Protection Warrior Tank Guide — Dragonflight 10.1
Welcome to our Protection Warrior guide for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.1. Here, you will learn how to tank as a Protection Warrior in both raids and Mythic+ dungeons. We cover everything from the basics all the way to min-maxing techniques to optimize your survivability.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Protection Warrior guide.
Protection Warrior Overview
Protection Warriors excel in fights with high amounts of physical damage, or where mobility is needed. Much of the damage they take is mitigated through blocking, making their damage intake smooth and predictable. Additionally, they provide a healthy amount of utility, whether it be crowd control or raid buffs. They are a formidable tank all around, making them a worthy choice in both raids and dungeons.
Note that this guide focuses on aspects which are specific to Protection Warriors and general tanking strategies are beyond its scope. If you wish to know more about the tanking role and what you can do to improve, we recommend that you read our tanking guide.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Excels in situations with high amounts of physical/blockable damage.
Smooth damage intake.
Has high mobility with
Charge,
Intervene, and
Heroic Leap.
Decent raid and dungeon utility in
Rallying Cry,
Battle Shout,
Shockwave,
Spell Reflection, and
Intimidating Shout.
Can specialize for heavy AoE damage, single target damage or go for a fully defensive build with talents.
More unforgiving of mistakes or improper play compared to other tanks.
Weaker self-sustain compared to some other tank specs. This is only an issue in certain niche situations.
Has some difficulty against bleeds, damage over time abilities and non-blockable damage.
Dragonflight Changes for Warriors
We are maintaining a list of changes for Warriors, so you can see what changes with every patch of Dragonflight.
Mage Tower Challenge
From Patch 9.1.5 onward, both Legion Timewalking and the Mage Tower have returned. As such we have created a separate guide detailing what you can expect from the Mage Tower challenge available to Protection Warriors.
Protection Warrior Changes in Dragonflight Patch 10.1
General Warrior Changes in Dragonflight Patch 10.1
Pain and Gain (Talent) now heals for 3.5% of your maximum health, down from 4.5%.
Ignore Pain (Talent) now absorbs 25% additional damage.
Protection Warrior in Dragonflight Patch 10.1
Fueled by Violence (Talent) now heals for 110% of the damage dealt by
Deep Wounds, up from 85%.
For a full breakdown of all Class Changes in Patch 10.1, check out our dedicated page below.
Protection Warrior Guide Updates for Patch 10.1
Protection Warrior received fairly small changes with Patch 10.1. The only significant change we got came thanks to the new Tier set introduced in Season 2, which will change some of our talent points around.
Below you can find a short overview of the changes for this patch.
- Talents page got a update for taking
Bolster once Tier set is obtained;
- Mythic+ page got a update for taking
Bolster once Tier set is obtained;
- Gear page got update with new, Season 2, gear and Embellishment information.;
Pending Changes
With Patch 10.1 also comes a new Raid,
Aberrus. Unfortunately for Protection Warriors, this
means that all of the various boss mechanics need to be tested in order to fully
understand what is blockable with Shield Block,
Spell Block and what
is reflectable with
Spell Reflection. Having this knowledge is essential
for performing well in Raids as a Warrior. This means that Aberrus, the Shadowed
Crucible page is in constant change and should be checked regularly.
Leveling and Getting Started as a Protection Warrior
Before jumping straight into leveling, take a look at our Addons page. Setting up your User Interface with suitable addons will help you improve significantly! Setting up your interface early will also help you to get used to where things are on your screen, so once you hit the end-game content, you can focus on learning that.
Leveling as a tank can seem like a daunting task, but it is actually very easy. You can pull a lot of enemies at once and still survive because of your various defensive abilities! To get a better understanding of leveling as a Protection Warrior, you can look into the leveling guide below.
Basic Guidance for Protection Warrior
As a tank, your main job is to stay alive while keeping the enemies off of
your squishier raid/party members. To do so, you will try to generate as much
Rage as possible and then use it depending on the situation, on either defensives,
like Shield Block, or offensive abilities, like
Revenge.
You can learn about the various spells you will have at your disposal by
reading the Spell Summary page.
To just get a quick idea of how the class works, you can look into the Easy Mode guide linked below. This page will briefly go over the main things that you need to know, in order to play the class.
If you want to go more in depth about Protection Warrior and understand exactly what makes it work, you can start by looking at our Talents page. This will go over all the main things you need to know about the talents and when to choose them.
Protection Warrior's whole playstyle is based on generating and
spending Rage. This means that you will have abilities that will generate Rage,
like Shield Slam, and abilities that will use that Rage, for example,
Ignore Pain. In case you are already familiar with the abilities and
talents of Protection Warriors, and are just looking for information
regarding the rotation and various interactions the spells have with each other,
you can look into our Rotation guide below. This will go over everything you
need to know about when to press what button!
