Poster: Charsi at 7/13/2005 7:01:28 AM PDT
Subject: Protection spec got buffed (very long) |
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This will get me flamed by the "omg Protection sucks" crowd. Whatever.
Firstly, some background. I am one of the main tanks of my guild. I have been Protection specced up to patch 1.5.
With the advent of Battlegrounds, sheer frustration overwhelmed me. I did not feel that I could contribute effectively in PvP, and I was tired of being unable to farm with any sort of speed in PvE. I ended up respeccing from 13/33/5 over to 31/5/15, and absolutely loved it.
I can categorically say that pretty much everything in the game can be tanked 31/5/15. I've tanked Ragnaros - it has far more to do with your support team, your gear and skills than it does your spec.
I can also say that 31/5/15 is a much better build not simply for PvP'ing but for PvE instance (cash/resource) farming. It used to take me forever to kill things with my old Protection spec. With 31/5/15 spec, I could MS it down in no time if that is how I wanted to approach the fight.
Whenever I read a post bashing Shield Slam, I can't help but smile. There seems to be this prevailing belief that if Protection just had a little more Protection, it would be fine. I say that this is completely and utterly wrong.
The problem with Protection was very simple: as you specced deeper into the tree, for the stuns and silences (yes, they're useless in MC), you traded off any realistic expectation of DPS. DPS is utility too. Yes, Prot spec tanked marginally better but it was at the cost of being able to play ANY role other than meatshield. Your DPS was atrocious. And before anyone says it - there is much more to tanking than simply absorbing damage forever.
The above reasoning is why 31/5/15 became a very prevalent, talked about build. Players wanted the burst damage while retaining the most useful Protection talents. They did not want to gimp themselves for a nebulous gain. And 31/5/15 is a very good build; a "minor" in Protection results in a tank that is as good as someone specializing in Protection - that's how the Protection tree is laid out.
What I am saying is this: Protection lacked damage. Protection's biggest problem was that speccing deeply in Protection came at such a high price. You gimped yourself.
Shield Slam is clearly designed to offset that price. It gives Protection specced warriors some very nice burst DPS capability (I crit a Shield Slam for 1098 last night). Will it rival Mortal Strike? Right now, maybe... if your MS testbed is geared for tanking like I was, and not AP/crit. Over the longer run, as weapons scale in damage, MS will win. That is exactly as it should be.
So what's the point? Why are you talking about 31/5/15 so much?
This is going to sound amazing but.. the Protection Tree should not be greatly superior to any other tree at tanking. If Protection was clearly superior at tanking, there would be a shift at the high end, demanding that warriors spec Protection (you already get it from PUG morons). If every warrior who raids the high end is forced to spec Protection because it's hugely better, diversity among Warriors is essentially eliminated. This is as bad as players rejecting any build that isn't "cookie reaper MS".
Blizzard is trying to keep things balanced. They are trying to make every spec attractive, so that - for example - MS warriors aren't shunned in raid instances. Ironically enough the reverse is happening - look at the high end guilds, they don't bother with Protection spec because the gains are so minor and don't compensate for the utility lost by gimping the DPS of your Warriors.
Buffing Shield Discipline, or giving Protection spec some passive +HP or +resist talent, would make the spec superior to all others for survival. It would eliminate every other spec as a choice for high end MT'ing and thus water down the game dramatically. A guild would bring along 2-3 "tanks" and insist they be Protection specced.
Protection Spec should only be a little bit better at tanking, if that. The choice of specs MUST be one governed largely by a player's subjective opinions, not because "omg this [cookie cutter] is the only choice in [raid instance]". Players already say spec Arms until 55 then go Protection. Then everyone shifted and said spec 31/5/15. Now, it's our decision.
Why is it our decision? Because there is no longer a massive loss of utility between specs. Protection is not the only spec with super duper shield blocking; that's eliminated. At the same time, Arms is not the only talent tree with super duper instant damage; Protection has it now. The two trees have been made more similar, not less, meaning that your choice in which way you spec comes down to whether you prefer Sweeping Strikes/Impale over say Concussion Blow and Improved Shield Bash. There is no "one right spec" because there is no huge tradeoff involved going one way or the other.
How many times did you wish all specs/builds had access to an instant so you weren't forced to spec MS cookie cutter?
People want diversity; MS is such a good skill in comparison to other 31 point talents that we were all cookie cutter'd because of it.
You can see Blizzard trying the same idea attempted (but failed) in the new Bloodthirst skill. Bloodthirst is both a mitigation (via life steal) and instant damage talent. It's not good enough yet, but it will be changed.
If you don't believe me, play around the new Protection spec. It is very similar to the 31/5/15 build now but with stuns and silences. I should know; I have now played on both sides of the fence. It's not quite as good as 31/5/15 for DPS, but 31/5/15 is not quite as good as Protection for controlling mobs that can be CC'd.
I believe that Fury will end up very similar. Expect Bloodthirst's Attack Power % to get buffed to about 50%. Blizzard grossly overestimated their Attack Power expectations. The lifesteal won't change because 100 damage over 6 seconds is roughly equal to an untalented Shield Block.
In closing I will make these assertions:
- You did not need Shield Discipline to tank anything in the game.
- Speccing to the sometimes-useful Stuns and Silences is now worth it because you're not really gimping your DPS anymore.
- More mitigation would make Protection more marginalized, not more attractive.
- 31/5/15 is popular because it was a compromise build that offered mitigation and damage. It epitomized the desire of players not to have to trade in damage for tanking.
- All trees in the game will get an instant because instant = win. What will differentiate the specs is what talents and playing style you define for yourself on the way to your instant damage attack.
Shield Slam is exactly what Protection needed. It is the answer to the rise of the popular 31/5/15 build. It is a skill that compensates us for skipping Mortal Strike for the sake of some stuns and a faster taunt. It is an instant that suits the Protection warrior's playing style.
I, for one, was very tired of logging off or levelling an alt inbetween raids out of sheer uselessness. I want to have the option of farming resources/faction faster than a snail, or PvP'ing effectively, in between raids. That's why I loved 31/5/15, and this is why I love Shield Slam. I see it as a HUGE Protection buff, it gives us exactly what we needed: it un-gimps our DPS so we can spec Protection and not feel bad.
Everyone who likes DPS will continue to spec 31/20 (or 31/5/15 if they feel tanky), and they'll still do just fine when they need to tank. And they should.. because it's ignorant and unfair to expect that only one spec is 'allowed' to be good at tanking.
Nothing has really changed; Protection isn't as gimp anymore, and that's the buff.
tl;dr summary:
Stuns good.
Gimping bad.
DPS good.[ post edited by Charsi ]
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warrior&t=359319&p=#post359319 | | | Poster: Kalgan at 7/13/2005 5:28:08 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Protection spec got buffed (very long) |
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Great post Charsi, you've uncovered our thinking behind the change quite well.
Oh, and with regard to Bloodthirst, we also agree that it'll need to be buffed, but since we don't feel players have explored all the ways to maximize attack power we prefered to be conservative with the new ability and strengthen it later rather than over-do it and have to nerf it later.[ post edited by Kalgan ]
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warrior&t=359319&p=#post360962 |
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