Warriors as tanks Protection Warrior s were the first tanking class and are one of the five PvE main tank combinations of class and spec in WoW . The other four are Guardian Druid s , Protection Paladin s , Blood Death Knight s , and Brewmaster Monk s . Protection Warriors are probably the most versatile tanks , they have high damage avoidance and a large array of auxiliary abilities which is balanced by having the lowest hitpoints of any tank class . Warrior tanks usually create a little less aggro initially than paladin and druid tanks . Generating threat and holding aggro . Holding aggro and Rage generation are very tightly linked for a warrior . A tanking Warrior gains Rage mostly from being hit by mob s , and uses this Rage to fuel abilities which in turn will create more threat , helping to hold aggro – and raising the damage ceiling for your DPS before they need to worry about pulling aggro . A fundamental key to understanding Warrior tanking is thus to understand how to efficiently convert Rage into threat . A tanking Warrior ' s group will need to help with this , as ( particularly at the start of a fight ) it is imperative to hold back and let the warrior establish aggro on all mobs in the pull and to generate enough Rage to keep it . Basic Warrior tanking abilities . The tanking Warrior will find themselves using a small number of abilities over and over again to maintain aggro on the mobs their group is fighting . These are not the only abilities used by a tanking Warrior ( certain fights might call for a tank to use almost any ability in the Warrior spell book ) but they are the ones used the vast majority of the time . Sunder Armor and Devastate . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > Sunder Armor was removed from game Sunder Armor can be used at any time and is only on the global cooldown . It can be spammed ( used repeatedly ) , which creates a lot of threat quickly regardless of weapon type or enemy . Since Patch 2 . 3 , a tanking Warrior that has Devastate should use it in practically every situation where previously Sunder Armor would have been used , as it is functionally equivalent to Sunder Armor but also causes damage and thus more threat . Although the Rage cost of these abilities is somewhat high , it can be reduced by talents . The further enhances the effectiveness of Sunder Armor / Devastate by affecting another target . Note that this glyph only duplicates the Sunder Armor effect ( of both skills ) , not the damage caused by Devastate . Using the , the Devastate glyph now only increases Devastate ' s critical strike chance by 5 % . This glyph is considered one of the core tanking glyphs , as with and always having a higher priority then Devastate it is pretty useful to stack up Sunder Armor as fast as possible . Even if the debuff is stacked to the max , this glyph increases the threat generated by Devastate considerably , so it is not wasted on bosses . The effects of the above mentioned buffs do not multiply , so having both glyphs would only apply two stacks of Sunder Armor to the main and one stack to an additional target . Thus the is not considered very important in most situations compared to other available tanking glyphs . Revenge . Of all a Warrior ' s abilities , creates the most threat per Rage . However , it can only be used after a successful dodge , block , or parry ( but as such you can almost guarantee it will be available soon after activating ) and it has a five second cooldown . Even with the extra Rage for the Shield Block , Revenge is a highly efficient threat - generating ability , especially at the beginning of combat , and ideally should always be on cooldown . The grants a free after using Revenge . This helps to create even more threat . Shield Slam . is ( since 3 . 0 ) trainable by all warriors at level 40 . It is an extremely high - threat ability with a substantial damage component , but has a relatively high Rage cost . If Rage is no problem , it should be used whenever it is off its six second cooldown , as of all the Warrior abilities it generates the most threat . Shield Slam ' s damage and threat increases with your block value stat , which allows a warrior to generate excellent threat while gearing very defensively , something not all tanking classes can do . This ability becomes very important when the warrior has , which increases the Warrior ' s block value by 10 % for 10 seconds . This period is larger than the cooldown of Shield Slam , as such will effectively add a permanent 10 % boost in block value , highly valuable to a tanking warrior . Thunder Clap . Although some caution is required when using Thunder Clap , it is a potent tanking ability with a short ( four second ) cooldown and vital for AOE tanking . Unlike most Warrior tanking abilities , it is a multiple - target attack , and as such should not be used around crowd control led mob s , as it will cause damage that will probably break the CC . It affects all targets in range , including the Warrior ' s current target if hostile , and causes a small amount of damage and some bonus threat . It is a crucial ability for holding aggro in any situation where multiple mobs must be kept away from DPS and healers . However , an additional benefit of Thunder Clap is in its damage mitigation effect . When affected by a