While we're leveling we encounter many different mobs that we will later be grinding for the items that we need in order to gear ourselves for the starting progression instances. You might as well grind up those materials now while you know which mobs drop them and you'll still earn experience for killing them.

As a protection warrior we have a duty to our guild to gear ourselves ahead of the content as much as possible. The way that you gear your warrior will directly affect how quickly your guild will progress through starting content and onward into more difficult encounters.

That being said, here are three items to examine as probable items to have crafted upon (or prior to) reaching level 80.

Tempered Titansteel Helm
Requires:
4 [Saronite Bar] made from 2 Saronite Ore.
4 [Titansteel Bar] And 1 [Frozen Orb]

Tempered Titansteel Treads
Requires
4 [Saronite bar]s
3 [Titansteel bar]s
and one [Frozen Orb]

Armor Plated Combat Shotgun
Requires
10 [Titanium Bar]s
20 [Saronite Bar]s
15 [Eternal Air]
15 [Eternal Water]s
1 [Frozen orb]
1 [Walnut Stock]

Each [Titansteel Bar] is made from 3 [Titanium Bars] one [Eternal Fire] one [Eternal Earth] and one [Eternal Shadow]. Frozen Orbs appear to be the level 80 equivalent of Primal Nether.

If you've found other (or superior) items that are craftable for protection warriors please do leave a comment!

Edit: Here are a few more to consider... **Credit Beshara for Locating them!**

Durable Nerubhide Cape
Requires
2 [Arctic Fur]
40 [Nerubian Chitin]
1 [Frozen Orb]

Titanium Earthguard Chain
Requires:
2 [Titanium Bar]s
4 [Dragons Eyes]
6 [Eternal Life]
6 [Eternal Earth]
and 1 [Frozen Orb]

Titanium Earthguard Ring
Requires
2 [Titanium Bar]s
4 [Dragons Eyes]
4 [Eternal Earth]
4 [Eternal Life]
and 1 [Frozen Orb]

Titansteel Shield Wall
Requires
4 [Saronite Bar]s
3 [Titansteel Bar]s
and 1 [Frozen Orb]

Total Shopping list:
32 [Saronite Bar]
7[Frozen Orb]
44 [Titanium Bar]
15 [Eternal Air]
15 [Eternal Water]
20 [Eternal Earth]
10 [Eternal Shadow]
10 [Eternal Fire]
10 [Eternal Life]
1 [Walnut Stock]
2 [Arctic Fur]
40 [Nerubian Chitin]
8 [Dragons Eyes]

Check this out. http://www.talentchic.com/Protection/Warrior

Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily my recommendations. In point of fact, many of the specs are aweful. However it will give you a couple ideas of what you could do with your warrior. Personally my spec is here.

I'm still debating whether I want points in incite or not, for now I'm more interested in survivability. I don't want to buff my threat via spec too much right now since I need a bit of a challenge from my DPSers to really get used to and learn prioritized tanking rather than rotations.

So I decided to go solo Sethekk Halls.

What? Why would you do that? You're playing a level 80!

I figured it's an off night. No raid. So I'm bored and sick (I've got a Doozey of a cold) and what do I want to do? I want to tank an instance that's what! But my voice is quite gone. Yes, I am one of those annoying tanks that wants everyone in voice, though mostly for social reasons, but Hey! What can I say, I like my guildies!

The best part was that I felt like I got a good chance to get a feel for prioritized tanking rather than rotations, with no performance pressure.

Here are some of the screenshots I took during the instance. Unfortunately my computer decided it hates me half way through and wouldn't let me take a screenshot. So you dear reader will have to put up with the fuzzy phone-camera pictures of my screen.

Enjoy!!



Here I just killed the first boss, what a great feeling (I really hate that guy!) Shockwave, Thunderclap, and Damage Shield made this easy.


Here I am preparing to face off with Ikiss. I'm a little nervous honestly since I've had groups that have had trouble with him in the past.



Peice o' cake. He was vastly easier than the first Boss. Turns out the majority of the difficulty in this fight is really just knowing where everyone else is. Staying in line of sight with your healer, etc. With no one else to worry about it was stupidly simple. I didn't even need a healing potion.



I even won an achievement for my troubles!

Step 1: Learn to use WWS if you're not already familiar with WWS. Check out the quick guide on the WWS website, Or
this blog post by Good Morning Azeroth.


Step 2: Once you've gotten your WWS report, you will click on your name then on the full report button.



From there, select the fight that you would like to parse to determine your threat per second.



Select the text from the address bar and copy it.



Paste the text into the only field available on this website.











Click on the "Submit Query" Button and out pops your TPS number.



Congrats!

(Disclaimer: This post is based on beta build 9014 and could change at a moment's notice)

Question: What will my tanking rotation be when WotLK is released? Answer: Based on how the beta looks today you don't have one.

Two Reasons:

1. You're much more likely to be tanking multiple mobs.
Thunderclap has had its target cap removed and it now creates a fair amount of threat. Shockwave also generates a good amount of threat and doubles as an "Oh Shit" button if your health dips low.

2. With the new Sword and Board talent you will randomly reset cool down on Shield Slam based on your usage of both Revenge and Devastate.

Welcome to priority land. You're going to have to watch your cool downs a lot more now. So how do our priorities lay out when we're fighting for threat?

Shield Slam is preferred over Revenge which is preferred over Devastate.