Mists of Pandaria: Protection Warrior Active Mitigation

We're Not Death Knights..... WTF??

Any of you who ever rolled a Death Knight tank will be very familiar with why you must use Death Strike when ever you can and how you have to plan your rotation around it.

With the introduction of patch 5.0.4 and the subsequent launch of Mists of Pandaria, Protection Warrior's mechanics have changed forever. Gone are the days where we could reach the CTC Cap (Combat Table Coverage Cap) due to the introduction of a 2 roll defence style and enter the days where we now have to endlessly save rage in order to give us a few seconds of damage reduction.

So What Is Active Mitigation?

Active Mitigation is the use of abilities to reduce incoming damage - it has nothing to do with Dodge, Parry or Block but rather an ability in your spell book that you can pop (on a short cooldown - if any at all) that reduces the damage you take.

Why Should I Give a Flying Orc About This??

Assuming you are here because you play a Protection Warrior then this should be fairly obvious. You are a tank. Among your many functions within your Party or Raid is your ability to keep agro and take as little damage as possible. Active Mitigation reduces the damage you take which therefore helps out your healers with mana and the ability to target someone other than you for a second.

Ok I'm Convinced, What Are My Active Mitigation Abilities?

As a Protection Warrior you have 2 Active Mitigation abilities:

- Shield Barrier

and

- Shield Block

Shield Block blocks every single melee attack against you for 6 seconds and Shield Barrier absorbs a certain amount of damage against you for 6 seconds (or until it has absorbed the set amount of damage).

So When Should I Use Them?

Shield Block should be used when you are taking melee damage and Shield Barrier when you are taking spell damage or "unblock-able" damage. 

Shield Barrier can be used with either 20, 40 or 60 rage (amount of damage absorbed increases depending on how much rage you spend on it) where as Shield Block can only be used with 60 rage. You can only have 1 Shield Barrier active at any one time but you can stack up to 2 Shield Block (extends the time period).

To Summarise

These abilities are there to be used so use them and use them as you see fit but remember Block for melee and Barrier for spell. 

10 Things to Do On the 28th of August (Patch Day 5.0.4)

It would be an understatement to say that in under 2 weeks time the way we play our Warriors will change forever. Patch 5.0.4 will launch on the 28th of August giving us around about a one month window to get to know our class/spec before a wealth of new content is thrust up on us. Here is 10 things you should aim to do on patch day:


10 Things I Love About You:


1. Log into the game: "Well duhhhhhhh" I hear you cry! Seems stupid but you'd be surprised at the amount of times where a raid has been held up by one patch or another dropping and someone has forgotten to download and install until 5 minutes before raid time. Even if you are on a break from the game just load it up and install the patch before you forget!

2. Look at Talent Options: I will be posting an analysis of Warrior Talents for the Protection Warrior later on today (stay tuned!) to guide you around and try to give you the pro's and con's for each talent in every tier. But you have a brain, engage it! Read the tool tips and see what YOU like about things.

3. Make a Talent Selection: You will only be able to spec down to the 5th tier (level 75) on patch day, even so - select your talents, go into your spell book and move them to your action bars

4. Have Another Look In Your Spellbook: Have a look to see if you have everything at your disposal out and in your action bars. Check out the tool tips and have a think about rage costs and things like that!

5. Goto a Training Dummy: Seems silly to do this when you're not measuring your DPS huh? Well everything has changed about your Class - the way you generate rage, the way you spend it and what you spend it on! Spend 10 minutes getting used to it all!

6. Leave Your Gear As It Is: Don't be tempted to go reforging everything at huge expense right out of the gate! Leave it for a day or so or at least until you have done point 7 a few times before you go reforging crazy!

7. Run a Heroic Dungeon: Seems obvious right? Again you'd be surprised how many people don't do this out of fear of looking stupid. Just because your class has taken a beating and you don't recognise it any more doesn't mean you can't play it - you just need to re-learn a few things. When you get in explain what has happened or even create a macro with something like: "Hi guys/girls. Still getting used to the new Warrior changes so please be patient with me :)"..... This will let people know where they stand and also ease a little pressure from your plate wearing shoulders.

8. Run the LFR: Again seems obvious but again you'd be surprised how many people don't do this out of fear of 24 other players yelling at them! In this case I wouldn't recommend letting people know anything about still getting used to the changes - just make sure you've run enough Heroic Dungeons so you can feel semi comfortable in what you're doing.

9. Sell, Sell, Sell: As of the 28th you have 1 month till MoP drops and you will still have some Cata mats in your bank. Obviously you will have your own strategy on what you want to keep and dump onto the AH on the Expansion Launch Day but chances are Cata Mats will bottom out fairly quickly when MoP drops so sell it while you can to maximise your profits

10. Raid: Use the heroic dungeons and LFR as a learning curve and when you feel 100% happy you know what you are doing again then go have fun with your guild in a raid - these people are your friends so let them know about the changes and apologise in advance for any wipes you cause.

Most importantly have some fun and don't forget to check out the in game MoP launch event :)

MoP Protection Warrior's Reputation Rewards List and HC Dungeon Gear List: NOW LIVE!

I have just finished sifting through the mountains of Mists of Pandaria Beta information to bring you:

- Protection Warrior's Reputation Rewards: Mists of Pandaria Edition

- Protection Warrior's Heroic Dungeon Drops: Mists of Pandaria Edition

Please feel free to comment and distribute as you see fit.