Гайд по прот вару - авйденсы, скилы и всё остальное (англ.)

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взято отсюда - http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f97/3946 … -list.html

Contents
Introduction - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Gems - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Backs - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Chests - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Feet - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Rings - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Hands - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Heads - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Leggings - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Necklaces - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Ranged - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Shields - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Trinkets - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Belts - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Weapons - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Bracers - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot
Shoulders - WOTLK Tanking Gear List - TankSpot

Version History
(10/03/2009) - Patch 3.1 continued: Added more Ulduar items and removed all non-SWP/T6 pre-WOTLK items.
(24/02/2009) - Patch 3.1: Started adding Ulduar items when the come to my attention. Added BOE crafted belt and boots.
(17/12/2008) - Patch 3.0.8: Tempered Titansteel Helm went from being subpar to decent after addition of sockets. I'm still slacking in the enchants department, hoping to get them up to date soon.
(1/12/2008) - Updated several items and added a few more. Updated the comments.
(27/10/2008) - Added a couple of new items, not much though.
(10/10/2008) - Names and sources updated for a lot of items. Changed the baseline gear to include more block value and the boss to hit harder.
(1/10/2008) - Another large batch of items after a couple of weeks of slackage.
(19/9/2008) - Loads of new items.
(17/9/2008) - Misc. updates. New armor slot comments.
(16/9/2008) - Added more T4/T5 level gear. Fixed some item IDs on.
(15/9/2008) - More new items.
(12/9/2008) - Many new items added. Item links still missing for a few of them.
(11/9/2008) - New items added from latest beta patch, more to come. Updated to WOTLK version of Vitality talent, Stamina is worth slightly more now. Fixed a few mistakes. Added all Rare and Epic gems. Standard gem is now 24 Stamina instead of 21 - adds more value to sockets.
(10/9/2008) - Added WOTLK enchants for most item slots.
(9/9/2008) - Added several TBC items, fixed a couple that were still using old stats, and added on-use effects. Some new WOTLK items added too, including the level 75 shield from The Violet Hold.
(8/9/2008) - Initial version, still very rough and certainly work in progress. If you spot any errors, mistakes, or just plain weirdness, please point it out so I can fix it. The changes to SWP/T6 gear have been included.

TODO: Update enchants

Introduction
While tanking my way through TBC, Berg's Tank Gear Rankings has been something I've enjoyed very much. Knowing the limitations of such gear rankings, it has still been a great resource when I wanted to make quantitative comparison between various pieces of tanking equipment.

It's in the spirit of that guide I've deciced to try making a similar tanking gear analysis for Wrath of the Lich King (WOTLK). Since WOTLK still is in beta and new gear is discovered all the time, this gear guide will evolve very fast in the beginning. Besides the new gear that is discovered, I would be surprised if Blizzard aren't going to change stats on items as the beta testing progresses.

The guide also includes some end-game raiding gear from TBC, since I guess many will be interested to know how long they can keep using their current equipment. I've tried to include a mix of the best TBC gear and gear that is rather easily obtainable.

The Ranking Method
In contrary to Berg I'm not going to use TankPoints, but instead some similar formulas I've derived myself with WOTLK in mind. The main difference is that this ranking method also uses Expertise in the calculations, which
makes quite a large impact due to the enormous amount of Expertise on a lot of gear these days.

Basically I calculate for how long a Warrior tank can survive getting beat up by a boss, without any heals. For each item I see how long it prolonges the tank's life, and bases the score on that.

It should be noted how this is all about averages, and is just one way to approach tank survival analysis. So please don't take the numbers provided to be the absolute truth.

Assumptions
Expertise as a way of reducing incoming damage
Seeing Expertise as a way of mitigating damage is quite a controversiel subject, and some might say that you only should rely on Expertise to produce threat, and the survival benefit it gives is questionable at best. It can also be argued that the primary survival benefit of Expertise is the decreased chance of getting insta-gibbed by an unfortunate series of parries. That feature of Expertise is surely very useful in many situations, but in the end it's a fact that Expertise decreases the overall damage you take. Basically, you can say that it decreases the average attack speed of the boss in the long run, since it decreases the occurances of parry haste.

The parry model I've used is as follows: If a parry occurs, the boss' next attack occurs 40% of its swing time earlier, unless there's less than 20% of its swing time remaining until next attack.

Furthermore, I've assumed that the tank uses an offensive ability that can be parried every Global Cooldown (GCD), and that he's using a 1.6s weapon.

This is obviously only a rough assumption since it's rarely possible to use every GCD, and the tank might even be using a weapon which is either slower or faster - or he might even have items with Haste Rating, or be affected by Bloodlust, etc. But in the end it won't do that much of a difference on this particular aspect.

The sterotypical melee boss
The boss our theoretical test dummy is fighting is indeed not very complicated. Basically it's just a big brute, smashing away with normal melee attacks. No special attack or abilities. I see this as a good approximation though, since from personal experience and looking through hundreds of my WWS parses, the vast majority of damage we take as tanks are of this type. Our boss has a swing time of 2 seconds and hit for 15000 raw damage (i.e. before mitigated by armor). Futhermore, it is assumed that the boss has a base parry chance of 16%.

The above numbers, especially the damage, is extremely likely to change as soon as I know more about the actual bosses of WOTLK.

Rating conversions
I've strictly used the level 80 combat rating conversions that are available in this Elitist Jerks thread:

Combat Ratings at level 80 - Elitist Jerks

As with everything in the beta, these are subject to change.

Baseline stats
You can see this as the "working point" used when calculating the highly non-linear scores. This is an extremely rough guess on my behalf, and I will change it when I know more.

The stats of our theoretical level 80 Warrior tank:

HP: 23k
Armor: 23k
Dodge chance: 20%
Parry chance: 20%
Block chance: 20%
Miss chance: 10%
Block value: 850
Parry reduction: 3%

Threat Gear In WOTLK
The primary itemization change in WOTLK regarding warrior threat generation, is how important Strength suddenly has become. In fact so important that Blizzard has decided to add much more Strength to current T6/SWP gear, mostly at the cost of decreased mitigation and avoidance.

When comparing TBC gear with WOTLK gear, you should obviously keep this in mind, although it shouldn't be that much of a concern when it comes to T6/SWP tanking gear now.

Reading The List
The entry for each item looks roughly like this:

(item name+link) (points) level quality
Source: where it's obtainable.

As soon as WOTLK go live and the new items are transfered to the main part of wowhead, I'll make proper item links to make it look neater.

Regarding Tier gear: For instance T7(10) will mean that it's a T7-token drop in a 10-man instance. Badge loot is marked in a smilar way.

Crit Immunity
When you level up from 70 to 80, you'll slowly see your crit reduction from defense drop. Keep an eye on it and make sure it don't drop below 5.6% if you intend to fight bosses or mobs 3 levels higher than yours. Xav has written an article about this problem, check it out: WotLK So you're heading to Northrend, huh? - TankSpot

Gems
Best Rare quality blue gem is Solid Sky Sapphire (24 Stamina), and I will assume it to be socketed all over the place. The new meta gem that gives 32 Stamina and 2% armor is assumed to be used.

Note that I assume old TBC gear is regemmed as well - this obviously adds more value to old items with a lot of sockets.

Meta gems
1. Austere Earthsiege Diamond (629p) Rare
The boss tanking meta gem. Scales directly with the quality of your gear. No reason not to have this as your primary meta gem.

2. Eternal Earthsiege Diamond (384p) Rare
This meta gem is kind of a joker. The benefit from using it scales with how much Strength, Block Value, and Block Chance you have. Certainly the meta gem to use if you have a dedicated "TPS" tanking hat. For non-raid tanking where mobs don't hit so hard, this meta gem will most likely be one offering the most damage reduction.

3. Effulgent Skyflare Diamond (322p) Rare
Interesting gem that besides adding Stamina also reduces spell damage taken. Its use seem pretty situational though.

4. Powerful Earthsiege Diamond (322p) Rare
Unless all bosses are spamming stuns, I don't think a tank will find much use of this meta gem.

