Cataclysm Classic Protection Warrior Talent Builds

Protection Warrior has limited talent choices as most of the talents are required. Below you'll find our recommended talent build for all PvE content as a Protection Warrior.

You can drop Safeguard and instead take one point in Shield Specialization and put a third point in Deep Wounds for very slightly higher DPS. This is the only real choice you have with the build as the rest of the talents give you the highest defensive bonuses and the most damage output possible.

In this section we will go over some of the key talents you will use when you are playing a Protection Warrior. Be sure to understand your most important talents as they are vital to play the build to its fullest strength.

• Blood and Thunder — Causes your Thunder Clap to spread your Rend from one target to all nearby targets. Be sure to apply a Rend to one enemy first before using Thunder Clap, as this will greatly increase your AoE damage.

• Shield Mastery — Reduces the cooldown of Shield Block by 30 seconds and the cooldown of Shield Wall by 3 minutes. Also makes your Shield Block reduce your Magic damage taken by 20 for 6% seconds, giving you an additional way to deal with caster enemies.

• Hold the Line — Increase both your crit chance and critical block chances by 10% after you parry an attack. This is why parry is a better stat than dodge for Protection Warriors.

• Last Stand — Grants you 30% temporary max health, giving you an additional defensive cooldown. Use this whenever you drop to dangerously low health and would most likely die from another attack.

• Bastion of Defense — Reduces the chance you will be crit by 6%, replacing the need for defense rating. Also gives you a 20% chance to become Enraged whenever you block, parry, or dodge. While Enraged, you gain 10% increased Physical damage dealt for 12 seconds.

• Warbringer — Allows you to use your Charge in combat, as well as use Charge, Intervene, and Intercept in any stance. This allows you to stay in Defensive Stance more and move around quickly instead of spending time changing stances, charging, and changing back.

• Thunderstruck — Increases the damage of your Rend, Cleave, and Thunder Clap by 6%, boosting your AoE damage. Whenever you Thunder Clap, you increase the damage of your next Shockwave by 10%, stacking up to 3 times.

• Vigilance — Gives you a buff you can place on a party member. Whenever the buffed player is attacked, your Taunt cooldown is reset and you gain 20% of the Vengeance as if you had been hit instead, allowing you to keep your damage high when you are off-tanking.

• Heavy Repercussions — Doubles the damage you deal with Shield Slam whenever you have Shield Block active. Try to line your Shield Slams up with Shield Block if possible.

• Safeguard — This turns your Intervene into a defensive cooldown for someone else, usually another tank. This talent is optional, but is usually recommended for the added utility as Intervene is only a 30-second cooldown.

• Sword and Board — Increases the crit chance of Devastate by 15%. Also gives your Devastate and Revenge a 30% chance to reset the cooldown of Shield Slam and remove its Rage cost.

• Shockwave — The final talent point at the bottom of the Protection tree, Shockwave has very high scaling with attack power, dealing great damage and threat especially in AoE situations.

Prime glyphs are new to Cataclysm, giving you a third "row" of glyphs you can use on your character. You don't really have many options when it comes to prime glyphs as there are very limited options, usually only 3 avaiable for each specialization.

• Glyph of Shield Slam — Shield Slam is your main ability, making this a mandatory glyph.
• Glyph of Devastate — Devastate is one of your main abilities, making this a mandatory glyph.
• Glyph of Revenge — Revenge is one of your main abilities, making this a mandatory glyph.

Major glyphs usually offer utility over damage increases compared to prime glyphs. Here you have a few options depending on whether you are in an AoE or single target situation. Glyph of Shield Wall also has a few uses on boss fights that have very high damage burst phases.

• Glyph of Shockwave — Shockwave deals great damage, especially when AoEing, making this a great glyph choice.
• Glyph of Thunder Clap — Increase the radius of Thunder Clap by 2 yards. Great for AoEing trash.
• Glyph of Cleaving — Makes Cleave hit 3 targets; use this for trash and bosses with multiple targets.
• Glyph of Heroic Throw — Applies a stack of Sunder Armor to the target. This is great on the pull and if the target is out of range.
• Glyph of Shield Wall — Increases Shield Walls damage reduction from 40% to 60%, but increases the cooldown by 2 minutes. This can be useful on some specfic bosses.

Minor glyphs typically provide very minor benefits. Your choices will vary depending on what buffs and debuffs you are responsible for keeping up. In 10-man raids for example, you will likely need to use either Glyph of Battle or Glyph of Command with Glyph of Demoralizing Shout and Glyph of Berserker Rage.

• Glyph of Berserker Rage — Makes Berserker Rage generate 5 Rage when used. Useful during downtime or trash.
• Glyph of Command — Use this if you are responsible for upkeeping Commanding Shout.
• Glyph of Battle — Use this if you are responsible for upkeeping Battle Shout.
• Glyph of Demoralizing Shout — Use this if you are responsible for upkeeping Demoralizing Shout.