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Protection Warrior Guide for WoW Forever

Protection Warrior builds for WoW Forever. A dungeon tank to 30 and the Shield Slam raid tank at 60, with threat rotation, gear and macros.

WarriorProtectionTankPvEDungeonsRaidsLeveling

By stillsixty staffUpdated

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Variants

Overview

Protection is the shield Warrior, and in WoW Forever it is a tank that feeds itself. Every block, dodge and parry now gives you Rage: Shield Specialization turns blocks into 5 Rage and Master of Defense does the same for dodges and parries. The harder the boss hits you, the more you have to spend.

Forever also fixes the old stance problem. Vanguard lets you Charge in Defensive Stance, and Thunder Clap now works in Defensive Stance too. You pull, gather and hold a pack without ever leaving your tanking stance. Shield Slam hits for 640–670 plus your Block Value at max rank, and Revenge hits about 70% harder than it did in Classic.

Bastion gives you 10% more damage with a shield, which is 10% more threat, and Defiance adds 15% threat on top of Defensive Stance's 30%. Protection tanks hold aggro.

Strengths

  • Rage from every avoided attack. Shield Block pays for itself when it blocks twice.
  • Pull and hold packs in Defensive Stance: Charge with Vanguard, then Thunder Clap on up to 4 targets.
  • Shield Slam and Revenge deal real damage, so your threat keeps up with geared damage dealers.
  • Shield Wall every 4 minutes with Improved Shield Wall: 60% less damage for 12 seconds.
  • Last Stand, Concussion Blow, Shield Bash and Challenging Shout for every bad moment.
  • A full tanking toolkit: three taunts (Taunt, Mocking Blow and Challenging Shout), an interrupt, a stun, and Shield Wall, Last Stand and Shield Block for defense.

Weaknesses

  • Solo leveling is slow. Your damage is built around a shield and a one-hander.
  • Low Rage at the start of a pull, before anything has swung at you. Bloodrage and Charge fill the gap.
  • Taunt has an 8-second cooldown and no Improved Taunt talent to shorten it.
  • You need a separate damage set for questing and farming.
  • Everything depends on your shield: Bastion, Defiance, Master of Defense and Shield Slam all need one equipped.

What's new in Forever

New in Forever
  • Master of Defense (tier 3, 2 ranks, requires Shield Specialization 5/5): a 50% chance per rank to gain 5 Rage when you dodge or parry with a shield equipped.
  • Shield Specialization gives +5% block and a 100% chance to gain 5 Rage on every block at 5/5.
  • Vanguard (tier 4): Charge works in Defensive Stance.
  • Thunder Clap works in Defensive Stance and slows attack speed by 20%. Improved Thunder Clap cuts its cost by 6 Rage.
  • Defiance adds up to 15% threat in Defensive Stance while you hold a shield.
  • Bastion (tier 5): +10% damage with a shield. Focused Rage (tier 6) cuts 3 Rage off your offensive abilities.
  • Improved Revenge adds 60% Revenge damage and no longer stuns.
  • Improved Shield Wall cuts Shield Wall's cooldown by 11 minutes. Shield Wall itself now reduces all damage by 60% for 12 seconds on a 15-minute base cooldown.
  • Shield Block lasts 7 seconds and blocks 2 attacks, on a 5-second cooldown.
  • Anticipation gives up to 20 Defense Skill, Toughness up to 10% armor from items, and Improved Bloodrage 50% more Rage from Bloodrage.
  • Improved Disarm cuts Disarm's cooldown by 20 seconds, and Improved Shield Bash silences for 3 seconds.
  • Defensive Stance increases all threat by 30%. Victory Rush and a baseline Tactical Mastery (10 Rage kept on stance swap) are trained by every Warrior.

Talents

The dungeon tank build for Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, The Deadmines, Wailing Caverns and everything up to Scarlet Monastery. Shield Specialization and Master of Defense give you Rage from every avoided hit, Improved Thunder Clap makes pack threat cheap, and Vanguard lets you Charge without leaving Defensive Stance.

