I think I might be terrible at this.
Let's start with a brief history. I'm a n00b. Not to the MMORPG thing in general, but specifically to WOW. I only just started playing when I heard Classic was coming out and I thought, since I never played back in the day that I'd give it shot.
Now, I've been scouring multiple sources including but not limited to Wowhead, Icyveins, Here, Yoot00bz, Google, Ancient Mayan texts, Voodoo Priests, The lesser known works of Nostradamus' "10 Things you wanted to know about WOW Prot warriors, but were afraid to ask" and a particularly knowledgeable badger. Aside from the goat sacrifice and the cool cult uniforms (See: Free sneakers.), it's all been to little avail.
Everyone says that everyone else is wrong and stupid.
Meanwhile, I'm dying more often than the cast of a bad soap opera and certainly can't handle more than a single level equivalent target at a time. Currently, I have a LVL 20 Dwarf. My gear likely isn't the best, but at the very least, it's all greens and roughly level appropriate.
Skills: Deflection 1/5, Shield Spec 5/5, Toughness 5/5.
One would think that being a Warrior, I'd be somewhere around the London Broil side of toughness if one were to scale it from "Flank" to "Tenderloin". Jeebus... Now I want baked potato... I digress.
This isn't the case. I appear to have more resilience with my LVL 18 Mage in the same area of Red Ridge. I don't expect that I should have an enormous amount of damage output as a Prot, as I understand that it isn't my "job". But I figured I'd at least be made of sterner stuff than wet Klenex(tm).
Is it just me? I know you folks probably require more information in regards to rotations, etc.. But I wonder if anyone else might have some insight in to my dilemma?
Hey man welcome to the forum 
It may be a case of you not doing enough damage, as you have already kind of touched on in your post. This is always a downside of levelling as prot which is regarded as being much slower, if you are solo. But that’s not to say you can’t do it - you can, but you’ll have a harder time keeping up with 1 handers that have appropriate DPS for your level.
This topic is mainly about 2H but also has some good info on collecting a spirit set as well for equipping inbetween pulls.
Dungeon groups are a good option to go for where you’ll really see your prot spec shine, and also earn good XP and loot along the way. Sure you can tank most low level dungs as Fury or Arms but your build will be just that tad bit more optimised. Also good tanking experience for a noob who wants to main prot warr.
Lastly, we had another topic a while back on the same subject of levelling as prot. Give it a read and maybe there’ll be something good in there that will help you.
Ahhhh, yes. After giving these a bit of a read, I can quite see what you mean.
I guess I can see where I'm failing is that I'm in a guild with primarily people who like to solo. I'm that way, too, so it's a fit in that regard. It does not, however, help my situation having chosen Prot as my build - and now I see why. I should try pugging some dungeons with the caveat that I inform my fellow inmates of my overwhelming ineptitude prior to our jaunt in to the open arms of oblivion.
I'll be sure to bring enough lube for the entire class. ;)
If you’re really set on solo (I can completely understand this personally) just use your first respec (it’s not that expensive starting out, just plan ahead and know what you want moving forward to avoid overdoing it) and switch to a more solo friendly spec. Be advised, though, that even with a more solo friendly spec and even gold funding it, Warrior is an extremely slow leveling class so prepare yourself mentally for a long trip— there’s no avoiding it.
IIRC most people opt for Fury early on and potentially switch to Arms when MS is available.
Likes: 17
I too am leveling a prot warrior (alt). I highly recommend you level via dungeons mainly. You get the following perks:
1) Heals and rez
2) Gear, you'll be greened and blued out in a couple runs and you'll be on the bleeding edge of gear for your level.
3) Good xp/hour for warriors (especially prot!)
There's nothing wrong with leveling prot, I enjoy it. But soloing can be very slow so I highly recommend finding groups for instances. When you find good group members, try to friend them for future runs, they'll enjoy having a tank friend too
Hey there, WoW Classic Raids here!
If you are leveling as a prot warrior, you are handicapping yourself. You're unnecessarily reducing your own leveling speed and completely removing yourself from being able to fight back in PvP. And for what? You actually tank better at a low level with a 2 handed weapon. There is nothing keeping you from building a tanking set and using it to tank the odd dungeon as you level. But why go prot? When prot is just bad. Its not kind of bad, its not bad based on my own anecdotal experiences, its just factually awful for leveling.
2000 IQg0bledyg00k wrote: ↑5 years agoNever making a single investment again until I 100% know it pays off.
Well when you say fury, even with fury you're going to be using a 2her. Dual wield gets a penalty to your hit chance to balance it out. You don't get any +chance to hit gear until level 60, so that penalty really screws you over while leveling. A 2her is solid, consistent damage, and the easiest to upgrade.Jpy wrote: ↑5 years agoIf you’re really set on solo (I can completely understand this personally) just use your first respec (it’s not that expensive starting out, just plan ahead and know what you want moving forward to avoid overdoing it) and switch to a more solo friendly spec. Be advised, though, that even with a more solo friendly spec and even gold funding it, Warrior is an extremely slow leveling class so prepare yourself mentally for a long trip— there’s no avoiding it.
IIRC most people opt for Fury early on and potentially switch to Arms when MS is available.
