Friday, October 2, 2009

The return of the Warrior

I have been playing a Paladin tank since pre-BC. Things have not always been good for the Paladin tank, but I have always enjoyed playing it and doing things that people said that we couldn't do. I also have a 70 druid that I have tanked some 5-mans with.


Having read just about everything that is available to read at Tankspot.com (and other warrior blogs), I have recently become very interested in Warrior tanking. It seemed like a completely different style of tanking than the Paladin and I have thought for a while about trying it out.



Enter Patch 3.0. I decided on patch day (after running a couple of heroics on my Paladin) to roll a warrior. Blackwulfe is his name. I am aiming at getting him to 70 before WotLK drops, but I am not sure if I will make it, as I still have a life outside of WoW and am going on vacation for a week (no WoW!) at the end of October.


So far, I have to say that I love the way the warrior class is built. It is just all around fun. I am levelling with a prot build and am tanking instances along the way. I have to say that it has been a blast, but also a real learning experience. As it stands right now, I can't wait to get to level 40 so that I can start using Sheild Slam. That just seems fun. (Originally posted on Tankspot.com 10-21-2008)


I wrote this in mid-October of 2008. How have things evolved since then? Well, I only got my warrior up to 67 by the time WotLK hit. Then I found myself being completely sucked into the gameplay of the expansion. So he sat at 67 neglected for weeks. Once I got Gathorc to 80, then I started working on my druid. Once I got my druid to 80 I started working on my priest. It seems that the warrior got lost somewhere in the mix.


So a couple of weeks ago, I logged onto my warrior for the first time since WotLK released. I got him from 67 to 72 and remembered what it was I liked about him so much. Tools.


Prot warriors seem to have a tool for every situation. As a matter of fact, I am still struggling with how to best keybind all of those tools so that I have quick access to them when I need them. A prot warrior’s mobility in combat is second to none. I use this awesome one key macro (care of Veneretio@TankingTips.com) for Charge, Intercept, and Intervene. It is my “zoom” key.


In comparison to the paladin, the prot warrior just feels so much more involved and interactive. I can do the “969” rotation with my paladin in my sleep. With my warrior, I have to stay on my toes at all times. Is revenge lit up? Has Sword and Board proc’d? Shouts? Thunderclap? It just seems like there is so much stuff going on. Like there are never enough global cooldowns to do everything you need to do. It is a challenge. And I like a challenge.


I figure that I will have my warrior up to 80 within a week or two.


Anyone on Eitrigg up for a PUG Naxx/Ulduar?