Protection Warrior Tank Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.0.2

Protection Warriors, while not the best in Mythic+ due to their lack of utility, have extremely high damage output and very respectable survivability. At the moment, when played properly, Protection Warriors have close to, if not the highest DPS out of all the tank specialization on AoE and very competitive ST damage.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 1 page below.

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. While Anger Management and Unstoppable Force are solid talents, you should swap them out for Ravager and Bolster as you progress into the higher keystone levels. The extra defensive benefit gained from those two will make your dungeons a lot easier and smoother. For more information on particular talents and when to use them, refer to the Builds and Talents page.

Level	Choices
15	✗ War Machine	✗ Punish	✓ Devastator
25	? Double Time	? Rumbling Earth	✓ Storm Bolt
30	✗ Best Served Cold	✓ Booming Voice	? Dragon Roar
35	✓ Crackling Thunder	? Bounding Stride	? Menace
40	✗ Never Surrender	✓ Indomitable	✗ Impending Victory
45	? Into the Fray	? Unstoppable Force	✓ Ravager
50	? Anger Management	✗ Heavy Repercussions	✓ Bolster

Thunderlord is the best option for us in any AoE content where we can reliably and constantly hit 2+ enemies with Thunder Clap. It reduces the cooldown of Demoralizing Shout by a lot which in turn helps us reduce more damage. Thunderlord should also be paired with Booming Voice, so we can increase our Rage generation by a huge amount. It can be further enhanced by picking Anger Management and Unstoppable Force but this means giving up on Ravager and Bolster which both provide a lot of value in Mythic+.

The Wall is an alternative to Thunderlord. It does worse in AoE situations but does not lose as much value as Thunderlord in single-target scenarios. This can also be enhanced by running Anger Management which helps reduce the cooldown of Shield Wall even more. We are not forced into picking Unstoppable Force with this build so we can still have access to either Into the Fray or Ravager .

While the two above are the preferable Legendaries for Mythic+ there are plenty of other effects out there. For more in-depth information about Legendaries take a look at our Legendary page.

Kyrian and Night Fae are both solid options for Protection Warriors in Mythic+. In general Kyrians Spear of Bastion is a lot more reliable than Night Fae's Ancient Aftershock. Phial of Serenity will also provide more value in Mythic+ scenarios than Soulshape.

Spear of Bastion is a shoot-and-forget ability in the sense that you place it down on top of your enemies and gain all the benefits it provides without having to worry about anything else. It is a great kiting tool due to the tether and also a solid Rage generator on a 1-minute cooldown. The damage it provides over the course of the dungeon is also significant, especially when paired together with Piercing Verdict.

Ancient Aftershock will require a bit more thought on how to use it. While it deals more damage and provides more Rage than Spear of Bastion in AoE it also requires the enemies to remain in the area left behind by the initial cast. Sometimes it can be tricky to keep the enemies in one place for as long as possible, especially in Mythic+ where unexpected things often happen. While using Ancient Aftershock is a lot more tricky, there is another great benefit it provides which is the constant knockdown effect. This effect should not be underestimated as it can significantly reduce your overall damage taken, especially when cast on casters.

Preferable Kyrian Soulbind route.

Preferable Night Fae Soulbind route

If you wish to know more about Covenants and their strengths take a look at our Covenant guide. It will go over all 4 of them explaining their strengths and weaknesses.

There are a lot of Races in the game and choosing between them can be a daunting task. In general, you should play whichever Race you like. All of them have abilities that will find uses in Mythic+ dungeons and other scenarios. I will be pointing out some of the more outstanding ones for Mythic+ below in no particular order.

• Human — Every Man for Himself is a active ability that lets you remove stuns every 3 minutes. While there are not a lot of stuns in Mythic+ dungeons that are not avoidable, it is still good to have in case of emergencies.
• Dwarf — Stoneform lets you remove various harmful effects from yourself and reduces your physical damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds every 2 minutes. This is extremely powerful in the right situation. For example you can use this to remove Severing Blade Bleed from Kings Rest Spectral Berserkers or any of the other poison/disease/magic/curse debuffs you can find in dungeons. Dark iron Dwarves' Fireblood does roughly the same, with the only difference being that it provides you with 600 Strength on use and extra 200 Strength for each harmful effect you remove for 8 seconds.
• Night Elf — Shadowmeld lets you turn invisible for as long as you stand still with a 2-minute cooldown. You can use this in dungeons to get out of combat with enemies. This truly becomes powerful if everyone in your group is a Night Elf or has stealth and you can all use this to skip different packs.
• Zandalari Troll — Embrace of the Loa lets you choose between different Loas that provide separate benefits. Embrace of Pa'ku is the best all-around choice providing you with a chance to increase your critical strike.
• Blood Elf — Arcane Torrent removes 1 beneficial effect from all enemies near you and grants you a bit of Rage. Pretty much every dungeon has some sort of ability that can be purged meaning that this will always be very useful.
• Tauren — War Stomp lets you stun up to 5 enemies near you for 2 seconds every 1.5 minutes. While Warriors already have Shockwave, having a second AoE stun can be a lifesaver in dungeons if you need to create some distance between you and the enemies. This can also be used to interrupt casts if no other interrupts are available. Let's also mention Highmountain Tauren's Bull Rush, which can be used in the same way.
• Pandaren — Epicurean is a straight forward racial that increase your stats gained from food buffs by 100%. While this does sound "boring" compared to other racials mentioned here it is actually pretty powerful providing you with a lot of extra stats as long as you keep your food buff up.
• Vulpera — Nose For Trouble reduces the first incoming damage from all the enemies by 5% of your maximum HP. This is a really good defensive effect that will reduce your overall damage intake in the dungeon by quite a lot. We are most vulnerable while charging into a new pack because we might not have enough Rage for Shield Block, so this will help you survive as you charge in.

