Shay Shays Retarded Prot War Guide, part 2

Part two of my tanking series. This week...

2) Threat generation and damage mitigation.

The big thing in prot war tanking is knowing how to prioritize abilities to put out as much threat as possible while simultaneously not taking more damage than you need to. Ill split it up into two catagories and try to tie them together at then end, but remember that playing a prot war well involves a complex combination of watching buff and debuff lists, threat meters, enemy nameplates, target of target, along with many other features which may or may not be an element of your UI.

Threat)
There are specific threat values for each ability, some are higher than others, and two categories of threat abilities; AOE and single target. In general, AOE threat is much less efficient than single target, and AOE abilities are best used with holding extra mobs on you while you tank a main target. Here are the various threat abilities in approximate order of threat:

AOE)
- Shockwave
- Thunderclap
- Cleave
- Demoralizing Shout
- Buffs

AOE tanking is best to start with thunderclap to begin slowing attack speeds on you, do a decent amount of threat, and most importantly, collect mobs on you in close proximity. Following tclap with a Shockwave generates even more threat, and gives you a moment to situate yourself and let your healer react to any spike damage you may have taken. Follow this with a demo shout, and voila. You are taking minimum damage without using shield block or trinkets. At the same time, you more than enough threat to prevent any mob from getting pulled off by healing aggro or basic aoe abilities. Spamming cleave rather than heroic strike is useful for aoe tanking, as well as using Tclap and Shockwave whenever they are available. Spamming cleave however will burn through your rage very quickly unless you are taking a lot of damage or have blessing of sanctuary on you, so be careful. Where applicable, considering tab-targeting or clicking different targets to apply a few sunders while continuing to use Tclap and Shockwave. If you do these right, you should be able to hold the mobs on you no problem. Make sure you mark a skull and X so people know which order to dps in. While your aoe threat generation should be decent, it wont hold a target you arnt focused on for long, so you want to make sure you know which targets to build threat on.

Single Target)
- Revenge
- Shield Slam
- Heroic Throw
- Concussion Blow
- Devastate
- Heroic Strike


Single target threat generation is fairly simple. Essentially follow the priority list above, but try to be using a threat ability whenever GCD is up, even if it falls lower on the threat list. Most of the time i find myself spamming certain buttons, but if you are able to slow down and watch all your abilities and when they are available, you can generate ridiculous amounts of threat. Devastate and heroic strike are your bread and butter for threat generation, but you also need to realize that shield slam and revenge are going to become active all the time, and should be used whenever they are. Shield slam is one of the highest threat moves in the game, and with Sword and Board, you get it free pretty damn often. Revenge is a pretty good threat ability, and if you have all rage reduction talents, it costs you i think 2 rage. Almost any threat is good at only 2 rage, and revenge is very good threat. Concussion blow and heroic throw are good threat, but not really necessary unless you are scrambling for threat or need to CC something for a bit. tanking in raids is actually easier than heroics imo, because there is less to worry about, you take more damage so you get more rage, and with more range its easier to dump rage into those big threat abilities. The less rage you have, the more tactically you need to ration your abilities, but like I said, stick to a basic priority and you should be fine.

Mitigation)
Damage mitigation is pretty simple. There are a few abilities you need to know about and when to use.
- Tank trinkets: use when you need that extra bit of avoidance, like during enrages or when your healer DCs in the middle of a Kel'Thuzad fight.
- Shield block: Use when you would a trinket and you need to make sure you bump up your avoidance.
-Thunderclap/Demoralizing Should: Always keep up whenever you have any meele mobs on you. No reason you need to take an extra 20% meele dmg plus 400 attack power or so.
-Spell reflect: Awesome if you can time it, but a lot of mobs use spells that go right through it. Play with it on different mobs and see what does what.
- Shield bash: Spell interrupt. Not tied to GCD, so use whenever you can, or when needed on certain fights.
-Shockwave/Concussion blow: Great for getting a few extra seconds for your healers to get you topped off, or for interrupting spells when shield bash is on CD.

Mitigation doesn't need a heirarchy of abilities to use, just make sure you keep up tclap/demo shout, and use the other stuff when its needed. Thats really all there is to it. Try keeping key buttons hotkeyed, like Last Stand or your trinkets and stuff.

Next up... Execution!