World of Warcraft: Forever Protection Warrior Leveling Guide

Protection is the fastest Warrior specialization for leveling in WoW Forever and the one we recommend. Buffs to Revenge let you kill enemies faster, while your shield greatly reduces incoming damage and limits downtime between pulls. The Protection tree also greatly improves your Rage generation and reduces the cost of your main abilities, fixing Warrior's biggest problem while leveling: having enough Rage to use your abilities often. Protection is an absolute beast when it comes to leveling, comfortably handling multiple enemies at once and making it the ideal choice for both solo and group play, especially in dungeon content.

This page updates based on your level selection using the level sliders below. You will find recommendations for your talents, gear, and where to level at each stage of your journey. Much changes once you reach Level 60, but until then, there are plenty of ways to approach leveling, whether you prefer questing alone, playing with friends, or spending more time in dungeons.

WoW Forever puts a lot of emphasis on this journey, so don't feel that you need to follow every recommendation here exactly. If you find a zone you enjoy or a group you want to keep playing with, spend some extra time there! There is a lot to discover in Azeroth, and reaching Level 60 a little later is a fair trade for enjoying the trip.

The above build focuses on leveling with a weapon and shield while keeping you ready to tank dungeons when needed. The main priority of this talent build will be to increase your Rage generation and reduce the Rage cost of your main abilities. This build starts off slowly with the first rank of Revenge not coming until level 14; once you train this however, things speed up drastically. We recommend using a 2-handed weapon early on until you learn Revenge, and swapping over to a shield and 1-handed weapon afterwards for the remainder of your leveling journey.

Complete Your Level 10 Class Quest

You need Defensive Stance to use several of your main abilities, such as Revenge. Complete the class quest as soon as you reach Level 10, then make sure you have Taunt and Sunder Armor on your bars.

Your first five points go into Shield Specialization from Levels 10 to 14; once maxed out, it generates 5 Rage whenever you Block. This will be a large portion of your Rage generated, and makes using Shield Block "free", as you will block twice with it and gain 10 Rage back.

Take Improved Revenge from Levels 15 to 17 next, increasing Revenge's damage by 60%. Revenge is your main ability and is what the entire build is built around, making this one of the best talents in the tree.

Take two points in Improved Thunder Clap at Levels 18 and 19, then both points in Master of Defense at Levels 20 and 21. Master of Defense generates 5 Rage when you Dodge or Parry with a shield equipped, adding to the Rage you already get from Blocks. Both Master of Defense and Shield Specialization are now your main sources of Rage generation. Finish Improved Thunder Clap at Level 22, reducing Thunder Clap's cost by a total of 6 Rage, allowing you to use Thunder Clap on cooldown when fighting multiple enemies.

At Level 23, Last Stand gives you an emergency defensive; you don't really need this, but it's worth grabbing for both PvP situations, as well as accidental over pulls. Take your first point in Defiance at Level 24, then Vanguard at Level 25. Vanguard lets you use Charge in Defensive Stance, allowing you to move straight into the next fight without changing stances and losing your stored Rage; you still cannot Charge while already in combat.

Take Improved Sunder Armor from Levels 26 to 28, reducing the Rage cost of Sunder Armor by 3 per use; you'll be using this often on higher Health enemies and dungeon bosses, so the reduced Rage cost adds up quickly.

Here you will finish off your prerequisite talents from earlier, putting your second point in Defiance at Level 29. Focused Rage follows from Levels 30 to 32, reducing the cost of all of your offensive abilities; this Rage cost stacks with other talents such as Improved Thunder Clap, greatly reducing the Rage cost of your offensive attacks. Pick up Concussion Blow at Level 33 for a useful single-target stun, then finally finish Defiance at Level 34.

Complete Your Level 30 Class Quest

Complete your Level 30 class quest to unlock Berserker Stance. You need this stance to use Intercept and Berserker Rage, allowing you to reach enemies while in combat and break Fear or Incapacitate effects when needed.

Take Bastion from Levels 35 to 39, increasing all damage dealt by 10% while a shield is equipped. At Level 40, we learn Shield Slam, which becomes our new main ability for its extremely high damage and threat. It hits hard and scales with Block Value, giving shield upgrades offensive value on top of the defensive value. Your leveling pace will really speed up after Level 40 with a second, hard hitting ability.