How to Gear Up a Protection Warrior
There are a lot of different things when looking at gear and it can be overwhelming at start. To begin with, you can take a look at our Best in Slot guide linked below. This will go over the best gear you can get from various content, like Mythic+ and Raids.
In order to understand why a piece of gear is considered best in slot, we have to understand what the various Stats on the gear are providing us. Some stats can be more valuable than others and your stat priority can also change depending on the content you are doing. To get a better understanding of what all the stats are providing Protection Warriors, you can take a look at our Stats page.
To get even more out of our gear, we have the possibility to put enchants on specific pieces and if we are lucky the gear will also have gem sockets. Choosing the right Gems and Enchants for your gear will be an important step for a well optimized character. In order to know what to put on your gear you can look into our Enchanting & Gemming guide below.
Protection Warrior in Dragonflight
There are a lot of new and interesting changes for Protection Warriors in
Dragonflight, most of these come from the thoroughly revamped talent system.
We get back some previously lost things like Battle Stance and
Defensive Stance while also gaining new things like
Spell Block
and
Bitter Immunity.
The new talent system allows us to create a lot more situation dependant choices.
We can opt for a more Shield Block heavy tree with
Enduring Defenses,
Heavy Repercussions and
Bolster or turn around 180 degrees and
go for a heavy single-target damage build with
Massacre and
Sudden Death. Both, the base class and Protection specific talent trees are really
well put together and provide enough options to cover any situation you might
find yourself in.
To fully understand all the nuances and synergies of the various talents, take a look at our more in-depth guide below.
End-Game as Protection Warrior
After reaching the maximum level you can start looking into doing the end-game content. These activities include mainly Mythic+, Raiding and PvP. These activities will provide you with some of the best gear in the game and are definitely worth doing.
Mythic+ is something that can be done at any time since it only takes 5 people for the dungeon. To get a better understanding of what Protection Warriors bring to the Mythic+ dungeons you can look at our Mythic+ page.
Raiding is another big part of end-game content that provides you with some
of the best rewards available. There are a lot of various things to keep in mind
when first stepping into a new raid. Protection Warriors main
mitigation is Shield Block so we need to know exactly which abilities
are blockable and which are not so we know what to expect.
While PvP as a Protection Warrior is viable you would probably find more success when trying to PvP as either Fury or Arms.
How to Improve as a Protection Warrior
Once you have a basic understanding of how Protection Warrior works, you can have a look at the How to Improve section. This will go over the main things that Protection Warriors make mistakes with and help you avoid them.
Another useful page to look into would be the FAQ. This covers the most frequent questions asked by your fellow Protection Warriors and explains the answers briefly.
While our main responsibility as tanks is to stay alive during the encounter, this does not mean that we should not try to optimize our damage output. This can often be tricky and hard to get started with, but to help you ease into the process, you can take a look at the Simulations guide below!
Protection Warrior Viability in the Current Patch
Protection Warriors main strength comes from dealing with heavy blockable
physical damage. Even if the damage profile is not favourable to Protection Warriors,
we have the option to swap over to other talents which suit the encounter better.
There are very few scenarios where Protection Warriors will truly struggle. Due to
the nature of how Shield Block and
Spell Reflection work, there is
a very niche learning curve, but once it is mastered the class will pay dividends.
While our utility is not the greatest, especially in terms of Mythic+, we make up
for it with our high damage output, strong defensive capabilities and mostly
smooth damage intake.
Changelog
- 05 Jun. 2023 (Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible page): Updated blockable and reflectable information for various bosses.
- 05 Jun. 2023 (talents page): Updated the raid talent build. Took Spell Block as a default talent.
- 05 Jun. 2023 (easy mode page): Updated the raid talent build. Took Spell Block as a default talent.
- 24 May 2023 (gear page): Added Cataclysm Timewalking section for trinkets.
- 16 May 2023 (enchants page): Added Shadowed Belt Clasp, waist enchant.
- 11 May 2023 (gear page): Added Mark of Dargul into the trinket section.
- 11 May 2023 (Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible page): Prioritised showing talent build with tier.
- 11 May 2023 (mythic+ page): Prioritised showing talent build with tier.
- 11 May 2023 (easy mode page): Prioritised showing talent build with tier.
- 09 May 2023 (gear page): Updated Primordial Gem stones.
- 09 May 2023 (enchants page): Updated Primordial Gem stones.
- 09 May 2023 (Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible page): Page added.