The single-target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. The main goal for you is to generate as much Rage as possible so you can use that rage for either offensive abilities like Revenge or defensive ones like Shield Block.

The single target rotation is based on a priority system:

1. Cast Avatar on cooldown.
2. Cast Demoralizing Shout on cooldown (only with Booming Voice).
3. Cast Ravager, if talented.
4. Cast Dragon Roar, if talented.
5. Cast Shield Slam on cooldown.
   • It can be reset anytime you cast Devastate, Thunder Clap, Revenge or Execute, so watch out for these procs.
6. Cast Thunder Clap on cooldown.
7. Cast Execute, if you do not need the Rage for survivability.
8. Cast Revenge only if it is free.
9. Cast Devastate.

The AoE rotation for maximising damage is as follows:

1. Cast Avatar on cooldown.
2. Cast Demoralizing Shout on cooldown (only with Booming Voice).
3. Cast Ravager, if talented.
4. Cast Dragon Roar, if talented.
5. Cast Revenge if you have the Rage.
6. Cast Thunder Clap on cooldown.
7. Cast Shield Slam on cooldown.
   • It can be reset anytime you cast Devastate, Thunder Clap, Revenge or Execute, so watch out for these procs.
8. Cast Devastate.

Note that Revenge only takes priority over Shield Slam when you are looking to maximise your DPS and do not have to worry about survivability. Otherwise Shield Slam takes priority over Revenge.

Whirlwind is currently not worth using over Revenge as Revenge does everything better!

The above is just a very brief explanation about the Rotation of Protection Warriors. There are situations, especially in Mythic+, where you just have to adapt and might be forced to use some other spell. To get a full overview of Protection Warrior, and when to use their various abilities take a look at our main Rotation page.

1. Kyrian — Spear of Bastion should be used on cooldown for the damage and Rage it provides. If there is a extremely hard pack coming up that requires kiting then holding onto Spear of Bastion might be the better choice due to the tether effect it grants. When possible try to pair this ability with Booming Voice and Avatar as both of these increase its damage.
2. Night Fae — Ancient Aftershock should also be used on cooldown and preferably together with Booming Voice and/or Avatar. If there is a caster heavy pack coming up soon then holding onto this is preferred due to the knockdown effect. As casters do not move as much you can keep them in the Ancient Aftershocks area for the full duration which in turn keeps knocking them down and interrupting the casts.
3. Venthyr — Condemn just replaces Execute and so it should be used as the Priority section above stated. Condemn is also usable on enemies above 80% of health but this is not always preferable as you need to establish threat in AoE packs by using other abilities first. If there is a priority target in the pack then use Condemn to help kill it faster after gaining threat on the other enemies. Remember to keep enough Rage between Condemn casts that you can also keep Shield Block up.
4. Necrolord — Conqueror's Banner is best used when you have some Rage generating cooldowns like Booming Voice or Ravager available as spending Rage during its duration increases your critical strike damage. After putting the banner down be sure to remain within 15-yards of it or you will not be gaining the benefits it offers. Alternatively you can use Conqueror's Banner as a extra defensive since it also grants you 20% extra HP, but this kind of usage is not preferred.

• Heroic Throw is important for gaining aggro on distant enemies, particularly because there are many enemies that cast at the group and do not immediately move towards you.
• Your movement abilities, Intercept and Heroic Leap are extremely important tools in Mythic+. Using them to position yourself, get out of dangerous mechanics, or to move to enemies that need to be picked up are essential parts to playing effectively.
• Intimidating Shout is primarily used as an interrupt, because the disorient it provides it easily broken by damage. You can also use it as crowd control by using on a group of enemies, and pulling a specific enemy out of that group to focus it down.
• There are many, many interruptible abilities in dungeons. Identifying the dangerous interruptible abilities and using Pummel to interrupt them is key.
• Shockwave is your AoE stun. Use it to delay or cancel dangerous abilites, or use it as a survivability tool to stun enemies when your defensives are down.
• While Spell Reflection is primarily used for the magic damage reduction, in Mythic+ in particular there are many spells that can be reflected back to the caster. There are some spells that hit very hard, and if you are able to reflect those, you can deal a lot of damage to the enemy. Additionally, sometimes you are able to apply debuffs to the enemy that normally would have been applied to you had you been hit by the spell.
• Berserker Rage is often an overlooked ability when it comes to Mythic+. Truth is that this has its uses in certain dungeons like Atal'Dazar where you can Immune the Terrifying Visage from Rezan letting you continue damaging the boss while others are forced to hide.
• Shattering Throw may have niche uses in some dungeons where the enemies either have a magical immunity or an absorb. Just remember that it has a cast time, meaning that you do not want to use it while actively tanking enemies.

In higher level Mythic+, it becomes extremely important to kite enemies when needed. That is, running away from enemies in order to stop taking damage. Doing so gives your healer a chance to catch up, allows your defensive to come off cooldown, etc. There is no hard rule as to when you should kite; it is something you will get a feel for as you do more Mythic+. Just know that doing so is a necessary strategy in many cases. One of the ways to kite as Warrior would be to cast Shockwave to stun all the enemies and then use either Heroic Leap or Intervene to move away from them quickly.

Remember not to turn your back to enemies if you do decide to kite, since you can not mitigate attacks; doing so is a sure-fire way to get killed.