Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Defensive Stance

Defensive Stance

Instant	1.5 sec cooldown

Requires Warrior
Requires level 9

A tanking combat stance that decreases damage taken by 20%, increases threat generation, and generates 1 Rage every 3 sec while in combat.

Improved Defensive Stance (Level 92+)
Defensive Stance now increases your armor by 5%.

Buff

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

None

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

0 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Mod % Damage Taken (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, Physical, Shadow)
Value: -20%

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Mod Threat (127)
Value: 900

Effect #3

Apply Aura: Mod Rage % Generated From Damage Dealt
Value: -100%

Effect #4

Apply Aura: Power Regen (Rage)
Value: 17

Effect #5

Apply Aura: Shapeshift (Defensive Stance)

Flags

Guides

Warlords of Draenor
Warrior Changes

Warrior DPS Guide (Arms/Fury)

Comments

Comment by coredumperror

"Decreases damage taken by 10%"

Does anyone know if this 10% applies before or after mitigation from armor?

Comment by Kaynos

That quest should be available from any warrior trainer. I found out at 14 on my tauren warrior that i had to go in Brill to get my defensive stance.

Comment by Haloman600

Prot warriors FTW. Warriors in defensive stance pwn.

Comment by Rikhardur

do you know how much % extra threat is generated ?

Comment by Rexz

All threat caused is increased by 1.3x it's base value while you are in this stance.

With Defiance, It increases the Warrior's base threat multiplier in Defensive Stance up to 149.5% at lvl 3. Very nice for managing aggro.

Comment by Tsaza

To bind this: "Special Action Button 2"

Comment by racee

were i train the defensive stance, i have a warrior dps but i cant be tank beacus i dont have the defensive stance i have the full t6 form dps and tank and i cant be tank :( :( :(

Comment by Krat

As a level 50 protection warrior, I find defensive effective stance for soloing as well as tanking (obviously). It may sound strange to some of you but I would reccomend trying to give it a chance.

Comment by Rankkor

as stupid as it sounds, I once found a so-called tank who never got this skill.

his excuse was "why the hell would I want to do "less" damage?"

I must say I haven't laughed that hard in a long time

Comment by icritmypants

In cata this will now decrease damage taken by 10% (stays the same) and increases threat by 45%.

Comment by Sacrosterion

This will mean threat generation as a tank will be much easier than before.

Comment by tonydizzle

Notice the comment made by Drijadon WAY back pre-WotLK release in patch 2.4.3:

WotLK Beta-Release-Patchnotes: "Defensive Stance now increases threat by 45%."

Has been like this all through Wrath. They are just making it more clear in the tooltip for people. The real change is that it is no longer going to reduce damage done by 5%.

Edit: As of build 13~~033~~117 on the PTR it now increases threat generated by ~~100~~125%! Dear God, it is now obvious the reason Deathwing has re-emerged is because he felt threatened by the warriors of Azeroth!

Edit: Not only has this gone to 200% increased threat but also it seems people went on a down-rating spree...

Comment by loik

Eeheheh... what? 100%? HOLY !@#$!
Edit: Eeheheh... what? 125%? HOLY !@#$!
Edit2: Eeheheh... what? 200%? HOLY !@#$!
I know that this change is for all tanking classes, but, HOLY &*!@ XD

Comment by Niero

The new tooltips with 4.0.1 are horrible.. Always have to check wowhead for details.

Comment by Moonschwine

If you didn't know already Defensive Stance is the stance needed to become Crit Immune in Cataclysm as you gain crit immunity (ie: a 6% reduction) from the talents in the Protection Tree.

Comment by loik

A defensive combat stance. Decreases damage taken by 10%. Significantly increases threat generation.
Yeah... well... I think "significantly" is not enough for a 200% increase to threat generation.

Comment by Dreamender

My personal Defensive Stance marcro:

#showtooltip
/cast Defensive Stance
/cast Intervene
/cast Revenge
/stopmacro
/equip Main hander
/equip Shield

Will put you into defensive stance if you're not, otherwise:

Intervenes a friendly target.
Uses revenge on a hostile target.

Will also equip a shield if you're not already using one.

Comment by Dsiak

In cataclysm, there's no longer the need to make a quest for this.

Comment by Kunzzi

BRING BACK STANCE-DANCING. I really hope Blizz reads all this hate about Cata warriors and make us more like we used to be in Wotlk.

Comment by Terrassen

If you didn't all ready know: The ability did at first up to Cataclysm have to be achieved by quest-chains, as well as Berserker Stance had to.

Comment by Jessrond

If you are using Tidyplates, when you are in defensive state all mobs that you're holding aggro on will show blue with those attacking others/no one as red. So if you're tanking and the mob holding your aggro is a red bar... that means you're in the wrong stance.

Defensive Stance

Buff

Spell Details

Guides

Related

Contribute