If your reading this guide you are of a warrior calling and have at least scrolled through the skill trees to read what abilities do. This guide is the basics of individual spec and individual play. This may not work for everyone. Also this is a work in progress as things change and progress so will the spec change and progress.
My definition of a Tank is a character who holds the attention of all mobs on him, and also takes the least amount of damage than anyone else while doing this.
My definition involves two separate issues; 1 being threat and; 2 being damage mitigation.
My spec is as following
As you can see it involves Paladin//Reaver//Warlord. This provide a good balance between threat and mitigation. It also provides a fairly good amount of AOE threat so as you get geared you can pull larger groups without worrying about threat on all the mobs. It also baselines around 10% to dodge, and 25% to block.
Single target threat is very easy in this build. Aggressive Block(+10% to your block), Empowering Strike(+ armor buff to yourself), and Leader’s Mark(Armor debuff on target). All of these moves buff or debuff your target, add to your threat, and also add attack points. During combat when you block you will also have 3 non global cool down moves you can use. Each has a cool down timer.
Retaliation- 6 second cool down I use this the most and start off with it. By the time you use the other 2 this should be off cool down so you can follow 4 blocks with threat generating instant attacks.
Disarming Counterblow- 30 second cool down with a disarming effect
Paladin’s Reprisal- 60 second cool down with an AOE 5 second stun(this can be very useful if used correctly).
AOE threat is slightly harder but should not be a back breaker. For pulls where CC is not needed simply popPlague Bringer. Use Soul Sickness, Necrotic wounds, Soul Fever, Light’s Decree and then go into your single target rotation until you need to refresh your DOT’s and Light’s Decree.
Let me explain how Light’s Decree works. Basically it puts a debuff on your target that will do damage to anything within 5 yards of that target when you hit it with a single target strike. Although the damage is low this damage does generate a high amount of threat. Light’s Decree has a 12 second cool down so the target you use it on should not be the target everyone is going to kill first. If you know your group is going to kill target X first, place the debuff on target Y and use the AOE threat rotation.
A normal AOE pull looks like this for me, Plague Bringer, Soul Sickness, Necrotic Wounds, Soul Fever, Light’s Decree, Aggressive Block, Empowering Strike, and Leader’s Mark.
The only threat problems I have encountered are Bards using Motif of Regeneration as a constant buff, and when a HOT from the last pull is still on me. So let your Bards know that Motif of Regeneration should be cast after a pull not before it and wait for all old HOT effects to wear off before pulling the next group.
Mitigation is also very important to a tank. You need to be hit for less and to be hit less often. This build has an 23% Magic Damage Mitigation, Physical Damage should be reduced by armor value(55%+ is where you should be on this, remember to add in the 5% Imbued Armor). You parry is a bit low with this build. Depending on gear it should be around 5%, until you really start getting geared out. Dodge will float around 10% depending on gear and if you have used a call ability(this will make sense in the next section). Block will easily be your highest defense stat. You should probably float around a 30-35% block 40%-45%with Aggressive Block Active. More research needs to be done on these values//when do diminishing returns kick in//and what are max values for raid encounters. Also Toughness is a stat that I have yet to play around with, but as I obtain gear with toughness on it; I shall test it.
Last but not least are special skills and abilities that use attack points. As you noticed I do not have anything in a normal rotation that uses attack points. The reason is simple because none of them generate threat and most are situational. I like to keep Spotter’s Order on the target as much as possible, this increases your dodge chance by 3% for 15 seconds and gives a damage boost to your allies on this target.
Reverent Protection is a neat little damage shield that covers your entire party. Although as a tank it does not help you that much. It does give your healer a decent buffer when the party takes a bit of AOE damage. Timing this with a bosses AOE ability will make your healer love you!
Righteous Blow and Scales of Justice are pretty useless, they don’t add threat and they don’t really give you any buffs or debuffs they simply just do damage. This does help out but it puts them low on the priority list. If you have time to use them do it, it wont hurt you if you don’t have time.
Judgment and Concussion and both AOE taunts basically use them when you get a big group and you see a mob pull off you and go for someone else. These both have 1 minute cool downs and they share a 15 second global cool down. So even though its 2 different moves you can only use them every so often.
Intercept is a great skill. It allows you to convert the agro from 1 player to yourself. This will last 6 seconds and it is on a 30 second cool down. For trash I use this on the healer and at the start of my second rotation. For a boss I will use this on either the healer or the person who is putting out the must DPS. I try to use it every 30 seconds during a boss fight. Tostiganator's macro will work wonders here, allowing you to cast this on a raid//party member without switching to them.
