You'll do him proud!!
Any competant warrior whose played TBC can tell you that out of the three warrior talent trees, a hybrid build between Arms and the Fury tree is the way to go for PvP. It’s generally the 35/23/3 or the 33/28/0 build, both are pretty standard with the PvP warrior. However, when it comes to the Protection tree, most of the warrior population simply brush it off as a PvE tanking tree, and for good reasons as well. In TBC, the Protection tree does its job relatively well as a main tank build, but in terms of PvP it is extremely lackluster. With the majority of the talents being useless or of little use in PvP, a Prot warrior facing off against another player is really nothing more than a minor annoyance, something along the lines of a cockroach, equally hard to kill but doesn’t really do anything to you.
Generally most warriors have by now come to accept that Protection simply has no place in a serious PvP environment, but Blizzard is looking to change that with the coming of Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard’s vision for the expansion is that each class’ talent trees is able to perform in any given environment, with some talent trees edging out to be slightly better suited for certain tasks. In the warrior’s case, the traditional Arms-PvP, Fury-PvEdps, Prot-PvEtank undergone some drastic changes in the Wotlk beta.
Fury is now capable of performing competitively in a PvP environment with the introduction of a core mechanic that has been exclusive to the Arms tree for all of legacy WoW and TBC. Furious Attacks packs the effect of Mortal Strike into the deep Fury tree allowing the effect to have a chance to proc on hit. The effect stacks twice giving a total of 50% healing reduction (same as MS). Titan’s Grip is another brand new mechanic that allows Fury warriors to dual wield two handed weapons (think Diablo II Barbarians). This effectively increases the Fury warrior’s burst damage potential in PvP which they lacked before. Thus Fury warriors who used to be laughed at in any serious PvP environment may now actually be considered.
The changes to the Arms tree is less dramatic and generally consists of improvements made to previous useless mechanics such as bleed effects (Rend?!? What is that??) now scales much better with attack power, and tanking talents added into lower tiers of the tree to help with off-spec tanking. Bladestorm finally gives the Arms warrior a somewhat different version of the Beast Within add on multiple whirlwind hits. Furthering the idea of a wrecking train warrior.
The major changes to Prot is what this post is mainly about. Many talents caught my eyes when I first saw them. Talents like Warbringer and Safeguard just screams PvP. Warbringer is a deep Prot talent that allows Charge to be used in ANY stances AND in combat! That alone is a dream come true to PvP warriors. Then you have Safeguard which in addition to reducing damage takent of your Intervene’s target by 60%, it also removes all movement imparing effects. This combined with the talented Charge makes the Prot warrior possibly one of the most mobile characters in the game. Then you have talents such as Toughness which in addition to its old +10% armor value, it now reduces all movement slowing effects by 50% when fully talented. These three solid talents alone covers up one of the warrior’s biggest weakness, their suceptibility to kiting.
It would also seem that the new Prot warrior specced with PvP in mind will also become more resillient to spell damage. With talents such as Improved Spell Reflection reducing the cooldown of Spell Reflection by half, thats twice as many spells a warrior will now be able to reflect back to those pesky casters. Gag Order along with Heroic Throw gives warriors a ranged silence skill, perfect for when you’re rooted.
Perhaps now with all these new and improved talents in the Prot tree boosting the critical chance and damage (Incite, Gag Order, Critical Block, Sword and Board) to previously “tanking skills” such as Shield Slam and Concussion Blow (its damage now scales with attack power) a shield bearing, sword wielding warrior will finally become more than a minor annoyance on the PvP scene. Warriors may finally be able to Shield Slam the Frost mage’s face in Leonidas style!
- Xei
Hey guys, love the blog!! crazy topic you written, sparked my interest in wars and pvping in wotlk. Be cool if Prot can really do PvP in Wrath, would be so diff then from what is happening now with the prot pvp spec.
nice post. i wonder how many ppl r gonna spec prot but still use a 2h or dw… if that would even be a good idea for great mobility but still BIG DMG.
ill keep in touch every day from 9am-3pm. considering im on at school which sucks.
actually using a shield is a BIG part of prot warrs so many talents for it and abilities in def stance, its best to always have a shield and to always be in def stance
Ye, I even loved to pvp with the old prot-tree too, i think that’s pretty kinky.
It was good against many classes in 1vs1, and specially when played together with sum holy paladin, you were practically immortal as a flag carrier etc. And surprise was always on your side.
But gotta love the new tree, nothing to add there. It simply rocks. Got good chances even against those pesty cloths now…
Is that picture croped in the gladiator? It is great but by the way, build between Arms and the Fury tree is the way to go for PvP is a great word of wisdom;) Great post, i only have one question, where is the Wrath of the Lich King?