successful Thunder Clap , a mob will have its attack speed reduced by a certain percentage , which is increased through a talent in the first tier of the Protection tree . Wise tanking Warriors will seek to affect as many of the mobs hitting them as possible with this debuff , as maintaining it throughout an encounter can result in a considerable reduction in damage taken by the tank . This skill can be enhanced via Glyph of Thunder Clap increasing its range and by Glyph of Resonating Power which reduces the rage cost . Shockwave . Along with Thunder Clap , Shockwave is an effective threat generating ability , dealing damage to all targets in front of the caster and combined with a 4 second stun on targets , which improves damage mitigation . Combine with Shield Block to allow an incoming damage pause , allowing healing . Heroic Strike . Heroic Strike is not a global cooldown ability , and as such can be used in conjunction with other tanking abilities . Heroic Strike no longer works off of auto - attacks and is now just an instant attack . It ' s still not a global cooldown ability . However , it is a relatively Rage - expensive ability , as not only does it cause Rage to be consumed when it hits but it also keeps the attack from generating Rage for the Warrior to use . Many Warrior tanks only use Heroic Strike when an encounter is well underway and they have a large pool of excess Rage ( 50 or more ) that they will lose if they do not use it before hitting the 100 Rage cap . This is generally only seen on boss fights and in raid encounters . Cleave . Usually ignored , Cleave hits like a Heroic Strike on pulls that have multiple mobs . Like Heroic Strike , it should only be used to burn extra rage , but can be incredibly useful for keeping threat on three mobs ( four with Glyph of Cleaving ) Shield Bash . Many warriors overlook the fact that Shield Bash causes a fair amount of threat – almost as much as a successful Sunder Armor – and causes a small amount of damage as well . In situations where Revenge is on cooldown or inactive and the Warrior lacks enough Rage for a Sunder Armor or Devastate , then Shield Bash should be used if possible – unless of course if the target is a caster , where it must be reserved for spell interrupts . However , on non - casters it is still a valuable skill for threat generation , well - worth mixing in with your Revenge , Sunders / Devastates , and Heroic Strikes . With the Sword and Board talent this ability should be used every chance that it is up . It should also be noted , that with the talent Gag Order , Shield Bash silences the target for 3 seconds , making it a good tool to pull multiple casters together along with Heroic Throw . Demoralizing Shout . Demoralizing Shout has a massive benefit against raid bosses . It ’ s probably 20 % less damage from a typical boss and literally like 50 % against say Thorim ’ s Unbalancing Strike Shield Block . Shield Block increases the chance to block by 25 % for 10 seconds and is on a 30 second cooldown . Blocks stops 30 % of physical damage . Blocks can be critical which prevent 60 % of the damage from landing . Shield Block can be useful as a cooldown . It can also be used as soon as available to reduce overall damage . With the talent Heavy Repercussions , it doubles the damage from shield slam . The tanking priority system . This section describes the priority system used by tanking warriors as of Patch 3 . 5 . As a tank you have two major responsibilities in your group . The first one is to survive , the second one is to maintain aggro on your target ( s ) to prevent the death of your healer ( s ) and to a lesser ( but not neglectable ) extend of the damage dealers . To the first point you contribute actively by using your defensive cool downs if needed , the second goal is the bread and butter of a tank and is accomplished by using your threat abilities in the correct priority . Single target threat . Unlike , say , Arcane mages and Tankadins , Protection Warriors do not have clear rotation . It is rather priority list . Apart from burst threat , single target threat is easy to maintain for a warrior even against better geared dps . The priority of single threat abilities is as follows : 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . Multi - target threat . Maintaining multi - target threat means a lot of work for a warrior , especially if you ' re running with well - geared DPS . However , you have lots of tools to master even these situations . In regards to the Cataclysm expansion , Blizzard has stated that the way warriors are AOE tanking today is the way they want it to feel for every other tanking class as well . Fortunately , they said they want to reduce AOE - heavy trash pulls a lot too . 1 . 2 . 3 . Switch Targets 4 . [ [ Improved Revenge ] ] 5 . 6 . 7 . Passive Effects General abilities . Aside from the standard abilities there are other spells that you should use on a situational basis . Wielding the complete warrior arsenal is pretty hard to master , but it has the potential to keep every situation under control . 1 . Survival 2 . Threat 3 . Movement 4 . Spell Interrupts / Reflects 5 . Debuffs 6 . Buffs Taunt . [ [ Taunt ] ] is one of the signature skills of a warrior , but should not normally be relied upon as an aggro holding ability . The primary effect of Taunt is to force the target into attacking the warrior for 3 seconds . Prior to patch 2 . 