Protection Warrior Tank Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2

Generally, you will want to Taunt as you cast Charge.

1. Cast Ravager.
2. Cast Charge.
3. Cast Avatar as you Charge.
4. Cast Shield Block.
5. Cast Shield Slam.
6. Cast Demoralizing Shout (only with Booming Voice).
7. Cast Thunderous Roar.
8. Cast Spear of Bastion.
9. Cast Rend.
10. Cast Shield Charge.
11. Cast Thunder Clap.
12. Proceed with the appropriate ability priority.

The single-target rotation as a Protection Warrior is based on the following priority. As said, this is a priority. It is not the exact sequence in which abilities should be cast, but rather, for each time you are able to cast an ability, you should start at the top of the list and cast the first available ability for which you meet the criteria. This applies to all "rotations" hereafter.

This does not take into account usage of your active mitigation abilities (we cover this important topic in subsequent section). Active mitigation usage is generally much more nuanced, and it would not be optimal to list them within an ability priority.

The overall goal is to generate as much Rage as possible by casting Rage-generating abilities so that Rage can then be spent on active mitigation.

Our most gameplay-changing talent combination is Avatar and Unstoppable Force, there is a separate section for this combo altogether!

Below, you can opt in and out of various talent choices, depending on what you end up picking. Most of these do not alter your ability priority in any major way.

• Avatar
• Thunderous Roar
• Spear of Bastion
• Shield Charge
• Ravager
• Blood and Thunder
• Booming Voice

1. Cast Avatar on cooldown
2. Cast Demoralizing Shout on cooldown (only with Booming Voice).
3. Cast Ravager
4. Cast Thunderous Roar
5. Cast Shield Charge
6. Cast Spear of Bastion
7. Cast Rend to maintain it on the target
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 Thunder Clap on cooldown
10. Cast Execute, if you do not need Rage for survivability
11. Cast Revenge, if you do not need Rage for survivability

If you really want to min-max your damage output, you should try to sync up your hardest-hitting abilities with Avatar and Demoralizing Shout windows. This allows you to fully benefit from the increased damage these two provide. However, be careful as not to waste any casts by delaying them too long!

This AoE opener prioritises gaining Threat on multiple enemies.

1. Cast Ravager.
2. Cast Charge.
3. Cast Avatar as you Charge.
4. Cast Shield Block.
5. Cast Demoralizing Shout (only with Booming Voice).
6. Cast Thunderous Roar.
7. Cast Spear of Bastion.
8. Cast Thunder Clap.
9. Cast Shield Charge.
10. Cast Revenge.

You can also take a look at the Mythic+ page if you wish to see if there are any changes in rotation when it comes to specific content.

Against multiple targets, when playing defensively, the ability priority is exactly the same as the single-target priority. It maximizes Rage generation and, therefore, survivability.

In general, regardless of whether you are playing defensively, you should cast Revenge (even if it is not free) early on in a fight to spread Deep Wounds.

In dungeons in particular, where there are often new enemies to gain aggro on, it is worth casting Thunder Clap (or Revenge if Thunder Clap is not available, even if it costs Rage) over Shield Slam in order to pick up those enemies. Saving your allies is far more important than a bit of Rage.

If, and only if, survivability is not an issue whatsoever and you want to do as much damage as possible, the following priority should be followed in multi-target situations:

1. Cast Ravager.
2. Cast Thunderous Roar
3. Cast Shield Charge.
4. Cast Spear of Bastion.
5. Cast Rend to maintain it on the targets.
6. Cast Thunder Clap on cooldown.
7. Cast Shield Slam on cooldown.
8. Cast Revenge.

Remember that you are still casting abilities like Avatar and Demoralizing Shout in multi-target according to the above guidelines.

Whirlwind is not worth using, as Revenge does everything better.

1. Revenge applies Deep Wounds, Whirlwind does not
2. Revenge has a chance to reset the CD of Shield Slam, Whirlwind does not

This section only applies if you are using Unstoppable Force and assumes you have Avatar active.

With Unstoppable Force, when you cast Avatar, your ability priority stays the same, but you have to approach it in a different way.

