Protection Warrior Tanking Guide

This guide is meant to be more of a “nexus” for information, rather than a compendium of all tanking information. Most of what I’m saying has been posted on Tankspot for a while, however I realize how daunting it can be to go to a new forum where there is tons of information scattered about. A lot of people might just say “aww forget it, I’ll just make my own HALP! post because I am overwhelmed with the information here.” I know I might do that. So, the goal of this guide is to give you the basic information youre probably looking for, and to point you in the right direction for other posts that contain more information to answer your questions.

Protection Warrior Tanking Guide
Protection Warrior Tanking Guide
Protection Warrior Tanking Guide


Protection Warrior Questions and Answers

“What is the Defense Cap?”
There is no real defense “Cap” persay, however there is a defense minimum. When tanking you want to be uncrittable. For raid bosses this is 540 defense (5.6% uncrittable, bosses have a base 5% chance to crit +.2% for every level, so against a level 83 it is 5.6% chance to crit), for heroics it is 535 defense (5.4% chance to not be crit). However, a lot of people use the 30stam/15resil shoulder enchant, and because of the resil it actually knocks down the numbers to 536 defense for raids and 531 defense for heroics. It is more than permissible to keep stacking defense beyond this point since defense still adds to your dodge/parry/miss/block stats.

“How do I get more hit rating? I’m not capped anymore!”
The short answer to this is: don’t. If youre doing your rotation correctly, threat really shouldn’t be an issue. Most people in high end T9 gear are raiding with 30 +/- 6 expertise and 60 +/- 40 hit. It is really NOT A BIG DEAL to be hit capped. I’d recommend looking elsewhere than hit if youre having threat problems because simply put, you just don’t need it. Threat for warriors is interesting because generating 1k TPS more doesn’t really matter as long as it is still higher than the highest DPS’s TPS, and probably won’t be the crux in beating an enrage timer. Threat right now is pretty much like saying, “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.”

Many people get concerned that their taunts are going to miss if they don’t have high hit rating. This is true, however, it is far better to simply glyph taunt than it is to sacrifice survivability in your gear. If youre doing a fight that requries a taunt to land, just glyph it. For maybe more on Glyphs, see the Glyph section below. And for maybe more on taunt mechanics see the afformentioned foot note .

“How much expertise should I have?” or “What’s the expertise cap”
The expertise “cap” most commonly referred to is the “dodge” cap. Once you have 6.5% chance to not have an attack dodged, then you have reached the “dodge cap” for expertise, which is 26 expertise. The “parry cap” is much higher at 14%, or 56 expertise, however this number is purely academic. Once you have expertise that high, it’s contribution to threat is minimal, and the likelihood that a parry haste might gib you is also minimal, especially in ICC25, where the bosses don’t hit as hard as they would have if Blizzard hadn’t put in Chill of the Throne, but more attacks connect. For the most part 26 expertise is good to shoot for, and it is nice for threat since until 26 expertise it reduces 2 ways a boss can avoid your attack, but as long as you’re not having threat problems I wouldn’t worry about it. If you really need expertise I would use expertise/stam gems to match socket pluses that yield stamina, preferably +9 or +12.

“Why is my Single Target Threat Bad?”
See: the answers to the expertise and hit questions, and also look at footnote [2] at the bottom of this guide for threat rotation/priority suggestions.

