When you solo Deadmines repeatedly for rep, eventually you figure your way around the place.
I decided to take a 30 minute dungeon run and compress it into a 10 minute whirlwind video tour of the new place. Includes commentary about both running it in a group and soloing it as a tank.
(For in-depth strategy and analysis of the instance, I recommend Wowhead’s article.)
Enjoy!
(Special thanks to Snack and Narci for the many entertaining conversations about this video.)
Cynderbock is Exalted with Gilneas before Cataclysm.
Wait, what?
That’s crazy to think about, considering it took, at most about … 10 runs of Deadmines, max, to achieve? The new Gilneas Tabard (one of the new City Tabards, available at vendors near the home city Flight Points) allows you to gain reputation gains in dungeons, and if you do them at-level, they reward pretty substantial rep.
How substantial? 15 rep for each mob, 300 for each boss. If you’re Human, that’s 16-17 each mob, 330 each boss.
So making a level 19 Ambassador just got a whole lot easier. Lock your XP, get tabards, run LFD for profit and a title. Easy. You could do LFD at level 15, even, if you like RFC – or if you have friends who will run you, you can enter the dungeons at level 8-10.
This is a great change for the game, making it easier to use LFD as a leveling tool without missing out on all the benefits of questing.
Does it trivialize the Ambassador title on Cynderblock? Not really. Yes, it’s vastly easier to get now, and I expect I’ll see even more of them than I did before. That’s fine. No, really, it is!
See, the changes now can’t take away the fun I had in getting that title. Or, for that matter, getting Exalted with a faction that isn’t even really in the game yet. I mean, it’s not like I get anything from the deal, since ‘block still can’t use a mount. (Not that Gilneas has a mount to get, anyways.)
No, it’s time to move on and look forward to all the new things Cataclysm will bring us. And no matter what else – they love me behind that wall.
Van Cleef: Drop. Your. Sword.
So a funny thing happened to me on the way to the Deadmines.
I was pretty down on level 19 Warrior twinks in my review of the 4.0.1 changes. The loss of so many abilities was pretty daunting, and struggling in areas where I previously excelled was downright depressing. Going from a tank with unshakable aggro to one where everyone pulled off me was a humbling experience, even if I was running with twinked DPS. PvP was painful, with casters and rogues running roughshod over me, feral cats jumping on me from the shadows, and paladins refusing to die, no matter how much damage I did.
I took a few days off to regroup. I stopped trying to farm the AGM, since several guilds were gearing up twinks and competition for the trinkets was getting too fierce. I rolled a bunch of alts.
Then one day I said, “let’s solo Deadmines, ‘block.”
And we did.
And it was hugely fun. Why?
I’d soloed RFC and most of Wailing Caverns before this patch dropped, so I knew it was possible to solo these instances at level. But while RFC was a bit of a multi-mob faceroll in 3.3.5, WC required a lot of caution and care with each pull. It was slow, careful going, and after a while I got pretty darn bored of the whole thing.
Deadmines, on the other hand, was a riot, with miners running all over, elites and normal mobs mixing with impunity. It was a blast. I started off cautiously, but by the time I saw how much damage I was throwing around, how I could use Victory Rush to keep myself healed up, and how little damage I was taking anyways, it was soon a romp over the Defias.
My second run (I was already hooked), the Cruel Barb finally dropped for me. With the nerfs to Shadowfang, Cruel Barb is now the highest DPS 1-hander available at level 19. You sacrifice stats for raw Attack Power, but if you have the Stamina from other places it’s awesome. +12 AP is equivalent to +6 Str for Warriors, and the next highest stat weapon is Butcher’s Slicer, with +4 Str/+3 Stam. The Barb already has higher raw DPS than the Slicer (15.8 vs. 15.2), and with the additional AP it is the clear choice for raw DPS.
So I’m sitting there, looking at my new toy, and it strikes me: I should go Fury, and wield two of these monsters.
I prefer Crusader, because when you get simultaneous procs, really great things happen.
I’ve never really played Fury before, though I do have a Combat rogue in her mid-40s. I grabbed a bunch of weapons out of my bank to try out offhands, eventually settling on the trusty Venerable Mass of McGowan for my OH weapon. The Mass and the Sacred Charge both received some slight changes in the latest patch, with the Charge now brought up to being a very good alternative to the Mass. Basically, they both give you Agility and Stamina (for tanking); the DSC gives you a lot of Crit, while the Mass gives you Crit and Haste. I grabbed the Slicer as well to try it out, though I think the Mass helped me out more in the earlier runs.
It took me a few times to get used to soloing Deadmines as a Fury warrior. Fury plays a lot like I remember playing a Blood DK; as long as you can keep your self healing going, you’re unstoppable, but you take a lot of damage in the process. If I pulled too big, especially with elites, then I’d wipe.
Victory Rush is really the key to Fury soloing right now. You’re putting out so much damage that your goal is to burn though a mob, any mob, and kill it to offset the damage you’re taking with another Victory Rush. As long as you can repeat that process, you’re fine – but if the damage overwhelms your kill rate, then you’re going down. I found that I’d start off a big pull losing a lot of health, but once the mobs started dropping I’d go right back up to full.
Bloodthirst is the other tool in your Fury aresenal to help out with this kind of fighting. It gives you a small heal back while attacking, and doesn’t suck up much of your Rage while doing it. It does respectable damage, but can be hit more often than Shield Slam. I found in high-Rage situations I’d alternate between Bloodthirst and Heroic Strike while waiting for Victory Rush (and Execute) to proc.
