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Protection Warrior Guide — Class Guides · WoW Burning Crusade

The tanking tree: more armour, block and threat from Shield Slam, plus abilities that hold several enemies.

A plate-wearing melee fighter who builds Rage by dealing and taking damage and spends it on attacks, shouts and stances. Warriors tank with a shield in Defensive Stance or deal melee damage with two-handed or dual-wielded weapons. More about the warrior

Class
Warrior
Roles
Tank
Used for
Raids and dungeons
Top talent
Devastate
Popular builds
2
Version
WoW Burning Crusade

How to play

Protection is the main tank tree: Devastate stacks Sunder Armor while hitting hard, Shield Slam is your biggest threat hit, Focused Rage makes abilities cheaper, Vitality adds Stamina and Strength, and Improved Defensive Stance lowers the spell damage you take.

Bosses in The Burning Crusade hit hard enough that being uncrushable matters: with enough dodge, parry, block and miss chance, plus Shield Block, a boss can't land crushing blows. Reach 490 defense for crit immunity first, then build avoidance and Stamina.

Threat is much easier than in Classic thanks to Devastate and steadier Rage. Holding packs still means Thunder Clap, Demoralizing Shout and a Devastate or two on each enemy.

At a glance

Single-target threat
Holding several enemies
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Burning Crusade.

Rotation and priorities

  1. 1Shield Slam whenever it is ready.
  2. 2Revenge whenever it is ready.
  3. 3Devastate as filler, keeping five Sunder Armors up.
  4. 4Shield Block against heavy hitters to stay uncrushable.
  5. 5Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout on bosses: they weaken them for the raid too.
  6. 6Heroic Strike with spare Rage; Spell Reflection against casts; Shield Wall and Last Stand for emergencies.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • The most complete main tank, with Shield Wall, Last Stand and Spell Reflection.
  • Strong single-target threat with Devastate and Shield Slam.
  • Intervene and Charge reach loose enemies quickly.

Weaknesses

  • Weaker at holding packs than a Protection paladin.
  • Becoming uncrushable takes gear planning.
  • Slow solo play.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

  1. 1

    Defenseto 490: bosses can't crit you

  2. 2

    Stamina

  3. 3

    Dodge, parry and blockenough to be uncrushable with Shield Block

  4. 4

    Armour

  5. 5

    Expertisefewer dodged and parried attacks

  6. 6

    Hit

What to look for

  • Defense to 490 first, then enough avoidance to be uncrushable with Shield Block on the bosses that hit hardest.
  • Stamina gems; shield block value adds to Shield Slam.
  • A one-handed weapon with tanking stats or threat, and the best shield you can find.

Items worth chasing

  • Moroes' Lucky Pocket WatchDodge on use, for heavy hits.
  • Commendation of Kael'thasA dodge proc when your health is low.
  • Aldori Legacy DefenderA pre-raid tanking shield.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

  • Arms
  • Fury
  • Protection

Key talents

  • Devastate · top talent, up to 1

    Sunder the target's armor causing the Sunder Armor effect. In addition, causes 50% of weapon damage plus 15 for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. The Sunder Armor effect can stack up to 5 times.

  • Improved Sunder Armor · tier 4, up to 3

    Reduces the cost of your Sunder Armor and Devastate abilities by 3 rage point.

  • Improved Taunt · tier 4, up to 2

    Reduces the cooldown of your Taunt ability by 2 sec.

  • Improved Shield Wall · tier 5, up to 2

    Increases the effect duration of your Shield Wall ability by 5 secs.

  • Concussion Blow · tier 5, up to 1

    Stuns the opponent for 5 sec.

  • Shield Mastery · tier 6, up to 3

    Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield by 30%.

  • One-Handed Weapon Specialization · tier 6, up to 5

    Increases physical damage you deal when a one-handed melee weapon is equipped by 10%.

  • Shield Slam · tier 7, up to 1

    Slam the target with your shield, causing 225 to 235 damage, modified by your shield block value, and dispels 1 magic effect on the target. Also causes a high amount of threat.

  • Focused Rage · tier 7, up to 3

    Reduces the rage cost of your offensive abilities by 3.

  • Vitality · tier 8, up to 5

    Increases your total Stamina by 5% and your total Strength by 10%.

Protection abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.

Related

Other warrior specs: Arms, Fury