Protection Warrior PvP Best Protection Compositions (Shadowlands / 9.1)

Playing 2v2 as Protection Warrior is extremely difficult to win with. Your goal as Protection Warrior is to protect your team and reduce the enemy's pressure long enough for you to win on Mana or dampening. Because you do not have access to abilities such as Word of Glory, like a Protection Paladin has, you cannot sustain another DPS for long. It is also not worth pairing up with a hybrid class and trying to play the long game that way, as they generally do not have enough healing power alone to sustain both of you, even with your damage reductions and disruptions.

In general, we recommend you do not play 2v2 as Protection Warrior, and instead stick to 3v3 where your toolkit can be used much more effectively.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

• Protection Warrior + Restoration Shaman
• Arms Warrior + Restoration Druid
• Arms Warrior + Holy Paladin

Protection Warrior in arena tries to play the long game. Your job is to constantly disrupt the enemy team from getting any pressure onto your team, by utilizing your damage reductions and CC. You need to play together with a high damage output specialization, who does not get shut down by the enemy too easily. If played correctly, your team will eventually run the enemy team over with your team being high on Mana, and theirs being low.

Remember to still apply as much damage as you can while you play defensively. A single DPS is not enough to apply pressure, and as Protection Warrior you can do great damage as well, especially if you can cleave area of effect abilities.

We strongly recommend you learn each and every offensive and defensive cooldown for all specializations, and get addons like Flyplatebuffs, BigDebuffs, and Gladius, so you have an easier time knowing when and how you should react. Alternatively, WeakAuras are a good way to customize your UI and alerts. These addons will give you an easier time identifying when an enemy uses cooldowns that can be difficult to spot visually, like Icy Veins and Vendetta. See our Protection Warrior PvP Macros page for more information on the subject.

This will also help you understand when you should break off from your target, and peel for your healer with Intervene, Disarm, Rallying Cry, etc.

It is important to make use of cross-CC, meaning you should try to time CC with your healer onto the enemy healer and DPS to not only stop their healing output, but also stop them from disabling your damage output with abilities such as Disarm, Mortal Coil, Polymorph, etc. Mastering this strategy is key to closing out games, but you should not focus solely on it, as it can be equally good to stun an opponent out of line of sight of his teammate, or to ruin major cooldowns like Avenging Wrath.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

• TSG (Protection Warrior + Frost Death Knight/Unholy Death Knight + Restoration Shaman)
• Protection Warrior + Havoc Demon Hunter + Restoration Shaman/Restoration Druid
• WLS (Protection Warrior + Destruction Warlock + Restoration Shaman)/Restoration Druid
• WMD(Protection Warrior + Fire Mage + Restoration Druid
• Protection Warrior + Shadow Priest + Restoration Shaman)

Death Knight has incredible pressure damage, but generally suffers from poor survivability against Physical damage. Your toolkit as Protection Warrior can completely cover up this vulnerability, and allows you as TSG to train down targets without much chance of recovery from the enemy team. Heartstop Aura slows down the enemy rotation and makes it even easier to survive.

Thanks to the Death Knight's great defensive toolkit against magic damage, you can both compensate each other with Intervene and Anti-Magic Zone.

It is recommended that Storm Bolt is used for the kill target and Asphyxiate is used for the healer.

Havoc Demon Hunter is similar to Death Knight, in that they have very poor defensives. They do, however, do a truck-load of damage, as well as draining Mana through Mana Rift. Your primary focus is to empty the enemy healer's Mana bar as fast as you can, and then win through unrelenting damage. Your job is to make sure your team stays alive, and if you can do so, you will win passively through damage.

Destruction Warlock is a unique caster in that it can play like a turret. They are durable enough to sustain damage up front and two Chaos Bolts is strong enough to kill people on its own. Safeguard the Warlock with Intervene, Bodyguard etc., so he can eventually end the game through his passive pressure and Chaos Bolt.

Combustion is the strongest burst cooldown in the game, and can single-handedly finish the game. Because of this, you do not need a crazy amount of damage to drain the enemy healer's Mana, just enough Combustion kill attempts to eventually land the kill. You simply have to bodyguard the Mage for as long as possible so he can get as long as possible to close out the game.

Similar to WLS, Shadow Priest is very durable and does high consistent damage. The composition has access to some great defensive cooldowns such as Greater Fade and Dispersion, in addition to your own toolkit. Make use of the Shadow Priest's great survivability and consistent damage to eventually win on Mana or dampening.