Protection Warrior Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Protection Warrior in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.5). We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Protection Warrior talents.
- 1. Talent Choices for Protection Warriors
- 2. Best Talents for Protection Warrior
- 3. Standard Raid Talents for Protection Warrior
- 4. Colossus Raid Talents for Protection Warrior
- 5. Offensive Raid Talents for Protection Warrior
- 6. Best AoE Talents for Protection Warrior
- 7. Colossus alternative AoE Talents for Protection Warrior
- 8. Delves Talents for Protection Warrior
This page will go over all the talents, explaining each and every one of them in detail. Regardless of whether the talents are passive or active, they can change how we play the class entirely. To get to know if any of the talents influences Protection Warrior's rotation, you can look into our Rotation guide!
There are also some talents that are good in certain environments while lacking in others. For more information regarding talents that are good in Mythic+ or Raiding, respectively, you can take a look at the guides below.
Talent Choices for Protection Warriors
It is crucial to mention that our talent trees are very well put together and we have various choices to be made depending on the content and personal preference!
Before digging into the details, it is important to mention that you no longer need any special item in order to swap around your Talents! This is a great quality of life change.
Under the next section, you can find different example builds. Your talent choices depend on the content you are doing and which gameplay you prefer.
Best Talents for Protection Warrior
Standard Raid Talents for Protection Warrior
This build is a decent combination of offensive and defensive talents, making it a good all-around raid build. 2 important option notes are shown below:
- Pick up Seismic Reverberation instead of Honed Reflexes if the encounter has adds;
- You can drop Best Served Cold for Fight Through the Flames for a more defensive choice;
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Colossus Raid Talents for Protection Warrior
While slightly weaker defensively than the Mountain Thane build, the Colossus can be played in raids just as well. Below, you can find the generic build for it.
If you do not need Spell Block for the fight, you can take the points from Instigate and Spell Block and place both of them into Bloodborne. 2 important option notes are shown below:
- Pick up Seismic Reverberation instead of Honed Reflexes if the encounter has adds;
- You can drop Best Served Cold for Fight Through the Flames for a more defensive choice;
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Offensive Raid Talents for Protection Warrior
This build sacrifices a lot of the defensive talents for purely offensive gains. We advise you not to use this build on progress bosses or on bosses you are not familiar with, as it will hamper your survivability.
For an even more offensive setup, you can place the point from Indomitable into Instigate, just be wary that your self-sustain will drop significantly.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best AoE Talents for Protection Warrior
The below build is a solid example of an overall good Mythic+ build. It should provide you with more than enough Shield Block, interrupt tools, and damage output.
- You can drop Best Served Cold for Fight Through the Flames for a more defensive choice;
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Colossus alternative AoE Talents for Protection Warrior
The below build provides an alternative playstyle for Mythic+. While not as good as the standard Mountain Thane build above, this one can still pack a punch. Just be wary that this build is weaker defensively.
- You can drop Best Served Cold for Fight Through the Flames for a more defensive choice;
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Delves Talents for Protection Warrior
The below build is as good in Delves as it is in Mythic+ dungeons. As the two prioritise the same values in crowd-control, defensives, self sustain and damage output, this build will cover all the bases.