“Why is my AoE Threat Bad?”
This is a more complex question. There are several things that can be done about AOE threat though. First off, make sure youre doing the normal threat things correctly, namely having a great threat build. You could also use a cleave spec build like you might find in Badga’s Anub’Arak add tanking guide that you’ll find in the gearing section of this guide. Really the most important thing to AoE tanking for warrios is cleave, and I highly suggest the cleave glyph. As is obviously you should always be hitting thunderclap and shockwave on cooldown, but they are often just barely good enough abilities to hold AoE threat. Now, most situations we’re going to be talking about heroics or trash pulls, this is where most AoE tanking takes place. AoE tanking for Anub is a beast all on its own, and if you’re wondering about AoE Threat for that, again go read Badga’s guide. For heroics/trash what you want to do is tclap -> shockwave -> tclap and cleave whenever you have the rage to, I also highly suggest clicking or tabbing around the mobs with an eye on omen and shield slam/revenge/devastating any of the adds that the DPS are catching up on aggro from. I also suggest assisting DPS, especially if you have a DPS that typically pulls off of you. Make sure you keep vigilance on DPS like this also. I actually kind of like the challenge of not marking mobs and trying to hold AoE aggro on everything no matter what dps is damaging which target. However, if it becomes an issue, I would highly recommend marking a focus fire target and instructing the dps to focus on that. This way you can focus your single target threat on this NPC, and cleave/shockwave/thunderclap will give you enough AoE threat to hold the mobs off healers and give you a nice lead for the next target you are DPSing. Also, there’s no shame in asking for misdirects or tricks of the trade if there are hunters and rogues around that can provide it.

“How do I look so far?”
If you follow the advice in this thread, then great! A lot of people want to know if they are ICC ready (or what instances they are ready for), but tbh, gear is only going to go so far, how good your healers are, how well you know your class, how well you know your limitations, and how good you use your cooldowns will make that question far more easily answered. Yes to an extent you do need certain gear levels, but if you follow the advice in this thread to try and min/max your character as best you can, then you can probably tank any normal mode content out there, and maybe even some hardmode content. However, if you cut corners, don’t use epic gems, don’t use the best enchants, and keep with some ilevel 200 gear instead of getting crafted higher ilevel 245 and badge gear, then you’re not doing your guild any favors and it will be a lot harder for you to tank the content.

Gemming

Gemming for warriors becomes very simple: 32stam+2% armor meta gem. This gem requires that you have a red gem, so try and hit a red socket plus with the highest amount of +stam possible, probably a +9 or +12 gem. Then gem the rest with +30stam gem for your standard EHP set.

It is also permissible and sometimes preferred that if there is a socket plus of +9 or +12 stam, to hit that socket with a hybrid stam gem for the added benefit of another effect, albeit at a loss of stam. For the most part I prefer to stack stam, but it is very acceptable to do either way imo. Quibbling over very very small differences won’t make a break a fight.

Some fights might encourage more avoidance stacking than stam stacking. What you really want to do is gear/gem for fights. For example come hardmode time, Deathbringer Saurfang may require far more avoidance than EHP, same with the captain on gunship, but for now the safe bet is to do what tanks have always done for progression content at first: stack stam and go from there.

Red hybrid gem breakdown:

  • 10 Expertise/15 Stam – if you have below 26 expertise and feel like you need the threat
  • 10 Dodge/15 Stam – most avoidance
  • 10 Agi/15 Stam – most EHP since agi gives armor and some avoidance too, but not as much as dodge rating, also gives a small amount of crit
  • 10 parry/15 Stam – almost NEVER used, only used if the dodge DRs are high enough that parry becomes better than dodge.

Enchanting

Cloak Enchants
I’m going to start out this section talking about cloak enchants, because the majority of time that someone posts wanting to know how to change their gear to survive better or what not, cloak enchant change is one of the first things I recommend.

There are 3 cloak enchants: 22 Agi (or 23 Agi for Engineers), 16 Defense, or 225 armor to cloak. I’ve seen a lot of people using 22 Agi. I myself an am engineer and when 23 Agi to cloak came live I was excited, however, it happened right when the nerfed Agi. I guess if you want a threat enchant the extra crit from agi is nice and it has some armor, but it actually provides less avoidance than 16 defense now. This means that the tank enchant at the moment is 225 armor to cloak assuming youre at the defense minimum. It provides a small amount of AP from Armed to the Teeth, and it calculates out to about 500 EHP. This would be as if there was a 20 or so stam to cloak enchant (this varies depending on your gear levels and amount of armor).

