Cataclysm Classic Protection Warrior Leveling

Protection is not terrible for leveling, but it falls behind in speed compared to Arms Warrior leveling speeds when leveling solo. You will get very fast dungeon finder pops when you queue as a tank, allowing you to spam run dungeons for experience, which will be higher experience than solo questing as Protection. If you are interested in the fastest solo leveling experience, check out our Arms Warrior Leveling Guide.

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap. Incite increases the crit chance of your Heroic Strike by 15%, and whenever it crits the next one you use is guaranteed to also crit.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap. Incite increases the crit chance of your Heroic Strike by 15%, and whenever it crits the next one you use is guaranteed to also crit. Shield Specialization generates 15 Rage when you block an attack.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap. Incite increases the crit chance of your Heroic Strike by 15%, and whenever it crits the next one you use is guaranteed to also crit. Shield Specialization generates 15 Rage when you block an attack. Shield Mastery reduces the cooldown of Shield Block by 20 seconds, and Shield Wall by 2 minutes.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap. Incite increases the crit chance of your Heroic Strike by 15%, and whenever it crits the next one you use is guaranteed to also crit. Shield Specialization generates 15 Rage when you block an attack. Shield Mastery reduces the cooldown of Shield Block by 20 seconds, and Shield Wall by 2 minutes. Concussion Blow deals moderate damage to a target and stuns them for 5 seconds.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap. Incite increases the crit chance of your Heroic Strike by 15%, and whenever it crits the next one you use is guaranteed to also crit. Shield Specialization generates 15 Rage when you block an attack. Shield Mastery reduces the cooldown of Shield Block by 20 seconds, and Shield Wall by 2 minutes. Concussion Blow deals moderate damage to a target and stuns them for 5 seconds. Bastion of Defense has a 20% to Enrage you whenever you block, dodge or parry, increasing your Physical damage dealt by 10%.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap. Incite increases the crit chance of your Heroic Strike by 15%, and whenever it crits the next one you use is guaranteed to also crit. Shield Specialization generates 15 Rage when you block an attack. Shield Mastery reduces the cooldown of Shield Block by 20 seconds, and Shield Wall by 2 minutes. Concussion Blow deals moderate damage to a target and stuns them for 5 seconds. Bastion of Defense has a 20% to Enrage you whenever you block, dodge or parry, increasing your Physical damage dealt by 10%. Warbringer allows you to use Charge in Defensive Stance, rather than needing to swap betweem stances.

Blood and Thunder allows you to spread your Rend to all targets hit with Thunder Clap. Incite increases the crit chance of your Heroic Strike by 15%, and whenever it crits the next one you use is guaranteed to also crit. Shield Specialization generates 15 Rage when you block an attack. Shield Mastery reduces the cooldown of Shield Block by 30 seconds, and Shield Wall by 3 minutes. Concussion Blow deals moderate damage to a target and stuns them for 5 seconds. Bastion of Defense has a 20% to Enrage you whenever you block, dodge or parry, increasing your Physical damage dealt by 10%. Warbringer allows you to use Charge in Defensive Stance, rather than needing to swap betweem stances.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy. Impending Victory gives your Devastate a 50% to allow you to use Victory Rush when you use Devastate on targets below 20% health.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy. Impending Victory gives your Devastate a 50% to allow you to use Victory Rush when you use Devastate on targets below 20% health. Heavy Repercussions doubles the damage dealt by Shield Slam whenever you have Shield Block activated.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy. Impending Victory gives your Devastate a 50% to allow you to use Victory Rush when you use Devastate on targets below 20% health. Heavy Repercussions doubles the damage dealt by Shield Slam whenever you have Shield Block activated. Thunderstruck increase the damage of Rend, Cleave and Thunder Clap by 6%.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy. Impending Victory gives your Devastate a 50% to allow you to use Victory Rush when you use Devastate on targets below 20% health. Heavy Repercussions doubles the damage dealt by Shield Slam whenever you have Shield Block activated. Thunderstruck increase the damage of Rend, Cleave and Thunder Clap by 6%. Last Stand temporarily boosts your health in emergencies.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy. Impending Victory gives your Devastate a 50% to allow you to use Victory Rush when you use Devastate on targets below 20% health. Heavy Repercussions doubles the damage dealt by Shield Slam whenever you have Shield Block activated. Thunderstruck increase the damage of Rend, Cleave and Thunder Clap by 6%. Last Stand temporarily boosts your health in emergencies. Sword and Board gives your Devastate and Revenge a 30% chance to instantly reset the cooldown of your Shield Slam and remove its Rage cost.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy. Impending Victory gives your Devastate a 50% to allow you to use Victory Rush when you use Devastate on targets below 20% health. Heavy Repercussions doubles the damage dealt by Shield Slam whenever you have Shield Block activated. Thunderstruck increase the damage of Rend, Cleave and Thunder Clap by 6%. Last Stand temporarily boosts your health in emergencies. Sword and Board gives your Devastate and Revenge a 30% chance to instantly reset the cooldown of your Shield Slam and remove its Rage cost. Hold the Line increases your crit and critical block chance by 10% for 10 seconds whenever you parry.

