Blizzard plans soloing improvements for Protection Warriors and Paladins
by Robin Torres 
Nov 13th 2007 at 9:00AM
Eyonix went on to say that they don't want Protection speced players to have to carry around a second set of DPS gear in order to grind mobs more effectively. He says that while a high level DPS set may give the player an edge, the Prot specs should be able to solo in the gear they tank in.
It sounds like they are leaning toward doing something similar to what 2.3 introduces for healers. Since healers are getting free spell damage on all healing gear, will tanks get free attack power on all tanking gear?
Presumably, Druid tanks won't be sharing in this love since the Feral spec is a very powerful solo spec. So, if the changes are going to affect tanking gear, it will probably only apply to plate.
Eyonix does not give a time frame for Protection improvements other than "the future" and since it doesn't sound like they have a concrete plan yet, it probably won't be in patch 2.4.
What kind of improvements would you like to see for Protection soloing?
Filed under: Paladin, Warrior, Patches, Forums, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Chris Jan 26th 2008 3:02AM
Dear God. You've got to be kidding me.
Okay, I'm a 70 prot. warrior, and something is bothering me here.
Pallies, shut up. Many comments on here are about how to help out prot. warriors AND tankadins. Guess what? Tankadins ALREADY have an advantage. Along with several of the same armor building bonuses as prot. warriors, they can HEAL. They don't need more boosts. Yeah, so pallies won't be able to tank as well if you only focus on prot. warriors. Well, too bad. That's our SPECIALTY, and pretty much all we can do. Even if our dps abilities get built up, we are still on one bar of health at a time. Tankadins and druids SHOULD be worse tanks than prot. warriors. We don't have the option of bubble/heal or heal/dps forms. We are guys in armor with swords and shields. That's it, nothing special. Buff the dps for prot. warriors a little, the threat gen. a tiny bit, and leave it at that. Our class will actually have a real purpose again.
Kanuris Nov 13th 2007 9:08AM
Prot Warriors maybe. As a Prot Paladin, i can AoE grind groups of melee mobs for lots of cash, eat rogues for breakfast in BG's whilst getting honor and tank pretty much anything i try.
Whilst a buff to SoV would be nice, i'm pretty content with my Prot Pally right now.
Thing Nov 13th 2007 9:09AM
I know I will get lynched for this, but I really don't see a big issue with prot questing/leveling with paladins. With the proper mobs and a couple pieces of gear, you can AOE grind on mobs for hours making farming and questing easy in some cases.
Now prot warriors, watching them kill something is like watching paint dry.
Jeremy Nov 13th 2007 9:13AM
If they're making improvements to Prot Pally leveling, I'm excited. After level 34, Prot Pallies are AMAZINGLY fast grinders, so improvements would make them godly. I don't really see how you can improve solo capability on a class/spec that can take on 4-5 mobs at once and finish with full health & mana. Will be interesting to watch.
Skrilla Nov 13th 2007 9:13AM
I'm getting tired of the sit around and wait garbage. Fix the game already.
Thing Nov 13th 2007 9:14AM
@1 Great minds, eh?
Now, on the subject. Maybe they can do something similar that they did with +healing = +damage. Maybe they could make 5% of your health = Attack Power or Spell Damage(oh would that be sweet). So at 10k health, you could have +500AP/SD. Of course that would be severely OP'd for paladins.
Kanuris Nov 13th 2007 9:25AM
@6 Converting HP is an idea, but should be a system more focused toward Warlocks (imo should have tons of HP but no mana, using HP to cast spells, would be an interesting change).
I'd like to see Block Value increase shield bash and slam damage for prot warriors, since no other warrior will have those stats. I'd also like to see Block Value have some co-effient with Pally SD, since were focused on Blocking for extra threat, but blocking compared to dodge or parry means it's not worth stacking block over parry/dodge, sinces it only reduces damage taken and not mitigating it completely.
Ghen Nov 13th 2007 9:26AM
Prot pally grinding is way more fun than leveling retribution (once you get holy shield that is) to the point where I would recommend that as the main leveling build for paladins.
Prot warriors are the only tanking class gimped by their spec, and thats not something that gear should adapt to. If they want prot warriors to be able to solo without changing gear and without screwing up end-game rage generation (IE: making it too easy) they will have to make changes to the protection tree.
The difference with adding spell damage to healers' gear is that they won't be doing damage when they are casting a heal so the bonus doesn't screw up raiding difficulty. Warriors on the other hand already do some DPS while tanking. If they are given more, free DPS in the form of attack power or some other type of gear addition then blizz will eventually have to nurf something else to achieve tanking balance without making the game too easy.
And yes, free epix are nice... but when blizzard can't produce raid zones fast enough to match the demand they will nurf progression by making mobs harder or lowering warrior threat. Its happened before and it will happen again.
