tomten, Thank you very much for such a detailed post with a log! That's a lot of info so if I miss responding to some portion of it be patient with me and ask again.
No, thank you! least i could do for all the work you do for us! Plus i work with "users" myself and know how much it sucks to get a generic "nothing works" and try to solve it
I have some thoughts on it already based upon what I did for other classes, but if you could share your opinion of what a stressful moment worth popping a 5 minute cooldown while grinding is it would be appreciated.
Well, i view it 2 ways.(guessing your definition of 'stressful')
First is just offensive usage, 3> mobs should be good enough requirement, pure grinding purposes.
Second is defensive usage, and this is where it becomes bit tricky.
Lets say the scenario is similar to this:
You pull x number of mobs(5+) and everything is fine, then you get respawns on top of a patrol and you start seeing hp bar plummeting.
I would personally blow everything(recklessness, skull banner, bloodbath, trinket, dc and optionally a pot together with last stand(has to be cast first) + enraged regeneration) and target the lowest hp mob and get a victory rush chain proc going and shieldwall when reck fades.
(Should be over now, but theoretically i would continue it with barrier spam, demo shout when shieldwall fades and aim to sync up ER with rallyin cry. Using ER anyhow if thats not possible. Even heroic leap and kiting if necessary.)
Weakened blows debuff (From thunderclap) would be kept up 100% 3> mobs.
If pack contains casters 'Disrupting shout' and 'pummel' would also be included, both off gcd.
(Can be noted that i view shieldwall and to lesser extent demo shout as preemptive cooldowns, when i know lots of damage is incoming and ls+er combo as my panic button, for this reason, i dont use berserker rage for enrage uptime, its saved for ER, 60 rage is to much imo.)
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Personally, i think above is bit moot point, cause when i play myself, the pulling is similar to:
1st pack. Blow all cooldowns use chain procs of VR to heal up (optionally demo shout).
2nd pack. Blow all minor dps cooldowns, use shield wall before i start to drop, optionally laststand/rallyin cry + enraged regen.
3rd pack. Repeat 1st pack / use remaining cooldowns, usually rallyin+enraged and demo shout.
After avatar rage gen nerf, protection doesn't really have anything offensive that offers survivability(besides killing stuff, i guess
Only other thing i can think of is maybe give recommendation to talent shockwave and use on cd for the stun. I personally dont bother, use DR and BB cause it syncs up so nicely with everything.
I think its more important to stack and time cooldown usage, for example, only using skull banner would be close to worthless without recklessness.
Cleave may seem a bit weak but it still taps more mobs than HS, so for now will leave it in multi-mob situations.
I'm not really convinced it triumphs heroic strike even in aoe scenarios.
1 less mob means less damage taken.(TDR should be lower this way)
You get victory rush procs.
Cleave only hits a second target (no glyph anymore) 1 non crit heroic strike is close to 2 target cleave hit. (small sample size ~ avg 18k for hs. 24k for 2 target cleave. avg 12k single.)
But ye, its bit nitpicking, personally, im leaning towards unbinding cleave from my bars
Post became bit long i noticed, but if you have any prot questions, feel free to pm or ask here, always happy to help
