Protection Warrior Tank Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.0.5
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Protection Warrior in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.5.
Protection Warriors in Mythic+
Protection Warriors, while not the best in Mythic+ due to their lack of utility, have very respectable 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 Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 1 page below.
Legendary powers for Protection Warrior
Reprisal seems to be made for Mythic+. As Warriors, we usually initiate
a pull with
Charge, but we sometimes might find ourselves in a situation
where we do not have the Rage to get our defensives up and also grab threat.
Reprisal fixes both of these issues. It provides us with a free
Shield Block, a free
Revenge, and a solid amount of extra Rage
when using
Charge or
Intervene. This increases our effective
Shield Block uptime by a significant amount and also provides a lot of extra Rage
over the course of the dungeon.
The Wall is an alternative to
Reprisal. It is a really good
option and can potentially outshine
Reprisal in magic damage-heavy dungeons.
Together with
Stalwart Guardian you can expect the cooldown of
Shield Wall
to be as low as 1-1.5 minutes.
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.
Mythic+ Talents for Protection Warriors
Below are the two main talent trees used for Mythic+ depending on your Legendary choice. For more information on particular talents and when to use them, refer to the Builds and Talents page.
Mythic+ Talents with Reprisal Legendary
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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When using Reprisal we are allowed to use more offensive-oriented
talent options due to the extra
Shield Block uptime it provides.
Best Served Cold also gains value, as instead of the baseline 3 procs
per minute we will be getting them after every
Charge and
Intervene. In addition to this, taking
Anger Management will
increase both our damage and defensive capabilities by reducing the cooldowns
of
Avatar and
Shield Wall.
Using Reprisal in Mythic+
While Reprisal is a really strong Legendary it does alter our
gameplay slightly. In order to get the maximum benefit out of it you should be
using
Intervene and
Charge as much as possible on top of
managing your
Shield Block charges. While using Charge to initiate
combat and get the buffs from Reprisal is the easy part, it will get a lot
trickier to do the same mid-combat.
Charge has a minimum range of 8 yards which means that you need to
put some distance between you and the enemy you intend to use it on. Some ways
of doing this can be found below:
Heroic Leap ->
Charge
Shockwave -> Run further away ->
Charge
Intervene ->
Charge
Soulshape ->
Charge (Night Fae only)
In general the best way to achieve this would be to Heroic Leap and then
Charge back in as fast as possible. An alternative to this would be to
cast
Shockwave, run a bit further, and then use Charge. Depending on
your group's recent usage of stuns this might not always work due to the
diminishing returns. You could also use
Intervene on a player further
away and then Charge, but this will make you lose one of the 50% damage increases
to
Revenge. Be sure to think ahead before using
Heroic Leap
to create distance for a Charge as this will leave you without a mobility spell
should you need to start kiting.
Unlike Charge,
Intervene does not have a minimum range
meaning that you can cast it even if the target is right next to you. You want
to mainly use it on a player who is in melee-range in order to not move the
enemies needlessly around.You should always pay attention to where your
Intervene target is. If they are on the other side of a pack of enemies then you
might get hit in the back when you are rushing to them, causing you to take
massive damage.
Even though Reprisal requires us to move around to get the maximum
benefit out of it we should always try to keep the enemies stacked in one
place and move them as little as possible. Moving enemies around too much
can significantly reduce your groups overall damage.
When it comes to managing Shield Block charges with
Reprisal
you should aim to do the following if you have 2 charges of Shield Block ready:
Charge +
Shield Block ->
Intervene ->
Shield Block ->
Shield Block.
Casting Shield Block right after
Charge is essential as it
will put one charge of Shield Block on cooldown as fast as possible.
Mythic+ Talents with The Wall Legendary
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Best Covenants for Protection Warrior in Mythic+
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.
Races and What They Provide
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.
Mythic+ Rotation for Protection Warriors
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:
- Cast
Avatar on cooldown.
- Cast
Demoralizing Shout on cooldown (only with
Booming Voice).
- Cast
Ravager, if talented.
- Cast
Dragon Roar, if talented.
- Cast
Shield Slam on cooldown.
- It can be reset anytime you cast
Devastate,
Thunder Clap,
Revenge or
Execute, so watch out for these procs.
- It can be reset anytime you cast
- Cast
Thunder Clap on cooldown.
- Cast
Execute, if you do not need the Rage for survivability.
- Cast
Revenge only if it is free.
- Cast
Devastate.
The AoE rotation for maximising damage is as follows:
- Cast
Avatar on cooldown.
- Cast
Demoralizing Shout on cooldown (only with
Booming Voice).
- Cast
Ravager, if talented.
- Cast
Dragon Roar, if talented.
- Cast
Revenge if you have the Rage.
- Cast
Thunder Clap on cooldown.
- Cast
Shield Slam on cooldown.
- It can be reset anytime you cast
Devastate,
Thunder Clap,
Revenge or
Execute, so watch out for these procs.
- It can be reset anytime you cast
- 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.
Covenant Abilities and When to Use Them
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Abilities and Utility
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.
The Importance of Kiting
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.
Seasonal Affix: Prideful
Prideful spawns a Manifestation of Pride every 20% of trash
percentage. It deals moderate magic and physical damage, while also getting
stronger the longer it is alive. Due to this, it needs to be killed as fast as
possible. After dying it buffs the entire party with
Prideful
increasing the damage and healing by 30%, movement speed by 60% and mana
regeneration by 5%.
Belligerent Boast — One player in the party will be targeted with this and have 4 lines around them. After 4 seconds, these lines will shoot straight out. If any players are hit by them, they will take a large amount of damage and be stunned.
Bursting With Pride — While the add is alive, it will deal group wide damage every 2 seconds. Each cast will increase the damage dealt by 40%.
Be sure to keep Shield Block up as much as possible to reduce the
physical damage taken.
Ignore Pain and
Spell Reflection can both
be used to reduce the magical damage taken. Try to keep the enemy still so
your party members can position themselves so they will not get hit or hit
anyone else with
Belligerent Boast.
Changelog
- 18 Mar. 2021: Added extra talent tree for Reprisal and additional sections for proper usage of the Legendary.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Replaced Thunderlord with Reprisal as the default Legendary and made Best Served Cold a conditional talent.
- 16 Jan. 2021: Removed Unstoppable Force as a situational talent. Updated Legendary section.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Added Legendary and Covenant sections. Updated default talent choices.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
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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