Split 0/0/21 · 21 points at level 30 · Open in calculator

Arms

0 points

Fury

0 points

Protection

21 points

Talent order

  1. Levels 10–14: 5/5 Shield Specialization. +5% block and 5 Rage on every block. Your Rage problem ends here.
  2. Levels 15–17: 3/3 Improved Thunder Clap. Thunder Clap costs 14 Rage. Train it at 6 and press it on every pack.
  3. Levels 18–19: 2/5 Toughness. +4% armor from items, and the points that unlock tier 3.
  4. Levels 20–22: 3/3 Defiance. +15% threat in Defensive Stance with a shield.
  5. Levels 23–24: 2/2 Master of Defense. Every dodge and parry gives you 5 Rage.
  6. Level 25: 3/5 Toughness. +6% armor from items. Tier 4 is already open; this point counts toward the 20 you need before Concussion Blow at 30.
  7. Level 26: 1/1 Vanguard. Charge in Defensive Stance. You open every pull with 12 Rage (Charge rank 2 arrives at 26 too) and never swap stance.
  8. Levels 27–29: 3/3 Improved Sunder Armor. Sunder Armor costs 12 Rage. It is your main single-target threat until Shield Slam.
  9. Level 30: 1/1 Concussion Blow. A 5-second stun on a 45-second cooldown. Stops a caster mid-cast or a runner before it brings friends.

Flexible points

Races

Best races

Alliance: Dwarf. Stoneform removes every Bleed, Poison and Disease and cuts all Physical damage you take by 10% for 8 seconds, every 3 minutes. That is a tank cooldown on a racial. Mace Specialization adds 1% crit with a mace.

Alliance alternative: Night Elf. Quickness adds 1% dodge, which Master of Defense turns into Rage. Elune's Light gives 10% crit for 15 seconds for a big threat opener.

Horde: Tauren. Endurance gives 5% more health and +1% hit, so your Taunts and Shield Slams miss less. War Stomp stuns up to 5 enemies for 2 seconds: an AoE interrupt and a pull saver.

Horde alternative: Orc. Shatter Curse removes Curses and Banes and cuts Magic damage taken by 15% for 8 seconds, a cooldown for caster bosses. Blood Fury gives 10% Attack Power for 15 seconds for opening threat, and Hardiness shortens stuns by 20%.

All playable races

Rotation

Pulling a pack

  1. Mark the kill order and the crowd control before you pull.
  2. Charge into the pack from Defensive Stance with Vanguard. Before 26, open with Bloodrage and walk in.
  3. Thunder Clap on arrival: damage, threat and a 20% attack speed slow on up to 4 mobs.
  4. Demoralizing Shout to cut their Attack Power.
  5. Sunder Armor the kill target, then tab and Sunder the others once each.
  6. Revenge every time it lights up. It costs 5 Rage and deals high threat.
  7. Thunder Clap again every 6 seconds on packs of three or more.

Single target

  1. Shield Block on cooldown. Two blocks give back its 10 Rage and light up Revenge.
  2. Revenge whenever it's available.
  3. Sunder Armor to 5 stacks, then keep it as your filler.
  4. Heroic Strike with extra Rage.

When it goes wrong

  • A mob on the healer: Taunt it (8-second cooldown).
  • Two or more loose mobs: Challenging Shout pulls everything within 10 yards onto you for 6 seconds, every 10 minutes.
  • A caster in melee range: Shield Bash the next cast, or Concussion Blow it. Both are melee attacks, so a caster that stays back needs a line-of-sight pull (see below).
  • You're about to die: Shield Wall for 60% less damage for 12 seconds.

Stat priority

Dungeon tank

  1. Stamina
  2. Armor
  3. Defense
  4. Strength
  5. Agility

At 15 to 30 your healer runs out of mana long before you run out of threat. Stamina and armor keep you alive, Defense makes mobs miss, and Strength adds threat to every swing.

Gear

What to wear

Mail with Stamina and Strength, and the best shield you can find. A one-hander with Strength or Stamina beats a faster one with Agility.

Two sets

Keep your best two-hander in your bags. Quest with it in Battle Stance, and switch to sword and board at the dungeon door. In your 30s, start the Whirlwind chain with The Islander. It runs through the level 40 The Summoning to Whirlwind Weapon, where the Whirlwind Heart goes into the weapon you choose. The Warrior-only Whirlwind Axe, Whirlwind Sword and Whirlwind Warhammer each carry +15 Strength and +14 Stamina.

