Warrior Tank in need of help?

[Griffmstr]

I was thinking about putting this in the warrior section but it mostly has to do with dungeons and tanking so I put it here.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...nesir/advanced

As you can see I am almost done with heroics, but I haven't been running them for a while because I think something is wrong. Every time I run a heroic I seem to have to pop my CDs often on boss fights because the healer seems to be having a problem keeping me alive (don't worry I'm avoiding everything I need to be) or they seem to be running out of mana a lot. This could just be that I tend to grab bad healers (this was a few weeks ago and I've run things on my Rogue and Priest recently and the groups are better than they were a month ago). Anyhow, I was jsut wanting to make sure I'm doing things right as far as gear and stats go.
The only heroic I still need to run is Grim Batol, I'll get the heroic versions of my Weapon and shoulders, as well as a trinket (and you can tell I desperately need a new trinket). I'm about 120 JP short of some new gloves, one chaos orb from making my epic chest piece and then all I need to do is hit Exalted with the Guardians of Hyjal (epic cloak) and Ramkahen (epic bracers).
The only thing I would need after that would be a ranged weapon but I was just gonna wait till 4.1 and get the epic tank one from there (sense if I get all the upgrades I've mentioned I'll certainly be over the 346 required ilevel).

Anyhow any advice would be appreciated.
I'm still not sure about the whole hit and expertise thing. I know in Wrath it was good to be hit capped at least, and expertise was a nice stat too but now all I hear is everyone talking about how they are useless and I should only go for avoidance.
I also am not having any issues on threat, again I'm just not sure if my healers are bad or if my survival is suffering.
I'm also eating expertise food but I'm a fisher/cook and have all the +90 recipes so I can start making/eating the dodge or parry food if you all think that would be better.

[hashtags]

You have too much hit and expertise. Reforge it to Mastery/dodge/parry. Get rid of hit gems and put 40 mastery in it.

[gibbie99]

I tank heroics on my DK, i burn CDs pretty much when they are up. No point in keeping them 'just in case' unless its a boss fight where there is a specific phase to pop CDs. But yes, if your healer is OOMing, its either they are undergeared, the dps is taking too much damage, or you are taking too much damage. Gemming/stacking avoidance and mastery will help.

[Deleted]

Bracer enchant: change to dodge
Gloves: change to 50 or 65 mastery depending on how much money you have to spare
Boots: Lavawalker, or the runspeed enchant with stamina on it.

You want the +90 mastery food if you are supplying your own food - lavascale minestrone
The block runner shield is normal best in slot too, don't waste money on the crafted one if you can help it.

[Elrandir]

Every time I run a heroic I seem to have to pop my CDs often on boss fights because the healer seems to be having a problem keeping me alive

In my opinion a tank is supposed to use cd's actively, even on some trash pulls in heroics. So there's nothing abnormal about that.

[Deleted]

Heya fellow tank lets throw a few tips in here. :-)

As you heard it is correct. Today in Cata, hit and expertise is more or less 'useless'. Expertise is still the hardest boost for your threat per second and hit right after (expertise cap at 26 for dodge, hit at 8 % for miss) but as the damage we take is so massively increased it is just not worth it, and it drains the healers mana if we dont go full into avoidance. Though pre-raiding this is not a big issue, and if you feel you're having huge troubles with aggro you can go to slighly into each to get stable threat.

As for how to put your avoidance, you should, as a warrior, go for 15 % parry first and then go full into mastery and slightly dodge. The reason for going into parry first is our talent which gives us 10 % more dmg when parrying, and after 15 % diminishing returns starts to kick in, so dodge becomes more useful pr. point of rating. (i cant remember the exact numbers but its around 15 % anyway)

So reforge a bit of your dodge into parry and change hit into mastery if you want to have the love of your healers. Also, remember to enchant your gear, with only the best (not including maelstrom crystal enchants) enchants availible, unless you're in desperate need of more gold. (I myself get gold slowly but its enough to keep it up without actually farming.) There are a few flaws in your gear, though not too big once in the enchantment appartment. First glance the first things to change is every + hit enchants / gems you have, and get the legs enchant. (My server price is currently around 789 g for this, which accounts for roughly 45 % of my avrg gold. Though buying something every fourth week or so, this is no problem.)


Last and prolly also least.
Your cooldowns: Use them frequently. Trash, bosses, hell everywhere you get damage. :P
I have a bar in the middle of my screen (a bit to the right) 70 % faded where i have my cooldowns, so i can easily click em, (bound as well but i like having them beside my mouse as i have roughly 25 - 40 keybindings except for those.)
If you havent glyphed shield wall its not a long cooldown (2 min isnt long) so use this often, on packs where there are mobs that may hit hard.
Other ways to make sure that your healers mana is great is to ofcourse use CC's, and interrupt everything possible. (Stun for some whirlwinds, disarm for others, shield slam for castings ect.)

Hope this is helpful for you.

[Calmwinds]

There's a lot of bad information in this forum. The biggest problem with posting here is you have a high chance of getting overwhelmed with a huge quantity of replies with bad information drowning out the good.

We're not aiming for anything specific outside of pumping mastery as high as we can with some vague balance towards stamina that makes you feel comfortable. Make mastery/stam food.

As for how to put your avoidance, you should, as a warrior, go for 15 % parry first and then go full into mastery and slightly dodge. The reason for going into parry first is our talent which gives us 10 % more dmg when parrying, and after 15 % diminishing returns starts to kick in, so dodge becomes more useful pr. point of rating. (i cant remember the exact numbers but its around 15 % anyway)

The above post has good intentions, but is incorrect about parry/dodge balance.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/623...odgerating.png <-- Is the correct balance of parry:dodge relative to mastery.
For all purposes 1.2x parry to dodge will be just fine. We do not aim for specific dodge/parry %s and pump mastery.

Do not get hit and expertise. If you're losing aggro post in the warrior forums and we will help you.

All your gems are bad and wrong. Get rid of all those hit gems and all those dodge gems(get rid of all your gems). Replace hit with puissant dream emerald for your blue slots, do not put pure stamina gems in there. Your yellow gems need to all be +40 mastery. No exceptions. At your current mastery/block value Austere is the superior metagem for you, once you get a high amount of block then make the switch. Your legplate gemming/enchanting is also bad, get rid of both those gems and put a +40 mastery and either a purple +20 parry +30 stamina, or a +20 mastery/20 parry Fine Ember Topaz gem(or 2 +40 mastery), and get the +145 stamina +55 agility enchant. I prefer the latter, but it does not matter than much. Your necklace needs to be lusterous eye. Your ring needs to be the red rock band from ramkahen(replace gorsiks band).

Your reforging needs to be Mastery>Parry>Dodge. Mastery at all costs no matter what. Parry needs to be 1.2x dodge, but this multiplier changes relative to gear but that's a good number to hit. We prioritize reforging hit/expertise first and then parry/dodge into mastery.

As it stands currently I do not believe you are ready to raid tank, but if dungeons are the only thing you're doing you can improve a lot for that too.