Normal gems
1. Solid Dragon's Eye (271p) Epic Blue
2. Thick Dragon's Eye (212p) Epic Yellow
3. Solid Majestic Zircon (198p) Epic Blue
4. Enduring Eye of Zul (178p) Epic Blue / Yellow
5. Regal Dreadstone (177p) Epic Red / Blue
6. Flashing Dragon's Eye (169p) Epic Red
7. Defender's Dreadstone (162p) Epic Red / Blue
8. Solid Sky Sapphire (159p) Rare Blue
9. Stalwart Flawless Amertrine (156p) Epic Red / Yellow
10. Shifting Dreadstone (156p) Epic Red / Blue
11. Thick King's Amber (156p) Epic Yellow
12. Subtle Cardinal Ruby (156p) Epic Red
13. Delicate Dragon's Eye (153p) Epic Red
14. Enduring Forest Emerald (142p) Rare Blue / Yellow
15. Regal Twilight Opal (142p) Rare Red / Blue
16. Glimmering Flawless Ametrine (141p) Epic Red / Yellow
17. Defender's Twilight Opal (129p) Rare Red / Blue
18. Guardian's Dreadstone (126p) Epic Red / Blue
19. Flashing Cardinal Ruby (125p) Epic Red
20. Stalwart Monarch Topaz (125p) Rare Red / Yellow
21. Shifting Twilight Opal (125p) Rare Red / Blue
22. Thick Autumn's Glow (125p) Rare Yellow
23. Subtle Scarlet Ruby (125p) Rare Red
24. Delicate Cardinal Ruby (113p) Epic Red
25. Glimmering Monarch Topaz (112p) Rare Red / Yellow
26. Resolute Flawless Ametrine (105p) Epic Red / Yellow
27. Sovereign Dreadstone (105p) Epic Red / Blue
28. Guardian's Twilight Opal (101p) Rare Red / Blue
29. Flashing Scarlet Ruby (100p) Rare Red
30. Forceful Eye of Zul (99p) Epic Blue / Yellow
31. Delicate Scarlet Ruby (91p) Rare Red
32. Resolute Monarch Topaz (84p) Rare Red / Yellow
33. Sovereign Twilight Opal (84p) Rare Red / Blue
34. Champion's Flawless Ametrine (83p) Epic Red / Yellow
35. Enchanted Tear (77p) Rare Red / Blue / Yellow
36. Precise Dragon's Eye (72p) Epic Red
37. Champion's Monarch Topaz (67p) Rare Red / Yellow
38. Glinting Flawless Ametrine (57p) Epic Red / Yellow
39. Precise Cardinal Ruby (54p) Epic Red
40. Chromatic Sphere (51p) Rare Red / Blue / Yellow
41. Precise Scarlet Ruby (43p) Rare Red
42. Accurate Flawless Ametrine (27p) Epic Red / Yellow
43. Accurate Monarch Topaz (22p) Rare Red / Yellow
44. Bold Dragon's Eye (14p) Epic Red
45. Bold Cardinal Ruby (11p) Epic Red
46. Bold Scarlet Ruby (9p) Rare Red
47. Fierce Flawless Ametrine (6p) Epic Red / Yellow
48. Etched Flawless Ametrine (6p) Epic Red / Yellow

Backs
Getting your paws on a Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions is one of the reasons why it's good to rush your Wyrmrest Accord reputation to revered as fast as possible. It's very easy obtainable and will last you until you grind enough 25-man badges to get a Platinum Mesh Cloak. Personally I'm not going to waste gold on the BOE crafted one, especially since it lacks Defense which are pretty hard to get enough of already.

1. Cloak of the Shadowed Sun (1684p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

2. Platinum Mesh Cloak (1609p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Valor)

3. Gale-Proof Cloak (1594p) L80 Epic
Source: Obsidian Sanctum 10-man (Hard Mode)

4. Durable Nerubhide Cape (1373p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

5. Cloak of Armed Strife (1199p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

6. Cloak of the Enemy (1177p) L80 Rare
Source: The Nexus 5-man (Heroic)

7. Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions (1169p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (The Wyrmrest Accord - Honored)

8. Bloodbane's Resolve (1075p) Rare
Source: Quest

9. Crimson Paragon's Cover (1063p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

10. Cloak of Gushing Wound (1040p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

11. Flowing Cloak of Command (1033p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man

12. Earthbound Cape (887p) L72 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

13. Thick Goblin Back Protector (847p) L74 Rare
Source: Vendor

14. Cloak of the Hardened Tortoise (835p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

15. Cloak of Tormented Skies (792p) L76 Uncommon
Source: Quest

16. Centrifuge Core Cloak (559p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man

Cloak Enchants
I somehow imagine that there's a yet-to-be-discovered +16 dodge rating enchant out there...
As it looks now, the Defense Rating and the Armor enchants are pretty equal. What you chose depends on whether you're into maximizing your effective health or your avoidance. The +16 Agility enchant is a nice alternative in case you want to add some threat too.

Titanweave (189p)
+16 Defense Rating

Mighty Armor (178p)
+225 Armor

Superior Agility (140p)
+16 Agility

Chests
Yet another reason to grind Wyrmrest Accord reputation: Breastplate of the Solemn Council is easily obtainable and will last until you get to wear purple for that slot. The T7(10) chestpiece is available for 10-man badges and is well worth the effort. Certainly the best you can get unless you do 25-man raiding.

1. Dragonstorm Breastplate (4034p) L80 Epic
Source: Obsidian Sanctum 25-man (Hard Mode)

2. Ulduar 10 Warrior Tank Set Chest (4026p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 10-man

3. Valorous Dreadnaught Breastplate (4012p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(25)

4. Chestguard of the Exhausted (3991p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

5. Breastplate of Tormented Rage (3854p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

6. Heroes' Dreadnaught Breastplate (3697p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(10)

7. Massive Skeletal Ribcage (3551p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

8. Breastplate of Agony's Aversion (3189p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

9. Ziggurat Imprinted Chestguard (3135p) L80 Rare
Source: Drak'Tharon Keep 5-man (Heroic)

10. Icebane Chestguard (3118p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

11. Breastplate of the Solemn Council (3115p) L80 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (The Wyrmrest Accord - Revered)

12. Sun-Emblazoned Chestplate (2958p) L80 Rare
Source: Halls of Stone 5-man (Heroic)

13. Reanimated Armor (2873p) L80 Rare
Source: Utgarde Pinnacle 5-man

14. Onslaught Chestguard (2855p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

15. Silver-Plated Battlechest (2782p) Rare
Source: Quest

16. Breastplate of Undeath (2675p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

17. Agin's Crushing Carapace (2515p) L78 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

18. Ivory Reinforced Chestguard (2424p) L76 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (The Kalu'ak - Honored)

19. Clutch of the Storm Giant (2300p) Rare
Source: Quest

20. Battleplate of Unheard Ovation (2238p) Rare
Source: Quest

21. Cultbreaker's Chestguard (2152p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

22. Savage Saronite Hauberk (2092p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

23. Chestplate of Conquest (1734p) L78 Rare
Source: BOP Crafted

24. Cobalt Chestpiece (1697p) L70 Uncommon
Source: BOE Crafted

25. Muck-Stained Carapace (1672p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

26. Blacksoul Protector's Hauberk (1670p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

27. Links of the Terrified Deity (1651p) Rare
Source: Quest

Chest Enchants
Yet again we see the effective health and the avoidance enchant being almost equal when it comes to raw survival. If you have problems reaching crit immunity, getting +16 Defense Rating on your chestpiece is a good idea.

Major Health (190p)
+200 Health

Greater Defense (189p)
+16 Defense Rating

Super Stats (159p)
+8 All Stats

Feet
Patch 3.1: New BOE crafted boots are best-in-slot for survival AND offers great threat stats aswell.

I know I'm repeating myself here, but let's just underline how nice Wyrmrest Accord reputation is for plate tanks: Sabatons of Draconic Vigor is available at probably the best blue boots around. The BOE crafted epics are kinda lackluster, and they're certainly not something I'll pay good gold for.

1. Spiked Deathdealers (3241p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted (Ulduar Patch)

2. Kyzoc's Ground Stompers (2937p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Valor)

3. Sabatons of Endurance (2919p) L80 Epic
Source: ??

4. Plague-Impervious Boots (2676p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

5. Greaves of Ancient Evil (2343p) L80 Rare
Source: Ahn'kahet 5-man (Heroic)

6. Icebane Treads (2282p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

7. Inexorable Sabatons (2249p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

8. Tempered Titansteel Treads (2222p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

9. Terrace Defence Boots (2185p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

10. Onslaught Boots (2178p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

11. Sabatons of Draconic Vigor (2159p) L80 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (The Wyrmrest Accord - Revered)

12. Slaughterhouse Sabatons (1954p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man

13. Toxin-Tempered Sabatons (1954p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Knights of the Ebon Blade - Honored)

14. Rift Striders (1796p) L80 Rare
Source: The Nexus 5-man (Heroic)

15. Berserker's Sabatons (1795p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

16. Tempered Saronite Boots (1740p) L75 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

17. Spiked Titansteel Treads (1549p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

18. Enticing Sabatons (1413p) Rare
Source: Quest

Boot Enchants
Unless you feel slightly increased run speed is worth 7 Stamina, the +22 Stamina enchant is certainly the way to go for this slot.

Greater Fortitude (220p)
+22 Stamina

Heavy Borean Armor Kit /
Icewalker /
Tuskarr's Vitality (150p)
+15 Stamina (+other effects)

Superior Agility (140p)
+16 Agility

Rings
There's a lot of good rings available all over the place. An interesting one is Keystone Great-Ring which drops in a plain heroic 5-man. If your crit immunity budget can afford to wear a ring without Defense you should certainly try to get that one.

