Warrior, ARMS VS PROT
- Thread starter Atsuro
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I'd pick Prot in a duel, the physical mitigation is hard to beat. Arms definitely puts out more sustained damage though.
Stance dance a lot in BG's, make sure that you're in defensive when a rogue or hunter opens on you. Don't be the first one to charge into team fights, and never let yourself be alone.
Arms is a lot more fun for me to play if I'm not FCing. If you have all CD's up and some rage pooled it's always fun to go all out on a hunter and hope for some crits (you can feel them raging through the internet), three globals can take out most classes/specs if you get a couple crits.
Stance dance a lot in BG's, make sure that you're in defensive when a rogue or hunter opens on you. Don't be the first one to charge into team fights, and never let yourself be alone.
Arms is a lot more fun for me to play if I'm not FCing. If you have all CD's up and some rage pooled it's always fun to go all out on a hunter and hope for some crits (you can feel them raging through the internet), three globals can take out most classes/specs if you get a couple crits.
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Arms is going to be better in non-FC oriented situations 90% of the time.
Prot will win in a duel of course, because the innate tankiness and health bar from Prot's passives are rather high.
As has been stated, much of the skill of Arms is stance dancing (swapping from agro stance to defensive stance as necessary). You're going to have much more pressure in terms of DPS, mortal wounds, and healer killing burst as Arms.
Prot is better in situations where you simply must not die. Such as carrying a flag, or defending a node in AB.
Prot will win in a duel of course, because the innate tankiness and health bar from Prot's passives are rather high.
As has been stated, much of the skill of Arms is stance dancing (swapping from agro stance to defensive stance as necessary). You're going to have much more pressure in terms of DPS, mortal wounds, and healer killing burst as Arms.
Prot is better in situations where you simply must not die. Such as carrying a flag, or defending a node in AB.
I recommend BoP's response a few posts up.
Lastly...
Lastly, know that parry and block is only effective vs melee damage sources, as it does not mitigate magical and hunter damage at all. That indirectly implies that with regards to magicial/hunter damage, a prot in d-stance will take the same amount of damage as arms in d-stance (though prot certainly will have a larger health bar).
Lastly...
Prot's extra defenses (besides shield block) over arms-with-shield are almost entirely given by this passive. Basically, that's what prot has over arms-with-shield (besides shield slam):
+15% more stamina
-6% chance for melee attacks received to crit. (Only melee, not non-melee sources).
+25% more armor
no cost for Thunder Clap.
-6% chance for melee attacks received to crit. (Only melee, not non-melee sources).
+25% more armor
no cost for Thunder Clap.
Lastly, know that parry and block is only effective vs melee damage sources, as it does not mitigate magical and hunter damage at all. That indirectly implies that with regards to magicial/hunter damage, a prot in d-stance will take the same amount of damage as arms in d-stance (though prot certainly will have a larger health bar).
Pets can be parried and blocked.
Not all pet abilities can be parried and blocked.
Someone mentioned it earlier. Protection is about controlling your CDs.
Sweetsidney...
Someone mentioned it earlier. Protection is about controlling your CDs.
Sweetsidney...
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Other then charge
Defensive stance: Only gains rage from SS and, the 1 rage every 3s while in defensive stance.
Battle stance: MS and auto attacks. each auto attack will give 12 rage with a 2h and, 10 with a 1h.
(Don't quote me on that)
feeling raged staved? how about taunting a hunter's pet off ya Buddie's , battle stance it up, MS and auto atk, get RAGED then jump in =D
optional to go 1h and shield, this will give an armor boost at an ap lose.
My thoughts
Arms is a different play style, you need to stance dance which leaves you prone to burst, you do have substantially better Stained dmg and given the right situation can easily overpower someone.
Prot can hit hard, but when ss is on cd your dmg presure stops! thats where you counter control.
Being prot gives you more survivability, so switching to another target, charge stun heals, pummel or arcane torrent, can help turn a mid push.
if you try prot here's a basic macro I use, especially on hunters.
/cast Shield slam
/cast heroic strike
heroic strike doesn't share a gcd with ss, so you can instantly get it off. Open with a charge 20r, SS 20r the moment you have 30 rage HS will go off.
lol with hunters you need every hit to count, as you don't have much up time on a hunter.
GL =D
Yay for twinking
'keeping it simple' =D.
Defensive stance: Only gains rage from SS and, the 1 rage every 3s while in defensive stance.
Battle stance: MS and auto attacks. each auto attack will give 12 rage with a 2h and, 10 with a 1h.
(Don't quote me on that)
feeling raged staved? how about taunting a hunter's pet off ya Buddie's , battle stance it up, MS and auto atk, get RAGED then jump in =D
optional to go 1h and shield, this will give an armor boost at an ap lose.
My thoughts
Arms is a different play style, you need to stance dance which leaves you prone to burst, you do have substantially better Stained dmg and given the right situation can easily overpower someone.
Prot can hit hard, but when ss is on cd your dmg presure stops! thats where you counter control.
Being prot gives you more survivability, so switching to another target, charge stun heals, pummel or arcane torrent, can help turn a mid push.
if you try prot here's a basic macro I use, especially on hunters.