This macro casts Shield Bash on the enemy under your cursor, letting you interrupt another enemy without changing your current target; ou can mouse over the enemy, its nameplate, or its unit frame. If you aren't hovering over a living enemy, the macro uses your current target instead. You still need a shield equipped, enough Rage, and to be in either Battle Stance or Defensive Stance to use it.

Take Cruelty from Levels 41 to 45, then all five points in Lingering Rage from Levels 46 to 50. Cruelty increases your melee Critical Strike Chance by 5%, while Lingering Rage delays the start of Rage decay between fights by 10 seconds. You won't always be able to pull enemies back to back, which is where Lingering Rage comes in handy. By delaying Rage decay between fights, it helps you carry more Rage into your next pull, rather than losing it all instead.

Get Piercing Howl at Level 51 to slow nearby enemies; this is useful in PvP, for kiting dangerous mobs, and for escaping accidental overpulls. Then take four points in Unbridled Wrath from Levels 52 to 55, giving your melee weapon attacks a 48% chance to generate 1 additional Rage. It isn't a great talent, but the the options here are limited and this should be the most Rage per minute.

Take Raging Blows at Level 56 to reduce the cost of Cleave and Whirlwind; this is mostly only for the Cleave cost reduction, allowing you to AoE mobs down more often. Your final four points will go into Enrage from Levels 57 to 60. Enrage can activate from any damage taken, providing an offensive benefit while enemies are attacking you; this will be active nearly all of the time while you are being attacked.

Protection's early rotation revolves around Revenge; keep enemies in front of you and use Shield Block to help activate it. Use Rend at the start of combat and apply a few Sunder Armors onto the target, finishing them off with auto-attacks and Revenge when they are low health.

Heroic Strike and Cleave replace your next autoattack with a special attack. That swing no longer generates Rage, making these abilities more costly than their listed cost suggests. Use them only when you have Rage left after your main abilities and be sure to keep enough Rage for your next rotation. Repeatedly queueing Heroic Strike while struggling for Rage only makes the problem worse and should very rarely be used at lower levels.

At Level 20, Victory Rush gives you some healing after a kill. It heals 10% of your maximum Health and costs no Rage, but has a 30 second cooldown and must be used within 20 seconds of killing an enemy that grants experience. Move to the next enemy when it is safe, then use it while you are missing Health.

The following priorities cover both questing and tanking. Threat matters more in dungeons, while saving Rage for the next enemy matters more when questing alone.

1. Keep Battle Shout active. If you enter combat without it, use it once you have enough Rage. Use Bloodrage on cooldown, ideally between pulls to prevent your Rage from decaying. Avoid using abilities on mobs that are very low health, and instead try to finish them off with auto-attacks instead to save Rage for the next pull.
2. Open with Charge when possible, then swap to Defensive Stance. Before Level 25, Charge will require Battle Stance, but after you get Vanguard you can simply use it from Defensive Stance.
3. Use Victory Rush when it is available and you are missing Health, or before its activation expires. Don't delay it so long that you lose the opportunity to use it, even if just for the free damage; it's better to heal nothing and deal a bit of damage rather than not use it at all.
4. Use Demoralizing Shout early in the fight to reduce damage taken. Taking less damage means more uptime, reducing how often you need to stop and eat food to heal back up.
5. After Level 40 you get Shield Slam and will use it before Revenge, depending on your Rage. Prioritize Revenge first if you have low Rage, otherwise use Shield Slam first for its massive baseline damage.
6. Use Revenge whenever it becomes available. It requires a Block, Dodge, or Parry first, and remains one of your most efficient attacks throughout leveling.
7. Use Shield Block regularly against melee attacks. It reduces damage taken, helps activate Revenge, and generates Rage through Shield Specialization. Skip it against spell casters that do not melee attack, as well as non Earth Elementals, since you will be unable to Block their attacks.
8. Apply Rend early if the target will survive most of the bleed. Do not re-apply Rend if the target is low health or will die before most of the bleed damage has gone off.
9. Use Sunder Armor early on if you have the extra Rage, only building five stacks on bosses. Treat Sunder similarly to Rend, not using it on a low health target. Apply 5 Sunders on enemies that live for a long time such as quest elites, or bosses in dungeons.
10. Keep Thunder Clap on dangerous melee enemies to reduce incoming damage, and use Disarm against especially dangerous enemies. You will realistically only need to use these on elite mobs in a single-target situation.
11. Use Heroic Strike when you have an excessive amount of Rage, saving enough for your next Shield Slam, Revenge, or interrupt. Don't go overboard with Heroic Strike as it is very easy to use up all of your Rage before you realize it.