Blood Craze helps out with the self-healing, giving back more than Bloodthirst but less than Victory Rush.
And, while I’d been farming the Arena Grand Master trinket, I’m glad I didn’t rely on it while soloing. Dual Swift Hands of Justice provided increased DPS on top of healing on Killing Blows, giving a lot of small heals to offset the incoming damage.
The Cruel Barb refused to drop for me for a long time, so I spent a lot of time practicing how to solo Van Cleef as a Fury warrior. I made a video on one of the early attempts that shows how the spec plays as a solo artist.
Yes, it is totally as much fun as it looks.
(I did speed up the video, because even a run with no wipes is about 30 minutes long. It’s not RFC. You can play Yakity Sax in the background for full comedic effect.)
I kept running it, and what kept impressing me was how out-of-whack damage seemed. I was able to 1-shot normal mobs with regularity, and elites were lucky if they lasted 5 seconds. I know that I’m twinked for maximum damage, but there were times that I’d pull off a 1513 Execute crit and know that levels were out of whack. (The 700-800 Victory Rush crits were even better, to be honest – most of Execute’s damage comes as overkill.) I fully agree with Zarhym’s assessment that combat times in the lower levels are too short, and that it’s not PvP we’re talking about here. PvE is totally unbalanced at the lower levels right now.
Anyhow, after a dozen runs or so, the second Barb finally dropped. By then I was ready for something different, so I took Cynderblock back out into the wide world and picked up questing in those areas that are going to be changed in a few weeks. Most notably: Darkshore and Ashenvale.
"So, they sell insurance in this tower? I don't think they get a lot of foot traffic out here..."
Aside from wanting to complete as many quests as possible with Cynderblock, there was one quest chain in particular I wanted to finish – The Tower of Althalaxx, which I remember being a total PITA trying to do at level 30. I admit, I’m juvenile, and I’ve refused to call that tower by its proper name ever since I got there – this is the Tower of Aflac, and I quack “AFLAC!” at it every time I have to deal with it.
Well, the Tower of AFLAC has a pretty nice quest reward, Seraph’s Strike, a sword with good DPS and Spirit, useful for health regeneration. I figured I’d pick it up before it vanished in the Cataclysm, and bang out the Darkshore/Ashenvale quests while I’m at it. (You have gotten your Furbolg wand, right?)
Only… wait a minute.
Lower level items have had their stats rearranged, and… woah.
Did all that Spirit get converted into Hit? Like, are you kidding me? +10 Hit on a 2-hander?
Having that much Hit (4.72% at level 19) is huge for DPS. Huge. It knocks off nearly the entire Miss column for at-level targets, and makes hitting higher-level mobs much, much easier. Good for twinks, good for levelers… this is a good sword. A really good sword.
How good is it?
Well, I pulled out my DPS spreadsheet (not ready for primetime, that’s another post) and plugged in the new numbers. Wow.
Pre-Crit, Seraph’s Strike has a white DPS of 22.54, greater than Glacial Stone (22.25) and Smite’s Mighty Hammer (21.29). The Hammer might make more sense for boosting attack power, and the Stone puts out solid DPS numbers, but the Strike now gives a great blend of both.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m enjoying the heck out of Fury, but I may have to go Arms and try out a 2-Handed build just to see how this sword performs before the damage nerfs come in.
Anyhow. Warriors are still doing fine. PvP is broken as a whole right now, don’t worry about it. Aggro is hard because damage is too high. We’ve lost some tools, but gained new ones.
And Cynderblock has her groove back.
Cynderblock readies her shield for an incoming attack in Darkshore.
The original title of this post was “What Is This I Don’t Even,” because the changes to Warriors are that extensive.
To say that Warriors have changed at level 19 is an understatement. Everyone has changed in 4.0.1, don’t get me wrong, but Cynderblock is completely different now than she was in Wrath.
I mentioned this on the Gaming Worlds Collide blogcast, but the biggest difference is the influence of choosing your specialization at level 10. Before, one of the defining features of early play was that you weren’t specialized – Fire vs. Frost was the wrong question. Twinks looked across the talent board, not down it. You’d pick the best abilities suited for a particular job.
No longer. Now you are a Frost Mage, a Destruction Warlock, a Subtlety Rogue, all starting at level 10. And for Warriors, that opens up options we didn’t have before (Fury Dual Wielding!) but takes away some of the flexibility we enjoyed with hybrid talent builds. Protection Warriors get Shield Slam, which is a great primary attack and buff dispeller all in one, but at level 19 it lacks the synergies it gets later on with Sword and Board.
But all of this comes at a cost. Across all classes, abilities have been moved around, giving a better distribution as you level, but also removing a lot of the complexities I enjoyed with the Warrior class. To sum up the changes to level 19 Warriors:
The specializations give some interesting abilities, don’t get me wrong. But let’s just look at the above changes to see how the playstyle has been altered at level 19.
RAGE
The biggest single issue is Rage. Warriors are supposed to generate Rage before a fight through their shouts (which no longer cost Rage), but those are not available at this level. So what generates Rage?
Now, you do seem to gain more rage by just hitting things in combat than before. That’s the good news. But unless you can get off a Charge, you’re not going to have enough Rage to unload burst damage in PvP. You will gain Rage in combat at a decent rate, but forget the days of unloading Heroic Strikes, Thunder Claps and Revenge on targets. You are going to have to manage your Rage very carefully.
The previous advice of binding Heroic Strike to everything? Ditch it. Heroic Strike only to dump Rage. That’s it.
