Post by Rajakk
I read somewhere that, in the near future, Blizzard will cause
Spirit Weapons to reduce
all threat caused. Not taking it will give you one less avoidance stat, but that can be made up for with the high amount of dodge you should have from stacking agility, and the health from stamina.
That said, I would go with a
15/56/0 build. It lacks
Unleashed Rage, but with the 3.1.0 changes to this talent, taking it will be possible in the future.
Things you'd want to stack for this build (in order of importance):
- Resilience rating--Reduces chance to be critically hit, damage taken from critical hits, and the effect of damage-over-time spells. You should have at least 800 of this. Getting lots of Deadly gear may be necessary.
- Agility--Increases dodge chance, armor value, and attack power.
- Stamina--Increases health pool size.
- Armor value--Reduces physical damage taken.
- Dodge rating--Increases dodge chance.
- Strength--Increases block value and attack power.
- Intellect--Increases mana pool size and attack power.
Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention that resilience reduces your chance to be critically struck. PVP gear would be your best bet for tanking, as it has high stamina and lots of resilience. Changing post accordingly.
The recent change to
Elemental Warding definitely helps shaman tanking quite a bit. But still, you're going to have problems with:
- Being critted--Unless you've got a high amount of resilience, you ARE going to be critted.
- Generating threat--Frost Shock is really the only high-threat move that a shaman with a one-hander and shield has, and it is single target. With this build it will have a 5 sec cooldown.
- Taking a decent amount of damage--You can't parry. Your block chance and value will be low. Your only true ways of reliably decreasing damage taken are armor value and dodge, but you should have a decent amount of these anyways from stacking agility.
- Having lower health than any other tank--Stamina on hunter/enhancement mail is relatively low. Even the PVP gear. You're going to have to balance your gems and enchants between stamina and resilience rating.
Totems:
- Stoneclaw Totem--For reducing the damage you take by pulling mobs off of you or picking up loose adds.
- Stoneskin Totem--Increasing your damage reduction.
Wind
- Windfury Totem--Increasing your melee haste and, therefore, threat generated.
- Grounding Totem--For reducing damage taken by a lot against caster mobs.
Fire
Water
As you can see, I've put a rather lot of thought into this. Sadly, I lack the time and funds to build a shaman tanking set and test it out myself, so this is all just theory. Good luck with your shamatank and have fun! That's what the game is all about anyways. Ignore the nay-sayers.
By the way, the removal of Shield Specialization makes my blood boil. >:(
Post by Raleandris
A lot of very good points.
I totally agree with you, however, I have a somewhat different way of seeing things.
See:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hVIV0fZGM0usVdhhZqf0uV0oMy first thought was wondering why you picked up spirit wolves, along with MW. While the obvious stacking of up to 5 for free CL is awesome, I have to wonder if it will happen fast enough with one weapon to warrant picking it up.
Instead, I've opted to go deep enough into the restoration tree to pick up Nature's Swiftness. This act's as an oh s#! button in that you can use it, combined with Tidal Force to (hopefully) score a crit on an insta-HW, or, use Nature's Swiftness to pop out an instant CL or LB in the event of a mob peeling off of you. Albeit, the 3-min cooldown isn't ideal, but it's there when you need it, instead of having to rely on MW proccing.
Luckily, it's not all filler going down the resto tree, picking up Totemic Focus and Restorative Totems. Tidal Force + Nature's Swiftness + 3/3 Ancestral Healing can combine to be a pretty decent panic button, even though at 5 points total it's pretty intense to get to.
Who knows, maybe I'll get my shaman to 80 one day to actually test it out.
EDIT: As well as the dodge/block you'll get from SoE totem, you'll also get armor from the agility granted.