In this article, we list your Protection Warrior (WoW MoP 5.3) core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing a Protection Warrior will face you with.

The other articles of our Protection Warrior guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Sco, Guild Master of Method and one of the best Protection Warriors in the world. You can watch his stream on Twitch. For frequent updates on his streaming schedule, make sure to check out his Facebook page.

1. Single Target Rotation↑top

This rotation does not take into account usage of your survival abilities (we cover this important topic in a subsequent section). It only shows you how to maximise your threat and rage generation.

1. Use Shield Slam on cooldown
2. Use Revenge on cooldown
   • Its cooldown is reset each time you dodge or parry an attack.
   • If you are at maximum rage, then delay using Revenge until you have used some of your rage.
3. Use Devastate as a filler (it does not cost rage). Use Devastate 3 times at the start of the fight (or when a new mob spawns), to apply the Sunder Armor debuff. If there is a Druid in the raid, this is not needed.
4. Use Thunder Clap once every 30 seconds, if no one else is providing the Weakened Blows debuff that it applies.
5. Use Battle Shout or Commanding Shout (depending on which of the two you have chosen to provide for your raid) in order to generate rage when nothing else is available.
6. Heroic Strike to dump rage and increase your DPS and threat
   • It is imperative that you only do this when you do not need to use rage for survival abilities in the foreseeable future.

2. Multiple Target Rotation↑top

1. Use Thunder Clap on cooldown. This will spread Deep Wounds to all enemies around you thanks to Blood and Thunder.
2. Execute your normal rotation ( Shield Slam, Revenge, and Devastate), and use Cleave instead of Heroic Strike if you have extra rage to spend. Alternate your attacks between the different targets, in order to maintain even threat on all of them.
3. Use your tier 4 talent of choice.

3. Active Survival Abilities↑top

Your rotation is simply the framework into which you must actively incorporate Shield Block and Shield Barrier.

Shield Block causes you to block all attacks made against you for 6 seconds, while Shield Barrier provides you with a large damage absorption shield. Due to their high rage cost, usage of these abilities is nearly mutually exclusive.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to understand how to properly use these abilities. We remind you that we give them ample treatment in a subsequent section.

4. Cooldown Usage↑top

4.1. Defensive Cooldowns

• Shield Wall should be used before you receive a large amount of damage.
• Last Stand should be used when your health drops to a dangerously low level, or in preparation for receiving a large amount of damage.
• Demoralizing Shout should be used as many times as possible during the encounter. Try to use it when bosses are dealing particularly high amounts of damage or when you have no other means of improving your survival.
• Spell Reflection reflects the next spell cast against you back to the attacker. Note that this ability will not work against the vast majority of spells cast by raid bosses. It usually works against Shadowbolt-type spells cast by adds. Experiment with it in the encounter, to see if it will benefit you against any spells.
• Demoralizing Banner should be used as many times as possible during the encounter. Use it when bosses are dealing particularly high amounts of damage or when you have no other means of improving your survival. Note that, unlike Demoralizing Shout (which only affects damage to you), Demoralizing Banner reduces the damage that targets deal to all raid members, making it a somewhat useful raid cooldown.
• Rallying Cry is a raid cooldown and it should be used in a rotation that is pre-determined by your raid leader.

4.2. Offensive Cooldowns

• Berserker Rage should be used on cooldown. It will buff your DPS and threat generation.
• Recklessness should be used as many times as possible during the encounter. Use it to improve your threat generation.
• Skull Banner and Shattering Throw are raid cooldowns. You should consult with your raid leader to determine when the best time to use them is.

Regarding your offensive cooldowns, it is important to note that, whenever possible, you should try to stack as many of them as you can. You should also use your Tier 4 and 6 talents with cooldowns active, whenever possible.

We cover the various abilities granted by talents in a dedicated section.

5. Taunting↑top

Taunt is your single target taunting ability.

Mocking Banner is your AoE taunt.

6. Stance↑top

You should always be in Defensive Stance.

