Pimp My Profile: Derongar, protection warrior
by Matthew Rossi 
Jan 27th 2010 at 8:00PM
I WANT TO RAID GOOD. Please, teach me to raid gooder than I already raid.While I believe that your gear is pretty solid (at first I was confused by the lower stamina but then I realized you'd logged out in arms spec but tanking gear) there are a few places that can be adjusted.
-Derongar
Gems
First off, there's really no reason to gem for defense, dodge or parry, not even for set bonuses. If you need a yellow gem for a set bonus, grab hit/stam. If you need a red gem, get expertise/stam. Looking at the stats, and keeping in mind that you'll have full Anticipation when in tanking spec, there's absolutely no reason to be gemming for dodge.
But while your hit is solid at 253 hit rating, your expertise is a low 14, only granting 3.5% dodge/parry reduction. That's not enough: you'd probably want at least to shoot for the 26 that pushes dodges off of the melee attack table at the minimum. Everywhere I see a dodge/stam gem here I'd prefer to see expertise/stam until he was at least at 26.
Talents
Your talent choices are solid: you go for Improved Demoralizing Shout, very useful against physical damage bosses, instead of Impale/Deep Wounds for bleed threat. It gives up some AOE threat but it's definitely not that unusual. Your five points in Deflection make the parry gemming even less relevant.
Glyphs
Your hit rating is high enough that you can probably afford to drop the Glyph of Taunt as you are most likely not getting all that many resisted taunts purely on hit rating. (Technically Taunt is a spell, so the hit you'd need would be higher than the melee hit chance, but once you're close to 300 hit rating the glyph really isn't that necessary.)
And with a block value as low as this gear has (the only places you have Block Value are on your shield and hat) the Glyph of Blocking simply isn't all that compelling. 10% more Block Value after a Shield Slam is what, another 140 block value? The Glyph of Vigilance will easily provide more threat than that. Likewise, the Glyph of Cleaving will allow your cleaves to hit an additional target for more tanking AOE threat (which this spec doesn't produce as much of due to the lack of Deep Wounds/Impale) and the Glyph of Shield Wall will basically allow you to have a cooldown available every minute, which is very useful when tanking hard modes and high damage bosses. I would definitely consider replacing those two glyphs, maybe even carry around a stack of Vigilance, Cleaving and Shield Wall to slot in depending on the fight.
To sum up...
In general, gear itself is solid, gems could use some tweaking away from stats you already will have in abundance towards threat stats you're low on (especially expertise, which at 14 really needs to come up), talent choices are solid for the Imp Demo debuff (but if you have an arms or fury warrior in the raid, get THEM to spec for the Imp Demo/Commanding Presence buffs and get yourself the crit from Cruelty and the threat from Impale/Deep Wounds) and I'd consider adjusting my glyphs around. By themselves all minor changes but I think you'd see a nice cumulative effect.
Check out more strategies, tips and leveling guides for Warriors in Matthew Rossi's weekly class column: The Care and Feeding of Warriors.Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Pimp My Profile
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Wavemancali Jan 27th 2010 8:17PM
This column has become one of the reasons I'm not dropping WoW.com out of me feed reader. I have an alt of every class so I anticipate getting something out of it more often than not.
Birdog Jan 27th 2010 8:21PM
Excellent! I could use this info for my own prot warrior. Who do I email to get my Druid pimped? Just curious.
Shiro_Shishi Jan 27th 2010 8:20PM
That is the most compelling request I have ever seen, and he's so polite about it!
Bravo good sir.
RobbyDog Jan 27th 2010 8:23PM
I'm a bit confused "the Glyph of Shield Wall will basically allow you to have a cooldown available every minute", surely you mean every two minutes?
Mallistar Jan 27th 2010 8:33PM
With the glyph of last stand, which this guy has, both last stand and shield wall would be on a 2 min CD, meaning, 1 CD every minute if you chain them one minute apart
Falcon6 Jan 27th 2010 8:34PM
Well, you could take it as meaning he'd have Shield Wall one minute, then Last Stand the next, and then Shield Wall again after that minute's past.
Essentially, a cooldown every minute.
RobbyDog Jan 27th 2010 8:43PM
Ahh ok, thanks for explaining that (I left my crystal ball at home, so wasn't able to read matt's mind on what he was referring too).
I also use "Glymph of Indomitability" (+512 dodge) and "Corroded Skeleton Key" (3,200 damage absorbed) trinkets, so that gives me a couple more minor CD's too blow when things get really hairy!
Corrine Jan 27th 2010 8:32PM
I assume he's referring to cycling between different defensive cooldowns using around one different one per minute.