1. The Leviathan's Coil (1994p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (Flame Leviathan)

2. Sand-Worn Band (1589p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

3. Keystone Great-Ring (1470p) L80 Epic
Source: Drak'Tharon Keep 5-man (Heroic)

4. Gatekeeper (1449p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

5. Titanium Earthguard Ring (1447p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

6. Signet of the Impregnable Fortress (1420p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Valor)

7. Signet of the Accord (1387p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Drop

8. Deflection Band (1362p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

9. Band of Torture (1193p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man (Heroic)

10. Ring of Hardened Resolve (1165p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

11. Nerubian Shield Ring (1146p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

12. Titanium Frostguard Ring (1109p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

13. Unsmashable Heavy Band (1069p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

14. Staunch Signet (1017p) Rare
Source: Quest

15. Dragonflight Great-Ring (1009p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man

16. Kurzel's Warband (993p) Rare
Source: Quest

17. Solid Platinum Band (984p) Rare
Source: Quest

18. Iceforged Battle Ring (918p) Rare
Source: Quest

19. Signet of Arachnathid Command (901p) L72 Rare
Source: Azjol-Nerub 5-man

20. Band of the Kirin Tor (817p) L80 Epic
Source: Vendor

21. Tooga's Lost Toenail (773p) L70 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

22. Circle of Death (746p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

23. Band of Frosted Thorns (732p) L80 Rare
Source: The Nexus 5-man

24. Worgen's Ring of Revitalization (718p) L72 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

25. Palladium Ring (639p) L77 Rare
Source: Halls of Stone 5-man

26. Kurzel's Rage (605p) Rare
Source: Quest

Hands
Any blacksmith can craft Daunting Handguards, which is a good pair of starter gloves. After that there's several better ones available in heroics, so it should be straight forward to get some upgrades. The T7(10) gloves are available for badges so they're very easily obtainable by anyone who care to grind a bit.

1. Gauntlets of the Royal Watch (2878p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Conquest)

2. Callous-Hearted Gauntlets (2799p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

3. Ulduar 10 Warrior Tank Set Gloves (2782p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 10-man

4. Valorous Dreadnaught Handguards (2773p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(25)

5. Gauntlets of the Disobedient (2547p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

6. Heroes' Dreadnaught Handguards (2536p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(10)

7. Gauntlets of the Master (2485p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

8. Fireproven Gauntlets (2297p) L80 Epic
Source: Faction Reward (Kirin Tor - Exalted)

9. Horn-Tipped Gauntlets (2295p) L80 Epic
Source: Gun'drak 5-man (Heroic)

10. Borderland Fortress Grips (2276p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

11. Gauntlets of the Water Revenant (2092p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

12. Gauntlets of Vigilance (2006p) Rare
Source: Quest

13. Daunting Handguards (1994p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

14. Gauntlets of Dragon Wrath (1993p) L80 Epic
Source: ??

15. Refined Ore Gloves (1963p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE

16. Giant-Sized Gauntlets (1937p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Frenzyheart Tribe - Revered)

17. Onslaught Handguards (1896p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

18. Tempered Saronite Gauntlets (1893p) L78 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

19. Expelling Gauntlets (1677p) Rare
Source: Quest

20. Fists of Loken (1643p) L80 Rare
Source: Halls of Lightning 5-man

21. Gauntlets of Capture (1634p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

22. Demolisher's Grips (1571p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

23. Gauntlets of the Disturbed Giant (1554p) Rare
Source: Quest

24. Handguards of the Sanguine Gladiator (1514p) Rare
Source: Quest

25. Jayde's Reinforced Handguards (1513p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

26. Grips of the Valiant Champion (1457p) L72 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

27. Charged Earthlink Grips (1079p) Rare
Source: Quest

Glove Enchants
For survival go for either +20 Agility or +15 Stamina - it's mostly up to personal preferences. For threat there's no real reason to take the Expertise enchant over Armsman. +2% Threat is far superior to +15 Expertise in terms of threat, and the +10 Parry Rating offers more damage reduction as well.

Major Agility (175p)
+20 Agility

Heavy Borean Armor Kit (150p)
+15 Stamina

Armsman (94p)
+2% Threat and +10 Parry Rating

Expertise (61p)
+15 Expertise Rating

Heads
Try to get a hat with a meta socket, they do a lot of difference. Arcane-Shielded Helm from heroic The Nexus offers very good survival stats for a blue item and will last you for some time. The T7(10) hat is not very impressive, but it offers more balanced stats that some of the other items.

The new Rare quality engineering helmet is extremely good and is already available at level 72.

1. Helm of the Faceless (4041p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (General Vezax)

2. Helm of Vital Protection (3703p) L80 Epic
Source: ??

3. Thane's Tainted Greathelm (3553p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

4. Platehelm of the Great Wyrm (3509p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

5. Ulduar 10 Warrior Tank Set Helm (3327p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 10-man

6. Valorous Dreadnaught Greathelm (3316p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(25)

7. Tempered Titansteel Helm (3288p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

8. Arcane-Shielded Helm (3182p) L80 Rare
Source: The Nexus 5-man (Heroic)

9. Crown of Dath'Remar (3076p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

10. Heroes' Dreadnaught Greathelm (3042p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(10)

11. Ground Tremor Helm (2824p) L80 Rare
Source: Gun'drak 5-man (Heroic)

12. Armored Titanium Goggles (2790p) L72 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted (Engineering Required)

13. Hard Khorium Goggles (2750p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

14. Plate Helm of the Egg-Guardian (2688p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man

15. The Crusader's Resolution (2402p) Rare
Source: Quest

16. Onslaught Greathelm (2307p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

17. Planetary Helm (2238p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

18. Tempered Saronite Helm (2207p) L76 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

19. Greathelm of the Unyielding Bull (2192p) L75 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

20. Greathelm of the Titan Protectorate (2065p) Rare
Source: Quest

21. Helmet of the Dedicated (1908p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

22. Spiked Titansteel Helm (1884p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

23. Brann's Lost Mining Helmet (1546p) L77 Rare
Source: Halls of Stone 5-man

Leggings
If you're newly dinged level 80, try to get your Argent Crusade to honored (after Wyrmrest Accord though), since it will allow you to buy Special Issue Legplates. After that there are several upgrades available at many places. If you're waiting to get started with raiding, farm The Violet Hold heroic and hope Bolstered Legplates drops from the last boss.

Before WOTLK: All BT/Hyjal/SWP/Patch 2.4 Badge-leggings will last you to Naxxramas. Otherwise, get the Daunting Legplates crafted by a BS when you hit level 80. T6 leggings took quite a hard beating with the nerf-bat when they changed T6 to include more Strength.

1. Saronite Plated Legguards (4271p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (Kologarn)

2. Legplates of Sovereignty (4125p) L80 Epic
Source: Malygos 25-man

3. Wyrmguard Legplates (4120p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Conquest)

4. Ulduar 10 Warrior Tank Set Legs (3935p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 10-man

5. Valorous Dreadnaught Legguards (3923p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(25)

6. Dragon Brood Legguards (3704p) L80 Epic
Source: Obsidian Sanctum 25-man

7. Greaves of Turbulence (3605p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

8. Heroes' Dreadnaught Legguards (3542p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(10)

9. Legplates of Inescapable Death (3315p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

10. Bolstered Legplates (3121p) L80 Epic
Source: The Violet Hold 5-man (Heroic)

11. Legplates of the Infinite Drakonid (3052p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man (Heroic)

12. Felstrength Legplates (3014p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

13. Ley-Guardian's Legguards (2977p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man (Heroic)

14. Special Issue Legplates (2736p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Argent Crusade - Honored)

15. Daunting Legplates (2703p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

16. Iron Colossus Legplates (2477p) Rare
Source: Quest

17. Onslaught Legguards (2409p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

18. Tempered Saronite Legplates (2188p) L74 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

19. Leggings of Forceful Purification (2110p) Rare
Source: Quest

20. Ancient Royal Legguards (2108p) L80 Rare
Source: Utgarde Pinnacle 5-man

21. Legplates of the Oculus Guardian (2051p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man (Heroic)

22. Legplates of Dominion (1906p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

23. Muradin's Lost Greaves (1739p) L74 Rare
Source: Drak'Tharon Keep 5-man

Leg Enchants
I haven't seen any WOTLK leg armor kits yet, but I assume there'll be some.

Necklaces
Chained Military Gorget is available for only 25 Emblem of Heroism and is a good buy in my opinion. Otherwise there are a lot of alternatives available.

1. Boundless Ambition (1610p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

2. Necklace of the Unerring Mettle (1523p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (Kologarn)

3. Heritage (1511p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

4. Drakescale Collar (1484p) L80 Epic
Source: Quest

5. Amulet of Autopsy (1444p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

6. Chained Military Gorget (1375p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Heroism)

7. Medallion of the Disgraced (1228p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

8. Shadowseeker's Pendant (1215p) L80 Rare
Source: Ahn'kahet 5-man (Heroic)

9. Pendant of the Nathrezim (1164p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man (Heroic)

10. Titanium Earthguard Chain (1100p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

11. Amulet of Deflected Blows (1084p) L80 Rare
Source: Utgarde Pinnacle 5-man

12. Collar of the Pit Lord (993p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

13. Torta's Oversized Choker (986p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

14. Cast Steel Choker (982p) Rare
Source: Quest

15. Betrayer's Choker (928p) Rare
Source: Quest

16. Woven Steel Necklace (827p) Rare
Source: Quest

17. Tiled-Stone Pendant (807p) Rare
Source: Quest

18. Choker of the Betrayer (679p) Rare
Source: Quest

19. Chain of the Tolling Bell (514p) Rare
Source: Quest

Ranged
The best tanking ranged weapon available at the moment is BOE and craftable by all high level engineers. It's rathe expensive, but you can be pretty confident that you won't replace it for a long time, considering how rare tanking ranged weapons are.

