WotLK Classic Protection Warrior Spec, Builds, Talents, and Glyphs

Protection Warrior has two main builds to choose from: the standard, well-rounded deep protection build and the more damage-oriented unrelenting assault build. The deep protection build is generally recommended for most content as it is overall a better build in terms of utility and survivability; while the unrelenting assault build is purely a damage-focused build, sacrificing utility and defense for a boost to your damage capabilities.

This is the standard deep protection build. This build is recommended over the other choice as this is much more well-rounded, having much higher raid impact, utility, survivability, and overall a smoother gameplay experience.

This build has very limited talent point options, as most talents are needed. You have 2 remaining talent points that you can place where you like; either Safeguard for utility, Improved Disciplines for better cooldowns, or Cruelty for slightly more threat. All 3 talent choices are good, so pick whichever fits your playstyle and raid needs most.

This is the unrelenting assault build, focusing mostly on damage output. This build is mostly only recommended for Dungeons and easy 10-man Raids as the deep protection build is generally a more versatile, well-rounded build overall. Regardless, this build remains very fun to play, dishing out absurd damage when fighting multiple enemies at a time.

You have little to no free talent points with this build as it goes deep into two different talent trees. Both Juggernaut and Vigilance are not required, and instead you could put the talent points into Armored to the Teeth, further increasing your damage output. If you choose to do that, remember to exchange Improved Charge for Second Wind and Glyph of Charge for either Glyph of Command or Glyph of Battle.

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.

• Last Stand

Gives you an additional defensive cooldown; use this whenever you drop to dangerously low health and would most likely die from another attack.

• Improved Revenge

This talent turns Revenge into your best damage dealing ability, especially when fighting at least 2 enemies.

• Improved Defensive Stance

Whenever you Block, Parry, or Dodge you gain 10% increased Physical damage done through Enrage for 12 seconds. This buff is almost always active, giving you 10% increased damage and threat for only 2 talent points.

• Vigilance

One of your strongest talent points as a Protection Warrior, Vigilance has multiple uses. When paired with Glyph of Vigilance, you will "steal" 15% threat from whomever you place the Vigilance on. In addition to that, if that person gets struck by an attack, your Taunt cooldown will reset, allowing you to spam Taunt on whatever is attacking them. This is useful for tanks on fights that require tank swaps, or on someone prone to get hit by newly-spawned mobs, such as a healer.

• 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; this will see plenty of use during the course of an entire raid.

• Warbringer

This is an amazing mobility talent, allowing 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. It offers great utility and mobility for 1 talent point.

• Critical Block

Whenever you block, you will have a 60% chance to block double the amount of damage. This is a large part of your damage mitigation that unfortunately is somewhat random. With high amounts of Block Value, this can reduce a huge amount of incoming melee attacks, especially when using Shield Block.

• Shockwave

The powerful 51-point talent at the bottom of the protection tree, Shockwave has very high scaling with Attack Power, dealing great damage and threat, especially in AoE situations.

Glyphs are a new consumable of sorts introduced in Wrath of the Lich King. Glyphs greatly improve certain spells when you learn them, supporting and even enabling some builds. Glyphs are not permanently learned, so you will want to carry multiple glyphs on you so you can change them quickly depending on the raid or boss encounter you are in. Certain glyphs perform better in different scenarios, so be sure to swap them around appropriately.

1. Glyph of Blocking — This glyph acts as both an offensive and defensive choice, increasing your Block Value by 10% after using Shield Slam. This buff will essentially be permanent as it lasts 10 seconds, while Shield Slam is only a 6-second cooldown. It is also worth noting that this glyph bypasses the Block Value cap on Shield Slam, allowing you to deal even more damage with the spell.
2. Glyph of Vigilance — This glyph is a pure threat increase, transferring an additional 5% threat from the target of your Vigilance to you for a total of 15%. Easily your best threat-generating glyph as long as you are actively using Vigilance on the proper target.
3. Glyph of Devastate — This glyph makes your Devastate apply 2 Sunder Armors at once, which increases the threat generated by Devastate. This will equal out to roughly a 20% threat increase on Devastate itself, which is a fairly nice increase. That being said Devastate is one of your lowest threat-generating abilities and is essentially only used as a filler.
4. Glyph of Taunt — In WotLK Taunt remains a spell, meaning it requires 17% Spell Hit to guarantee you never have a Taunt resist. This is great on bosses that require tank swaps, although you can work around a resist now and then thanks to Vigilance. You will want to carry this glyph in your bags and swap it in over Glyph of Devastate on bosses that require frequent use of Taunt.
5. Glyph of Cleaving — This is nice on trash and great on bosses that have multiple targets for you to Cleave constantly. Cleave threat is great in WotLK, so if you can hit 3 targets at a time on a boss you will want to swap this glyph in.
6. Glyph of Shield Wall — This glyph can be a powerful defensive option, especially when paired with Improved Disciplines, reducing your Shield Wall cooldown down to 2 minutes, but it will only reduce your damage taken by 40% instead of 60%. This trade-off is typically worth it if the encounter you are facing requires the use of a defensive cooldown after each tank swap or in general every few minutes. Protection Warrior's main weakness is the lack of defensive cooldowns, and this glyph aims to make what you do have available more frequently.

1. Glyph of Thunder Clap — Is great for a minor glyph, slightly increasing the range of your AoE ability.
2. Glyph of Charge — With Warbringer, you can use Charge while in combat and even in Defensive Stance. The additional range on Charge will slightly help with your overall mobility.
3. Glyph of Shattering Throw — Makes your Shattering Throw instant cast and allows you to use it in any stance. Saves you time and rage as you no longer need to change stances and cast this spell.
4. Glyph of Command — Most likely you will have a Fury Warrior doing Commanding Shout due to them having the Commanding Presence talent, giving them a stronger shout. If you are responsible for buffing Commanding Shout, this glyph is a great choice instead of Glyph of Charge.