Updating the Guide (Warrior)

[Ciderhelm]

0.5 Threat & Threat Values

Threat
Threat should not be looked at as an arcane, mysterious entity that can not be understood or put into real terms. It is based on real and understandable concepts and numbers.

Let's say that 1 Damage is equivalent to 1 Threat. For the purposes of this game, this is the best way to quantify threat, as 1 Damage will produce the equivalent of 1 Threat before any modifiers come into play. The Warrior who is tanking will always want to make sure their threat is at a higher level than the Threat of their party or raid members. Following this, the Warrior can make use of specific abilities which maximize his or her Threat potential. This is done by the intelligent use of abilities, gear, threat-producing talents, and basic positioning in relation to party members.

While 1 Damage is equivalent to 1 Threat, it takes 2 points of Healing to amount to 1 Threat. Also, Threat is only produced by effective healing -- overhealing produces no Threat.

Threat does not decay in combat. It can be reduced through the use of several mechanics such as Knockback. However, under normal circumstances Threat will never decay.


Pulling and Holding Aggro (100/110/130 Rule)

Tank (Baseline) _____________________  100%
Melee Range Aggro ___________________  110%
Ranged Aggro ________________________  130%

The above chart represents the balance of when a player will pull aggro from the tank. To get aggro, a player in melee range must exceed the total threat of the current player with aggro by 10%. If the player is at a range, they would have to produce 30% more threat to fully gain aggro.

This has some important implications. First, it gives you breathing room to miss a few attacks and not instantly lose aggro -- that seems to be the purpose of the 10% rule. Second, it means that ranged classes take a heavy risk by moving into melee range with a large amount of threat built up -- the mob will instantly change targets to a ranged target who moves into melee. Third, this means that tank switching can be difficult in some cases.

This is where Taunt comes in. The Warrior Taunt immediately places you at 100% aggro of whoever the highest-Threat player is on the target list for that creature. It also bypasses the 10% rule and does not require you build immediate threat. When tanking, it may be helpful to remember that you can let any player you want build Threat for you on a mob -- all you have to do is Taunt the mob to get everything they worked for and make the mob yours. This is also a good argument for Improved Taunt.


Threat from Stances, Talents, Buffs, and Classes
The following chart shows multipliers to Threat values that affect the amount of Threat players produce.

Ability Multipliers                   Percent  Multiplier
Defensive Stance / Bear Form ________  130%      (1.3)  Additive
Defiance / Feral Instinct ___________  115%     (1.15)  Additive
Fury/Battle Stance __________________   80%      (0.8)  Multiplicative
Rogue/Cat Form Druid ________________   80%      (0.8)  Multiplicative
Blessing of Salvation _______________   70%      (0.7)  Multiplicative
Tranquil Air Totem __________________   80%      (0.8)  Multiplicative
Druid (Subtlety) ____________________   80%      (0.8)  Multiplicative
Priest (Silent Resolve) _____________   80%      (0.8)  Multiplicative
Mage (Frost Channelling) ____________   70%      (0.7)  Multiplicative
Mage (Arcane Subtlety) ______________   60%      (0.6)  Multiplicative
Warlock (Destructive Reach) _________   90%      (0.9)  Multiplicative
Warlock (Imp. Drain Soul) ___________   90%      (0.9)  Multiplicative

What is important to note about the above table is that any positive gains to threat are always additive, not multiplicative. For instance, if you are in Defensive Stance with Defiance, you produce 45% more Threat from your abilities as opposed to 49.5% more Threat. Multiplicative threat specifically applies only to reductions in threat.


Innate Threat
Many Warrior abilities are built around the concept of Innate, or hidden, Threat values. What this means is that abilities which neither deal Damage or Healing produces Threat on the targeted creature when used. Innate Threat never replaces Threat produced from damage; in many cases, such as with Shield Slam, Devastate, Heroic Strike and Revenge, the Damage portion of the ability produces Threat in addition to the innate value.

The following chart gives detailed Innate Threat values (many thanks to Kenco for his continued research and Lavina for her guide on WoW-Europe Warrior forums and where I pulled this updated list from):

Sunder Armor (Rank 6) [level 67]_______301
Revenge (Rank 8) [level 70]____________417
Shield Slam (Rank 6) [level 70]________307
Devastate (Rank All)___________________101
Thunder Clap (Rank All)____+150% of damage
Cleave (Rank 6) [level 68]_____________130 (split)
Disarm_________________________________104
Mocking Blow (Rank 6) [level 65]_______290
Demoralizing Shout (Rank 7) [level 70]__56 (split)
Battleshout (Rank 8) [level 69]_________69 (split)
Commanding Shout [level 68]_____________68 (split)
Hamstring (Rank 4) [level 67]__________181
Excecute (Rank All)_________+25% of damage
Spell Reflect [level 64]_________________0
Piercing Howl [level 20] ________________0
Concussion Blow [level 30]_______________0

When Threat is split as indicated above, that means it is either divided by the number of mobs affected or by the number of creatures aware of your presence. This is determined by whether the ability directly affects the creature or not. For instance, the Threat from Demoralizing Shout shout would only be split by the creatures it directly hits; however, the Threat from Commanding Shout would be split among all creatures engaged with your character.


Damage as Threat
All damage is threat; not all threat is damage. Any increase in damage will be a direct increase in threat. Threat from damage scales in specific ways.

The most obvious scaling can be seen in Shield Slam, which becomes stronger as a Warrior collects standard tanking gear with Shield Block Value.

Devastate and Normal attacks both scale from Attack Power. Though improvements in this area are generally less perceptible, they make up a significant portion of your overall threat. Devastate and Normal attacks also benefit from party and raid buffs.

Heroic Strike and Devastate scale based on Weapon Speed. However, getting faster weapons for Heroic Strike is much better in terms of net gain; Devastate is Normalized, meaning your Attack Power bonus is based on a 2.4 Speed weapon, whereas Heroic Strike is not affected by Normalization, and the fastest weapons will produce the best possible results.


Critical Strikes
Critical Strikes have no unique impact on threat. The extra threat generated from a Critical Strike is strictly from the damage produced; innate threat is not affected.