Leveling as Tank Warrior .

[Zka]

Don't do this. In classic, there is no point being prot outdoors. At the same time you can tank 5mans just fine in any spec, just pop a shield and 1H. Keep your 1h skill leveled, tho'.

[Oozlz]

I'm going to do just that! I leveled to level 15 on private server as a tank and I didn't have any problems doing quests. Might take a little longer, but safer and less downtime. Also I leveled that way back in TBC. It's not classic, but I think that it's pretty close. I remember being the real JAGGERNAUT like I took few mobs on me at the same time and that wasn't a big problem! DPS warrior is a weakling who won't be able to kill even two mobs without breaking a sweat.

You aren't a tank at level 15.... hell you only have a few green items. I wouldn't consider you to be "leveling tank spec" until you are 15-20 points into prot and don't plan on switching. It's also not really worth it. DPS wars don't have hard time killing multiple mobs either, unless you are behind on gear, or specifically hard mobs.

[Hobbidaggy]

Hello guys , I wonder if is possible to leveling as protection warrior in classic . So i could so some dungeons on the way to 60. But i don’t know if it’s possible to do quests or will take me hours for each one .

I did this....it was incredibly slow. You’re best to level as a dps spec because it was a long long process going but as Prot. You never died and you did learn the spec amazingly but yeah if you’re looking to get to 60 quickly I wouldn’t. Go Prot after you hit 60 and just go a lot of dungeons to learn the spec.

[Xyrax]

Yep, just go arms or fury. And have a shield.

Literally none of us healers or dps will EVER expect a leveling tank to actually be specced protection.

None of us will ever expect that of you.

So go with your leveling spec and just keep an updated shield in your bank for dungeon runs. We got your back.

[Elias01]

You aren't a tank at level 15.... hell you only have a few green items. I wouldn't consider you to be "leveling tank spec" until you are 15-20 points into prot and don't plan on switching. It's also not really worth it. DPS wars don't have hard time killing multiple mobs either, unless you are behind on gear, or specifically hard mobs.

Yeah you are not but i will definitly not ivite arms/fury warrior to tank my 40+ dungeons. And gl respecing with no gold in your bag. It is better to play prot from start for economic reasons. And dont waste huge amounth of gold later.

[GenericDifference]

A lot of folks saying you can tank just fine as Arms/Fury just by slapping on a shield but what's the difference in reverse? Say someone specs Prot but goes out to level with a 2H, how much slower is it really? Does the increased defensive stats help mitigate this? I've levelled tanks many times over the years and whilst slower I always felt much safer and more in control of fights.

[Oozlz]

Yeah you are not but i will definitly not ivite arms/fury warrior to tank my 40+ dungeons. And gl respecing with no gold in your bag. It is better to play prot from start for economic reasons. And dont waste huge amounth of gold later.

People use Arms and Fury wars to Tank (off tank) in raids, and you think they cant tank leveling dungeons? Waste a huge amount of gold? You level without respeccing (unless you do the swap from fury to arms for MS), you respec to prot I'd say 52+ at best, but you can still get away not doing it.

[XtraT]

Leveling as prot is terrible. You do no damage and you're a worst dungeon tank than Arms warriors.

[Elias01]

People use Arms and Fury wars to Tank (off tank) in raids, and you think they cant tank leveling dungeons? Waste a huge amount of gold? You level without respeccing (unless you do the swap from fury to arms for MS), you respec to prot I'd say 52+ at best, but you can still get away not doing it.

No they dont. Tou will not have enought threat to hold aggro as fury. Yeah maybe like full t3 geared warrior tanking mc than maybe yeah.

[Androsobi]

I recommend to level together with a Paladin/Priest. Also, leveling a vanilla warrior is similar to an Ironman challenge!

[Oozlz]

No they dont. Tou will not have enought threat to hold aggro as fury. Yeah maybe like full t3 geared warrior tanking mc than maybe yeah.

If you think you need full T3 to be holding threat as a non prot spec, you have very little understanding of the game. I'm sorry to say it. Obviously it is not optimal and you do want protection warriors as the main tanks. But any spec of warrior can tank just fine. You may have to throttle down your dps slightly, but it does work and most certainly will be used. Especially to help tank trash. Even on 4 horsemen, If you go with 8 warriors, they don't all have to be prot.... no one is respeccing mid raid. An Arms or Fury tank is more viable than a ret dps, enhance dps, ele dps, boomkin and even feral DPS (tanks are good).

[azkhane]

Go arms, when u get sweeping strikes and MS you Will destroy 2-3 mobs faster than killing 1 alone

[Moonsorrow]

No they dont. Tou will not have enought threat to hold aggro as fury. Yeah maybe like full t3 geared warrior tanking mc than maybe yeah.

