Poster: Zyliah at 2/28/2006 7:06:26 PM PST
Subject: Protection Warrior PvP: A Guide |
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The intention of this guide is to offer tips on how a warrior can feel at least somewhat useful in PvP situations while specced heavily in Protection talents. I do not disagree that Protection is the weak sister of our talent trees, but many of us feel a responsibility to be the best tank possible, and thus take the PvP hit to maximize our PvE abilities. However, seeing repeated- constant, really- comments regarding how it is literally impossible to PvP in any way with a Protection-based warrior does not mesh with my experience, and so I seek to offer my tanking brethren hope, even if they aren't running around in full Wrath.
Part One- The Truth
It's a simple enough fact to acknowledge, yet, I wager, is the basis for all the myriad claims of Protection warrior uselessness- you will not be a killer. It is not going to happen. You will want to have a strong weapon and decent attack power to keep enemies honest in group PvP, but you are a survivor. Your goal is to stay on your feet long enough to notch kills in single combat, or force enemies in group PvP to focus on you while your health bar drops (in their eyes) with painful slowness and your teammates plow them over.
How to do that? It starts with..
Part Two- Gear
From day one, we're trained to understand that without sufficient AP and crit, and a weapon or weapons suited to your spec, you will not succeed as a warrior; with them, you will. As a Protection warrior, if you do this, you are going to fail badly. In my newer days at level 60, I was Protection spec and lugging around a Blackhand Doomsaw. Because this was back in the days of Shield Discipline, not Shield Slam, I used it anytime I needed to do damage. My singularly most embarrassing PvP moment came when, farming elementals in the Badlands, I was killed by a level 46 hunter and level 42 rogue.
Three times.
Admittedly, I was.. unskilled, to say the least. But if I had been more properly geared, it's unlikely I would have lost: and now, several patches later, there are enough gear choices (plus Shield Slam) to ensure you won't have to suffer a similar fate.
The following is designed for Protection warriors who are not raid-experienced; those who simply like the tree (it's not impossible) or are new to raiding and have little epic gear thus far to show for their efforts. It will include epics that can be obtained without a raid's help.
Suggested Armor
Quite honestly, I would recommend Evergreen's pre-MC gear FAQ ( https://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warrior&t=594562&p=1&tmp=1#post594562 ) as your starting point. For PvP, simply ignore the listed resist gear. Any holes you have, use the best piece of equipment you can find, leaning preferably towards stamina, then attack power (strength). Agility is less important because your crit is going to be low no matter what when defensively geared, and the extra dodge will hurt more than you might think against other warriors (more on that later).
I will, however, offer that The Immovable Object is superior to a Draconian Deflector for PvP. In addition to the extra stamina, block value is extremely important to a Protection warrior, and it's difficult to stack that until you start collecting raid epics. Block value is another (small) reason to lean towards strength as your secondary stat of choice; every 22 strength, your block value increases by one.
And remember, things only get better as your raids progress. Tank gear = PvP gear for a Protection warrior. If you do raid, you should find significant armor upgrades easy to come by.
Suggested Weapons
Two-Handed
The Unstoppable Force- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40529
This guide is not going to focus heavily on two-handed fighting with a Protection spec. But this weapon is too powerful to ignore, and you may find it preferable to sticking yourself behind a shield when PvPing regardless of spec. Available at exalted reputation in Alterac Valley.
One-Handed
Like an Arms warrior seeking a two-hander, you want to look for damage range moreso than DPS. Although it's less important to a Protection warrior (the only instant you'll use often with a one-hander is Overpower), you need to maximize damage where possible, and most of the best one-handers available to a non-/new raider have very similar overall DPS.
Frostbite- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40522
Stormstrike Hammer- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40527
These are Horde and Alliance rewards, respectively, for reaching revered status in Alterac Valley. Excluding the Ebon Hand (a crafted mace which requires a number of MC materials), these are the highest-damage one-handed weapons available to non-raiding players. The +15 strength tacks on even more damage.
Legionnaire's Sword- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40694
Protector's Sword- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40671
A close second, these swords, available at revered reputation with Warsong Gulch, do just a few damage less than their AV brethren (+13 strength helps with that). If WSG is more your kind of battleground, these are worthy options.
Mass of McGowan- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=10606
Why is this below the other two? It really isn't. The difference is so minor that you surely wouldn't be wrong to take this over the others. Of course, you have to find it, and that can be difficult. Your best chance of acquiring one is by purchasing it from another lucky soul or a raiding guild who found one on a raid boss, but it generally costs a pretty good chunk of change.
Rivenspike- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=13206
The only non-raid blue weapon which keeps up with the BG choices, a lucky proc or two will boost your damage even further, which is always welcome. The hard part is finding the mob it drops off of, as it's a rare spawn found in LBRS.
