Updating the Guide (Warrior)

[Ciderhelm]

I'm making a fairly large update to the guide at the moment and will post in on the Warrior forums in not too long. This will have a much larger "Reference" section that will be frontloaded for easy access. I will post portions of it as they are complete to this thread.

Many portions of this are incomplete as they are posted. Fair warning. :)

[Ciderhelm]

0.5 Threat & Threat Values

Threat
Threat should not be looked at as an arcane, mysterious entity that can not be understood or put into real terms. It is based on real and understandable concepts and numbers.

Let's say that 1 Damage is equivalent to 1 Threat. For the purposes of this game, this is the best way to quantify threat, as 1 Damage will produce the equivalent of 1 Threat before any modifiers come into play. The Warrior who is tanking will always want to make sure their threat is at a higher level than the Threat of their party or raid members. Following this, the Warrior can make use of specific abilities which maximize his or her Threat potential. This is done by the intelligent use of abilities, gear, threat-producing talents, and basic positioning in relation to party members.

While 1 Damage is equivalent to 1 Threat, it takes 2 points of Healing to amount to 1 Threat. Also, Threat is only produced by effective healing -- overhealing produces no Threat.

Threat does not decay in combat. It can be reduced through the use of several mechanics such as Knockback. However, under normal circumstances Threat will never decay.


Pulling and Holding Aggro (100/110/130 Rule)
Tank (Baseline) _____________________ 100%
Melee Range Aggro ___________________ 110%
Ranged Aggro ________________________ 130%The above chart represents the balance of when a player will pull aggro from the tank. To get aggro, a player in melee range must exceed the total threat of the current player with aggro by 10%. If the player is at a range, they would have to produce 30% more threat to fully gain aggro.

This has some important implications. First, it gives you breathing room to miss a few attacks and not instantly lose aggro -- that seems to be the purpose of the 10% rule. Second, it means that ranged classes take a heavy risk by moving into melee range with a large amount of threat built up -- the mob will instantly change targets to a ranged target who moves into melee. Third, this means that tank switching can be difficult in some cases.

This is where Taunt comes in. The Warrior Taunt immediately places you at 100% aggro of whoever the highest-Threat player is on the target list for that creature. It also bypasses the 10% rule and does not require you build immediate threat. When tanking, it may be helpful to remember that you can let any player you want build Threat for you on a mob -- all you have to do is Taunt the mob to get everything they worked for and make the mob yours. This is also a good argument for Improved Taunt.


Threat from Stances, Talents, Buffs, and Classes
The following chart shows multipliers to Threat values that affect the amount of Threat players produce.
Ability Multipliers Percent Multiplier
Defensive Stance / Bear Form ________ 130% (1.3) Additive
Defiance / Feral Instinct ___________ 115% (1.15) Additive
Fury/Battle Stance __________________ 80% (0.8) Multiplicative
Rogue/Cat Form Druid ________________ 80% (0.8) Multiplicative
Blessing of Salvation _______________ 70% (0.7) Multiplicative
Tranquil Air Totem __________________ 80% (0.8) Multiplicative
Druid (Subtlety) ____________________ 80% (0.8) Multiplicative
Priest (Silent Resolve) _____________ 80% (0.8) Multiplicative
Mage (Frost Channelling) ____________ 70% (0.7) Multiplicative
Mage (Arcane Subtlety) ______________ 60% (0.6) Multiplicative
Warlock (Destructive Reach) _________ 90% (0.9) Multiplicative
Warlock (Imp. Drain Soul) ___________ 90% (0.9) MultiplicativeWhat is important to note about the above table is that any positive gains to threat are always additive, not multiplicative. For instance, if you are in Defensive Stance with Defiance, you produce 45% more Threat from your abilities as opposed to 49.5% more Threat. Multiplicative threat specifically applies only to reductions in threat.


Innate Threat
Many Warrior abilities are built around the concept of Innate, or hidden, Threat values. What this means is that abilities which neither deal Damage or Healing produces Threat on the targeted creature when used. Innate Threat never replaces Threat produced from damage; in many cases, such as with Shield Slam, Devastate, Heroic Strike and Revenge, the Damage portion of the ability produces Threat in addition to the innate value.

