Prot Warrior

[Faie]

I have heard many different things the lasts days regarding gems , stats, gears, talents,
ect.

Arent we going for 27 expertise no more?

and do we go for parry now instead of dodge?
how much % are we strifing for in mastery, parry, dodge? still 102.4 all togheter?

And regarding flasks when we raid what flask do we choose instead of the steelskin one?
What gems should I go for?
atm I have taken those thats expertise/dodge dodge/stamina and pure stamina
What would I go for rather?

and Buff food what would I go for there?
If I use the "get a usefull buff" I allways get dodge but if we are reforging dodge to perry why then is dodge the usefull stats?



I had so many questions and now its all empty heh, well I will ask them as soon as they come back

[Deleted]

I'm pretty sure the cap was always 26 for expertise, but no. For raiding purposes hit and expertise can/should be ignored unless it's some very gimmicky fight or something. Go for full survivabilit yfor now.

We prefer parry slightly over dodge cos they now have the same DRs, but we have Hold the Line talent which makes parry slightly better. Don't make a huge gap between ur parry and dodge though cos then ur losing out on avoidance cos of diminishing returns.

102,4 isn't really obtainable atm, don't bother with that. The consensus seems to be that Mastery > Parry > Dodge for avoidance with a healthy amount of stamina, many say that 160k raid buffed is nice and for more so far it has been enough.

What's wrong with Steelskin? Use it

As for gems a quite preferred method seems to be stam+mastery and stam+parry, naturally stam+dodge is a viable alternative too. Go for socket bonuses in most cases.

I prefer mastery food, cos mastery is pretty much the best avoidance we can have and it has no DRs.

[Sonnyboy]

I'm pretty sure the cap was always 26 for expertise, but no. For raiding purposes hit and expertise can/should be ignored unless it's some very gimmicky fight or something. Go for full survivabilit yfor now.

We prefer parry slightly over dodge cos they now have the same DRs, but we have Hold the Line talent which makes parry slightly better. Don't make a huge gap between ur parry and dodge though cos then ur losing out on avoidance cos of diminishing returns.

102,4 isn't really obtainable atm, don't bother with that. The consensus seems to be that Mastery > Parry > Dodge for avoidance with a healthy amount of stamina, many say that 160k raid buffed is nice and for more so far it has been enough.

What's wrong with Steelskin? Use it

As for gems a quite preferred method seems to be stam+mastery and stam+parry, naturally stam+dodge is a viable alternative too. Go for socket bonuses in most cases.

I prefer mastery food, cos mastery is pretty much the best avoidance we can have and it has no DRs.

That and to the gems add, stam+mastery, depending on what stats u need

[Deleted]

If you're in a 10-man guild, make sure to cap hit for interrupts. If your healers are very good you could sacrifice avoidance rating points for expertise, the gain is perhaps 2-3k extra dps.

You want enough stamina to be able to survive a couple of stringed hits from the various damage sources an encounter has to offer. While it's, as you've seen, discussed what could be considered the best stats, I'd say it's up to you and your raid. Dodge and parry reduces more damage per rating point than mastery, but the steady stream of incoming damage block provides while still removing a lot of the damage has several benefits.

For raids I use the mastery battle elixir and the resistance guardian elixir. I eat food to cap my hit, but would use mastery food if I capped hit passively.

Please read my post as "I personally believe", and disregard any weird phrasing since I write this from my phone.

[Faie]

Healers in my raid says Im hard to heal,
either they are slacking or are we warriors harder to heal now?
I never been hard to heal before the patch and cata , but now some complain.

before Cata I had 85% avoidance now I have 62%


And yes 26 Expertis I meant, but I heard people aint going for expertis no more, isnt that usefull for our threat and so on?

I have (now with mixed gears mostly blue and some epic) 175 stamina buffed, in a 10 man.

And the things it was said about socket bonuses making us more powerfull is it worth going for them?

[Deleted]

Threat has become sort of irrelevant in Cataclysm once you get the fight started, since Vengeance provides you with so big amoutns of AP that you should manage even if you get avoided here and there.

How much of that avoidance is mastery and how much parry/dodge. I've been told that healers have often preferred mastery stacking warriors to parry/dodge/stamina stacking warriors. And well, since most agree mastery is what you should be stacking, it can't be much wrong. Naturally important part of mitigating damage is to use cooldowns on predictable damage sources. Don't save you cooldowns for situations where the shit has already hit the fan. Now that your healers scarce, you wan't to pre-emptively use the means of mitigation you have.

[Faie]

Threat has become sort of irrelevant in Cataclysm once you get the fight started, since Vengeance provides you with so big amoutns of AP that you should manage even if you get avoided here and there.

How much of that avoidance is mastery and how much parry/dodge. I've been told that healers have often preferred mastery stacking warriors to parry/dodge/stamina stacking warriors. And well, since most agree mastery is what you should be stacking, it can't be much wrong. Naturally important part of mitigating damage is to use cooldowns on predictable damage sources. Don't save you cooldowns for situations where the shit has already hit the fan. Now that your healers scarce, you wan't to pre-emptively use the means of mitigation you have.

Atm Im sitting with

28 Expertise
6.50 % hit (I know its low going to reforge new wrist when I get it)
Dodge 12.37%
Parry 11.59%
Block 37.70 %

[mmff4]

Judging by your post history your character name is Fyria and this is your armory profile. Is this right? Lets assume it is.

