Season of Discovery introduced some much-needed variety to World of Warcraft Classic. Among other things, it madeMage healersa thing and doubled the number of classes that can take on the role of tank.Rogue tank,Warlock tank, andShaman tankare all viable class/role combos now, although they’re not all equally reliable.
But despite having more options to choose from, Warriors continue to take the top spot on thetank tier list, as they always have in WoW Classic. Warriors also make for decent DPS, but the class was clearly built with tanking in mind. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about tanking as a Warrior in World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery.
RacesRunesRotationStat PriorityProfessionsTalentsBIS GearConsumables
Best Races For Warrior Tank In Season Of Discovery
Humans are hands down the best race for Alliance Warrior tanks. Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization only provide +5 weapon skill each, but even a small bonus like that can sometimes make a huge difference. While not particularly useful at this stage, Diplomacy will eventually become a very useful Racial in later phases of Season of Discovery as it will allow you to more easily acquire powerful items locked behind reputation grinds.
The second-best Alliance race for Warriors is a toss-up between Dwarf and Night Elf. Dwarfs gain access to Stoneform, an active ability that increases their armor by 10% while also providing some immunities. Meanwhile, Night Elves get a passive ability that increases their dodge chance by 1%. Both Racials are fairly weak in the grand scheme of things, but they do offer some defensive advantages that Humans don’t have. As far as Gnomes are concerned, we recommend giving them a wide berth if you’re planning to play as a Warrior tank.
The Horde has three viable options available to those who want to play as a Warrior tank. Orcs are the most obvious one thanks to Axe Specialization and, to some extent, Hardiness. Blood Fury is very important for aDPS Warrior, but you’ll want to avoid using it as a tank since it significantly reduces the healing you receive for a whopping 25 seconds. Hardiness is one of the best Racials around for PvP and can sometimes help out during PvE content as well.
Taurens are another great choice thanks to Endurance, a passive Racial that increases their health by 5%. That may not sound like much, but every little bit counts in Classic. Trolls, on the other hand, get access to Berserking, an active Racial that can help tanks generate threat faster in the early stages of the fight. The race we wouldn’t recommend picking if you’re playing a Horde tank is Undead. Shadow Resistance comes in handy during Phase 1, but won’t help you much in later stages. If you’re thinking long-term, go with one of the other three races.
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Best Runes For Warrior Tank In SoD Phase 2
Runes are one of the biggest new additions in Season of Discovery and we strongly suggest trying to get your hands on all of them as soon as possible. You won’t need to use all Warrior Runes in Phase 2, but some of them might be useful further down the road. As far as the most important Runes right now are concerned, Warrior tanks have quite a few good options at their disposal depending on what sort of build they’re going for. At this stage, you’ll want to focus on preparing for Gnomeregan if you haven’t already, and we recommend using the Runes below for the raid.
Sword and Shield Phase 2 Runes:
2-Handed Tank Phase 2 Runes:
All Warrior Runes and Locations | WoW Classic: SOD
Get all your warrior runes in Season of Discovery.
Warrior Tank Rotation In Season Of Discovery
For the sake of this guide, we recommend devastate tanking based on its insane damage output and utility at the moment. The following guide revolves around the sword and board style.
The warrior tank rotation in phase 2 of SoD mainly revolves around Devastate, Revenge, and Raging Blow, while keeping up shouts like Battle Shout, Demo Shout, Commanding Shout, and using Rallying Cry when applicable. Things may vary a bit depending on whether you’re tanking a boss or a group of mobs but, generally speaking, your rotation will be as follows:
Whenever possible, you’ll want to start combat by charging into the fray for the extra rage. you may charge, use Demo Shout, then swap to defensive stance. Once you’re in the thick of it, cast Blood Rage and start stacking Sunder Armor on your primary target by using Devastate.
Stat Priority For Warrior Tank In Season Of Discovery
Maxing out your primary stats is an important step towards becoming a reliable tank regardless of which class you’re playing. Most of your stats will come from your gear, but you shouldn’t ignore things like buffs, consumables, and enchants because all of those will contribute as well. Naturally, you don’t want to start maxing out stats at random because some of them are a lot more useful than others while playing as a Warrior tank.