Remember this is a work in progress and will be updated as we learn more, the game changes, etc.
by Caziz
Read rest of entry
My definition of a Tank is a character who holds the attention of all mobs on him, and also takes the least amount of damage than anyone else while doing this.
My definition involves two separate issues; 1 being threat and; 2 being damage mitigation.
My spec is as following
As you can see it involves Paladin//Reaver//Warlord. This provide a good balance between threat and mitigation. It also provides a fairly good amount of AOE threat so as you get geared you can pull larger groups without worrying about threat on all the mobs. It also baselines around 10% to dodge, and 25% to block.
Single target threat is very easy in this build. Aggressive Block(+10% to your block), Empowering Strike(+ armor buff to yourself), and Leader’s Mark(Armor debuff on target). All of these moves buff or debuff your target, add to your threat, and also add attack points. During combat when you block you will also have 3 non global cool down moves you can use. Each has a cool down timer.
Retaliation- 6 second cool down I use this the most and start off with it. By the time you use the other 2 this should be off cool down so you can follow 4 blocks with threat generating instant attacks.
Disarming Counterblow- 30 second cool down with a disarming effect
Paladin’s Reprisal- 60 second cool down with an AOE 5 second stun(this can be very useful if used correctly).
AOE threat is slightly harder but should not be a back breaker. For pulls where CC is not needed simply popPlague Bringer. Use Soul Sickness, Necrotic wounds, Soul Fever, Light’s Decree and then go into your single target rotation until you need to refresh your DOT’s and Light’s Decree.
Let me explain how Light’s Decree works. Basically it puts a debuff on your target that will do damage to anything within 5 yards of that target when you hit it with a single target strike. Although the damage is low this damage does generate a high amount of threat. Light’s Decree has a 12 second cool down so the target you use it on should not be the target everyone is going to kill first. If you know your group is going to kill target X first, place the debuff on target Y and use the AOE threat rotation.
A normal AOE pull looks like this for me, Plague Bringer, Soul Sickness, Necrotic Wounds, Soul Fever, Light’s Decree, Aggressive Block, Empowering Strike, and Leader’s Mark.
The only threat problems I have encountered are Bards using Motif of Regeneration as a constant buff, and when a HOT from the last pull is still on me. So let your Bards know that Motif of Regeneration should be cast after a pull not before it and wait for all old HOT effects to wear off before pulling the next group.
Mitigation is also very important to a tank. You need to be hit for less and to be hit less often. This build has an 23% Magic Damage Mitigation, Physical Damage should be reduced by armor value(55%+ is where you should be on this, remember to add in the 5% Imbued Armor). You parry is a bit low with this build. Depending on gear it should be around 5%, until you really start getting geared out. Dodge will float around 10% depending on gear and if you have used a call ability(this will make sense in the next section). Block will easily be your highest defense stat. You should probably float around a 30-35% block 40%-45%with Aggressive Block Active. More research needs to be done on these values//when do diminishing returns kick in//and what are max values for raid encounters. Also Toughness is a stat that I have yet to play around with, but as I obtain gear with toughness on it; I shall test it.
Last but not least are special skills and abilities that use attack points. As you noticed I do not have anything in a normal rotation that uses attack points. The reason is simple because none of them generate threat and most are situational. I like to keep Spotter’s Order on the target as much as possible, this increases your dodge chance by 3% for 15 seconds and gives a damage boost to your allies on this target.
Reverent Protection is a neat little damage shield that covers your entire party. Although as a tank it does not help you that much. It does give your healer a decent buffer when the party takes a bit of AOE damage. Timing this with a bosses AOE ability will make your healer love you!
Righteous Blow and Scales of Justice are pretty useless, they don’t add threat and they don’t really give you any buffs or debuffs they simply just do damage. This does help out but it puts them low on the priority list. If you have time to use them do it, it wont hurt you if you don’t have time.
Judgment and Concussion and both AOE taunts basically use them when you get a big group and you see a mob pull off you and go for someone else. These both have 1 minute cool downs and they share a 15 second global cool down. So even though its 2 different moves you can only use them every so often.
Intercept is a great skill. It allows you to convert the agro from 1 player to yourself. This will last 6 seconds and it is on a 30 second cool down. For trash I use this on the healer and at the start of my second rotation. For a boss I will use this on either the healer or the person who is putting out the must DPS. I try to use it every 30 seconds during a boss fight. Tostiganator's macro will work wonders here, allowing you to cast this on a raid//party member without switching to them.
#show InterceptImposing is also a great skill. The 1 minute cool down makes it not as useable but using it when you can during a boss fight ensures no one will pull threat. During trash I tend to only use it if I know the pull is going to take some time to kill.
cast @mouseover Intercept
Remember this is a work in progress and will be updated as we learn more, the game changes, etc.
by Caziz