Your basic priorities stay the same when fighting multiple enemies. Keep Battle Shout active, use Bloodrage and Shield Block on cooldown, use Victory Rush before its activation expires, and open with Charge whenever possible.

Keep the pack in front of you so you can block, dodge and parry attacks. Use Taunt on enemies that you lose aggro on, then build threat on them before switching targets again. While questing alone, focus on killing one target first to reduce incoming damage.

1. Use Demoralizing Shout early to reduce incoming damage from the pack. Taking less damage means more uptime and fewer stops to eat and heal between pulls.
2. Use Thunder Clap on cooldown to damage nearby enemies and slow their attacks. It only hits four targets, so watch threat on enemies that aren't being hit and focus other attacks on those to maintain aggro when in dungeons.
3. Use Shield Slam and Revenge whenever available, switching targets between casts to spread your threat in dungeons. Pay attention to enemies that weren't hit by Thunder Clap because of its four target limit. When questing, use these to focus down lower health enemies to finish them off.
4. When both Shield Slam and Revenge are unavailable, tab through enemies and put Rends up on multiple targets. Only spend Rage on Rend if the target will through most of the bleed.
5. Dump excess Rage into Cleave when a second enemy is in range of your current target. Make sure to save enough Rage for your higher priority attacks.

Your core rotation is made up of the following abilities.

• Revenge: A cheap attack that becomes usable after a Block, Dodge, or Parry. Improved Revenge makes it one of the biggest early damage gains in this build.
• Shield Slam: Learned at Level 40 with this build. Deals damage that scales with Block Value, generates high threat, and has a chance to remove a beneficial magic effect from the enemy.
• Shield Block: Increases your Block Chance for the next two attacks. Use it against melee enemies to reduce damage, activate Revenge, and generate Rage through Shield Specialization.
• Sunder Armor: Reduces the target's Armor and builds threat; stacks up to 5 times. Use it early on durable enemies or when your other abilities are unavailable.
• Thunder Clap: Damages up to four nearby enemies and increases the time between their attacks. It works in Defensive Stance and is your main regular AoE attack.
• Rend: A bleed worth applying early when an enemy will survive most of its duration. Refreshing it just before a target dies wastes Rage.
• Heroic Strike and Cleave: Improve your next weapon swing at the cost of Rage and that swing's normal Rage generation. Cleave also hits a second enemy, making it the better choice when both enemies are within reach.

Your rotation is only part of playing Protection. Interrupting a dangerous cast, pulling an enemy away from your healer, or using a defensive before a large hit can make a much bigger difference than using another offensive ability.

While questing, your control gives you time to recover or leave a fight that has gone wrong. While tanking, it buys the rest of the party time to catch up. Protection's shield does not make every pull safe, especially against casters, so use the rest of your toolkit as well. A well timed interrupt often saves more Health than another defensive item.

