Mists of Pandaria Classic Protection Warrior Guide
Welcome to our Protection Warrior guide for Mists of Pandaria Classic, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play Protection Warrior proficiently. Click the links below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.
Protection Warrior Guide for Mists of Pandaria
Protection is the tank specialization, where you will focus
on taking damage as your primary goal rather than dishing it out.
Protection can be classified as easy to learn, hard to master.
This spec only has a few main abilities in its rotation, but it also has
multiple procs that require quick reactions to utilize. The nature of a tank
also requires high awareness of the situation at all times, as you will need to
be ready to adapt to anything the content throws at you.
With Mists of Pandaria, tanks are required to start using active mitigation, requiring you to frequently use a specific defensive skill whenever a "tank killer" ability is about to go off. This makes managing Rage an extremely important part of your rotation in MoP, as you need to be able to use your key active mitigation at crucial moments where lacking Rage will result in a death.
Is Protection Warrior Viable in Mists of Pandaria
Protection Warrior is in a
significantely better spot during MoP than it was in MOPclysm, but it still
lacks a bit compared to the best tanks for the expansion. You self-sustain is very
low, where as other tanks can heal back part of the damgage they take, you will
require full heals always. Where the
Protection excels is high
AoE fight, where you can easily top the meters on larger pulls.
Amazing AoE threat and damage.
Performs well against Physical damage based enemies.
Has many active mitigation abilities to reduce incoming damage.
Very high mobility.
Very little self sustain compared to other classes, requiring much more healing.
Does not bring anything unique to the raid.
Best Races for Protection Warrior
Warrior is the only class in the game that can be played by any
race, allowing you to pick whatever you want; with that said, certain racials
provide more benefit than others, weither its in PvE, PvP, or different specs.
Below are our recommended specs for both the Alliance and Horde
Protection Warriors.
Pandaren
Pandaren
are the newest race added in Mists of Pandaria, and can be played by either
faction, making them a choice for most classes. The main racial for Pandas is
Epicurean, which doubles the benefit of your food buff. This can be
very powerful, as your food buff will grant you 300 main stat; this racial
benefit will be lost if you die and are combat ressed during a boss, making it
more risky than other racials.
- Pandaren
Bouncy/li>
Epicurean
Gourmand
Inner Peace
Quaking Palm
Alliance
Night Elves
offer a defensive option, bringing 2 increased dodge via
Quickness,
and
Nature Resistance.
Worgen are a
solid choice, especially if you DPS often, as they grant 1% crit chance via
Viciousness.
Night Elf
Nature Resistance
Quickness
Shadowmeld
Wisp Spirit
Worgen
Aberration/li>
Darkflight
Flayer
Viciousness
Horde
You don't have many choices when it comes to racials on the Horede side while
tanking. Orc is the only race
that provides any real value in combat.
Goblin
receives an honorable mention for
Rocket Jump, but as a
Warrior,
you should not have much trouble closing the distance on your enemies. For Horde,
we recommend Orc if you are DPSing often, and Pandaren if you are mostly tanking.
Orc
Axe Specialization
Blood Fury
Hardiness
Best Professions for Protection Warrior
Mists of Pandaria balances most professions to be an equal amount of bonus stats, with most professions giving an average of 320 stats increase. That being said, there are always certain advantages and disadvantages to each profession, making certain professions slightly stronger than others.
Engineering — Engineering is once again the best profession in the game for us, made even stronger in Mists of Pandaria with the two new glove tinker enchants,
Synapse Springs for damage and
Phase Fingers for tankiness.
Nitro Boosts remain a solid option for movement speed bursts during fights. You will also be able to use
Synapse Springs on your DPS specs.
Blacksmithing — Allows you to add an additional socket to your gloves and bracers with
Socket Gloves and
Socket Bracer. While this is about the same stats gain as most other professions early on, once epic gems are introduced this profession becomes even stronger. These sockets are very nice compared to other professions, which offer a specific stat, as you can gem whatever stat you need in these sockets instead!
Warrior Addons and Macros
Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life during Mists of Pandaria. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.
More MoP Warrior Guides
More Mists of Pandaria Spec Guides from Other Classes
MoP Dungeon Guides
MoP Profession Guides
This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.