Professions

Mining and Blacksmithing is the tank pair. Blacksmithing makes your weightstones and sharpening stones, and at skill 20 it gives you the Sharpening Wheel camp object: a group buff for everyone at your campfire (it doesn't stack with Strength of Earth Totem).

First Aid matters more for a tank than anyone. Bandages top you up between pulls so your healer can drink.

For gold, level with Mining and Skinning, then switch to Blacksmithing at 60.

Group play and dungeons

You set the pace. A good Protection Warrior makes every pull look easy.

  • Mark every pull. Skull for the kill target, moon or square for crowd control. Your group follows your marks.
  • Opener threat first. Thunder Clap and a Sunder on every mob before your damage dealers start. Charge gives you Rage to spend on it.
  • Protect the crowd control. Thunder Clap and Cleave break Polymorph, Sap and Fear. Pull the crowd-controlled mob's pack away from it before you clap.
  • Line of sight casters. Pull around a corner so casters walk into your Thunder Clap instead of standing back.
  • Interrupts. Shield Bash locks a spell school for 6 seconds on a 12-second cooldown. Concussion Blow stuns for 5.
  • Disarm big hitters. Disarm takes a melee mob's weapon for 10 seconds.
  • Watch the healer's mana. Pull the next pack when the healer is ready, not when you are.

Dungeons for a Protection Warrior

Level ranges come from our dungeon list.

Chain pulling

  • Start the next pull when the current pack is at about half health and your healer has mana. You're still in combat, so the Rage you banked arrives with you and pays for the first Thunder Clap.
  • Charge only opens a fight: it doesn't work in combat. On a chain pull, walk into the next pack and open with Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout instead.
  • Keep Shield Block on cooldown while two packs overlap. Every block is 5 Rage and a Revenge.

Boss fights

  • Turn the boss away from the group, so its cleaves and breaths hit only you.
  • Stack Sunder Armor to 5 in the first few globals, then keep it refreshed: it lasts 30 seconds.
  • Keep Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout on the boss for the whole fight. Your healer notices the difference.
  • Time Shield Wall and Last Stand (level 60 build) for the boss's hardest phase, and tell your healers when you press them. With a 4-minute Shield Wall, a long fight gives you more than one.

Raids

Barrow Deeps (10 players) and Hyjal Summit (20) open on December 9, and their encounters are not known yet. Improved Shield Wall's 4-minute cooldown is a 60% damage reduction your raid leader can plan around once they are.

Tips

Shield Block pays for itself

Shield Block costs 10 Rage and blocks up to 2 attacks. With Shield Specialization 5/5, each block gives 5 Rage back. Keep it on cooldown: it's free mitigation and a Revenge every time.

Stay in Defensive Stance

With Vanguard and Thunder Clap in Defensive Stance, you never need Battle Stance to pull. Leave Defensive Stance only for Mocking Blow, and come straight back.

Thunder Clap on bosses too. It slows the boss's attack speed by 20% for 30 seconds at max rank. That is less damage to heal, for 14 Rage.

Bloodrage before the pull. You start a fight with no Rage. Bloodrage gives you 15 up front and 15 more over the first 10 seconds with Improved Bloodrage.

Quest in a damage spec. Protection levels slowly. Level as Arms or Fury with the Warrior leveling guide and respec for dungeon nights.

Macros

Taunt your mouseover target, or your current target if you're not pointing at anything. Catch the mob on the healer without losing your target.

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

Heroic Strike that never toggles off when you press it twice.

Heroic Strike
#showtooltip Heroic Strike
/startattack
/cast !Heroic Strike

Shield Bash your focus target, or your current target if you have no focus. Set focus on the caster at the start of the pull.

Focus Shield Bash
#showtooltip Shield Bash
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Shield Bash

Mocking Blow from Defensive Stance. The first press swaps to Battle Stance, the second fires Mocking Blow. Swap back right after.

Mocking Blow
#showtooltip Mocking Blow
/cast [stance:1] Mocking Blow; Battle Stance

One button back to Defensive Stance.

Defensive Stance
#showtooltip Defensive Stance
/cast Defensive Stance

Changelog

  • Guide published with Level 30 Dungeon Tank and Level 60 Raid Tank builds.
  • Dungeon list now follows our dungeon data and links to it; removed raid encounter guesses.

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