On this page, we list your Protection Warrior coreabilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of WarcraftMoP 5.4. We also explain whento use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtletiesthat you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a ProtectionWarrior.

The other pages of our Protection Warrior guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.

1. Single Target Rotation↑top

This rotation does not take into account usage of your survivalabilities (we cover this important topic in asubsequent section). It only shows you how to maximise your threat andrage generation.

1. Use Shield Slam on cooldown
2. Use Revenge on cooldown
   • Its cooldown is reset each time you dodge or parry an attack.
   • If you are at maximum rage, then delay using Revenge until you have usedsome of your rage.
3. Use Devastate as a filler (it does not cost rage). Use Devastate3 times at the start of the fight (or when a new mob spawns), to apply the Sunder Armor debuff. If there is a Druid in the raid, this is notneeded.
4. Use Thunder Clap once every 30 seconds, if no one else is providingthe Weakened Blows debuff that it applies.
5. Use Battle Shout or Commanding Shout (depending on which ofthe two you have chosen to provide for your raid) in order to generate ragewhen nothing else is available.
6. Heroic Strike to dump rage and increase your DPS and threat
   • It is imperative that you only do this when you do not need to use rage forsurvival abilities in the foreseeable future.

2. Multiple Target Rotation↑top

1. Use Thunder Clap on cooldown. This will spread Deep Wounds toall enemies around you thanks to Blood and Thunder.
2. Execute your normal rotation ( Shield Slam, Revenge, and Devastate), and use Cleave instead of Heroic Strike if youhave extra rage to spend. Alternate your attacks between the differenttargets, in order to maintain even threat on all of them.
3. Use your tier 4 talent of choice.

3. Active Survival Abilities↑top

Your rotation is simply the framework into which you must activelyincorporate Shield Block and Shield Barrier.

Shield Block causes you to block all attacks made against you for 6seconds, while Shield Barrier provides you with a large damage absorptionshield. Due to their exorbitant rage costs, Shield Block and Shield Barrierare difficult to use simultaneously.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to understand how toproperly use these abilities. We remind you that we give them ample treatmentin a subsequent section.

4. Cooldown Usage↑top

4.1. Defensive Cooldowns

• Shield Wall should be used before you receive a large amount ofdamage.
• Last Stand should be used when your health drops to a dangerouslylow level, or in preparation for receiving a large amount of damage.
• Demoralizing Shout should be used as many times as possible duringthe encounter. Try to use it when bosses are dealing particularly high amountsof damage or when you have no other means of improving your survival.
• Spell Reflection reflects the next spell cast against you back tothe attacker. Note that this ability will not work against the vast majority ofspells cast by raid bosses. It usually works against Shadowbolt-type spellscast by adds. Experiment with it in the encounter, to see if it will benefityou against any spells.
• Demoralizing Banner should be used as many times as possible duringthe encounter. Use it when bosses are dealing particularly high amounts ofdamage or when you have no other means of improving your survival. Note that,unlike Demoralizing Shout (which only affects damage to you), DemoralizingBanner reduces the damage that targets deal to all raid members, making it asomewhat useful raid cooldown.
• Rallying Cry is a raid cooldown and it should be used in arotation that is pre-determined by your raid leader.

4.2. Offensive Cooldowns

• Berserker Rage should be used on cooldown. It will buff yourDPS and threat generation.
• Recklessness should be used as many times as possible during theencounter. Use it to improve your threat generation.
• Skull Banner and Shattering Throw are raid cooldowns. Youshould consult with your raid leader to determine when the best time to usethem is.
• Demoralizing Shout, when coupled with Glyph of Incite, causesyour next 3 Heroic Strike or Cleave casts to be free of cost, whichcan provide a nice damage or threat burst.
• Shield Block, when coupled with Glyph of Heavy Repercussions,greatly increases the damage (and thus threat generation) of your Shield Slam.

Regarding your offensive cooldowns, it is important to note that, wheneverpossible, you should try to stack as many of them as you can. You should alsouse your Tier 4 and 6 talents with cooldowns active, whenever possible.

We cover the various abilities granted by talents ina dedicated section.

5. Taunting↑top

Taunt is your single target taunting ability. Note that if you areusing the Vigilance talent, Taunt will have no cooldown while Vigilanceis active.

Mocking Banner is your AoE taunt.

6. Stance↑top

You should always be in Defensive Stance.

7. Mastering Your Protection Warrior↑top

The guidelines given above will enable you to play your Protection Warriorwith good results. If you want to push things further and master yourcharacter, then we advise you to continue reading.

7.1. Rage Generation

Your rage is generated from three sources:

• landing a critical strike with Devastate and Shield Slam, orgetting a critical block (thanks to your Mastery), due to your Enrage ability;
• using special abilities that generate rage ( Charge, Shield Slam, etc.);
• passively, from Defensive Stance (1 rage every 3 seconds, while incombat).

