Protection Warrior Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands 9.0.5
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Protection Warrior in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.5. 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 WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic Tank Warrior talents.
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+, you can take a look at our Mythic+ guide.
Talent Choices for Protection Warrior
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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Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Still Mind and
Codex of the Still Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change
talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.
Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Protection Warriors
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War Machine makes your auto attacks generate 50% more Rage and provides 10 Rage any time a enemy dies, while also giving a short movement speed boost.
Punish causes
Shield Slam to deal 20% more damage and applies a stackable debuff to the enemy that reduces their damage against you by 3% per stack for 9 sec.
Devastator replaces
Devastate. It makes Devastate passive by moving the ability to your auto-attacks, and instead of having a 30% chance to reset
Shield Slam, it has a 20% chance.
War Machine makes your auto attacks give you 1 extra Rage per swing.
The more important part of this talent is the 10 Rage provided by the enemies
when they are dying. This has potential to give you a lot of extra Rage when
there are multiple enemies dying throughout the fight constantly.
Punish is essentially a permanent damage reduction on single-target.
The debuff is applied to the enemy, not the player. In other words, when
Shield Slam is used on an enemy, that enemy gets debuffed and deals less damage
to the player for 9 seconds, depending on how many stacks they have.
Devastator provides us with a solid amount of extra Rage, due to the
possibility of our auto attacks resetting
Shield Slam. While Punish
is better defensively in ST situations, the extra Rage obtained from Shield Slams
that Devastator provides makes it a better AoE option.
Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents for Protection Warriors
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Double Time provides you with 1 extra charge of
Charge and reduces its CD by 3 sec.
Rumbling Earth reduces
Shockwave's cooldown by 15 seconds when it hits at least 3 targets.
Storm Bolt is a single-target ability that deals a bit of damage and stuns an enemy for 4 seconds. It has a 20 yard range and is on a 30-second cooldown.
Each talent in this tier is situationally useful. Generally speaking,
Double Time will be the most universally useful.
Rumbling Earth
has its uses in Mythic+ dungeons, where pulls constantly have more than 3
enemies. If your group already has multiple AoE stuns, then you should take
Storm Bolt instead for a ST stun.
Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents for Protection Warriors
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Best Served Cold increases the damage of
Revenge by 20%, or 50% when it can be used for free.
Booming Voice causes
Demoralizing Shout to generate 40 Rage and increase the damage you deal to targets affected by Demoralizing Shout by 20%.
Dragon Roar deals a large amount of damage to enemies within 12 yards, provides 20 Rage, and critically strikes for 3 times normal damage on a 30 sec CD.
This row is mostly about increasing our damage output. Dragon Roar
and
Booming Voice are both good options that provide us with a variety
in the gameplay. Dragon Roar is a really strong option in any AoE situation
and helps you out with snap threat a lot. It can deal devastating damage when
it crits, thanks to the triple damage, and also provides us with some Rage.
Booming Voice, on the other hand, is the best Rage generating ability on
this row, that also increases the damage of our other abilities. The 45 sec CD
also syncs up with the base CDs of
Avatar and
Ravager.
Best Served Cold makes
Revenge deal a lot of damage in any
AoE situation, but, unfortunately, it also competes with our defensive abilities
for Rage, meaning that both
Dragon Roar and
Booming Voice are
better options. This option does become a lot more appealing and viable when
used together with the Legendary power
Reprisal.
Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents for Protection Warriors
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Crackling Thunder increases the radius of
Thunder Clap by 50% and increases the slow by an additional 10%.
Bounding Stride reduces the cooldown on
Heroic Leap by 15 seconds, and it also increases your movement speed by 70% for 3 seconds when you land.
Menace causes
Intimidating Shout to knock back all nearby enemies except your primary target and makes them cower in fear for 15 sec.
The increased Thunder Clap range from
Crackling Thunder can
be extremely useful, particularly in dungeons where you might struggle picking
up enemies.
Bounding Stride can be used when you do not need the extra utility
provided by the 2 other options on this row. This is especially useful in
raiding scenarios where you often have to move around and position the boss
in specific places.
Menace has niche uses in Mythic+ scenarios, where you need the extra
enemy displacement. In general,
Crackling Thunder would be the better
option in most AoE situations and
Bounding Stride should be taken in
Raiding scenarios.
Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents for Protection Warriors
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Never Surrender increases the size of
Ignore Pain by 40% to 100%, based on your missing health.
Indomitable increases your health by 10% and heals you for 1% of your maximum HP for every 10 Rage spent.
