Cataclysm Classic Protection Warrior Spell Summary

Protection Warrior has a moderate amount of spells available to them; knowing your important spells and when they are best suited to be used is a key part of performing well in any environment. The sections below aim to show you your most important spells by each category and give you a brief example of what each spell does.

Warrior have three different stances, each having unique functions that are needed in certain situations. Some spells can only be used in specific stances as well, making it important for you to understand the general purpose each stance has.

• Battle Stance — Increases all damage dealt by 5% and reduces damage taken by 5%. Allows you to use abilities that require you to be in Battle Stance, such as Shattering Throw.
• Defensive Stance — Decreases all damage taken by 10% and increases threat generation by 500%. This is the main stance that Protection Warrior uses.
• Berserker Stance — Increases all damage dealt by 10% and allows you to use abilities that require you to be in Berserker Stance like Whirlwind.

As a Protection Warrior, you will be focusing on dealing damage. These are all of your main damaging spells that you will be using in various different situations.

• Rend — Causes an enemy to bleed for damage over time. In Cataclysm the damage of Rend is buffed greatly, making it worth applying even when tanking.
• Shield Slam — In Cataclysm Shield Slam is changed to scale with attack power as block value was removed, making this a powerful damage ability. With the Sword and Board talent, the cooldown of Shield Slam has a 30% chance to be reset when you use Devastate or Revenge. Heavy Repercussions causes your Shield Slam to deal double damage while your Shield Block is active.
• Revenge — You can only use this ability after you block, parry, or dodge an attack. With Improved Revenge talent Revenge will deal an additional 60% damage and hit a second, nearby enemy.
• Devastate — Deals damage to the target and applies a stack of Sunder Armor. This is mostly a filler spell to be used in during the gaps of your rotation.
• Colossus Smash — The newest spell all Warriors get in Cataclysm. Smashes the target for high damage and allows you to bypass all of the targets armor for 6 seconds. The armor bypass only works for the Warrior and not the rest of the group. While Colossus Smash requires you to be in either Battle Stance or Berserker Stance to use it, it will be worth it to swap to Berserker Stance, cast Colossus Smash, and swap back to Defensive Stance for the increased damage output as threat will never be an issue again in Cataclysm.
• Shockwave — 20-second cooldown. Sends a shockwave out in a frontal cone, dealing high damage to all enemies and stunning them for 4 seconds. When using Glyph of Shockwave, the cooldown of Shockwave will be reduced to 16-seconds.
• Heroic Strike — This spell is changed in Cataclysm. It no longer replaces your next auto-attack, but instead instantly deals damage and now has a 3 second cooldown. Still acts as a Rage dump whenever you are getting close to the Rage cap.
• Cleave — Just like Heroic Strike, this spell is also changed. It no longer replaces your next auto-attack, but will instantly attack, dealing damage to your target and a nearby enemy. With the Glyph of Cleaving, this will hit 3 targets instead of 2. You should only use Cleave when attacking multiple targets at the same time.
• Concussion Blow — Stuns the target for 5 seconds. Deals high damage, increased by your attack power. Great for hard hitting trash mobs or casters if your Pummel is on cooldown.
• Taunt — Taunt the target, forcing them to attack you and placing you at the top of their threat list. This is used to pickup any loose mobs or whenever tank swaps are needed on boss fights.
• Vigilance — Buff a friendly target with this for 30 minutes. In Cataclysm this no longer reduces the targets damage taken, nor does it transfer 10 of the threat they generate to you. It will however, still refresh the cooldown of your Taunt each time they are attacked. It will also grant you a stack of Vengeance every time they buffed player is attacked. You will now want to place this on the other tank in the group to keep your Vengeance stacks up and always have your Taunt ready whenever it is needed.
• Heroic Throw — Deals decent damage to target from ranged, great for using on the pull, especially when using Glyph of Heroic Throw to apply a stack of Sunder Armor right away.
• Victory Rush — This can only be used after you get the killing blow on an enemy that is a similar level to you. You can not get this proc by killing low level enemies, such as critters. It is rare to be able to use this ability as it requires you to get the killing blow to activate it, but be sure to use it if you can.

Protection Warriors has very limited cooldowns, mostly focused on increasing your own survivability. Cataclysm adds Rallying Cry, a raid-wide defensive cooldown.