1. Veranus' Bane (1114p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (Flame Leviathan)

2. Armor Plated Combat Shotgun (938p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

3. Amanitar Skullbow (755p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

4. Drakkari Hunting Bow (706p) L76 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man

5. Envoy of Mortality (692p) L80 Epic
Source: ??

6. Stolen Vrykul Harpoon (686p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Frenzyheart Tribe - Revered)

7. Titanium Compound Bow (661p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

8. Dorian's Prybar (617p) Rare
Source: Quest

9. Projectile Activator (574p) L80 Rare
Source: Halls of Lightning 5-man

10. Sin'dorei Recurve Bow (558p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Horde Expedition - Revered)

11. Sawed-off Hand Cannon (558p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Alliance Vanguard - Revered)

12. Deadly Razordarts (489p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

13. Deadly Saronite Dirk (348p) L76 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

Shields
The best shield known at the moment drops from the 25-man version of Naxxramas. The one available for badges is also very good, and it should be rather easily obtainable given enough time. Titansteel Shield Wall is almost as good and can be crafted by any blacksmith due to the recipe being available from trainers...

In TBC, the jump from a blue shield to an epic shield was the largest upgrade you could ever get - in WOTLK it seems like the gab has been closed slightly.

1. Wall of Terror (6468p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

2. Hero's Surrender (6446p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

3. Barricade of Eternity (6338p) L80 Epic
Source: Eye of Eternity 10-man

4. Crygil's Discarded Plate Panel (6016p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Heroism)

5. Titansteel Shield Wall (5942p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

6. The Skull of Ruin (5892p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

7. Royal Crest of Lordaeron (5808p) L80 Epic
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man (Heroic)

8. Deadly Gladiator's Shield Wall (5570p) L80 Epic
Source: PVP

9. Bulwark of the Noble Protector (5536p) L80 Rare
Source: The Nexus 5-man (Heroic)

10. Hateful Gladiator's Shield Wall (5344p) L80 Epic
Source: PVP

11. Leeka's Shield (5215p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man

12. Savage Gladiator's Shield Wall (5065p) L80 Rare
Source: PVP

13. Saronite Bulwark (4958p) L77 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

14. Sword Breaker's Bulwark (4934p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

15. Riot Shield (4842p) L75 Rare
Source: The Violet Hold 5-man

16. Bulwark of the Warchief (4631p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Horde Expedition - Revered)

17. Saronite Defender (4394p) L73 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

18. Blade-Binding Bulwark (4382p) L76 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

19. Bulwark of the Tormented God (4229p) Rare
Source: Quest

20. Shield of the Lion-hearted (4144p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Alliance Vanguard - Revered)

21. Iron Coffin Lid (4018p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

22. Bloody Bulwark (3501p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

Trinkets
The various crafted BOP ones are the best, but the 111-stamina trinket that drops in Azjol-Nerub heroic is also worth getting. Its proc is close to useless for boss tanking though.

1. Indestructible Alchemist's Stone (1205p) L75 Rare
Source: BOP Crafted

2. Essence of the Gossamer (1022p) L80 Rare
Source: Azjol-Nerub 5-man (Heroic)

3. Figurine - Monarch Crab (1022p) L75 Rare
Source: BOP Crafted
Notes: (300 DodgeR)p on use for 10 seconds every 1 minute

4. Figurine - Ruby Hare (1015p) L80 Rare
Source: BOP Crafted

5. Repelling Charge (992p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man
Notes: 2872p on use for 15 seconds every 3 minutes

6. Valor Medal of the First War (979p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Heroism)
Notes: 2773p on use for 20 seconds every 2 minutes

7. Sonic Booster (820p) L80 Rare
Source: BOP Crafted

8. Darkmoon Card: Greatness (817p) L80 Epic
Source: Quest
Notes: (300 STR)p on proc for 15 seconds

9. The General's Heart (681p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (General Vezax)
Notes: (455 DodgeR)p on use for 20 sec every 2 min

10. Commendation of Kael'thas (659p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK
Notes: 1930p on proc for 10 seconds every 30 seconds

11. Lavanthor's Talisman (535p) L80 Rare
Notes: (440 BLV)p on use for 20 seconds every 2 minutes

12. Mark of Norgannon (462p) L80 Epic
Source: Malygos 25-man

Belts
Patch 3.1: No big surprise, the new BOE crafted belt is by far the best in game. It's probably a recipe that drops in Ulduar and will probably require Nether Vortex-like drops to crafted.

One of the best belts available currently drops in a 5-man heroic instance. No reason to not try grabbing it. There's also a good one available for badges, but I'd rather not buy it and hope to get the one from Azjol-Nerub instead. While farming heroic Utgarde Pinnacle for the sword you'll surely get a Skadi's Iron Belt which is very good too and will last until you get an epic one.

1. Dragonslayer's Brace (2969p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (Flame Leviathan)

2. Indestructible Plate Girdle (2944p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted (Ulduar Patch)

3. Shieldwarder Girdle (2886p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Conquest)

4. Ancient Aligned Girdle (2676p) L80 Epic
Source: Ajzol-Nerub 5-man (Heroic)

5. Ablative Chitin Girdle (2622p) L80 Epic
Source: ??

6. Waistguard of Living Iron (2420p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Heroism)

7. Fleshless Girdle (2286p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

8. Waistguard of the Risen Knight (2202p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

9. Waistguard of the Tutor (2196p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

10. Icebane Girdle (2133p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Crafted

11. Skadi's Iron Belt (2125p) L80 Rare
Source: Utgarde Pinnacle 5-man (Heroic)

12. Onslaught Waistguard (2073p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

13. Girdle of Obscuring (1938p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man

14. Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle (1694p) L80 Epic
Source: The Nexus 5-man (Heroic)

15. Tempered Saronite Belt (1641p) L74 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

16. Gutbuster of Aldur'thar (1485p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

17. Spiked Metal Cilice (1409p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man

Weapons
If you pick a weapon where you benefit from weapon specialization (+5 expertise), then you can add around 150-160 points to the number shown below. And that's just for the damage reduction, ignoring the nice threat bonus completely.

Many will surely run Utgarde Pinnacle heroic again and again until Red Sword of Courage drops. Until then there's some alternatives available in blue. Don't be afraid to use a slow tanking weapon as a warrior - my personal experience is that threat isn't a problem at all at the moment, so going for the weapon with best defensive stats is a good plan.

1. Titanguard (1361p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (Flame Leviathan)

2. Last Laugh (1297p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man
Notes: 1.6 speed

3. Stoneguard (1155p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 10-man (Iron Council)

4. Broken Promise (1154p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man
Notes: 2.5 speed

5. Slayer of the Lifeless (1115p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man
Notes: 1.5 speed

6. Red Sword of Courage (1009p) L80 Epic
Source: Utgarde Pinnacle 5-man (Heroic)
Notes: 1.6 speed

7. Cloudstrider's Waraxe (956p) L80 Rare
Source: The Oculus 5-man (Heroic)
Notes: 1.9 speed

8. Infantry Assault Blade (956p) L80 Rare
Source: Utgarde Keep 5-man (Heroic)
Notes: 2.6 speed

9. Eternally Folded Blade (892p) L80 Rare
Source: Halls of Lightning
Notes: 1.6 speed

10. Split Greathammer (876p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man
Notes: 1.6 speed

11. Hammer of Quiet Mourning (842p) Rare
Source: Quest
Notes: 1.6 speed

12. Blade of the Empty Void (822p) Uncommon
Source: Quest
Notes: 1.6 speed

13. Cresent of Brooding Fury (816p) Rare
Source: Quest
Notes: 2.6 speed

14. Avool's Sword of Jin (745p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Drop
Notes: 1.5 speed

15. Warsong Punisher (717p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Horde Expedition - Revered)
Notes: 1.6 speed

16. Hammer of the Alliance Vanguard (717p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (Alliance Vanguard - Revered)
Notes: 1.6 speed

17. Quickblade of Cold Return (709p) Rare
Source: Quest
Notes: 1.6 speed

18. Corroded Saronite Woundbringer (622p) L78 Rare
Source: BOP Crafted
Notes: 1.8 speed

19. Meathook's Slicer (609p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man
Notes: 1.6 speed

20. Dragonscale-Encrusted Longblade (586p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK
Notes: 1.5 speed

21. Lydia's Sharpened Swordbreaker (557p) L74 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

Weapon Enchants
We've yet to see the "Mongoose" of WOTLK, so it's hard to tell at the moment which enchant you should go for on your weapons.

