Warrior Alli Race Tanking

Should I be:

Human male or female

Dwarf male

Nightelf male or female

All pretty equal. I know this doesn't help much, but its the truth.
Human -> more hit/crit
Dwarf -> stoneform
Nightelf -> Elusiveness

It doesn't really matter what you pick. Dorf becomes strong in some bossfights so over all it might be the best choice. I would go human though cause you can switch to DPS if you want.

Human and Nightelf as female, dorf as male.

Why female humans and nightelfs?

Night elf gets the permanent 1% dodge
dwarfs get to use that extra 10% armor for 8 seconds (I think in earlier patches it also reduced your movement speed)
Humans with their weapon specialisation generate a little more threat because they do a little more dmg

It doesn't really matter what you pick but for me night elf has an edge for tanking

jorim said:

Why female humans and nightelfs?

Night elf gets the permanent 1% dodge
dwarfs get to use that extra 10% armor for 8 seconds (I think in earlier patches it also reduced your movement speed)
Humans with their weapon specialisation generate a little more threat because they do a little more dmg

It doesn't really matter what you pick but for me night elf has an edge for tanking

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I think weapon skill helps against parry too, and a parry is dangerous because it resets the attacktimer for the mob...I think...

Dwarves stoneform also include poison immunity, which is helpful on quite a few bosses.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd actually say that Nelf is the weakest tank(after gnome), but the difference is minuscule.

jorim said:

night elf has an edge for tanking

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1% dodge all the way.

All statements above are correct, but it's about you.

I mean, in my opinion you have to pick up the one you consider the coolest. As we are not on retail, you cannot use the fabulous things that blizzard now offers like change of haircuts, faction change, race change, gender change etc etc etc.
You have to live and stick with one character and you have to like it for how it walks, for how it fights, for how it moves in general. If you get bored from you character, you have to reroll it which is a pretty bad idea if you raiding or even if you are about to.

That's my simple advice, stats are important but how you like your character is even more important, so go for your favourite one. If it really doesn't matter and you like them the same way, just follow the right things the others said!

I was doing some testing, and it seems dwarf will be it. Even when soling, the stone form is great when you got two mobs vs just you. And seeing as you get.poisoned all the time, it is a nice class trinket.

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I have been horde since WotLK, tanking, so the choice was easy with Tauren.

Dwarf is fun cause you can always screw up a rogue's day by Stoneforming blind attempts.

I'm talking from a pure PVE perspective. For main tanking.

from a pure maintank pov, nelf is best hands down!
1% dodge with 100% uptime against a marginal/situational buff for 8sec with 3mins cd.

If you're in a high end guild threat is extremely important, and while dodge mitigates damage it also reduces rage and threat gain. That said good gear does the same, which is why you see a lot of tanks using some parts (wep most noticably) fury gear.

If you're aiming for maximum performance in a top-tier guild go human, otherwise go night elf.

Hagson said:

If you're in a high end guild threat is extremely important, and while dodge mitigates damage it also reduces rage and threat gain. That said good gear does the same, which is why you see a lot of tanks using some parts (wep most noticably) fury gear.

If you're aiming for maximum performance in a top-tier guild go human, otherwise go night elf.

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But as Alli, wouldn't Blessing of Salvation fix any threat issues? As well, I plan on using + hit rings, maybe a neck piece as well if I can get one to counter threat issues > than + AP or crit on a weapon.

So that would rule human out.

Is Stone-form situational? Yes. But the situations needed are great. As well, not all fights are you tanking the entire time. For tank rotation fights, Stone-form becomes even better. Also bosses with a soft enrage, this helps too.

It really is a tough call between NE and an over weight member of ZZ-Top. Though base stats, Dwarf wins as well.

maybe i'm just not hardcore enough, but I've never seen a guild make a main tank decision based on the race..
The important aspects of a maintank are dedication, skill and equipment. Not racials. No serious guild will be counting on your racials to progress anyway.*
(stoneform may rarely be an exception to the last sentence, due to its reliability and usefulness in certain situations. But not having it will NOT make you wipe, just as like having it will NOT automatically make you roflstomp a boss.)

I've had my share of game characters in my time, I've played warriors of all races except gnome and undead and never have I had any guild/PuG refuse me because of the race of my character.

Just like somebody above me said, pick a race you like looking at and don't worry about half a percent here or there.

Cpstabber said:

But as Alli, wouldn't Blessing of Salvation fix any threat issues? As well, I plan on using + hit rings, maybe a neck piece as well if I can get one to counter threat issues > than + AP or crit on a weapon.

So that would rule human out.

