Protection Warrior Tank Nerub-ar Palace Raid Guide — The War Within (Season 1)
On this page, you will find tips, tricks, and strategies tailored to your Protection Warrior for each boss of the following raid: Nerub-ar Palace. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1).
Introduction
Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Nerub-ar Palace. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Nerub-ar Palace guides.
This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Protection Warrior and how you can deal with each fight as best as possible.
All recommendations are progression-based tips and will not necessarily be the best for an overall DPS ranking.
Nerub'ar Palace Boss Guides for Protection Warrior
To make importing talents easier, I have aggregated the builds into the list below into three main builds. Taking these as a baseline, you can handle all raid encounters in this tier.
Nerub'ar Palace Raid for Protection Warrior
Tips for for Ulgrax the Devourer for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Be sure to keep Shield Block up for Brutal Crush;
- The initial hit from Ravenous Spawn Disembowel is blockable with Shield Block;
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Taunt swap with your co-tank after one cast of Brutal Crush;
- Heroic Leap and Intervene are great ways to move around quickly and pick up any Chunky Viscera, while Charge will help you get back to the boss fast.
- Below Mythic you can remove Stalker's Netting with Avatar. On Mythic, it will stun you, not root you.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for for Bloodbound Horror for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Gruesome Disgorge is blockable with Spell Block;
- Healers should be able to deal with this themselves, but if they are falling behind, use Impending Victory and Last Stand to help get rid of the healing absorb from Crimson Rain.
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Thunder Clap to help slow the Blood Horror adds in The Shadow Realm;
- Gruesome Disgorge acts as a tank swap mechanic, getting hit by 2 of them within the debuff window will likely kill you;
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Sikran for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Expose is not blockable, so use Defensive Stance, Demoralizing Shout, Shield Wall and Ignore Pain to help reduce the damage. Remember that the second Expose does more damage, so keep bigger defensive cooldowns for that one.
- Phase Lunge deals mixed damage; the magical part is blockable with Spell Block. For the physical part, use your defensive cooldowns as necessary.
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Boss does a 3 cast combo consisting of 2x Expose and 1x Phase Lunge. One tank can't
take all 3 hits, so this acts as a tank swap mechanic. The logic is as follows:
- Tank 1 takes both Exposes;
- Tank 2 takes Phase Lunge.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Rasha'nan for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Use Defensive Stance with Shield Block and strong defensives like Shield Wall, Demoralizing Shout with a full Ignore Pain when tanking Savage Assault. This ensures that Savage Wound that is applied after the hit will deal as little damage as possible.
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Savage Assault acts as a tank swap mechanic. Be sure to taunt after each cast.
- Always ensure that the active tank is in melee range, otherwise, the boss will start casting Tacky Burst, dealing heavy raid-wide damage.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Broodtwister Ovi'nax for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Feel free to swap Best Served Cold for Fight Through the Flames for some additional magic damage reduction on this fight.
- Use Defensive Stance paired with other defensives to help reduce the damage taken from Volatile Concoction. This is a good time to use your Rage on Ignore Pain instead of Revenge.
- If you are low on health when Volatile Concoction is about to drop off, use Impending Victory to heal yourself back up and reduce the damage your raid takes.
- Vicious Bite from Colossal Spiders deals nature damage. Be sure to use a small defensive like Spell Reflection, or just hop into Defensive Stance to help mitigate the damage.
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
- If the adds are not dying fast enough, then try to have your offensive cooldowns available for when the adds spawn.
Mechanical Tips
- Volatile Concoction acts as a tank swap mechanic.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Nexus-Princess Ky'veza for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Feel free to swap Best Served Cold for Fight Through the Flames for some additional magic damage reduction on this fight.
- Void Shredders deals a mix of physical and shadow damage. Be sure to use defensives for this as needed.
- Chasmal Gash is the DoT that is left behind by Void Shredders. When affected by this, be in Defensive Stance and use your Rage on Ignore Pain, paired with other defensives as required.
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Void Shredders acts as a tank swap mechanic.
- You can use Intervene and Heroic Leap to help get you out of the Nether Rift pull if you are mispositioned. You can also use Charge on the boss if you are not actively tanking it.
