Mists of Pandaria Talent Tree Analysis for Protection Warriors
With Patch 5.0.4 surging its way down your internet connection to your beloved PC/Mac it's time to start thinking about what talents to take when Blizzard finally press the shiny "GO LIVE" button.
What In The Name of 'Shield Slam' Has Happened to My Talent Tree?
On Patch day your talents will be reset and you will be left with a rather strange looking talent tree (see picture above). You can pick one out of the 3 talents every 15 levels - so when 5.0.4 goes live you will have access to all but the last row of talents.
Level 15 Talents (Tier 1)
The 1st Tier of talents can be accessed at Level 15 and basically effects the way that your Charge Ability works:
Juggernaut: This talent reduces the cooldown of your Charge ability by 8 seconds, meaning you can charge every 12 seconds.
Double Time: Allows you to Charge 2 times before the 20 second cooldown however you can only generate rage from this once every 12 seconds.
Warbringer: Your charge knocks the target to the ground and stuns it for 3 seconds.
Analysis: These are all very situational Talents and I can see uses for all of them. This will be personal preference however I do find the Warbringer talent to be of very limited use for raiding unless adds spawn that need to be stunned (ie. The Ragnaros fight in Firelands).
A flat reduction of cooldown with the Juggernaut talent keeps the Charge ability predicable in terms of Rage generation as opposed to Double Time, however being able to charge from pack to pack, back to back really does appeal to me. The way I am reading the tool tip for Double Time it seems that you now have 2 Charge's on 2 separate cooldowns, kind of like the way we can use Charge and Intercept back to back at the moment. One of the cool parts about playing a Warrior Tank is we are the most mobile tank in the game, for that reason I will be taking Double Time as my level 15 talent.
Level 30 Talents (Tier 2)
The second tier of talents is our "Self Healing" tier
Enraged Regeneration: This is an instant 10% heal with an additional HoT of another 10% over 5 seconds and it has a 1 minute cooldown at a cost of 60 rage.
Second Wind: This is a "no need to remember to press the button" talent. A 3% HoT heal every second while you are below 35% health.
Impending Victory: I think the tool tip is wrong on here at the moment. It displays a 20% heal every 30 seconds at a cost of 10 rage and a 20% heal on your next use if you kill something that yields Honour of XP.
Analysis: Looking around the various internet sources it appears that Second Wind is a more PvP focused talent. With that in mind it leaves us with Enraged Regeneration and Impending Victory. As an average both talents will provide 1% health restoration every 3 seconds if used off cooldown however there is a potential with Enraged Regeneration to overheal yourself in a Raid situation. Assuming your healers are keeping you topped up (ish!) and you use it at an appropriate moment then the additional 10% over 5 seconds might be wasted by a healer healing you up to full health. Impending Victory is a very interesting one. A 30 second cooldown at 10 rage cost is quite attractive. Not only that but if you kill something that yields honour or XP then you are going to get a 20% heal instead at no extra cost. For these reasons I will be taking Impending Victory however I can see merits in Enraged Regeneration and even Second Wind if you are wiping on a boss because of tank health going too low.
Level 45 Talents (Tier 3)
The third tier of talents are aimed at crowd control (ish!).
Staggering Shout: Causes all enemies to be rooted in place within 20 yards (this does not stop them attacking you!) at a cost of no rage with a 40 seconds cooldown.
Piercing Howl: Reduces the movement speed of enemies within 15 yards at a cost of 10 rage with no visible cooldown.