Rage starvation is the single biggest issue you’re going to have to deal with on your lowbie warrior until you hit 20. Get used to Charging and using your abilities sparingly.
THE LOST ABILITIES
Losing Hamstring hurts in PvP. A tried and true Warrior tactic in WSG was to spam Hamstring on targets to proc your weapon’s enchant as well as slow people down. Hamstringing the FC was what you did.
Now, the Shamans and Druids have better speedy forms, and Warriors have no way to slow them down. Forget taking out the FC now.
As a Protection Warrior, I loved having Revenge as my primary damage dealer. It lit up all the time while tanking and PvPing, and I’d hit that button every chance I could. Like Overpower, it’s gone, and there’s no equivalent replacement.
Losing the Shouts means that we’ve lost both a buff and a debuff. Demo Shout was very useful both for AoE tanking situations when TC was on cooldown, but also against melee classes in WSG. You used to get Demo Shout up to slow down Rogues and the like against you, just like you’d put up Thunder Clap’s debuff. No more. The fact that Rage generation is now tied into these abilities is just icing on the cake.
I’m lost without Shield Bash. I think this was what confused me the most when I tried to PvP on ‘block recently – I had no more interrupts. I couldn’t stop level 10 Holy Paladins from casting, so they were invulnerable. Interrupts are important! Now those stupid Druids of the Fang will be able to run roughshod over the rest of my party with Sleep spells, and I have no way to stop that. Wailing Caverns runs are going to be hard without those interrupts.
THE NEW STUFF
Okay, so Warriors have lost a lot of their toolbox in 4.0.1. What have they gained?
I think the abilities you gain from choosing your spec are great for their respective roles; but when taken in the context of all the missing abilities, Warriors are hurting right now.
TANKING
I used to pride myself on my ability to tank low-level instances with Cynderblock. She could roll through them like a freight train, a rock of aggro that made Deadmines look like Heroic UK to folks in HM ICC25 gear.
No more. I’m superbly geared and struggling to hold aggro, which means low level LFD is going to suck for a while for normal tanks. If equivalently-geared DPS starts up too soon, I can’t get aggro back. If someone AoEs mobs before I’ve TC/Rended them, I will not have enough Rage to do anything to save you. You’re going to see me slamming Taunt and Shield Slam in a frantic effort to save you, but it’s likely DPS is going to die.
This is a very different experience than I’m used to. Perhaps it will get better with time; changes, dramatic changes, are coming to the low-level instances.
But right now, tanking has gone from an exercise in confidence to the same, frustrating experience I have tanking Heroics at level 80. That’s not a good thing.
PVP
The 19 twink bracket of Warsong Gulch is a hot mess right now. Rogues are doing huge, HUGE amounts of burst damage out of stealth. Casters are also doing massive burst damage (see: Destro Locks and Fire Mages). Hunters are still potent, with those freakin’ bats EVERYWHERE.
But it’s the level 10 Holy Paladins who are beating everyone in sight.
Level 10 twinking is not a new thing, but with recent buffs to Resilience and how abilities scale at level 10 and under, level 10 twinks are practically unkillable now. Damage mitigation is through the roof, which negates their smaller health totals, and the out of combat regeneration is amazing. It’s like a free reset if they get OOC.
Making them is pretty straightforward:
And I don’t think this is going away anytime soon. Level 10 characters are more resistant and scale better than level 19s, though level 19s have more abilities and health. Both Psynister and I are trying out this brave new world, because nothing is worse than a level 10 Holy Pally in WSG right now. Nothing.
CHANGE HAPPENS
Things don’t look very optimistic for Warriors right now in the level 19 PvP bracket or lowbie tanking. Warriors have gone from being a very good class for both to average, or below average. That’s okay. There’s a lot of things changing in Azeroth in the next few weeks, and the low-level experience is definitely one of them.
Leveling is one of the not-so-subtle motivators used within Warcraft. The game rewards it; more abilities, more power, more cool talents, more range. Expecting to balance around crazy people like me who park at a given level is unreasonable.
But the way classes play at low levels is fundamentally different now. My experience with Cynderblock (and talking to endgame warriors about her) shows just how different things can be. I know that whatever leveling advice I could give you on Warlocks (my main’s class) is now invalid. Things are very, very different.
It will just take some getting used to at level 19.
Cynderblock takes a moment to appreciate Eversong Woods.
A funny thing happened to me during my time playing Cynderblock as a Horde; I rediscovered the joy of questing.
Not leveling, mind you, but questing – seeing the World of Warcraft through the stories told through the quests you’re asked to do by various people. Leveling is different; the slow accumulation of skills, gear, and abilities through gaining experience is entirely different from just wandering around stepping into people’s narratives.
While questing is almost always the most efficient way to level, it’s not the only way. But they’d gotten conflated in my mind, and it was good to be reminded that the two activities are very different.
Silverpine, where Tauren go to take a break from the Barrens.
It turns out that I don’t like leveling. Or, more accurately, I don’t like leveling without a purpose. If I set a goal – get my banker to this level so I can get my tradeskills up to this other level, or level up to 19 to start building a new twink – I can usually do okay. But my server friends will tell you that I’ve rolled dozens of alts, gotten them to their teens, and then deleted them, all because I don’t feel there’s a purpose behind them. I get bored.
With Cynderblock, that was not a problem. She’s XP-locked, never to leave level 19. Her skills are all maxed (except Fishing, but it’s good enough to get her a Hat.) Her gear is literally the best it can be, for nearly every situation she can be in. And since I’d never quested or leveled completely through any of the Horde zones, I was really enjoying doing every quest I could find, experiencing the other side through her eyes.
