Protection Warrior Tank Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.0.7

Protection Warriors, while not the best in Mythic+ due to their lack of utility, have very decent survivability and solid damage output when played correctly.

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

Below, our sample Mythic+ tree will give you a good amount of survivability and offensive abilities. Refer to the Builds and Talents page for more information on particular talents and when to use them.

Mythic+ talent build: BkEAoonA2h02U1PVo4204nicFIEBAAAASSSkkg0SKJJpUQEIUkIRJJBgQSQDJJIARCAAAAAAAEBAoUaAgA

There are 2 substantial modifications that you can do to the build above. These are changing Tough as Nails for Spell Block and Battering Ram for Thunderlord.

Spell Block allows you to block spells, which can be handy in some magic-heavy dungeons like Ruby Life Pools or Temple of the Jade Serpent. You will give up some damage from Tough as Nails, but you will increase your survivability against magic damage. This only becomes noticeable on higher keys.

Battering Ram provides more single-target damage while also working well in AoE. It also means that all your other cooldowns, like Ravager and Shield Charge line up better with the damage window of Booming Voice from Demoralizing Shout. Picking any of the two is fine on all key levels; it just comes down to your preference.

There are many races in the game, and choosing between them can be daunting. In general, you should play whichever Race you like. They all have abilities that you will use 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 an 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 following rotation considers you are using one of the default builds provided above. 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 Shield Slam on cooldown.
   • It can be reset anytime you cast Devastate, Thunder Clap, Revenge or Execute, so watch out for these procs.
5. Cast Thunder Clap on cooldown.
6. Cast Execute, if you do not need the Rage for survivability.
7. Cast Revenge, if you do not need the Rage for survivability.

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 Thunderous Roar, if talented.
5. Cast Shield Charge, if talented.
6. Shockwave on cooldown, if Sonic Boom talented.
7. Cast Thunder Clap on cooldown.
8. Cast Shield Slam on cooldown.
   • It can be reset anytime you cast Devastate, Thunder Clap, Revenge or Execute, so watch out for these procs.
9. Cast Revenge, if you do not need the Rage for survivability.

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.

• 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 is 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 abilities, or use it as a survivability tool to stun enemies when your defensives are down.
• Storm Bolt acts as another strong single-target stun. Use it instead of Shockwave when you only need to stun one enemy in order to prevent stun DR kicking in.
• 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.

Thundering consists of 2 parts. The first part summons a storm every 90 seconds which causes lightning circles on the ground. Getting hit by them will deal damage and stun you for 1 second. Needless to say, avoid them to the best of your abilities.

During each storm all players will be affected by either Mark of Lightning or Mark of Wind. These marks increase your damage and healing by 30% for 15 seconds. After 15 seconds you will get stunned for 8 seconds and also take Nature damage from Primal Overload. To avoid the Primal Overload you need to come in contact with another player of the opposite mark before the 15 second duration of the marks end.

If you are unable to clear your mark and are actively tanking enemies, try to prepare yourself and use Shield Wall to help reduce the damage taken while stunned. This will increase your chances of survivability since you cannot block while being stunned.