7. Mastering Your Protection Warrior↑top

The guidelines given above will enable you to play your Protection Warrior with good results. If you want to push things further and master your character, then we advise you to continue reading.

7.1. Rage Generation

Your rage is generated from two sources:

• using special abilities that generate rage ( Charge, Shield Slam, etc.).
• passively, from Defensive Stance (1 rage every 3 seconds, while in combat).

7.2. Vengeance

Vengeance is a passive ability which you receive for choosing the Protection specialisation. Essentially, it increases your attack power for 2% of the unmitigated damage you receive. It takes the form of a 20-second buff, which you should have no problem maintaining 100% uptime on.

7.3. Deep Wounds

Deep Wounds is a passively applied bleed effect. Even though you will often see this mentioned in tooltips, you do not need to concern yourself with it. Simply assume that you will always have it active (if you are following our recommended rotation).

7.4. Enrage

Each time you critically block (thanks to Mastery: Critical Block), you become enraged, dealing 10% increased physical damage for 6 seconds. This will happen passively, so you do not need to concern yourself with it. Being enraged doubles the healing effect of Enraged Regeneration (if you have taken this talent) so it is advisable to have a way of monitoring this buff.

7.5. Procs

There are two procs you need to watch out for while executing your rotation.

• Sword and Board (a passive ability) gives your Devastate a 30% chance of resetting the cooldown of your Shield Slam, and increasing its rage generation by 5. The buff lasts for only 5 seconds.
• Ultimatum (a passive ability) gives your Shield Slam a 30% chance to make your next Heroic Strike or Cleave cost no rage. The buff lasts for 10 seconds.

Sword and Board in particular is a crucial proc for Protection Warriors, and this is the reason why, whenever Shield Slam and Revenge are unavailable, Devastate is the go-to ability.

7.6. Survival Abilities

As a Protection Warrior, you have two abilites that are essential to staying alive: Shield Block and Shield Barrier. In the following sections, we will tell you everything you need to know about them. Then, we will explain when it is best to use one over the other.

7.6.1. Shield Block

Shield Block grants you a 6-second buff that causes you to block all incoming attacks. It does not have a cooldown. Instead, it works on a system of charges. Each charge has a 9-second recharge time, and you can have a maximum of 2 charges.

You can use Shield Block twice in a row (provided that you have enough rage) without wasting any part of it. Indeed, using Shield Block while the buff from a previous Shield Block is still active will simply add their durations together. For example, if you use Shield Block when you had 3 seconds left on a Shield Block buff, your new buff will have a 9 second duration.

Shield Block has a high rage cost of 60, so you must learn to use it wisely. To know how to best use Shield Block, you must understand what it is and what it is not effective against.

• Shield Block works against physical attacks, but it does nothing against magic attacks (spells cast at you, AoE spells, DoTs).
• Shield Block does not work against all physical attacks. Some attacks, such as specific encounter mechanics (Impale-style abilities), and abilities that apply bleeds cannot be blocked.
• Shield Block is particularly useful when you are being attacked by multiple targets.

What all this means is that you want to use Shield Block to mitigate powerful boss melee attacks. If the boss you are fighting attacks in a steady and predictable manner, then using Shield Block is easy. If, however, the boss sometimes attacks faster or harder (going into a Frenzy), then you need to have rage in reserve so that you can use Shield Block at the appropriate times.

Keep in mind also that thanks to Glyph of Heavy Repercussions, which we advise using, Shield Slam deals increased damage while Shield Block is active.

7.6.2. Shield Barrier

Shield Barrier places a damage absorption shield on you, which absorbs an amount of damage (based on and scaling with your attack power). Shield Barrier has a 1.5 second cooldown, and it costs 20 rage. However, if you have more than 20 rage, then Shield Barrier will consume up to a total of 60 rage. Any additional rage past 20 will increase the amount of damage absorption that it provides.

Unlike Shield Block, Shield Barrier does not stack with itself. In fact, you cannot cast Shield Barrier while a previous Shield Barrier buff is already active, unless the amount of damage absorption of your new Shield Barrier is greater than the remaining damage absorption of your old one.