During Avatar, Thunder Clap is available every other global cooldown. This means that you will be rotating between Thunder Clap and another ability based on the ability priority. For example, if you get lucky and many of your Thunder Clap casts reset Shield Slam, you will find yourself alternating between Thunder Clap and Shield Slam.

As another example, you might have a cast sequence that looks like this: Shield Slam, Thunder Clap, Shield Slam, Thunder Clap, Revenge (free), Thunder Clap, Revenge...

Again, your ability priority does not change. Shield Slam is still above Thunder Clap. Just be aware that during Avatar, Thunder Clap has a significantly reduced cooldown and adjust accordingly.

Also, it is very easy to Rage cap during Avatar, so be ready to dump Rage into Ignore Pain / Revenge.

Shield Block is your primary active mitigation ability. In the vast majority of situations, most of the damage you will take is blockable. As such, keeping Shield Block up as much as possible is key to smoothing out damage and helping you survive. Shield Block scales with the damage you are taking since it is a percent reduction to damage rather than a flat amount like Ignore Pain is.

It is important to understand the difference between overall Shield Block uptime and effective uptime. You want to have as much effective Shield Block uptime as possible. All that means is having Shield Block up when you are tanking something that actually melees you.

Essentially, anytime you are tanking something, you should be keeping Shield Block up as much as possible. It should still, however, be used intelligently, much like you would use major cooldowns.

Shield Block has the following properties.

• Causes you to block all melee attacks made against you for 6 seconds. These blocks can be critical blocks.
• The damage reduction provided by these blocks is determined by your Block stat. See here.
• It increases Shield Slam damage by 30% while active.
• It costs 30 Rage.
• It has 2 charges with a 16-second recharge time (reduced by Haste).

Shield Block is your primary mitigation ability. It takes priority over Ignore Pain, assuming you are taking blockable damage (which is almost always).

Using Shield Block is fairly straightforward. If you are taking blockable damage, you should be using Shield Block to reduce it. There are a few things to look out for in regards to getting the maximum out of your Shield Block usage:

• Shield Block works against all melee attacks (as in, auto-attacks/white hits), but there are also many boss abilities/mechanics that are blockable as well. Sometimes, things that you would expect to be blockable are not, and things that you would not expect to be blockable are. You simply have to have knowledge of what these blockable mechanics are. The point here is that if you do know a higher damage ability is blockable; you are much better off delaying Shield Block so that the last bit of its duration blocks that ability.
• For further benefit, you can time Shield Block with the enemy's melee swings. Most enemies have a swing timer between 1.5 and 2 seconds. If you cast Shield Block right after a melee, you essentially just lost 2 seconds of effective uptime. Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell when an enemy is actually melee attacking you, so this point is not super important, but can be beneficial if done properly.
• Also, be aware of the enemy's spell casts/channels. If the boss is about to spend 5 seconds casting a spell, you should delay Shield Block accordingly.
• Similar to the first point, but if you know an enemy is about to deal increased damage, you should delay Shield Block for those periods as well. For example, in Mythic+, enemies deal significantly more damage once they hit 30% health if the Raging affix is active. While this is not a specific ability, its a mechanic you should be aware of and adjust Shield Block usage around.

If you are not currently tanking, and there is a good amount of time before you do tank again, use Shield Block to increase Shield Slam's damage. Just be sure to time it in such a way that as you are about to tank again; you have close to 2 charges of Shield Block, so you can maximize effective uptime.

Ignore Pain reduces damage by a flat amount and, with its current tuning, is much weaker than Shield Block. As such, it should be used in addition to Shield Block, not in place of it.

Shield Block is limited by its cooldown, where Ignore Pain is simply limited by the amount of Rage you have available. So, once you have Shield Block up and on cooldown, spend your remaining Rage on Ignore Pain, making sure you save enough Rage to use Shield Block once it comes off cooldown. More or less, Ignore Pain should be used to further smooth out your damage intake.

Ignore Pain has the following properties.