Exceptional Agility (228p)
+26 Agility

Bracers
1. Mimiron's Inferno Couplings (2328p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 25-man (Flame Leviathan)

2. Bracers of the Unholy Knight (2210p) L80 Epic
Source: ??

3. Bracers of Dalaran's Parapets (1983p) L80 Epic
Source: Badge Reward (Emblem of Valor)

4. Minion Bracers (1936p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

5. Bracers of the Herald (1932p) L80 Epic
Source: Ahn'kahet 5-man (Heroic)

6. Bindings of the Hapless Prey (1907p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

7. Onslaught Wristguards (1686p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

8. Bindings of Dark Will (1671p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man (Heroic)

9. Svala's Bloodied Shackles (1594p) L80 Rare
Source: Utgarde Pinnacle 5-man

10. Cast Iron Shackles (1380p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE

11. Bracers of Reverence (1362p) Rare
Source: Quest

12. Tempered Saronite Bracers (1341p) L77 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

Bracer Enchants
Stamina all the way.

Major Stamina (160p)
+16 Stamina

Greater Stats (119p)
+6 All Stats

Expertise (61p)
+15 Expertise Rating

Shoulders
There's nice blue shoulders dropping in many heroics, so getting something for this slot should be quite easy. Your only chance to get epic shoulders outside of raiding is Wapach's Spaulders of Solidarity, but using thousands of gold on those seem kinda silly to me.

1. Ulduar 10 Warrior Tank Set Shoulders (3004p) L80 Epic
Source: Ulduar 10-man

2. Valorous Dreadnaught Pauldrons (2995p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(25)

3. Pauldrons of Unnatural Death (2940p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 25-man

4. Burdened Shoulderplates (2791p) L80 Epic
Source: ??

5. Heroes' Dreadnaught Pauldrons (2746p) L80 Epic
Source: T7(10)

6. Abomination Shoulderblades (2647p) L80 Epic
Source: Naxxramas 10-man

7. Wapach's Spaulders of Solidarity (2507p) L80 Epic
Source: BOE Drop

8. Iron Dwarf Smith Pauldrons (2347p) L80 Rare
Source: Halls of Lightning 5-man (Heroic)

9. Pauldrons of the Colossus (2305p) L80 Rare
Source: ?? 5-man (Heroic)

10. Pauldrons of Perseverance (2260p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

11. Crusader's Square Pauldrons (2225p) L80 Rare
Source: Old Stratholme 5-man

12. Tempered Saronite Shoulders (2185p) L76 Rare
Source: BOE Crafted

13. Glimmershell Shoulder Protectors (2066p) L78 Rare
Source: Faction Reward (??)

14. Pauldrons of Reconnaissance (1996p) Rare
Source: Quest

15. Onslaught Shoulderguards (1962p) L70 Epic
Source: Pre-WOTLK

16. Tundra Pauldrons (1817p) Rare
Source: Quest

17. Pauldrons of the Lightning Revenant (1768p) L80 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

18. Ebon Pauldrons (1732p) Uncommon
Source: Quest

19. Bone-Polished Iceplate Shoulders (1606p) Rare
Source: Quest

20. Strengthened Stockade Pauldrons (1604p)
Source: BOA

21. Chiseled Stalagmite Pauldrons (1301p) L71 Rare
Source: The Nexus 5-man

22. Blood-Tempered Spaulders (1274p) L71 Rare
Source: BOE Drop

Поделиться22009-03-20 14:53:14

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взято с - http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/404 … guide.html

Protection Warrior Wrath of the Lich King guide

Contents:

x1 Version
x2 Introduction
x3 How The Warriors Have Changed
x4 Talents
x5 Protection Tree
x6 Fury Tree
x7 Arms Tree
x9 Talents Discussion
z1 Threat
z2 Avoidance
z3 Gear, Gems And Glyphs
z4 FAQ

x1 Version:

06/11/08 version 1.2. Added FAQ section at end.
23/10/08 version 1.2. Changed wording on a number of topics.
13/10/08 version 1.1.
12/10/08 version 1.0.

x2 Introduction:

First of all, this is not meant to be a comprehensive guide. I’ll use the results of other people’s research (hopefully I won’t forget credits where their due) in explaining some of the things I want to cover. This guide is written from a lvl 80 starting raids point of view. Currently this is up-to-date but things may change as Wrath is patched. However, some errors may have been made. If so, please point them out.

x3 How The Warriors Have Changed:

A lot of people, including myself, feel that Blizzard has changed the Warrior Protection spec so much that it’s unrecognisable from the TBC variety. They removed or changed a lot of the things we thought of as defining our class, but to compensate Blizzard has decided to provide Prot more viability in raids by improving their dps. In the end, Prot has changed a lot, but I think all for the better. Our abilities now work much more like those of Paladins and Druids, with some very strong AoE tank abilities and tps that scales much better with gear.

x4 Talents:

I’ll go through all the talents in the Protection tree and discuss them all according to my opinion in order of appearance in the tree. I’ll then go through the Fury and Arms talents that have any bearing on tanking as well.

x5 Protection Tree:

Improved Bloodrage: Pointless, don’t take it. With the Warbringer talent (discussed later on) and the original Bloodrage you will find it hard to be rage-starved in the first few seconds of any fight.
Shield Specialization: A very strong talent that, now that Shield Block is on a 60s cd (40s with a later talent) and block value goes higher than ever before, is pretty much mandatory. The extra rage element is also nice.
Improved Thunder Clap: A mandatory talent. It provides survivability from the mobs lower attack speed while also providing 30% more dmg to one of only two of our AoE tanking abilities.

Incite: As part of improving our dps and tps there are a number of talents having to do with +crit. This is the first of them, and a good one at that. The 15% higher crit rate on Heroic Strike and Thunder Clap offer very good value on both single target and AoE tanking.
Anticipation: A no-brainer, especially now that avoidance suffers from diminishing returns (more on that later) the extra 5% dodge is excellent.

Last Stand: One of the primary panic buttons and a must-have for raiding, LS has been slightly buffed to a lower 5 min cd.
Improved Revenge: A debated talent, but I believe a very good one. Revenge is less used in the WotLK tanking rotation compared to the TBC one because Shield Block cannot be spammed, but it does more threat and more damage than before making it an overall buffed ability. Increasing its damage by another 20% is an excellent way to spend two talent points. IR will give a bigger overall tps increase than most other threat talents.
Shield Mastery: With Shield Slam becoming the main ability in the tanking rotation and it’s damage being dependant on Block Value, this is an immensely important threat talent. As an avoidance talent it is also invaluable due to its 20 sec reduction on cd, which in itself also buffs dps. By having SB up the SS will hit for more (more on that in the Rotation segment).
Toughness: In itself a talent an MT can’t do without, simply because of the damage reduction the extra armour provides. On top of that, this talent combines with Armoured to the Teeth in the Arms tree, making that better too. The reduction in the duration of movement slowing effects is more or less a PvP bit, but still has its uses in PvE.

Improved Spell Reflection: A 100% PvP talent. Perhaps there is one fight in an instance somewhere that this might be handy, if you wanted to avoid a party member taking damage from a random spell attack, but overall it is a massive waste of points for PvE. 4% reduction in the chance to be hit by spells is alright, but far from worth it.
Improved Disarm: There’s been a small number of bosses reported in WotLK instances that you can disarm, but as a general rule of thumb it’s impossible, which makes this talent pretty useless. Unless there’s an instance boss like Brutallus where raid dps has to be higher than you can do and the boss can be disarmed, it’s pointless.
Puncture: Pre-WotLK this was a very good talent for raiding, but that’s changed completely. In WotLK devastate has a much smaller role to play in a tanking rotation (again, more on that later) and the 3 talent points it costs to max this out will provide a very small boost to your rage. Unfortunately, this talent is not worth it anymore.

Improved Disciplines: Strangely enough this is a PvP talent, since for PvE raiding it’s pretty useless. The minute off your Shield Wall might sound nice, but remember that the whole point of Shield Wall is to be your panic button. The only time this talent is used is if you use SW twice or three times in one long fight, but that means using it at the start and middle where it shouldn’t be needed at all, and the ability will be on cd for when you do actually need it. Quite a pointless talent.
Concussion Blow: Conc Blow has had its threat increased, as shown later by threat lists, and makes for a good stun if you can’t use Shockwave (CC’d targets in range). It’s not an amazing talent, but for the one point it costs it’s not bad. It’s also needed in order to get Vigilance, which is discussed later.
Gag Order: With Shield Slam becoming the most important tanking ability, just the 10% extra SS damage makes this talent worth the 2 talent points it costs. On top of this is the silencing parts, which make this a very good talent indeed. Pulling casters to you has never been easier. You smack it over the head with Heroic Throw and use your 20 yard taunt to get it over to you instead of the nearest healer, done.

One-Handed Weapon Specialization: A must-have in TBC and a must-have in WotLK, no real argument here. Max this out in any build you use.