Talent Explanations for Protection Warrior
Talents for Protection Warrior
Hero Talents for Protection Warriors
Mountain Thane
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Lightning Strikes | Thunder Clap, Revenge, Execute have a chance to call down a Lightning Strikes to damage enemies. Alone this talent is not much, but a lot of the other talents down the Mountain Thane tree will amp up the damage of this. It will end up doing a decent chunk of your overall damage. |
Crashing Thunder | Increases our nature and stormstrike damage while also increasing the damage of Thunder Clap by 40%, and causing Seismic Reverberation to also affect Thunder Clap. Buffing one of our rotational tools in Thunder Clap in both single-target, and AoE makes this talent amazing. |
Ground Current | Makes Lightning Strikes deal some damage to surrounding enemies as well. |
Strength of the Mountain | Provides Shield Slam a damage boost while also giving us some extra defensive value from Demoralizing Shout. Thunderlord synergizes well with this. |
Thunder Blast | The main ability of Mountain Thane Hero tree. When it procs, it replaces your Thunder Clap with Thunder Blast. Compared to Thunder Clap, Thunder Blast deals a lot more damage and also provides more Rage. Flashing Skies, Thorim's Might and Avatar of the Storm all grant additional bonuses to Thunder Blast making it even better. It is a buff that can stack up to two times. |
Storm Bolts | AoE Storm Bolt. We already have access to Shockwave, so this should only be picked if you really need an extra AoE stun. On a choice node with Storm Shields .Requires Storm Bolt to be talented. |
Storm Shields | Makes Intervene even better with the addition of a magic absorb shield. As we otherwise lack any proper externals, this is a great choice. On a choice node with Storm Bolts. Requires Intervene to be talented. |
Keep Your Feet on the Ground | Passive damage reduction with Thunder Blast granting even more damage reduction for a limited time. On a choice node with Steadfast as the Peaks. |
Steadfast as the Peaks | Small boost to our maximum health while also making Victory Rush grant an additional heal after 5 seconds, depending on any overheal. Not a very well designed talent, considering we use Victory Rush when we need healing, not to actively overheal ourselves, so the additional heal is wasted most of the time. On a choice node with Keep Your Feet on the Ground. |
Flashing Skies | Thunder Blast now also causes Lightning Strikes. On a choice node with Snap Induction. It should be the default pick in every scenario. |
Snap Induction | Demoralizing Shout now grants a stack of Thunder Blast. On a choice node with Flashing Skies. It should not be picked. |
Gathering Clouds | Makes your Lightning Strikes proc chance go up from 25% to 32%. It is not something we pick, as the increase is insignificant, and we already guarantee Lightning Strikes with each Thunder Blast thanks to Flashing Skies. On a choice node with Thorim's Might. It should not be picked. |
Thorim's Might | Grants us extra rage whenever Lightning Strikes happens, and also buffs the damage of Revenge and Execute. On a choice node with Gathering Clouds. It should be the default pick in every scenario. |
Burst of Power | Lightning Strikes have a chance to grant us 2 stacks of a buff, which makes Shield Slam have no cooldown. Shield Slam already has a chance to be reset frequently thanks to Strategist, so giving us even more Shield Slam's is just icing on the cake. |
Avatar of the Storm | Avatar is turned into an even more potent cooldown thanks to granting 2 stacks of Thunder Blast every time it is used, in addition to resetting the cooldown of Thunder Clap. In addition, we get a small chance to proc Avatar for 1 or 2 abilities any time Lightning Strikes hits an enemy. |
Hero Talents for Protection Warriors
Colossus
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Demolish | The main hero of the Colossus Hero Tree. A channeled ability which hits all enemies infront of you extremely hard. It also grants you a small damage reduction bonus while channeling and makes you immune to forced movement effects. Opposed to many other channeled abilities, you can actually use some defensive abilities while channeling it: Shield Block and Shield Wall being the main ones. It has a hefty 45-second cooldown, but in reality, it will be a lot shorter, thanks to Dominance of the Colossus. |
Martial Expert | Increases critical strike damage and the damage blocked by critical blocks. This leans into the critical strike stat, which we luckily like to have regardless. The critical block damage reduction part is not as big as it sounds for 2 reasons. One, critical blocks are RNG, so we can not rely on them. Two, if a critical block does happen, it already reduces the damage to a meaningless amount. |
Colossal Might | Stacking buff, which increases the damage of Demolish. Getting this as high as possible without delaying the cast of Demolish is a crucial part of maximising the damage output. |
Boneshaker | Longer stun on Shockwave and a slow when it ends. Can have its uses in some cases, but since most other classes already bring stuns, it does not have a lot of value. On a choice node with Earthquaker. Requires Shockwave to be talented. |
Earthquaker | Adds a knock-up effect for Shockwave, and reduces its cooldown. This should be the default option, as the knock-up can be great if the enemies are already hitting the diminishing returns on stuns. On a choice node with Boneshaker. Requires Shockwave to be talented. |