My understanding is the same but I’m not going to sit and pretend I have a lot experience leveling Warriors :/Gensei wrote: ↑5 years agoWell when you say fury, even with fury you're going to be using a 2her. Dual wield gets a penalty to your hit chance to balance it out. You don't get any +chance to hit gear until level 60, so that penalty really screws you over while leveling. A 2her is solid, consistent damage, and the easiest to upgrade.Jpy wrote: ↑5 years agoIf you’re really set on solo (I can completely understand this personally) just use your first respec (it’s not that expensive starting out, just plan ahead and know what you want moving forward to avoid overdoing it) and switch to a more solo friendly spec. Be advised, though, that even with a more solo friendly spec and even gold funding it, Warrior is an extremely slow leveling class so prepare yourself mentally for a long trip— there’s no avoiding it.
IIRC most people opt for Fury early on and potentially switch to Arms when MS is available.
Yea basically prot does not even give you any real advantage regarding tanking low lvl dungeons compared to arms or fury. The bonuses you get from prot talents don't help you nearly as much as the dmg increase that the other trees provide and trust me you will need that dmg increase.
I would say arms is generally better then fury for levelling as it gives you more flexibility at utilizing all your stances and has some rly good utility like Sweeping Strikes which allows you to handle multiple mobs much easier. Tactical Mastery together with Anger Management will help you manage your rage very effectively.
All of the mentioned perks together with Mortal Strike are very good for pvp as well so I recommend Arms.
Then you're spot on.Jpy wrote: ↑5 years agoMy understanding is the same but I’m not going to sit and pretend I have a lot experience leveling Warriors :/Gensei wrote: ↑5 years agoWell when you say fury, even with fury you're going to be using a 2her. Dual wield gets a penalty to your hit chance to balance it out. You don't get any +chance to hit gear until level 60, so that penalty really screws you over while leveling. A 2her is solid, consistent damage, and the easiest to upgrade.Jpy wrote: ↑5 years agoIf you’re really set on solo (I can completely understand this personally) just use your first respec (it’s not that expensive starting out, just plan ahead and know what you want moving forward to avoid overdoing it) and switch to a more solo friendly spec. Be advised, though, that even with a more solo friendly spec and even gold funding it, Warrior is an extremely slow leveling class so prepare yourself mentally for a long trip— there’s no avoiding it.
IIRC most people opt for Fury early on and potentially switch to Arms when MS is available.
Yeah. Prot gives you pretty much nothing for leveling, even tanking in the lower levels. No healer will notice any difference, and everything is tankable pretty much pre-MC with a dps spec. Hell, in some guilds, two of the four warrior tanks are specced dps.Faendor wrote: ↑5 years agoYea basically prot does not even give you any real advantage regarding tanking low lvl dungeons compared to arms or fury. The bonuses you get from prot talents don't help you nearly as much as the dmg increase that the other trees provide and trust me you will need that dmg increase.
I would say arms is generally better then fury for levelling as it gives you more flexibility at utilizing all your stances and has some rly good utility like Sweeping Strikes which allows you to handle multiple mobs much easier. Tactical Mastery together with Anger Management will help you manage your rage very effectively.
All of the mentioned perks together with Mortal Strike are very good for pvp as well so I recommend Arms.
Yup, the fact you can simply equip a shield is enough to help with survival.
Even the high level best tanking specs outside of raiding is hybrid. Most prot warriors at 60 are idiots, levelers even more so. Everything can be tanked as hybrid well into AQ40. Any more than one prot warrior becomes dead weight
But it's like this with a lot of things.
There was a lot of BS floating around from the hardcore private server bros in the leadup to Classic launch. People turning down bear druid tanks while leveing. Seen people looking for an SM tank "only prot spec".
TBH, if I'm advising a friend playing most classes, spec whatever you want and just have the gear to make up for it. Gear far, far outweighs spec. A feral spec druid with good healing gear will be 100% fine. Same with an enh shaman with healing gear. Or a fury warrior with good tank gear.
I'm not gonna discount what you saw, but I never once saw this when I was levelling my druid tank. In fact, I saw the exact opposite. All of the private server veterans I ran into were preaching fury tanking. Deep prot seems like it fell out of favor with that crowd a long time ago. Far more people were saying prot was unnecessary even before launch day. I suspect the people who demanded prot spec warriors were people frustrated by playing with bad tanks who misunderstood the fury tank idea and were trying to dual wield in berserker stance at level 30.
I mean fair. It's anecdotal. And I'm sure that person was probably new to Classic/vanilla and they've learned since then. Which I guess is understandable because for much of the game's life, if you are a tank, you're a prot warrior. if you're healing, you're going to have to be a holy priest, or whatever.Pippina wrote: ↑5 years agoI'm not gonna discount what you saw, but I never once saw this when I was levelling my druid tank. In fact, I saw the exact opposite. All of the private server veterans I ran into were preaching fury tanking. Deep prot seems like it fell out of favor with that crowd a long time ago. Far more people were saying prot was unnecessary even before launch day. I suspect the people who demanded prot spec warriors were people frustrated by playing with bad tanks who misunderstood the fury tank idea and were trying to dual wield in berserker stance at level 30.
And yeah, some words carry certain perceptions. Like a fury tank and the dual wield. Same thing when you say 2h dps warrior, some people think you mean Arms. And it comes down to person-by-person. I refuse to call a 31/0/20 mage an arcane mage. You only use Frostbolt and you rely on the PvE oriented talents in frost most of all. Some people do call it an arcane mage. There's always an element of a single person's reference point.