Is Stone-form situational? Yes. But the situations needed are great. As well, not all fights are you tanking the entire time. For tank rotation fights, Stone-form becomes even better. Also bosses with a soft enrage, this helps too.

It really is a tough call between NE and an over weight member of ZZ-Top. Though base stats, Dwarf wins as well.

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Salvation helps but doesnt fix it. Why sacrafice the survivability you gain from rings and/or necks when you could get the same amount of threat by being a different race. I stand by my earlier recomendations.

What goris said is true though, as a (main) tank race will 99% of the times not be the deciding factor.

Cpstabber said:

It really is a tough call between NE and an over weight member of ZZ-Top. Though base stats, Dwarf wins as well.

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There really isn't contest here. Dwarves are the only alliance race with any hint of coolness.

gnome is 2 times more cool than dworf :tongue:

For alliance it actually exist some factors what race you choose but Horde the 5%HP Bonus is just op what you can see later at bwl gear /naxx gear. (300-400 hp more then ud, orc and troll is just imba)

K back to topic cause what are the best for alliance.
Dwarf stoneform can be really usefull vs some bosses and trash (meaning with that the Bleed, Poison, and Disease immunity, the 10% armor for 8 sec lol nobody cares 3-4 hits only lowered vs a Boss ) and has from the 4 the most sta 113 and str 122 more then hu but they have the less agi 76in game and that cause 3.80% dodge

Nightelf has the most dodge of all he has 5.25% dodge cause of agi 85 and racial(1%dodge) but has 117 str and 109 sta and with that less then a hu Player(wow 10 life and 6 ap i am impressed ) with that actually nightelf has the most defensiv strenght (fun fact ne has more crit 4.25% ,hu has 4.20% but Need a sword or mace in Hand or he lose the 0.20%)

Now to hu first stats to understand the other above better more or less 120 str 80 agi 110sta and with that (4%dodge) but what is actually the power of a hu player? his +wep skill(cause most of tanks have a sword or a mace sad but this is life it gives no good axe tank weapon for orcs :no: ) to show it as example how it is actually on most of all server.
Is better to show with numbers here. (cause some players don t understand glancing dmg reduse )

Both naked 55-57 ne and hu (both same stats got a low level item with ne +3 str that both have same str 120)
weapon: worn shortsword 1-3 attackspd 1.9
30/31 white hits ne/ hu at gehennas
ne hits for 16-22 glancing hu hits for 24-27 glancing

Cause of that hu players has the most offensive power and don t forget +wep sill do other effects.
1.Point do that!
Your chance to miss decreases by 0.04%.
Your chance to score a critical hit increases by 0.04%.
Your opponent's chance to block your attack decreases by 0.04%.
Your opponent's chance to parry your attack decreases by 0.04%.
Your opponent's chance to dodge your attack decreases by 0.04%.
Don t Forget glancing can only happend on autohits(40%chance) not on special and crits! As example a warrior that spam heroic strike get never a glancing (but plz don t spam now hs this is horrible).

So which race now for tanking? Dwarf for usefull cd(in my opinion to rare :mellow , ne for best def stats(vs dwarf it would be 1.45%dodge more!) and hu for best aggro.

So for hu, auto attack is 0.20% more rage. And special attacks is 0.16% more aggro?

Seems like that isnt enough to make up for a lot more dodge. Nightelf might be it.

This is all wrong, see below.

Cpstabber said:

So for hu, auto attack is 0.20% more rage. And special attacks is 0.16% more aggro?

Seems like that isnt enough to make up for a lot more dodge. Nightelf might be it.

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DUDE STAAAAHP! Go dwarf! As someone mentioned before: coolnes > everything!

Stoneform seems like a decent dmg reduction CD for warrs (wonder if it effects armor gained from pots?) but rly doesn't matter which race you choose for tanking, it's rather what else do you want to do with your toon?

Ever going to os as Fury? Human is best.

Going to PvP? Dwarf has Stoneform which is a great racial for offensive play and FCing, Nelf has a great racial for defensive play such as flagroom defense or fc support.

Just going to tank 100% of the time and not do either of the above? Choose any race.

if you talking about pvp, gnome has the best racial for it and DMG reduction added from dwarfs Stoneform is ridiculous. You better not mention it

I agree with Figaro, the Armor increase isn't that strong + it's just a short time boost.

Can somebody test the damage reduction increase in a T2 geared tank?

Lets asume a T2 tank has about 10k armor. Stoneform gives you 10% -> 11k

10k -> 64,5% absorb -> 35,5% damage
11k -> 66,7% absorb -> 33,3% damage

33,3 / 35,5 = 93,8% -> you reduce the incoming damage by 6,2% for 8 seconds.

Thanks.