Hello fellow warriors,
I have recently started a new warrior alt and am leveling it with a priest alt of mine also. Basically, the priest alt will be just for heals during tough fights and to limit downtime.
My question is this. My main is an enhancement shaman, and I get my dps fix with him. I am really looking to build this warrior as full defense / protection. I currently have specced into fury so far and I am level 26 at this point. I would really really like to level and play as a protection spec starting now and forever.
Can I get some confirmation from you experienced players if I am gimping myself horribly during the early leveling process by doing this? I know that levels 70 to 80 are definitely doable in protection as you get to apply some of the high end protection talents. At level 26 thru 70, can I go protection without hurting my leveling speed? Can I do enough damage to spec this way?
Any hints or tips on how to apply my protection talents during these earlier levels would be greatly appreciated too.
Thanks.
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You shouldn't need to spec prot until later. You wont have much dps from gear as prot, until at least around BC rating gear.
You will better with a fury/arms spec until you have gear to support a prot spec.
Warriors with even mild heals level very quickly, you do not get shield slam until level 40. You get some passably useful talents like incite and imp revenge.
I suggest that until you get shield slam, not bothering with a prot spec.
At level 26, though, a simple easy route is to pick up a 2h and use rend and spam hs, use overpower when you can...
12/5/0 to start. then moving towards 25/5/0 at least when you hit 40 you can use a shield more effectively.
Honestly, warriors are severely gear dependent when it comes to roles we can play. The quests and gear rewards lean towards 2h warriors favor for leveling. But if you have the G to spend, d/w has been proven to be highly effective for speed.
a 0/17/0 starting to work towards a 0/30/0 may be very fun. And when you get to 40, you may just want to stick to d/w...
IF you wanna stick to prot... I suggest taking a 5/8/4 and work towards filling in the rest of prot. Something like 5/8/18 you will love the extra 20% crit on HS (which you will be using ALOT)
You will better with a fury/arms spec until you have gear to support a prot spec.
Warriors with even mild heals level very quickly, you do not get shield slam until level 40. You get some passably useful talents like incite and imp revenge.
I suggest that until you get shield slam, not bothering with a prot spec.
At level 26, though, a simple easy route is to pick up a 2h and use rend and spam hs, use overpower when you can...
12/5/0 to start. then moving towards 25/5/0 at least when you hit 40 you can use a shield more effectively.
Honestly, warriors are severely gear dependent when it comes to roles we can play. The quests and gear rewards lean towards 2h warriors favor for leveling. But if you have the G to spend, d/w has been proven to be highly effective for speed.
a 0/17/0 starting to work towards a 0/30/0 may be very fun. And when you get to 40, you may just want to stick to d/w...
IF you wanna stick to prot... I suggest taking a 5/8/4 and work towards filling in the rest of prot. Something like 5/8/18 you will love the extra 20% crit on HS (which you will be using ALOT)
Scholar
20 posts
Thanks for all the great info you provided. I have a tough decision ahead of me. I really really want to go protection for many reasons. I will decide soon.
Thanks
Thanks
I leveled prot ever since level 10, and haven't had an issue. I just hit 70 last night with 8 days /played... that's also including all the time I spent dilly dallying around leveling engineering.
I found it pretty easy leveling that way, and it wasn't too slow.
Usually I duel-wield while soloing, and then with tanking, I use sword and board.
Edited, Dec 16th 2008 9:07am by xNocturnalSunx
I found it pretty easy leveling that way, and it wasn't too slow.
Usually I duel-wield while soloing, and then with tanking, I use sword and board.
Edited, Dec 16th 2008 9:07am by xNocturnalSunx
Level prot.... why?
Take a hard look at the Protection tree and tell me what possible advantage comes from choosing to spec it before it is neccesary. The tree is almost exclusively geared towards damage mitigation and avoidance. If a rogue can melee his way through leveling in leather armor, why would someone in plate need to nerf his damage output to survive the same situations? You're not leveling against elites. You can handle the damage common trash mobs deal out, particularly with a pocket healer.
You don't need to be Prot to learn how to tank. There are very few tanking abilities that require spec, and the ones that might actually require "practice" don't come until probably level 50 or so, which is about the same time to consider upping your mitigation for instance bosses.
You want to be a tank while you level? Go for it. All you have to do is understand the mechanics of warrior tanking, and equip a sword and board for those situations. You'll do fine tanking, and the rest of the time you can deal damage to a degree that makes leveling faster and more fun
Take a hard look at the Protection tree and tell me what possible advantage comes from choosing to spec it before it is neccesary. The tree is almost exclusively geared towards damage mitigation and avoidance. If a rogue can melee his way through leveling in leather armor, why would someone in plate need to nerf his damage output to survive the same situations? You're not leveling against elites. You can handle the damage common trash mobs deal out, particularly with a pocket healer.
You don't need to be Prot to learn how to tank. There are very few tanking abilities that require spec, and the ones that might actually require "practice" don't come until probably level 50 or so, which is about the same time to consider upping your mitigation for instance bosses.
You want to be a tank while you level? Go for it. All you have to do is understand the mechanics of warrior tanking, and equip a sword and board for those situations. You'll do fine tanking, and the rest of the time you can deal damage to a degree that makes leveling faster and more fun
Quote:
You want to be a tank while you level? Go for it. All you have to do is understand the mechanics of warrior tanking, and equip a sword and board for those situations. You'll do fine tanking, and the rest of the time you can deal damage to a degree that makes leveling faster and more fun
THIS^^
Switch to prot at 60. You won't have any problems tanking as arms or fury.