One Against Many | Increases the damage of Shockwave, Revenge and Whirlwind per enemy hit. Realistically, this just increases the damage of Revenge, as we do not use Shockwave for the damage part, and Whirlwind should not even be on our bars. On a choice node with Arterial Bleed. |
Arterial Bleed | Colossal Might stacks now also increase the damage of our bleeds, Rend and Deep Wounds. This is great in both AoE and single-target, as our bleeds play a big part in our overall damage output. Should be the default choice. On a choice node with One Against Many. |
Tide of Battle | Colossal Might now stacks now increase the damage of Revenge. Even though we do not prioritise Revenge due to it being a Rage spender, instead of a generator, this talent will make it deal a lot of damage, especially in AoE. Talking purely offensively, if you have enough Rage income, then spamming Revenge when you are at high Colossal Might stacks will be a big DPS increase. |
No Stranger to Pain | Increases the per-cast absorb of Ignore Pain, not the total cap. On a choice node with Veteran Vitality. It should be the default pick. |
Veteran Vitality | Small automatic heal if you drop low. On a choice node with No Stranger to Pain. |
Practiced Strikes | Another damage boost, this time for Shield Slam and Revenge. |
Precise Might | Colossal Might stacks are instrumentally important for the overall damage output of Colossus. This talent helps you gain the stacks faster, any time you critical strike with Shield Slam. |
Mountain of Muscle and Scars | Makes you bigger, so watch out for low doorways. Also increases the damage you deal, and reduces the damage you take. |
Dominance of the Colossus | Increases the maximum stack amount of Colossal Might, and once you hit max stacks, any additional stack you gain will reduce the cooldown of Demolish by 2 seconds. On top of this, it also increases your damage done to enemies hit by Demolish, and reduces your damage taken from them. This talent is amazing and ties the whole Colossus tree together. Pay attention to the cooldown of Demolish in situations when Revenge is hitting 3 or more targets, and during Execute phases, as during these times you will get Demolish back really fast. |
Class Talents for Protection Warriors
Class Talents are available for all Warriors, regardless of their specialization. These consist of various abilities and passives that define how the Warrior class plays.
In the following sections, you can find the most influential talents that you can pick up. For a full list of Talents and what they do, take a look at our The spell Summary page linked below.
Rows 1-4 Class Talents for Protection Warriors
While there are a lot of options to choose from, you can find the main and most important choices outlined in the list below. The importance of these nodes is not just due to what they do but also which other talent nodes they open up.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Impending Victory | Strong self-heal on a fairly short cooldown. This is a must-have pick in any scenario as it helps us recover from spike damage. |
War Machine | As our whole kit revolves around generating as much Rage as possible; the extra gains from this talent go a long way. |
Leeching Strikes | Provides a flat 5% Leech. Might seem underwhelming, but it does add up throughout the encounter. |
Thunder Clap | One of our core rotational abilities, which also provides us with Rage. There are so many talents that work together with this ability that should be picked 100% of the time. |
Heroic Leap | One of our few movement abilities, letting you leap through the air. This should be taken in every scenario as it can help you get out of sticky situations or reposition the boss quickly. |
Frothing Berserker | Chance to get a 50% refund on the Rage spent on Revenge. Nothing significant, but it does open up additional nodes. |
Pain and Gain | Small passive heal whenever you take damage. It is another tiny addition to further increase our sustainability. |
Intervene | Intervenes to an ally, causing attacks to be re-directed to you instead. This is a very strong tool in the right situation; it can save your co-tank during a Raid encounter, for example. |
Storm Bolt | Single-target stun on a short cooldown. Must have in Mythic+, situational in Raids. |
The talents in the list below are situational and should be taken only if you are doing content where they provide some value.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Intimidating Shout | Fears all enemies around you. A very solid additional interrupt. Especially useful in Mythic+. |
Fast Footwork | Just a plain movement speed buff, still worth it, as it also opens up various other beneficial nodes. |
Berserker Shout | Much like Berserker Rage, this has the potential to be strong if there is a mechanic that lines up with the 1-minute cooldown of the ability. Otherwise, this is a wasted point. |
Second Wind | While the out-of-combat health regen is not really relevant, the healing while below 35% health has the potential to be handy in situations where this is a lot of damage which is constantly ticking away. |
Rows 5-7 Class Talents for Protection Warrior
You can find a lot of utility and damage choices for various situations in this section. The most useful and important of them are listed below.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Spell Reflection | Will either reflect the magic damage cast that is targeted at you back to the caster, or act as a magic damage reduction ability. This has so much potential in almost any encounter that it would be criminal not to take it. |