Improved Defensive Stance: The standard 6% dmg reduction from spells is good for tanking, just like it was before, but no real treat. The actual value of this talent comes from its Enrage effect on every Block, Parry or Dodge. The Enrage increases your dmg by 10% for 12 secs, which doesn’t need an explanation on how good it is, really. Plus, you can trade in your Enrage for an Enraged Regeneration, healing you for 30% of your health over 10 seconds.
Vigilance: This talent is a bit troublesome. In TBC it would be considered amazing, but in WotLK the tables have turned. Threat is no longer the massive issue it used to be. There shouldn’t be any need to take 10% threat off of anyone in the raid, since nobody should come close to a good tank. Unless Blizzard is underestimating the threat made by dps there are only two ways this talent can have any value that I can see. When two Warrior tanks put it on each other during trash, basically making it a free 3% dmg reduction and quick taunt cd’s, or when the OT in a one-tank boss-fight puts Vigilance on the MT, while the MT puts it on the highest dps to even that out a bit. Over-all, I’d say this talent is pointless unless you raid with 2 Prot Warriors, and with 4 tanking classes that’s just not going to be likely, or if dps is closing in on your threat.
Focused Rage: Rage is less of an issue in most situations in WotLK. The Sword and Board talent further on reduces the amount of rage your rotation needs tremendously, and the Glyph of Revenge or Heroic Strike could lower that even further. However, I’d still take this talent in any build. It’s just too powerful and useful not to take.

Vitality: Strength is the new backbone of Warrior tanking and Expertise hasn’t lost any of its überness, making this a mandatory talent. End of.
Safeguard: Again a talent that is almost entirely limited to PvP. Intervene is a nice ability, we all know that, but it’s rarely used in a raiding scenario.

Warbringer: Basically this is Blizzards apology for messing with our class as we knew it in TBC so much, and it’s a very good apology. This ability is massive for pulls as well as the middle of fights. Being able to quickly move around the battlefield and get rage for it to boot on a low cd is awesome. Hardly ever will you get this much versatility from a single talent point.
Devastate: Even though Devastate is used less in WotLK, it’s still used very frequently. A requirement for any tank, no changes there.
Critical Block: Again an ability that buffs Shield Slam, and as you can predict, again you’ll want to take this talent if only for that reason. On top of that the talent gives a 30% chance to block double the normal amount on any block, which counts towards quite a lot of dmg reduction in the end.

Sword and Board: Pretty much a must-have new talent. A 30% chance to refresh the cd on Shield Slam and make it free to use with a 5 sec window will completely change the way you tank. Where normally Prot Warriors are used to hit the same buttons in the same order during any fight, we now have to actually keep an eye on the SaB procs and weave them into our rotation whenever we see it go off. This changes tanking from a set rotation where you know what to press at any time, into a reactive rotation where you have to pay attention and change your ability order whenever it goes off.
Damage Shield: Any attack done to you that you don’t dodge or parry will cause the mob to take 20% of your Block Value as dmg. With Block Values higher than ever before, this is a significant amount of dmg and threat. This works on the mob your targeting but also on any mob hitting you from the sides, effectively making it a great AoE tank ability.

Shockwave: The new tree-defining talent for Protection, taking the place of Shield Slam and Devastate as respective end-of-tree talents. It’s a debated talent, however. Shockwave only produces threat based on the dmg it causes and the stun component is a mixed blessing. Most tanks don’t like stuns on their mobs, especially not in the start of fights, as it prevents us from gaining rage from being hit. On the other hand, you don’t háve to use it in the start of a fight and it does give you a lot of CC when you need it. Any bad pull can be Shockwaved while you quickly hit all the mobs once or get a Thunder Clap off, or you can stun some trash when you see your going low on health and want to give the healers a breather. Of course, the stun will be largely useless on raid trash and completely useless on bosses. However, the dmg alone provides more threat than Devastate, TC or Heroic Strike, and is on par to Concussion Blow threat. Over-all this is a strong talent for raiding tanks, both for trash AoE tanking and for single target aggro. Just remember that Shockwave breaks any CC it hits.

x6 Fury Tree:

Armoured to the Teeth: With the increased reliance of Prot tanking on Attack Power this is a very strong talent for us. For a Naxx-geared tank it is quite a bit better than Cruelty point for point. And as you get better gear, the talent becomes stronger.
Cruelty: As said above, it’s less strong than AttT but still a strong talent. Cruelty provides less for a Warrior tank than any of the Prot +crit talents, though, and when you need a talent point out of a threat spot to put into an avoidance spot, this is your first choice for cutting down.

Improved Demoralizing Shout: Now that Warlocks have an ability that does the same thing as Demo Shout, and they don’t stack, Imp DS has become less important. As such it’s not needed for a tank to spec into. If anything, there will always be a dps Warrior or Warlock in your raid that has it instead.

x7 Arms Tree:

Improved Heroic Strike: A reasonable talent, really. Rage starvation occurs less in WotLK than it did previously, and the Glyph of Revenge could be used instead of this talent, but it’s still not bad. Mostly this talent is taken in order to reach Impale, though.
Deflection: A must-have talent since the dawn of time and nothing has changed. Always max this out.

Improved Charge: Combined with Warbringer this gives a nice threat boost during or at the start of fights and as such isn’t bad, but most of all tanks pick this talent just to get to Impale.

Anger Management: 1 free rage every 3 seconds is a nice bonus for a single talent point, but not good enough to warrant skipping other talents. With so many good talents to put points in instead, a mediocre talent like this just doesn’t cut it.
Impale: With all the +crit talents in the Prot tree speccing to Impale has become a very serious option for tanks. Point for point this provides a bigger tps boost than AttT or Cruelty.

x8 Talent Discussion:

For starters, this is my own build: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warrior … 0000000000

I’ve skipped Vigilance because I just don’t believe it’s much added value to my tanking, tps or dps. If at some point during high-end raids we find some dps are still threat capped, I will respec for it after all. I’d take two points out of Cruelty in order to get Conc Blow and Vigilance. I’ve skipped Conc Blow itself because I hope 1% extra crit on Cruelty is going to do more for me combined with Impale than the occasional stun and extra threat.

I’ve taken Impale because I believe it to be better than the alternative Cruelty / Prot build. Basically, there are going to be two standard tank builds using these talents: either 12 / 7 / 52 (which could be 12 / 5 / 54 if Vigilance turns out to be needed) or 5 / 8 / 58. Time will tell which of these is better for certain, but I’m counting on Impale. Note, however, that the second build will likely include 3/3 Puncture but not 3/3 Imp HS, and I’m not sure that’s a good deal. While fighting bosses you will certainly use HS a lot more than Devastate, and even during trash there are so many other buttons to press that Dev is unlikely to be used more than HS. Therefore, if you wanted to spec for Cruelty, I suggest an 8 / 8 / 55 build instead.

The Cruelty versus Impale debate has been done in more detail on Tankspot (Impale vs. Cruelty comparison) and their result is that the magical crit number where speccing Impale is better than Cruelty is 25% crit. Below 25% Cruelty gives better results, while above 25% Impale is better. Now, tanking gear hardly ever gives any crit, but combining all the crit talents in the Prot tree with raid buffs will easily put a Prot tank above the 25% crit needed on the abilities we use, and hence my choice of an Impale build.

x9 Threat:

In WotLK Blizzard has increased the threat done by all tanks immensely. They say they want raids and fights to be more about the skill of the dps then about being threat-capped. So does this mean that it’s suddenly going to be hard to distinguish between good and bad tanks? No, it doesn’t. Though it is true that tanking has certainly become easier in WotLK because of the fact that we don’t need to watch threat as closely as before, this was never what truly made a good tank anyways. Tanks need to have the best knowledge of all fights they do, they need to constantly be aware of everything going on around them, they need to always be prepared to pick things up when something goes wrong, they need to have intricate knowledge of how other classes work with them, etcetera. A really good tank will still be easily identified. There will just be many more tanks able to tank Heroics without much difficulties, and that is a good thing.

Now, in the interest of the tank rotations discussed next, we need some information on the threat values of our abilities. Two people have done a lot of research into this and I will use their findings here. First of all, Satrina on Tankspot (WoW 3.0 Threat Values) has researched every ability on its own to discover what the formula’s behind every ability were:

Battle Shout _______________________ 78 (split)
Cleave _____________________________ damage + 225 (split)
Commanding Shout ___________________ 80 (split)
Concussion Blow ____________________ damage only
Damage Shield ______________________ damage only
Demoralising Shout _________________ 63 (split)
Devastate __________________________ damage + 5% of AP
Dodge/Parry/Block___________________ 1 (in defensive stance with Improved Defensive Stance only)
Heroic Strike ______________________ damage + 259
Heroic Throw _______________________ 1.50 x damage
Rage Gain __________________________ 5 (stance modifier is not applied)
Rend _______________________________ damage only
Revenge ____________________________ damage + 121
Shield Bash ________________________ 36
Shield Slam ________________________ damage + 770
Shockwave __________________________ damage only
Slam _______________________________ damage + 140
Spell Reflect ______________________ damage only (only for spells aimed at you, not your party members with Imp Spell Reflect)
Sunder Armour ______________________ 345 + 5%AP
Thunder Clap _______________________ 1.85 x damage
Vigilance __________________________ 10% of target's generated threat (stance modifier is not applied)

This is a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to most of you, but it shows us how each ability generates threat and we can calculate with that.

