Mists of Pandaria 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.

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.

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 Attack Power of all nearby raid and party members.
• Commanding Shout — Increases the Stamina of all nearby raid and party members.

• Commanding Shout — Applies Physical Vulnerability to the target, increasing all Physical damage taken by 4%.
• Devastate — Applies the Weakened Armor effect, reducing the targets' armor by 4% per application, stacking up to 3 times.
• Thunder Clap — Applies the Weakened Blows effect, reducing targets physical damage dealt by 10%.

These are your core damaging abilities that you will use frequently, either while leveling or at max level.

• Shield Barrier — Spend Rage to gain a shield, absorbing a set amount of damage based on your Attack Power, Stamina, and how much Rage you spend. This will cost 20 Rage by default, but can spend up to 80 Rage total to increase the absorption amount. This is one of our most powerful defensive abilities, allowing you to negative a ton of what would usually be one-shot mechanics on tanks.
• Shield Block — Changed to a charge-based system, you gain 1 charge every 9 seconds and may have a total of 2 charges at a time. While active, you block all incoming attacks made against you for 6 seconds. These blocks may be critical blocks as well. This makes Shield Slam a very active-use defensive ability with very high uptime compared to previous expansions.
• Shield Slam — Now generates 20 Rage, dealing very high damage and threat to the target. This is your main ability as Protection. The Sword and Board passive gives your Devastate a 30% chance of resetting the cooldown on Shield Slam and causing it to generate an additional 5 Rage.
• Devastate — Deals damage to the target and applies a stack of Weakened Armor. This is mostly a filler spell to be used in during the gaps of your rotation. The Sword and Board passive gives your Devastate a 30% chance of resetting the cooldown on Shield Slam and causing it to generate an additional 5 Rage.
• Revenge — Now generates 20 Rage, dealing very high damage to the target and up to two additional nearby enemies. Whenever you dodge or parry the cooldown of Revenge will be reset. This is one of your main means of generating Rage, especially as you get more and more gear and your dodge and parry continue to increase.
• Thunder Clap — Deals damage to all nearby targets, applying Weakened Blows to them. Unwavering Sentinel removes the Rage cost of Thunder Clap for Protection, and Blood and Thunder makes Thunder Clap apply Deep Wounds to all targets hit, making this a great AoE spell.
• Shockwave — 40-second cooldown. Sends a shockwave out in a frontal cone, dealing high damage to all enemies and stunning them for 4 seconds. If Shockwave deals damage to at least 3 enemies, its cooldown will be reduced by 20 seconds.
• Heroic Strike — Instantly deals damage to the target. This spell was one a core part of our rotation, but is only used now to dump Rage if you are getting close to cap. Ultimatum procs will cause this spell to cost no Rage and be a guaranteed crit.
• Cleave — Instant attack that deals damage to target and an additional nearby enemy. Similar to Heroic Strike, this is essentially just a filler in an AoE situation if your Rage is nearing 100. Ultimatum procs will cause this spell to cost no Rage and be a guaranteed crit.
• 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.
• Heroic Throw — Deals decent damage to target from ranged, great for using on the pull.
• Victory Rush — Heals 20% of your maximum health. 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. With the Impending Victory talent you can use this freely every 30 seconds as an emergency heal.

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.

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.

• Spell Reflection — Reflects the next spell cast upon you back at the enemy. This has limited uses in PvE content, espeically against bosses, but may have some use on trash to not only prevent you from taking damage, but dealing that damage to the casting enemy instead.
• Charge — Quickly rush to an enemy, stunning them and generating some Rage. With the Juggernaut talent, you can use this ability every 12 seconds for Rage, improved further by Glyph of Bull Rush.
• 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%. You may need to use this from time to time for mobility or to escape a lethal area.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Heroic Leap — Jump to the targeted location, dealing damage to all nearby enemies. This is useful for either dealing a bit more damage on AoE pulls, but will most likely be used as a movement ability to close the gap on your enemy.