Rallying Cry | One of our more impactful utility cooldowns. This is almost always good, as it can help save an ally from dying. |
Shockwave | AoE stun on a fairly short cooldown. Must have in Mythic+, where it can be used to interrupt casts or provide some breathing room. Usually, it's not as useful in raids. |
Reinforced Plates | Passive armor increase, definitely worth the point as armor significantly reduces our damage taken. |
Crushing Force | Increases the damage of one of our core abilities in Shield Slam. It's always worth a pick. |
Overwhelming Rage | Increases our maximum Rage capacity. It can be useful to avoid over-capping Rage during cooldowns and also provides value during Execute windows. Solid filler point. |
Double Time | Provides us with 1 more charge of Charge, while also reducing its cooldown by 3 seconds. While the talent itself is mediocre, the thing that makes it a solid pick is what it leads to. |
The talents in the following list are up for grabs as optional and filler nodes depending on the content you are doing.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Crackling Thunder | The 50% radius increase is fine in Mythic+, but even then it does not matter too much, as the enemies are following you as the tank, regardless. It can be used as a filler point, but generally speaking, there are other, better options. |
Honed Reflexes | While the 5% cooldown reduction might not seem a lot, it can still be a solid pick in situations where the 5% allows the abilities to line up with a mechanic better. |
Seismic Reverberation | Makes Revenge hit for an additional time for reduced damage as long as it initially hit at least 3 targets. This is a great damage boost in any AoE encounter, like Mythic+, where you constantly have 3+ targets present. |
Barbaric Training | increases the damage and Rage cost of Revenge. A great option to increase your damage output in Mythic+. Just be wary of your Rage usage when using this talent. |
Sidearm | A very lackluster passive damage increase. If damage is all you are looking for, then this will serve some value; otherwise it can be ignored. |
Rows 8-10 Class Talents for Protection Warrior
The last rows allow us to define our gameplay even further and provide a good mix of active abilities and passive buffs. As previously, the most noteworthy are in the first list.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Armored to the Teeth | Increases our Strength by a % of our Armor. This is a solid increase, as we are, by default, a very high armor tank. |
Wild Strikes | Provides us with a small amount of Haste and some auto-attack speed. Both of these effects are a fine passive increase. |
One-Handed Weapon Specialization | Provides us with 5% Leech and also increases our damage by 5%. This is a lot of value for just one point, a must-have. |
Avatar | Increases our damage dealt by 20% and removes all snares and roots when cast. One of our strongest offensive cooldowns. The 1.5-minute cooldown might seem daunting at first, but it gets greatly reduced by Anger Management, making it a more or less 45-second cooldown instead. Definitely a mandatory pick in every scenario. |
Unstoppable Force | Causes Avatar to increase the damage of Shockwave and Thunder Clap, while also reducing the cooldown of the latter by 50%. Great option for higher damage output. It makes Thunder Clap be usable every other global cooldown during Avatar windows and pairs well with another talent, Thunderlord. |
Thunderous Roar | Deals damage and puts a bleed on the enemies hit. The ability by itself is already fine, but it has great nodes underneath, which makes it even more appealing. Especially useful in Mythic+ and other AoE situations. |
Champion's Spear | Deals damage and tethers target to its location. The follow-up nodes of this talent are what make it especially useful, mostly in single-target situations. |
Cruel Strikes | A 2-point node that increases your critical strike chance and also the critical strike damage. Flat stat increases are deceitfully powerful, and this node is no exception. It is great offensively and also provides some defensive value through Parry. |
Pick from the following depending on the content you are doing and your current needs.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Endurance Training | Increases our Stamina while also reducing our time being crowd-controlled. This point should be taken only in a scenario where you would like to go down to Shockwave, such as Mythic+ dungeons; otherwise, it can be ignored for better options. |
Immovable Object | Casting Avatar or Shield Wall also casts the other at reduced effectiveness. It has some potential from a defensive point of view, but as of now, it is lacking behind Unstoppable Force. |
Uproar | Reduces the cooldown of Thunderous Roar by 45 seconds. It provides more frequent burst windows but nothing else. |
Thunderous Words | Increases all your bleed damage dealt while Thunderous Roar bleed is active. We have 2 bleeds in Rend and Deep Wounds, so this can provide a decent boost to your damage output. |
Champion's Might | Increases the duration of Champion's Spear and also increases your critical strike damage against targets chained to the Spear. A solid node to pick up if you went for Champions Spear. |
Protection Talents for Protection Warriors
These talents include abilities and passives only available for Protection Warriors. You can find a lot of our main defensive and offensive abilities under this tree.
