Tanking Warrior Guide
For a Warrior Talent Guide for 1 - 70 click here.
Warrior Tank Guide by Cardaxar
Originally posted on the Official WoW Guide Forums on 8-24-2006
This is older but still applicable to Warriors as a class guide.(continued)
Battle Stance required:
# Charge: I find myself hardly using this ability to start a fight with. It has it's worth in instances with low-hp mobs such as Zul'Gurub and Ruins of Ahn Qiraj, to charge as soon as you are done with a pack, but the main reason a tank will be using this is for gaining rage, and considering you will be switching stances back to Defensive, this will only be useful if you have points in Tactical Mastery, your bloodrage is on cooldown, and you are low on rage.
# Mocking Blow: Excellent ability to use if you find yourself in a problem and taunt has been resisted. You can macro it or find one of many mods that will le t you "macro" it. Switch to Battle stance, use Mocking Blow, go back to Defensive, hit stuff, hold aggro. Six seconds of having the mob facing you as opposed to 3 from taunt. It even deals damage, the only downside is that it can be blocked, parried, dodged, etc. and it has a two minute cooldown. Save for emergencies.
# Thunder Clap: An OT's must-remember-to-use ability. This ability will slow the mob's attack speed by 10% for 30 seconds, which helps slightly against spike damage and also saves healer's mana. This skill is not all that frequently used since most warriors enjoy being in Berserker stance and only going on Battle stance for Overpower, so a designated OT has to cover this as well as they can.
Berserker Stance required:
# Berserker Rage: This skill owns. Yes, for tanking too. Not only do you need Berserker rage for several fights in the game such as Onyxia or Nefarian (some of us don't have dwarf priests even if we aren't Horde), but popping it right before engaging a mob and being low on rage or having no rage at all is quite great. This skill will give you extra rage for damage taken, and people often forget about it. Will be even greater once Blizzard fixes Anger Management/Stuck in combat for popping bloodrage.
# Execute: Okay, it's a Battle Stance skill too, but since it's in the fury spellbook, I'll list it here. So you say you're a tank, fine, that's great. So am I. This doesn't mean that if a fight doesn't require a lot of healing and the damage can spike a lot (like Nefarian) you can not use execute to help your raid. After all, you are the one getting hit and getting the most rage out of all your mates, so why not use execute for a while? It's going to depend a lot on the situation, and probably has less use in a 40man than a 20man or blue instance, but the option to use it is there, and if you think you can do it and that it will help, go for it. If you aren't completely sure though, don't do it, after all you may only save one person or two by helping the fight end faster, if any at all. Be careful with this! (personally I don't really use it, but the chance is there, mostly in 20mans).
# Intercept: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Yes and no. Again it is very situational for a tank to use it, considering you can only keep so much rage by switching stances. I have used it every now and then on Majordomo, but the gains aren't that high.You get to him slightly faster.I guess it depends, once again.
Defensive Stance required, or can be used on:
# Battle Shout: Well.. yes, battle shout is powerful even for tanking. It increases your AP and your damage, and hence your threat, but it also produces threat. Good skill once you know you have good aggro established, but don't use it when it's tingly, you'll need the rage to hold aggro.
Threat Generated: Around 50 unmodified.# Demoralizing Shout: An excellent skill for pulls, whether single or multiple targets are being targeted, due to it's range and threat (43 unmodified per shout to each mob affected). If you're in a situation where several mobs are rushing into your group, an initial demoralizing shout will make them all face you, giving extra time for other tanks to obtain their targets and prevent other classes from being hit. Not only that, but the Attack Power reduction can be quite handy as well, offering further mitigation.
Threat Generated: 43 unmodified.# Challenging Shout: Just like mocking blow, it is usually used as a life-saver, although this ability has a bigger function since it'll force every mob in a small radius to face you for six seconds. Although you might find an use for certain fights, scheduling the shout (for Nefarian's phase 1 for example), you can use it just like mocking blow if both taunt and that fail to perform, the difference being that you will most likely not able to use the skill again for that fight since it is on a 10 minute cooldown.
# Bloodrage: Very nice skill, you'll be using this a lot, especially on first pulls.It also works as a threat puller since each Rage you gain through it equals 5 unmodified rage with a huge radius, so excellent for drakes in BWL. The talent is worthless, but Last Stand is a great skill. Rage is what gives you threat anywhere, and you need threat to maintain aggro.. so use it whenever you can.
Threat Generated: 5 per Power Gain (rage point after the first 10).
