Burning Crusade Talents and Spells

Well, anyone who keeps up with World of Warcraft news probably knows about all the information that they have released concerning the upcoming expansion.

New Races, Exploring Outland, 25 Man Raiding...and so on.

So far, everything that I have heard regarding the expansion sounds great. I feel like Blizzard is listening to their customers and trying to improve the game. Though, you never know how things will turn out until they are actually experienced (a.k.a. looks good on paper).

I believe the 25 man raid cap will have the most significant impact out of anything else they release. This change will probably cause turmoil in the majority of end game raiding guilds. I personally think it is a great idea because managing 40 people is hell. It is just too bad Blizzard did not make this decision when they initially released the game.

Anyways, on to the topic of this post. As you probably know, I play a protection warrior and have been tanking practically since I hit level 60. So, the new abilities and protection talents are of great interest to me.

BC Protection Talents

BC Warrior Abilities

Let's start with the new protection talents:

Improved Defensive Stance: Reduces damage taken by up to 6%
-Cannot complain about this talent. Taking less damage is one of the most important aspects of being a tank.

Focused Rage: Reduces the cost of all offensive abilities by up to 3.
-Interesting talent. In most end game raiding scenarios, a tank will practically infinite rage against bosses. This would certainly be useful in any other situation. Another interesting thought is combining this with improved sunder...a 9 rage sunder would certainly sound good to any tank.

Shield Mastery: Increases the amount absorbed by your shield by up to 30%.
-I would have to play with numbers to really see the effect of this talent, but it sounds good. Currently, Zenos blocks around 150, so adding another 50 to this value certainly couldn't hurt; especially considering I block over 25% of the time.

Vitality: Increases you stamina by up to 5%.
-The talent that tanks have been asking for, but it is not as good as I had hoped. I personally would have expected a bit more for a tier 8 talent. The problem is that 5% is not very significant. In fact, the tauren racial ability is better simply because it is 5% of your total health points, not just stamina. With all that said, any stamina increase is a good one for a tank.

Devastate: Instant one-hand weapon attack
-Wow...that is all I have to say. No more spamming sunders beyond 5! No cooldown! Possibly an actual DPS ability for tanks! Granted it is only 50% damage of your MH weapon...but imagine fighting a boss with all your rage. It is basically the ultimate way to hold aggro on anything.

New Warrior Abilities:

To be continued...