Scholar
20 posts
Thanks for the input all,
I ended up speccing into protection last night and playing for a couple of hours. I enjoyed myself and am confident that I am going to stay protection. I used revenge ALOT.
The one thing I really really miss is charge. So, I go to battle stance, charge in, then switch to defense stance.
It seems that at level 50 I will be able to use charge in any stance and in or out of combat which is very very exciting.
As for the above poster: I understand that there are not many "theorycrafting" reasons to level protection and I would level faster as Fury/Arms. I am deciding to level a bit slower instead, so that I can create and grow the character I want. It actually comes down to a bit of role playing even though I am not usually a role playing type of person. I am chiseling this warrior from stone and leveling him protection the whole way.
It does not really matter much as the leveling process is so damn simple and fast anymore. I am leveling with the recruit a friend 300% bonus and getting 3 to 5 levels every 3 hours. I have my friend run me through instances that take about 45 minutes and give me 2 or even 4 levels sometimes with quests. So really the leveling, in my case, does not seem to be an issue.
I appreciate your comments though.
Thanks, and happy tanking.
I ended up speccing into protection last night and playing for a couple of hours. I enjoyed myself and am confident that I am going to stay protection. I used revenge ALOT.
The one thing I really really miss is charge. So, I go to battle stance, charge in, then switch to defense stance.
It seems that at level 50 I will be able to use charge in any stance and in or out of combat which is very very exciting.
As for the above poster: I understand that there are not many "theorycrafting" reasons to level protection and I would level faster as Fury/Arms. I am deciding to level a bit slower instead, so that I can create and grow the character I want. It actually comes down to a bit of role playing even though I am not usually a role playing type of person. I am chiseling this warrior from stone and leveling him protection the whole way.
It does not really matter much as the leveling process is so damn simple and fast anymore. I am leveling with the recruit a friend 300% bonus and getting 3 to 5 levels every 3 hours. I have my friend run me through instances that take about 45 minutes and give me 2 or even 4 levels sometimes with quests. So really the leveling, in my case, does not seem to be an issue.
I appreciate your comments though.
Thanks, and happy tanking.
Grollog wrote:
You're not leveling against elites.
You don't need to be Prot to learn how to tank. There are very few tanking abilities that require spec, and the ones that might actually require "practice" don't come until probably level 50 or so, which is about the same time to consider upping your mitigation for instance bosses.
You want to be a tank while you level? Go for it. All you have to do is understand the mechanics of warrior tanking, and equip a sword and board for those situations. You'll do fine tanking, and the rest of the time you can deal damage to a degree that makes leveling faster and more fun
You don't need to be Prot to learn how to tank. There are very few tanking abilities that require spec, and the ones that might actually require "practice" don't come until probably level 50 or so, which is about the same time to consider upping your mitigation for instance bosses.
You want to be a tank while you level? Go for it. All you have to do is understand the mechanics of warrior tanking, and equip a sword and board for those situations. You'll do fine tanking, and the rest of the time you can deal damage to a degree that makes leveling faster and more fun
Well you're aren't leveling against elites if all you're doing is questing. If you're running dungeons as a way to level, then of course you are.
I will agree with the fact that you don't need to be Prot to learn how to tank. You don't even have to be prot to actually tank until your 50s, if not later (as you said).
Now that they've changed the prot mechanics, it's more viable than before to level as prot. Will leveling as arms or fury be faster? Sure. Did I enjoy leveling as prot? Heck yeah. I enjoyed having the ability to gather up some mobs and tank them all at once, and at the same time taking them down fairly quickly. Can't say how many times LS had saved me when pulling multiple mobs. It helped me figure out what my limit was.
Like I said, I do agree with some of your post though. If a person can understand the mechanics of tanking, and actually take the time to learn about it, then sure they can tank fine at lower levels. I don't know about your server though, but on ours, a lot of "lower level" groups actually prefer the tank to be specced as that (stupid I know).
Either way, OP, do what you think you'd enjoy. Just take the time to learn about the class, and you'll do fine.
Quote:
The one thing I really really miss is charge. So, I go to battle stance, charge in, then switch to defense stance.
If you re-spec at level 51, you will be able to not only Charge in defensive stance, but be able to Charge while still in combat as well. And not only that, but you can break movement impairing effects at the same time! Sweet!!
i leveled as DW fury, loved it ofc. There is no need to go prot maybe until maybe 65 as i remember DW tanking HFP( more dpsing whilst holding aggro).
But once I did spec prot it was amazing, if you want to be a prot warrior there is nothing wrong speccing low and getting practice, only problem i can see it; Warior tanking is based a lt around AP now, and tanking gear is very low on STR until you hit WOTLK content so killing will be rather slow. Where as raid buffed my tank now gets over 4k nearing 5k AP
But once I did spec prot it was amazing, if you want to be a prot warrior there is nothing wrong speccing low and getting practice, only problem i can see it; Warior tanking is based a lt around AP now, and tanking gear is very low on STR until you hit WOTLK content so killing will be rather slow. Where as raid buffed my tank now gets over 4k nearing 5k AP
I was in the same boat as you. I wanted to tank on my warrior. It's why I made one. I intended to level prot just as you did. I leveled all the way to 30-35ish, somewhere around there, as prot. Then I finally decided to switch to a dps spec to level. I wish I did sooner. Don't get me wrong I loved tanking but switching to level was the best move I ever made. Eventually at level 60 I switched back to prot. Haven't respecced back to anything else. I'll be leveling to 80 as prot. I do keep a separate tanking and dps sets of gear. I highly recommend a dps build until around 60 or so. You can still easily tank everything up to that point as non-prot anyways.
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