Protection Warrior Class Guide - MoP Classic

Welcome to our Mists of Pandaria Classic (MoP Classic) Protection Warrior Class Guide for Phase 1, it focuses on getting you up to speed with the Spec for PvE content, Dungeons and Raiding. The guide includes key information for what has changed going into MoP, the best Talent builds, Major Glyphs, your Rotation, Gearing and Consumables for Protection Warrior.

Table of Content:

• Changes from Cataclysm to MoP
• Talents
• Rotation & Abilities
• Gearing & Consumables

What’s New for Protection Warriors in Mists of Pandaria Classic

Mists of Pandaria brings a lot of changes to classes, not only with the new and improved talent tree but also with core changes to how classes work. This expansion could be seen as the first step into “modern” World of Warcraft. But how are these changes impacting the Warrior class and the Protection specialization:

• Recklessness doesn’t increase the damage you take anymore.
• Rend is replaced by Deep Wounds.
• Stance dance to DPS is over.
• Slam is exclusive to Arms.
• We don’t use Ranged Weapons anymore.
• Berserker rage is a better offensive spell.
• Battle Shout has been modified and is slightly worse, but still good rage generation.
• We have a new mechanic called Banners. We have 3 War banners, and can place one out of 3 on the battlefield: Demoralizing Banner, Mocking Banner and Skull Banner.
• And with all that, new glyphs and other talents, but we will talk about that in a later section.

Is Protection Warrior Good?

The short answer is yes. Protection Warriors are always good tanks, even though they tend to struggle when they have to deal with magical damage. They also scale very well into the end game, with one of the highest damage profiles for a tank specialization in WoW. And with the new utility Blizzard gave them with Banners, Warriors are wanted in every raid group. It’s a great tank, might not be the best, but it’s one of the better tanks.

Best Talents & Glyphs for Protection Warrior in MoP Classic

Regarding Talents, this guide will provide you with 2 templates for Raiding and Dungeons. With the new talents, don’t forget to change your talents depending on the encounter, don’t stick to a single template for everything!

Protection Warrior Raiding Talent Build

This is the default set up for raiding. Double Time can be swapped with Juggernaut if you have no use for the extra charge and prefer the reduced cooldown. Enraged Regeneration is the best option as a tank warrior, as the spec lacks self-healing. Disrupting Shout is a default choice. Dragon Roar and Bladestorm are both great options, but Dragon Roar is better in single target, Vigilance is a very powerful external and will save your teammates while making it easier to taunt multiple targets.

For the last line, Bloodbath is the best option available. You can play Avatar if you need a CC cleanse.

Best Raiding Glyphs for Protection Warriors

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Heavy Repercussions, Glyph of Hold the Line, Glyph of Unending Rage.

Other options are Glyph of Incite for damage, Glyph of Rude Interruption in fights with kicks, Glyph of Death from Above for mobility (Glyph of Enraged Speed can also be taken for mobility purposes).

There are no Minor glyphs worth mentioning.

Protection Warrior Dungeons & Challenge Mode Talent Build

As a Protection Warrior, there isn’t a lot to change between both a raid and dungeon talent build. The biggest change would be Bladestorm in place of Dragon Roar. In this set up, you can’t change Bloodbath for Avatar anymore, as Bloodbath and Bladestorm synergize very well together.

Best Dungeon Glyphs for Protection Warriors

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Heavy Repercussions, Glyph of Hold the Line, Glyph of Unending Rage.

Other options are Glyph of Incite for damage, Glyph of Rude Interruption in fights with kicks, Glyph of Death from Above for mobility (Glyph of Enraged Speed can also be taken for mobility purposes).

There are no Minor Glyphs worth mentioning.

Protection Warrior Rotation & Priority for MoP Classic

Single Target Rotation & Priority

1. Stay in Defensive Stance.
2. Maintain Battle Shout / Commanding Shout depending on the one you need.
3. Maintain Weakened Blows on your targets by casting Thunder Clap.
4. Maintain full stacks of Sunder Armor with Devastate.
5. Use Recklessness on cooldown.
6. Use Skull Banner on cooldown.
7. Use Bloodbath on cooldown.
8. Use Dragon Roar on cooldown.
9. Stay Enraged. Use Berserker Rage if you aren’t Enrage.
10. Use Shield Slam on cooldown.
11. Spend excess rage on Heroic Strike.
12. Use Devastate when you have nothing to do.

How to mitigate damage as a Protection Warrior? Your main way to mitigate damage is by using Shield Block and Shield Barrier. First of all, if you don’t need the damage from Heroic Strike (e.g. you are actively tanking a raid boss), all the excess rage you might have will be spent on Shield Barrier. Never overcap your rage. Try to keep a pretty high uptime on Shield Block while always having a charge for the most dangerous phase or mechanic. Against magical damage, use Shield Barrier.

For the hardest part of a boss fight, you can use Enraged Regeneration, Last Stand and Shield Wall.

AoE Rotation & Priority

1. Use Bladestorm on cooldown
2. Use Thunder Clap on cooldown.
3. Continue with the single target rotation, but replace Heroic Strike with Cleave.

Best Gear & Stats for Protection Warrior in MoP Classic

Best in Slot aren’t as big in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Reforging is the new hype, so you can tailor your gear better than before.

The gear you should aim for are: Trinkets, Tier Sets and Weapons.

The best weapons you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:

• Masterwork Phantasmal Hammer, from Blacksmithing.
• Inelava, Spirit of Inebriation, from Yan-Zhu the Uncasked, Stormstout Brewery.
• Dubious Handaxe, from the Sha of Doubt, Temple of Jade.

The best trinkets for Protection Warrior are:

• Relic of Niuzao, from Inscription.
• Relic of Xuen from Inscription.
• Lessons of the Darkmaster, from Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance.
• Heart of Fire, from Master Snowdrift, in Shado-Pan Monastery.

MoP Protection Warrior Stat Priority

Reach your Hit cap, so 7.5% and then your Expertise cap, so around 15%. Then, Strength is your best stat.

Regarding the other stats, you want to get as many defensive stats as possible, so prioritize Parry and Dodge. After that, Critical Strike chance, Mastery and Haste are the best options, in that order.

Best Consumables, Enchants & Gems for Protection Warrior in MoP Classic

The following tables outline the recommended Consumables, Enchants and Gems for Protection Warrior in Raiding and Dungeon content.

Consumables

Enchants

Gems

We hope this guide helped you improve your Protection Warrior Gameplay and better understand the spec. To check out all of our MoP Classic content, such as Class Guides, Tier Lists and more, you can browse our full library of MoP Classic Guides.