Protection Warrior 7.3

[Valks 2,373]

15 minutes ago, Guest Docca said:

I don't think I said SB shouldn't be utilized but it should be prioritized given certain encounters. 

The other poster straight up said that SB should be used and saved to buff the damage of shield slam, because IP is powerful enough to let you solo bosses.

In your post, you say that:

1 hour ago, Guest Docca said:

Imagine Shield block as the icing on your proverbial Ignore Pain Cake...

In places where you actually start to take proper damage, it's the other way round. Shield Block will be your bread and butter. IP can then save you from the additional damage when you have rage available, as well as stopping encounter specific damage.

[Guest Try pioritizing IP]

When you time your shield block with shield slam, you still benefit from the defensive benefits. Not like I will hold on to them or anything -- if you spec as my recommendation, you get the max out of your shield block because it lasts so long that you have high shield block up time.

Even in heroics bosses would hit for 1mil+ and they are laughable as stated by other poster -- thanks to the stacking feature of IP. Yes I have encountered times I get ahead of myself pulling packs and see how IP get chewed but with my play style, I can spam IP up right away and giving my healer time to slowly heal it back up ( dps usually would have taken so much cleave / spell damage when I pull so many packs). I play healers too (I am an alt-aholic) and I see tanks' health dropping fast (healable but it still drops) while I can pull multiple packs with my warrior without worrying if the healer is keeping up -- I don't need the healer in most cases.

I still don't see any other tank or prot warrior with other play style capable of doing the same.

 

Like I said your main challenge is keeping your IP up close to 100%. That's why you want to spec / prioritize that way.

You really have to focus on IP to make it work -- half axx IP will not cut it as stated by you as it will get chewed through too quick, But once your prioritize your rotation / CD on it, it's more powerful than you think, as of right now.

 

Try it.

 

4 hours ago, Blainie said:

Just throwing in my 2 cents for this IP vs. SB argument. Both yourself and the previous contributor have stated one major fact:

You leveled as tanks, while completing normal dungeons. 

It's completely understandable that IP works there. Of course it does. You take barely any damage in normal leveling dungeons, because they were never created to be specifically challenging for the tanks. You're not meant to get one shot. The idea of stacking maximum pool IP will not happen when you are main-tanking a mythic raid boss or a big trash pack in M8+. 

The thought of even using Shield Block as a pure damage increase is ridiculous. If you're holding out Shield Block to make sure you're doing more damage, I can guarantee your raid leader in Mythic will be sitting there asking why you died. 

Shield Block is SO cheap right now. It costs barely any rage and there is 0 reason to not be using it. The flat shield from IP works fantastically, when you're getting hit for 100k by a mob. That's fine, you'll be OK using IP exclusively. 

Let's say you're tanking Mythic+10 Eye of Azshara, it's the last M+ I can remember completing. Let's say you have a pack + one of the large murloc-type mobs. Each melee hit dealt 1M+ damage to my Blood DK from the large mob, with another 250K or so from each trash mob with it. 

I guarantee your healer won't be praising your IP shield when you're tanking this. They will most likely be asking why you died after 1 pack. SB should ALWAYS be your priority. If you've got it, USE IT. You will aim for Haste as a main stat because you NEED shield block uptime. IP just does not do enough alone. You will stack haste until you have 100% uptime on your shield block.

I would love to be proven wrong and if so, please feel free to venture into a M+ dungeon when they launch. Take Shield Block off your bars and go tank with just IP, with full crit/vers gear. You'll be dead before the first boss and you most certainly won't be soloing any bosses.

 

[Guest more on SB]

I just want to emphasize that timing your shield block for crit shield slam is for mitigation purpose -- not for damage, although you do get the benefit of better damage.

[Guest More explanation]

3) Use shield block to boost the crit chance of shield slam, not to mitagate damage. Always time it with shield slam.

 

I am not familiar with writing guides. I apologize for not making it clear. It works this way.....