Devastate deals 150% weapon damage and applies Sunder Armor to target. Improved Revenge buffs Revenge, increasing its damage by 60% and makes it hit an additional enemy. Impending Victory gives your Devastate a 50% to allow you to use Victory Rush when you use Devastate on targets below 20% health. Heavy Repercussions doubles the damage dealt by Shield Slam whenever you have Shield Block activated. Thunderstruck increase the damage of Rend, Cleave and Thunder Clap by 6%. Last Stand temporarily boosts your health in emergencies. Sword and Board gives your Devastate and Revenge a 30% chance to instantly reset the cooldown of your Shield Slam and remove its Rage cost. Hold the Line increases your crit and critical block chance by 10% for 10 seconds whenever you parry. Shockwave is a great AoE damage and stun ability with a low cooldown.

With the Protection tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Arms and Fury trees. War Academy increases the damage of your Devastate and Victory Rush by 15%.

With the Protection tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Arms and Fury trees. War Academy increases the damage of your Devastate and Victory Rush by 15%. Field Dressing gives you increased healing from your spells like Victory Rush.

With the Protection tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Arms and Fury trees. War Academy increases the damage of your Devastate and Victory Rush by 15%. Field Dressing gives you increased healing from your spells like Victory Rush. Deep Wounds puts a bleed DoT on your target whenever you crit.

With the Protection tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Arms and Fury trees. War Academy increases the damage of your Devastate and Victory Rush by 15%. Field Dressing gives you increased healing from your spells like Victory Rush. Deep Wounds puts a bleed DoT on your target whenever you crit. Cruelty increase the crit chance of Shield Slam by 10%.

Your leveling glyphs will differ from your endgame glyphs. Glyphs can be a huge boost to your leveling speed as some greatly improve the baseline power of your key abilities. Be sure to check the price of these glyphs on your server to vastly improve your leveling experience.

1. Glyph of Shield Slam — Shield Slam is one of your main abilities, making this glyph mandatory.
2. Glyph of Devastate — Devastate is one of your main abilities, making this glyph mandatory.
3. Glyph of Revenge — Shield Slam is one of your main abilities, making this glyph mandatory.

1. Glyph of Victory Rush — You will be using Victory Rush every time you kill a mob. This makes it heal for even more, which should prevent you from ever needing to stop and eat to heal up.
2. Glyph of Cleaving — Increases the number of targets hit by Cleave from 2 to 3. Great for AoEing when solo or in dungeons.
3. Glyph of Thunder Clap — Makes your Thunder Clap larger, making it easier to hit more enemies at once. Good for AoEing when solo or in dungeons.
4. Glyph of Shockwave — Use this instead of Glyph of Thunder Clap when you reach level 69 as Shockwave hits very hard and is great for AoEing.

1. Glyph of Enduring Victory — Gives you an additional 5 seconds to use Victory Rush between pulls.
2. Glyph of Battle — Increases the duration of Battle Shout by 2 minutes, redcuing how frequently you need to refresh it.
3. Glyph of Berserker Rage — Adds 5 Rage whenever you use Berserker Rage. This helps keep your Rage up, allowing you to use more abilities.

