Need tanking advice

[Jenako]

Hey everyone, I need some advice:
I've been arms since vanilla, and fury since WotLK. The most tanking experience ive ever had is off-tanking Kara back in BC. Obviously, tanking has changed a lot since then. I have recently decided that I am going to focus 100% on tanking now for Cata (my guild needs it, and instant queues are amazing). My problem is that tanking has changed so much that I am a little lost. I know the basics, but I need help with stuff like : what to reforge? What stat caps to hit first? Gems, enchants (although mmo-champ already has a decent guide for that). Also, how important is mastery for me as a port warrior, and up to what point should that be my priority (if it even should).

If anyone could idiot-proof the answer to these questions I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, if you can direct me to certain guides that would be great too. Even simple things like how to AoE tank as a warrior and what rotation to use would be extremely helpful (since the last time I tried to tank was in BC, AoE tanking as a warrior seems completely diff to me.

Thanks for your help

[Zamiel]

The stat priority most people are going by atm is Mastery>Parry>Stam>Dodge. Reforge crit haste expertise and hit to parry or mastery and for gemming use either the 20 parry 30 stam gems or 20 mastery 30 stam gems to match socket bonus's. If you have a blue socket and want a little more health you can go for a 60 stam gem.

Enchant for your stat priorities stam on bracers stam/mastery to gloves stam run speed to boots block rating on wep hurricane/windwalk on wep depending on what you can afford. AoE tanking is pretty easy if you take blood and thunder and thunderstruck. Just charge in apply rend thunderclap+cleave then shockwave should put a nice amount of hate on all the targets.

If you want to be really effective I suggest taking two prot specs one for single target and one for bosses. You can achieve a much higher tps/dps with a build that doesn't include blood and thunder and thunderstruck.

[Jenako]

Can you link talent trees for both prot-type specs please?

---------- Post added 2010-12-22 at 03:30 PM ----------

Also, do I need any hit cap?

[Zamiel]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LG0MZhZcrGdRRodbu This is what I use for aoe tanking.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LrZhbZIMGdRRRzbu This is what I use for single target.

While Im sure not everyone uses my specs those are what work for me and my 10m guild look around there are tons of different prot builds out there.

[Ishamyyl]

Hit is a great threat stat along with expertise. Gem/reforge for those if you're having threat problems or if you're sitting below like 3% hit, otherwise i'd say let it come from gear

[Zamiel]

Threat is in general not an issue at all right now with vengeance the moves that do get through are more then enough to keep you well ahead of the dps. Im currently sitting at 1 expertise and 3% hit and I have no problems keeping threat on bosses or trash.

[nwardoh]

I'm not sure I agree with the stat balance there... I leave my mastery alone but if I need to use a dps piece I will reforge crit/haste to dodge or parry keeping them about even. I use dodge/stam or parry/stam gems a lot so far though I wouldn't be opposed to using mastery/stam gems. I have blocking on my shield since the armor enchant obviously is missing a 0(160 armor? rofl). I put mending on my weapon for now since it is cheap(windwalk is too expensive for crappy blues) and helps a bit. With using some dps gear in your set at the entry level you won't have any threat problems. I have dodge on my bracers, stam on chest, mastery on gloves, armor to cloak, and earthen vitality to boots.

Mastery gives you block rate and additional chance to critically block iirc. It's good but there is so much mastery on gear already and I don't think you can reforge to add mastery if the piece already has it. On my pally I am shooting to keep parry and dodge equal to lessen the impact of DR if one gets too high and my block rate via mastery to be roughly double my dodge/parry chance though that will likely change as gear progresses. Being a well balanced tank at the moment is probably a better move.

[Zamiel]

Mastery atm has been proven to be the single greatest source for reducing incoming damage as a warrior. Idk how it effects you pallies but crit block is one the most beastly forms of mitigation out there. The reason dodge is left to the wayside atm is that it takes more dodge rating to effect your actual score then parry rating does to effect parry and you can't get enough of either atm to need to worry about DR which is why atm parry > dodge because not only do you not have ot worry about DR it also increases threat gen when you parry by reseting your swing timer and you get more hold the line procs.

[Jenako]

Thanks everyone..
I forgot to ask about glyphs. Anyone have input?