Disrupting Shout: Interrupts ALL casting within 10 yards and prevents any casting from that school for 4 seconds at a cost of no rage on a 40 second cooldown
Analysis: Ok lets face it there's nothing too cool here right? Right? Many sites have pointed at Tier 3 as totally useless for the Protection Warrior and to be honest they are NEARLY right! I'm not going to give a huge breakdown of these other than to say Staggering Shout and Piercing Howl are pretty useless in a raid/dungeon environment unless you have to slow down mobs (ie. the Raggy fight in Firelands). Disrupting Shout however is NICE!! Very Nice!! So nice I'm left wondering why we haven't had this until now! The use for this talent is simple: Charge into a pack with casters and melee targets and use Disrupting Shout when the casters get casting. They will run to you to attack you in melee range and you have a nice neat pull ready to Thunderclap and Shockwave/[Insert Tier 4 Talent Here!]. For that reason my default choice will be Disrupting Shout unless the fight needs something to slow down a pack.
Level 60 Talents (Tier 4)
The fourth tier of talents mark the return of some current final tier talents along with one new one.
Bladestorm: Nothing really new here - 90 second cooldown
Shockwave: Again nothing really new here - 20 second cooldown
Dragon Roar: An AoE knockdown/stun with damage - 1 minute cooldown
Analysis: When I saw this talent tree all I could think was "I can use Bladestorm as a Prot Warrior!! OMG!!" - I must admit I felt like a teenage girl who was asked out on a date for the 1st time and the reason why you are smiling at this right now is cause you were thinking the exact same thing! I'm going to be honest here if you want pure unadulterated DPS then Dragon Roar is what you want. Bladestorm's novelty will wear off pretty quickly but will be a great talent to take in situations where you might lose control of your Warrior - ie. if a Boss fears everyone or something you can pop this as he's casting and you won't get feared/hit in the back! Shockwave however will be my choice unless I need either of the above. A 20 seconds cooldown with a stun attached to it is too much to resist. I know it's not new and shiny but it gets the job done!
Level 75 Talents (Tier 5)
The fifth tier of talents are technically semi protection warrior core abilities of old with a few twists thrown in.
Mass Spell Reflection: Does exactly what it says on the tin! 1 minute cooldown.
Safeguard: This is a buff/replacement for the Intervene ability. 30 second cooldown.
Vigilance: This is a total rework of the old Vigilance talent. Works the same way as the old one but only lasts for 12 seconds as opposed to constant. 2 minute cooldown.
Analysis: On the face of it Mass Spell Reflection sounds AMAZING. But how many boss fights are we going to get to see where we will be able to Reflect their spells? With that in mind we are left with Safeguard and Vigilance. Safeguard will get rid of any movement impairing effects on you when used and Vigilance will allow you to Taunt spam for 12 seconds. All of these are purely situational Talents and so I'm not going to make a recommendation. In all honesty I'm going to try out Mass Spell Reflection to begin with to see how it plays out in Mists of Pandaria.
Level 90 Talents (Tier 6)
The sixth and final tier of talents are our "cool" new abilities. They mainly effect DPS and I can see situational uses for all of them.
Avatar: A 20 second buff to your DPS and rage generation on a 3 minute cooldown.
Bloodbath: A 12 second buff to your DPS in the form of a bleed effect on a 1 minute cooldown.
Stormbolt: A potential 300% weapon damage ability (see below for explaination!) or 100% damage and a stun. 30 second cooldown
Analysis: For me there is only one way to go with this..... And that is Stormbolt. Lets be honest here how often are you going to use this as a raider on something you can stun? Raid bosses can't be stunned and therefore this is a 300% weapon damage on a 30 second cooldown that can be worked into your rotation. Avatar and Bloodbath are kind of cool as well but the cooldown on them is too long to have a reliable impact. For example you are most likely to pop Avatar during Heroism which is all well and good but how does that help you maintain rage in a tank swap fight for example - especially the fights where the agro table is a nightmare (I'm looking at you Mr Ragnaros!). Bloodbath might be cool for certain AoE fights however it only works off Melee special attacks and therefore you'll need to hit a few mobs to have an impact on them. Go with Stormbolt for boss fights - you won't be disappointed.
That wraps us up. If you have any questions please feel free to comment below or email me: snipple@raidprotection.com
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