Protection Warrior PvP Guide (2024)

Last updated on Jan 01, 2024 at 23:13by Abide2 comments

Welcome to our PvP Protection Warrior guide for Wrath of the LichKing Classic. Here you will learn all you need to know to properly playProtection Warrior in PvP scenarios.

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

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

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

1. Glyph of Charge — Gives your Charge a small rangeincrease, allowing you to close gaps from a little bit further away.
2. Glyph of Bloodrage — Allows you to freely use Bloodragewithout worrying about the health cost.
3. Glyph of Command — Use this if you are usingCommanding Shout in your PvP environment.
4. Glyph of Battle — Use this if you are using Battle Shoutin your PvP environment.

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

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

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

• Hamstring — Slows the target's movement speed down by 50%. Besure to keep this applied to whoever you are attacking to prevent them fromgetting away.
• Shield Bash — Interrupts the target's spell casting. WithGag Order the target will also be silenced for 3 seconds.
• Charge — Charge to the target, stunning it briefly andgenerating some Rage. With Warbringer, you can use this in combat and inany stance.
• Intercept — Charges to the target, stunning it for 3seconds. Warbringer allows you to use this in any stance.
• Shield Block — The main use of this is to block all incomingattacks if you are being focused by either melee or ranged. It also doubles yourBlock Value, further increasing the damage of your Shield Slam.
• Shattering Throw — Removes spells that otherwise can not beremoved, such as Divine Shield and Ice Block. If there are noimmunity spells available for the enemies, you can use this for the 20% armorreduction debuff.
• Demoralizing Shout — Reduces the melee Attack Power of nearbyenemies. Keep this up on melee attackers. Can also be used to "shout" outnearby stealthed enemies.
• Heroic Throw — Deals damage to an enemy from range. Mostly usedto keep the target in combat. With Gag Order the target will also besilenced for 3 seconds.
• Intervene — Rush to your ally. Use this either for themobility or to peel for your ally who is being attacked. Also removes allmovement impairing effects with Warbringer. Safeguard reducesthe damage the target takes by 30% for 6 seconds afterwards.
• Berserker Rage — Allows you to break out of Fears, Saps, andIncapacitating effects and makes you immune to them for the duration. Use thisto remove any of the above crowd control used on you.
• Spell Reflection — Reflects the next spell cast on you back atthe caster. Improved Spell Reflection applies the buff to up to 4 nearbyparty members.
• Intimidating Shout — Fear your target and other nearby enemies.Great for peeling or crowd controlling enemies. Make sure not to attack theenemy you use this ability on or they will break free from the fear.
• Disarm — Removes your target's main-hand weapon. Great way toreduce a melee damage dealers damage output. Also increases the targets damagetaken when talented into Improved Disarm.
• Last Stand — Temporarily grants you a large boost to yourmax health. Great for whenever you are being hard-focused.
• Enraged Regeneration — Regenerates a large amount of yourHealth over time. Use this whenever you are getting focused. Try to pair ittogether with Last Stand to regenerate even more health.
• Shield Wall — Reduces your damage taken by 60%. Whenever youare being focused with major cooldowns you will want to use this.

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

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

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

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

As a Protection Warrior your largest focus stats-wise will be ArmorPenetration. Early on it will be difficult to get much of this, so instead youwill 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 gameoften. 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 greatlychanged, making it a much more desirable stat than before. In early gearingphases, 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 forStrength instead as it will perform better overall.

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

Critical Strike Rating has fallen to a much lower priority for Warrior in aPvP 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 muchof this as possible, especially early on, can help you drastically in most PvPsituations.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Protection Warrior inWrath 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 withSocket Bracer and Socket Gloves, helping you reach the ArmorPenetration cap.
2. Engineering — Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket gives you anadditional burst of damage every 45 seconds.
3. Enchanting — Gives you a nice, passive Attack Power boostwith 2 x Enchant Ring - Assault.

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

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