• Rallying Cry — New to Cataclysm, grants all nearby group members 20% increased temporary maximum health for 10 seconds. This can be useful to help the raid survive high damage boss mechanics.
• Shield Wall — 5-minute cooldown. Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 12 seconds. The Shield Mastery talent will reduce this cooldown down to 2-minutes. You can also use Glyph of Shield Wall to increase the damage reduction from 40% to 60%, but increase the cooldown to 4-minutes instead of 2-minutes. This has some uses on certain mechanics and is something you should be aware of if you need to swap to using this glyph for a specific encounter.
• Last Stand — Increases your health by 30% for 20- seconds. Good to use when you are low health, or when you need a little more health to survive an upcoming boss ability.
• Shield Block — 1-minute cooldown, increases your block chance by 25% for 10-seconds. With the Shield Mastery talent, this cooldown is reduced to 30-seconds and reduces Magic damage taken by 20% for 6-seconds.
• Challenging Shout — Forces all nearby enemies to attack you for 6 seconds. Unlike Taunt this does not give you any threat, it is only a temporary "forced fixation" on you. After Challenging Shout expires the enemies will return to attacking the highest threat target on their aggro table.
• Inner Rage — Another new ability added in Cataclysm. Reduces the cooldown of both Heroic Strike and Cleave from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. This cooldown shines on Protection as you will almost always have high Rage while tanking and can get multiple spells off during this cooldown window.
• Heroic Leap — The last new skill you gain during Cataclysm. An additional movement ability, jumps to a target location and deals damage to all enemies near the landing location. Heroic Leap is not on the global cooldown, allowing you to weave it into your rotation for additional damage.
• Recklessness — 5-minute cooldown. Increases the Crit Chance of your special attacks by 50% for 12 seconds. While Recklessness is active, you take 20% increased damage from all sources. You will want to use this when you not tanking, or be sure to have a defensive cooldown ready, such as Shield Block to offset the increased damage taken.
• Shattering Throw — 5-minute cooldown. Reduces targets armor by 20%. This should be used as a raid DPS cooldown and coordinated with other cooldowns, such as Bloodlust.
• Enraged Regeneration — 3-minute cooldown. This will consume an Enrage effect to restore 30% of your max health over 10 seconds. This is great when paired together with Last Stand for even more health regeneration.

In addition to your main spells and cooldowns, you also have many utility spells that can be game-changing when used in the proper scenario. Make sure you understand each of the spells listed below to fully take advantage of your entire spellbook.

• Charge — Quickly rush to an enemy, stunning them and generating some Rage. With the Warbringer talent, you can use this in combat and while in Defensive Stance.
• Intercept — Similar to Charge, allows you to quick rush to an enemy, dealing minor damage and stunning them. The Warbringer talent also allows you to use this in Defensive Stance, giving you a ton of mobility.
• Intervene — Rush to an allies location, causing the next melee or ranged attack made against them to be redirected to you instead. Also reduces their threat by 10%. Warbringer will remove all movement impairments when you use Intervene.
• Berserker Rage — 30-second cooldown. Removes and makes you immune to fear and incapacitating effects. Also causes you to generate extra Rage when taking damage. Useful if fighting an enemy that fears, or to generate extra Rage on the pull. Counts as an Enrage effect for abilities such as Enraged Regeneration.
• Pummel — Interrupts the target, preventing them from casting for 4 seconds. This is an important spell that you should be making use of whenever possible, especially on trash pulls. This spell is not on the global cooldown, letting you cast it freely, and in Cataclysm, you can use Pummel in any stance.
• Disarm — Removes your target's melee and ranged weapons for 10 seconds, greatly reducing the damage they deal, and may prevent them from using certain abilities. Mainly useful on certain trash mobs that use abilities similar to Whirlwind.

Buffs and debuffs are an important part of any party or raid group as they greatly increase your groups ability to tank, heal and deal damage as a whole. Make sure you keep your buffs and debuffs up at all times to ensure the highest chance of success in whatever content you are in.

• Battle Shout — Increases Strength and Agility of all nearby raid and party members. The duration of this buff can be increased by 2 minutes if using Glyph of Battle. Generates Rage when used, meaning you will want to use this as much as possible. Only 1 Shout buff can be active at a time.
• Commanding Shout — Increases the Stamina of all nearby raid and party members. The duration of this buff can be increased by 2 minutes if using Glyph of Command. Generates Rage when used, meaning you will want to use this as much as possible. Only 1 Shout buff can be active at a time.

• Sunder Armor — Reduces the targets' Armor by 4% per application, stacking up to 3 times. Will be applied when you use Devastate.
• Demoralizing Shout — Reduces the physical damage dealt of all nearby enemies by 10%.
• Thunder Clap — Reduces the attack speed of all nearby enemies by 20%.

• Spell Reflection — Reflects a spell back towards the caster. Will mostly only have a use on trash mobs as most boss abilities can not be reflected.
• Hamstring — Slows targets movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds. Useful to slow a mob down if they are running away or if you need to get away from them.
• Intimidating Shout — Fears up to 6 nearby enemies for a short duration. Can be useful if you are in danger or surrounded by enemies, but will typically only be used in PvP as using it in PvE situations can cause trash mobs to run in bad directions and pull additional packs of enemies.