Fresh on the heels of my mage adventure, I also remembered that I had a level 18 Tauren warrior on the same server as my Horde mage. Since I also plan to try a protection-specced warrior in Cataclysm, I decided to spec this guy into prot and try to tank a dungeon.
I bought a cheap 1H axe from the AH and also a cheap shield, I allocated my talents (which had been reset by some patch or other), learned some missing spells and spent a long time arranging them on my bar. Then I went out on the plains around the Crossroads and killed some mobs just to get the feel of a warrior tank.
Since tanks get instant queues, I quickly found myself in a dungeon. Alas, it was the worst one possible at this level: Wailing Caverns. Oh how I hate thee cruel dungeon!
Needless to say, our group languished in there for almost an hour before we gave up. My tanking wasn't bad and we only wiped once due to too much mobs being present in a certain room. Unfortunately we were all sick of this stupid dungeon and our resolve failed after getting lost in those convoluted corridors.
Now with regards to warrior tanking, I have mixed feelings. Overall I think I prefer paladin tanking, in spite of the mana issues at this low level. My beef with the warrior is that he depends on rage which is generated in fight only, with the exception of Bloodrage.
I'm not saying I did a bad job. I tried to use my abilities as intelligently as possible and considering that it was my first time ever tanking with a warrior, I think I did very well. I held threat with no problems, even when tanking multiple mobs, provided that the dps didn't hit the wrong monster. Still, the play style seems a bit restrictive when compared to a paladin tank. Oh, one signature ability that I really liked is Shield Block. This ability alone could give a paladin a run for his money.
I'm hoping that patch 4.01 and Cataclysm will make protection warriors more interesting. I will certainly attempt to level a warrior tank in the future, as soon as Worgen become available. Yes, I have decided: my future warrior will be a Worgen. A Worgen in plate. That's badass.
Patch 1.0.5 commentary
12 years ago
8 comments:
Lara over at Root and Branch had an interesting article on Retribution Tanking at Low Level. Considering my own experience of having my Ret Spec Dwarf Pally pressed into tanking service in Ragefire Chasm when the original tank abandoned us, she has a point.
Umm Red, I was talking about a Protection Warrior, not a Retribution Paladin :)
Oh, I know. But you were mentioning that you preferred Prot Pally tanking. Otherwise, there's nothing really to add, since I don't play Warriors. ;-)
You'll want some rage potions:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=5631
Dirt cheap, and hugely useful.
@Red Oh I see. Well, I read that article and it's really good. She has very good points but now it's too late for both my paladins to take advantage of that.
@Anonymous yer right! I'm gonna look into those too.
um, before you knock prot warriors (or any class/spec for that matter) you might want to actually try one higher level than level 18. They're actually the most enjoyable tank in the game at lvl 80. level 18 is not a very good standard to judge any class.
Yeah I'm sure that's true. These were just my knee-jerk impressions after jumping right into an instance with a level 18 warrior that I have never tanked with before.
In fact I want to level a protection warrior from level 1 in Cataclysm. I've got heirlooms and everything for him.
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