- If you are in danger of falling below 10% health, be sure to use Last Stand and Impending Victory to get yourself back up, otherwise the boss will execute you.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for The Silken Court for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Piercing Strike is the tank hit. Keep Shield Block up and use extra defensives, including Defensive Stance, if your plan is to take more than 1 Piercing Strike, as the damage stacks.
- Use defensives for Poison Bolt as needed. It deals nature damage, so Spell Block, Demoralizing Shout, Spell Reflection paired with Ignore Pain should work. Feel free to sit in Defensive Stance for this boss.
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Piercing Strike is the tank swap mechanic of this fight. See how many stacks you can take and taunt accordingly; generally, between 2-3 should be fine.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Queen Ansurek for Protection Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Liquefy, the tank swap mechanic, deals mixed damage. Physical damage part is blockable by Shield Block, and magical with Spell Block. If you do not have Spell Block, use other defensives like Spell Reflection, Demoralizing Shout and Defensive Stance as needed to cover for it. Taunt swap the boss after each cast.
- Feast is not blockable, so be sure to use other defensives like Shield Wall, Demoralizing Shout and be in Defensive Stance for it to help and reduce the healing absorb shield.
- Infest and Gorge, both, deal physical and magical damage. Be sure to keep Shield Block and Spell Block up, while using other defensives to cover any caps. Taunt swap the boss after each cast.
Cooldown Usage
- Use offensive cooldowns on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Intervene with Storm Shield talented to help your healers out with a magic absorb.
- Use Heroic Leap to help position yourself properly, or get out of mechanics like Wrest.
- Champion's Spear, if needed, can be used to tether the Gloom Hatchling adds, preventing them from reaching the boss.
- Use Heroic Leap if you are in danger of being knocked off the platform by Oust.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
General Defensive Usage Notes
As a tank, we have access to various defensive cooldowns. Using them properly, depending on the mechanic you are facing, is a crucial part of surviving in Raids. This holds especially true as Warrior Protection since a bulk of our mitigation comes from blocking abilities. Unfortunately, it is not always clear which abilities are blockable and which are not. There is also the case of abilities that are either not blockable or deal some other type of damage (nature, magic..). For such scenarios, we have to use other defensives, which are mentioned below.
- Defensive Stance
- While not technically a cooldown, it can be used as one;
- Use it whenever you feel uncomfortable with the damage intake;
- Shield Wall
- Use it on mechanics which are not blockable;
- Reduces all damage taken;
- Spell Block
- Use it on magic damage, if it is blockable;
- Demoralizing Shout
- Usually used on cooldown offensively due to Booming Voice, but should be used defensively if the situation warrants it;
- Last Stand
- Can be used as an extra defensive against big hits if you are not sure if you would survive otherwise;
- Can use it if you drop low on HP to get yourself back up;
- Impending Victory
- Used to heal yourself after dropping low;
- Best paired with Last Stand since the heal is based on our maximum health;
In addition to the general rotation, you want to keep in mind that your goal is to use your offensive cooldowns as often as possible during an encounter. With that in mind, your secondary goal is to use them at the correct time.
I highly suggest using some Addon or WeakAura to track the estimated time to die of your target/boss target. Method Raid Tools has this as an option if you are already using this addon. By tracking time to die, if you know that you can only fit one more cycle of your cooldowns in before the boss dies, you can choose to hold these cooldowns to better line up with Bloodlust, your Potion, or even your other cooldowns, trying to look for opportunities to stack all of them.
Changelog
- 17 Sep. 2024: Added information about Queen Ansurek.
- 11 Sep. 2024: Added Seismic Reverberation as the default choice for some additional bosses.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Guide added.
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.
- World of Warcraft Teams Up with Mountain Dew for Exclusive 20th Anniversary Rewards!
- Rare World Quest “Courier Mission: Ore Recovery” Live on NA Realms—Get Your Achievements!
- Guardian Druid Mage Tower Quick and Easy Guide in the War Within
- Master the Devour Affix in The War Within: Essential Spells and Strategies
- Dragonflight Vs. War Within Mythic+ Runs Per Week and Player Population Comparison Charts Since Legion!
- War Within Hotfixes, October 10th: Major Mythic+ Reward and Affix Shakeup
- Crests From Lower Keystones, Affix Changes and More: Major Mythic+ Progression Changes Live Now and More to Come
- WoW’s 20th Anniversary: Blizzard Clarifies Bronze Celebration Token Acquisition Rates in Patch 11.0.5