- 01 May 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (how to improve page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (simulations page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (gear page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (enchants page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (mythic+ page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (rotation page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (talents page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (spells page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (easy mode page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 01 May 2023 (this page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 28 Apr. 2023 (addons page): Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 24 Mar. 2023 (gear page): Updated the Primordial Stone list.
- 24 Mar. 2023 (enchants page): Updated the Primordial Stone list.
- 22 Mar. 2023 (gear page): Added Humming Arcane Stone as a viable gem and updated the Onyx Annulet use cases.
- 22 Mar. 2023 (enchants page): Added Humming Arcane Stone as a viable gem and updated the Onyx Annulet use cases.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (Legendaries): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (gear page): Added information about Primordial Stone Gems and reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (addons page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (enchants page): Added information about Primordial Stone Gems and reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (rotation page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (talents page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (spells page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (easy mode page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (this page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 15 Mar. 2023 (mythic+ page): Updated the talent build to default Battering Ram over Thunderlord.
- 15 Mar. 2023 (talents page): Updated the Mythic+ talent build to default Battering Ram over Thunderlord.
- 15 Mar. 2023 (easy mode page): Updated the Mythic+ talent build to default Battering Ram over Thunderlord.
- 27 Feb. 2023 (mythic+ page): Added Thunderous Roar, Shield Charge to ability list.
- 27 Feb. 2023 (rotation page): Moved Thunderous Roar up in priority for openers.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (gear page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (addons page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (enchants page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (Castle Nathria page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (Sanctum of Domination page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (Sepulcher of the First Ones page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (rotation page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (talents page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (spells page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (easy mode page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (this page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 26 Dec. 2022 (gear page): Added Whispering Incarnate Icon to the trinkets list.
- 26 Dec. 2022 (enchants page): Added additional Haste gem suggestions.
- 23 Dec. 2022 (gear page): Added some Vault of the Incarnate trinkets to the noteworthy trinket list.
- 23 Dec. 2022 (mythic+ page): Added notes about Battering Ram, Spell Block and the seasonal affix.
- 23 Dec. 2022 (talents page): Added notes about Spell Block.
- 21 Dec. 2022 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Updated Raszageth the Storm-Eater information.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (simulations page): Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (gear page): Updated the gear suggestion, added tier set and embellishment suggestions.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (addons page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (enchants page): Replaced Sophic Devotion weapon enchant with a more offensive Frozen Devotion.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (stats page): Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Page added.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (rotation page): Added tier set rotational changes paragraph.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (talents page): Replaced Overwhelming Rage with Sidearm for the Raiding build.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (spells page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (easy mode page): Replaced Overwhelming Rage with Sidearm for the Raiding build.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (this page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (Torghast): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (FAQ page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (simulations page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (addons page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (enchants page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (stats page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (Castle Nathria page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (Sanctum of Domination page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (Sepulcher of the First Ones page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (mythic+ page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (talents page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (spells page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (easy mode page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (this page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Legendaries): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Torghast): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Covenants and Soulbinds): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (FAQ page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (how to improve page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (simulations page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (addons page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (enchants page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (stats page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Castle Nathria page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Sanctum of Domination page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Sepulcher of the First Ones page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (mythic+ page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (talents page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (spells page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (easy mode page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (this page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 21 Feb. 2022 (Patch 9.2 Analysis): Reviewed for the release of Patch 9.2.
- 15 Jan. 2022 (Patch 9.2 Analysis): Page added with initial thoughts and information.
- 01 Nov. 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Updated for 9.1.5.
- 17 Jul. 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Removed PTR references.
- 04 Jun. 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Added Kyrian-specific Legendary information.
- 18 May 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Added descriptions of new Legendary Powers.
- 27 Apr. 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Page created.
- 12 Oct. 2020 (Ny'alotha page): Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
- 26 Aug. 2019 (The Eternal Palace page): Added a few more boss tips. Updated Essence suggestions.
- 15 Jul. 2019 (The Eternal Palace page): Added several boss tips.
- 09 Jul. 2019 (The Eternal Palace page): Page added.
- 25 Jun. 2019 (Uldir page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 25 Jun. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 25 Jun. 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 14 May 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): Added boss tips.
- 16 Apr. 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): Page added.
- 25 Mar. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): Added additional information for Grong.
- 06 Feb. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): Added tips for each boss.
- 21 Jan. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): Page added.
- 10 Dec. 2018 (Uldir page): Updated for Patch 8.1.
- 29 Sep. 2018 (Uldir page): Added note about Spell Reflection on Vectis.
- 10 Sep. 2018 (Uldir page): Added tips for each boss.
- 13 Aug. 2018 (Uldir page): Page added (empty for now).
More Warrior Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Mwahi, a Protection Warrior theorycrafter and moderator of the Skyhold Warrior Discord.
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