Arms/Prot Hybrid

[Daveybutter 0]

So I'm lvling prot to stay on top of my skill and remain comfortable for endgame, but have noticed when questing solo it can be a bit of a pain. I know lvling prot is a slow and arduous process, but I'm interested to know if there are any talent tree variations that would allow for decent dps when questing, but also maintain a fair amount of protection skill for tanking dungeons. Any advice or knowledge of a hybrid skill tree would help! Thanks for checking out my post. - Daveybutter

[Storfan 24]

No. Just no. You really shouldnt put any points in protection when lvling, none, zip, nada. Not as single one.

[Gorstavich 1]

Hi Daveybutter,

I am also leveling a warrior with the same general end-game in mind and have asked others basically the same question.  Most of their answers fall in line with Storfan's.

I finally decided to go with a different philosophy.  One that, while it most certainly will be slapped down by any number crunching min-max'er, at least makes a lot of sense to me and my play style.  My warrior isn't even level 20 yet, so I'm just getting started, but I decided I would spec conservatively while avoiding "shield" specific things for now, figuring I would swap out my shield for duel wielding as needed.  At the moment I went with the typical Deflection 5, Tactical Mastery 2, which is handy both for tanking and for general combat.  Next I'll probably put points into either Cruelty or Anticipating (still debating that one), again, as either would benefit a variety of roles.

I would recommend finding something that makes sense to you.  No, it won't be the "best" build, but as long as it makes sense to you.....

[Daveybutter 0]

Honestly, after playing Arms last night even with most my my talent points in Prot I'm still dishing out decent dps. My warrior is level 21 and so far its working out well. I know that later on the biggest differences will come from where I decide to put my talent points, but I'm just trying to find the balance needed to be able to hold my own when tanking a dungeon, but also lay down some good dps when questing. Familiarizing myself with rage generation and knowing what skills to pass on and which skills to save my rage for has been the most fun honestly. I was surprised at how fast I took down some mobs just by overlooking stuff like heroic strike for cleave. Idk, I'm just hoping to find a happy medium...

[Jeetee 2]

Play the game the way you want to play, spec how you want.  Experiment  and try things, this will make you a much better player in the long run than blindly following guides.

Edited February 15, 2017 by Jeetee

[Daveybutter 0]

Yea haha, that's pretty much where I'm at. 

[Garun 9]

3 hours ago, Daveybutter said:

Honestly, after playing Arms last night even with most my my talent points in Prot I'm still dishing out decent dps. My warrior is level 21 and so far its working out well. I know that later on the biggest differences will come from where I decide to put my talent points, but I'm just trying to find the balance needed to be able to hold my own when tanking a dungeon, but also lay down some good dps when questing. Familiarizing myself with rage generation and knowing what skills to pass on and which skills to save my rage for has been the most fun honestly. I was surprised at how fast I took down some mobs just by overlooking stuff like heroic strike for cleave. Idk, I'm just hoping to find a happy medium...

You can tank any dungeon just fine as any spec. You only need to be prot if you are a set tank in a raid (not counting UBRS as that is pretty much a 10 man dungeon) and even then you can get away with not being prot before BwL if you aren't the MT.

Edited February 15, 2017 by zmandude24

[Seiki 4]

16 hours ago, zmandude24 said:

You can tank any dungeon just fine as any spec. You only need to be prot if you are a set tank in a raid (not counting UBRS as that is pretty much a 10 man dungeon) and even then you can get away with not being prot before BwL if you aren't the MT.

tfw i used to tank gold auction runs on some now-dead server on my warrior as fury because i couldnt be bothered to spend 50g to go from fury to prot even with a few hundred g of consumes active at once

---

really though it works fine if unless youre at a huge gear/level disadvantage

also you get to joke that "flurry gives me more rage/threat and makes it easier to pick up targets" as fury witht ank shit on

when arms you get to joke you get best threat from impale (which is a true assertion itself since you spec it as a main tank in endgame content) and that "sweeping strikes makes aoe tanking easier"

you dont need to optimize yourself for prot unless you really love leveling via dungeons and want to have the easiest time or have a cohesive group of friends you play with

[Daveybutter 0]

So would I even need to be in def stance when tanking a dungeon even though I would be spec'd in arms? Or just equip a 1h and shield and stay in battle stance? I'm not sure how to calculate the 10% dmg reduction with staying in def stance.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Daveybutter

[Garun 9]

6 minutes ago, Daveybutter said:

So would I even need to be in def stance when tanking a dungeon even though I would be spec'd in arms? Or just equip a 1h and shield and stay in battle stance? I'm not sure how to calculate the 10% dmg reduction with staying in def stance.

Stances work the same for all specs as there aren't any talents to improve the other in any of the trees.

• Defensive Stance: 10% reduced damage taken, 10% reduced damage dealt, 130% base threat multiplier (150% with 5/5 defiance)
• Battle Stance: 80% base threat multiplier
• Berserker Stance: 10% increased damage taken, 3% more crit, 80% base threat multiplier

Also don't forget many abilities have stance restrictions.

[gotmilk0112 10]

You don't use def stance for the 10% damage reduction, you use it for the 30% threat increase.

 

You really shouldn't be leveling Prot. Even as Arms or Fury, Warrior still kills shit really fucking slow (unless you get lucky with tons of crits), and if you level prot, you're going to be spending 40-50 seconds killing a single mob.

 

Prot spec is not necessary until 60. And even then, you can tank 5mans just fine as Arms or Fury.

[Daveybutter 0]

Awesome. All this info is good to know! Appreciate it my people!