The following chart gives detailed Innate Threat values (many thanks to Kenco for his continued research and Lavina for her guide on WoW-Europe Warrior forums and where I pulled this updated list from):
Sunder Armor (Rank 6) [level 67]_______301
Revenge (Rank 8) [level 70]____________417
Shield Slam (Rank 6) [level 70]________307
Devastate (Rank All)___________________101
Thunder Clap (Rank All)____+150% of damage
Cleave (Rank 6) [level 68]_____________130 (split)
Disarm_________________________________104
Mocking Blow (Rank 6) [level 65]_______290
Demoralizing Shout (Rank 7) [level 70]__56 (split)
Battleshout (Rank 8) [level 69]_________69 (split)
Commanding Shout [level 68]_____________68 (split)
Hamstring (Rank 4) [level 67]__________181
Excecute (Rank All)_________+25% of damage
Spell Reflect [level 64]_________________0
Piercing Howl [level 20] ________________0
Concussion Blow [level 30]_______________0

When Threat is split as indicated above, that means it is either divided by the number of mobs affected or by the number of creatures aware of your presence. This is determined by whether the ability directly affects the creature or not. For instance, the Threat from Demoralizing Shout shout would only be split by the creatures it directly hits; however, the Threat from Commanding Shout would be split among all creatures engaged with your character.


Damage as Threat
All damage is threat; not all threat is damage. Any increase in damage will be a direct increase in threat. Threat from damage scales in specific ways.

The most obvious scaling can be seen in Shield Slam, which becomes stronger as a Warrior collects standard tanking gear with Shield Block Value.

Devastate and Normal attacks both scale from Attack Power. Though improvements in this area are generally less perceptible, they make up a significant portion of your overall threat. Devastate and Normal attacks also benefit from party and raid buffs.

Heroic Strike and Devastate scale based on Weapon Speed. However, getting faster weapons for Heroic Strike is much better in terms of net gain; Devastate is Normalized, meaning your Attack Power bonus is based on a 2.4 Speed weapon, whereas Heroic Strike is not affected by Normalization, and the fastest weapons will produce the best possible results.


Critical Strikes
Critical Strikes have no unique impact on threat. The extra threat generated from a Critical Strike is strictly from the damage produced; innate threat is not affected.

[Ciderhelm]

0.1 Answers to Oft-asked Questions
1. Shield Block still removes Crushing Blows from the combat table.

2. 490 Defense is the Defense "goal" to remove critical strikes from the combat table. Creatures cannot critically strike players with special abilities.

3. Shield Mastery affects Shield Slam (0.7).

4. Dodge and Parry are not the same (0.4.1).

5. Shield Slam is the highest-threat Warrior ability on the Global Cooldown. Revenge follows behind, and can cost as little as 2 rage. Sunder Armor and Devastate follow immediately behind this. Order your ability usage accordingly.

6. Spell Reflect will reflect or negate most single-target spells. It will reflect the single target aspect of some spell volleys, such as Shadowbolt Volley. It will not reflect pure AOE skills, such as Frost Nova.

7. The daze effect from Piercing Howl does not increase damage from Heroic Strike.

8. All modifiers that affect threat increases are additive -- meaning, Defiance and Defensive Stance produce a full 45% increase in threat. All modifiers that decrease threat are multiplicative.

[Ciderhelm]

0.2 Rating Conversions

Defensive
Defense Rating_______ 2.4 to 1
Dodge________________ 18.9 to 1
Parry________________ 31.5 to 1
Block________________ 7.9 to 1
Resilience___________ 39.4 to 1

Offensive
Weapon Skill_________ 3.9 to 1
Hit__________________ 15.8 to 1
Critical Strike______ 22.1 to 1
Haste________________ 15.8 to 1

[Ciderhelm]

0.3 Defense & Armor

1 Defense Skill
Dodge __________________ 0.04%
Parry __________________ 0.04%
Block __________________ 0.04%
Chance to be Missed ____ 0.04%
Chance to be Crit ______ -0.04%Defense does not calculate added Defensive bonuses against same-level mobs until it reaches the baseline of your character. The baseline Defense can be found by multiplying 5 * Character Level; in the case of a level 70 Warrior, this is 350 Defense.

For Defense to effectively remove Critical Strikes from the combat table on higher-level creatures, you need to reach the 5% reduction according to the baseline of that creature. Creatures have a 5% chance to Critical Strike, so you would need to reach the Defense required for a level 73 player to reduce Critical Strikes by 5%. Since 125 Defense is equal to 5% Critical Strike reduction, you would add to the level 73 baseline of 365 -- your goal, then, is 490 Defense. Most "Skull" Elites are effectively level 73 creatures.

Crushing Blows (150% Damage normal attacks) are calculated with Defense in relation to the level of mob you are fighting. Crushing Blows can only occur from creatures 3 levels higher than you or greater; the chance to receive a Crushing Blow cannot be reduced below 15%. Defense beyond your baseline does not affect Crushing Blows.


