Mists of Pandaria Classic Protection Warrior Rotation and Cooldowns

Warriors have three different stances, each having unique functions that are needed in certain situations. In Mists of Pandaria, all spells can be used in any stance, meaning you should only choose a stance based on your needs at the time.

• Battle Stance — Grants you high Rage when you deal melee damage. This is the main stance for DPS Warriors.
• Defensive Stance — Decreases damage taken by 25% and significantly increases threat generation, but you generate no Rage from damage taken or damage dealt. This is the main stance you will be using.
• Berserker Stance — Grants some Rage from melee damage, less than Battle Stance generates, but also grants Rage from damage taken.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

Tanking has changed in Mists of Pandaria and is no longer simply only about following a rotation to generate threat. Now, tanks must use what is called "active mitigation" to survive new abilities that some raid-bosses have called "tank busters". Below you will find our recommended rotation that focuses entirely on your damage and threat generation, while we discuss the use of your active mitigation survivability spells later on in this page.

The Protection rotation is fairly simple, but still remains engaging as you focus on utilizing multiple different procs while maintaining multiple different buffs and debuffs.

1. Shield Slam Use on cooldown. The cooldown of Shield Slam will frequently be reset by the Sword and Board talent, allowing you to use it more often; be mindful of these procs. Be mindful of your Rage and use a spender before using this if you are full.
2. Revenge Use on cooldown. Its cooldown will reset each time you dodge or parry, don't let these procs go to waste. Be mindful of your Rage and use a spender before using this if you are full.
3. Execute If target is below 20%;
4. Devastate Use as a filler;
5. Thunder Clap to refresh Weakened Blows if needed;
6. Battle Shout or Commanding Shout;
7. Heroic Strike if you are Rage capped or Ultimatum procs.

Your AoE rotation mostly follows your single target rotation, with a higher priority on Thunder Clap use.

1. Thunder Clap use on cooldown;
2. Revenge Use on cooldown. Its cooldown will reset each time you dodge or parry, don't let these procs go to waste. Be mindful of your Rage and use a spender before using this if you are full.
3. Shield Slam;
4. Execute If target is below 20%;
5. Devastate Use as a filler;
6. Battle Shout or Commanding Shout;
7. Cleave if you are Rage capped or Ultimatum procs.

As mentioned earlier, Mists of Pandaria changes how active tanks must be with their active defensive cooldowns. Previously, you would simply use these spells on cooldown, where as now, you must time them appropriately.

• Shield Block
  • Costs 60 Rage. Causes you to block all attacks against you for 6 seconds. This has no use against magical damage. While performing your rotation, this will the spender you prioritize against pure physical damage bosses.

• Shield Barrier
  • Places a damage absorption shield on yourself, which increases based on your stats (mainly Attack Power, Strength, and Stamina), and the Rage you spend. With a default Rage cost of 20 players are able to spend up to 40 additional Rage, 60 Rage total, to increase the amount absorbed. This is your main active-mitigation spell against magical damage, and you will need to use it along a mix of Shield Blocks against physical damage bosses.

Most of your Rage spending will go towards these 2 active mitigation spells, with the goal of keeping you alive. Get comfortable with having higher Rage, and only spending it as needed to survive.

Protection Warriors has limited cooldowns, mostly focused on increasing your own survivability. Mists of Pandaria adds a few more minor defensive cooldowns and rotation spells that greatly reduce the need for multiple defensive cooldowns, making the few that we have extremely powerful.

• Berserker Rage — 30-second cooldown, triggers Enrage. Use this to help with Enrage up-time.
• Skull Banner — 3-minute cooldown, increases the critical damage of all nearby allies by 20%. Use this in combination with other offensive cooldowns.
• Recklessness — 3-minute cooldown, gives 30% increased crit chance. Use this in combination with other offensive cooldowns.
• Shattering Throw — 5-minute cooldown, reduces targets armor by 20%. Use this in combination with other offensive cooldowns.

• 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. No longer shares a cooldown with Rallying Cry, allowing you to use both freely as needed.
• 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.
• Demoralizing Shout — 1-minute cooldown, reduces the damage taken by all enemies hit by 20% for 10 seconds. This only reduces your damage taken, making this only a personal defensive cooldown.
• Rallying Cry — 3-minute cooldown, grants you and all nearby allies 20% increased max health. Coordinate this with your raid to help the group survive raid mechanics.
• Shield Wall — 3-minute cooldown, 40% damage reduction. Can be used in any stance and no longer requires a shield to use. Great for surviving major raid abilities.
• Vigilance — 2-minute cooldown, 30% damage reduction to targeted player. This is your Tier 5 talent and is an amazing defensive cooldown to use on your other tanks.
• Demoralizing Banner — 3-minute cooldown, Throws down a banner than decreases the damage dealt by all nearby enemies by 10% for 15 seconds.