/cast Shield slam
/cast heroic strike
heroic strike doesn't share a gcd with ss, so you can instantly get it off. Open with a charge 20r, SS 20r the moment you have 30 rage HS will go off.
lol with hunters you need every hit to count, as you don't have much up time on a hunter.
GL =D
Yay for twinking
'keeping it simple' =D.
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armor mitigates some hunter/pet damage too
its based on your wep speed, think its 13 with arcanite reaper
don't forget prots can stance dance too
Basically roll a prot if you like FCing, roll an arms if you like dpsing more. Prot is easily the better spec for fcing, not so much for damage (yeah charge stun + shield slam + execute are ok, but sustained damage is shit and prot dps is very boring to play).
Keep in mind that even if you decide to pick arms, you can easily switch to FC set and defensive stance and still be a very effective flag carrier. Prot can switch to dps set aswell but can't fill the dps role nearly as well as an arms warrior.
Both are very good specs for what they are designed for, so it's really just a matter of whether you like to play the tank role or a dpser role.
Keep in mind that even if you decide to pick arms, you can easily switch to FC set and defensive stance and still be a very effective flag carrier. Prot can switch to dps set aswell but can't fill the dps role nearly as well as an arms warrior.
Both are very good specs for what they are designed for, so it's really just a matter of whether you like to play the tank role or a dpser role.
A stance dance arms war is one of the most dangerous players on the field. One played properly. I see too many people chilling in battle stance at all times only swapping in desperation when they are getting blown up. A skill capped arms war does a lot more than just stance dance to victory, warrior has its flaws at this lvl sure, but in comparison to prot some of the skills overlap and this thread seems to need more on this point specifically.
Reference endgame pvp where arms sit d stance 95% of the time. Granted they don't rely on auto attack rage as much as f2p do, but it speaks to the advantage of the stance and models a play style more f2p should emulate. Not just anticipating and reacting to dps but being literally prepared for it allows you to get some more crucial reduction, even if that means you only extend the scenario by a few more globals, thats enough time to land another ms slam slam and change the fight entirely. In other words: the swap should come when you need rage and burst not when your being nuked.
In some previous patches changing stances dumped all your rage, that seems to be when the stance dance fell out of style in the f2p community. Since then I've rarely seen warriors dancing intelligently around the gulch. Regardless, the potential is huge.
Useful macros for stance changes specifically: sword and board with d stance (though you should still have separate binds for both). A charge battle stance macro so your swapping during the charge animation (also makes you look pro) while min maxing the time you spend off target in d and on target in b. Its also nice to use a d stance b stance macro so one bind swaps you to whichever stance your not in and back and forth. Really simple commands to write, but make you largely more efficient.
Yes prot is better at eating damage, but thats it, and at that only marginally better, even less so when parallel to the other class dps/prot comparisons.
Another way of looking at it: Arms FC > Prot DPS.
25% reduction is huge, but thats not the significant part. It becomes significant when you strap it on the back of a dps spec with a healing debuff and the capability to drop people in 2-3 shots. This combination coupled with a decent brain over the keys is game changing, it creates a class/spec thats dangerously versatile and well suited in every situation.
Reference endgame pvp where arms sit d stance 95% of the time. Granted they don't rely on auto attack rage as much as f2p do, but it speaks to the advantage of the stance and models a play style more f2p should emulate. Not just anticipating and reacting to dps but being literally prepared for it allows you to get some more crucial reduction, even if that means you only extend the scenario by a few more globals, thats enough time to land another ms slam slam and change the fight entirely. In other words: the swap should come when you need rage and burst not when your being nuked.
In some previous patches changing stances dumped all your rage, that seems to be when the stance dance fell out of style in the f2p community. Since then I've rarely seen warriors dancing intelligently around the gulch. Regardless, the potential is huge.
Useful macros for stance changes specifically: sword and board with d stance (though you should still have separate binds for both). A charge battle stance macro so your swapping during the charge animation (also makes you look pro) while min maxing the time you spend off target in d and on target in b. Its also nice to use a d stance b stance macro so one bind swaps you to whichever stance your not in and back and forth. Really simple commands to write, but make you largely more efficient.
Yes prot is better at eating damage, but thats it, and at that only marginally better, even less so when parallel to the other class dps/prot comparisons.
Another way of looking at it: Arms FC > Prot DPS.
25% reduction is huge, but thats not the significant part. It becomes significant when you strap it on the back of a dps spec with a healing debuff and the capability to drop people in 2-3 shots. This combination coupled with a decent brain over the keys is game changing, it creates a class/spec thats dangerously versatile and well suited in every situation.
Silliness aside, it's entirely situational (as previously mentioned)
Personally: 90% of the time I am doing WSG, I am doing it as Prot, and 90% of the time I am doing AB, I am doing it as arms.
The reason, in both cases, is because with that spec for that game mode, I have the highest affect on the game (Could go in to my reason as to why, but I don't want to make this TL to read).
Could I play arms in WSG and prot in Arathi Basin? Ofc. But by switching specs, your roll in the game changes immensely.
Flat out however, I would not roll prot for arenas, unless it was double dps 2v2, and in that case, I would still probably be arms.