As with the Class Talents, you will only find the best choices down below. For a full list, take a look at the Spell Summary page.
Rows 1-4 Spec Talents for Protection Warrior
While there are not a lot of choices on the first 4 rows, we do find some really good options here, together with some spec-defining abilities.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Ignore Pain | Apartial absorb, mainly used as a way to dump excessive Rage due to it being off the global cooldown. It can also be stacked in order to reduce a big incoming damage spike. |
Revenge | Deals damage in an arc in front of you. One of your main rotational damage dealing tools. |
Demoralizing Shout | Reduces the damage enemies hit deal to you by 25%. The effects of this talent are further enhanced by pairing it with Thunderlord, Booming Voice and Unstoppable Force, especially in AoE scenarios. |
Devastator | Replaces Devastate with a passive ability that is tied to your auto-attacks. This is a must-have since it frees up a much needed global cooldown. |
Last Stand | Increases your maximum health by 30% and also heals you for the same amount. While the cooldown is a lengthy 3 minutes, it is still worth the point spent on it. |
Best Served Cold | Causes Revenge to deal even more damage. While the damage addition is not huge, it does add up, as Revenge is used rotationally. |
Strategist | Execute, Devastate, Thunder Clap and Revenge can now reset the cooldown of Shield Slam. This is a mandatory talent in all scenarios due to how strong it is. |
Brace For Impact | Casting Shield Slam increases the damage of Shield Slam by 3% while also increasing the amount of damage you block by the same percentage. Stacks up to 5 times. Another mandatory pick due to how heavily we rely on blocking and Shield Slam damage. |
Rows 5-8 Spec Talents for Protection Warrior
These rows include some of our most powerful defensive abilities and open up various synergies with other talents! A lot of great options; if only we had more points..
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Challenging Shout | An AoE taunt. A great addition to our toolkit, especially in Mythic+. It also leads to other great talent nodes, making it a mandatory pick. |
Rend | An additional bleed. Deals significant amounts of damage and is further enhanced by other bleed talents like Thunderous Words, Bloodsurge and Bloodborne. The greatest part is that Thunder Clap applies it automatically, so you do not even need to cast it separately. Must have in all situations. |
Brutal Vitality | Damage dealt adds to your active Ignore Pain. We will be using Ignore Pain a lot, so having our damage further feed into the absorb is a great passive addition to our survivability. |
Shield Wall | Reduces your damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. One of your strongest defensive tools that synergizes well with other talents like Anger Management and Impenetrable Wall. Must have in all situations. |
Heavy Repercussions | Shield Slam generates more Rage and also extends the duration of Shield Block. It provides us with everything we want more Rage and more Shield Block uptime. Gets even better when paired with Enduring Defenses. Great choice in any situation. |
Into the Fray | Gain Haste for each enemy or ally nearby, up to 8%. Haste is one of our best secondary stats, so this is another great option. Should be taken instead of Heavy Repercussions if you do not need the extra Shield Block up-time. |
Enduring Defenses | Shield Block lasts 2 seconds longer. 2 seconds feels like such a short time, but in reality, it adds up to a lot of extra Shield Block uptime. This pairs well with Heavy Repercussions since it lets you potentially sneak in an extra Shield Slam in every Shield Block window. Must have talent in any scenario where extra Shield Block uptime is needed. |
Massacre | Execute is now usable on targets below 35% health, instead of 20%. Purely offensive option for priority target damage. If Shield Block uptime is not a concern, then this can be taken to make the last 35% of the boss go faster. |
Anger Management | Reduces the cooldown of Avatar and Shield Wall by 1 second per every 10 Rage spent. Bread and butter of Protection Warriors. Amazing talent in every situation that pairs well with a lot of our other talents. Mandatory pick. |
Impenetrable Wall | Shield Slam generates extra Rage and reduces the cooldown of Shield Wall by 5 seconds. Paired together with Anger Management this results in your Shield Wall having a ~1.5-minute cooldown instead of the base 3.5-minutes. Amazing choice in any situation. |
Punish | Stacking buff, which increases your Shield Slam damage and also reduces the damage the target deals to you. More Shield Slam damage is always great, so this is another solid pick in every encounter. |
