It's late but I feel compelled to reply from my somewhat limited perspective of a level 30 warrior.
I did a ton of research before rolling this char and have a good amount of experience at aggro management having played a 60 hunter and experienced BRD. BRS/Strath/Scholo are still mostly a mystery to me, I ventured into Scholo and let's just say it was bad and leave it at that.
My warrior is somewhat protection specced. The plan I am entertaining right now is going for Improved Revenge, Tactical Mastery and Enrage. I hope that it will give me a decent amount of damage (from enrage) while taking a defensive footing and using stuns from Revenge. I may spec to Concussive Blow as well.
I have not yet got Berserker stance or a reasonable level of Tactical Mastery, but I have been in many situations where somebody other than me pulls and I have to get aggro. How I usually do it is this:
1. If in battle stance, Charge. Hope the stun isn't resisted. Drop Sunder asap to burn rage and get aggro and then switch to Defensive stance. Taunt if it doesn't focus on you. Bloodrage if taunt is resisted. Sunder asap. Demo shout as needed.
2. Bloodrage, intercept the approaching mob on foot. Hit it, taunt it if it doesn't focus on you, sunder asap. If more than one, demoralizing shout.
From then on I work rage to shield block and then revenge everything, with a fair few sunders along the way. Taunt is something I use sparingly either to recapture a lost mob or to ensure it keeps hitting me after I fire shield block (so Revenge can light up). It's been said before, but i'll mention it again: you can revenge something other than what you just blocked. I often spread my revenges around.
You need a good group that understands you must "stick" the mob onto you before they go crazy. That means at least one sunder. A taunt is not good enough.
The key to me is bloodrage. I have improved bloodrage and use bloodrage constantly. Starting a fight in defensive stance with zero rage means you rely on taunt which is a death sentence. Why? Because then you must work up 15 rage before the two second taunt expires: 10 for shield block and 5 for revenge, or 15 for sunder... AND the mob must still want to hit you once more after you activate shield block. Usually there's not enough time and it turns away right after you shield block. Taunting at the start of the fight cripples you for when you really need it. I prefer to sacrifice a bit of life, bloodrage, and sunder it instead, and save my taunt for the pull or to lock a target onto me for that critical move that is dependant on victim action.
I find that I have a lot more problems holding rage in battle stance. I need to sunder constantly or do a ton of damage. Revenge seems to cause way more hate. If a mob is pulled off you in battle, there's basically nothing you can do since sunder doesn't seem to get them back very easily.
That being said I *am* having success in battle stance with a polearm. It's fast enough that I don't fall asleep, yet damaging enough that I get good rage with it. If you kill things faster, you take less damage. But I still end battles more hurt (in a team situation) in battle stance with the polearm.
Last but not least, I believe those extra hitpoints you save by not bloodraging are worthless if you aren't tanking. So, I bloodrage. Give it a go.
Spangles, join The Basin on Stormrage. There's only 10 million of us :D
[Goes back and reads thread.]
Well isn't that funny. I do exactly what gnollguy does.
Oh and as for VC. You're doing it wrong. Kill the first wave of adds, attract but ignore the second. Demoralizing shout gets them on the warrior, and spreading a bit of sunder around keeps them there while vancleef dies.
I did it with War Rogue Priest Mage Pal. Pal (18) handled anything that went for the casters. Mage sheeped one of the first and one of the second waves. We basically just left the spare second add alone to hit me. I locked VC in at the start while rogue/pala killed the first two adds one at a time. Then the rogue opened up with repeated stabs on VC, while the pala dropped back to defend the cloth and backup-heal. Easy, once you get it down.
Do I do a ton of damage in defensive mode? No, I don't. Isn't it convenient that all the good abilities have a really low rage cost!
Nothing beats sequential revenge-stuns on two opponents, then cleaving them both. Well, not until I get whirlwind.
Make no mistake, once I get Whirlwind and Berserker rage, I will be using them.
I did a ton of research before rolling this char and have a good amount of experience at aggro management having played a 60 hunter and experienced BRD. BRS/Strath/Scholo are still mostly a mystery to me, I ventured into Scholo and let's just say it was bad and leave it at that.
My warrior is somewhat protection specced. The plan I am entertaining right now is going for Improved Revenge, Tactical Mastery and Enrage. I hope that it will give me a decent amount of damage (from enrage) while taking a defensive footing and using stuns from Revenge. I may spec to Concussive Blow as well.
I have not yet got Berserker stance or a reasonable level of Tactical Mastery, but I have been in many situations where somebody other than me pulls and I have to get aggro. How I usually do it is this:
1. If in battle stance, Charge. Hope the stun isn't resisted. Drop Sunder asap to burn rage and get aggro and then switch to Defensive stance. Taunt if it doesn't focus on you. Bloodrage if taunt is resisted. Sunder asap. Demo shout as needed.
2. Bloodrage, intercept the approaching mob on foot. Hit it, taunt it if it doesn't focus on you, sunder asap. If more than one, demoralizing shout.
From then on I work rage to shield block and then revenge everything, with a fair few sunders along the way. Taunt is something I use sparingly either to recapture a lost mob or to ensure it keeps hitting me after I fire shield block (so Revenge can light up). It's been said before, but i'll mention it again: you can revenge something other than what you just blocked. I often spread my revenges around.
You need a good group that understands you must "stick" the mob onto you before they go crazy. That means at least one sunder. A taunt is not good enough.
The key to me is bloodrage. I have improved bloodrage and use bloodrage constantly. Starting a fight in defensive stance with zero rage means you rely on taunt which is a death sentence. Why? Because then you must work up 15 rage before the two second taunt expires: 10 for shield block and 5 for revenge, or 15 for sunder... AND the mob must still want to hit you once more after you activate shield block. Usually there's not enough time and it turns away right after you shield block. Taunting at the start of the fight cripples you for when you really need it. I prefer to sacrifice a bit of life, bloodrage, and sunder it instead, and save my taunt for the pull or to lock a target onto me for that critical move that is dependant on victim action.
I find that I have a lot more problems holding rage in battle stance. I need to sunder constantly or do a ton of damage. Revenge seems to cause way more hate. If a mob is pulled off you in battle, there's basically nothing you can do since sunder doesn't seem to get them back very easily.
That being said I *am* having success in battle stance with a polearm. It's fast enough that I don't fall asleep, yet damaging enough that I get good rage with it. If you kill things faster, you take less damage. But I still end battles more hurt (in a team situation) in battle stance with the polearm.
Last but not least, I believe those extra hitpoints you save by not bloodraging are worthless if you aren't tanking. So, I bloodrage. Give it a go.
Spangles, join The Basin on Stormrage. There's only 10 million of us :D
[Goes back and reads thread.]
Well isn't that funny. I do exactly what gnollguy does.
Oh and as for VC. You're doing it wrong. Kill the first wave of adds, attract but ignore the second. Demoralizing shout gets them on the warrior, and spreading a bit of sunder around keeps them there while vancleef dies.
I did it with War Rogue Priest Mage Pal. Pal (18) handled anything that went for the casters. Mage sheeped one of the first and one of the second waves. We basically just left the spare second add alone to hit me. I locked VC in at the start while rogue/pala killed the first two adds one at a time. Then the rogue opened up with repeated stabs on VC, while the pala dropped back to defend the cloth and backup-heal. Easy, once you get it down.
Do I do a ton of damage in defensive mode? No, I don't. Isn't it convenient that all the good abilities have a really low rage cost!
Nothing beats sequential revenge-stuns on two opponents, then cleaving them both. Well, not until I get whirlwind.
Make no mistake, once I get Whirlwind and Berserker rage, I will be using them.