• It provides an absorb shield when cast. The size of this absorb Shield is determined by the same formula that ability damage is determined by.
  • (weapondDPS * 6 + strength) * apCoef * masteryMultiplier * vers * other
  • The Attack Power coefficient is 3.5 for Ignore Pain.
• It removes 55% of any particular damage event. That is, for any damage taken, 55% of that damage is dealt to the absorb, and the other 45% is dealt to you.
• It has a maximum absorb size of 30% of your maximum HP.
  • This means the absorb does stack, just not very much.
  • The cap size is determined on cast.
• It has a duration of 12 seconds.
• It costs 35 Rage.

Just like Shield Block though, it can and should be used intelligently if doing so provides a benefit.

• You can use the following WeakAura to track your current Ignore Pain absorb and cap.
• If you are not tanking and are taking very little or no damage, do not use your Rage on Ignore Pain. Depending on how long you are not tanking for, it will simply expire, wasting that Rage. Instead, try to cast an Ignore Pain right before you start tanking again. If you are taking damage while not tanking, cast Ignore Pain as needed to help out your healers.
• While generally speaking, you will want to use Ignore Pain to smooth out your damage intake, it can also be very important to pool your Rage and cast Ignore Pain right before a large spike of damage, increasing the chance that you survive that spike.

The exception to the points above would be when you are close to Rage capping. In such situations, you should use Ignore Pain to spend Rage even if it means going over the Ignore Pain cap. Additionally, if you are ever in the extremely rare situation where there is very, very little blockable damage, or none at all, you will, of course, want to prioritize Ignore Pain over Shield Block.

When using Bolster, Last Stand should be used like Shield Block assuming you do not need Last Stand for a specific mechanic. Since Last Stand lasts 15 seconds, it gives you the time to gain very close to, or a full Shield Block charge (depending on your Haste). So, if used when you have a charge of Shield Block available, you risk wasting a bit of Shield Block cooldown time. Essentially, once you have used both charges of Shield Block and the actual Shield Block buff has expired; further increase your effective block uptime by using Last Stand.

As a Protection Warrior, you have a number of defensive cooldowns. Using your defensive cooldowns properly is extremely important. You want to plan out your cooldowns before going into an encounter and maximize their usage as much as possible. Outlined below are your various defensive cooldowns and how they should be used. For more info on cooldown usage in general, see the how to improve page.

Last Stand can and should be used in two different ways depending on the situation. With Bolster, Last Stand should be used to extend effective block uptime as outlined above in the Shield Block section. If there are many high-damage mechanics or if you are able to have Shield Block up for the majority of your active tanking time, then Last Stand should instead be used as an emergency cooldown - if your health drops to a dangerously low level unexpectedly - or as a pre-emptive cooldown to prepare for a large damage spike.

If you are not running Bolster, then simply use it as an emergency or preemptive cooldown.

Shield Wall should be used to prepare for a large damage spike or during periods of high damage. This is especially useful against non-blockable damage. It is not recommended to use it if your health suddenly drops low, as it does nothing to get your health back up, but in situations where you have nothing else, you want to use it if it increases your chance to survive.

With Booming Voice, Demoralizing Shout should be used on cooldown and for damage purposes. More often than not, you will have it up at a good time, helping you smooth out damage.

Now, there are definitely situations where you will want to delay the usage of Demoralizing Shout if you know there is heavy damage upcoming, and you do not have anything else available.

Without Booming Voice, simply use it as you would a normal defensive cooldown.

Spell Reflection can be used in two different ways. Either as a way to reflect a specific spell cast at you, or as a magic damage reduction cooldown. The vast majority of spells cast by bosses are not reflectable, but the damage reduction portion still works, of course. Rarely, some boss abilities are reflectable, and in these cases, reflecting them can be extremely powerful, both in terms of damage reduction and dealing damage to the boss.

Most of the time, you will be using it as a magic damage-reduction tool. However, in dungeons and similar content, reflecting particularly powerful spells is a great use of Spell Reflection. Remember that when you reflect a spell, you lose the Spell Reflection buff, meaning you lose the damage reduction as well. Be mindful of this if you are in a situation where you need the magic damage reduction, but there are also reflectable spells being cast at you.