So... where ARE the ropes? And shouldn't there be a counterweight?
Then I looked at my reputation tab, and saw that hey, I’m actually racking up quite a bit of reputation here. Maybe I could go for Ambassador!
Wait, what?
THE REPUTATION PROBLEM AT LEVEL 19
Strange Tauren in a Strange Land.
The Ambassador title is rewarded for bringing all five of your faction’s city reputations to Exalted. The strategy for it is actually pretty simple:
Once you have an epic mount and are level 50 or so, this is pretty simple and just takes time to do the quests. The key is the repeatable Runecloth quest – with it, all you have to do is farm stacks of Runecloth and turn them in for small rep gains. For some of the less-represented factions – Gnomes and Trolls – this makes it so you don’t have to worry about finding every last quest. This quest becomes available at level 50, while the other ones open up at various earlier levels.
At level 80, getting Ambassador is even easier due to the Argent Tournament. Champion’s Writs can be turned in for 250 reputation, so you can just do dailies to get your reputation up to Exalted. It’s really an easy way to get your home faction reps up if you’re already at 80 without Ambassador.
But Cynderblock is not level 50, or level 80. She’s level 19. And the problem at level 19 is that there just aren’t enough quests to generate the reputation she needs. Consider the steps above:
I may not have Plainsrunning, but at least I have speed enchants.
Wowhead has some great filters that let you determine how much reputation you can get with a given faction. Here they are, broken apart by continent, filtered for level 19s:
I’ve included the World Events because you might get lucky with your timing. One thing about doing this right now, pre-Cataclysm, is that the troll quests reward reputation, while the gnome ones do not. This makes me scratch my head a bit, just because of the nature of those quests. (Taking a package to a random gnome should not reward more rep than liberating their home city.)
If you take a look at all of these quests, you’ll find that you can get to Revered with most all of your factions, but not Exalted. It can’t be done with 5 factions; the numbers just aren’t there.
So the only logical solutions are to add more quests, or add more factions. Since the only way to add more quests is to wait for Cataclysm (a viable option, by the way), changing factions was the way to go.
FACTION CHANGING MAKES YOU POPULAR
Barrens Chat was surprisingly quiet.
When I faction changed Cynderblock to get BiS gear, I didn’t consider reputation. I looked at base stats (to maximize twinking) and a general sense of who ‘block was, and came up with two options: Orc or Tauren.
(I admit, it’s a little strange seeing the Alliance Knight’s Colors appear on Horde races.)
I went with Tauren, which turned out to be an extremely lucky choice later on. However, one thing to keep in mind is that Blood Elves are the only race with a completely restricted starting (1-5) area. There are no quests there for other Horde members, so your Silvermoon City reputation will always lag behind if you’re not a Blood Elf. ‘block is a Warrior, though, and Blood Elf won’t be an option until Cataclysm comes.
Here’s the key about faction swapping: your reputation comes with you, but your quest log does not. The home city rep that you’ve gained from questing is changed into an appropriate home city rep of the other faction, but all of the new quests are still available for you to complete. By faction changing, you effectively double the number of quests available for each home city reputation grind.
In other words: instead of ~400 quests, you now have ~800 to generate reputation.
And that’s more than enough.
As a Tauren, I managed to do almost every single quest available to me, 393 in total. There *is* a repeatable quest for rep, Chen’s Empty Keg, the only repeatable quest available to level 19s that rewards reputation, but I skipped that to see if it was really necessary.
Cynderblock says goodbye to the Horde where she first loved it, in Eversong Woods.
SWITCHING BACK
Switching back to Alliance, there was one clear standout for which race I should choose:
The Human racial ability Diplomacy makes reputation grinds much, much easier. Once I’d established that the goal was Exalted or Bust, this choice was no choice at all. No matter what other stats apply, a +10% bonus to reputation gains cannot be turned down.
The last thing to consider in faction changing is how rep transfers between cities with an eye towards the weakest ones: Gnomeregan and Darkspear Trolls. Blizzard has a handy page which shows how each race’s reputations transfer to the opposite faction. I took ‘block Dwarf -> Tauren, which moved my substantial Gnome rep (I’d leveled in Dun Morogh) over to Troll, which was good. When I took ‘block from Tauren -> Human, however, my Troll rep transfered to Ironforge and my Orgrimmar went to Gnome.
Oh, the sights I've seen!
So I came out of the Horde with low Ironforge rep and really, really good Gnomer rep. (My Exodar rep was also very low because of that Blood Elf issue.)
For an ex-Dwarf, it was a bitter pill to swallow.
SPILLOVER REPUTATION
I don't have to check the signs to know where this boat is going.
I was nervous but excited when I returned to the Alliance, my 5 Revered reputations in hand. My Ironforge reputation really had me worried, so I checked Loch Modan first and discovered that I had never quested there before.
But even after exhausting the quests there, I hadn’t hit Exalted with Ironforge – not even close, really. I’d erased the Troll deficit but had a ways to go. So I went after the new lowest rep, Exodar, and went after the Draenei starting zones.
Azshara totally looks like Xtina. You know I'm right.
The key on the last stretch was spillover reputation. See, every quest you do for your five home factions gives a certain amount of rep for the city in question. You go fetch water in Mulgore? +500 Thunder Bluff reputation shows up in your log. What doesn’t show, however, is that you get 25% of that reputation to the other 4 cities, too. That 500 rep for Thunder Bluff was also 125 reputation for Org, Darkspear, SMC, and Undercity.