 

You time your shield block to increase crit chance of your shield slam. Your crit shield slam procs free focused rage. You use your free focused rage to proc halved cost IP. And because you time your shield block with shield slam, your shield slam increases the duration of shield block, which again increases the crit chance of your next shield slam that is going to extend your shield block for even longer. As a result, along with properly spec'ed artifact weapon, you have a VERY HIGH shield slam crit chance and can spam IP, and you benefit from your SB for a much longer duration.

 

You time your shield block to boost the crit chance of shield slam, and making more rage available for IP, instead of using SB to straightly mitagate damage.

[Guest Haste]

First of all, thanks for the good guide.

It gave me a good understanding overall and helped me alot since im playing Protection Warrior now.

I have one question left. Is there a something like a haste cap allready which people should aim for?
Has someone tested how it synergizes with the cooldowns and where the point comes when other stats should be prioritized?

[Guest WSUHoey]

Hi,

When this guide was originally posted, the stat priority was:

Haste > mastery > versatility > str > crit.

I noticed it was changed to:

str > Haste > versatility > mastery > crit.

What's the explanation for versatility becoming better than mastery? Also why is strength a good stat for mitigation and above all the rest of the stats? I didn't see any mention of the reasoning or justification for these changes.

[Valks 2,373]

On 7.9.2016 at 11:49 AM, Guest Haste said:

First of all, thanks for the good guide.

It gave me a good understanding overall and helped me alot since im playing Protection Warrior now.

I have one question left. Is there a something like a haste cap allready which people should aim for?
Has someone tested how it synergizes with the cooldowns and where the point comes when other stats should be prioritized?

The haste cap will be when you can have 100% shield block uptime. This most likely won't happen before NH Mythic gear.

[Valks 2,373]

4 hours ago, Guest WSUHoey said:

Hi,

When this guide was originally posted, the stat priority was:

Haste > mastery > versatility > str > crit.

I noticed it was changed to:

str > Haste > versatility > mastery > crit.

What's the explanation for versatility becoming better than mastery? Also why is strength a good stat for mitigation and above all the rest of the stats? I didn't see any mention of the reasoning or justification for these changes.

Mastery and Versatility are very close in value, mainly because they both directly impact your survivability. Mastery focuses entirely on blocking physical damage, Versatility can block any damage. The stats will most likely become interchangeable depending on what encounters you face.

Versatility also boosts your damage, so it pulls slightly ahead.

[Guest Tao]

Ignore Pain is why the current priority is Str > Vers > Mastery >Haste.

 

Ignore Pain double dips into the benefit of Versatility; its size is affected by the healing % from Versatility and the mitigation is enhanced from the damage reduction.  Also, Inspiring Presence is boosted by Versatility as a nice little bonus.

 

Ignore Pain's initial shield size is also affected by your attack power.  This is what boosts Mastery over Haste, and why Strength is good.

 

This all assumes that you're running Vengeance with Ultimatum; if you're not using Vengeance and Ultimatum (and you really should) then Haste probably goes above Mastery but still below Versatility.

[Guest idiezalot]

Now Versatility is #1??? An explanation of why this is changing everyday would be nice

[Valks 2,373]

21 hours ago, Guest idiezalot said:

Now Versatility is #1??? An explanation of why this is changing everyday would be nice

Since we are at the start of an expansion, many things are changing regularly. We want to keep the guide up-to-date, so we need to keep changing things as the warrior community finds better ways to gear.

It's best to check back when you can to make sure things haven't changed again. It's unfortunately the way things are at this point of the expansion.

[Guest Tommythegun]

Well, many prot warriors from world first gilds (sco for example) are going with haste > mastery > crit > versatility.

explanation:

haste - more abilities = more survivability

mastery - ignore pain is based on AP, Scales of the Earth based on critical block

crit - Ultimatum procc, parry

versatitlity -  ...

 

 

I really would like to have an explanation from the author of the icy veins guide why he puts versatility first?

[Guest Be_eezy]

still no word on why mouse over for intercept not working

[Valks 2,373]

12 hours ago, Guest Tommythegun said:

I really would like to have an explanation from the author of the icy veins guide why he puts versatility first?