7.2. Vengeance

Vengeance is a passive ability which you receive forchoosing the Protection specialisation. Essentially, it increases your attackpower for 1.5% of the unmitigated damage you receive. It takes the form of a20-second buff, which you should have no problem maintaining 100% uptimeon.

Vengeance also has diminishing returns, in that each additional targetattacking you generates less Vengeance than the previous one.

7.3. Enrage

Each time you critically block (thanks to Mastery: Critical Block),you become enraged, dealing 10% increased physical damage for 6 seconds. Thiswill happen passively, so you do not need to concern yourself with it. Beingenraged doubles the healing effect of Enraged Regeneration (if you havetaken this talent) so it is advisable to have a way of monitoring this buff.

7.4. Procs

There are two procs you need to watch out for while executing yourrotation.

• Sword and Board (a passive ability) gives your Devastate a30% chance of resetting the cooldown of your Shield Slam, andincreasing its rage generation by 5. The buff lasts for only 5 seconds.
• Ultimatum (a passive ability) causes your Shield Slam criticalstrikes to make your next Heroic Strike or Cleave cost norage, and to be a guaranteed critical strike. The buff lasts for 10seconds.

Sword and Board in particular is a crucial proc for Protection Warriors, andthis is the reason why, whenever Shield Slam and Revenge areunavailable, Devastate is the go-to ability.

7.5. Riposte

Riposte is a passive ability that procs when you dodge orparry an attack, increasing your Critical Strike chance by 75% of yourtotal avoidance (your chance to dodge and parry combined), for 20 seconds.

In most cases, this just means that you will have a near-permanent buffto your Critical Strike chance while you are tanking a boss, and it does notrequire any management from your part. This also indirectly increases yourrage generation, since you will score more critical strikes with Devastate and Shield Slam.

If you are not tanking any mobs, then you will not have a chance to procRiposte. There is a trick that you may be able to use in certain situations,however, in order to maintain a high uptime on Riposte. Namely, you cantaunt the boss (or other target) off of the current tank and wait until youparry or dodge an attack before having them taunt it back. By doing thisevery 20 seconds, you could maintain relatively high uptime on Riposte, gaininga sizeable damage boost. Note that if you are attempting this trick, youmust be very careful for your taunting not to interfere with anytank-switching mechanics in the fight. Given the fact that most encountershave such tank-switching mechanics, we imagine the usefulness of thisstrategy to be quite limited.

7.6. Survival Abilities

As a Protection Warrior, you have two abilites that are essential tostaying alive: Shield Block and Shield Barrier. In thefollowing sections, we will tell you everything you need to know about them.Then, we will explain when it is best to use one over the other.

7.6.1. Shield Block

Shield Block grants you a 6-second buff that causes you to blockall incoming attacks. It does not have a cooldown. Instead, it works on asystem of charges. Each charge has a 9-second recharge time, and you can havea maximum of 2 charges.

You can use Shield Block twice in a row (provided that you have enoughrage) without wasting any part of it. Indeed, using Shield Block while thebuff from a previous Shield Block is still active will simply add theirdurations together. For example, if you use Shield Block when you had 3 secondsleft on a Shield Block buff, your new buff will have a 9 second duration.

Shield Block has a high rage cost of 60, so you must learn to use itwisely. To know how to best use Shield Block, you must understand what it isand what it is not effective against.

• Shield Block works against physical attacks, but it does nothing againstmagic attacks (spells cast at you, AoE spells, DoTs).
• Shield Block does not work against all physical attacks. Some attacks, suchas specific encounter mechanics (Impale-style abilities), and abilities thatapply bleeds cannot be blocked.
• Shield Block is particularly useful when you are being attacked bymultiple targets.

What all this means is that you want to use Shield Block to mitigatepowerful boss melee attacks. If the boss you are fighting attacks in a steadyand predictable manner, then using Shield Block is easy. If, however, theboss sometimes attacks faster or harder (going into a Frenzy), then you need tohave rage in reserve so that you can use Shield Block at the appropriatetimes.

Keep in mind also that thanks to Glyph of Heavy Repercussions, which weadvise using, Shield Slam deals increased damage while Shield Blockis active.

7.6.2. Shield Barrier

Shield Barrier places a damage absorption shield on you, whichabsorbs an amount of damage (based on and scaling with your attack power).Shield Barrier has a 1.5 second cooldown, and it costs 20 rage. However, ifyou have more than 20 rage, then Shield Barrier will consume up to a total of60 rage. Any additional rage past 20 will increase the amount of damageabsorption that it provides.

Unlike Shield Block, Shield Barrier does not stack with itself. In fact,you cannot cast Shield Barrier while a previous Shield Barrier buff is alreadyactive, unless the amount of damage absorption of your new Shield Barrier isgreater than the remaining damage absorption of your old one.

