Protection Warriors: a brief introduction

Posted by Zane on 10 June 2009 @ 12:00 PM

Protection Warriors – The least needed tank as most people would say, but to those who play them feel they aren’t needed because of the DK tank addition, as well as the abilities to substantially tank AoE and single targets better than a Protection Paladin, or a Tankadin as we call them. Many people think Warriors can’t output the same threat, or hold AoE threat as well as Death Knights and Paladins, but many are wrong when coming to this conclusion. Warriors are just a more complex and gear-based Tank. Also, just because DKs are sold as a Hero Class they’re supposed to be ‘easier to play’; and Paladins, well I can’t get started on Paladins because I just don’t know if I'll ever stop. Paladins are just great hybrids, if anything, they're too good in my opinion.

A lot about the Warrior Tanking in front of your raid, or group of any kind, is the player behind that Warrior. Warriors aren’t a two button class as some might think, they’re more ability based, you have to use many different abilities to build your first burst of threat. Every Warrior that plays World of Warcraft needs to know to use Thunderclap whenever they first charge in. Warriors tend to think “It’s only X amount of damage, and generally not that good” but a smart Warrior would use it, and spec into Improved Thunderclap as well.

Each time a Warrior blocks an attack, try to use Revenge when it is available, off of cooldown. After doing that you would have to build Sunders, use Devastate, grouped up with Glyph of Devastate to give it a chance to apply two sunders instead of one, it doesn’t generate more threat, but generally 3 sunders is ‘go time’ for DPS to start attacking, and by the time you apply three Sunders you have five on the target thanks to the Glyph. Afterwards, use Shield Slam and Heroic Strike to get the most of your rage, and than from there on out keep using Heroic Strike + Shield Slam. Ensure when on boss special abilities to use Shield Block to increase your block chance against said ability.

You can play a Protection Warrior two different ways – there are PvP talents, and PvE talents, even down the Protection Tree. Things to avoid getting, although they may sound appealing, are talents such as Gag Order and Improved Disarm, those are nearly never able to be used in end-game raiding, but are great for PvP. A great spec I would suggest is 5/8/58, getting Parry in Arms, and Armored to the Teeth & Critical Chance in Fury, and as mentioned above, excluding Gag Order & Improved Disarm. Major Glyphs one would encourage a Warrior to use are Glyph of Devastate, Glyph of Blocking and Glyph of Revenge; and for the minor slots: Glyph of Bloodrage, Glyph of Thunderclap, and Glyph of Charge.

Just remember, being a fellow Warrior in the battlefield, I understand being left out of groups because of the abundance of DK tanks and the increase in Paladins becoming Tanks with the Dual Spec feature being released. We are still a viable class, all you need to do is learn a clear rotation so your group doesn't draw threat off you, and to keep yourself on top of TPS (Threat Per Second).