Shoulder enchants
As screwy as this may seem, the best shoulder enchant blizzard has given to us warriors is 30stam/15 resil to shoulders. This enchant is beneficial for several reasons. First, it enables us to dip under the 540 defense minimum if we need to. Granted with ToC+ level gear this is never really an issue, but I actually did struggle with it a little back in ulduar, and the 15 resil enables warriors to drop to 536 defense and still be uncrittable. But secondly, and most importantly, it is the only enchant that adds to EHP at all, and it’s over 700EHP at that!!!! 30 Stam is really nice. Take it.

The other alternative is the exalted Sons of Hodir Enchant. It provides 20dodge/15defense to shoulder. If a fight requires stacking of avoidance then this enchant is the way to go, however at this current point in time I would suggest stam.

Chest encahnts
Unless youre needing defense (in which case go with 22 defense to chest) the best choice is 275 HP to chest. It gives the most EHP, almost twice what 10 stats gives you. I think the small avoidance benefits from 10 stats are significantly outweighed by the extra HPS from 275 HP to chest.

Bracer Enchant
40 stam is the only choice here.

Boot Enchant
The options are 22stam and Tuskarr’s Vitality (15stam + minor run speed). Now yes 22stam is obviously more EHP, but the run speed comes in handy on TONS of fights, so I would actually recommend sacking 22stam here for Tuskarr’s Vitality, but I guess technically it’s personal choice. MY recommendation will always be Tuskarr’s though; the utility is just too valuable.

Leg Enchant
Again, one choice, 55stam/22agi. Frosthide Leg Armor: http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=50965

Glove Enchant
Options include: 18 stam, 2%threat+10 parry rating, or 240 Armor. I guess if you’re having severe threat issues use the threat enchant, otherwise go with 18 stam or 240 armor. 240 armor for nearly every level/combination of armor/hps ends up being more EHP than 18 stam, however the calculations are usually pretty close and if youre going to be doing a fight where there is any significant amount of magic damage, then 18 stam is the winner, but for the most part in current content 240 armor is the winner. However, if youre an engineer, then 885 armor to gloves is the best hands down. The 645 armor difference at my current gear levels as of typing this is equivalent to about 62 stam in terms of EHP.

Helm Enchant
Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44150 from revered with the Argent Crusade. The Engineering helm enchant is another acceptable alternative, you gain 8 stam but lose 20 defense.

Weapon Enchant
This is a highly debated topic. The enchants are as follows:

Blood Draining is a smart heal when you need it, in my opinion in a crisis situation where you drop below 35% health, it might as well be an extra temporary 4k EHP (the proc heals for about 2k HP). This is the EHP enchant. Mongoose has some value when it procs, but for warriors the uptime of Mongoose is too low for it to be useful imo. I don’t have a link to it, but for warriors Blade Ward is more avoidance than mongoose according to current theorycraft.

Shield Enchant

The choices are as follows:

Again, I would advocate stam if you don’t need the defense, there are times when the 81 BV is very nice for threat though. Some will argue that the value of 20 defense is higher than 18 stam. I personally disagree, but I should mention it’s a viable option or I might risk being flogged.

TL;DR version

  • Helm:Stalwart Protector
  • Shoulders:30stam/15 resil
  • Cloak: 225 armor
  • Chest: 275 HPS
  • Bracers: 40 stam
  • Weapon: Blood Draining
  • Shield: 18 stam
  • Boots: Tuskarr’s Vitality
  • Legs:55stam/22Agi
  • Gloves:240 armor (or 885 armor if engi)

Talent Specs/Glyphs

Survival Spec
The first spec I am going to talk about is the “survival spec.” This is the spec that picks up every possible talent that would help a warrior survive.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LVZGV00xZVItMx0didczsGo:dTromz

Now, I personally don’t really like this spec because it wastes a bunch of talent points in Fury for things that in most 25 main raids will already be covered. Pallies will have Vindication for Demo shout, and a lot of fury warriors will roll with at least 4/5 commanding presence, depending on their spec. However if you are lacking these things or are in a 10 man where youre the only person that can give those buffs, then I would probably recommend it. However, I don’t believe it is optimal in most 25 man situations.