And if you’re Human, every single one of those spillover gains gets an additional 10% bonus.
So doing all those easy quests in every starting area pays off for you, and the more questing you can do the better off you are. Going with the starting zones introduced in Burning Crusade means you can do more questing in less time, and still be gaining rep with your other cities.
That’s what happened to me. I got Exalted with the Gnomes, Exodar, Darnassus, and Stormwind while questing in Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles.
AMBASSADOR CYNDERBLOCK
Level 19 Ambassador of the Alliance, Cynderblock
In the end, it was a fedex quest to Stormwind that got me the achievement. It awarded 250 Ironforge rep, with +25 for Diplomacy, when I was 262 away from Exalted. So I knew this quest would do it, and lined up the shot appropriately:
And there you have it.
It seems simple in retrospect, but to be honest I didn’t know if it could be done while doing it. I never broke things down into a spreadsheet, because I didn’t want to destroy my questing motivation while playing Horde. I had a lot of questions about how the quests would transfer, about how many quests I’d done on the Alliance side, and if it would work.
But it did. It’s possible. It can be done.
All that worry, for naught.
EPILOGUE
Gathering herbs in the Wetlands is best done with friends. Especially friends with choppers.
I know I’ve said this a lot, but I don’t think it can be said enough: I’ve had a lot of help in making Cynderblock the character she is. Fynralyl spent many hours helping on both the Alliance and Horde sides, running me through quests that I had no business attempting, and driving me around to pick herbs in zones where no sane level 19 considers entering. And Psynister got me into this whole twinking business; his advice and help have been invaluable.
Thank you both.
The Dungeon Finder tool is really great for twinking. Instances with their great loot are readily available, the Satchel of Helpful Goods contains great loot for a 19 twink, and you don’t have to walk to get there.
The problem, usually, is finding a group that can run the dungeon without falling apart. Cynwyn, my Mage twink, has yet to run Wailing Caverns all the way through.
Cynderblock, my twink Warrior tank, however, has no such problems.
I didn’t expect to turn Cynderblock into a full-time tank. My original goal was to make a PvP warrior for WSG. But after running several dungeons with Psynister, the value of having an at-level Protection Warrior optimized for tanking became clear.
And man, is she awesome fun to play.
The early instances – RFC, VC, WC, SFK – are fairly forgiving on new tanks. There are some difficult pulls in each, especially WC’s caster mobs, but a decent tank can manage.
A twink tank, though? A twink tank can chain pull like you see in heroics.
Warriors have the best time of it at level 19 because of their AoE threat generation through Thunderclap and deep tanking toolkit. Paladin tanks suffer without Consecrate, and Druids don’t have much beyond Swipe and taunt, though at least they have Swipe and Taunt!
Let’s look at how Cynderblock is set up.
TALENTS
I’m still experimenting a lot with Cynderblock’s talents. Right now she’s got 10 points in the Protection tree:
I’m considering moving the point of Incite over to Anticipation to get more Dodge, and from more Dodge more Revenge. I’m also considering putting two points in Armored to the Teeth, just because she’s so loaded with armor… but for now I’ll stay 0/0/10.
PLAYSTYLE
If you look at Cynderblock’s glyphs, you’ll see I set her up with the Glyph of Resonating Power and Glyph of Thunder Clap. That should give you a clue what her primary weapon is when tanking — Thunder Claps, and lots of them.
Low-level warrior tanking is somewhat straightforward.
To do #7 I use the relatively straightforward expedient of binding Revenge to my Thunder Clap and Sunder Armor keys, like so:
#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Thunder Clap
/cast [stance:1] Overpower; [stance:2] Revenge
This lets me use the same macro in both Battle and Defensive stances and trigger the appropriate ability.
The constant AoE threat generated by Thunder Clap helps keeps mobs focused on you. (You’ll also do a huge amount of damage, because not many classes have AoE skills at 19.) Keep the Sunders flowing out, and hit Revenge when you need. Keep Taunt and Mocking Blow ready if someone gets uppity, and Heroic Strike in those rare cases Revenge is not available.
One note about Revenge — it is only available after you Dodge, Parry, or Block an attack, making it the perfect counterattack since you’ll be avoiding a lot of attacks. It holds a mob’s attention as well as Sunder Armor, if not a little better, and it dishes out the pain.
There are things I miss about playing a DPS warrior — Charge, Heroic Strike, Victory Rush, Overpower. But the Prot style is a lot of fun, and the more mobs you pull, the more buttons you get to push.
GEAR
Gearing a twink tank is pretty straightforward. You want Stamina for a big health pool, Armor and Agility for damage mitigation/avoidance, and Strength for threat production. You can get Defense from the Satchel with …of the Champion gear, and while you’ll never be Defense-capped, it helps out a lot.
Keep in mind that Dodge and Parry are important not only to lessen damage taken, but also to proc Revenge. Revenge is very important as your Rage dump. Use it instead of Heroic Strike. Seriously.
Here’s a quick rundown of the gear I think you should get.
HEAD
Lucky Fishing Hat (+15 Stam) is still the best you can get. 150 health from your hat is awesome, but you will need to fish in STV to get this. Otherwise, the Green Tinted Goggles (+8 Stam, +7 Spirit) should be considered standard equipment.
