Its very viable. The prot tree got buffed so much I now consider us a hybrid class. Tank and dps. I did a heroic ramps yesterday, and I was also number one in dps and overall dmg done. (Did bout 850dps, and my tank gear is from kara cept for 1 badge piece, full badge would be alot higher) The pty was a newer 70 group, but the dps I could do was amazing. Also elitist jerks have been runnin some tests, and at lv 80 we have a fair amount of crit also. They came down to if you have 25% crit, get impale, the dps/threat went up. If only about 20% crit, get cruelty.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LAM00bZbLZVItrx0zibIzsGo will be my build come lv 80. Imp charge, cause now it is usable in combat, I use it alot. Imp revenge because Im doing 2k crits with it, and I spam revenge w/e its up because a glyph gives me a free heroic strike right after. Thats free threat and dps there. I dont care about the stun on revenge, its the 20% damage bonus.
Have to go with damage shield also, thats our consecrate. Excellent for aoe control, but they have to be infront of you from what I noticed to proc, but you want them infront of you anyways for shockwave. Im not going for spell dmg reduction, or the taunt reset or better intervene because our tps is amazing now. For pulling I shoot the mob, run back, when its where I want to tank it I charge in, while using bloodrage, thunderclap, shield slam him, then shockwave, soon as shockwave wears I put up shield block. Tons of threat, and very low dmg taken. (stunned for 4 sec from shockwave then shield block is 115% block for 10secs).
Also made a few macros, when I charge i also use bloodrage at same time (not on same cooldown) and the 2nd is /cast revenge /cast heroic strike, because my glyph gives me a free HS when revenge is used as I said earlier.
Imp defensive stance is nice cause of the guaranteed 10% dmg bonus after you dodge block or parry, so its constantly up, and I cant say no to more threat and dps. Also mitigation from spells.
I thought prot warr was great before patch, and I heard with this patch it was great, didnt think it would be this good though! Could do peak 1k tps b4 patch, now 2k easily, and my gf is a lock, she able to dot multiple mobs and seed of corruption anytime she wants without pulling hate now.
And from all the crits we get, seems shield slam crits everytime I use it, and is constantly refreshed from devastate and revenge. Crits are doing 2k dmg (and my SBV is very low), doin another 400+ dmg with it is alot of threat.
But my ramblings done, please feel free to discuss my build, and if you see anything that should be switched out let me know, but Im gonna give it a shot at lv 80.
(Just realized older thread got nercro'd, so doesnt really apply anymore since patch went live)