Protection Warrior PvP Guide for WotLK Classic

Protection Warrior is a medium damage melee class with very high utility and crowd control. It is also very tanky, especially when facing melee attackers. This build however is extremely gear dependent, being hard to utilize properly until you have nearly full Tier 9 and Tier 10 gear.

Strengths

• Very tanky build, even with little to no Resilience; a nightmare to melee attackers.
• Extremely mobile, very hard to kite or root this build.
• Plenty of crowd control, allowing you to setup kills and peel for allies.

Weaknesses

• Extremely dependent on end-game PvE gear, especially from Tier 9 and Tier 10.
• Lack of Healing Reduction ability, unlike the Arms counterpart.
• Low Rage generation if not being attacked at all.

The talent build listed above takes all of the major talents in the Protection tree, giving you the highest possible damage and utility. This build handles all forms of PvP well, excelling greatly when grouped with other high damage dealing players.

1. Glyph of Shockwave — This is a mandatory glyph as Shockwave is the main ability for a Protection Warrior.
2. Glyph of Devastate — This is another main glyph for this build, as you will be constantly casting Devastate.
3. Glyph of Blocking — This is a great glyph choice for the additional Block Value, which means more damage from Shield Slam.
4. Glyph of Enraged Regeneration — Is a great defensive glyph choice, giving you even more health regeneration when you use Enraged Regeneration.

1. Glyph of Charge — Gives your Charge a small range increase, allowing you to close gaps from a little bit further away.
2. Glyph of Bloodrage — Allows you to freely use Bloodrage without worrying about the health cost.
3. Glyph of Command — Use this if you are using Commanding Shout in your PvP environment.
4. Glyph of Battle — Use this if you are using Battle Shout in your PvP environment.

As a Protection Warrior in PvP there is no real set rotation you should be focusing on. The usage of your abilities will largely depend on multiple different factors in the situation. Becoming accustomed to your main damaging abilities as well as your utility abilities is what will elevate you above and beyond other Protection Warriors.

• Shield Slam — Deals heavy damage to the target and dispels a magical buff. Damage is increased by Block Value.
• Shockwave — Stuns all enemies in front of you, dealing high damage; great ability for both crowd control and damage output.
• Revenge — Deals very high damage to target and another nearby enemy. Requires you to first Block, Parry or Dodge an attack to be able to use it.
• Devastate — Deals weapon damage to target and applies a Sunder Armor debuff, stacking up to 5 times. You will use this as a filler ability while your other main abilities are on cooldown.
• Concussion Blow — Deals moderate damage and stuns target for a short duration.
• Execute — Only usable against enemies below 20% health.
• Heroic Strike — You will only really want to use this when your Rage is nearly full.

Protection Warrior has powerful utility spells that can be used in many situations, sometimes either offensively or defensively. Knowing when and where to use these abilities is vital to your success in PvP.

• Hamstring — Slows the target's movement speed down by 50%. Be sure to keep this applied to whoever you are attacking to prevent them from getting away.
• Shield Bash — Interrupts the target's spell casting. With Gag Order the target will also be silenced for 3 seconds.
• Charge — Charge to the target, stunning it briefly and generating some Rage. With Warbringer, you can use this in combat and in any stance.
• Intercept — Charges to the target, stunning it for 3 seconds. Warbringer allows you to use this in any stance.
• Shield Block — The main use of this is to block all incoming attacks if you are being focused by either melee or ranged. It also doubles your Block Value, further increasing the damage of your Shield Slam.
• Shattering Throw — Removes spells that otherwise can not be removed, such as Divine Shield and Ice Block. If there are no immunity spells available for the enemies, you can use this for the 20% armor reduction debuff.
• Demoralizing Shout — Reduces the melee Attack Power of nearby enemies. Keep this up on melee attackers. Can also be used to "shout" out nearby stealthed enemies.
• Heroic Throw — Deals damage to an enemy from range. Mostly used to keep the target in combat. With Gag Order the target will also be silenced for 3 seconds.
• Intervene — Rush to your ally. Use this either for the mobility or to peel for your ally who is being attacked. Also removes all movement impairing effects with Warbringer. Safeguard reduces the damage the target takes by 30% for 6 seconds afterwards.
• Berserker Rage — Allows you to break out of Fears, Saps, and Incapacitating effects and makes you immune to them for the duration. Use this to remove any of the above crowd control used on you.
• Spell Reflection — Reflects the next spell cast on you back at the caster. Improved Spell Reflection applies the buff to up to 4 nearby party members.
• Intimidating Shout — Fear your target and other nearby enemies. Great for peeling or crowd controlling enemies. Make sure not to attack the enemy you use this ability on or they will break free from the fear.
• Disarm — Removes your target's main-hand weapon. Great way to reduce a melee damage dealers damage output. Also increases the targets damage taken when talented into Improved Disarm.
• Last Stand — Temporarily grants you a large boost to your max health. Great for whenever you are being hard-focused.
• Enraged Regeneration — Regenerates a large amount of your Health over time. Use this whenever you are getting focused. Try to pair it together with Last Stand to regenerate even more health.
• Shield Wall — Reduces your damage taken by 60%. Whenever you are being focused with major cooldowns you will want to use this.

Warrior uses stances to use unique abilities and tactics. Knowing what stance you need to be in at all times is vital to stick to your enemies and keep dealing damage.

• Battle Stance — This is the main stance you will be in as a Protection Warrior in PvP. The 10% Armor Penetration it gives is a great damage boost, and you will want to utilize your damage output as much as possible.

• Defensive Stance — Most of the time you will not want to use this stance unless you are being hard focused. If you are being attacked by a melee target, this stance is good use for the Revenge procs, dishing out high damage. This stance is also required to use certain skills, such as Intervene and Disarm, so sometimes you will enter this stance just to use one of these abilities and change out right after.

• Berserker Stance — This stance should never be used as a Protection Warrior as Warbringer allows you to use Intercept in any stance and Pummel is not needed over Shield Bash.

As a Protection Warrior your largest focus stats-wise will be Armor Penetration. Early on it will be difficult to get much of this, so instead you will focus on Strength and Resilience to maintain a balanced playstyle.

You will want to maintain 5% Hit Rating to land your abilities in PvP. Reaching this cap is crucial as a missed interrupt or slow can decide a game often. Be sure to keep this in mind when choosing gear, gems, and enchants.

With Wrath of the Lich King, the way Armor Penetration works has greatly changed, making it a much more desirable stat than before. In early gearing phases, it may be difficult to reach a high enough amount of Armor Penetration. If you can not get your Armor Pen. up to at least 50% passively, go for Strength instead as it will perform better overall.

Strength and Attack Power are great boosts to your damage output overall and should be used whenever you do not need more Armor Penetration.

Critical Strike Rating has fallen to a much lower priority for Warrior in a PvP environment as there are now much better stats to focus on instead.

Resilience is the largest source of damage mitigation you can get from stats. Resilience is a flat damage reduction from all PvP sources and getting as much of this as possible, especially early on, can help you drastically in most PvP situations.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Protection Warrior in Wrath of the Lich King PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Jewelcrafting — Gives you 3 powerful gems, Fractured Dragon's Eye, helping you reach the Armor Penetration cap.

1. Blacksmithing — Gives you 2 additional sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves, helping you reach the Armor Penetration cap.
2. Engineering — Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket gives you an additional burst of damage every 45 seconds.
3. Enchanting — Gives you a nice, passive Attack Power boost with 2 x Enchant Ring - Assault.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for a Protection Warrior in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Protection Warrior's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.