Eyeon Nov 13th 2007 9:27AM
problem is to be efficent you need to take on multiple things at once... not always an option with the dailys and such.
Kanuris Nov 13th 2007 9:32AM
@ Eyeon
Ontop of that, they have to be non-caster mobs. So spots for decent grinding as Prot Pally can be limited. Rogues are the complete opposite, so maybe consider leveling/grinding with a Rogue? Infact many classes would be great for duo leveling, especially Mages for added AoE and slowdown.
Darlene Nov 13th 2007 9:46AM
This would be GREAT!!!!
Im a Prot. warrior, and honestly don't have the cash to be speccing back and forth between 3-4 raids a week.. for which Im tanking and need to be Prot. Im Prot all the time and grinding is damn near impossible. it takes me forever to kill one guy.. sure I don't loe much health, but when you get those quests that require you to kill 20 of a certain guy, and it takes you an hour.. thats kind of ridiculous :)
LOL @ 2 -- very accurate in regards to the paint drying comment.
Korek Nov 13th 2007 9:49AM
The single best thing Blizzard could do for warriors would be to give them some ability to mimic what prot pallies can do in the warrior prot tree. It would also, if they were low enough in the prot tree and set up right, possibly double to help partial-prot warriors tank in 5-mans.
Basically lower level prot talents to duplicate retribution aura (but obviously only on the war himself) and to add the chance to passive do damage to any mob you block. The actual damage done would be very minor of course, just like it is for prot pallies, but the net impact would be that a prot warrior getting hit by more things would do more damage (ie. play into their core strength). The added threat from this damage (plus t-clap) would really boost warriors' ability to tank multiple mobs in 5-mans.
Then, deeper in prot, you add talents that have a small chance to partially heal the warrior every time they hit something in melee or they block something with their shield. Once again, nothing *huge*, but a small amount each time with enough things hitting them can simulate Reckoning+JoLight, at least a bit. These things don't translate into making pallies better main tanks, so it seems reasonable to me they probably wouldn't unbalance prot warriors. Putting the "heal thyself" talent deep in prot keeps the DPS warriors from getting it, and gives warriors a measure of improved soloability the same as paladins.
Besides, with prot pallies getting buffed to handle MT duties, it seems only reasonable to me that prot warriors get a small measure of what pallies can do.
At least, that's this balance druid's opinion.
Korek (Tauren Doomkin of Steamwheedle Cartel)
Ghen Nov 13th 2007 9:48AM
@10 respeccing is pointless and a waste of the money you're trying to grind. Just level a hunter. These changes won't come out for another 3-6 months anyway with current patch production.
Darlene Nov 13th 2007 9:53AM
@ 11 -- I don't have the time or patience for leveling a new character, anyway Im a tank through and through.... I don't re-spec, I stay Prot. the whole time, and just deal with the choice I made to tank and not DPS. Its just very tedious.. anyway as a chick who plays WoW I have many a guy in my guild willing to help me grind.. YAY for Mages :)
Callandra Nov 13th 2007 10:02AM
The real key is finding a solution that excludes the buffs to Arms/Fury warriors.
Possible solutions...
AP/Block Value more aggresively attached to Shield Slam and devastate.
Defense adding +dmg
Block Value adding +dmg to other abilities.
Block rating more, refelcting dmg?
I'm sure they are very wary of threat generated by tanks becoming far too large to create a problem in 'dps' race fights..
Lancetfluke Nov 13th 2007 10:06AM
A hunter is a ranged dps class with a pet to tank. Perhaps what we need to do is give tanks a ranged dps pet?
Just kidding of course.
Urthona Nov 13th 2007 10:05AM
This goes back to Rossi's nasty rant about how DPS classes gear themselves for more damage, ie threat, and how tanks gear themselves for mitigation and health, ie not threat —making a tank's job harder the higher you go.
So make the things they go after, STAMINA, directly impact their threat/damage numbers. For Warriors, Stamina should affect Strength or Attack Power. For Prot Paladins, Spell Damage. The problem then becomes from allowing DPS warriors from skyrocketing in damage and threat, and we've been down that road.
So make it a passive talent under Holy Shield and Shield Slam? Will that work?
Callandra Nov 13th 2007 10:20AM
What about the +stamina talent for warriors also including a % of stamina as AP? Problem is, it wouldn't be available until late levels.
Imp Defensive stance, instead of -10% you get +10%?
MechChef Nov 13th 2007 11:28AM
I'm already a free HK for warriors. If they're going to boost prot-dps, then I as a rogue require greater armor penetration.
Mordrod Nov 13th 2007 10:18AM
Heh, if Prot Pallys already have things easy for multimob grinding, then perhaps Blizzard meant they will make it easier for them to grind single mobs...while with the other hand nerfing their glorious multimob fun. Wouldn't be the first time an announced buff turned out to be a nerf in disguise.