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Protection Warrior Tank Beginner's Guide - Battle for Azeroth 8.3
By Llarold
Last updated
2020/03/31 at 7:00 AM
View Changelog
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
Table of Contents
Guide Navigation
Looking to start playing a Protection Warrior in World of Warcraft and just want simple advice? Look no further! In this guide, we will cover everything you need to start easily playing a Protection Warrior in , without all the fuss of detailed guides Whether you're new to the spec, a casual achievement hunter, or a returning player looking to refamiliarize yourself with Protection in Battle for Azeroth, these easy guidelines, covering simple and effective talents, rotation, and gear setup, will get you into the action as easily as possible.
Please keep in mind that this page is meant to get beginner players started quickly, and does not contain much in the way of detailed explanations, mechanics, competitive options, gearing, simulation comparisons, or nuance. For more in-depth information, including all those optimizations and more, check out the complete Protection Warrior Guide pages linked in the navigation on the left-hand side of the page.
If you need help leveling to 120 in Battle for Azeroth, check out our
leveling tips
.
Overview
Beginners
Azerite
Essences
NEW Corruptio̵̦͚̽̿n-̴̤̤̗͓̘̖̖̖̜̊̎̈́͗̀͗̅͂̌͑̚͠
Talent Builds
Rotation, Priority, and Abilities
Advanced Concepts
Stats
Gear
Consumables
Simulations
Correcting Mistakes
Mythic+
NEW Ny'alotha Tips
Macros & Addons
WeakAuras
Common Terms
About the Author
This guide was written by Llarold! I’ve been tanking since Vanilla. During Mists of Pandaria, I saw an opportunity to begin writing guides, and I took it with the hopes of making myself a better tank and making the community into better tanks with me. I hope it’s working!
I am active in all of the tank class Discords but primarily contribute to theorycrafting discussions in
Peak of Serenity
and
Skyhold
(Monk and Warrior). I’m active on
Twitter
, where I mostly talk WoW (and basketball), and I’m half of the team responsible for the YouTube channel
WoW at Night
, which focuses primarily on tank guides and previews.
Talents
This Protection Warrior build is one of the most common and versatile talent setups, an effective all-around build which can handle almost anything, though some situations may become a little easier with talent swaps. You can find a more in-depth look at individual talents and situational recommendations in the
Prot Warrior Talent Guide
.
Stats
Protection Warriors primarily favor Haste, followed by Versatility. Find out more about how stats work, including sample stat weights and scaling plots in the
Stats Guide
, or get an overview of gear to look for from dungeons and raids in the
Prot Warrior Gear Guide
.
Socket
Item Level
Haste
Versatility
Mastery
Critical Strike
Strength
Versatility, Mastery, and Critical Strike are all reasonably close in value, and their values will change based on how much of each stat you have, so don't stress too much about balancing them out.
It's worth noting that item level and sockets are generally worth more than secondary stat itemization. A socket can be slightly more valuable than a 10 item level upgrade, but it depends on the piece. A 10 item level upgrade to bracers will provide much less stat budget than a 10 item level upgrade to a weapon or pants, for example. Item level is also somewhat more valuable than itemization for maximizing defenses. As a general rule (with plenty of exceptions!), your highest item level pieces and gear with sockets are worth wearing most of the time.
Rotation
This is a typical Protection Warrior rotation, using the talents recommended above. More information about abilities, active mitigation, and other advanced tips can be found in the
Prot Warrior Rotation Guide
.
Shield Slam
(Slammin’ shields is what Warriors do best!)
Thunder Clap
Revenge
(if free or to spend excess Rage)
Devastate
Defensively, Protection Warrior is easy to learn but difficult to master. Rage management is a complicated game with a great deal of depth, but here's the simple version:
Maintain
Shield Block
whenever you are tanking enemies.
Use
Ignore Pain
with your leftover Rage, but be sure not to sacrifice
Shield Block
for it.
