Protection Warrior Shadowlands Leveling Guide From 1 to 60
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Protection Warrior leveling guide for Shadowlands Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Warrior leveling guide.
Gear Options
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.
Level by Level Rotation and Talents
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Protection Warrior Talents while leveling
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
Devastator otherwise.
- Level 25:
Double Time
- Level 30:
Dragon Roar
- Level 35:
Bounding Stride
- Level 40:
Indomitable
- Level 45:
Into the Fray or
Ravager for bigger bursty pulls.
- Level 50:
Anger Management for offensive option, otherwise
Bolster.
Rotation/Ability Priority to Level Up as a Protection Warrior
Starting at Level 1, you only have one active ability:
Slam.
- Cast
Charge to initiate combat whenever possible.
Victory Rush activates whenever an enemy is killed. Use it to heal yourself.
- Cast
Avatar to generate a bit of Rage and greatly increase your damage.
- Cast
Demoralizing Shout to reduce the damage you take, and increase the damage you deal (when using the
Booming Voice talent).
- Cast
Shield Slam to deal a lot of damage.
- Cast
Shield Slam to generate Rage and deal damage.
- Cast
Thunder Clap to generate Rage and deal damage, particularly during
Avatar with
Unstoppable Force talented.
- Cast
Execute when enemies are below 20% health.
- Spend Rage on
Whirlwind to damage multiple targets if you do not need to spend it on your active mitigation to survive.
- Spend Rage on
Revenge to damage multiple targets if you do not need to spend it on your active mitigation to survive.
- Cast
Devastate to fill empty global cooldowns, and reset the cooldown of
Shield Slam.
- 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.
Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Protection Warriors
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%.
War Mode Talents to Level Up as a Protection Warrior
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!
General PvP Talent
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.
Protection Warrior PvP Talents
Dragon Charge improves mobility and inflicts moderate damage to targets along your path.
Sword and Board provides a near constant increase to Shield Slam and Devastate damage through more frequent critical strikes.
Congratulations!
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.
Changelog
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 25 Jan. 2021: Updated suggested Talent setup.
- 13 Sep. 2020: Guide added.
This guide has been written by Mwahi, a Protection Warrior theorycrafter and moderator of the Skyhold Warrior Discord.
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