The standard or “threat” spec *updated for 3.3.3*
The next spec is the “cookie cutter” warrior spec. Some people throw a few points around differently and I will explain the changes, but the base line is http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LAM00fZhZMItrx0didIzsGo This is the standard deep wounds spec. It maximizes threat and still has a great deal of survivability in it. It is flexible and versatile and is what I have used primarily for most progression fights since Ulduar.

This is not a set in stone spec, there are some things you can change, most notably are the points in focused rage. A lot of times it comes down to personal preference whether or not to use 2/5 shield spec and 3/3 focused rage or to take all 3 points in FR and drop them into shield spec. The trade off is basically that focused rage leads to more rage saved over time than shield spec does rage gained (especially in ICC) but shield spec is still slightly more mitigation. If you have no rage starvation issues at all, then spec 5/5 shield spec 0/3 focused rage

Glyphs
There’s no one specific “these are the 3 glyphs you have no matter what” setup. I actually carry around several different glyphs and switch them out as needed.

If you need a raw survival setup, the best three glyphs are:

  • Blocking – The extra BV can add up to a lot over time and is very nice while shield block is up
  • Last Stand – 2 min cooldown with no downside, what’s not to like?
  • Shield wall – 2 min cooldown, but decreases the effectiveness. Typically 40% is enough and having it being able to be used again sooner is a definite plus, if you think you might shield wall twice in a fight, I recommend it. As a side note this works best when paired with imp disciplines. Some argue take both at the same time or neither, but considering on some fights you may want it but on other fights you may need to put on all threat glyphs or something and drop shield wall for a fight, but not respec, then I’d say it’s acceptable to have it spec’d but not glyphed, however if you’re going to use the glyph, you should definitely have it spec’d.

Other Glyphs to swap out as needed:

  • Glyph of Cleaving if there’s any AoE tanking to be done
  • Glyph of Devastate for maybe more threat, this is the best single target threat glyph by far.
  • Glyph of Taunt for any boss that you may need to guarantee a taunt lands, or at least increase the likelihood of it.[3]

Crafted Gear and Easy to Get Gear

Crafted gear
There are 4 pieces of crafted gear right now that are very attainable (especially since triumph badges are free flowing) and are very very good pieces to have.

If you do not have a piece of gear as good as one of these, then I highly recommend getting them made. It is fairly easy and they are typically big upgrades.

Gearing Guides
There are several gearing guides for all levels already out here on Tankspot. I highly suggest you look at them:

Easy to Get Gear
There is also a lot of gear that is puggable that you can get some very solid gear from, though not best in slot. If you have a modicum of gear and find similar players, then ToC25 is something that is something that you can probably PuG. Anub might be a little hard for a PuG, but for the most part normal mode is very doable. Any ToC25 gear is very good.

