Warriors as Tanks Part I

Generating threat and holding aggro
Holding aggro and Rage generation are very tightly linked for a warrior. A tanking Warrior gains Rage mostly from being hit by mobs, and uses this Rage to fuel abilities which in turn will create more threat, helping to hold aggro – and raising the damage ceiling for your DPS before they need to worry about pulling aggro. A fundamental key to understanding Warrior tanking is thus to understand how to efficiently convert Rage into threat.

A tanking Warrior's group will need to help with this, as (particularly at the start of a fight) it is imperative to hold back and let the warrior establish aggro on all mobs in the pull and to generate enough Rage to keep it.

[edit] Basic Warrior tanking abilities
The tanking Warrior will find themselves using a small number of abilities over and over again to maintain aggro on the mobs their group is fighting. These are not the only abilities used by a tanking Warrior (certain fights might call for a tank to use almost any ability in the Warrior spell book) but they are the ones used the vast majority of the time.

[edit] Sunder Armor and Devastate
Sunder Armor (or Devastate for 41-point Protection-tree Warriors) is the bread-and-butter Warrior tanking ability. Unless a high-threat cooldown ability is available (Revenge, Shield Slam) it should be used to generate threat.

Sunder Armor can be used at any time and is only on the global cooldown. It can be spammed (used repeatedly), which creates a lot of threat quickly regardless of weapon type or enemy. Since Patch 2.3, a tanking Warrior that has Devastate should use it in practically every situation where previously Sunder Armor would have been used, as it is functionally equivalent to Sunder Armor but also causes damage and thus more threat. Although the Rage cost of these abilites is somewhat high, it can be reduced by talents.

[edit] Revenge
Of all a Warrior's abilities, Revenge creates the most threat per Rage. However, it can only be used after a successful dodge, block, or parry (but as such you can almost guarantee it will be available soon after activating Shield Block) and it has a five second cooldown. Even with the extra Rage for the Shield Block, Revenge is a highly efficient threat-generating ability, especially at the beginning of combat, and ideally should always be on cooldown.

[edit] Shield Slam
Shield Slam is the 31-point Protection-tree Warrior talent. It is an extremely high-threat ability with a substantial damage component, but has a relatively high Rage cost. If Rage is no problem, it should be used whenever it is off its six second cooldown, as of all the Warrior abilities it generates the most threat.

[edit] Thunder Clap
Although some caution is required when using Thunder Clap, it is a potent tanking ability with a short (four second) cooldown. Unlike most Warrior tanking abilities, it is a multiple-target attack, and as such should not be used around crowd controlled mobs, as it will cause damage that will probably break the CC. It affects up to four targets, including the Warrior's current target if hostile, and causes a small amount of damage and some bonus threat. It is a crucial ability for holding aggro in any situation where multiple mobs must be kept away from DPS and healers.

However, an additional benefit of Thunder Clap is in its damage mitigation effect. When affected by a successful Thunder Clap, a mob will have its attack speed reduced by a certain percentage, which is increased through a talent in the Arms tree. Wise tanking Warriors will seek to affect as many of the mobs hitting them as possible with this debuff, as maintaining it throughout an encounter can result in a considerable reduction in damage taken by the tank.

[edit] Heroic Strike
Heroic Strike is not a global cooldown ability, and as such can be used in conjunction with other tanking abilities. It works with a Warrior's autoattack to cause extra damage and threat on the next successful autoattack. When used on every swing of a fast weapon, it can generate a quite a bit of threat. However, it is a relatively Rage-expensive ability, as not only does it cause Rage to be consumed when it hits but it also keeps the attack from generating Rage for the Warrior to use. Many Warrior tanks only use Heroic Strike when an encounter is well underway and they have a large pool of excess Rage (50 or more) that they if they do not start to use up they will start to lose Rage to the cap. This is generally only seen on boss fights and in raid encounters.

[edit] Shield Bash
Many warriors overlook the fact that Shield Bash causes a fair amount of threat – almost as much as a successful Sunder Armor – and causes a small amount of damage as well. In situations where Revenge is on cooldown or inactive and the Warrior lacks enough Rage for a Sunder Armor or Devastate, then Shield Bash should be used if possible – unless of course if the target is a caster, where it must be reserved for spell interrupts. However, on non-casters it is still a valuable skill for threat generation, well-worth mixing in with your Revenge, Sunders/Devastates, and Heroic Strikes.