NECK
The Agility on the WSG Sentinel’s/Scout’s Medallion (+2 Stam, +6 Agi) edges it over the Thick Bronze Necklace (+3 Stam), even though you lose 10 health in the trade. The additional Dodge makes up for it while tanking, though I’d keep the crafted necklace around for when you want to Stamina stack and impress your friends.
SHOULDERS
I prefer the BoA Strengthened Stockade Pauldrons (+5 Str, +7 Stam, +5 Resilience) from Wintergrasp for tanking. The PvE BoA Polished Spaulders of Valor (+6 Str, +6 Stam, +6 Crit) give you Crit instead of reducing your chance to be critted, and are slightly weaker for tanking.
If you don’t have access to BoA equipment, I’d go with Serpent’s Shoulders (+9 Agi), Rough Bronze Shoulders (+3 Str, +4 Stam), or Double-Stitched Woolen Shoulders (+5 Stam). Have something there, at least!
BACK
The new Tumultuous Cloaks dropping from the Satchel of Helpful Things are great. You may need to run a lot of dungeons to get the ones you want, but hey, you’re the tank, right?
For tanks, I’d go with … of the Champion (+4 Str, +4 Stam, +4 Defense) if at all possible. The Defense contributes to your Parry and Dodge chances and offsets the lower Stamina and Strength contributions of this cloak.
Other great satchel cloaks include … of Stamina (+8 Stam), … of the Monkey (+5 Stam, +5 Agi) or …of the Bear ( +5 Str, +5 Stam).
The previous BiS cloak, the Sentry Cloak (+5 Agi, +4 Stam) isn’t really worth the money you’ll have to spend to get it, given that the Monkey cloak is superior. The Subterranean Cape (+4 Str, +4 Agi) and Glowing Lizardscale Cloak (+6 Agi, +2 Stam) are good drops, but not your end goal as a warrior tank.
Enchant it with +70 Armor or +3 Agi. I prefer Armor, personally.
CHEST
I’m torn here. I think the Blackened Defias Armor (+4 Str, +3 Agi, +11 Stam) is probably the best tanking chestpiece, even though it’s leather and lower armor than some of the other options.
But it looks so UGLY on my dwarf!
Armor of the Fang (+8 Str, +8 Stam) and the BoA Polished Breastplate of Valor (+7 Str, +7 Stam, +6 Crit) are both good options for PvP and for looks. The BoA brings the most Armor of any piece listed here, 197. That’s more than 100 more Armor than the BDA and AotF.
I’ve seen the Tunic of Westfall (+8 Agi, +3 Stam) listed on some Warrior gear lists, but you should never get it. It’s a quest reward from the same Alliance quest as the one that gives you the Chausses of Westfall, which you should definitely take instead. More on that later.
The only other piece to consider is Toughened Leather Armor (+13 Stam), but those extra 20 health will cost you 4 Strength and 3 Agility. These are better for druid tanks or if you’re trying to win a health pool contest. Otherwise, skip ’em.
For tanking you’ll want the +100 health enchant. The +4 All Stats one is a decent secondary option – possibly better for PvP, but probably not for tanking.
WRISTS
While the Cavedweller Bracers (+3 Str, +4 Stam, 71 Armor) are good all-purpose bracers that drop in RFC and will serve you well in both tanking and PvP, two quest rewards – the Beetle Clasps (+5 Stam, +2 Agi, 83 Armor, Alliance) and Steel-clasped Bracers (+6 Stam, +1 Spirit, 85 Armor, Horde) – surpass them as tanking bracers. I think the Beetle Clasps edge out the Steel-Clasped Bracers by a very narrow margin.
The +9 Stamina enchant is the tanking enchant to use here; the +9 Strength is very good for PvP, but it’s hard to justify the loss of 90 health.
HANDS
Thorbia’s Gauntlets (+8 Str, +3 Stam) are the clear winner here. These are great gauntlets that are a random world drop and often sold on the AH. There are some quest rewards (Hulking Gauntlets, Sandspire Gloves, Corin’s Handguards) that are adequate replacements while leveling but don’t come close to Thorbia’s attack power.
I think the +15 Agility enchantment is okay if you’re low on Dodge; otherwise, I prefer the +7 Strength enchant due to the attack power and Block bonuses.
WAIST
The belts out of the Satchel of Helpful Things again are excellent items for this slot. Warrior tanks should get Earthbound Girdle of the Champion (+5 Str, +5 Stam, +5 Defense), … of the Bear (+6 Str, +6 Stam), or … of Stamina (+10 Stamina).
The previous best in slot item, the Deviate Scale Belt (+5 Agi, +6 Stam) is still excellent (and can be crafted for you), but as a leather item it lacks the armor of the Earthbound Girdles. Cobrahn’s Grasp (+8 Str, +3 Agi) is a great mail belt but the lack of Stamina makes it less attractive than many of the other options for either PvP or tanking.
LEGS
The Chausses of Westfall (+5 Stam, +11 Str, 173 Armor, Alliance) are the best you can get, but they’re a quest reward on the Alliance side. They are superior to the leather Leggings of the Fang (+5 Str, +9 Agi, +4 Stam, 79 Armor) in due to the Strength and Armor bonuses offsetting the Agility of the Leggings.
This is the first slot where I’d say it’s worth faction changing your tank to get gear. They’re that good.
A less attractive, but still good option, are the Mighty Chain Pants (+5 Str, +5 Stam) or any of the green mail leggings … of the Bear (+5 Str, +5 Stam). All of these are BoEs and can handle a better armor enchant (Heavy Armor Kit, +24 Armor) than the BoPs (Medium Armor Kit, +16 Armor).