Redielin Jan 27th 2010 8:33PM
I'm not sure I'm ready to start gemming for hit rating on my prot warrior, but I would definitely soft cap your expertise.
Parry is still bad, dodge is still good, and even with chill of the throne, stamina is still king. Armor is also one of the best stats now (that's why they're adding it to the tier gear).
I'd still go for the impale/deep wounds build. You need it for threat, and the imp demo shout is brought by Fury Warriors (if they spec for it) and Ret Paladins (which I'm sure you're not wanting for any of those!). I'd also dump 3 points from Shield Spec and put them in Armored to the Teeth.
You can gem for Defense if you like. Despite Chill of the Throne, it still gives avoidance, the same amount that you would get outside of ICC in fact.
Enchants: Give a look at Blood Draining on Weapon, and the PVP enchants (stam/resil) on Shoulders and Helmet. They may give resil, which is a worthless stat after the Def cap, but they also give oodles of stamina. The other thing about resil (and defense gemming) is it does give you the option to wear a piece of gear without any defense on it. So if you wanted to wear a DPS weapon for trash for instance, you could.
RobbyDog Jan 27th 2010 9:03PM
"I'd also dump 3 points from Shield Spec and put them in Armored to the Teeth."
Dump the 3 points you have in Focused Rage?
I feel apart from the first few seconds of combat my warrior is never really rage starved. And I always felt the main reason he's rage starved for the first few seconds is because he gets his rage from getting hit and Blizzard in their infinite wisdom gave warriors Shockwave, a talent that stuns the mobs your tanking and stops them from hitting you (GG Blizzard don't you ever think?).
velutina Jan 28th 2010 9:22AM
My warrior is specced /geared / stats very similar to Derongar. However, I've got 3/3 Armored to the Teeth instead of having those points in Shield Spec. That's about 780 attack power for me (~110 dps). In heroics I find I'm pulling ~1800 dps +/- 200, so AttT is significant for me.
ladydeth Jan 27th 2010 8:38PM
Mr. Rossi,
I get a "JavaVoid error" when trying to use your email link. Is there another way you would like for us to submit? (hehe, left that open to interpretation...)
Thanory Jan 27th 2010 8:55PM
pimpmyprofile@wow.com
Redielin Jan 27th 2010 9:10PM
Focused Rage is actually pretty good.
FR >>>>> Shield Spec.
Lujanera Jan 27th 2010 9:38PM
Mr Rossi does not understand how diminishing returns work. The points in Deflection and Anticipation are not subject to diminishing returns. Therefore, allocating points to those talents has no effect on the amount of avoidance gained by gemming for dodge/parry. Furthermore, advising Derongar to gem for hit and expertise is unwise when considering progression content. Survival, not threat, is key in progression content.
I enjoy the writing, but the advice this week was really poor. I'm disappointed.
Tigermilk Jan 27th 2010 10:04PM
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Buzz Killington.
Matthew Rossi Jan 28th 2010 1:21AM
I understand how DR works. I'm simply pointing out that there's no need to gem for Dodge.
You simply must hit the exp softcap (he's got 14 exp!) and he's using the Glyph of Taunt, which indicates he must be either missing taunts or simply doesn't know a better one. Hit rating prevents taunts from missing, exp is simply necessary at least up to 26 expertise rating. Dodge gemming provides absolutely minimal benefit under these circumstances.
He needs 12 expertise at the very least. He doesn't NEED dodge. It's that simple.
Bruntorbjects Jan 28th 2010 1:27AM
Sadly he's right, threat issues should not be addressed by gemming for hit and expertise, working on your priorities and education of your dps are far more effective. You will probably need one gem not straight stam to make your meta, but everything else should be stam. Gemming for avoidance is just gambling with the RNG and you will lose.
Culhag Jan 28th 2010 6:05AM
The Glyph of Taunt is there because taunts use the spell hit cap, so even when you're capped for melee (with 8% melee hit), your taunts still have a chance to miss.
I would never advise a tank to reach for the spell hit cap.
At 253 rating he's almost capped already, so gemming def-stam in yellow slots is the most sensible choice if he wants a bonus.
Stilhelm Jan 28th 2010 8:51AM
Everyone is mentioning that Taunt is a spell and requires spell hit cap (correct), and that with 253 hit rating he shouldn't need glyph of taunt. 253 hit rating is around 8%, which is close to the 2H weapon melee hit cap. The spell hit cap is 17%. Seems there's still a bit of a gap there, and on a boss like Saurfang or Deathwhisper missed taunts are very annoying at best, and at worst can contribute to a wipe.