Click for Utility and Crowd Control Explanation

• Charge: Reaches an enemy and generates Rage before combat. Check for patrols or extra mobs near your target before using it. If there isn't much room to fight, use your ranged weapon to pull enemies back to a safer spot.
• Bloodrage: Costs some health to generate Rage immediately and over the following 10 seconds. Use it to pay for your opening abilities or to prevent Rage from decaying between pulls.
• Battle Shout: Increases melee Attack Power for you and nearby party members. Keep it active and remember to rebuff anyone who dies. You ideally want to refresh this at the end of a pull or before entering combat if you have the Rage, saving you a global cooldown in combat.
• Demoralizing Shout: Reduces nearby enemies Attack Power, lowering their melee damage. Use it early, especially against multiple enemies or mobs that hit hard. Taking less damage means fewer stops to eat while questing and less pressure on your healer in dungeons.
• Thunder Clap: Damages up to four nearby enemies and slows their attack speed. Use it against several melee enemies to reduce incoming damage, especially if you're tanking or dealing with an unexpected add. Apply it early in a difficult fight so you get more value from the attack speed reduction.
• Taunt: Forces an enemy to attack you briefly and brings your threat up to the highest player's threat on that enemy; follow it with attacks to keep the enemy on you after the effect ends. It won't help if the enemy is already attacking you and it can be resisted, so be ready to use another control ability if that happens.
• Mocking Blow: Temporarily forces one enemy to attack you. Use it when Taunt is unavailable or resists, but remember that it requires Battle Stance. Unlike Taunt, it doesn't copy another player's threat, so keep attacking to hold threat as they will return to their original target after the effect ends if you do not gain aggro during its duration.
• Challenging Shout: Temporarily forces nearby enemies to attack you and works in Defensive Stance. Use it when several enemies start attacking your party. Similar to Mocking Blow, itt doesn't copy their threat, so use the time it buys to build enough threat to keep the enemies on you afterward.
• Shield Bash: Your interrupt from Level 12, it requires a shield and works in Battle Stance or Defensive Stance. Use it to stop dangerous damage spells, enemy heals, or crowd control. Save enough Rage when you know a cast is coming rather than trying to do a bit more damage with another ability and not having the Rage needed to kick a spell.
• Disarm: Temporarily removes an enemy's weapon, reducing the damage dealt by melee enemies. This can not be used against every enemy as some use Fist or Ranged weapons, which can not be disarmed, or don't use a weapon at all.
• Hamstring: Slows an enemy so you can kite it, escape, or stop it from running into another pack. It requires Battle Stance or Berserker Stance, so account for the Rage lost when switching from Defensive Stance. Very useful early on when fighting Humanoids as they will run away at low health.
• Piercing Howl: Taken at Level 51 with this build; slows nearby enemies without requiring a stance change, making it useful in PvP, for kiting dangerous mobs, and for escaping accidental overpulls.
• Concussion Blow: Stuns one enemy for five seconds, starting at Level 33 with this build. Use it to stop a cast or prevent an enemy from attacking while you keep dealing damage, since damage won't break the stun. You can time it to use a bandage, if there is no other enemy or damaging effect to interrupt it.
• Intimidating Shout: Makes your target cower while other nearby enemies flee in fear. It can give you time to escape or bandage, but be careful around other packs, as fleeing enemies can pull more mobs. Any damage dealt to the initial target will break the cower, while damage dealt to the ones fleeing has a chance to break the fear, so something such as Rend on your target can break the crowd control and interrupt your heal.
• Intercept: Learned at Level 30 and requires Berserker Stance. Use it to reach and stun an enemy while already in combat. Switching stances removes you Rage, so try to use any additional Rage over 10 before swapping stances. Return to Defensive Stance afterward to regain access to your main abilities.
• Berserker Rage: Available from Level 30 and requires Berserker Stance. Breaks Fear and Incapacitates, making you immune to them for the duration. Also increases the amount of Rage generated from damage taken; if you are out of Rage before a pull you can use Berserker Rage right before entering combat to generate a bit of extra Rage. Switch back to Defensive Stance afterwards.
• Last Stand: Temporarily grants 30% of your maximum health for 20 seconds. Use it before a dangerous hit or to give your healer time to catch up. The extra health is lost when the effect ends, so you still need healing to recover.
• Shield Wall: Reduces damage taken by 60% for 12 seconds and requires Defensive Stance. Use it when you accidentally over pull or if your healer is falling behind on keeping you alive; try to use it early on rather than waiting until you are low health to use it, so you get the most value possible out of it. It has a long cooldown, so don't expect it to be available for every dangerous pull.
• Retaliation: Requires Battle Stance and counterattacks enemies that hit you from the front; keep enemies in front of you to get value from it. Can be great for big pulls, and can be combined with Shield Wall if you want to do a large pull every 15 minutes.

Early on you will not have much choice in your stats. Keep your weapon and shield up to date, then look for Strength and Stamina on your other equipment. Damage helps you kill enemies and hold threat, while Armor and Health let you survive fights. While defensive gear has a higher priority when tanking dungeons, you will likely just want to use the same gear for both tanking dungeons and questing solo, following the priority shown below.

