Protection Warrior 8.2

A Protection Warrior is a classical tank in the Azeroth Universe. Zealous and strong, a great ally to rely on. Uses Melee skills to retain the enemies with a shield and single-handed weapon.

Introduction

Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:

Advantages:

• Demands minimal external healing while receiving static damage.
• Low restoring time on defensive abilities.
• Great damage dealing with no loss in survival.
• High mobility.
• Maintains stuns with a short CD without diminishing on a target.
• Reflects spells.
• Can decrease damage coming into an ally by 30%, with a short CD.

Disadvantages:

• Prone to strong unblockable physical damage.
• Has short HP stock.

Basic information on the spec:

A Protection Warrior has one key resource which – like with all specs of the class – is Rage. As a tank, Warrior is oriented on providing max decrease on the incoming damage as it has no opportunity to recover the received damage.

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Glossary

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Main abilities

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Talents

General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.

Tier 1. Lvl 15

• Into the fray. You gain 3% Haste for each enemy within 15 yards (maximum 5 enemies) The more haste the better that is why this is the best choice in the tier for raidin and m+.
• Punish. Shield slam deals 20% more damage and reduces received damage by 3% for 9 sec. A weak talent because 3%is very little and it doesn’t stack, it is the worst choice even if you need more saving abilities.
• Impending victory. Replaces Victory rush. Requires 10 Rage to use, deals minor physical damage and restores you 20% of your maximum health. Killing an enemy reset the cooldown of Impending victory. Grants warrior a healing ability that he doesn’t have but has 30 sec CD and heals only for 20% of HP. Not a very strong talent.

Tier 2. Lvl 30

• Crackling thunder. Increases the radius of Thunder Clap by 50%. Take it for m+ if you need to gather a lot of mobs that spread among raid and you lack aggro range to hit multiple enemies.  
• Bounding stride. Reduces the cooldown on Heroic leap by 15%, and Heroic Leap now also increases your run speed by 70% for 3 sec. Take it if you lack mobility.  
• Safeguard. Reduces damage taken by the target with you  intercept ability for 6 sec. This is your choice if the second tank lacks saving abilities and cannot survive an attack.

Tier 3. Lvl 45

• Best served cold. Revenge deals 5% more per target hit (up to 5 targets). A good talent but it is weaker  than Unstoppable force.
• Unstoppable force. Avatar increases damage from Thunder Clap by 100% and reduces its cooldown by 50%. The best talent in this tier. You can deal a great bursting damage during Avatar with Thunder Clap in raids and m+.
• Dragon roar. Roar explosively, dealing damage to all enemies within 8 yards and reducing their movement speed by 50% for 6 sec. Has 35 sec cd and generates 10 Rage. A weak talent.

Tier 4. Lvl 60

• Indomitable. Increases your max HP by 10%. Just 10% hp that’s it, no use.
• Never Surrender. Ignore Pain now increases the damage ignored with low Health level up to 100%.Could be useful if healers have a really hard time healing up raid but usually this talent is not used.
• Bolster. Last stand’s cooldown is reduced by 60%, and it additionally causes you to block all melee attacks. The best choice in the tier. Reduces the cooldown of a strong save and also improves it adding up block for the whole duration of it. Our choice.

Tier 5. Lvl 75

• Menace. Intimidating shout disorients enemies for an additional 4 sec, and causes enemies to cover in fear instead of fleeing.
• Rumbling earth. When shockwave strikes at least 3 targets, its cooldown is reduced by 15 sec.
• Storm bolt. Hurls your weapon at an enemy causing damage and stunning for 4 sec. 30 sec CD.

*The choice if after you, the whole tier is situational.

Tier 6. Lvl 90

• Booming Voice. Demoralizing Shout now generates 40 Rage and increases the damage dealt by you to the targets under this effect by 15%.
• Vengeance. Ignore Pain reduces Rage spending in your next Revenge by 35%, and Revenge reduces 35% of your spending on the next Ignore Pain.
• Devastator. Replaces Devastate. This passive ability now allows your auto-attacks to deal additional damage, generated 5 Rage and provides 30% probability of finishing the restoring of your Shield Slam instantly.

*Booming voice  grants you deal bursting damage  or an additional option to survive for 40 Rage. A good choice for raiding and mythic+.

Devastator. A good talent for raiding because removes downtimes in rotation but a bit worse for mythic+. Choose according to your situation.  

Tier 7. Lvl 100

• Anger Management. Every 10 Restoring time spend reduce the restoring time of Avatar, Last Stand, Shield Wall and Demoralizing Shout by 1 sec. The best choice because it reduces burst and saving abilities that allows you to use them more often improving your survivability and damage. It is used in raids and m+.
• Heavy Repercussion. Shield Slam prolongs Shield Block by 1 sec, and Shield Block increases the damage dealt by Shield Slam by additional 30%.
• Ravager. Throws spinning weapon into a spot within the 40-m range. The weapon deals damage to all your enemies in a small area for 7 secs. While active, it increases the probability of parrying attacks by 35% for 12 secs.

So, we can boil it all down to the following builds:

1. nto the fray
2. Crackling thunder
3. Unstoppable force
4. –
5. Bolster
6. Booming Voice
7. Anger Management

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Azerite traits

In BFA typical sets were removed and Azerite armor took their place. Now every chest/helmet/shoulders have a few rings for traits.