Initially, at the start of the expansion, Haste was considered the #1 stat by a mile, by every theorycrafter. Over the past weeks, Marok (very well respected Prot TCer), has been relentlessly testing and simming. 

His latest sims show that Versatility is now the best stat due to it double dipping into Ignore Pain. It increases the %amount of absorb from Ignore Pain while then decreasing the amount of damage we take.

This is his explanation for Versatility:

Quote

The main reason Versatility is our best secondary stat is the fact that it "double-dips". It provides a % increase to our IP's absorb, and it provides passive DR. 

If you want to push for more Damage, you can still go for Haste, but for surv., Versa is the best stat.

[Valks 2,373]

13 hours ago, Guest Be_eezy said:

still no word on why mouse over for intercept not working

What is currently not working with it?

[Guest bis prot warr info?]

where is the best in slot gear info?

[Valks 2,373]

15 minutes ago, Guest bis prot warr info? said:

where is the best in slot gear info?

For some specs, it's taking a bit more time to upload and update the gear information. It's coming, but we're just working on making sure raid guides and such are ready for the release!

[Guest Syrada]

Why does all the T19 Warrior Prot set have crit? If thats one of the worst stats for us.

[Guest zerp]

Ive been tanking some mythics and i gotta say that i could sure use more haste, while vers and mast are useful, that shorter cd on Block is really handy when ur IP is getting chewed constantly

ive also noticed that vers is kinda hard to come by, not many items have that as main stat

[Valks 2,373]

19 hours ago, Guest Syrada said:

Why does all the T19 Warrior Prot set have crit? If thats one of the worst stats for us.

This is just one of those annoying things that can happen. The same happened for Assassination Rogue this tier as well.

[Valks 2,373]

6 hours ago, Guest zerp said:

Ive been tanking some mythics and i gotta say that i could sure use more haste, while vers and mast are useful, that shorter cd on Block is really handy when ur IP is getting chewed constantly

There is that fine line between knowing how to give yourself a breather with a cooldown or CC spell and allowing yourself to take the damage. It seems like as we get better gear, those IPs are only going to get bigger, especially when we hit raids.

6 hours ago, Guest zerp said:

ive also noticed that vers is kinda hard to come by, not many items have that as main stat

If you link your armory, I can give you a hand with figuring out where to grab upgrades.

[Guest A random 850 tank]

I have to say.. I'm finally 850+ geared with full crafted vers/mastery gear, and at this point, I don't even take damage in Mythics really. There are a few situations where I might take some actual damage, but for the most part, my 5 man healer (also in 850) just HoTs me and dpses. It's pretty funny, he can almost push respectable numbers as holy just hitting smite over and over, and he actually comes in 2nd or 3rd using holy nova on big trash packs. Anyway, aside from very specific unblockable / unmitigatable stuff like the bleeds from the wolves in HoV, I just don't really lose my IP shield. I guess time will tell on the whole stat war thing, whether going full vers / mast was the best choice, but for right now I can practically solo mythic bosses, and I can definitely solo easy trash packs with just a HoT on mythic. In heroics, it's honestly a complete joke. We only need a healer for the derpy dps that stand in bad stuff.

[Guest Badgerlord]

So out of curiosity what are the best Trinkets to have? I have the one that silences mages when they cast spells on me, and one from the Eye that gives me a shield that when it expires blasts everything around me for frost damage, I imagine the latter isn't a very good one but it was my highest trinket I had.

Any advice would be great!

[Guest Tao]

Ideally your best trinkets from outdoor content, stat-wise, will have strength and versatility.  The bubble-aoe trinket from Eye is passable, but drop it the moment you can swap it with a strength/vers trinket, even if the ilvl is a bit lower.

[Guest UndeadWar]

What about passing on a higher item level for better stats? I just equipped boots that were 835 that had +vers for some that had +critical strike that were 840, stam and str changes were only likle 40 each.