0 . 6 or so , this was all that taunt did , the warrior had to use the three seconds to build enough threat so that the mob would stay on him . Since that patch though , taunt also gives the warrior the same amount of threat as the mob has on its current target . Most warriors choose to save taunt for such special situations and emergencies . There are many situations where taunt is the key to survival for the whole group . Such situations include : In lower level instances , Taunt is an anti - newb talent for Warriors . If you ' ve got an inexperienced Hunter or Mage who just " has " to pull , Taunt means that said player can , and if you ' re standing in front of the group , you can use Taunt to grab the mob as it runs toward whoever pulled it . If said newb pulled multiple mobs , that can still be ok as well . Taunt the first mob , and let it hit you until you get enough rage to Sunder . Then cycle to the second mob , Sunder twice , then back to the first mob , and keep Sunder cycling as necessary . Thunder Clap can also really help there as well , but watch for CC . A word about Multi - Mob Tanking . Paladins maybe the best at multi - mob tanking however , there are methods of warrior tanking that can make multi - mob tanking not only doable , but fun and exciting . One method is commonly referred to as Tab - Target tanking . This is the method of tanking when after the warrior tank gets initial aggro ( via Charge , Taunt , Heroic Throw , etc . . . ) , they then switch targets by tabbing to the next target and performs a high threat ability , i . e . Shield Slam , Revenge , etc . . . This way you keep all the targets aggro ' ed on you and can now effectively tank multiple targets . Thunder Clap when combined with Rend ticking using the Blood and Thunder talent , is the bread and butter multi - mob tanking ability for warriors . Best tanking class . Warriors are best for tanking melee bosses with a lot of attack speed and low damage per hit . This is because it makes healing more smooth , and warriors are effective in avoiding melee hits . Paladins also favor melee hits over spells . They have an even smoother damage intake when facing fast , low damage melee attacks . This is due to their ability to reach the [ [ Block _ cap | block cap ] ] . Death knights are best for tanking spell casting bosses because they have spell damage reduction cooldowns . Malygos for example casts a breath that hits hard , a death knight can pop his cooldowns and avoid all that spell damage . Druids are best at tanking burst damage bosses because they have huge health pools . In classic WoW ( before the [ [ Burning Crusade ] ] expansion ) , warriors were the best - and practically only - choice for tanking raids . Paladins and feral druids were able to tank lesser instances . And , of course , Death knights had not yet been added to the game . Talent spec and gear . A warrior who wants to main tank should spend at least 41 points in protection , up to 56 are not uncommon . See the [ [ Warrior builds ] ] article for a more complete discussion . For a list of equipment , see [ [ WotLK tanking equipment ( warrior ) ] ] . Traditionally ( for example in games like Everquest ) , a tanks performance is determined by his amount of health ( = [ [ stamina ] ] ) and the quality of his [ [ armor ] ] . WoW adds to these two basic stats the avoidance stats like dodge , parry and block . The crucial difference between druid and warrior tanks is that warriors cannot hope to catch up with druids in health and armor ( druids will always be superior in that respect ) , but a warrior ' s true strength lies in the avoidance stats . In general , higher health and armor make a healer ' s job easier - there ' s more tolerance for errors ( or for incoming damage spikes ) with more health , and damage reduction by armor is smooth and constant . Healers usually don ' t like the avoidance stats very much , because they give a spiky and uneven damage distribution . However , the total amounts of damage reduction which a highly avoidance - based tanking class ( such as the warrior or paladin ) can reach with avoidance and armor is closer to the damage that can be soaked by high effective health tanks . In other words , a properly geared warrior can effectively absorb damage just as good as druids , even though a decently geared druid ' s healthpool might suggest otherwise . Healers who want to perform at the peak of their ability just have to adapt to the spiky damage flow . Thus the avoidance stats are an integral part of the warrior class , and an itemization which concentrates on stamina and armor alone will never realize the full potential of a warrior . Spiky damage is more of a challenge for the healers , but that ' s what sets apart a good healer from a bad one - a good healer is able to draw maximum advantage from the mana breaks offered by a series of dodges and parries , and is also able to quickly react to a sudden increase in damage . Stamina . [ [ Stamina ] ] is a secondary stat for a tank . It should be high , but not at the cost of sacrificing avoidance or mitigation . Stamina is very important to a point , that point is being able to survive a round of max damage from a mob . After that , stamina simply acts as buffer for the healers to give them breathing room . Efficiency is better than a buffer in some boss fights . Armor . A high armor class is the best source of damage reduction . It ' s consistent so healers love it . An equal amount of damage reduction through higher armor will always be just a little bit better than an equal amount of damage reduction through avoidance . Unfortunately , Armor has a kind of " diminishing returns " effect built in and a cap ( at 33k armor ) , a point of armor spent near the cap is about 1 / 3 as effective as a point at the beginning of the curve , see the [ [ Armor ] ] article for details . One problem for warriors and paladins is that the available plate gear does not offer very much choice . There are hardly any pieces which have bonus armor , whereas nearly every plate item sports Stamina and some avoidance statistic . Avoidance and Mitigation . [ [ Dodge ] ] , [ [ Parry ] ] and [ [ Block ] ] are the stats which give an advantage to a warrior over a druid . 1 % [ [ Avoidance ( attack table ) | avoidance ] ] is just a little less efficient than 1 % mitigation from armor . Not being hit has normally beneficial effects beyond the pure damage avoided , because some mobs can [ [ proc ] ] nasty effects on hits . Only through avoidance can Warriors realize the full potential of their tanking capability . Note that dodge and parry both avoid 100 % of the damage . Dodge : 39 . 35 Rating = 1 % at level 80 Parry : 49 . 18 Rating = 1 % at level 80 Why is parry a bit more hard to get than dodge ? - When you Parry , your next attack comes a bit faster . What should I favour over the other ? - Well , between an item with 40 Dodge and an item with 40 Parry , favour Parry if you have a slow weapon ( speed > 2 . 5 sec ) . Also remember that [ [ Parry ] ] and [ [ Dodge ] ] are subject to [ [ diminishing returns ] ] while [ [ Block ] ] is not . Block is often lumped in with avoidance but is actually not the same . Avoidance results in a missed attack that does no white ( normal ) damage . Block reduces the amount of damage taken ( sometimes to zero ) but does not avoid the attack . Defense . Was removed in a patch . Block . The effect of [ [ Block ] ] ing comes from two stats - Block " Rating " and Block " Value " . Block Rating increases the chance of a block occurring while Block Value increases the amount of damage that is absorbed by blocking . At face value , a successful Block will negate some 800 - 900 hp from an attack which usually does some 3000 - 5000 damage . It is good mitigation , and over the course of a full boss fight , a warrior can block thousands of damage . Based on the damage reduction alone , block is a nice stat which should be taken when possible . Compared to Dodge and Parry in Cataclysm it may be used to more quickly approach or reach the block cap . It blocks 30 % of incoming damage and 60 % for critical blocks . Shield block adds 25 % to the chance to block for 10 seconds and at some levels of gear , may make the warrior block capped for 10 seconds , meaning that they will at least block 30 % of physical damage . Because of diminishing returns , the block cap seems to be 102 . 4 % . One adds the chance to Dodge , the chance to Parry , and chance to block together to see if they are block capped . Mastery is the main source of block and critical block , and some tanks have been favoring it over Dodge , Parry and even Stamina . Since excess block is converted to critical block , exceeding the block cap , apparently even with avoidance procs , can provide movements of high physical durability for a block tank . 16 . 39 Block Rating = 1 % at level 80 . So it ' s easy to get block , but doesn ' t do much without strength or Block Value . Before patch 3 . 0 Block was important because increasing it to very high levels allowed warriors to avoid Crushing Blows , however mobs now need to be 4 levels above you in order to crush you . Since raid bosses are only 3 levels above you , crushing blows were effectively removed from raid encounters . Expertise . Expertise reduces the chance for a mob to parry or dodge you . This just like Hit Rating is a threat stat , and is good to have up to a certain amount if threat is an issue . 6 . 5 % of expertise is minimum ( soft cap ) , you can also consider taking it up to 10 . 5 % , considering that the mob has 6 . 5 % chance to dodge you , and 14 . 5 % chance to parry you ( parry varies per boss ) . If expertise < 6 . 5 % then expertise can be more important than hit . Hit Rating . 0 % hit rating is generally needed for an endgame warrior tank to stay effective . Suggested hit chance for tanks is 0 % . 8 % hit chance is the melee cap ( 263 ) . Agility and Dodge . Agility was changed to not effect dodge as of patch 4 . 