Armor
AC
Mitigation = --------------------------
AC + (145 * Level + 405)Mitigation represents the actual Damage Reduction you receive from Armor. Level represents the level of your opponent.

AC Mitigation
5,000 _______________ 32.14%
10,000 ______________ 48.64%
12,000 ______________ 53.20%
13,000 ______________ 55.18%
14,000 ______________ 57.01%
15,000 ______________ 58.69%
16,000 ______________ 60.25%
17,000 ______________ 61.69%
20,000 ______________ 65.45%
25,000 ______________ 70.31%Note that there are significant Diminishing Returns on Mitigation; as you gain each new point of Armor, each point provides a smaller net benefit in terms of mitigation.

However, in the words of Satrina, "Mitigation is subject to diminishing returns, but Armor is not." What this means is, Armor provides a linear increase to lifespan, if not mitigation.

To better understand this, use the following examples Satrina used:

1) I have 3000 armour and 5000 hitpoints. Against a level 60 opponent that deals 200 damage per second I will live for 38.64 seconds
Now I will add 1000 armour, giving me 4000 armour. Against a level 60 opponent that deals 200 damage per second I will live for 43.18 seconds
Adding 1000 armour increased my time to live by 4.54 seconds.

2) I have 6000 armour and 5000 hitpoints. Against a level 60 opponent that deals 200 damage per second I will live for 52.27 seconds
Now I will add 1000 armour, giving me 7000 armour. Against a level 60 opponent that deals 200 damage per second I will live for 56.82 seconds
Adding 1000 armour increased my time to live by 4.55 seconds.

3) I have 10000 armour and 5000 hitpoints. Against a level 60 opponent that deals 200 damage per second I will live for 70.45 seconds
Now I will add 1000 armour, giving me 11000 armour. Against a level 60 opponent that deals 200 damage per second I will live for 75.00 seconds
Adding 1000 armour increased my time to live by 4.55 seconds.

More detailed information can be found here:
http://evilempireguild.org/guides/diminishmath.php

[Ciderhelm]

0.4 Avoidance & Shield Block
Avoidance can occur while mounted or while using a Ranged weapon. Avoidance is one of the most helpful attributes of a tank and accounts for a significant reduction in necessary healing.

0.4.1 Dodge
Dodge represents 100% avoidance of a frontal attack. Players can Dodge most physical attacks, including many Cleaves and Whirlwinds. A player cannot Dodge a Critical Strike or Crushing Blow under normal circumstances.

Creatures are capable of Dodging attacks from any direction.

Dodge is the most effective itemization in terms of reducing Crushing Blows. This is because Dodge can stack relatively high with Itemization points. When using the Shield Block ability, an attack that would not otherwise be a Crushing Blow can be Dodged, allowing the charges of Shield Block to stay active on creatures that would may have attacked too quickly and used the Shield Block charges before the cooldown was available again..


0.4.2 Parry
Parry represents 100% avoidance of a frontal attack. Players can Parry most physical attacks; a player cannot Parry a Critical Strike or Crushing Blow under normal circumstances.

Parry represents an offensive avoidance and costs considerably more in terms of itemization. When a player Parries, their next normal melee swing becomes a counter-attack sped up by as much as 50%.

Parry is most beneficial when using slower weapon.


0.4.3 Chance to be Missed
Being Missed represents 100% avoidance of an omni-directional attack. Being missed can occur by any Physical attack. Reducing a creature or player's Chance to Hit will increase the chance of being Missed.

Chance to be Missed only comes from Defense. This attribute is not shown on your character pane.


0.4.4 Shield Block
Shield Block represents a reduction in damage from a frontal attack. Shield Blocks are effective against all Physical attacks, including Ranged.

Shield Blocks cannot occur while mounted. Shield Blocks cannot occur while drinking a potion.

The use of the Shield Block ability can boost Avoidance and Shield Block well above 100% on the combat table. When this occurs, Shield Block takes priority over Crushing Blows and Critical Strikes. As a result, an attack blocked with the Shield Block ability can never be a Crushing Blow.

Players can Block a Critical Strike from special abilities. This means that special attacks from Players can be Blocked. Creatures are incapable of landing a Critical Strike with a special ability, however, and Defense effectively removes Critical Strikes from environmental content.

[Ciderhelm]

0.6 Talent & Skill Information
The following includes information, math and correlations between talents.

0.6.1 Skills
Spell Reflect will reflect or negate most single-target spells. It will reflect the single target aspect of some spell volleys, such as Shadowbolt Volley. It will not reflect pure AOE skills, such as Frost Nova.

Commanding Shout and Battle Shout cannot be stacked by a single Warrior. Having two Warriors in a group will maximize that group's efficiency in a raid setting.

