Protection Warrior Shadowlands Leveling Guide From 1 to 60

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level, but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

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Talents are something that will give you options to optimize your character and change how some of the abilities work.

Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

Your talent set up should be as follows:

• Level 15: War Machine for the increased movement speed or Punish otherwise.
• Level 25: Double Time
• Level 30: Dragon Roar
• Level 35: Bounding Stride
• Level 40: Impending Victory or Indomitable for a more passive option.
• Level 45: Unstoppable Force or Ravager for bigger bursty pulls.
• Level 50: Anger Management if you use Unstoppable Force, otherwise Bolster.

Starting at Level 1, you only have one active ability: Slam.

1. Cast Charge to initiate combat whenever possible.
2. Victory Rush activates whenever an enemy is killed. Use it to heal yourself.
3. Cast Avatar to generate a bit of Rage and greatly increase your damage.
4. Cast Demoralizing Shout to reduce the damage you take, and increase the damage you deal (when using the Booming Voice talent).
5. Cast Shield Slam to deal a lot of damage.
6. Cast Shield Slam to generate Rage and deal damage.
7. Cast Thunder Clap to generate Rage and deal damage, particularly during Avatar with Unstoppable Force talented.
8. Cast Execute when enemies are below 20% health.
9. Spend Rage on Whirlwind to damage multiple targets if you do not need to spend it on your active mitigation to survive.
10. Spend Rage on Revenge to damage multiple targets if you do not need to spend it on your active mitigation to survive.
11. Cast Devastate to fill empty global cooldowns, and reset the cooldown of Shield Slam.
12. Cast Slam as your filler spell.

Active Mitigation

• Cast Shield Block as much as possible when tanking something and taking heavy physical damage.
• Further smooth out your damage intake by spending Rage on Ignore Pain.

You unlock your first ability of interest at Level 2.

• At Level 2, you unlock Charge. It is both a mobility tool and Rage generator, and should be used to initiate combat whenever possible.
• At Level 3, you unlock Shield Slam. This is your primary attack which should be kept on cooldown as much as possible.
• At Level 4, you unlock Hamstring. This will allow you to slow down a single enemy when needed so you can get some distance.
• At Level 5, you unlock Victory Rush. This is your primary heal, usable whenever an enemy is killed and useful for chaining combat between multiple enemies.
• At Level 6, you unlock Shield Block. It is a defensive ability that costs Rage, which allows you to block incoming physical attacks.
• At Level 6, you also unlock Execute via a Quest called "A Warrior's End". It is a high damage combat finisher, normally usable when the target is below 20% health.
• At Level 7, you unlock Pummel, which interrupts enemy spellcasting and stops their ability to cast for a short time.
• At Level 8, you unlock Charge, this will make Charge generate 10 more Rage.
• At Level 9, you unlock Whirlwind. This is a AoE ability that hits up to 5 enemies and costs Rage.
• At Level 10, you unlock Shield Slam which makes it also generate 15 Rage.
• At Level 10, your Shield Block will also increase the damage of Shield Slam while it is active.
• At Level 10, you unlock Mastery: Critical Block. This unlocks the Mastery stat, increasing your chance to block, critically block, and attack power.
• At Level 11, you unlock Victory Rush. Rank 2 increases the heal by an additional 10%.
• At Level 12, you unlock Revenge. It is a secondary attack, which spends Rage in order to deal damage to multiple targets. Dodging and parrying attacks has a chance to make it free to use.
• At Level 13, you unlock Execute making Execute have no cooldown.
• At Level 14, you unlock Devastate. This is your default filler ability, to be used whenever nothing else is available.
• At Level 14, you also unlock Taunt, a threat tool which forces the enemy to focus and attack you.
• At Level 17, you unlock Ignore Pain. This is a defensive ability which allows you to spend Rage in order to absorb incoming damage.
• At Level 18, you unlock Execute. If your foe survives the Execute then you get some of the Rage spent on it back.
• At Level 19, you unlock Thunder Clap. This ability generates a bit of Rage and is particularly good against multiple enemies.
• At Level 20, you unlock Vanguard. This is a passive ability that increases your Stamina and Armor.
• At Level 21, you unlock Shockwave. This is a stun, which hits all enemies in a frontal cone.
• At Level 22, you unlock Shield Block. This makes it so Shield Block now has 2 charges.
• At Level 23, you unlock Shield Wall. This major defensive cooldown reduces damage taken by 40% for a short time.
• At Level 24, you unlock Heroic Throw, your one of two ranged attacks, primarily used for getting the attention of enemies from afar.
• At Level 27, you unlock Demoralizing Shout. This is another defensive cooldown, which reduces the damage afflicted targets deal to you.
• At Level 28, you unlock Shield Slam. This gives some of your abilitites the chance to reset the remaining cooldown of Shield Slam.
• At Level 29, you unlock Berserker Rage, a defensive ability which removes some loss of control effects.
• At Level 29, you unlock Ignore Pain. Rank 2 removes the cooldown on Ignore Pain.
• At Level 32, you unlock Avatar. It is your primary offensive cooldown, which generates Rage and increases your damage done.
• At Level 33, you unlock Heroic Leap, a mobility tool which moves you quickly to any location you select within its range.
• At Level 34, you unlock Intimidating Shout, which disorients enemies around you for a short time.
• At Level 37, you unlock Thunder Clap. This makes Thunder Clap slow your enemies by 20% giving it a bit of utility.
• At Level 38, you unlock Last Stand. This is defensive cooldown which increases your current and maximum health by 30%.
• At Level 39, you unlock Battle Shout, a group-wide buff which increases damage done.
• At Level 41, you unlock Shattering Throw, a damaging ability with a cast time that deals increased damage against absorbs and removes any magical immunities.
• At Level 42, you unlock Deep Wounds. This is a passive ability, which inflicts a bleeding debuff whenever you use Devastate and Revenge.
• At Level 42, you also unlock Riposte. Provides you with Parry equal to your Critical Strike from gear.
• At Level 43, you unlock Intervene. This lets you charge to an ally and Intercept all melee and ranged attacks made against them for 6 seconds.
• At Level 44, you unlock Shield Slam which increases its damage by an additional 20%.
• At Level 46, you unlock Rallying Cry, a defensive group cooldown, which increases current and maximum health for a short time.
• At Level 47, you unlock Spell Reflection. This causes a short buff which reduces magical damage taken and causes any hostile spell cast at you to be reflected back toward its user, affecting them instead.
• At Level 48, you unlock Vanguard which increases your stamina and armor even further.
• At Level 49, you unlock Demoralizing Shout.This reduces Demoralizing Shouts damage reduction by an additional 10%.
• At Level 52, you unlock Avatar making it give you an extra 10 Rage when cast.
• At Level 54, you unlock Challenging Shout. Lets you taunt all enemies to attack you for 6 seconds.
• At Level 56, you unlock Rallying Cry, increasing the health gained by an additional 5%.
• At Level 58, you unlock Shield Wall increasing the damage reduction Shield Wall provided by an additional 10%.

The following PvP talents are recommended for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. You may find that different PvP talents work better for you depending on your playstyle. Experimentation is encouraged!

• Adaptation is recommended. It automatically removes loss of control effects over 5 seconds.
• Morale Killer significantly reduces the cooldown of Demoralizing Shout, allowing for more damage reduction and damage output in conjunction with Booming Voice.

1. Dragon Charge improves mobility and inflicts moderate damage to targets along your path.
2. Sword and Board provides a near constant increase to Shield Slam and Devastate damage through more frequent critical strikes.

Congratulations on reaching Level 60! Now that you have hit Level 60, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.