The absorption effect lasts for 6 seconds, but in practice it will almostalways expire within the first one or two attacks you receive.

Also unlike Shield Block, Shield Barrier works against all types of damage(excluding fall damage). It is also interesting to note that the efficiency ofShield Barrier is based on your Attack Power, so the ability scales with your Vengeance level.

7.6.3. Shield Block or Shield Barrier?

Due to their exorbitant rage costs, Shield Block and Shield Barrier are practically mutually exclusive. In any case, this isnot a problem, since every situation is always ideally suited to one of them,but never to both.

The amount of damage that Shield Block mitigates is based on the power ofthe attacks it is mitigating. Blocked attacks have 30% of their damagereduced (60% of it is reduced if your Mastery, Mastery: Critical Block,procs). Therefore, a very powerful attack will result in a much greater damagereduction from Shield Block than a weak attack will.

On the other hand, the damage absorption of Shield Barrier is independent ofthe incoming damage. Shield Barrier will absorb the same amount of damage,regardless of whether the attack made against you deals 10,000 or 100,000damage.

Therefore, when deciding which of the two abilities is better to use againstblockable attacks, you need to look at which of the following two values isgreater:

• The absorption amount provided by Shield Barrier.
• 30% of the attacks received over 6 seconds.

When facing magic damage, bleed damage, or otherwise unblockable damage,Shield Barrier is the superior choice.

7.7. More on Cooldown Usage

7.7.1. Tier 2 Talents

Depending on which tier 2 talent you choose, you will benefit from some formof self-healing. Second Wind is entirely passive, so discussing itsusage is a non-issue.

Enraged Regeneration is a self-heal for 20% of your maximum health(10% instantly and 10% over 5 seconds) that is free of cost. Its healing isdoubled if used while enraged (from Enrage and Berserker Rage).

Impending Victory is a self-heal for 20% of your maximum health,with a low rage cost and a rather low, 30-second cooldown. You should alwaysbe prepared to use this spell. In non-emergency situations, you can use it tosimply help out your healers. If you anticipate that a very intense period ofdamage will happen soon, you should save it and use it then.

Note that, since all these talents heal you based on your maximum health,their effects are increased while Last Stand or Rallying Cry isactive.

7.7.2. Tier 4 Talents

Bladestorm, Shockwave, and Dragon Roar are alldesigned with multiple targets in mind. While they do good damage against asingle target, you must consider whether or not it is better for that globalcooldown to be used on a Devastate instead. This gives you a chanceto reset the cooldown of Shield Slam (thanks to Sword and Board),thus generating more rage and allowing for more frequent usage of Shield Barrier or Shield Block.

As such, we feel that these abilities should be used whenever you are tryingto maximise your DPS, but if your survival is of the utmost importance, youshould simply use a different ability. That said, given the long cooldown ofDragon Roar (our recommended choice here), using it on cooldown is quitedoable.

Finally, Bladestorm protects you from knockbacks and from effects that causeloss of control of your character (such as fears), so you can use it with thispurpose in mind even against a single target.

7.7.3. Tier 6 Talents

Avatar should be stacked with Recklessness and Skull Banner at all times. Additionally, you should try to make surethat you use Berserker Rage while Avatar is active.

Bloodbath should be used on cooldown.

Storm Bolt should be used on cooldown. Due to its short cooldown, itwill essentially become part of your rotation.

As you can see, these talents have mostly DPS/threat-increasing properties,although Storm Bolt can be used to stun some adds.

8. Changelog↑top

• 28 Apr. 2014: Adjusted the healing amounts provided by Tier 2talents (they were slightly outdated).
• 15 Oct. 2013: Made small tweaks to the page, adding additionalinformation and clarifying existing statements.
• 12 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4 update.
  • Added a small section on Riposte, a new passiveability.
  • Updated the Vengeance section to account for the minorchanges that this mechanic underwent.
  • Updated the Ultimatum mention to account for the changes that thisability underwent.
• 06 Aug. 2013: Removed an outdated mention that Avatar providesincreased rage generation.
• 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update.
  • Modified the guide in relevant places to account for the changes to Enraged Regeneration (lower healing amount, free of rage cost, itshealing being doubled if used while enraged).
• 24 Apr. 2013: Made several updates.
  • Removed the mention that said that Shield Slam should be delayed ifyou are at maximum rage. Shield Slam should always be used on cooldown.
  • Improved the multiple target rotation slightly.
  • Added mention that offensive cooldowns should be stacked.
  • Emphasised the importance of the Sword and Board proc.
  • Improved the explanation of how Tier 4 talents should be used.
• 04 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
  • Removed mentions of Deadly Calm, following its removal from thegame.

Builds, Talents, and Glyphs

Buffs, Debuffs, and Useful Abilities