Twin ghosts and tanking swords: one player's Fury Prot quest idea

Halvdur's post on the EU WoW forums on 29 October reads like a quest log, and it is meant to. A level 60 Warrior meets the ghosts of twin brothers who failed to protect their tribe because they couldn't agree how: one wanted to defend from a position of strength, the other to meet the danger head on. An old blacksmith, the last one skilled in "Spirit Forging", offers to fuse the brothers' spirits into weapons, if the Warrior can bring him a suitable set. Along the way the hero skips the quest text and daydreams about topping the damage meters.

The punchline is the reward. In Halvdur's story the twin blades come with a set bonus for Defensive Stance: more Stamina, more threat on Bloodthirst, and less damage both dealt and taken, with Whirlwind usable in Defensive Stance added as "extra spice". The Warrior realises the swords are for tanking, shrugs, and decides to try tanking as Fury.

Strip away the story and the proposal is simple. A weapon set would trade damage for threat, Stamina and mitigation, so that a dual-wielding Fury Warrior could tank as an option. Halvdur is clear about the limits: Fury Prot shouldn't replace deep Protection or any other tank, and the numbers in the story are "just for effect".

The ghosts, the smith, the quest and the blades are all invented for the post. What it offers is a fun way of asking whether a damage spec's weapons could carry a defensive role, and at what cost.