1. Weapon Damage
   • Higher weapon DPS improves your auto-attack damage and helps you kill enemies faster. Revenge and Shield Slam do not scale with weapon damage, so a slow weapon is not simply better for this build. You will almost always simply want the weapon with the highest DPS.
2. Hit & Expertise
   • These make your attacks more reliable by reducing misses and enemy Dodges or Parries. A failed attack means lost damage, threat, and no Rage, making this a very important stat for a Warrior. Both stats are uncommon on early gear, so use them whenever available as long as you are not losing too many other stats.
3. Strength & Attack Power
   • Strength gives two Attack Power per point and also increases Block Value. Attack Power improves your weapon damage and abilities damage such as Revenge and Thunder Clap. This makes Strength one of the best stats for leveling and threat, and should be the main stat you look for on gear.
4. Agility & Critical Strike
   • Critical strikes improve damage, and critical auto-attacks generate additional Rage. Agility also provides Critical Strike Chance, Dodge Chance, and Armor, but does not give Warriors Attack Power. Agility is a great stat if you can find it in combination with Strength while leveling.
5. Armor & Stamina
   • Armor reduces Physical damage taken, while Stamina increases your max Health. These matter more when fighting several enemies or tanking harder dungeons. Shield upgrades can provide a large amount of Armor, so do not judge them only by their extra stats. Stamina also helps against spell damage that Armor cannot reduce, but these are mostly end game stats that provide very little while leveling.
6. Defense, Dodge, Parry & Block
   • These reduce incoming melee damage and help activate Revenge. Blocks, Dodges, and Parries also generate Rage through your talents. Block Chance determines how often you Block; Block Value determines how much damage a Block absorbs and improves Shield Slam once learned. These are unlikely to be on low level gear, and do very little to increase your leveling speed.

When leveling, you often get to choose between multiple zones to pick from. You generally want to start out in one area and complete most of that zone, only leaving once you have very few quests to complete. Warrior excels at questing when fighting enemies a couple of levels below them, so staying in one zone to complete most of it helps get you ahead in the next zone. Using the slider below, we will be recommending zones for their density of quests and proximity to dungeons that are available at each level range.

Quest through the surrounding areas before entering a dungeon so you can collect all of its available quests and finish several objectives in one run. Dungeon quests provide experience and gear, but you do not need to run every dungeon to level effectively. Check our Dungeon Hub for its level range, quests, and where to pick them up before planning the trip.

Be Efficient With Your Time

You will replace gear frequently, so do not spend hours chasing a small upgrade. Combine dungeon quests and look for useful drops while you are already there. As the tank, check the dungeon's recommended levels before forming a group; being able to pick up its quests does not mean you are ready to tank every boss. A failed run can cost far more time than finishing a few nearby quests first. Our recommended questing zones being once you have finished your specific races starting zone.

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Loch Modan/Darkshore
  • The Barrens
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes
  • Ragefire Chasm

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Westfall/Darkshore
  • Silverpine Forest
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes
  • Ragefire Chasm and Ruins of Lordaeron

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Westfall/Redridge Mountains
  • The Barrens/Stonetalon Mountains
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes and The Deadmines
  • Wailing Caverns

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Redridge Mountains/Duskwood
  • Hillsbrad Foothills/Stonetalon Mountains
• Available Dungeons:
  • The Stockade and The Deadmines
  • Shadowfang Keep and Wailing Caverns

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Ashenvale/Duskwood
  • Ashenvale/Duskwood
• Available Dungeons:
  • Blackfathom Deeps and The Stockade
  • Blackfathom Deeps and Shadowfang Keep

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Wetlands/Ashenvale
  • Hillsbrad Foothills/Wetlands
• Available Dungeons:
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Blackfathom Deeps
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Blackfathom Deeps

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Wetlands/Ashenvale
  • Wetlands/Thousand Needles
• Available Dungeons:
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Gnomeregan, and City of Dalaran
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Razorfen Kraul, and City of Dalaran

Below are some items worth looking for as you level. There are options available for all different levels matching the slider above, with the item at the top of the list being the best choice for the current level, and a few options that are from quests included below. Gear options beyond level 35 are not entirely known at this time and will be filled out more thoroughly in the future once the game has fully released.