Shield Block
is your first and most important line of defense.
Ignore Pain
is a useful damage reduction tool as well, and you should try to keep it up as Rage generation permits. It only stacks up to 130% of its base value, so casting it back-to-back will waste Rage in normal tanking circumstances.
Shield Block
is normally much more effective at reducing your damage taken than
Ignore Pain
, so be careful not to spend your rage on
Ignore Pain
when you need to cast
Shield Block
.
Enhancements
Only two gear slots can be enchanted by all players in Battle for Azeroth: weapons and rings. There are also glove enchants which can assist with professions, Enchanter-only bracer enchants which modify hearthstone use, and Tailor-only cloak enchants which reduce threat slightly.
Weapon:
Enchant Weapon - Force Multiplier
(Best overall) |
Enchant Weapon - Naga Hide
(Max defense)
Rings:
Enchant Ring - Accord of Haste
Gems:
Quick Sand Spinel
Heart of Azeroth Essences
The Heart of Azeroth Essence system adds powerful active and passive skills that can be chosen and swapped situationally like talents.
Essence Major Powers:
Vision of Perfection
- Best offensive power for Warriors in AoE situations. It is also one of the most consistently valuable defensive options, as well!
The Crucible of Flame
- The best single-target DPS option! Extremely powerful in raids - but also good in Tyrannical Mythic+ dungeons.
Memory of Lucid Dreams
- Provides an enormous Rage generation cooldown that scales extremely well with the Protection Warrior kit. Very useful in Mythic+ dungeons, especially high-level keys.
Essence Minor Powers:
Memory of Lucid Dreams
- 15% chance to return 50% of any Rage spent. Incredible value that synergizes with the rest of Warrior's toolkit. The Versatility and healing are also nice. This essence rules!
Conflict and Strife
- Consistent source of Versatility. Excellent in all situations and good even at lower ranks.
Nullification Dynamo
- Best defensive power against spell damage. Best offensive power if consistently taking spell damage - but only at rank 3. Not worth using at ranks 1 & 2.
Aegis of the Deep
- Simple Versatility power that scales with the number of nearby targets. Good in Mythic+ dungeons, especially on Fortified weeks.
Sphere of Suppression
- Good source of Haste and passive slow, somewhat useful in Mythic+ dungeons, but does not work against slow-immune targets. Good to use if you don't have any of the above options, but otherwise very passable.
The Formless Void
- Grants Strength, Haste, and Corruption Resistance. This trait has extremely high uptime in raids (not so good in M+), grants your favorite stats, and has virtually zero downsides. What's not to love?
Strength of the Warden
- The best Corruption Resistance minor power for Mythic+. It provides a small, reliable trickle of self-healing, a small boost to your maximum health, and that all-important Corruption Resistance. It's good!
What Essences Should I Buy?
With MOTHER now selling Rank 3 essences via
, you can quickly catch up alts' unattained or underleveled essences, and here what you should focus on buying first:
High Priority:
Conflict and Strife
- This provides an amazingly powerful Minor Power and takes at least several weeks to unlock Rank 3. Buying this should be a top priority.
Nullification Dynamo
- This is another immensely valuable Minor Power, and unlocking it takes a lot of time spent on Mechagon Island farming rep and unlock materials. That grind is annoying, skip ASAP.
The Formless Void
- Gathering a raid essence can take a lot of time, and this one is a really strong Minor Power, granting a steady source of Strength, Haste, and valuable Corruption Resistance. This is a good one to pick up from MOTHER.
Sphere of Suppression
- PvP grinds are brutal. This isn't as much of a must-have trait as the rest of the list, but if you've unlocked this on one character and you want it on your Warrior, don't do that to yourself again.
Low Priority:
Vision of Perfection
- This is the most generally valuable Rank 3 power to Warriors, but as of Patch 8.3, acquiring rank 3 should only require several runs of Mechagon - Workshop on Heroic. It's pretty easy to get now!
