Protection Warrior DPS

[tregolani]

Hey guys, hope everyone had a nice Hallmark holiday!

Anyway, I've been playing my prot warrior for about 2 years now, so I'm pretty competent on how to play the class, even with all the changes that came with Cataclysm. Unfortunately, as i've been perusing the forums, i keep seeing prot warriors saying they have been posting numbers up in the ranges of 8k-12k DPS on a regular basis. Now, my warrior (you can click the link in my sig) is fairly well geared, with basically all of the best gear I can get pre-raiding (aside from BoE drops from trash runs -- i don't have the money to spend 30k on a Soul Blade), but even with this, i'm normally only pulling around 4k-5k in heroics unless it's an AoE pull (such as the ones in VP with the millions of little elementals that come with the Cloud Princes -- i can pull up to 20k on those).

Now i know that I'm prot, and that keeping threat is my main focus over doing high DPS, but i've run into a few heroic pugs with highly geared players (who can pull upwards of 17k on a single boss battle such as Rajh) pulling off me as if i'm not even there. Is there anything I can be doing better in order to up my DPS so that my threat can keep up with these sorts of players?

Usually I open up with a Commanding Shout > Heroic Throw > Charge > Shield Block+S-Slam > Revenge > Rend > Devastate (till S-Slam > Revenge come off CD). On top of this, i have Inner Rage macro'd to Heroic Strike, and will use Heroic Strike almost on spam if i have the rage generation to support it. Even so, I usually can only pull about 5k on bosses. What should I be doing differently?

[Wericia]

Forget about rend, devastate is stronger on single target these days.
Macro inner rage to berserker rage rather then heroic strike for better control.

Warriors don't really do up to 12k on heroic bosses (single target), that's when we're in raid environment, but you can sure push more then 5k unless it's the robot in Deadmines who gives you little to no rage.

[Mammoth]

- Rend is only useful if there is a feral druid or an arms warrior, or you can spread it.
- Berserker rage can help you gain more rage, keep it on CD unless you need it for Regeneration.

Also, don't get disheartened on bosses like in Vortex Pinnacle, where they're spam casting spells. I find I'm rather raged starved unless I get a chance to block melee attacks.

---------- Post added 2011-02-15 at 03:23 PM ----------

Macro inner rage to berserker rage rather then heroic strike for better control.

Since BRage has a 45 second CD, you'll be missing on IRage buff uptime. But I guess it depends if you have rage constantly, or only during BRage periods.

[xebtria]

first - soul blade is worse than elementium fang. except you are in 10 man guild with interrupt duty, which values hit a little higher.
second - except devastate and rend, none of our abilities are dependend on weapon dps. they are all %AP. that's it.
third - no one talked about dps in 5 man. they can go up to insane numbers when you don't use CC on a melee-heavy trash pack, because your AP is stacking crazy high then. but they are quite low on single-targets. simply due to vengeance not stacking enough. on the other side, If you are tanking in raids and it's not a gimmick fight where you aren't hit for longer periods, your AP from vengeance will always be at about 10k+
fourth - Vengeance need to stack first in order to allow you to do damage. DPS pulling from you with you without vengeance stacked isn't your fault.

for the rotation:
check which buffs you have. you have a priester or a lock (with imp) in your grp? use battle shout, not CS. you have a DK or a hunter with the appropriate pet or a shaman with strength of earth totem? use CS. you have one of both? use whatever. Battle shout is a HUGE threat AND avoidance buff, if you cant get it elsewhere. really, it matters. 580 or so agi AND strength is just wtf.
Heroic throw is close to meaningless in raids and bossfights (charge/leap+slam+HS = way better), and for 5 man trash it's only good to silence a caster. otherwise charge + TC + Shockwave is better most times. Shield Slam > revenge > devastate > rend + HS spam is correct so far. Rend only when a mangle-bot (arms warrior / feral druid) is available or EVERYTHING else is on CD (most onlikely tbh).