• One Handed Weapons
  • Razorfen Kraul
    • Pronged Reaver drops from Charlga Razorflank in Razorfen Kraul.
    • Thornspike drops from Aggem Thorncurse in Razorfen Kraul.
  • Hamhock's Cleaver
    • Alliance Drops from Hamhock in The Stockade.
  • Darkwater Talwar
    • Drops from Lady Sarevess in Blackfathom Deeps.
  • Horde Shadowfang Keep
    • Meteor Shard drops from Archmage Arugal in Shadowfang Keep.
    • Baron's Scepter drops from Baron Silverlaine in Shadowfang Keep.
    • Butcher's Slicer drops from Razorclaw the Butcher in Shadowfang Keep.
  • Wingblade
    • Horde Quest reward from Leaders of the Fang, Wailing Caverns.
  • Alliance The Deadmines
    • Buzz Saw drops from Sneed's Shredder in The Deadmines.
    • Cookie's Tenderizer drops from Cookie in The Deadmines.
    • Blackwater Cutlass drops from Defias Pirates and other enemies in The Deadmines.
  • Meathook Slicer
    • Drops from The Baron in Ruins of Lordaeron.
  • Durgen's Crescent Axe
    • Alliance Drops from Durgen Dirgehammer in Hall of Thanes.
  • Hammer of Orgrimmar
    • Horde Quest reward from Hidden Enemies, Ragefire Chasm.
  • Alliance Haggard's Axe / Horde Thun'grim's Axe
    • Alliance Quest reward from Dead-tooth Jack, Elwynn Forest.
    • Horde Quest reward from Forged Steel, The Barrens.
  • Copper Shortsword
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing.

• Shields
  • Marbled Buckler
    • Alliance Quest reward from The Crone of the Kraul, Razorfen Kraul.
    • Horde Quest reward from A Vengeful Fate, Razorfen Kraul.
  • Commander's Crest
    • Horde Drops from Commander Springvale in Shadowfang Keep.
  • Repurposed Rack
    • Alliance Drops from Hamhock in The Stockade.
  • Mirror of Rath'mael
    • Drops from Rath'mael in Ruins of Lordaeron.
  • Crest of Darkshire
    • Alliance Quest reward from Bride of the Embalmer, Duskwood.
  • Arctic Buckler
    • Quest reward from Blackfathom Villainy, Blackfathom Deeps.
  • Kresh's Back
    • Drops from Kresh in Wailing Caverns.
  • Fire Hardened Buckler
    • Alliance Quest reward from Tharil'zun, Redridge Mountains.
  • Thornwoven Shield
    • Horde Quest reward from Chol'aruk the Ravener, The Barrens.
  • Any Shield
    • Use any shield available from now on.

• Helmet
  • Barbaric Iron Helm
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing.
  • Veteran's Silvered Chain Helm
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing. Binds when picked up.

• Shoulders
  • Barbaric Iron Shoulders
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing.
  • Rough Bronze Shoulders
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing.

• Chest
  • Veteran's Silvered Chain Shirt
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing. Binds when picked up.
  • Veteran's Chain Shirt
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing. Binds when picked up.

• Gloves
  • Veteran's Gloves
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing. Binds when picked up.

• Belt
  • Cobrahn's Grasp
    • Drops from Lord Cobrahn in Wailing Caverns.
  • Veteran's Chain Belt
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing. Binds when picked up.

• Legs
  • Veteran's Silvered Chain Leggings
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing. Binds when picked up.

• Boots
  • Veteran's Boots
    • Crafted through Blacksmithing. Binds when picked up.

• Rings
  • Ring of Ruin
    • Alliance Quest reward from The Legend of Stalvan, Duskwood.
  • Seal of Wrynn
    • Alliance Quest reward from An Audience with the King, Stormwind City.
  • Silverlaine's Family Seal
    • Horde Drops from Baron Silverlaine in Shadowfang Keep.
  • Seal of Sylvanas
    • Horde Quest reward from Arugal Must Die, Shadowfang Keep.

With the WoW Forever Beta only reaching Level 30, we unfortunately are unable to provide more specific advice on which zones or gear to tackle beyond Level 30. Make sure to check back once WoW Forever has launched, as we will be updating this section of our Subtlety Rogue leveling guide soon after!

Keep food, bandages, and Healing Potions ready. Victory Rush helps keep you up in combat when you can get a kill, while food and bandages cover the gaps out of combat. Recover before starting another fight if you are low health, and keep a potion available for an unexpected add or dangerous enemy. Trying to save a little bit of time by pulling while at low Health will cost you more time if die.

Keep up with your professions. Some professions such as Herbalism and Mining should be leveled up simultaneously while you quest. Leaving these behind will only save you a small amount of time early on, but will cost you a ton of materials that you would have otherwise gotten. You can choose to skip out on crafted professions such as Blacksmithing if you want to purely level, although the gear offered by some professions can make up for the time spent crafting.