1. Keep Battle Shout's buff up. Use whenever off cooldown if you need Rage.
2. Berserker Rage use before pulling for extra Rage is target doesn't fear.
3. Charge your enemy.
4. Charge or Intercept your enemy.
5. Rend your target.
6. Victory Rush use before the proc expires.
7. Strike any extra Rage.
8. Thunder Clap when fighting 2 or more enemies at once.
9. Shockwave when fighting 2 or more enemies at once.
10. Shield Block use when you are fighting multiple enemies at once.
11. Colossus Smash on cooldown. Try to save enough Rage before using this so you can use 3 abilities while the debuff is up on your target.
12. Shield Block use when you are fighting multiple enemies at once and Shield Slam is ready to use.
13. Shield Slam whenever available.
14. Concussion Blow deals decent damage, use on cooldown.
15. Execute any enemies below 20% health.
16. Revenge use on cooldown.
17. Devastate use as a filler whenever Shield Slam and Revenge are on cooldown.
18. Cleave if fighting 2 or more enemies and you have a large surplus of Rage.
19. Heroic Strike only if you have a large surplus of Rage.

Early levels on Warrior are fairly basic, only having a few abilities to use. Always try to start combat with Charge if it's off cooldown. Keep Rend applied to enemies, and use Victory Rush procs before they expire. Strike will be your main ability until you hit level 10 and replace it with Shield Slam.

Always try to start combat with Charge if it's off cooldown. Keep Rend applied to enemies, and use Victory Rush procs before they expire. Use Shield Slam on cooldown. Execute any enemies below 20% health.

Always try to start combat with Charge if it's off cooldown. Keep Rend applied to enemies, and use Victory Rush procs before they expire. Use Shield Slam on cooldown. Use Concussion Blow on cooldown as it deals good damage. Execute any enemies below 20% health.

Stay in Defensive Stance from now on. Charge your target and apply Rend. Use any available Victory Rush procs before they expire. Shield Slam on cooldown, using Shield Block first if available. Use Revenge whenever it becomes available. Devastate to fill in the rest of your rotation.

Charge your target and apply Rend. Use any available Victory Rush procs before they expire. Shield Slam on cooldown, using Shield Block first if available. Watch out for any Sword and Board procs as these will reset the cooldown of Shield Slam and remove its Rage cost. Use Revenge whenever it becomes available. Devastate to fill in the gaps in your rotation.

Charge your target and apply Rend. Use any available Victory Rush procs before they expire. You now get Colossus Smash, allowing you to bypass 100% of your targets armor. Try to have enough Rage to use 3 abilities while the debuff is on your target. Shield Slam on cooldown, using Shield Block first if available. Watch out for any Sword and Board procs and use them as soon as possible. Use Revenge whenever it becomes available. Devastate to fill in the gaps in your rotation.

Shield Block on cooldown, ideally when fighting multiple enemies at once.

Shield Block on cooldown, ideally when fighting multiple enemies at once. Use Shield Wall if you are doing a big AoE pull or are taking high damage.

Shield Block on cooldown, ideally when fighting multiple enemies at once. Use Shield Wall if you are doing a big AoE pull or are taking high damage. When fighting multiple enemies and you have plenty of Rage, use Inner Rage so you can spam Cleave.

Shield Block on cooldown, ideally when fighting multiple enemies at once. Use Shield Wall if you are doing a big AoE pull or are taking high damage. When fighting multiple enemies and you have plenty of Rage, use Inner Rage so you can spam Cleave. Recklessness as much as possible to increase kill times.

Shield Block on cooldown, ideally when fighting multiple enemies at once. Use Shield Wall if you are doing a big AoE pull or are taking high damage. When fighting multiple enemies and you have plenty of Rage, use Inner Rage so you can spam Cleave. Recklessness as much as possible to increase kill times. If you are low health use Enraged Regeneration to regenerate 30% of your maximum health. You can use Berserker Rage if you need an Enrage effect to activate it.

While leveling, you will not need to use all of your spells. Many can be skipped to save gold and trained at a later date, when you have more gold available to you. We recommend to not train these spells below, and save your gold for gear, glyphs and mounts instead.

• Overpower
• Hamstring
• Whirlwind
• Slam
• Retaliation
• Shattering Throw
• Rallying Cry

Congratulations on hitting Level 85 in Cataclysm! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level 85 Protection Warriors gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.