The absorption effect lasts for 6 seconds, but in practice it will almost always expire within the first one or two attacks you receive.

Also unlike Shield Block, Shield Barrier works against all types of damage (excluding fall damage).

7.6.3. Shield Block or Shield Barrier?

Due to their exorbitant rage costs, Shield Block and Shield Barrier are practically mutually exclusive. In any case, this is not a problem, since every situation is always ideally suited to one of them, but never to both.

The amount of damage that Shield Block mitigates is based on the power of the attacks it is mitigating. Blocked attacks have 30% of their damage reduced (60% of it is reduced if your Mastery, Mastery: Critical Block, procs). Therefore, a very powerful attack will result in a much greater damage reduction from Shield Block than a weak attack will.

On the other hand, the damage absorption of Shield Barrier is independent of the incoming damage. Shield Barrier will absorb the same amount of damage, regardless of whether the attack made against you deals 10,000 or 100,000 damage.

Therefore, when deciding which of the two abilities is better to use against blockable attacks, you need to look at which of the following two values is greater:

• The absorption amount provided by Shield Barrier.
• 30% of the attacks received over 6 seconds.

When facing magic damage, bleed damage, or otherwise unblockable damage, Shield Barrier is the superior choice.

7.7. More on Cooldown Usage

7.7.1. Tier 2 Talents

Depending on which tier 2 talent you choose, you will benefit from some form of self-healing. Second Wind is entirely passive, so discussing its usage is a non-issue.

Enraged Regeneration is a self-heal for 10% of your maximum health (5% instantly and 5% over 5 seconds) that is free of cost. Its healing is doubled if used while enraged (from Enrage and Berserker Rage).

Impending Victory is a self-heal for 10% of your maximum health, with a low rage cost and a rather low, 30-second cooldown. You should always be prepared to use this spell. In non-emergency situations, you can use it to simply help out your healers. If you anticipate that a very intense period of damage will happen soon, you should save it and use it then.

Note that, since all these talents heal you based on your maximum health, their effects are increased while Last Stand is active.

7.7.2. Tier 4 Talents

Bladestorm, Shockwave, and Dragon Roar are all designed with multiple targets in mind. While they do good damage against a single target, you must consider whether or not it is better for that global cooldown to be used on a Devastate instead. This gives you a chance to reset the cooldown of Shield Slam (thanks to Sword and Board), thus generating more rage and allowing for more frequent usage of Shield Barrier or Shield Block.

As such, we feel that these abilities should be used whenever you are trying to maximise your DPS, but if your survival is of the utmost importance, you should simply use a different ability. That said, given the long cooldown of Dragon Roar (our recommended choice here), using it on cooldown is quite doable.

Finally, Bladestorm protects you from knockbacks and from effects that cause loss of control of your character (such as fears), so you can use it with this purpose in mind even against a single target.

7.7.3. Tier 6 Talents

Avatar should be stacked with Recklessness and Skull Banner at all times. Additionally, you should try to make sure that you use Berserker Rage while Avatar is active.

Bloodbath should be used on cooldown.

Storm Bolt should be used on cooldown. Due to its short cooldown, it will essentially become part of your rotation.

As you can see, these talents have most DPS/threat-increasing properties. However, Avatar's increased rage generation can be used to provide you with more rage to use on your survival abilities (although the overall impact will be minor), while Storm Bolt can be used to stun some adds.

8. Changelog↑top

• 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update.
  • Modified the guide in relevant places to account for the changes to Enraged Regeneration (lower healing amount, free of rage cost, its healing being doubled if used while enraged).
• 24 Apr. 2013: Made several updates.
  • Removed the mention that said that Shield Slam should be delayed if you are at maximum rage. Shield Slam should always be used on cooldown.
  • Improved the multiple target rotation slightly.
  • Added mention that offensive cooldowns should be stacked.
  • Emphasised the importance of the Sword and Board proc.
  • Improved the explanation of how Tier 4 talents should be used.
• 04 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
  • Removed mentions of Deadly Calm, following its removal from the game.