Welcome to the Protection Warrior guide for World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Protection Warrior in dungeons and raids. The guide includes Talents, Gems, Enchantments, BiS list, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.

Table of Contents

• Talents
• Gems
• Enchants
• Professions
• Rotation
• Consumables
• Stat Priority
• Pre-Raid BiS
• Best in Slot

Talents

Damage Mitigation Build

Improved Demoralizing Shout and Improved Thunder Clap are required to increase the damage mitigation. It’s highly recommended to spend talent points on these skills if there is no one else to apply these debuffs on the boss.

Improved Taunt may be replaced by Improved Shield Wall or One-Handed Weapon Specialization

3 points were put into Improved Sunder Armor to help out in scenarios where you have a low or medium amount of rage. One-Handed Weapon Specialization should be used for fights that offer higher amounts of rage.
Damage Build

This build is better for farming and scenarios where you usually do not have enough rage to provide sustainable threat. Increased DPS will increase the threat per second (TPS) while sacrificing some damage mitigation.

Improved Demoralizing Shout and Improved Thunder Clap have to be provided by other warriors. Possible changes: Improved Taunt for Improved Bloodrage
Gems

• Meta: Eternal Earthstorm Diamond
• Red: Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst, Shifting Nightseye or fill with Blue gems if the socket bonus is not worth it.
• Yellow: Enduring Seaspray Emerald, Enduring Talasite or Rigid Lionseye if Hit rating is required
• Blue: Solid Empyrean Sapphire or Solid Star of Elune

Enchants

• Head – Glyph of the Defender or Presence of Might
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Warding, Greater Inscription of the Knight or Fortitude of the Scourge
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility or Enchant Cloak - Dodge
• Chest – Enchant Chest - Exceptional Health
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer - Fortitude or Enchant Bracer - Major Defense
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility, Enchant Gloves - Threat or Heavy Knothide Armor Kit
• Legs – Nethercleft Leg Armor
• Boots – Enchant Boots - Boar's Speed
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon - Mongoose & Enchant Weapon - Executioner.
• Shield – Enchant Shield - Major Stamina with Enchant Shield - Shield Block as alternative

Mongoose increases agility by 120 and attack speed by 2% for 15 seconds. The agility increase result in 240 armor, 3,6% of crit. Chance and 4% dodge. In other words, mongoose grants both DPS and an increase in damage reduction.

Executioner grants 840 armor penetration for 15 seconds. This enchant should be used on your aggro weapon, because the threat per second increase is noticeably more than Mongoose.

Enchanters can also benefit from Formula: Enchant Ring - Stats on both of the Rings.

Professions

• Enchanting is used primarily for Formula: Enchant Ring - Stats. There’s not much use of this profession other than this unique enchant and the ability to enchant your own gear
• Jewelcrafting will provide you access to unique gems, but the overall value is pretty low.
• Blacksmithing is definitely worth the while, even though it costs a lot to level it. This profession has some great gear for Protection Warriors which could be a starting point to gear up. Good starting items: Bulwark of the Ancient Kings, Blazefury, Red Havoc Boots, Belt of the Guardian.
• Engineering can also provide some great starting gear, like Blacksmithing. Items like Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer, Tankatronic GogglesTankatronic Goggles, Goblin Rocket Launcher, Gnomish PoultryizerGnomish Poultryizer. Field Repair Bot 110G is also useful.

Rotation

Shield Slam -> Revenge -> Devastate -> Devastate

Depending on the ping you play with, second Devastate may be removed from the rotation to utilize other cooldowns on time. Shield Slam and Revenge have a priority over Devastate in your rotation, so even if you break the cycle – utilize these cooldowns first.In low rage scenarios, consider using Shield Bash for threat when Revenge is on cooldown. Do not waste time waiting for rage to use Devastate.Common knowledge, but still worth mentioning that Heroic Strike is used only as a rage dump ability. Never use it when you’re at low rage, even if everything is on cooldown – Devastate is a better option.

Threat gained per rage consumed overview:
Revenge -> Shield slam -> Devastate -> Heroic Strike

Overall threat gain overview:
Shield slam -> Revenge -> Heroic Strike -> Devastate

The boss should be always under the effect of Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap. The damage mitigation from this combination of debuffs is considerable.

Other survival abilities like Shield Block, Shield Wall, and Last Stand are used based on the situation.

Consumables

• Food: Spicy Crawdad
• Scroll: Scroll of Protection V
• Flask: Flask of Fortification
• Potions: Ironshield Potion, Swiftness Potion, Mighty Rage Potion, Free Action Potion, Super Healing Potion, Heroic Potion
• Healthstones: Master Healthstone, Nightmare Seed

Potions & Healthstones do not share cooldowns.

Stat Priority

• Standard 9% hit rating is required
• Expertise is a vital stat for tanking. Ideally, you should have 23 expertise (that’s 91 rating). At this point, your attacks won’t be dodged, but also you get less parried.
• Parry is an issue since as a tank you are standing in front of the boss. When a boss parries your attack, it reduces the default swing timer of the bosses next main hand attack. Stacking up expertise will drastically increase your survivability.

We won’t be giving a straight-forward stat priority list because it depends on your play style though Stamina and damage mitigation should always be a priority, even if you’re taking the damage build. Please refer to the BiS list section to have an understanding of required stats and gear you should be looking for.


Pre-Raid Best in Slot

Slot	Item
Head	Tankatronic Goggles
Neck	Necklace of the Juggernaut
Shoulders	Fanblade Pauldrons
Back	Devilshark Cape
Chest	Breastplate of the Bold
Wrist	Bracers of the Green Fortress
Hands	Gauntlets of the Bold
Waist	Girdle of the Immovable
Legs	Timewarden's Leggings
Feet	Eaglecrest Warboots
Main Hand	The Sun Eater
Ranged	Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer
Off Hand	Gladiator's Shield Wall
Ring 1	Band of Impenetrable Defenses
Ring 2	Crystal Band of Valor
Trinket 1	Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600
Trinket 2	Darkmoon Card: Vengeance

Best in Slot