Train your abilities and weapon skill. New ranks of abilities like Revenge are massive improvements, and a good weapon will still perform poorly if your skill with its weapon type is far behind. Practice against low level enemies when changing weapon types and visit your trainer for important abilities. Before entering a dungeon, check your equipment durability and be sure to give your healer time to restore Mana between pulls when needed.

Log out in rested areas. Leveling to 60 takes time, and rested experience adds up between sessions. Logout inside an inn or another rested area whenever possible, ideally by using your Hearthstone at the end of a questiing session. You do not need to make a long detour every time you log out, but repeatedly missing out on rested experience means giving up extra experience you could have earned while offline.

Make friends. Protection gives you a useful role in both dungeons and group quests; add players you enjoyed running with, especially healers and DPS who communicate well and help with interrupts and crowd control. An experienced group spends much less time organizing runs, and those connections remain especially useful when you reach max level and begin to do end game ccontent.

Some levels give you a new ability or talent that changes your rotation, while others offer stronger ranks of attacks and Shouts you already use. The tables below cover your main unlocks and ability upgrades, helping you plan your class quests and training visits as you level up.

The table below highlights your stance quests, defensive cooldowns, and major talent unlocks. Talent unlock levels follow the recommended Protection build, so they may differ if you spend your points in a different order.

Level	Milestone Unlock
10	Defensive Stance Class Quest, Taunt, and Sunder Armor
12	Shield Bash Unlocked
14	Revenge and Tactical Mastery Unlocked
16	Shield Block Unlocked
20	Victory Rush and Retaliation Unlocked; First Master of Defense Point
23	Last Stand Unlocked with this build
25	Vanguard Unlocked with this build
26	Challenging Shout Unlocked
28	Shield Wall Unlocked
30	Berserker Stance Class Quest, Intercept, Berserker Rage, and First Focused Rage Point
33	Concussion Blow Unlocked with this build
40	Shield Slam Unlocked with this build; Plate Armor Training; 60% Mount Available (100 gold total for riding training & mount)
50	Recklessness Unlocked

The following are your main abilities that you will want to always train the next rank as soon as possible. If one of these abilities has a new rank available at the trainer, making a trip to the nearest major city is well worth the time to learn it.

Ability	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3	Rank 4	Rank 5	Rank 6	Rank 7
Battle Shout	1	12	22	32	42	52	Currently Unknown
Cleave	20	30	40	50	60	—	—
Demoralizing Shout	14	24	34	44	54	—	—
Rend	4	10	20	30	40	50	60
Revenge	14	24	34	44	54	Currently Unknown	—
Shield Slam	40	48	54	60	—	—	—
Sunder Armor	10	22	34	46	58	—	—
Thunder Clap	6	18	28	38	48	58	—

Mining and Blacksmithing let you gather the bars and stone needed to craft your own weapons, armor, and weapon stones. This can save gold and fill gaps in your equipment, but compare each craft with what you already have before spending materials. Herbalism and Alchemy are another good pairing if you would rather gather materials for damage and defensive consumables, and Alchemy is a great gold maker at max Level.

Engineering pairs well with Mining and gives you explosives and other gadgets for dungeons and PvP. The extra damage and control are very useful when your normal AoE abilities are limited. If you plan to switch crafting professions later, gather the materials you will need before dropping Mining, or budget for buying them from the Auction House.

Skinning is a great pickup for anyone early on while Leveling, as you can vendor all of the materials acquired for some early gold. This helps greatly with being able to afford ability training early on, and can be useful later on to sell rarer materials on the auction house to other players. You can always drop Skinning later on for your main professions.

Warriors should always pick up First Aid as well. Victory Rush helps during combat, but bandages still cover the gaps between fights and greatly reduce downtime. First Aid also makes Healing Potions in WoW Forever. Cooking supplies your own food, while Fishing provides ingredients for many recipes. Leveling these two together is highly recommended, but can take up a large amount of time. These secondary professions do not take either primary profession slot, making them useful additions whichever primary professions you choose.

More WoW Forever Warrior Guides

Arms Warrior Melee DPS Guide Arms Warrior Melee DPS Leveling Fury Warrior Melee DPS Leveling Fury Warrior Melee DPS Guide Protection Warrior Tank Guide

More WoW Forever Guides from Other Classes

Combat Rogue Melee DPS Guide Demonology Warlock Ranged DPS Guide Restoration Druid Healer Leveling Discipline Priest Healer Leveling Beast Mastery Hunter Ranged DPS Guide Arcane Mage Ranged DPS Leveling