FEET
The Savage Trodders (+9 Stam, 134 Armor) have the edge on two key stats over the Silver-linked Footguards (+7 Stam, +3 Str, 129 Armor), but I’m not convinced that they’re better tanking boots. I don’t know, maybe I just like how they look?
Fine. I’ll go switch to the Savage Trodders. /brb.
For tanking the +7 Stamina enchant is superior to the speed enchant I’d normally recommend for PvP. Speed boosts aren’t needed in low-level instances.
FINGERS
The best tanking ring you can equip is the Seal of Sylvanas (+8 Stam, +3 Str, Horde), followed by the Seal of Wrynn (+3 Str, +3 Agility, +4 Stam, +4 Int, +3 Spi, Alliance).
Unfortunately, to get them both, you have to faction change. The Seal of Sylvanas is so good you should seriously consider it. The Seal of Wrynn is less attractive, but if you faction change for the Chausses of Westfall, you should pick this up too while you’re over there.
The next best rings you can get are the WSG PvP awards, Protector’s Band / Legionnaire’s Band (+4 Str, +4 Agi, +2 Stam). They’re identical and a good second ring if you don’t want to faction change.
The Blood Ring (+5 Stam) is an acceptable ring to use while gearing up.
TRINKETS
It’s a bit of a grind, but the Arena Grand Master (+12 Stam, on-use absorption bubble) is the best trinket at the level, bar none. But it’s admittedly not the easiest trinket to get, so here are some other options.
The BoA Inherited Insignia of the Alliance/Horde and regular Insignia of the Alliance/Horde is great for breaking out of stuns, which don’t happen very often but can be disastrous to the group if you lose aggro. The Inherited version has 6 Resilience at level 19, which is about 1% crit reduction.
The other BoA trinket option, the Swift Hand of Justice (+6 Haste, heal on killing blow) is very attractive for tanking, especially if you run with two of them. They provide a slight boost to your DPS and a small stream of healing while fighting packs of trash. They’re not nearly as impressive on a warrior as they are on a caster, but they’re still good options.
Finally, the Minor Recombobulator is an acceptable option for swapping out with your PvP trinket if you need to help out your healer or other party member. There aren’t any polymorphing mobs in these dungeons (though the Druids of the Fang and their sleep spells can bite me), so that use effect is wasted, but the health/mana restoration can be helpful. Think of it as a minor Innervate!
RANGED
You’re not going to be using your ranged weapon very often as a twink tank — occasional pulls at best — so stats should determine your choice here. The Hand of Argus Crossfire (+1 Agi, +1 Stam, Alliance) is the best to get for a tank, beating out the Thick Bronze Darts (+2 Str) and Throat Piercers (+2 Agi). Those two have definite value in PvP, but the defensive value of the Crossfire trumps them here. If you’re Horde and not willing to faction change, it’s a tossup between the other two. The Thick Bronze Darts will help your AP and Block value, while the Throat Piercers will help your Dodge. I’d give the edge slightly to the Darts.
The BoA ranged weapons don’t help us much here. The Charmed Ancient Bone Bow (+1 Hit, +1 Crit, +5 AP) and Upgraded Dwarven Hand Cannon (+1 Resil, +2 Crit, +3 AP) just don’t give us the tanking stats we need.
You should still put a +2 damage scope on your ranged weapon, if it can take it.
MAIN HAND
Choosing your main hand weapon can be tricky because some races will have Expertise bonuses for specific weapon types.
My dwarf uses the BoA Venerable Mass of McGowan (+4 Stam, +3 Agi, +4 AP, +2 Crit) in her main hand, increasing her Dodge while letting her benefit from her racial bonus.
Before the Mass she used Butcher’s Slicer (+4 Str, +3 Stam), which I think was little bit better than the Night Watch Shortsword (+4 Stam) because of the added strength. The Night Watch Shortsword looks so good though, that were I playing a human I’d probably prefer it over the Slicer for tanking. These two swords are better than the WSG rewards, the Protector’s/Legionnaire’s Sword (+4 Str, +2 Stam).
Another BoA worth mentioning is the Sharpened Scarlet Kris (+4 Stam, +6 AP, +3 Resil). I know, warriors tanking with daggers? If we’re going to go down that road, we might should also look at the Horde-only Dawnblade (+5 Stamina), normally used as a caster MH. I can’t recommend this (though I’ve seen it in the wild) because of the effects of Normalization on your DPS.
Good tanking axes are hard to find at this level. I’d go with Smite’s Reaver (+2 Str, +3 Stam, +2 Hit) or the crafted Bronze Axe (+3 Stam) if I was set on using an axe to capture the Orc racial bonus. But that bonus won’t overcome the lack of stats on these weapons.
The debate about the best twink enchant for your weapon rages on, but the contenders for tanking are: Crusader, Lifestealing, Fiery Weapon, and +15 Agility. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. I prefer Crusader on my weapons because of the massive damage bonus it gives to all of my abilities when it procs. Lifestealing can lessen the load on your healer. Fiery Weapon generates a lot of threat, and +15 Agility can push your Dodge rating nice and high.
I’ll leave it at: I recommend Crusader, but can see the point of all the other enchants, too.
SHIELD
The PvP shield of choice is the Redbeard Crest (+6 Str, +3 Stam, 547 Armor, 11 Block). It’s the only shield under consideration with Strength on it, which makes it appealing for the boost to Block in addition to attack power. Because Warriors convert 2 points of Strength to 1 point of Block Value, the Redbeard Crest has an effective Block of 14.
