PvE Protection Warrior Tank Stat Priority

tbc classic protection warrior tank stat priority
  1. Defense Cap (490)
  2. Stamina
  3. Hit Rating
  4. Expertise
  5. Block Value
  6. Mitigation

Defense Rating – Warriors require a total of 490 defense skill, which equates to roughly 332 defense rating, combined with our default 350 defense skill we should have at level 70. It is not always necessary to pick up Anticipation in the Protection tree. If you do choose this talent, your required defense rating would drop to roughly 285 to reach “crit immunity” against raid bosses.

Stamina – Stamina should NOT be stacked completely but it should be the main priority in terms of the enchants available to most pieces of gear since higher stamina allows you to potentially survive through more dangerous attacks (For example, enraged attacks)

Hit Rating – Melee attacks provide our threat generation. By prioritizing Hit Rating, we’re able to reduce the chances of our attacks not landing by eliminating the chance for them to “miss” our target.

Expertise – Similar to Hit Rating, Expertise reduces (or eliminates, when capped) the chances our attacks not landing on our targets. The difference is that Expertise affects the chance the target will either dodge or parry our attack. Expertise affects threat generation in this manner. It also affects survivability through the reduction in “parry haste.”

Block Value – Block Value provides Warriors two benefits: Damage Mitigation through damage blocked, and threat generation by increasing the damage we cause with Shield Slam.

Mitigation – Thanks to Deflection and Shield Specialization, Warriors are often ahead of the game in terms of mitigation right off the bat. The goal is to reach a combined total of 102.4% avoidance – Dodge, Parry, Block, and Miss. This total allows the Warrior to eliminate the chance of being the victim of a crushing blow. Warriors have access to Shield Block, which covers them for 75% of this expected total, leaving only 27.4% necessary. With a 5-second cooldown, most bosses will only hit you twice before you’re able to use Shield Block again, effectively leaving you immune to crushing blows consistently. Increasing your default defensive stats is always a good idea, but it will happen naturally by equipping tanking gear.

 

About the Author

Kurathis

Long-time WoW enthusiast who can't say no to a good-old poutine.
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Mourning
Mourning
2 years ago

What is the Hit cap and expertise cap?

smartorc
smartorc
2 years ago

Hi. Thanks for the guide. Can you elaborate on why you think block value comes before, say, hit?

Block value gives 1 * 1/6 * hit% threat per second. Let’s take a standard T4 tank and say he has 5% hit and 11 expertise (2.75). that means his chance to hit the boss is 78.75%

That means that 1 block value results in:

1 * 1/6 * 0.7875 = 0.13 TPS

Now 1% hit equals 1% TPS on average, which means that 1 hit rating yields:

1/18 * (800 * 0.01) = 0.44 TPS

As long as you’re not soft capped on expertise, it actually gives double the yield hit does, since it reduces the boss’ chance to dodge and parry at the same time, and you only need 16 rating per 1% reduction.

1/16 * (800 * 0.02) = 1 TPS per expertise rating.

Please let me know if my calculations are correct.

smartorc
smartorc
Reply to  smartorc
2 years ago

I should elaborate that I used 800 as a baseline for threat produced by a T4 warrior. The same number can be seen in the tank rankings on this website.

Larry
Larry
2 years ago

how can i calculate my total avoidance? ive searched online a little and found some confusing answers. i heard there was some addons that can do it for me. is it worth having an addon? or is it something i can calculate without

Larry
Larry
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

so this reads 59% Avoidance out of 102.4% is that good or do i need more

Larry
Larry
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

this was through the uncrush addon

Larry
Larry
Reply to  Larry
2 years ago

and without shield block active

Larry
Larry
2 years ago

is there a block, dodge and parry cap? and is it worth trying to hit any thing of the sort. what should i be aiming for stat wise for mitigation? i see to aim for 9% hit which ive achieved…everywhere says at least 11k hp unbuffed and ive reached 12.5k with only 4 stamina gems. but i still feel like i just get hit harder than id like to. what can i do to help with this. what information should i be looking at to better understand these stats and how they take play in a boss fight scenario. i will list my character

*layout*
1.Gear
2.Enchant
3.Gems

Head
1. Eternium Greathelm
2. +16 Defense Rating and +17 Dodge Rating
3. +4 Hit Rating and +4 Agility, +8 hit, +12 Stamina

Neck
1. Strength of the Untamed

Shoulder
1. Ragesteel Shoulders
2. +15 Defense Rating and +10 Dodge Rating
3. +8 Hit Rating x2

Back
1.Gilded Thorium Cloak
2. +12 Agility

Chest
1.Breastplate of the Warbringer
2. +150 Health

Wrist
1.Vambraces of Courage
2. +12 Stamina
3. +8 Hit Rating

Hands
1. Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden
2 +2% Threat
3. +5 Dodge Rating and +4 Hit Rating, +8 Hit Rating

