Protection Warrior PvP Talents and Builds (Shadowlands / 9.2.5)

Punish has taken the lead in the first row of talents, because of the new Tier Sets. Sword and Board is worth considering now.

Level	Choices
15	✘ War Machine	✔ Punish	? Devastator
25	✘ Double Time	✘ Rumbling Earth	✔ Storm Bolt
30	✘ Best Served Cold	✔ Booming Voice	✘ Dragon Roar
35	✔ Crackling Thunder	? Bounding Stride	✘ Menace
40	✘ Never Surrender	✔ Indomitable	✔ Impending Victory
45	✘ Into the Fray	✔ Unstoppable Force	✘ Ravager
50	✔ Anger Management	✘ Heavy Repercussions	✔ Bolster

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

Punish provides a decent single target damage increase to your main damage dealer. The damage reduction is a nice touch as well.

Devastator is also a decent option, giving you the most sustained damage output.

War Machine is of too little benefit to be considered.

Storm Bolt gives Warrior a much needed on-demand ranged stun, which is incredibly powerful both offensively and defensively. Storm Bolt is a big win condition for the Warrior's team offensively, and is ideal for stopping enemy attempts to kill you or your teammates. This talent is mandatory for competitive PvP.

Rumbling Earth is not worth considering, as hitting 3 targets with Shockwave is a rare occurrence.

Double Time is a very niche talent, which should only be used versus casters that are very difficult to catch up to in 2v2. A good example is Affliction Warlock with the permanent slow Legendary, where it can be more beneficial to play with extra mobility, should you lack spells like Blessing of Freedom on your team.

Booming Voice boosts your damage output and Rage generation and should be picked.

Best Served Cold and Dragon Roar are less valuable and should not be chosen.

Crackling Thunder makes it easier to catch targets trying to kite you out, especially when combined with Thunderstruck.

Bounding Stride is a niche talent, which you can consider picking up against targets that can easily kite you, such as Affliction Warlock.

Menace is generally more of a burden than a help with its knock-back and we would not recommend it.

Indomitable and Impending Victory are both great talents to increase self sustain. We recommend picking Indomitable against sustained damage matchups where you have a lot of uptime, and Impending Victory against burst compositions and low uptime targets.

Never Surrender is only effective on low health, which is generally where you do not want to find yourself, so stick with the other options.

Unstoppable Force turns you into a powerhouse when Avatar is active and is the overall best option.

Into the Fray and Ravager do not compare to the burst damage and root potential of Unstoppable Force.

Anger Management lets you use your most crucial abilities more frequently and is the go-to pick. If you do not play with Unbreakable Will, then you can use Bolster against burst compositions with matching cooldowns, such as Avenging Wrath.

Heavy Repercussions does not increase your survivability enough to be considered.

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. As Protection Warrior, your choices are limited as you will be running the mandatory PvP talent almost every match.

Morale Killer is incredibly powerful and should be picked just about every match. The damage reduction for your team is huge and extra Rage generation is always welcome.

Thunderstruck is great for peeling a teammate that relies on kiting against melees. This root is not affected by diminishing returns, and can be a total nightmare for enemy melees when paired with Unstoppable Force.

Bodyguard gives an incredible strong Physical damage reduction to an ally, which gets redirected to you. Protection Warrior can handle Physical damage very easily, and this makes your partner very unlikely to die to specializations based around Physical damage, such as Subtlety Rogue or Arms Warrior. The downside of this strong talent, though, is that it breaks if you move too far from your ally, and you must consider if you have to kite a lot or not.

Disarm has a short cooldown and can completely ruin the damage of weapon-based classes like Retribution Paladins or Subtlety Rogue. This ability can even be used offensively versus specializations that require weapons for their defensives, such as stopping an Arms Warrior from using Die by the Sword or a Death Knights from using Death Strike.

Shield Bash provides further damage reduction to the enemy, and can be kept up permanently if used successfully on enemies casting spells, allowing you to reduce the damage your team takes significantly.

Oppressor can be used if your team is looking for more offensive pressure, letting you do up to 9% more damage in arena.

Sword and Board is a decent choice now with Protection Warrior 2-Piece.