However, the Armor on the Crest is low compared to the Arctic Buckler (+3 Stam, +8 Spirit, +5 Frost Resistance, 642 Armor, 13 Block). And that Armor is critical. From a tank’s perspective, you’re looking at exchanging 95 Armor for 1 Block and 12 AP. For Cynderblock, 95 Armor about 2.15% damage reduction from armor or — assuming she gets hit by mobs doing 50 damage with each swing — about 1.4 Block.
So the Arctic Buckler is a better shield for damage mitigation, though not for threat generation — the 12 AP is not trivial at this level. But if your threat gen is okay, it’s definitely the better shield.
The final contender is the Horde-only Deadskull Shield (+1 Str, +7 Stam, 611 Armor, 12 Block). This is the Stamina-stacker’s shield, with good armor and block and a boatload of Stamina. The Arctic Buckler gives about 1% more damage reduction for the cost of 40 health.
I think the Buckler edges out the Deadskull Shield just barely here, but just barely, and only because Armor is so damn good. If you’re Horde, you should get both — just to be safe.
DON’T FORGET THE DRINKS
Just like in PvP, the one buff you should make sure you always have active is the food buff from Rumsey Rum Black Label. Tanking while mildly intoxicated gives you a +15 Stamina bonus.
The fact that Cynderblock is a Dwarf has nothing to do with this. Honest.
*whistles innocently*
IT’S OKAY TO OVERGEAR THE INSTANCE
You know, I really expected the gear section to be a lot shorter than it turned out to be. I don’t know why; gear decisions at any level are difficult, and there are very few cues at level 19 as to what constitutes a tanking item versus a DPS item.
But once you build up your tank set, you’ll find that the lowbie instances become a heck of a lot of fun to run. (Yes, even Wailing Caverns.) You can be as aggressive with your pulls as your healer can handle. You’ve done your job properly in gearing for damage avoidance and mitigation. You’ve given yourself an insane health pool for the level — Cynderblock is at 1600, with buffs she’s usually around 1750-1850. Even a bad healer can keep her up and running with relative ease.
And best of all, you know that you will never have a fail tank in your group.
That’s really the best feeling of all.
I was surprised at how fun Warriors are to play. I mean, they have no spells per se, no healing, are entirely dependant on gear – but they can also be completely disruptive, formidable opponents on the battlefield. And the joys of Charge are visceral and deep; rushing across the field to stun your opponent, closing the gap in the blink of an eye, is a heck of a lot of fun.
I rolled a Warrior a bit on a lark; I knew I had the heirlooms for one, having outfitted a DK and Paladin earlier. I was a little bored with rolling humans, so I picked a dwarven lass with red braids and a long ponytail. And because I was feeling especially whimsical, I named her Cynderblock. Obviously not her dwarven name, Cynderblock had all the right connotations for an unstoppable tank while following my Durotan naming convention. I don’t go with non-realistic names very often, but for a twink I can usually justify it to myself. In this case, it’s a custom from her clan to not reveal their true names to non-dwarves.
Hey, that works, right?
So I’ve had an absolute blast playing Cynderblock in both the leveling bracket of WSG, where she has topped some damage charts since level 12, and PuG tanking some instances for gear, which is OMG SCARY for a DPS/PVPer like me. I have tanked on my Druid before, but it was always with friends and guildmates. Tanking with a PuG is an entirely different ballgame. In some ways I’m glad that I’ve frozen my experience, so that I can really get to understand how to use the abilities I have in some detail. I saw this on my DK, Cynwulf, who was an awesome tank at level 59 because I knew exactly what abilities did what and how to use them to keep the group alive. Frozen XP gives you time to really learn the abilities you have.
I’m really glad I’m on Twitter, because all you have to do is admit your own cluelessness about a class and you can have experienced experts give you advice right away. I like playing my Warrior, but I don’t know a lot about tanking, so I asked and got the following advice:
I was pointed to the excellent So You Want To Be A Prot Warrior guide over at Panzercow’s blog, which is going into my bookmarks now. Yessss… a clue, I have it! I cannot wait to get into the DF queue tonight and start running for some gear! (First up, Deadmines, because I need the Chausses of Westfall.)
Right. I know that I started off saying I was going to be twinking for WSG, but … c’mon! Dungeon Finder! Tanking Deadmines and SFK! It’s fun too!
…
You’re not buying it, are you?
Oh well. Yes, I like tanking. I enjoy setting the pace of the group and being the one in the center of attention. Twinking isn’t just about PvP, though it is often about it — it’s about playing as best as you can at a certain level of play, and that includes PvE too. There’s no reason I can’t have the best of both worlds.
So I will. 🙂
Right. Where was I? Oh, Cynderblock. Her gear is coming along nicely — I’ve switched out the Reforged Truesilver Champion for the Night Watch Shortsword / Redbeard Crest sword-and-board combo, with Crusader and Stamina enchants. I’ve got the Blackened Defias Armor, which has awesome stats even if it is leather, and Thorbia’s Gauntlets.
A nice surprise was in the Satchel of Helpful Things: the Earthbound Girdle of the Champion, with +5 Strength, +5 Stamina, and +5 Defense Rating. I think the …of the Bear might be better for WSG (+6 Strength, +6 Stamina). One of the reasons I want to run a lot of instances is for the great cloak and belt options available with the random dungeon, so I can try out different stat combinations.
Anyhow.
This is my Warrior. There are many like her, but this one is mine.
And I have a lot of fun playing her.
Green Tinted Goggles 