Pallies do NOT corner the market on AOE tanking... If you are a warrior and are tanking here is a sure fire way to tank just as well as a pally only better. Its broken down into 6 steps.
Let's assume you have Warbringer and Shock Wave in your talent spec (as a protection warrior you SHOULD).
1) Charge group of mobs and hit thunderclap on your way in/just as you get to the pack of them, look for any casters that may have not come with your initial charge and may be hanging back and casting, use heroic throw on them (you won't have that til later). If there are more than one caster, taunt the one you did not hit with heroic throw. If you do not have heroic throw, put up Spell reflect. (All of this should happen within the first 3 seconds.)
2) Back up a couple steps so that all mobs are in your frontal arc and nail a Shock Wave.
3) Demo shout mobs while they are stunned and nail another t-clap.
4) Hit your shield block + trinket macro (if you have one of those block value trinkets like Gnomer. Auto Blocker, etc. AS, but NOT BEFORE the mobs come out of the stun from your Shock Wave.
5) Toss a Shield slam and a few cleaves around if you have the rage for it, preferentially targeting the mob you might have marked for first kill.
6) Go into your normal rotation of skills using a few cleaves instead of heroic strikes (when your revenge glyph is down) and substituting a thunderclap in every 6 seconds for a devastate, tabbing through the mobs as you go. Pay attention to those casters for shield bashes to stop any heals and/or interrupt casts when your Spell Reflect is on CD. Refresh Demo Shout as needed and use Shock Wave every time it's off CD.
What you accomplish with this:
Step 1: You're gathering up the mobs and getting them close to you and establishing a fair amount of opening threat. The reason you t-clap ASAP and maybe even before you actually reach them as you're charging is that sometimes the mobs like to run for someone else in the party immediately. A timely t-clap gets their attention back on you where it ought to be, before they get out of range of it.
Step 2: The mobs will try to circle around you, some getting outside of your frontal arc and outside the effect of your Shock Wave. This is why you back up a couple steps so that they are forced to follow you, which also makes them group up in front of you more tightly, when you shockwave them you do a BUTTLOAD of damage to them and stun them if they're stunnable.
Step 3: Demo shout is for pure damage mitigation and it also adds a bit of aggro, but mainly it's damage mitigation. You're taking a pile of mobs here; make it as easy on your healer as you can.
Step 4: Hitting your Shield Block ability (plus block value trinket if you have it) accomplishes several things. First, it gives you damage mitigation; +100% chance to block double your normal value. Second, it gives you more threat since you're blocking everything that doesn't miss you outright and thus, mobs are taking damage from your Damage Shield talent - and taking more damage since that talent is based on your block value, which you just doubled by hitting your Shield Block ability. Third, you're making any shield slams you throw for the next 20 seconds hit that much harder since they're also dependent on your block value for their damage. You also want to wait til the Shock Wave stun wears off so that you maximize all three of these effects. It makes no sense to shock wave while you have Shield Block up since you'll stun the mobs for a decent chunk of the duration of the effect of your Shield Block ability.
Step 5: You're cementing aggro on your kill target with this step, and any single target DPSers in your party are likely close to your threat if they're not AOEing on this mob. So you focus it first with a big fat juicy Shield Slam, revenge, devastate, and it's yours. Listen and watch for Sword and Board procs and prioritize your use of Shield Slam over Revenge or Devastate, then Revenge over Devastate.
Step 6: This is your cleanup phase where you're just making sure nothing gets loose, keeping an eye out for casters and trying to reflect/interrupt what spells you can, taunting any mobs that make a break for an AOEr, etc.
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Subject: Prot. Warrior Tanking 
Wed May 27, 2009 1:32 am
