PvE Protection Warrior Tank

Protection Warrior in Mists of Pandaria is a tanking specialization focused on extremely potent mitigation & offensive tools. Their playstyle is proactive, featuring many offensive and defensive abilities. Due to their overloaded kit, they have a considerably higher skill ceiling than other tanking specializations, especially considering their low self-healing.

In this guide, we’ll cover every aspect of a Protection Warrior, ranging from playstyle to gearing to quick tips & tricks so you can successfully lead and protect your allies against the most dangerous foes.

Changes in Mists of Pandaria

Thankfully, Protection Warriors received a much-deserved overhaul that elevates their potential considerably in Mists of Pandaria! Among the many changes we can count are Rage Generation changes, smoother and stronger abilities, and new self-healing mechanics. However, even if most abilities have been improved or completely changed, their identity remains the same: Strongest Block-oriented Tank in WoW.

Their Rage Generation is now more complex than ever. Defensive Stance now grants passive Rage in combat while their Auto-Attacks no longer generate any Rage. Most abilities are now split into three categories: Free Cost, Rage Generators, and Rage Spenders. Shield Slam and Revenge are the main Rage Generators, while Shield Block, Shield Barrier, Heroic Strike, and Cleave are the main Rage Spenders. Since most abilities no longer have a cost, their rotation is far spammier. However, their newly found Rage Generation is now mostly funneled into Shield Block and Shield Barrier, requiring them to have a much more proactive approach to mitigation.

Not only are their abilities now mostly free, but they also received massively overpowered new ones, with Dragon Roar, Bloodbath, Storm Bolt, Skull Banner, Safeguard, and Avatar being a few examples. In addition, their previous lack of self-healing was somewhat fixed, with Enraged Regeneration now being available every minute and in a considerably stronger form, and through the newly added Impending Victory.

Due to all those changes and their newly overloaded kit, the skill ceiling required to play the specialization properly skyrocketed, especially when considering Shield Block & Shield Barrier uptime! Since their rotation is now as spammy as ever, it can be easily messed up unless practiced adequately for a significant amount of time.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

• High Survivability & Potent Defensive Tools
  Due to the addition of Shield Barrier, which offers them an absorption effect against any damage type, and the improvement of Shield Block, Protection Warriors are tankier than ever! Their baseline passives were also improved, allowing them to take even less damage!

• Great Damage Output & Threat Generation
  The overhaul to the Rage Generation system allowed Protection Warriors to be far spammier and increased their damage output potential by a considerable amount! The addition of powerful damage abilities, such as Dragon Roar and Storm Bolt, or overall damage amplifiers, such as Bloodbath and Avatar, ensures that they never lose Threat or fall behind on the Damage Meters.

• Amazing Mobility
  With Charge now benefiting from Double Time and the reliable Intervene & Heroic Leap always on demand, Protection Warriors benefit from massive mobility!

Weaknesses

• Weak Self-Healing Tools Compared to Other Tanks
  Protection Warriors still fall short in terms of self-healing tools when compared to the other tanking specializations, such as Protection Paladins or Blood Death Knights, even with the massive improvements they received. Their dependency on healers can sometimes be their downfall.

• Complicated Playstyle to Master
  While they are considerably better than their previous iterations, Protection Warriors now deal with a new type of issue: an overloaded kit. Their fast-paced gameplay, combined with their many abilities to use or keep track of, can become tiresome for beginners, making it one of the hardest specializations to master.

Horde

Pandaren and Tauren are considered the best races in terms of Stamina stacking for the Horde due to Endurance and Epicurean. In contrast, Orc is considered the best for its Expertise-related passive, Axe Specialization. The rest of the races are inadequate in the Tanking role due to mainly offering Haste bonuses, with only Troll and Blood Elf making somewhat of a difference due to Regeneration & Arcane Resistance.

• Tauren: Endurance, Cultivation, Nature Resistance, War Stomp.
• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm.
• Orc: Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Hardiness, Command.
• Troll: Berserking, Da Voodoo Shuffle, Regeneration, Beast Slaying, Dead Eye.
• Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent, Arcane Resistance, Arcane Affinity.
• Goblin: Time is Money, Rocket Barrage, Rocket Jump, Best Deals Anywhere, Better Living Through Chemistry, Pack Hobgoblin.
• Undead: Will of the Forsaken, Cannibalize, Shadow Resistance, Touch of the Grave.

Alliance

Meanwhile, Pandaren is the best for Stamina stacking in the Alliance due to Epicurean. At the same time, Dwarf and Night Elf are considered the best in damage mitigation thanks to Quickness and Stoneform. Alliance races are also better regarding Expertise-related passives, with Human, Dwarf, and Gnome coming on top and offering strong choices. Draenei is another viable choice for players who prefer an additional self-healing tool, thanks to the Gift of the Naaru effect.

• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm.
• Dwarf: Stoneform, Explorer, Mace Specialization, Crack Shot, Frost Resistance.
• Night Elf: Elusiveness, Quickness, Shadowmeld, Wisp Spirit, Nature Resistance.
• Human: Sword Specialization, Mace Specialization, Will to Survive, The Human Spirit, Diplomacy.
• Draenei: Gift of the Naaru, Heroic Presence, Shadow Resistance, Gemcutting.
• Gnome: Shortblade Specialization, Engineering Specialization, Escape Artist, Expansive Mind, Arcane Resistance.
• Worgen: Darkflight, Flayer, Viciousness, Aberration.