Jesus Christ. I explained this.
1) Enhanced threat.
Outmoded mechanic by the developer's own admission. I would rather do the extra threat at damage. The issue is that the dim. returns starts so fucking early that those of us still wearing the pants and helmet from T9 are hitting them. Sorry that not all of us have the huge number of frost badges to buy a full set of T10? but wait, now that I actually look at t10...
2) No one stacks block value in any practical situation because block is terrible and no relevant tank gear as of 3.3 has it anyway. No criticism of a design decision is valid when it is based on Doing It Wrong.
people are still using t9 tank gear. But, for those who aren't, like, say, the best geared warrior tank on Ysera, with glyph of blocking and shield mastery they're still hitting the point of dim returns without using any block value gear! Brotip: block value stops adding to your damage at any significant point around 2000. And while I get that shield block (the ability) is not supposed to be a damage boosting ability, all the block value that's adding is
completely going to waste. You're taking an extremely simplistic view of this nerf - it's not just an issue of shield block gear. It's an issue of the dim. returns cap being so low that without using shield block gear at all you're still hitting it unless you spec out of shield mastery and take off glyphs. 2k creeps up fucking fast.
3) If you want more damage as Prot, wear PvP gear.
Why should we have to trade defensive ability for PVE damage? no other tank class has to do this.
4) Christ, who the fuck wears block gear? Will you stop making multi-paragraph soliloquys about how little you understand Prot Warriors, please?
This would be a valid argument if dim returns started at 3k sbv, but it does not. T10 tanks are going to pass the cap (the soft cap, being around 1960 - after this, sbv adds about 10% of the value until 3k, where it capes out at 2100) without the help of SBV just from the huge amounts of extra strength on t10 level gear. Top prot warrior on Ysera does not have the full t10 set yet and is still pushing 1700 str - that number is going up with every upgrade he gets. Also: The best in slot shield has 150 additional SBV on it, adding up to about 400 sbv from that piece alone. That's 650 sbv from that single piece after talents, 710 after glyphs, 1420 after you pop shield block. (so, since that's up 20% of the time, we'll say 284 SBV.) So from that one piece of gear that no prot warrior would
ever wear if they knew what they were doing (lololol) you are getting 994 shield block value. More than half the dim returns (soft) cap. From just the fucking shield!
5) Completely different rulesets? PLAY FFXI.
IF U DONT LIKE THIS COUNTRY (GREATEST COUNTRY EVER) MOVE TO FUCKIN CANADA YOU NIGER JEW
In all seriousness, this isn't classic WOW where everyone was pvping because nobody got to raid but the hardest of the hard core players. Everyone raids now - go into your average group of players in Dalaran and the vast majority are going to be wearing TOC gear. Not a lot, however, are going to be wearing gladiator gear or even have a full set of it in their bank. The balance has shifted, PVE content is enjoyed by a much larger percentage of the playerbase, whereas PVP, due to ratings requirements being added in and 2v2 being made into a meaningless arena bracket, is enjoyed by fewer players than ever before. Obviously Blizzard needs to keep making PVP balance changes because this is important to some players. But they should not be making these changes at the expense of PVE players, given that we make up a larger percentage of the playerbase by a gigantic amount.
6) It isn't too much to ask that the spec of an already-strong class with the highest survivability and greatest control options by several orders of magnitude not also have the hardest-hitting burst ability in the class's entire repertoire. Would it be appropriate for Frost Mages to have Pyroblast as their 51 point talent?
Maybe if you'd read my post you'd have noticed I suggested other options to keep PVE warrior DPS from declining from the change. Burst damage means exactly dick in PVE, as does that vaunted control - last I checked, most bosses can't be stunned and any trash mobs where it would actually be useful to stun (outside of five man content, which we've already decided is irrelevant) can't be fucking stunned anyway. The AOE group damage reduction sho' is nice, but it's a real shame that's fucking meaningless if your OT is any other tank class because you're not going to hold aggro on the AOE group over any other tank anyway! What I want is sustained PVE DPS on par with the other classes, or at the very least close, but we've already established the other PVE tanks are doing nearly double what prot warriors do. Nerfing prot PVE damage - even if it's a relatively small amount - is unacceptable by virtue of the prot warriors PRIMARY PROBLEM right now being their incredibly small PVE damage.
The PVE damage of a prot warrior does not matter now, (I disagree with this, but playing devil's advocate) but blood queen and festergut are going to be a bitch on hard mode and Prot is going to be a liability, mark my words.