Importance:Stamina increases your total health pool and makes you capable of withstanding more punishment. Needless to say, it is vital to prioritize this stat if you’re serious about tanking.
Notes:Your health in World of Warcraft Classic is calculated using a very simple formula. Namely, you get 10 points of health for every point of Stamina you have.
Importance:Armor is another no-brainer. This stat reduces the amount of physical damage you receive, increasing your survivability in the process. Warriors can wear any type of armor in the game, but with a couple of small exceptions you’ll always want to stick to Mail.
Notes:The amount of damage mitigated by your Armor is influenced by a number of factors, including the level of the attacker. Expect your Armor to be significantly less effective than usual when fighting against enemies that are several levels higher than you.
Hit Chance
Importance:All attacks have a chance to miss their mark and that’s something you definitely don’t want as a tank. You can avoid that by investing into this stat and trying to reach the Hit cap. Unfortunately, there are only a couple of items that increase your Hit Chance in Phase 1 of Season of Discovery.
Notes:Unlike dodged or parried attacks, missed attacks don’t generate any Rage. So in addition to helping you maintain threat, Hit Chance is also an important stat for generating Rage.
Parry And Block
Importance:Parry and Block are two different stats but they perform a similar function by allowing tanks to mitigate physical attacks. Attacks can be parried with a weapon and blocked with a shield.
Notes:It’s important to note that Parrying an attack comes with the added benefit of increasing the speed of your next auto-attack by 40%. Warriors already have Shield Block but investing into this stat is still worth it because the ability can only be used once every 5 seconds.
Importance:Strength is a pretty important primary stat that increases your Melee Attack Power. More Attack Power means more damage and threat generation. Additionally, this stat also dictates how much damage you’re able to block with shields.
Notes:Warriors gain two points of Melee Attack Power for every point of Strength they have. Meanwhile, Warriors can block one point of damage for every 20 points of Strength they have.
Importance:Agility affects multiple stats, some more important than others. Of particular relevance to Warrior tanks is Armor and, to some extent, Critical Strike Chance. Warriors also get some extra Ranged Attack Power by increasing their Agility, but that’s neither here nor there.
Notes:Warriors gain two points of Armor for every point of Agility they have. They also gain 1% Critical Strike chance per 20 points of Agility and one point of Ranged Attack Power per point of Agility.
Best Professions For Warrior Tank In Season Of Discovery
There are only two crafting professions that will help acquire gear in Season of Discovery Phase 2. Namely, Blacksmithing and Engineering. Both professions require a lot of materials that you can only get from Mining, so it’s not exactly easy to level both of them at the same time. We recommend starting with Mining and Blacksmithing and then picking up Engineering once you can afford to drop Mining. Unless you have piles of gold lying around of course, in which case you can simply buy everything you need.
Blacksmithing
Engineering
Best Talent Build For Warrior Tank In SoD Phase 2
Although there are many possibilities for warrior tanks in phase 2, with the devestate build we suggest going deep prot. Shield Slam brings a very powerful cast on a 6 second cooldown, getting more powerful as you obtain a better shield. Between the threat increases you will find in this tree, and spamming devestate and shield slam, you will be pumping threat and have insane damage mitigation.
BIS Gear For Warrior Tank In Season Of Discovery
For a full breakdown of the best in slot items for Warrior tanks in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery check out the link below.
Protection Warrior Tank Best in Slot (BIS) Gear | Phase 3 WoW SoD
Protection Warrior players can discover which gear works best for this particular class in WoW Classic Season of Discovery with this handy guide.
Best Raid Consumables For Warrior Tank In Season Of Discovery
Gnomeregan is a relatively easy raid, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to tank the bosses within. Your tanking capabilities have come a far way since phase 1 of Season of Discovery, and you may get even more of an edge by using consumables. There are quite a few to choose from, so make sure you grab at least a couple of each before going in.
Offensive Consumables
Defensive Consumables
Blackfathom Deeps Raid Loot | WoW Classic: SOD
Every piece of loot in the 25-man BFD for WoW Season of Discovery
