Tank Hard!

So with 2.3, we’ll have a new fancy 10 man raid to check out and farm for new gear. Here are some of the new options for Warrior Tanks and how they stack up to similar items.

Nalorakk, the bear avatar, drops [item]Jungle Stompers[/item], which are markedly better than [item]Battlescar Boots[/item] from Chess Event in Karazhan, and slightly below [item]Boots of the Resilient[/item] from Tempest Keep and [item]Red Havoc Boots[/item], which are crafted.

Akil’Zon, the Amani Lord of Eagles, drops [item]Pauldrons of Stone Resolve[/item], which again are much better than the Karazhan drop [item]Mantle of Abrahmis[/item], slightly better than Tier4 from High King Maulgar [item]Warbringer Shoulderguards[/item], but probably not as good as Tier5 [item]Destroyer Shoulderguards[/item].

Jan’Alai, Lord of the Dragonhawks drops a new shield option in [item]Bulwark of the Amani Empire[/item], which is better than Gruul’s [item]Aldori Legacy Defender[/item], although you will lose the Hit Rating that I’m a big fan of. [item]Merciless Gladiator’s Shield Wall[/item] is still a great shield option.

Halazzi, the Lynx Lord, is a cheap skate when it comes to pure Warrior Tanks and drops nothing that should interest us. He does however have some nice Plate DPS, [item]Skullshatter Warboots[/item], that your fury brothers will be happy to see.

We’ll go over some very nice drops from the two main bosses tomorrow!

In addition to the previously mentioned changes for the Warrior class, we also have some new gear rewards for Heroic Badges. With Heroic Badges dropping in Karazhan and Zul’Aman, it will provide a great way for sure fire upgrades. Here are some of the items of interest:

Amani Mask of Death - (75 Badges)
Binds when picked up
HeadPlate
1306 Armor
+46 Strength
+51 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Durability 100 / 100
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves hit rating by 33.

Bloodthirster’s Wargreaves - (75 Badges)
Binds when picked up
LegsPlate
1406 Armor
+46 Strength
+43 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Blue Socket
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves hit rating by 38.

Bonefist Gauntlets - (60 Badges)
Binds when picked up
HandsPlate
1005 Armor
+51 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +4 Stamina
Durability 55 / 55
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 30.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 21.

Iron-tusk Girdle - (60 Badges)
Binds when picked up
WaistPlate
904 Armor
+45 Stamina
Blue Socket
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +3 Dodge Rating
Durability 55 / 55
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases defense rating by 21.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 33.

Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx - (35 Badges)
Binds when picked up
WristPlate
703 Armor
+45 Stamina
Durability 55 / 55
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases defense rating by 23.

Eternium Rage-shackles - (35 Badges)
Binds when picked up
WristPlate
703 Armor
+32 Strength
+32 Stamina
Durability 55 / 55
Requires Level 70
Equip: Your attacks ignore 150 of your opponent’s armor.

Chain of Unleashed Rage - (60 Badges)
Binds when picked up
WaistPlate
904 Armor
+34 Strength
+37 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +3 Hit Rating
Durability 55 / 55
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves hit rating by 14.
Equip: Your attacks ignore 154 of your opponent’s armor.

Furious Deathgrips - (60 Badges)
Binds when picked up
HandsPlate
1005 Armor
+34 Strength
+37 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +3 Strength
Durability 55 / 55
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves hit rating by 25.

Pauldrons of Gruesome Fate - (60 Badges)
Binds when picked up
ShoulderPlate
1206 Armor
+42 Strength
+33 Stamina
Durability 100 / 100
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves hit rating by 23.
Equip: Your attacks ignore 154 of your opponent’s armor.

Unwavering Legguards - (75 Badges)
Binds when picked up
LegsPlate
1406 Armor
+73 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases defense rating by 22.
Equip: Increases your shield block rating by 30.
Equip: Increases the block value of your shield by 59.

Slikk’s Cloak of Placation - (35 Badges)
Binds when picked up
Back
346 Armor
+37 Stamina
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases defense rating by 16.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 25.

Brooch of Deftness - (35 Badges)
Binds when picked up
Neck
+48 Stamina
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves hit rating by 22.

