So once you've determined what the best stats are, the next best thing to worry about is what spells you are using when. This can be different for different fights. For example, on long boss fights when mana is an issue, I use Greater Heal, Renew, and Prayer of Mending. Depending on how hard the tank is getting hit, I will use a GHeal, Renew, wait, GHeal, POM, wait, and repeat. Or I may do GHeal, Renew, POM, wait. Especially if there's a second tank for the POMs to bounce off of, this works great.
On trash mobs, if I know agro will be an issue, I often use Binding Heal because it's a very low threat spell.
This applies to any class. If you're a mage, and you know agro will be an issue, usually you'll start out with Arcane spells. If it's a mana intense fight, you'll use Fireball/Frostbolt instead. I don't know enough about tanking, but I know that using your abilities in a particular order could mean extra agro while losing out on some mitigation, or vice versa.
Theorycrafters will determine what spell order is best by determining what spells give the most healing per mana, or threat per rage, or damage per energy, or whatever. There are a lot of things to take into account, but it's a way to start actually trying to figure out what you should be casting when to maximize whatever you're trying to do, without getting any gear at all.
Spell rotation is probably the most understudied theorycraft thing, because most people feel it's common sense to be spamming one spell (the most efficient one). But you'd be surprised if you did some research what you'll find.
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From a tanking point of view, there's really two primary goals: Prevent crushing blows and maintain threat.
For a druid, this is a little simpler - maintain threat. To be honest, single target druid tanking is dirt simple. Make sure that demo roar is up at all times and smack him with maul, mangle, and potentially lacerate (Lacerate serves as another threat booster and rage dump, essentially). Mangle's got a cooldown, so you use it when it's up - Maul is on a swing timer, so you refresh it each time you can and lacerate if there's spare rage. Done.
For multi-target druid tanking, just add Swipe in there, and possibly change targets depending how focused DPS is.
For plate tanks, the common factor that gets added is the shield block. Essentially, you want to make sure that your shield block is up. Period. If it goes down, you're likely to do so as well. No matter what else, monitor your global cooldowns to make sure that you can refresh it the second it is refreshable - do NOT use an ability that activates the GCD within 1.5 seconds of the block expiring.
I won't get into the specific threat moves of both warrior and paladin because there are a LOT of variations (multi vs. single target, MT vs. OT, melee vs. caster bosses, etc.) - suffice it to say that in general, paladins have an easier time tanking fast hitting, lighter melee bosses than a warrior does, while warriors handle strong, slow, hard and spell bosses MUCH better.
The core reason is the number of shield block charges. Warriors get 4 every ten seconds while paladins get 8. It's entirely possible for a fast boss to rip off a warrior's shield block and then crush, while a paladin will generally never have 8 charges used against a single target boss.
Last and final note of interest - a warrior can refresh shield block before the charges expire - there is a one second overlap. Paladins MUST wait until Holy Shield expires before they can reactivate it, allowing a window of crushability = to the length of time it takes for the server to register that you have been spamming Holy Shield.
Perhaps the most significant change in the past few patches has been abilities that are instant that act as a spell cast (thunderclap, demo roar, exorcism, taunts, etc) will graphically make you put away your shield for a split second but will still afford block protection during that time(previously, your block rating was -zero- for the duration of the animation).
I know it's not as vital as most of the other DPS classes, but melee dps runs into the same issues. As a DPS warrior I'm constantly judging which move I should use at certain times based on my rage ratio. I have to manage MS (my main attack) with my shouts that help Wynri while he's tanking. I also have to manage Death Wish and other trinkets and time them when I know I'll be recieving more rage to generate more damage. For DPS warriors it's simple, rage = damage. You just have to learn how to manage them. I'd like to suggest that we have a section in our forums devoted to Theory craft. Hopefully we can get more input on it and really get some good statistics going.
Azi
Not a bad idea. I'll see about making them later on tonight from home.
S
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