Protection Warrior Tank Spell Summary — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as a Protection Warrior in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Protection Warrior spells.
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.
If you first start leveling a Protection Warrior, you will not have access to all of the abilities stated below. To get a better understanding of when you will get all the abilities mentioned on this page, you can go over our Leveling guide.
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,
Devastate and
Execute.
Thunder Clap deals damage to all enemies in an 8-yard radius, on a
6-second cooldown (reduced by Haste). Deals reduced damage beyond 5 enemies.
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, it has no cooldown. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 enemies.
It costs 20 Rage to cast and has a chance to become 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.
Whirlwind deals Physical damage to up to 5 enemies. Costs 30 Rage
and has no cooldown.
Execute deals heavy single-target damage, but is only usable on
enemies below 20% HP. Has no cooldown and costs 20-40 Rage.
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
100% of your Strength.
Most of our rotational abilities interact with each other in some way. Knowing these interactions is very important, as they will provide you with a better understanding of the class. To fully comprehend how all of these spells work together and when to actually use the correct one, you can go over to our Rotation page linked below.
Active Mitigation Abilites for Protection Warriors
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).
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 2 times the on-cast absorb amount.
- 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.
Cooldowns for Protection Warriors
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 50%, on a 4-minute
cooldown.
Demoralizing Shout applies a debuff to all enemies within 10
yards, reducing the damage they deal to you by 25% 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 20-second cooldown. A spell that is
reflected returns to the caster and deals damage to the caster as if you had
cast it.
Offensive Cooldowns
Avatar increases your damage dealt by 20% for 20 seconds, on a
1.5-minute cooldown. It generates 30 Rage, and removes all roots and snares
currently on you. This ability is not on the global cooldown.
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. It can be reset with
Heroic Leap.
Challenging Shout forces all targets around you to attack you
for 6 seconds, on a 4-minute cooldown. It has a 10 yard range.
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.
Movement Abilities for Protection Warriors
Charge makes you sprint towards an enemy. It generates
20 Rage, and has 1 charge with a 20-second cooldown.
Intervene makes you sprint towards an ally and intercept all
melee and ranged attacks against them for 6 seconds. It has a 30-second cooldown.
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. It also resets the remaining cooldown on
Taunt.
More details about which abilities can be macrod to make casting them more effecient can be found on the following page:
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.
Group Buffs from Protection Warriors
Rallying Cry grants 20% 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 5% for 1 hour.
It has a maximum range of 100 yards.
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.
Shattering Throw deals damage to enemies and removes any magical
immunities. Damage dealt to absorbs is increased by 500%. 1.5 second cast time and
3-minute cooldown.
Changelog
- 21 Feb. 2022: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands 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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