This is just wrong. Especially while leveling a Arms / Fury warrior in tank gear with shield and the few +def itmes that come along the way generates more threat than a fully def specced warrior. Just a reminder in classic there is no threat multiplier included in a def specc. You only have the bonus from def stance and the 15% from Defiance. Therefore the damage increasing talents in both other trees completely compensate for this especially while leveling.

And regarding T3 Fury in MC. I think due to the scalling issues a T3 Tank in full def tank gear will have more problems in MC then in Naxx. Back in the days it was not uncommon for tanks to mix in offensive pieces when tanking lower content due to the high amount of mitigation by armor / parry / block to hinder the rage generation and in consequence they lacked the rage to generate sufficient threat.

[Toralin]

Already been covered, but definitely go Arms/Fury.

[Shaetha]

Yeah you are not but i will definitly not ivite arms/fury warrior to tank my 40+ dungeons. And gl respecing with no gold in your bag. It is better to play prot from start for economic reasons. And dont waste huge amounth of gold later.

Then you won't be able to find a tank for any of your 40+ dungeons, because while a few people might level prot, it's extremely rare to find someone doing it and it doesn't even really help. Nevermind that you can't inspect talents in Classic.

- - - Updated - - -

This is just wrong. Especially while leveling a Arms / Fury warrior in tank gear with shield and the few +def itmes that come along the way generates more threat than a fully def specced warrior. Just a reminder in classic there is no threat multiplier included in a def specc. You only have the bonus from def stance and the 15% from Defiance. Therefore the damage increasing talents in both other trees completely compensate for this especially while leveling.

And regarding T3 Fury in MC. I think due to the scalling issues a T3 Tank in full def tank gear will have more problems in MC then in Naxx. Back in the days it was not uncommon for tanks to mix in offensive pieces when tanking lower content due to the high amount of mitigation by armor / parry / block to hinder the rage generation and in consequence they lacked the rage to generate sufficient threat.

This is true. You have to take damage to generate decent rage. If you're not taking enough damage, your threat will be shit. That and having more threat from damage stats helps with threat capping for people that are playing the wrong faction.

[Unholyground]

I leveled as a tank Shaman in the stress test and it was fine so a Warrior must be even easier.

[vsb]

It might be worth mentioning aswell that there's a good chance raid tanking is going to be a question of "TpS" rather than "survivability" at least for the first few phases, so it may end up being the case that the "go-to" spec is a DPS one with points in prot to get Defiance (and maybe Imp. Shield Block)...

Or I could have just taken crazy pills, but I'm throwing it out there :P

If at any point I'll feel forced to spec to DPS talents for raid tanking, I, personally, will stop playing. I thought about vanilla as a good design where tanks tank, healers heal and DPS dps. If it's the same shit like in retail, where tanks dps, healers dps, dps cry, then I'm out.

[Oozlz]

If at any point I'll feel forced to spec to DPS talents for raid tanking, I, personally, will stop playing. I thought about vanilla as a good design where tanks tank, healers heal and DPS dps. If it's the same shit like in retail, where tanks dps, healers dps, dps cry, then I'm out.

So 0 points into Cruelty? No option of running the impale / prot build (still has shield slam, not fury prot)? You're gonna have a bad time.....

[Pozz]

Yep, just go arms or fury. And have a shield.

Literally none of us healers or dps will EVER expect a leveling tank to actually be specced protection.

None of us will ever expect that of you.

So go with your leveling spec and just keep an updated shield in your bank for dungeon runs. We got your back.

Oh I am sure some will. I fully expect a random dpser flaming me and my buddy for being dps specced while tanking and healing

[Moonsorrow]

If at any point I'll feel forced to spec to DPS talents for raid tanking, I, personally, will stop playing. I thought about vanilla as a good design where tanks tank, healers heal and DPS dps. If it's the same shit like in retail, where tanks dps, healers dps, dps cry, then I'm out.

That is not what he is saying. But if you only see Threat per Second a dps focused tank can generate more than a pure prot warrior. But this ignores survivability which is why you need to mainly specc prot as a main tank probably around BWL. Prior to that tanking is more a question of gear and skill as the bosses just don't hit hard enough to be a threat if your healers aren't sleeping. But even in later stages you'll only have your two maintanks as full prot warrior, all the other warrior will have a maximum of 17 points in prot if any as for most offtanking jobs a shild and a one-hand is sufficient if your healers are awake...

Just remember in classic your class will learn all spells from all speccs besides the ones only accessible via a talent, so if you want to tank as a warrior you can do this in any specc and at certain scaling stages it is easier with a more dps focused specc. In my experience leveling is such a stage where it is smoother to tank with dps talents. But don't be fooled, a tanking warrior will never compete with dps on the meters even if he is deep arms or fury because defstance has a build in -10% damage reduction.