5k on 5man hc bosses is not that bad. but basically the 8-12k dps numbers are meant for raid bosses, where you get punched into your face constantly and therefore, vengeance is always high.

oh and stamina sockets *shudder*. Make friends with Fractured Amberjewels. Lots of them.
Shield specialization will thank it. and you will thank for the infinite rage.

[tregolani]

Berserker rage can help you gain more rage, keep it on CD unless you need it for Regeneration.

I actually have Berserker Rage macro'd to my Shield Block, as I keep the latter on CD at all times, so this just makes sure that i get that extra 8 rage as often as i can.

As for caster bosses, I keep Spell Reflect on CD at all times -- 60 rage from each reflect (talented, obviously) = win.

oh and stamina sockets *shudder*. Make friends with Fractured Amberjewels. Lots of them.
Shield specialization will thank it. and you will thank for the infinite rage.

I know avoidance and mastery are key now in Cataclysm, but my HP feels kinda low without the extra stam from the sockets. Unbuffed HP below 140k makes me feel a bit...naked. >.<

[Deleted]

Not a whole lot that I could add that xebtria didn't already describe in great detail. 5-mans are and have been for a long time now, bit more dicey when it comes to threat than actual raids. I don't really do 5-mans anymore, unless the occasional guild alt needs a hand or something, but a lot of tanks that do use hit and expertise gear in those runs. On raids it is a lot less important but for 5-mans it can smooth things out quite nicely, where as you also don't need such high level of survival gear.

For pulls, I would really suggest you don't macro Inner Rage to any ability. Simply put it into a separate key bind and learn to control it as an individual ability. The reason I say this is because by using it in a macro will create an RNG effect, where you can activate it at a bad time, when you'll be low on rage. In such cases, a single HS will burn all of your rage and you will definitely lose aggro that way.

If you know the encounters, it is easy to find the good niches to use it, which is any time when a boss basically stands there hitting you. You can also use it immediately on pull, by using your shout + zerker rage + inner rage. Since I do very few 5-mans these days I have not tested it no trash but since they tend to give you a pounding, should work on those as well, except you'll want to use Cleave instead of HS.

Edit:
On the 30k Soul Blade thing... Don't feel bad. No piece of gear has ever been THAT important. Simply be patient and it should drop quite quickly after a week or two. Unless you're like Iyona who has the worst luck ever when it comes to gear drops

[Thalrion]

Dps Trinkets (especially hit and expertise ones) really help to increase tanking dps.
I usually pull about 7k while tanking with dps trinkets. Can be higher, can be lower but the average i stand there no dmg (de)buffs etc. so it should be okay.

[Wericia]

Since BRage has a 45 second CD, you'll be missing on IRage buff uptime. But I guess it depends if you have rage constantly, or only during BRage periods.

Berserker rage has 30 second cooldown and none of them has GCD. It increases rage gained by damage taken.

[Iamlampard]

retaliation will give u bit more opener tps other than that just taunt back..nothing u can do when u get into a grp that has better geared dps.

[Fwip]

For pulls, I would really suggest you don't macro Inner Rage to any ability. Simply put it into a separate key bind and learn to control it as an individual ability. The reason I say this is because by using it in a macro will create an RNG effect, where you can activate it at a bad time, when you'll be low on rage. In such cases, a single HS will burn all of your rage and you will definitely lose aggro that way.

I agree with not macro'ing Inner Rage, but that's not actually how it works any more. It simply halves the CD of HS and Cleave for 15 seconds - no extra rage consumption unless you take advantage of the ability by using those skills more often.

[Deleted]

Edit:
On the 30k Soul Blade thing... Don't feel bad. No piece of gear has ever been THAT important. Simply be patient and it should drop quite quickly after a week or two. Unless you're like Iyona who has the worst luck ever when it comes to gear drops

Dude, guess what. The Mace of Acrid Death dropped for me tonight. Who's laughing now?