Memory of Lucid Dreams
- It's a fantastic trait, but unlocking Rank 2 only takes a couple of days and Rank 3 takes a couple of weeks. It's good, but the grind isn't very punishing.
Aegis of the Deep
- Farming to Revered with your Nazjatar faction reputation and gathering 50 Manapearls is pretty easy. This trait's worth having, but it's not worth prioritizing as a MOTHER purchase.
The Crucible of Flame
- It's the best Major Power for raiding, and absolutely a must-have, but you unlock it simply by leveling your Heart of Azeroth. It's a high-priority option, but there's no point in wasting
when you can just do some world quests or Island Expeditions for Azerite.
Azerite Armor
Azerite gear is a major source of player power in Battle for Azeroth, and the traits that Azerite armor provides are based on the item’s level, meaning that higher ilvl Azerite pieces will have stronger Azerite effects. For this reason, Azerite armor cannot Warforge or Titanforge.
Deafening Crash
is hands-down the most important trait for Prot Warrior, but only for a single point. The duration increase to Demoralizing Shout is extremely powerful, but does not increase with additional ranks in
Deafening Crash
. Beyond that,
Bastion of Might
is the best overall trait, massively increasing both the offensive and defensive potential of
Avatar
!
You should aim for as many ranks in
Bastion of Might
as you can achieve without sacrificing item level, and at least one point in
Deafening Crash
. There is nothing wrong with going beyond one point in
Deafening Crash
, as it will increase your damage (that's a good thing!), just be sure not to sacrifice ranks in
Bastion of Might
.
In single-target raid encounters, the best damage traits are
Brace for Impact
and
Reckless Flurry
(a Fury trait!).
Brace for Impact
adds damage and block value and is a good all-around trait, while
Reckless Flurry
purely adds damage, and isn't as universally useful. Neither of these traits are very good in Mythic+ or raid encounters with multiple targets.
Gear available from dungeons with
Bastion of Might
:
Slot
Name
Boss
Dungeon
Helm
Helm of Abyssal Malevolence
Vol'zith the Whisperer
Shrine of the Storm
Shoulders
Kraken Shell Pauldrons
Viq'Goth
Siege of Boralus
Chest
Desert Guardian's Breastplate
Avatar of Sethraliss
Temple of Sethraliss
Corruption Bonuses
Corruption is a replacement to Titanforging, added in Patch 8.3. Corruption bonuses on gear offer beneficial at the expense of receiving negative effects as your Corruption value increases. Some effects are distinctly more "worth it" than others, and here are the best ones!
Passives:
Expedient
and
Versatile
are both great all-around options.
Strikethrough
provides increased Critical Strike damage and healing, making it a good offensively-oriented option if you have a decent amount of Critical Strike chance.
Procs:
Racing Pulse
- A simple, valuable Haste Proc.
Infinite Stars
- The best single target corruption, but it loses damage in AoE due to the debuff stacks being spread around to multiple targets.
Twisted Appendage
- Decent added single-target damage, but a little unreliable.
Gushing Wound
- A simple, reliable single-target damage proc. By far the most efficient DPS per Corruption.
Echoing Void
- A strong single target and AoE damage proc. Not the best at either, but pretty close to the top in both situations.
Twilight Devastation
-
We saved the best for last.
The best AoE damage proc, but the proc rate is low and beams can miss some targets, so it's a little less reliable than some of the weaker options. It's excellent in Mythic+, excellent in AoE and add cleave fights, excellent in Horrific Visions, and excellent in world questing. It's the best.
Our Protection Warrior guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs; make sure to check our changelog to this page, by clicking on
View Changelog
at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Protection Warrior guides for Visions of N'zoth, Battle for Azeroth's third and final content patch, make sure to browse the
Navigation Bar
below, and our list of
Related Guides
just beneath the
Table of Contents
.
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Azerite
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