Prot Tanks Struggling To Hold Threat

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Prot PvP Update - Vigilance Spec



Carnival Next Week

Come on tardy bloggers, send me links to your posts for November's carnival. The bloggers that have participated in the past will tell you it's a great way to attract additional readers. So far seven links have been sent in and I'm excited to share them all with you come November 2nd.

New JMTC Website

If it hasn't happened by the time this post goes live then it is happening very soon. JMTC is getting a whole new look thanks to the work of a professional website designer. We'll be transitioning to the new look and feel probably on a sunday night at midnight so if you happen to be on then and things get hokie, don't fret because the new JMTC look and feel will be very close to being uploaded. Finally, JMTC will no longer rape your eyes!

Tanks Losing Threat

Today I'd like to help out all those prot warriors out there who are struggling with holding aoe threat in 5 mans. Let me begin by saying I love the way warriors tank now, it is very similiar to the vanilla days.


Here are the issues with 5 mans that make it harder to tank:

• T-Clap does little damage, little threat.
• Rend does little damage, decent threat.
• Shockwave does little damage, decent threat.
• Vengeance is never able to stack properly in a 5 man.

Ok so looking at that list do you think it's viable to charge in, rend and then thunderclap while dps are going balls to the wall like they were all expansion? Absolutley not.

Your rotation should look more like this:

• Charge
• Sidestep and shockwave
• Thunderclap
• Spam cleave and devastate, starting with primary target
• Shield slam if you get it for free on the primary target right away.

Once you get into the initial devastate and cleave spam you then have to react to how your dps is attacking. Watch targets who suddenly switch from red to yellow threat and use abilities like shield block + slam, a heroic strike instead of cleave, revenge, mocking blow or your basic taunt to keep mobs on you. Since targets die so quickly in 5 mans a simple taunt followed by a devastate and heroic strike will keep a target on you for the few seconds it will remain alive.  Conc blow is a nice way to stun something you don't wish to hold threat on for the next three seconds (cut in half due to your shockwave). I like to use conc blow if I don't want to bother keeping threat on a target that is close to death and just went to yellow.

So as you can see, the problem with tanks right now is that they are too slowly setting up their threat while dps are sending lava burst combos over the tank's head. Understand how threat works, how you can manage it and also how to avoid disaster. Being aware of where your teammates are will allow you to decide instantly if intervene is necessary to avoid a death.

When I tank current 5 mans I wear all dps gear... with resilience which is doubly bad for pve, but since healers are often decently geared and I know how to prevent damage when it's going to spike on trash or bosses, I tend to have very few deaths. Wearing dps gear makes the pulls quicker and you'll be amazed at your dps with a full stack of vengeance.

NOTE: Demoralizing shout reduces physical damage by 10% and should be used whenever you have threat on all targets once per pull if you have any chance of dying.

Gold Guide Work Continues

I've focused the guide down to a 9 chapter outline and finished the first drafts for chapters 0-7 with 0 being a tutorial on how to use the guide's reader. I custom built the reader to help make things easier on the eyes and to give the guide a much nicer feel than having to scroll through thousands of words on a single page per chapter. Now the chapters are broken up into multiple pages and contain far more images to help with the lessons discussed. The 9 chapters will focus on the basics, addon setup, leveling, selling techniques, professions, mixing professions, market control and a final snatch list plus auction house domination strategy.

Content will be updated as I roll through cataclysm finding the best ways to make gold without farming in world of warcraft. The best part about the guide will be the ability to jump into the strategies regardless of your skill level. You could start at the first series of chapters if you're new or leveling, skip to profession and selling techniques if you're mid level or have only one level 85, or finally skip to the highest echelons of gold making if you possess multiple characters with professions maxed out. Get the gold guide today before I increase the price to $47 when the initial cataclysm guide leaves alpha status.

Use promotion code JMTC for 10% off. Ignore the pitch page contents at http://www.20kleveling.com/, as they are still in the process of an entire rewrite for cataclysm as well as being designed by a professional artist and website designer.