Q u o t e:
Hey guys, I prot pvp all the time since the patch. not the first time since the launch of the expansion either, was pretty fun in S5 already, and all along really.
So, answering a couple of questions then:
1. How do you manage without Piercing howl?
Well it kinda sucks to be honest, but its not THAT bad. At least, unlike arms, you actually have something to stop someone from 5-8 kiting you with shockwave, and that can also help you catch up to people who are running away. So yeah, no priecing how sucks, but its still kind of ok, at least you get to be in melee range for quite some time during the lockdowns.
2. What is the gemming?
Well mastery sucks, and arp is gone. so far, Ive been sticking to str and crit, and the results have been ok. Someone is gonna have to try out some haste, it wouldnt increase dmg, but it migh increase rage generation more than crit does, so that could help.
3. In which stance do you stay most of the time?
usually I just stay in defensive stance, cose I cba with latency, and losing rage when dancing. It would in theory be optimal to stay in battlestance, and only switch for shield block, disarm, shield wall, and when you are out of melee range. But personally, Ive found the rage loss to not be worth the 10% dmg increase.
4. Is it worth investing in rage cost reducing talents and the rage increase after block/sp talent, or there is enough rage without them after the normalization.
You need that talent. Seriously, spellreflects, charge, damage you take, shouts, and berserker rage constitute about 90% of your rage income, rage from hitting people is pitiful, at least in my gear.
gearing: not sure if having pve crit-haste items is worth it or not, not sure if haste is a better stat than res right now, res sure is useful. I dont have high enough pve gear to be able to compare it anyway though.
titanium plating is sweet for the shield, you dont have to wear a weapon chain like arms does, so you can still have a good weapon enchant.
by the way, apparently, my gems and enchants and stuff arent quite up to date on armory, but it should still give you an idea of what Im wearing.
spec
blood and thunder seems to be quite bad, rend is just there to stop rogues from restealthing, the dps from it using a 1h weapon really isnt great, and the situations where you are against 5+ players and would like to spread a dot that doesnt do meaningful damage amongst them, are very few :P
Incite is a bit situational, but at least it gives you a great ragedump and dps move in those few situations where you actually have a lot of rage, and it adds a lot to the burst.
Hold the line: 10% more crit after a parry, which is only a 10% chance for me, and can only happen if a melee is attacking you from the front and you arent stunned, or stunning him, thats 1% crit for 2 talent points in ideal circumstances, so I wouldnt really bother with it.
Imp revenge: Im torn on this one. On one side, it allows you to completely destroy any melee, and would come in handy if you had to fight 2 melee classes at once. it also procs quite a bit, and is cheap on rage.
On the other side, well, you already destroy physical dps classes as prot, so its a bit overkill really. even if you are fighting 2 at the same time, you could probably take them on without it if you have CDs and outplay them a little.
impending victory: havent had time to test it yet. seems like victory rushes could be sweet, since they hit for decent amounts, though nothing spectacular, and are free. On the other hand though, for it to actually be worth it, you need to hit a target at less than 20% life, with devastate, have it proc, and then not have the rage or the CD on anything harder hitting or more useful, such as heroic throw, shield slam, conc blow, or execute if you are in battle stance, so doesnt seem like it would come up often.
Thunderstruck: not yet tested, doesnt seem like it will be worth it.
vigilance and safeguard: must have talents if you pvp with someone else, useless if you are on your own.
Everything else in prot is needed.
out of prot: blood craze is really good, when you have 40k life, it ticks for quite a bit.
kinda torn on the other ones for the moment, cruelty is really nice for big bursts, but battle trance seems really good too due to rage problems. not sure about field dressing, but survivability isnt really my main problem as prot, so not taking it for now.
About the actual experience:
The rage:
Its low. All the time. You really have to manage it, because if you devastate now, then you might not have the rage to shield bash in 3 seconds -_-
the damage:
Its low. You can burst, but overall, the damage is low. Id say I do about 2k dps. Thats right :P During the burst lockdowns, you do a lot of damage, because conc blow, shockwave and shield slams are your hardest hitting moves, but when you arent stunning, and so cant use shockwave or conc blow so you dont mess up the DR on your next chain, your only real source of damage is shield slam, and you just gotta hope sword and board procs.
When you burst, it hits decently hard though. Expect anything from 3k to 15k on shield slams, based on procs, vengeance, crits, armor of your target, shield block, sunders being up, res of your target, and CDs they are using. Overall, not that bad.
The survivability:
Its awesome, with 6 sec spell reflect, the stuns, silences, disarms, shield block, low CD easily accessible shield wall, high health, 6% less crit, 5% less dmg taken, and if things go wrong and you somehow get low on life, for me battlemaster trinket, last stand and enraged regen used together give me back about 20k life, a bit more because it buffs blood craze quite a bit too. So more than half my life restored on a 3 min CD is quite nice on top of all the rest.
The lockdown:
charge -> shield bash -> conc blow -> shockwave -> heroic throw
thats the caster lockdown I use, it lets me have shield back ready again when they come out of it, in case they decide to be stupid and cast. Its still 13 seconds of lockdown against an average caster though, counting DR, so even with the low dps of 2k (its a bit higher during bursts), you can expect to have him dead or really low by the end of it if he didnt trinket or use CDs.
Against melee, shield block, then shockwave first to avoid dodge, parries and so on, then conc blow and disarm, 21.5 seconds where you dont take dmg from them, but it doesnt really matter, because they have to stay next to you to try and kill you, and you have way better survivability to dps ratio than them, so you could really beat most of them with just shield block and shield slams :P
The gameplay:
Its incredibly sweet if you know how to play, and you enjoy that kind of style, but its nothing like arms.
Dont expect to go around, and 2-shot people to death. Instead, you take control of the fight, carefully line up your CDs and DRs, then lock him out for what seems like an eternity while slowly whittling down his health, make his life a living nightmare, then lock him down some more while he is unable to do anything to you. Then you lock him down some more while he is still unable to do anything to you, and eventually he dies. Or sometimes you just randomly get lucky, and a 12k shield slam ends it in the first stunlock, but dont count on it.
You have the tools to beat any other dps spec out there, for some its a little challenge, and you will need to use nearly everything you have, for others its a joke, but you can beat them all, and its all up to you, you get to decide what happens. Really nice if thats the kind of gameplay you enjoy :D
Healers: impossible to kill if they arent retarded. But none of the other physical dps classes can beat healers either, and healers cant kill you, which is already good compared to the other classes. If paired up with any dps that knows how to damage a stunned and silenced target, healers are an easy kill, so you have more synergy with others than most other physical dps classes have amongst themselves.
Overall, I love it :D
But if you like to tunnelvision people hitting every button right as it comes off CD, then prot wont be for you.
Hope that helped a bit!