NOTE: The following post is based entirelly on my own opinion and may not be the correct way to gear protection warrior.

Expertise has never been a must have stat for a protection warrior. Of course it is nice for threat but if you're having problems with threat you're doing something wrong. Mobs cannot dodge or parry an attack while they are casting spells meaning you only need to cap hit if you're about to interrupt something.

Change the following enchants:
- Gloves: 50 expertise to 50 mastery
- Wrists: 50 expertise to 50 dodge
- Chest: 15 stats to 75 stam (or 50 as 75 stam is quite expensive enchant)
- Shield: Shield spike to 40 block rating
- Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality to Lavawalker or 50 mastery (Lavawalker is also quite expensive)
- Weapon: Enchant it with Windwalk or Mending (Mending is again cheaper alternative)

Reforging:
Try to reforge almost everything to mastery with the following priority (worst stat first)
- Haste > Crit > Expertise > Hit > Dodge > Parry
Yes, I'm fully aware of DR but I prefer higher Parry chance for higher Hold the Line uptime. As I said before; it may not be the best way to go.

Gemming:
- 81 stam + 2% armor meta
- Blue Socket: Mastery + Stam
- Red Socket: Parry + Mastery
- Yellow Socket: Mastery
- Prismatic Socket: Mastery

Your spec is pretty wierd but you have all the "must have" survivability talents so changing the spec wont help you much with stayin' alive. However, if you're having problems with threat I recommend you to pick up both Blood and Thunder and War Academy. With enough AP from Vengeance, Heroic Strike becomes better than Shield Slam for threat. Again if you're having problems with threat make sure you're using the following ability priorisation: Shield Slam (HR) > Shockwave/Concussion Blow > Shield Slam > Revenge > Rend (With +30% bleed) > Devastate and of course use HS/Cleave as much as possible.

As you have Guardians of Hyjal exalted I recommend that you equip Belt of the Ferocious Wolf as it's slightly better than your current belt. Also make sure you're using all your abilities including Spell Reflection and Shield Bash. Using Shockwave and Heroic Leap can also be the difference between life and death. Also keeping Demo Shout & Thunder Clap uptime near 100% is extremely important.

And fyi block isn't and never has been an avoidance stat so I highly doubt you have 63% avoidance.

[Deleted]

As said, many/most are totally ignoring hit and expertise. I'm currently at ilvl 351 and I have 52,02% block, 12,09% dodge, 12,88% parry, 35819 armor, 140k HP unbuffed. I have 1,74% hit and 7 expertise.

I've had zero problems with threat in the raids I've done so far, the only reason I'd go for hit/expertise is for to make interrupts more reliable, but thats about it.

[Deleted]

Atm Im sitting with

28 Expertise
6.50 % hit (I know its low going to reforge new wrist when I get it)
Dodge 12.37%
Parry 11.59%
Block 37.70 %

Expertise is the stat you should put lowest on the priority scale. Since threat is a non-issue, it's a nothing but a dps increase. It's a decent increase, yes, but solid tanks are of more worth than a couple of extra k to the rdps. A few general pointers I believe most can agree with would be to reforge into 8% hit (or 7.25% and eat hit food!), then reforge some of your avoidances into mastery. You could also, in some cases, reforge dodge to parry.

My stats are:
Dodge 9.64%
Parry 12.64%
Block 50.72%
Expertise 6
Hit 7.24%

I tried balancing out parry and dodge to minimize the loss of avoidance from DR. I found the gain minimal, though, 0.01% increases per reforge, and decided to keep parry higher. I'm very fond of mastery and look for ways to increase it as often as possible. I like mastery because, even though avoidances remove more damage, block works very well together with beacons, aoe heals, HoTs and so on and so forth. I believe you're easier to heal when you can be kept up much from these passive sources of healing and have a steady income of damage rather than the somewhat more spiky damage stamina stacking or avoidance stacking would give you.

You say healers find you difficult to keep up? Did they elaborate this in any way? When or why is it difficult to keep you up? Always make sure to be up to date with boss mechanics and your tactics. Are you really standing in the AoE heals? Are you using the Lightwells? Do you use your defensive CDs when they help your healers the most (often when raid damage is high!) or just before you're about to take a big hit? Do you sometimes turn your back to a boss? Do you have other members in your raid taking heavy amounts of damage? Are your healers really discussing healing targets so they don't misunderstand a beaconed tank as a tank taking less damage?

As said, many/most are totally ignoring hit and expertise. I'm currently at ilvl 351 and I have 52,02% block, 12,09% dodge, 12,88% parry, 35819 armor, 140k HP unbuffed. I have 1,74% hit and 7 expertise.

I've had zero problems with threat in the raids I've done so far, the only reason I'd go for hit/expertise is for to make interrupts more reliable, but thats about it.

In a 10-man guild, which OP is in, having a tank interrupt is crucial for many encounters, and missing an interrupt would cause more damage than an extra percent of avoidance would save. Expertise has no impact on your interrupting, though, since a boss can't parry or dodge abilities while he's busy casting a spell.

And fyi block isn't and never has been an avoidance stat so I highly doubt you have 63% avoidance.

For the sake of simplicity, we really should refer to block as avoidance. After all, it has an impact on the boss' hit table and can technically be called avoidance. We all know what block means anyway. :-)