The next referenced source is Borodin on Elitist Jerks ([Warrior] WotLK talent Preview/Discussion - Page 137 - Elitist Jerks), who made a list of threat values per ability using a standardised Warrior and enemy. These figures are currently true for a lvl 80 Warrior with 2500 AP, 1500 Block Value, a base 15% crit chance and all the Prot crit and +dmg talents. He’s wearing the [Red Sword of Courage] and assumes 5/5 1h-weapons spec and an Enrage effect on the Warrior. The Shield Slam is done without Shield Block on. The mob has 27% dmg reduction after raid debuffs, except for the first four Sunder Armours since they are counted towards those raid debuffs. The list is based on hits plus crit potentials, to average the amount of threat done by an endless amount of hits.

Devastate 1 1042
Devastate 2 1253
Devastate 3 1475
Devastate 4 1711
Devastate 5+ 1961
Sunder Armour 975
Revenge 4522
Shield Slam 7242
Conc. Blow 3385
Shockwave 3164
Auto attack 882
Heroic Strike 2599
Thunderclap 2605
Heroic Throw 3417
Damage Shield 542

Borodin made a number of interesting conclusions from this, some if which I’ll list as well:

Heroic Strike threat is close to Devastate plus auto attack threat, only a small gap remains.
Both Concussion Blow and Shockwave exceed Devastate Threat. Note that the threat is applied even if the mob is immune to the stun effects.
Devastate Threat is now relatively too low or Thunderclap's is too high.
Shield Slam threat now looks quite insane even before Glyphs, Meta gems and Shield Block are added in.

Now finally I’m going to divide each of these values by their respective rage cost, to determine which is the best bang for buck when you don’t have unlimited rage at your disposal. The Sword and Board talent isn’t taken into account, nor is the Glyph of Revenge. Focused Rage is maxed out. Auto attack, Heroic Throw and Damage Shield are missing because they cost no rage.

Devastate 1 86.83 without Puncture, 115.78 with
Devastate 2 104.42, 139.22
Devastate 3 122.92, 163.89
Devastate 4 142.58, 190.11
Devastate 5+ 163.42, 217.89
Sunder Armour 81.25 without Puncture, 108.33 with
Revenge 2261
Shield Slam 426
Conc. Blow 282.08
Shockwave 263.67
Heroic Strike 216.58 for the ability cost alone
Thunderclap 200.38

z1 Rotation:

The TBC rotation was simply Shield Slam – Revenge – Devastate, with Heroic Strikes spammed when possible and Thunder Clap and Demo Shout kept up when needed. This counted for AoE as well as single-target tanking. WotLK has changed this quite a bit. The discussed rotations are going to assume you have infinite rage. For rotations with limited rage, such as trash, you’ll want to keep an eye on the before mentioned list of threat per rage ratio of each ability, and adjust the rotations below as needed.

Single-target Tanking:

To start with, you’ll use Shield Slam whenever it’s up. As soon as SaB procs, you use SS. You’ll also want to note that Shield Block, instead of a panic button, is much more important as a way of increasing your SS hits. Because of that you’ll be using SB every time it’s off cd, followed by as many SS’s as you can fit into the SB’s duration. Secondly, you’ll use Revenge every time it’s off cd, except when you can do SS instead. Followed by this you’ll want to make sure you put 5 Devastates on the target for the dps. As soon as the Devastates are on you switch to Conc Blow and Shockwaves in between the SS and Rev cd’s, only doing a Devastate to keep the debuff on the mob or when all else is on cd. Devastate is useful in the sense that they proc SaB, but Rev does the same thing for a lower cost. Obviously you'll be using Heroic Strike as your rage dump whenever you can.

The biggest change to the rotation, therefore, is the changing role of Devastate to supporting ability instead of main ability, and the SaB proc providing a reactive part to your tanking.

As far as pulls go, you’ll want to follow a certain pattern whenever possible. You use Heroic Throw on the mob you want to tank, you back off a bit while it runs towards you and when it is on the spot you want to tank it, you charge in. You pop Shield Block while you’re still on your way to the mob and Shield Slam as soon as you reach him for a large amount of instant threat. Now you start your normal rotation. If all this costs more rage then you have, pop Bloodrage first. If you have Gag Order, this pulls caster mobs as well as melee mobs.

AoE Tanking:

For AoE tanking you’ll use the same rotation as single-target tanking to an extent, but you’ll use Thunder Clap and Shockwave whenever they come off cd before you use SS and Rev. You’ll still tab-target to get to each mob for high threat on each, but TC, Shockwave and not to forget Damage Shield should make sure all the mobs stick to you over all but the highest dps. In between mobs you could use Cleaves, but your rage is better used on single-target abilities in between your AoE abilities followed by target switching.

Various Abilities:

While your AoE tanking you might want to remember Retaliation in the Arms stance as well. It’s not on a shared cd with Shield Wall anymore (nor is Recklessness) and will provide you with 20 quick attacks against all the mobs fighting you. A nice bit of aggro for a few seconds effort.

In both rotations you’ll want to remember Recklessness as well for some fast aggro on a single mob, especially combined with Impale. You could pop it just before a pull to give yourself a nice lead before dps starts. On the same note remember that the Orc’s racial Blood Fury no longer has a healing penalty and provides a decent tps boost for 15 secs.

Lastly, Berserker Rage is now usable in all stances and provides not just the immunity to fear, sap and incapacitate effects, but also extra rage from being hit for 10 seconds. Extra rage for no cost? Something to pop whenever you don’t have enough rage for any of your abilities. Alternatively, and a tactic I’ve been using more and more frequently, you can pop Berserker Rage right before you Charge into a mob. A typical pull will be Bloodrage – Heroic Throw – back away from the mob – Berserker Rage – Charge. This pull-style will give you a very large amount of instant rage for that instant threat, and keep the rage coming in for those 8-9 Berserker Rage seconds, with no drawbacks.

z2 Avoidance:

Before we handle gear I’d like to mention the changes to Avoidance in WotLK. The Dodge from Dodge Rating, Defense and Agility, the Parry from Parry Rating and Defense, and the chance to be missed from Defense all now suffer from diminishing returns. This means that these ratings will become less strong as you get more. Whitetooth at Elitist Jerks (Combat Ratings at level 80 - Elitist Jerks) has put some serious maths into finding out how this works, and his work is incorporated into the RatingBuster addon. For an easy explanation, think of it like this: Let’s say you have 0% Dodge chance to start with. Impossible, I know, but it makes it easy to explain. Now you get 100 Dodge Rating, which magically puts you on 50% Dodge. If you get another 100 Dodge Rating, it won’t be as effective because of the diminishing returns. Instead, this will put you on 75% Dodge. Another 100 Dodge Rating will put you on 87.5% Dodge. These are not the actual rates but it shows the principle so you know what’s going on. The more Dodge Rating you get, the less each point of rating contributes to your actual Dodge chance.

Because of these diminishing returns it’s going to be far harder in WotLK to reach the 102.4% avoidance previously needed to remove crushes from the combat table. Of course, crushes no longer exist so we don’t have to worry about that. These diminishing returns do two things for Blizzard, then. First of all it prevents tanks from being very overgeared towards the end-game, like they were in SWP, and it will remove the need for such things as the Sunwell Radiance debuff just to even things out. Secondly it is another nudge into the direction of higher dps instead of more avoidance. At some point tanks will become so well geared that more avoidance stats simply won’t contribute much at all, and at that point their basically free to enchant or gem for dps / tps instead, thereby fulfilling Blizzard’s goals with our class.

z3 Gear, Gems And Glyphs:

I’m going to be very brief about gear, gems and glyphs for WotLK, since an excellent piece of work has already been done by Demog on Tankspot. For all your gear, gem and soon glyph questions I happily redirect you there:

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/394 … -list.html

z4 FAQ:

Q. You’ve said that talent <X> or <Y> wasn’t any good for raiding, but it’s still good for soloing / 5-manning / PvPing, right?
A. Perhaps, but this guide is written for Warriors that start raiding in WotLK, not with any of the above goals in mind.

Q. Is rage really less of an issue in WotLK?
A. With the high proc rate of SaB, Glyph of Revenge, Glyph of Heroic Strike and 3/3 Imp HS, as well as our much higher dps, rage really is less of an issue now. Unless Blizz seriously nerfed our rage production more than we’re used to now, but I've not seen signs of that.

Q. Why is Puncture suddenly less good?
A. The thing with Puncture is mostly the opportunity cost of it. Obviously the points for Puncture would have to be taken out of another talent, and for one thing there are just too many better talents to spend those points. You’ll use Devastate far less in WotLK then you did in TBC and the rage reduction on Puncture will not provide you with a lot of rage even in the longest of fights. In itself Puncture is still slightly useful, it's just a shame we can't spend more than 71 talent points.

