Can Someone Help me Pour Through This Data? Prot warrior help please

[Killamf]

Hello MMO Champion

I recently came back to the game after long break and started playing a warrior as my main after close to 5 years as a ranged dps caster for beta through the start of cata. I love playing my Prot Warrior however I know I am not maximizing my potential.

I am the off-tank in all our runs so I was hoping someone with intricate knowledge of our class could help me data mine and help me determine where I need to improve my dps and my tanking in general. I am still shaky as to when is the best time to use Shield Block and Shield Barrier.

Any and all help is appreciated. I just came back to the game and am raiding at a pretty high level for my knowledge of the class and want to continue raiding.

Edit: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-gy032uqxhsbq5wos/ I am killastank.

[Deleted]

Hm, looking at your logs i think it's a matter of getting the fundamentals down. A quick glance at your Garajal Kill for example you're going long periods without actually actively mitigating anything. At the same time, looking at your armory you seem to have read up on the class to some extent as far as enchants and gems go (although try to reforge more out of dodge instead of mastery).

Take it a step further and read up on what Kebess is saying on actual gameplay, and apply it. More shield blocks while offtanking instead of dumping your rage into heroic strike, identify heavy magic damage on the content you're doing and figure out where shield barrier will be the most useful. Get the basics down and try to make it muscle memory.

[Breccia]

I am still shaky as to when is the best time to use Shield Block and Shield Barrier..

Normally, there is a very specific trade-off when SBlock is smarter than SBarrier in most fights, based on the damage per hit and percent of incoming damage that is melee. However I want to point out that Garajal is an exception. He routinely throws in special shadow-attack melee moves that cannot be absorbed, making Shield Block the smarter move when tanking him.

I have some numbers I need to run on the subject, but here's the overall generalization I work with:
A) You should use Shield Block when fighting a progression raid boss whose primary source of damage to you is melee attacks that can be blocked.
B) You should use Shield Barrier in all other situations, including
-- soloing, scenarios and 5mans
-- almost everything in LFR
-- majority of damage's sources are unblockable attacks, including ranged and most magic attacks

Now, this is a general guideline, not a 100% obey-or-die situation.

Here are some of the 5.0 bosses for which I recommend Shield Barrier:
-- the Stone Guard. Damage to the tanks is mostly Rend Flesh, which cannot be blocked.
-- Feng the Accursed. Most of the damage he does to the tanks is magical.
-- Imperial Vizier Zor'lok. His melee attacks aren't that bad until he gets a couple stacks of Inhale, and most of the rest of the damage is not blockable.
-- Garalon. He doesn't melee at all.
-- Lei Shi. He doesn't melee at all. You can spam Spell Reflect, however.

And some Shield Block suggestions:
-- Garajal the Spirit Binder: As mentioned before, some of his attacks can't be absorbed, and your job is to reduce the damage done to you, and therefore the voodoo dolls you're linked to, during that time. Shield Block will prevent uncontrollable damage spikes from such.
-- the Spirit Kings. You can probably go either way on this one, however, I'm not sure how Maddening Shout and absorb mechanics work. The majority of his damage on the tanks are the melee attacks.
-- Will of the Emperor. Assuming you don't get hit by the combo very often/at all, their melee damage will be over 90% of all damage taken and they hit like trucks. If you DO get hit by the combos often, technically Shield Barrier would be better, but it doesn't matter because you're going to die.
-- the Sha of Fear. While you're tanking him, you will take almost exclusively melee attacks, and a fair amount of them. Otherwise, the crossbow dude you're fighting doesn't use melee attacks, but also doesn't hit all that hard, so use Heroic Strike instead of either and end the phase.

There will always be judgement calls, and there will be times in many fights where switching back and forth is called for. But I think the overall guideline mentioned above is a good start, if nothing else.

[Killamf]

Thank you for the advice. Any other help is appreciated.