Blizzard released a new beta patch and with it, I thought it was time to give tanking a short little test drive to see how it feels with the new changes. The Protection talents I went with were: Warbringer, Impending Victory, Disrupting Shout, Shock Wave and Mass Spell Reflect. I went with tried and true Shock Wave since I felt it would it would leaned itself to tanking better with its twenty second cool down and decent damage along with including a stun effect. Eventually, I will give Bladestorm and Dragon Roar (aka Garlic Chili Blast) a spin to see how they each play out in terms of being tanking abilities.
Even though the new continent is “open”, I wanted to try out tanking in a more familiar environment, so I flew over to Blackrock Cavern and proceeded to solo the different mobs and the first boss. Suffice to say, tanking feels very natural and the actual rotation felt pretty smooth. It is apparent to me that I will have to get used to making use of Impending Victory when it is up , which is ever thirty seconds, but that will come easily enough with time. My new favorite addition to the tanking oration is that of Execute! It was really cool to be able to use Execute when a mob had low enough health. It made tanking feel more akin to being an actual Warrior!
A few other aspects I want to mention is that while Shield Barrier is nice, at 60 mana it seems a bit expensive to use. This might be one to lower the mana cost just a wee bit, in order to fine tune it. Time will tell. Another welcomed addition to the rotation is the ability to use is Hamstring. Replacing Piercing Howl with Disrupting Shout obviously alters the fact that I can’t slow down a group mob, but having the ability to Hamstring makes me feel much more comfortable as a Tank. I can see this as making those Warriors who PvP as Prot spec very happy indeed.
Right now I am leaning towards choosing Bloodbath when I hit 90. I imagine having an additional bleed effect will help dps down the mob I am tanking, coupled with a reduced movement effect will lend it self nicely to a smooth tanking experience.
One a side note, there are a few “bug” that I noticed right away with the actual game client. First, the Orgimmar portal in Dalaran is not functioning. Second, if you don’t want to go spat, don’t log out while on a flying mount and then log back in. I did that a few times this morning and let me tell you it was not pretty! Third, the ability to track Wild Battle Pets is now included within the Mini Map feature, but it is not working quite yet ,rather it targets npcs that are within the radius of the player.
All in all, I am pretty pleased with the tanking changes. Even though I just did a very short and simple test drive of sorts, it felt pretty smooth and “warriorish” if I can make use of that term. Obviously, there is still a lot of testing that I need to do as the beta goes forward, especially tanking level appropriate content within a five man group. So make sure to come back to check out my thoughts and impressions of the Mists of Panderia expansion, as well as our beloved Warrior class.
For the Horde!
