an additional 600-1k ontop with the rend.

It's also worth glyphing cleave if you don't have it already. If all else fails, try equiping some DPS gear. With the crit immune being a talent it gives us tanks the freedom of swapping a bit of gear around for higher threat.

[shokter]

Practice, practice, practice. It may sound cliche...but now is a great time to practice the new specs (yes I think there are enough options to merit a 2nd or 3rd prot spec) and just bang out some heroics and raiding now while the stakes are low. Yes heroics can be horrendous these days what with most dpsers trying to push their new specs to the limit and not giving a goddamn about a tank grabbing aggro (pretty annoying when you charge into a pack only to find they've all been pulled back to where you started while you were en route by someone carelessly divine storming or howling blast). Generally when dps are at there most inconsiderate threat wise in a heroic you still survive because stuff just dies so quick.

Anyway, a week ago I was in your shoes. I had taken almost 2 months off and was picking up a new talent tree and struggling a little with aggro. I basically ran some string heroics and tonight tanked my first IC in a long while. I am loving where prot is at right now. Specced right our sing tar threat is off the hook, and specced right our aoe is in a good place (with or without B&T...all depends on your style).

I like the way the prot tree and low tier arms and fury talents offer many ways to spec for a given situation, and likewise we have some very nice major and even minor glyph options to juggle.

Find a style that works for you...i actually am doing a little less tab splashing of threat and relying more on a talent buffed cleave and the b&t/thunderstruck with a glyphed shockwave for aoe threat. I still tab around and even work in devestates for threat and shield slam procs, but mostly it's cleave/rend/clap/shock with some slams and stuff worked in. Just avoid HS for aoe and focus on cleave when you have the aggro. Shield spec and mastery are both beauty aoe talents to max imo.

Sing tar you shouldn't be having too many issues. For raids spec vig and throw it on your ot. For 5 mans HS is doin great threat and shield block buffed shield slams are hitting like a truck.

The real beauty of prot right now is that a different prot warrior who is enjoying equal success with the new patch could read what I just wrote and say she is playing and speccing a completely different way and it's still working. Which is why I say practice, practice, practice and figure out what is working for you.

PS if threat is an issue for you I would look into investing in some exp and hit...I find both are great for that. Capping exp may not be needed...but it's nice to shoot for depending on your aggro issues. Also reforge dodge to mastery if you can afford to drop some.

[JustintimeSS]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ntroduction-UI

Give that thread a go and watch the videos.

[Viertel]

Before I even ask this: I am not the best tank ever, I don't pretend I am. I doubt I'm even a good tank when it comes to gear. I'm not completely hit capped, nor Expertise capped. I would like to think that when it comes to skill, my 5+ years as a Prot Warrior has given me enough experience to know how to play a tank.

However, since this patch, I am having a serious issue with holding shit. I know Blizz said it wasn't going to be spamming Thunderclap anymore, but I've tried a lot of stuff. Tabbing, SS, Rend, Thunderclap, Shockwave, etc. It probably doesn't help that I lag like a mofo on this shitty laptop (college student... huzzah.) but even still... it's getting a crazy. Am I the only one having issues? Or am I completely sucking balls, and a failure as a tank?

1) Get rid of your fast weapon. Get the slowest, hardest hitting one you can.

2) Spam Cleave on multi-target encounters.

There's absolutely zero reason to use a fast weapon anymore. Rage generation is completely normalized and crits don't generate extra rage anymore. Slower weapon = higher damage range = higher Devastate, Heroic Strike, and Cleave damage.

[JustintimeSS]

1) Get rid of your fast weapon. Get the slowest, hardest hitting one you can.

2) Spam Cleave on multi-target encounters.

There's absolutely zero reason to use a fast weapon anymore. Rage generation is completely normalized and crits don't generate extra rage anymore. Slower weapon = higher damage range = higher Devastate, Heroic Strike, and Cleave damage.

HS and Cleave are based off of AP.

And yeah slow weapon (wrathful cleaver) is a nice rend/devastate and white swing damage boost nonetheless.

[Viertel]

HS and Cleave are based off of AP.

Oh wow, completely missed that in the majority of changes. Thanks for pointing that out.

That's actually better in the long run, especially for tanks. Go go Vengeance.

[tremors]

Wow i just wanna say everyone here should get some Internet Cookies. I dont see any QQ or trollers. =) So I i will be handing out internet cookies to yall. Enjoy =)

(this is being serious no sarcasm.) =P

[Bobptimus Prime]

Wow i just wanna say everyone here should get some Internet Cookies. I dont see any QQ or trollers. =) So I i will be handing out internet cookies to yall. Enjoy =)

(this is being serious no sarcasm.) =P

Warrior's don't Troll.
We just fucking do it.

And to follow along with JustinTime, the Wrathful Weapon is like an orgasm in your main-hand. B&T becomes a neverending, portable Consecrate, which is in all honesty a BEAUTIFUL thing.

[snuzzle]

I mostly don't have threat problems unless the DPS start focus-firing different targets before I can even look at them funny.

I've been using a 264 Frost Giant's Cleaver in my MH for heroics since forever and it's awesome.

For multi-targets, I usually Shockwave off the bat, then Rend and spread it with a Tclap. After that I'm pretty golden, and the Shockwave ensures they stay in my face and not running off to Mr Mage who decided to open up with a big fat crit.

[LinksLife]

Thank you all for the quick and not trolling replies. I'll be sure to try many of these things out later today.

Just a quick note: Me and my guild run 10 mans exclusively (I heard ICC 10 and 25 drop the same loot. Is it 25 man gear?) so I'm in 4 piece T10, with mostly 10 man gear. My Weapon is the tanking one off Marrowgar, and I noticed that it is indeed very fast. I'll definitely try to grab a slower weapon. Thank you all again very much.

[Deleted]

For multi-targets, I usually Shockwave off the bat, then Rend and spread it with a Tclap. After that I'm pretty golden, and the Shockwave ensures they stay in my face and not running off to Mr Mage who decided to open up with a big fat crit.

Personally, and this is personal choice, not criticism by any means, but I find using SW off the bat, to actually restrict you more in terms of rage gain. If you go in with a rend > TC > cleave, THEN SW I find not only do I have threat where I need it, but also a ton of rage because mobs are still hitting me. If you SW first, you miss that initial threat gain.

Its more than likely neither here or there, but still, my 2pennies worth.

[boseguy22]

The other thing to remember, if you are not raiding you dont need 40-50k health. Strength DPS gear will help drive more damage and up your threat.

I had a fury warrior tanking heroics the other day, using titansgrip, pulling 7.6k dps, and only 28k health. Stuff in heroics dies so fast, the normal tanking strategies for Wraith dont apply (except maybe POS and HoR)

[SirTBone]

Glare more menacingly.

[batman30]

I have a quick question, is Last word even worth it anymore? maybe jus on heavy magical fights in icc maybe?? and i use heroic frost giants cleaver most of the time, but i have it enchanted with mongoose, would blade ward be better?

[Zka]

Use dps gear for heroics. It will be almost as good as before patch. Problem solved.

[elira]

single target you should not have problems with threat and for AE tanking here is a quote from Ghostcrawler:

If you are trying to AE tank and a bad dps is attacking the wrong target and dies, we call that justice. If you are trying to AE tank and a healer pulls aggo, then threat generation is just too low and we need to buff it.