2 Naxxramas 10man tanking . A warrior can probably farm Naxxramas 10 when he has : Gems . The role of gems is to give you the stats you are missing . They can be used to fine tune your stats and change a piece of armor to better serve its role . Its role may be Survival , hit for interrupts , or expertise for threat . Potions and elixirs . Flasks and elixirs don ' t do as much difference as they did pre WotLK , but they can help in some situations . Note that you can only have 1 battle elixir and 1 guardian elixir . Secondary tank . The secondary tank ( also known as the [ [ off tank ] ] ) , in contrast to the [ [ main tank ] ] , is there to do damage . They should also intercept mobs that break away from the primary tank and they care more about [ [ buff ] ] ing the group . Secondary tanks tend to go for armor similar to a primary tank , but forgo a shield in lieu of a two - handed weapon . " This information is outdated . " [ [ Off tank | Off tanks ] ] in Wrath of the Lich King raids - and even in lower - level raids with the changes to all class mechanics since Classic WoW - will want to have a good one - handed weapon and shield . In Wrath of the Lich King , few if any encounters that require an off tank won ' t require that tank to be wearing their best tanking gear . Vault of Archavon as of patch 3 . 3 is a good example of the several different functions of an off tank : DPS tanking . For warriors , trying to hold aggro by dealing damage is generally frowned upon . It has been proven many times that a warrior trying to tank not in defensive stance , using DPS moves and wearing DPS gear is a worse tank than a properly specced and equipped protection warrior . DPS tanks will take substantially more damage and create less aggro . This way of tanking should be a last resort , only used if there ' s no alternative . In many situation a fully equipped protection tank will be too good for the job . If the gear is too good , the warrior will not take enough damage to build rage , and this in turn hampers the ability to create aggro . Endgame protection tanks usually have to wear some DPS gear to make them able to perform in normal mode instances . In such a situation , DPS tanks are of course better suited to the task . WARNING : Do NOT ever try to DPS tank in endgame instances . It just won ' t work . However , even protection tanks should use the extra abilities given by Berserker Stance where necessary . DPS tanks have to Stance Dance a lot . It is a difficult style , but makes it possible to tank for PvP meat cleavers . A pull should always be started in Defensive Stance , this creates good initial aggro , followed by a few Sunder Armors or Revenges . Then , a DPS tank should switch to Battle or Berserker ( depending on how much healing is available ) and start dealing heavy damage . Berserker stance . In [ [ Berserker Stance ] ] , a warrior deals the highest damage , and it allows simple multiple - target tanking by spamming [ [ Whirlwind ] ] . It also makes the warrior immune to fear , even protection warriors need to use berserker stance when encountering mobs with fear . The disadvantage of berserker stance is that the warrior only generates rage from damage dealt , and that damage mitigation is decreased . Still , if specced that way , berserker stance should be preferred over battle stance . Battle stance . [ [ Battle Stance ] ] is good for generating rage , and few situational abilities like [ [ Overpower ] ] . Apart from that it doesn ' t really have any advantages over Defense Stance - since in Defensive Stance the reduced damage generates more threat , it evens out - and Defense gives better abilities . No shield - tanking . Tanking with a 2h weapon or dual wielding is theoretically possible with a very good healer and a group having a very high DPS output as a whole . Groups made entirely of casters in particular may be vulnerable to this tactic . This is however an unrealistic way to tank an endgame instance ( particularly in pre - raid gear ) as the initial bout of damage taken after aggro will be impossible for many healers to heal through . It may also be desirable to tank without a shield on enemies that use elemental melee attacks ( a good example of this is [ [ Hydross the Unstable ] ] in [ [ SSC ] ] ) . Such attacks may not be blocked and therefore using a 2h weapon or dual wielding may provide a bonus given sufficient + hit and proper stats on the weapon ( s ) . However , tanking without a shield is not something a warrior should ever aim to do . Druids tank without " weapons " , merely equipping the weapons for their stats , but their class is designed to work with this . Death Knights cannot equip shields , but their [ [ Frost Presence ] ] is vastly more powerful than a warrior ' s [ [ Defensive Stance ] ] - their class , too , is designed to work with this . Warrior and Paladin tanks are not . In many cases the Warrior or the Paladin will not only receive better stats from the weapons ( even in a battle with zero physical damage , the stamina from the weapon and shield are still better for them than a two - handed weapon ) , but their abilities are " designed " to work with this setup . Using a two - handed weapon for tanking in any situation other than fooling around is very unwise , and will often get you kicked out of the group you ' re in . There is a very low tolerance for tanks who refuse to do their job properly ; their role is usually the most complex and most vital of the three roles ( though healers might argue this ) and a tank who refuses to tank properly from the get - go is usually a very bad , very obvious sign to the rest of the group . Video tutorials . [ [ File : Wrath Warrior tanking 101 Rotation and abilities ( outdated ) | 425px ] ] [ [ File : Wrath Warrior Tanking 101 Spec and Glyphs ( outdated ) | 425px ] ] External links . [ [ Category : Warriors ] ]