  • Helm: Helm of Wrath: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49479 If you can manage to get this, then it will save you badges getting the badge helm. It is a very solid helm that you will use until you upgrade to either the 258 T9 or you get an ICC level helm.
  • Neck: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44665 This is the quest neck from Saphiron in naxx. All you have to do is kill Saph and Maly (And you don’t have to clear the wings to do saph any more) and you can get this neck. Gem it with 30 stam and it is a very viable budget neck until you can get ToC25 level stuff.
  • Shoulders: I recommend trying to get T9 shoulders, even if you only have access to 232 level gear, they are very good. However the emblem of triumph shoulders are probably better than the 232 shoulders.
  • Cloak: If you have the emblems of frost to spare, the new frost badge cloak is VERY good, might even be best in slot until
  • hardmodes. Otherwise the platinum mesh cloak from valor badges is a very acceptable cloak until you can get a better one from Ulduar or ToC.
  • Weapons: Rimefang’s Claw – Item – World of Warcraft – Sword
  • Falric’s Wrist-Chopper – Item – World of Warcraft – Axe
  • Shield: If you have the cash and can’t find a shield you could buy “Northern Barrier.” It’s a BoE Ulduar drop.
  • Trinkets: Glyph of Indominability, The Black Heart, and Essence of Gossimir are all very easily obtainable trinkets and are also pretty decent. Glyph and The Black Heart will take you far into content
  • Rings: They are a bit trickier to get good ones, but there is a decent crafted one to start out with: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42643 And the ring that drops in H-ToC5 is also very good: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47243 although it doesn’t have any defense on it, so if youre low on defense this may not be an option. However one of the best rings to pick up is http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47731
  • Legs: There aren’t very good choices for budget legs. I’d say go for tier 8 or 9 legs or if you can get them from ToC25 try to grab http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47273. There are also Legs that drop off of Kologarn in ulduar25 that are pretty decent(http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45267). If you can drop the money for them, then you should really go for “Pillars of Might.” They are ICC crafted legs that will give you amazing mileage, they are pretty much best in slot: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49904
  • Gloves: I’d recommend either T9 gloves or the new frost emblem gloves.
  • Belt: Indestructible Plate Girdle is one of the better belts you can get until you get the frost emblem belt. It is a crafted item so no raiding is involved, just money and/or farming: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45551
  • Boots: Spiked Deathdealers are another very good crafted option. You could also craft Boots of Kingly Upheaval, but I don’t think it is worth the money and there are other boots that are comparable from raiding content, however if you have the money and don’t think you can get better from raiding, then by all means, get them made.

[1] EHP is actually a bit more complicated than just HP/Armor. So, time for a quick crash course here:

Armor is really damaged decreased, which means that any modifier that reduces the damage you take also raises your EHP. EHP is a kind of magical number that is used to equate all of those decreased modifiers to “effective hit points” as if that would be the number of hit points you would have if everything was unmitigated. The calculation is actually something like:

EHP = Hit Points/[(1-%dmg reduction)(1-%defense reduction)(1-%other dmg reduction)]
And you can repeat the (1-%other dmg reduction) for each successive modifer that you have, for example the 10% decreased damage done that priests and shamans do, and the reduction from blessing of sanctuary. This will give you your “Effective Hit Points” number and you can use these values to calculate if armor would be better for you than stamina, etc. etc.

[2] Threat – in regards to hit and expertise as stated above, it is not fully necessary to gear for threat since our innate threat should be enough, as I said, unlike dps it’s not about putting out as much as you can, you just have to be able to put out more threat than the top dps. Here are some general tips to help with that.

1) Shield Slam is your friend! Your best friend! Shield slam as MUCH as possible for maximum threat.
2) Manage your rage. If you have less than about 40 rage, then you should save it to ensure you get in more shield slams and devastates thus avoid queueing up another heroic strike. If you have enough rage, then keep HS up as much as possible.
3) The priority should go: Shield Slam -> Revenge ->Devastate while keeping up heroic strike for maximum threat or for maximum DPS use Revenge -> Shield Slam -> Revenge while keeping HS queued up. Shockwave should also probably be used on cooldown. Shockwave might have some hit box issues, so use it wisely(but most of these have been fixed, so it’s not usually a concern), but also it is good to use shockwave since it cannot be dodged or parried since it is an AoE effect. However it still applies to melee hit (not spell it).
4) Shield Block is also very nice for threat. I often get 1 shield slam off to activate glyph of blocking, then when the next shield slam comes up, I hit shield block before it and try to get in as many shield slams as possible with shield block up to get a big threat lead at the begining of fights.

[3] Hit rating and taunt. As I said before, for threat purposes hit rating doesn’t matter, however there are a few bosses now that require you be able to taunt and not miss, especially in ICC.

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