Q. So is Imp Heroic Strike or Puncture better for rage reduction?
A. If you only have 3 points to spend on a rage saving ability, Imp HS is better than Imp Puncture even without the need to take it for Impale. You'll certainly use HS much more than Dev on bosses, and even on trash that's likely to be the case. On trash most if not all cd's will be taken up by other abilities instead of Dev, while HS remains your rage dump throughout.

Q. Does Critical Block give the 15% Shield Slam crit all the time, or just when it procs?
A. The 30% chance to block double the amount has no influence on Shield Slam. It's an effect that doesn’t give you a buff, it just does it on the block alone. The 15% crit on SS is a passive buff, it's always there whether the Block procs that 30% chance or not. The tooltip is rather vague, but Critical Block has two buffs in it, and their separate from each other. One always buffs your SS crit rate by 15%, the other gives you a 30% chance to block double the normal amount.

Q. Do mobs take 10% extra dmg from Imp Disarm even when their immune to the disarm?
A. The tooltip states that the mob only takes the extra damage if it is disarmed. So using it on a disarm immune mob won't do anything, hence why it's a pretty useless talent for real raids.

Q. Shouldn’t we take Imp Spell Reflect for those fights where we do want to reflect a spell back?
A. Remember that you still have your normal spell reflect as you did in TBC. The talent is just there to improve it if you wanted to. The problem is that the improvement is pointless unless there's random party dmg you might want to reflect, and in raids that's probably never going to be the case. Just stick to your normal Spell Reflect as it was in TBC.

Q. Why will we use Rev less in WotLK compared to TBC?
A. This has to do with your gear level. Certainly in the early WotLK raids we won’t have the avoidance needed to have Rev up all the time, and since we can’t spam Shield Block anymore we have no way of forcing it either. Later on, as we progress more and get better gear, Rev will be up more. This won’t actually change anything in your rotation, as even in the very start you’ll always use Rev unless SS is up, and that doesn’t change.

Q. Is it a good idea to spam Devastate to proc SaB?
A. Normally, no. Using other attacks such as Thunder Clap, Shockwave and Concussion Blow instead of Rev will do more over-all threat then spamming Rev and hoping for SaB procs. The only exception to this is when your Shield Block buff is on. Because of the much higher threat a SS will do while Shield Block is up, spamming Rev and Dev during those 10 seconds for SaB procs provides more threat than using other attacks. You should also use trinkets that increase block value during the Shield Block buff, to increase your SS threat even more.

Q. Is Rend good for threat or tanking?
A. The problem with Rend is that it takes weapon dmg as guidance, and tanking weapons will almost always have low max dmg due to their high speed. Some maths has been done on this on Tankspot and it turns out that Rend is not a viable choice compared to Cruelty / AttT / Impale. The only way Rend is good is if you have a slow weapon and since this guide is meant for tanks, not high-dmg dps weapons, I didn't cover it in the guide itself.

Q. Is Deep Wounds good for threat or tanking?
A. With all the +crit talents in our Prot tree, Deep Wounds is an option now. But you have to remember that it has the same drawback as Rend, which I discussed just above. It takes weapon dmg as its base dmg, and as a tank you'll be using fast, low max dmg weapons. As a result the Deep Wounds will just not tick for enough to provide a real boost to your tps, or at least not enough to warrant taking points out of Cruelty or AttT, which is where these points would have to come from. In the new dual-spec feature, however, I’d likely put points into Deep Wounds for a Prot dps spec.

Q. Should I take AttT or Cruelty first?
A. At 80, AttT is far better than Cruelty, even in an impale build. AttT is a massive boost to our tps and dps at 80 armor levels, much bigger than 5/5 Cruelty. Cruelty, even in an impale build, is actually the 'worst' tps talent we've got atm, strange as that is.

Q. What would a Prot dps spec look like?
A. Something like this: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warr...00000000000000

Q. Should I really take Imp Thunder Clap?
A. Yes, if only for the damage reduction to the boss any tank should have this talent. On top of that it makes TC do more dmg and much more threat per rage point.

Q. Is the stun component of Imp Revenge not a waste of the diminishing returns on stun durations on other players?
Of course, but we're talking PvE here where this is not a concern. Even so, the first content patch after WotLK will finally give us the dual-spec feature, which gives you the option of having a pure tank and a pure PvP or dps spec at the same time. For tanking anything above casual raids, I would never skip Imp Rev.

Q. Why should we take Impale or Cruelty if we have no threat issues?
A. It's a double reason, really. Blizzard wants us to spec more into dps for one thing. You can see from the dps-orientated talents in the Prot tree, and from the fact that there simply aren't enough talents worth taking in the Prot tree to take up your entire spec. Of course you could make a build based almost entirely on the Prot tree, but it won't have much added value over the build I've linked in the guide when it comes to tanking. Blizzard made it like this on purpose, to give us the unique chance to finally get some tps / dps talents into our tank spec.

Secondly they've made our threat scale much more with dmg instead of the innate threat baked into abilities. This was done in order to make our threat scale better with gear, but as a side-effect it means that the higher our dps is, the more threat we cause. Of course that was always the case, but so much more now. I say that threat should be less of an issue in WotLK. That doesn't mean you can just skip all the tps talents, though. The whole point is that our dps is increased by these talent choices and thát makes threat much less of an issue. That's why I've said that I've only skipped Vigilance for now, and if any dps in our raids turns out threat capped after all, 2 points are removed from Cruelty for Conc Blow and Vigilance instantly.

Q. So what will our dps be like in WotLK?
A. I estimate that a Prot spec does more dps than a Fury or Arms spec if your Prot gear is a Tier or so above your dps gear. I think I'll use the Dual Spec feature to have a tanking Prot build (the one linked), and a dps Prot build without the avoidance talents (which I haven't covered in the guide because it's limited to tanking atm). Remember that WotLK tanking gear has much more Strength on it then TBC gear.

Q. Why do you spend 5 talent points on 5% physical avoidance, but won’t spend 2 talent points for 4% spell avoidance with Imp Spell Reflect?
A. 4% less chance to be hit by spells is useful sometimes. But of all the bosses we've tanked so far, only a handful actually used spell damage, and almost always in conjunction with melee dmg. In WotLK I'm not expecting more bosses to use spell dmg than we've seen so far. As a result, spell dmg is only a small percentage of the dmg we take as tanks. 4% less hit chance on that really just isn't that much dmg taken off. And the other element of the talent is also nearly entirely useless. It's 2 precious talent points for hardly any improvement at all, really. Improved Defensive Stance is mainly good because of the Enrage effect as well. If it was just the 6% less spell dmg, I would never have taken that either.

Q. But how about using Imp Spell Reflect to reflect spells off the MT when you’re the OT?
A. Popping an Improved Spell Reflect for another tank when their MTing is a fine idea, but it's still subject to the same problem. You'll hardly ever use that. For that one fight out of twenty where it might be useful once or twice, it's seriously not worth the talent points.

Q. But does Imp Spell Reflect give you the threat for the spell you reflect off someone else?
A. No, it doesn’t. Imp SR gives the threat of the reflected spell to whomever it was reflected off.

Q. Why not take Vigilance? The extra threat for 1 talent point is very strong, right?
A. Yes, it is. But it is also not needed. Especially during the first few raids, dps will not be able to come close to the threat of a tank. So if a dps is at 70-80% of your threat, and you put Vigilance on them, what is the point of the extra 7-8% threat? Now that Blizz has, as I said earlier, allowed us to put talent points into dps / tps talents instead of just tanking talents, combined with the massive increase in threat from Defensive Stance and of every single threat ability, threat is far less of an issue. I suggest skipping Vigilance for as long as dps doesn’t catch up with your threat, which shouldn’t happen until the MH / BT level of WotLK raids.

Q. Now that Crushing Blows are removed, does this affect the Critical Hit cap or Defense cap at all?
A. No, it doesn’t. Critical Hits are still as dangerous as they ever were, and you’ll want to reach the Defense cap before you do any serious tanking. At 80 the Defense cap is 540 defense, or 689 Defense Rating.

Q. What Glyphs are you using?
A. Majors: Glyph of Revenge, Glyph of Heroic Strike, Glyph of Blocking. Minors: Glyph of Thunder Clap, Glyph of Battle, Glyph of Charge.

Q. What should I focus on when I’m gearing up? Stamina, avoidance, strength, threat?
A. It's a bit tricky in WotLK. Early on you should, like in TBC, probably focus mostly on Stamina. This will ensure that you can tank the early stuff without too much trouble. Later on you'll start focussing more and more on avoidance and Strength. And at some point you've got so much avoidance that, because of diminishing returns, your avoidance gems or enchants will hardly help at all anymore, and you start gearing more for Stamina and Strength. So it's tricky to say the least, and no doubt others will create massive theorycrafting topics when 80 raiding has started to discuss in more detail what to gear for when.