There are some amazing talents that are still left out of the list above, Thunderlord, Sudden Death, Tough as Nails and even Show of Force are all great choices. Read through the info below to see when to pick which!
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Bloodsurge | your bleed effects have a chance to grant you extra Rage. Considering we have 3 bleeds, Deep Wounds, Rend and Thunderous Roar. Unfortunately, the proc chance of this is so low that it would mostly make sense to take it in Mythic+ and to avoid it in single target situations. |
Thunderlord | Increases the radius of Demoralizing Shout and causes each enemy hit by Thunder Clap to reduce the cooldown of Demoralizing Shout by 1 second, up to 3 seconds per cast. Unstoppable Force, Thunderlord and Booming Voice make a great trio in any AoE scenario. This is a must-have talent in any a situation where you can constantly hit 3+ targets. |
Sudden Death | Provides a chance for your attacks to cause Execute to be usable for free, regardless of the target's health. Great offensive option for single-target situations. Should definitely be picked for Raids. |
Tough as Nails | Blocking attacks deal damage to the attackers. As our whole mitigation is centered around blocking, it only makes sense to pick this up when aiming for additional free damage. |
Spell Block | Allows you to block spells. This can be really powerful in the right situation when magic damage is an issue. The damage reduction it provides for The 20 seconds it lasts is significant, and you can rotate this together with Shield Wall to greatly reduce the threat of magic damage. |
Bolster | Reduces the cooldown of Last Stand by 60 seconds and also grants you Shield Block for the duration of Last Stand. Can be taken to further increase your Shield Block uptime. |
Show of Force | Further increases your Revenge damage and casting Revenge also increases the damage of your next Thunder Clap. Both of these abilities are rotationally used, you will be more or less passively gaining the benefits of this talent. If you are looking to min-max, then you would need to ensure that you are casting a Thunder Clap after every Revenge. It should be picked mainly in Mythic+. |
Instigate | Enhances either Devastate or Devastator to deal more damage and provide some extra Rage. Nothing special should be taken instead of Bloodsurge in a single target encounters. |
Rows 8-10 Spec Talents for Protection Warrior
The last part of the tree is more or less cut in stone for us since there are clear winners and losers.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Focused Vigor | Flat buff to our Strength, Armor and Critical Strike Chance. All of these are great stats for us. |
Shield Specialization | Increases your Block chance and Block value. As our main mitigation kit revolves around Blocking attacks, this It's a mandatory pick. |
Shield Charge | Charges at your target, dealing damage to all the targets within 10 yards, stunning the primary target and also generating 20 Rage. It is a great initiation tool, and the nodes it leads enhance this even further. Must have in any situation. |
Champion's Bulwark | Shield Charge deals 20% increased damage, and grants you Shield Block a free Revenge and an additional 20 Rage. A solid pick in every scenario, giving us everything we want and more! |
Ravager | throws a weapon, dealing damage in an area overtime, while also granting 10 Rage each time it deals damage. While the Cooldown might seem long, but the damage it deals, paired with the Rage, is worth it. |
Booming Voice | Demoralizing Shout now generates 30 Rage and increase your damage dealt to targets hit by 20%. Another must have talent for increasing your damage output and general Rage generation. |
Indomitable | Increases your maximum health by 6% and heals you for 1% of your maximum health per every 20 Rage spent. Amazing option in every situation, adding up to a lot of healing done throughout the encounter. |
Violent Outburst | Consuming 30 Rage grants a stack of Seeing Red, at 8 stacks it causes your next Shield Slam or Thunder Clap to deal 200% more damage and generate 100% more Rage while also granting a free Ignore Pain. It does take some time to get used to the tracking necessity of this talent, but it does come with great benefits once mastered. |
Enduring Alacrity | Increases our Stamina, Armor, and Haste by a percentage. All of these stats are really strong for Protection Warrior, so this point is a strong pickup. |
Of the remaining talents, the two most noteworthy would be Battering Ram and Battle-Scarred Veteran. Both of which are great additions.