Patch 2.3 is now up on the PTR and the patch notes are now available. Here is the upcoming list of changes for Warriors in 2.3:

Warrior

• Charge will work more often when targets are up against unpathable areas like walls and poles.
• Defiance (Protection) now also grants 2/4/6 weapon expertise.
• Devastate (Protection) now combines the effects of Sunder Armor into its effect. It is also now affected by all talents and items that affect Sunder Armor.
• Disarm is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP.
• Improved Berserker Stance (Fury) now also reduces all threat caused while in Berserker Stance by 2/4/6/8/10%
• Improved Intercept and Weapon Mastery have swapped locations in the talent trees.
• Intervene will no longer place you in combat.
• Hamstring now has a 10 second duration when used on PvP targets.
• Mace Specialization (Arms) now has a reduced chance to occur but generates 7 rage instead of 6.
• Pummel: Interrupting a channeled spell with this ability will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 4 sec.
• Shield Bash: Interrupting a channeled spell with this ability will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 6 sec.
• Shield Slam (Protection) now always tries to dispel one Magic effect on the target.
• Sweeping Strikes and Deathwish have swapped locations in the talent trees.
• Sweeping Strikes (Fury) now lasts 10 seconds and affects your next 10 swings.
• Tactical Mastery: This talent also now grants greatly increased threat from Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst when in Defensive Stance.
• Weapon Mastery (Arms) now reduces duration of Disarm effects against you by 25/50% rather than giving you a 50% chance to avoid or full immunity to Disarm effects.
• Whirlwind: This ability now strikes with both weapons when a Warrior is dual-wielding.

Both of these changes should help our threat generation quite a bit!  I look forward to these changes.

An excellent raider is the raider who is waiting at the instance before the raid is even close to starting. He comes to the raid with the full array of consumable goods that are not necessarily required by the raid leader, but greatly or even slightly enhance his potential raid performance. She arrives ready to wipe repeatedly with grace, and does her best to ensure that she is ready to pull again as quickly as possible. Often she is the one standing around, ready to be buffed and chomping at the bit for the next pull while the rest of the team continues to recover. He does not complain about repair bills, but simply accepts them as a continued tax on the excellent gear he is already wearing. He does not give a damn that pvpers who work far less have equal or better gear. Those people will never experience the glory of driving their blade through the chest of Illidan, nor will they ever know the feeling of gazing upon Arthas and knowing that one day he will fall.

An excellent raider rarely needs to be told what to do. She studies the encounters before reaching them, and if on the bleeding edge of content yet unspoiled, plays with a heightened sense of awareness, observing the changing conditions of an encounter and not only reacting to them, but taking note of them for later research. He does not stand in a stationary spell that will kill his character, nor does he get caught in slowly moving blizzards. He does not have problems spreading out or moving away from his fellow raiders. If they move towards him, he compensates by moving away. She is at the top of the DPS, or the healing. She is a Mage that will kite an uncontrolled mob even if not assigned to do it. He asks questions to class leaders if anything is uncertain, and does not hesitate to give friendly advice to others.

An excellent raider does not complain about a proposed strategy. They do not lower the morale of others by ever saying that something is too hard, or by claiming that an idea is stupid. If they are concerned with a given strategy, they allow the night to finish and then address their concerns to their class or raid leader, and come prepared to offer a viable solution that is superior to the one currently in use. She takes responsibility for the death of a tank. She apologizes for not seeing the cloud of gas she was standing in, rather than blaming lag.(even if it was lag that was primarily responsible) He always tries to find ways to do better, even if he is already the best in his raid force. He almost obsessively combs through the wastelands that are the forums for any hints of new information that could improve his game. She does not complain about the shortcomings or balance of her chosen class, but chooses instead to maximize her potential, often outperforming those considered to be superior.

If you are an excellent raider, the leadership of your guild loves you. You bring a sense of stability and dependability to the raid that is more valuable than you can possibly imagine. You raise the morale of a force simply by being there. You truly care about the success of your team and it shows in your dedication.

Are you an excellent raider? If you aren’t, don’t you think you could be?

I found this to be a great essay on what makes up an Excellent Raider. This was posted by Balara of Cenarious on the official Raid and Dungeons forum.
WoW Forums -> Are you an excellent raider?

So on a recent Prince Malchezaar kill, I picked up a [item]The Decapitator[/item]. It’s a fun weapon, but I have found it to be situationally useful as well.

The first obvious use is in pulling. It’s a great way to pull for an initial 500+ damage, you just have to remember to have it equipped before you are ready to pull as it has a cooldown when you first equip it. After use, it also has a 3 minute cooldown before it can be used again.

The second place I have found it useful is for Devastate spam. If I’m in a fight where I can’t spam Heroic Strike, I can swap this in to use on my Devastates. I don’t however think about do so in fights where I need the added survivability or mitigation from [item]King’s Defender[/item] or [item]The Sun Eater[/item].

I haven’t enchanted my Decapitator yet, but I’ll either slap on Potency (+20 str) or Major Striking (+7 damage).

Oh, and here’s a nifty macro for Using the Decapitator when I have it equipped or my regular ranged weapons otherwise:

#showtooltip
/use [equipped:One-Handed Axes] The Decapitator
/cast [equipped:Thrown] Throw; Shoot

Another interesting effect of this macro is that using The Decapitator is instant, but it will also perform your ranged attack as well (if you have time to get it off with the now aggro’d mob running towards you).