• Deafening Crash extremly cool trait, allows you to increase the uptime of your Demoralizing Shout. Stacking this trait is only profit for dps increase, especially at aoe encounters.
• Brace for Impact – this is a good trait for dps with Devastator and surviveability overall.
• Bloodsport – this is the very best trait against magical damage. Be sure to have some even in your bags.
• Bastion of might. Avatar increases your mastery by 20 sec and instantly grants you Ignore pain. A great trait for raids and m+ that grants mastery during Avatar improving your block and damage.

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Essences

Gameplay

Let us first consider damage dealing as it has a direct impact on your Rage generation.

• Main priorities

1. Shield Slam per CD and per proc;
2. Revenge, when the other tank is tanking the boss.
3. Thunder Clap per CD.
4. Revenge, if you have the proc on free use.
5. Devastate.

* Don’t forget to use Intercept as it is, too, a Rage-generating ability. But don’t use it in case it leads to an unwanted turn of the Boss or their relocation.

For 3+ AoE:

1. Revenge.
2. Thunder Clap.
3. Shield Slam.
4. Devastate.

* Remember: a priority list like this demands a lot of Rage, and you do need it to utilize defensive abilities.

With active Devastator:

1. Shield Slam.
2. Revenge (if you have the proc on its free-of-charge use).
3. Revenge, if you have Vengeance‘s buff.
4. Thunder Clap.
5. Revenge.

* Keep in mind that, when playing with the talent Vengeance, you will have to utilize Ignore Pain quite often in order to reduce the cost of Revenge and Ignore Pain respectively.

• Reducing incoming damage

Active mitigation is presented with Protection Warriors with Shield Block and Ignore Pain.

Shield Block.

You have 2 charges, each providing for 6 secs a 100% chance of a Melee combat. Blocking reduces the damage by 30%. A block can be critical meaning 60% of the damage is blocked. The duration of the buff on each of the Shield Blocks sums up completely (with the Legendary pants it’s up to 18 secs, but no more).

• Shield Block should be used against physical Melee attacks.
• Not all your enemy’s special attacks can be reflected. Sometimes it takes a few fails to figure out if the spell you’re interested in prone to blocking or not.
• It is effective against groups of enemies.

Ignore Pain.

This ability can absorb 50% of N damage, where N is defined by your Power of the Attack, Versatility and the amount of Rage you spend on the ability, up to 60. Max absorb can equal 3 used on Ignore Pain. The talent Never Surrender doubles this max value.

• While you are off your tanking duty, you should occupy yourself with stacking as much Ignore Pain as possible before you get to attack the Boss.
• Ignore Pain works against any type of damage.
• Despite the fact that this ability is referred to active damage decreasing ability, the game doesn’t agree with that. There are, in fact, several Bosses who demand you to have active damage decreasing for some ability. In this case, you should use Shield Block.

Choosing between Shield Block and Ignore Pain.

• If you are about to receive physical damage from a Boss while you are on your max HP, use Shield Block, and then activate Ignore Pain once you’ve lost some of your Health.
• In general, with active tanking you should concentrate on maintaining max uptime for your Shield Block. Ignore Pain should be utilized on low HP level or before receiving massive damage.

• Cooldown usage

Avatar. Dps cd that should be combined with various talents for damage increase such as Demoralizing shout (if you have Booming voice)

Last Stand is used in case of a critical situation as it increases both your current and max Health.

You can also use it before receiving massive damage. It is easier for your Heals to recover a tank with higher max HP as you can bear significantly more damage before you die.

Shield Wall is best used just prior to receiving massive damage rather than on low Health levels.

Demoralizing Shout is utilized in a manner much like that of Shield Wall – best used before receiving damage. Although the incoming damage reducing effect is notably weaker, but so is the CD which means you can trigger this ability way more often. Perfect moments to use it would be a pool or before you get the Boss back to you. This is the moment when the healers in your group/raid may not react on time and restore the Health you’ve lost.

Spell Reflection allows you to reduce the incoming magic damage by 20%, for 5 secs. It can even reflect some spells back onto your enemy (often Bosses’ potent magic abilities do not get reflected). Since the ability only works against a single type of damage, it defines against which cooldowns you should use it.

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Stats

The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:

ilvl (Strength, Stamina, Armor) > Haste > Mastery >  Crit => Versatility

This specialization’s Mastery ups the chance of delivering a critical block as well as the power of attack.

Haste speeds up Rage generation and reduces the restoring time for your key abilities, such as Shield Block, Revenge, Shield Slam and Thunder Clap. This all is very beneficial for both your DPS and survival.

Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.

Gems:

• Quick Sand Spinel 50 haste

Chants:

• Rings: Accord of Haste
• Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Force Multiplier or for better defence Enchant Weapon – Naga Hide

Food:

• Raid feast for stamina or Baked Port Tato for Haste

Flasks and Potions:

• Greater Flask of the Undertow 360 strength for 1h
• Potion of Unbridled Fury against 1 target
• Superior Battle Potion of Strength 2-3 targets
• Potion of Empowered Proximity 4+ targets

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Macros

Pummel with a modifier, with the Shift key held, the ability is applied on a remembered target, without – on the current one.

/cast [mod:shift,@focus][]Pummel

Heroic Throw at cursor’s position. If there is no enemy at cursor’s position, the ability is applied to the current target.

#showtooltip Heroic Throw
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][@target]Heroic Throw

Taunt at cursor’s position. If there is no enemy at cursor’s position, the ability is applied to the current target.

#showtooltip Taunt
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][@target]Taunt

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What’s next?

1. Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best  option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
2. Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
3. Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.

Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.