Ability | Description / Effect |
---|---|
Battering Ram | Increases the Critical Strike damage and Critical Strike chance of Shield Charge by 15%. It also causes it to buff your auto-attack damage and speed by 10% for 20 seconds. If used on cooldown, it would mean a constant ~50% uptime on the attack speed buff, which is huge. It's definitely a mandatory pick in single-target situations. |
Battle-Scarred Veteran | When your health drops below 30%, you take 80% less damage for 8 seconds, and the healing you receive is increased by 100%. If you need a safety net, this is definitely worthy of a point. This would be great when still progressing on Raid bosses or when doing Mythic+ high enough where survivability becomes a concern. |
PvP Talents (War Mode)
Opting into War Mode makes you eligible for open-world PvP but also grants you the following benefits:
- World Quests at maximum level have 10% increased rewards.
- You gain 10% increased experience while leveling.
- Grants you the use of PvP talents in the open-world.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended that you enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself eligible for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
PvP Talents for Protection Warriors
Below are the recommended PvP talents for leveling and PvE content. You are able to choose 1 general PvP talent and 3 spec-specific talents.
Protection Warrior PvP Talents
- Morale Killer reduces the cooldown of Demoralizing Shout by 15 seconds, bringing its cooldown to 30 seconds, and causes enemies to deal reduced damage to all targets, not just you. This allows for extremely high uptime on Demoralizing Shout.
- Dragon Charge causes you to charge a long distance at high speed in the targeted direction. It does not require a target. It deals damage and knocks back any enemies that are hit by the charge. The movement that this talent provides is extremely useful for questing or getting out of dangerous situations. It is almost like having another Heroic Leap in terms of movement.
- Bodyguard is a great tool to help you reduce the Physical damage dealt to your allies.
- Disarm is another extremely strong option you can take. This allows you to significantly reduce the damage output of classes that rely on weapon damage.
These are simply recommendations. You may find other PvP talents more useful depending on your playstyle. For a more in-depth guide about Warrior Warrior take a look at our dedicated PvP guide.
While PvPing as Protection Warrior can certainly be fun, you might also want to try out PvPing as either Fury or Arms Warrior. Both of these specs will deal a lot more damage while being squishier.
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Added notes about Fight Through the Flame and Seismic Reverberation for talent builds.
- 26 Aug. 2024: Added Delves Talent build.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 27 Jul. 2024: Removed Champion's Spear talents due to tier set still being available.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7. Replaced Heavy Repercussions with Into the Fray for the Mythic+ build.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 18 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 21 Jun. 2023: Updated Mythic+ talent build. Took Brutal Vitality.
- 05 Jun. 2023: Updated the raid talent build. Took Spell Block as a default talent.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.0.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 15 Mar. 2023: Updated the Mythic+ talent build to default Battering Ram over Thunderlord.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 23 Dec. 2022: Added notes about Spell Block.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Replaced Overwhelming Rage with Sidearm for the Raiding build.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight 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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