...

Yesterday I bought Windwalk for my Soul Blade.

I'm broke.

...

FML.

-----------

Either way, Protection Warrior single target dps depends on a few things. Assuming a regular encounter, then first are foremost; expertise and hit rating. Secondly; spec. Third; group setup. I run a spec and gear in a way where I don't care about my damage at all, because my tps is just fine. I hammer up to 8k dps without being all too serious with the rotation. This should be standard.

For 5-man dungeons you will need to wear hit and expertise items, because you get very low amounts of Vengeance in comparison to raid encounters. I slam on my fury trinkets when I tank dungeons. If you were tanking a raid boss with those same 17k dps damage dealers, OP, you wouldn't have any issues at all.

[Deleted]

Dude, guess what. The Mace of Acrid Death dropped for me tonight. Who's laughing now?

Touché

[junialum]

Windwalk should have always been saved for a avoidance/mitigation weapon!

[Deleted]

Windwalk should have always been saved for a avoidance/mitigation weapon!

Should use it on whatever is your primary weapon tbh. I only delayed until I got a weapon drop from our raids. The soul blade happened to drop first, which wasn't bad and since I know I'll be giving first dips on the mace to our paladin, who doesn't yet have an advanced weapon, made perfect sense to put Winkwalk on my sword.

I'd wager that we'll be swimming in crystals pretty soon, just looking at the amount of DE'd items we get, I'll get my second Windwalk enchant for a lot less trouble than my first.

[Mammoth]

Soul Blade is pretty tasty still. I'm wondering if I add a weapon chain and reforge mastery->exp (the horror), I could use it for pulling. Tank with the higher hit + exp for 15-30 seconds and then switch once I know my threat is safe to the mace.

Not to mention I'll use it for fight where my interrupts have to be reliable.

[Deleted]

Soul Blade is pretty tasty still. I'm wondering if I add a weapon chain and reforge mastery->exp (the horror), I could use it for pulling. Tank with the higher hit + exp for 15-30 seconds and then switch once I know my threat is safe to the mace.

Nice idea but I have my doubts. It is still only one item. I've tried using threat consumables just for the sake of it a couple of times but I did not really see a big difference in numbers. Think you will need a bit more stats to really make a difference, threat-wise. Other than that, aye, it isn't a bad choice if you need to stay hit capped for interrupting.

[xebtria]

soulblade + chain is the best choice for 10 man raiding tanks with interrupt duty.
combined with some other hit-pieces, though.

[Seizor]

don't have any problems with threat at 8 exp and ~0.50% hit, but my dps output is considerably lower than that of a protection paladin, and my numbers are lower in general since I am 2nd tank most of the time. (about 8-9k while the paladin is about 11-12). Probably I could pull out 10-11k if I was MT. AoE dps is on a brighter side though. And while DPS doesn't really shine, I am still happy with TPS and survival potential. The only fight I can remember having slight threat problems on is maloriak hc swills, but even that is solved with putting vigilance on MT.

[Alianthos]

Guys, guys, guys....

How are we arguing this ? Just take the weapon that LOOKS badass. Never forget the #1 tanking rule : "if it looks good, it belongs to you".

I'm perfectly happy with a badass long epic Alakir sword with STR, Hit and Expertise on it

(damm, where is Torture when i need him to back me up)

[Deleted]

Guys, guys, guys....

How are we arguing this ? Just take the weapon that LOOKS badass. Never forget the #1 tanking rule : "if it looks good, it belongs to you".

I'm perfectly happy with a badass long epic Alakir sword with STR, Hit and Expertise on it

(damm, where is Torture when i need him to back me up)

Yup. I can confirm this indeed is 100% correct.

The stat prio one should consider when gearing is Looking good > Mastery > Parry > Dodge > Hit > Expertise

edit: Alianthos, it just hit me your avatar is red and mine is blue. Faction fanboys much?