Skullforge Reaver- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=19910
An optimal choice for someone skilled in survival; this can be used to good effect with an off-spec that includes Blood Craze in the Fury tree. Probably the best farmable weapon (drops off Baron Rivendare in Stratholme).
Hardened Steel Warhammer- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52166
Not too bad in terms of base damage, and the stamina is a good plus. But it's a healing mace, first and foremost, so make sure no one's going to scream bloody murder before you claim it. In many ways, it's better than the Skullforge, but I wouldn't quite call it "farmable"- it's a drop off the Duke of Cynders, which requires you pop Wind Stones in Silithus until you get him, then actually get this drop off the mob.
Soulrender- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52165
A better choice for damage than the Warhammer. It drops off the Duke of Zephyrs, and won't cause as much friction if you want it.
Cold Forged Blade- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40351
A drop off the opposing AV faction's mega-elemental. Unfortunately, since the Join As Group option was removed, this may be nearly impossible to obtain. But it has good damage and a lot of stamina, if you manage to snag it.
Assassination Blade- http://www.thottbot.com/?i=5241
Last in line. It's not a bad weapon, but the relatively low damage and DPS isn't boosted very much by +3 to strength. Crit is rarely a bad thing, though. Mainly this makes the list because, depending on your server and faction, it's very possible you may be able to buy this without breaking the bank.
Got your toys? Ready to play? First, you'd better think about..
Part Three- Spec
Believe it or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to spec Protection if you want to be even moderately viable in PvP. Here's an example of an excellent tank build that will get you rolled all day by other players:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warriors/talents.html?0500500100000000000500000000000000055250110500220151
All kinds of PvE-based goodies, and extremely vulnerable to just about everyone in PvP. But with a little pinching and shifting, you can make yourself a fair bit more dangerous..
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warriors/talents.html?0500502100000000000500000000000000050250113500022151
All I did was change seven talent points: Removed two from Improved Taunt and put them in Improved Overpower, and took five from Anticipation and put them in Improved Revenge and Improved Shield Bash. Imp. OP is huge- absolutely massive- against rogues, as it will be your main source of damage while try to whittle your health down through your plate and shield. Additionally, every class has a natural ability to dodge, so Overpower will light up when you least expect it. Improved Shield Bash is an excellent counter to instant-cast spells. Improved Revenge, since the talent change, is a good source of cheap stuns against melee opponents.
"But," you say, "Anticipation is a key tank talent, especially for someone not stacked in epics! I can't give that up for PvP!" Understandable. Try this out:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warriors/talents.html?0500502100000000000500000000000000055250110500002151
No Improved Revenge or Improved Shield Wall, and you get Anticipation back. This doesn't hurt your PvP capability much, and may in fact assist you against other melee. At the very least, Anticipation has better overall use than the talents you'd be giving up.
You've probably noticed that these specs are very similar. The reason should be fairly obvious- there's only so much tweaking you can do when based in the PvE tree to be ready for PvP. The one talent I disregarded from these specs, which may well be the most PvP-oriented Protection talent, is Iron Will. If you want to try that instead of Anticipation or any other combination of talents, feel free. I don't believe it's useful enough to warrant speccing in, however, as you're basically using five talent points to hope for low-percentage procs when they could be spent on something much more stable.
Slightly off the beaten path from those is the 9/11/31 spec. The usefulness of Piercing Howl has increased this build in popularity. An example of it is:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warriors/talents.html?0500400000000000000550010000000000050250113500002151
You can fiddle with the Protection talents, but there really isn't any better way to set up Arms and Fury.
One last spec I'll share is not mine. It was created by Magoosh, who was considered by nearly everyone to be the best warrior on our server. Mind you, he achieved that reputation because he is extremely skilled, but that combined with this spec made him unbelievably dangerous to melee. Before he quit last year, I don't believe he had lost a fight against a warrior in two or three months, and rogues were simply helpless. Since he shared it with us, I don't think he'll mind if I use it to help others. (Hopefully I'm remembering it correctly.)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warriors/talents.html?0500400000000000000550013100501000051255110000000100
You may notice that he has Iron Will. Maybe he knows something I don't (>_>). Basically, he piled his damage mitigation sky-high, lowered his enemy's AP with Improved Demo Shout, and since you had to hit him so much you couldn't help but crit, he used Blood Craze to help regenerate his health. Because he was packing around 6k health, it wasn't unusual to watch someone crit him and wind up having him heal because of it. The only melee who put up a significant fight were warriors with the beastliest of weapons- Sulfuras, and not much else, would make for a close battle. It's a shame he quit.
No, this is not a tank build. If you wanted to make it more PvE-based, you could simply drop Iron Will for Defiance. The loss of Shield Slam aggro shouldn't affect you too much, having Enrage and even Death Wish if you need to take more damage to build rage for abilities.
So your toon is all ready to kick ass- or, rather, not die and find ways to win? Not quite yet. You still need to know..
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