Impending Victory replaces
Victory Rush. It costs 10 Rage, deals a bit of damage, and heals you for 30% of your maximum health. It is on a 30-second cooldown.
Indomitable is the clear winner on this row. It provides you with a
lot of extra passive healing over the course of the encounter.
Impending Victory may also find use in some certain scenarios where on-demand
burst healing every 30 sec is needed, but, in general, it falls behind
Indomitable.
Never Surrender is not worth picking, as the increased
Ignore Pain only becomes noticeable at low health, where it is effectively
useless.
Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents for Protection Warriors
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Into the Fray gives 2% Haste for each enemy or ally within 10 yards, up to 10% Haste (a maximum of 5 stacks). It is still a solid Haste boost and can be competitive with the other options, especially from damage point of view.
Unstoppable Force increases the damage of
Thunder Clap by 30% and reduces its cooldown by 50% while
Avatar is active.
Ravager is an active ability with a 45-second cooldown. You throw your weapon at the targeted location, where it will spin for 12 seconds, chasing and damaging up to 8 enemies. Each time it deals damage it also provides you with 10 Rage.
Unstoppable Force has undeniable synergy with
Anger Management, so it will get stronger if you are pairing the two
together. It also makes using
Avatar a lot more satisfying, as you can
use
Thunder Clap every other GCD. Thunder Clap is also one of our
rotational Rage generating abilities, so the extra casts will also provide
us with extra Rage. In general this is not worth taking over the other two
choices on this row.
Ravager performs better in AoE and
Into the Fray better on single target..
Ravager is a strong offensive CD that also provides us with a decent
chunk of Rage. The 45-second CD also lines up with the base CDs of
Demoralizing Shout (
Booming Voice) and
Avatar, meaning
that you can pair them together for heavy burst damage.
While the Haste provided by Into the Fray is a nice passive bonus, it
can feel a bit underwhelming when compared to the other 2 options. Haste reduces
the cooldown of
Shield Block,
Shield Slam and some other
abilities making it a competitive option in certain scenarios.
Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents for Protection Warriors
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Anger Management causes every 10 Rage you spend to reduce the remaining cooldown of
Avatar and
Shield Wall by 1 second.
Heavy Repercussions causes
Shield Slam to extend the duration of
Shield Block by 1 second, when there is already a Shield Block buff active. It also makes Shield Slam generate 3 extra Rage.
Bolster reduces
Last Stand's cooldown by 60 seconds, and provides you with
Shield Block for its duration.
Anger Management is a really strong choice on this row, especially
due to the synergy it has with
Unstoppable Force.It is also the most
offensive option on the row due to the reduced CD of
Avatar.
Heavy Repercussions, while good, does not provide the same amount
of benefit that
Anger Management and
Bolster do in most
situations.
Bolster is generally better than Heavy Repercussions
defensively and
Anger Management is better offensively (in AoE). While
not being as good as the other 2, it can still find uses in mainly ST situations,
like Raids.
Bolster is the best option on the row if you are going for a more
defensive setup. The extra
Shield Block uptime it provides helps us
cover our Shield Block gaps, making our damage intake a lot smoother overall.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
Opting into War Mode (by clicking on the button in your talents pane) 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 to be "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.
General PvP Talent
- Use
Adaptation. It is a passive that removes any loss of control effect over 5 seconds on 1-minute cooldown.
Protection Warrior PvP Talents
Morale Killer reduces the cooldown of
Demoralizing Shout by 30 seconds, bringing its cooldown to 15 seconds, and causes enemies to deal reduces damage to all targets, not just you. This allows for 100% 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.
Sword and Board increases the critical strike chance of your
Devastate and
Shield Slam by 30% while
Shield Block is active, providing a nice passive damage increase.
These are simply recommendations. You may find other PvP talents more useful depending on your playstyle.
If you have Conflict and Strife selected as your Major essence, you
will gain access to
Thunderstruck without using a talent slot and
within PvE content/while War Mode is turned off. Unless there is a specific
situation where you need to constantly root enemies, this unfortunately does not
have much use.
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
- 09 Mar. 2021: Updated Best Served Cold's viability to conditional, due to the synergy with Reprisal.
- 16 Jan. 2021: Further clarification on Unstoppable Force.
- 07 Jan. 2021: Added a note for Unstoppable Force about its usage.
- 08 Dec. 2020: Added clarifying information about Into The Fray.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Added Into The Fray as plausible damage option.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Warrior Guides
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This guide has been written by Mwahi, a Protection Warrior theorycrafter and moderator of the Skyhold Warrior Discord.
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