Waist
1.Sha’tari Vindicator’s Waistguard

Legs
1. Timewarden’s Leggings
2 +30 Stamina and +10 Agility
3. +4 Hit Rating, +8 Hit Rating, +12 Stamina

Feet
1. Boots of Elusion
2. +12 Stamina

Weapon
1. Fireguard
2. Mongoose

Shield
1.Crest of the Sha’tar
2. +18 Stamina
3. +12 Stamina x2

Rings
1.Band of Impenetrable Defenses
1. Violet Signet at Revered reputation

Trinkets
1. Goblin Rocket Launcher
1. Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600

*Unbuffed*
Armor-14076
Defense-491
Dodge-16.97%
Parry-15.64%
Block-21.35%
Resilience-0
Hit Rating-7.74% (Spicy Talbuk to 9%)
Crit Chance-11.47%
Expertise-6
Strenght-232
Agility-146
Stamina-821

and i use Elixir of Major Defense, Elixir of Major Agility, Scroll of Protection V, Scroll of Strength V, Scroll of Agility V, Spicy Hot Talbuk and Ironshield Potions since we have a warlock and i have healthstones

im currently using your 8/6/47 TPS Talent build with points into thunderclap instead of heroic strike due to me sometimes having to offtank and do dungeons…..
sorry for the long post, im trying my best to become a better warrior for my guild and am reaching out to what i consider to be the warrior pros for help

Larry
Larry
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

i sent an add its larry on discord

Moobu
Moobu
2 years ago

These stat priorities are all sorts of questionable. Stamina is awful to stack in TBC because you just become a mana sponge and cause your healers to go OOM. TBC was a golden age for tanks that knew how to gear/stat because it’s the first time we’re able to really hit total coverage on the avoidance table. It didn’t happen until BT, but you can eventually hit 102.5% additive avoidance.

Moobu
Moobu
Reply to  Moobu
2 years ago

I should correct slightly that Stamina isn’t AWFUL… it’s just like 3rd on the list of what you want to stack. You’re happy to see it, but it’s by no means a focus.

dumborcJKIMALLIANCE
dumborcJKIMALLIANCE
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

Warriors are not crush immune ever once their shield blocks are consumed lol, so saying they are immune to crush because of shield block is a joke idk why the “guides” do it. Our prot warrior was 58% crushed by Gruul using his shield block to over 104% avoidance on cd, so yeah warriors are not immune to crush unless the boss hits slower than 2x per 5 secs which is NO BOSS in game I know big brain is hard

A Real Tank
A Real Tank
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

I mean you can sit here with nerd glasses on all night and talk about probability until you’re blue in the face but as a prot war who had over 65% avoidances standing still and used SB on CD and still got double crushed and wiped on a gruul attempt I can assure you that rng will fuck you if it feels like it. Saying we are crush immune it like saying some one wearing kevlar is bullet immune. This type of shit is exactly why I normally don’t go looking for information online, the goddamn “meta nerd” community honestly think they can math everything out and tell the entire world how to gear and play. Meanwhile all you smart fuckers seem to forget that rng is a cunt and every aspect of the game we play is entirely comprised of RNG. Our beloved prot pally tried to tank mag and no one could figure out why he kept just disappearing. The guy had 17k hp and with abilites active could reach 102 avoidance. Problem is that nothing stops the boss from getting 3 full blocked swings in a row with parry haste in between causing dmg that is near unhealable and killing the tank before healers can react.

The reality of this stam stacking bullshit is that people only care about logs and parses. A tank that takes huge dmg but has the hp pool to soak it can be spam-healed like crazy resulting in massive healing parses and as long as your dps are sweaty enough and the healers are gods and blow thru consumes like candy then the dynamic results in max parses all around and everyone can flex their e-peens and hide their tiny little nerd dicks. Change any one factor in that dynamic though and have fun wiping all night.

I personally prefer to think for myself and build a balanced gear set. As long as you have enough HP to take 1.5 full swings from a boss (about 11k unbuffed in plate atm if gearing correctly) then you can stop stacking stam and stack avoidances instead with threat coming when possible (like that sexy AF lower city ring with 20 expertise rating). The end result is a tank that just plain takes less dmg and requires less healing. That then allows healers to waste less mana and fights can last longer without them going Oom which allows a raid team to compensate for less than sweaty dps. The fastest way to kill a boss should not be what every raid team strives toward, most teams should be focused on the most controlled and sustainable method to allow wiggle room for error. For a tank that means gearing to TAKE less dmg, not to soak more.

*Mic Drop*

M E
M E
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

>Now, the thing to remember is that Block comes AFTER Miss, Dodge, and Parry

What leads you to this conclusion?

M E
M E
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

Thanks! Didn’t know about that.

smartorc
smartorc
Reply to  dumborcJKIMALLIANCE
2 years ago

Crushing blow is a 15% chance on the boss’ attack table. The chance for a druid to be crushed that much over the course of a Mag fight is so astronomically low it may as well be literally impossible, let alone if you have a warrior pressing shield block on cooldown.

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