Protection Warrior Tank Spell Summary — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Introduction

This page goes over Protection Warrior's various baseline abilities and passives, explaining what each does and how they function in detail. It is recommended that you read through this page in order to have a basis for the various topics that are discussed throughout the rest of this guide.

2. Core Rotational Abilities for Protection Warriors

Shield Slam deals Physical damage to a single target, on a 9-second cooldown (reduced by Haste). It generates 15 Rage, and its cooldown has a 30% chance of being reset by Thunder Clap, Revenge, and Devastate.

Thunder Clap deals damage to all enemies in an 8-yard radius, on a 6-second cooldown (reduced by Haste). It generates 5 Rage, and reduces enemy movement speed by 20% for 10 seconds.

Revenge deals Physical damage to all enemies in a cone in front of you, on a 3-second cooldown (reduced by Haste). It costs 30 Rage to cast, but becomes free to cast when you successfully parry or dodge an attack.

Devastate deals Physical damage to a single target. It has no cooldown and generates no Rage.

3. Baseline Passives for Protection Warriors

Deep Wounds makes your Devastate and Revenge apply a debuff that causes Bleed damage over 15 seconds.

Vanguard increases your Stamina by 45% and increases your Armor by 60% of your Strength.

4. Active Mitigation Abilites for Protection Warriors

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).

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.
  • (strength + weapondDPS * 6) * apCoef * masteryMultiplier * vers * other
  • The Attack Power coefficient is 3.5 for Ignore Pain.
• It removes 50% of any particular damage event. That is, for any damage taken, 50% of that damage is dealt to the absorb, and the other 50% is dealt to you.
• It has a maximum absorb size of 1.3 times the on-cast absorb amount.
  • This means the absorb does stack, just not very much.
  • The cap size is determined on cast.
  • For example, say normally the absorb you get is 10,000. Your cap would be 13,000 when you cast Ignore Pain. You take some damage and your absorb drops to 4,000. When you cast that same Ignore Pain again, your total absorb is now 13,000, and you waste 1,000 of it because your cap is 13,000.
  • Using that same example again, say you drop to 4,000 absorb, but before you cast Ignore Pain again, you gain an Attack Power buff. This is where the "on cast" part comes into play. Say with that Attack Power buff, the size of your Ignore Pain would be 14,000. That means your cap is now (14000 * 1.3) 18,200. So, if you cast Ignore Pain, you will end up with (4000 + 14000) 18,000 absorb. As you can see, you did not waste any absorb because your on-cast cap was large enough.
  • Furthermore, it is possible to lose absorb by casting Ignore Pain. Continuing with that example, say you cast yet another Ignore Pain, but by this time that Attack Power buff has expired. Your cap is back to being 13,000 for that cast. So even if you do not lose any absorb to damage, casting that Ignore Pain will reduce your absorb size to 13,000.
• It has a duration of 12-seconds.
• It costs 40 Rage.

5. Cooldowns for Protection Warriors

5.1. Defensive Cooldowns

Last Stand increases your maximum health by 30% for 15-seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. It heals you for that same amount. This heal can critically hit.

Shield Wall reduces all damage taken by 40%, on a 4-minute cooldown.

Demoralizing Shout applies a debuff to all enemies within 10 yards, reducing the damage they deal to you by 20% for 8-seconds. This is on a 45-second cooldown. This does not apply a buff to you. Any enemies that were out of range for the initial cast do not deal reduced damage.

Spell Reflection grants a buff that reduces magic damage taken by 20% and will reflect a single spell cast at you. The buff lasts 5-seconds or until a spell is reflected. It is on a 25-second cooldown. A spell that is reflected returns to the caster and deals damage to the caster as if you had cast it.

5.2. Offensive Cooldowns

Avatar increases your damage dealt by 20% for 20-seconds, on a 1.5-minute cooldown. It generates 20 Rage, and removes all roots and snares currently on you. This ability is on the global cooldown.

6. Threat Abilities for Protection Warriors

Taunt forces a target to attack you for 3-seconds, on an 8-second cooldown. It increases your threat generation significantly for its duration. It has a maximum range of 30 yards.

Heroic Throw deals Physical damage to a single target, and generates an increased amount of threat. It has no cooldown or cost. It has a minimum range of 8 yards and a maximum range of 30 yards.

7. Movement Abilities for Protection Warriors

Intercept makes you sprint towards an enemy or ally. It generates 15 Rage, and has 2 charges with a 15-second recharge time.

• When targeting an enemy, it deals Physical damage and roots the target for 1 second. It has a minimum range of 8 yards and a maximum range of 25 yards.
• When targeting an ally, it causes the next melee or ranged attack on that ally to instead hit the Warrior, as long as the ally is within 10 yards. It has no minimum range and a maximum range of 25 yards.

Heroic Leap makes you leap through the air towards a target location. When you land, you deal Physical damage to all enemies in an 8-yard radius. It is on a 45-second cooldown, has a minimum range of 8 yards and a maximum range of 40 yards.

8. Crowd Control Abilities for Protection Warriors

Shockwave stuns all enemies in front of you within 10 yards for 2 seconds and deals damage. It has a 40-second cooldown.

Intimidating Shout causes a target enemy to cower in fear (the enemy does not move), and 5 additional enemies to flee. Both effects last 8 seconds. Targets are technically disoriented, and there is a damage threshold at which that disorient breaks. It is on a 1.5-minute cooldown and has a maximum range of 8 yards.

9. Group Buffs from Protection Warriors

Rallying Cry grants 15% temporary and maximum health to all party or raid members for 10 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. It has a maximum range of 40 yards.

Battle Shout is a pre-combat group buff on a 15-second cooldown. It increases the Attack Power of all party or raid members by 10% for 1 hour. It has a maximum range of 100 yards.

10. Utility Abilities for Protection Warriors

Berserker Rage both removes and grants immunity to Fear, Sap, and Incapacitate effects for 6 seconds, on a 1-minute cooldown.

Victory Rush deals damage and heals you for 20% of your maximum health. It is only usable within 20 seconds after getting a killing blow on an enemy that would normally provide experience or honor, and as such has no cooldown or cost.

Pummel interrupts spell casts or channels and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4 seconds. It is on a 15-second cooldown.

11. Changelog