0.6.1 Arms
Improved Heroic Strike represents a 20% increase in Rage efficiency. This stacks with Focused Rage for a 40% increase in Rage efficiency.

Iron Will is additive to the Orc Racial and will allow 40% Stun Resist.

Improved Thunderclap represents a 20% decrease in Attack Speed. This equates to a 20% reduction in normal attack damage, but does not affect special abilities.

Weapon Mastery represents Disarm Immunity against most mobs. It increases your overall chance to resist Disarm by 100%; this is to clarify the talent for some who believe this doubles the base chance.

0.6.2 Fury
Booming Voice does not increase threat values for the affected Shouts.

Cruelty does not represent a 5% increase in overall threat. However, it can net a larger bonus than 5% damage for Warriors who spec into Impale or Flurry.

Dual-Wield Specialization does not increase Shield Slam damage.

Improved Slam is useful for PVP, where a 0.5 second cast is usually enough to hit a mobile target. However, Slam is still on a 1.5 sec Global Cooldown and this talent will have little effect on stationary PVE targets.

Improved Intercept greatly increases the chance that you will wind up somewhere you didn't mean to go.

Improved Berserker Rage instantly creates as much rage as Anger Management over the course of 30 seconds.


0.6.2 Protection
Improved Bloodrage will generate enough rage on pulling to land a Shield Slam immediately.

Tactical Mastery will allow you to Intercept and Pummel when changing stances. Since Intercept stun works on most creatures, this is only effective on interruptible raid mobs.

Anticipation represents a 0.8% increase Block, Dodge, Parry, Chance to be Missed and a 0.8% reduction in Critical Hits. This is a cumulative 4%.

Toughness will allow you to live 10% longer while tanking. Percentage increases in Armor have a curved relation to Damage Reduction; they have a linear relation to life expectancy.

Improved Shield Block allows your Shield Block ability to last through the duration of the cooldown. It also is critical in reducing the number of Crushing Blows while raid tanking.

Defiance is not multiplicative with the normal Defensive Stance threat modifier; it is additive. Defiance and Defensive Stance will produce a 45% increase in threat.

Improved Sunder Armor represents a 20% increase in Rage efficiency. This stacks with Focused Rage for a 40% increase in Rage efficiency.

Shield Mastery increases Shield Block Value, which increases Shield Slam damage.

One-Handed Specialization increases Shield Slam damage by 10%.

Shield Slam can dispel magic shields on some classes. If the shield is dispelled, the Shield Slam deals full damage to the target, as if the shield had been inactive when the player was struck.

Focused Rage has a major impact on most abilities. With Focused Rage and Improved Heroic and Improved Sunder, Revenge will cost 2 Rage, Heroic Strike and Sunder Armor will cost 9 Rage.

Devastate is more threat than Sunder Armor when dealing 201 damage. It is more Rage efficient than Sunder Armor when dealing 274 damage. The innate threat of Devastate does not increase. Devastate is Normalized, meaning it faster weapons are not heavily penalized; however, Daggers provide the poorest performance.

[Ciderhelm]

0.7 Shield Slam -- How it Scales
Shield Slam provides the largest scaling available to the Protection Warrior. It is affected by all increases in damage, including One-Handed Specialization, Enrage, Deathwish, and Impale.

The basic equation is:
(BD * (SBV *1.3)) * 1.1

Where BD is Base Damage and SBV is Shield Block Value.
1.3 Represents Shield Mastery 30% Damage Increase
1.1 Represents One-Handed Specialization 10% Damage Increase


The following represents math to maximize Shield Slam damage to it's potential with talents:

(BD * (SBV * 1.3)) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.25 * 2 = Enrage/Deathwish Critical Strike Value
(BD * (SBV *1.3)) * 1.1 * 2.2 = Impale Critical Strike Value
(BD * (SBV *1.3)) * 1.1 * 2 = Normal Critical Strike

1.2 Represents Deathwish 20% Damage Increase
1.25 Represents Enrage 25% Damage Increase
2 Represents Normal Critical Strike Multiplier
2.2 Represents Critical Strike Multiplier modified by Impale

For example, an average Rank 6 Shield Slam will deal 430 Base Damage. Let's assume 750 Shield Block Value. With enrage, this would look something like:
(430 + (750 * 1.3) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.25 * 2
(430 + 975) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.25 * 2

1405 * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.25 * 2 = 4636 Shield Slam Crit (Enrage/Deathwish)
1405 * 1.1 * 2.2 = 3400 Shield Slam Crit (Impale)
1405 * 1.1 * 2 = 3091 Normal Shield Slam Crit