Protection Warrior Raid Guide
Protection Warrior Raid Guide
11.1 - Undermine(d)
Welcome to the Protection Warrior raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.1! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Protection Warrior
Protection WarriorRaid
Hero Talents
Protection Warrior
- Mountain Thane buffs your baseline rotation and brings in more rage without adding an extra ability.
- Colossus has higher damage potential than Mountain Thane but comes at the cost of less defensive value and a more punishing playstyle.
- Overall Mountain Thane is recommended if you're not comfortable with the encounter but Colossus often has higher potential.
Mountain Thane
Colossus
- Lightning Strikes
- Crashing Thunder
- Improves Seismic Reverberation making it a mandatory pick during AoE.
- Thunder Blast
- Avoid overcapping on these and spend them instantly, make sure to use all charges before casting Avatar and Demoralizing Shout if you're talented into Snap Induction.
- Storm Shield
- Gives Intervene a lot more use-cases as a useful external.
- Burst of Power
- Important to use both Shield Slams instantly to avoid getting another proc and wasting it.
- This is extra important during Avatar when talented into Unstoppable Force since you get so many Thunder Claps that all have a chance to proc more Lightning Strikes.
- Avatar of the Storm
- Gives Thunderlord a lot more value since you can cast significantly more Thunder Claps.
- Crashing Thunder
- Demolish
- Gets significantly buffed by Colossal Might damage wise.
- Can be used in niche scenarios to immune stuns and knockbacks or as another small defensive.
- One Against Many, Practiced Strikes and Tide of Battle
- With all of these Hero Talents combined your Revenge becomes your highest damage ability by far during AoE.
- Dominance of the Colossus
- Demolish gets its cooldown reduced, significantly increased when you're pressing Revenge a lot during AoE.
- Also a lot more cooldown reduction if you're talented into Sudden Death.
Talents
Protection Warrior
Mountain Thane Raid Build
Colossus Raid Build
When to use this spec
This is the default loadout going into any boss unless specified otherwise. You have to adjust the class talent tree based on the utility needed for the encounter. To make your life easier, boss-specific talent loadouts are available in the Raids section.
If you want a more damage oriented build you can check out the Colossus Raid Build.
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Into the Fray
- This talent makes it important to stay in the vicinity of your teammates as much as possible to gain the maximum benefit.
- Booming Voice
- Gives your Demoralizing Shout a big offensive component, pair it up with your other offensive cooldowns.
- Anger Management
- Makes it very important to never overcap on Rage and also to use Avatar on cooldown when possible to maximize the cooldown reduction.
- Spell Block
- Your most powerful defensive effect against most magic damage, keep in mind that you must have Shield Block up for it to work.
- Sudden Death
- Free Executes which is great for damage and also to get some globals that don't cost Rage.
- Champion's Bulwark
- Significant boost both defensively and offensively, combine with Demoralizing Shout and Avatar to maximize your damage output.
- Violent Outburst
- An important buff to keep track of, explained more in the Deep dive.
Class Tree
- Unstoppable Force
- Increases the damage and reduces the cooldown of Thunder Clap significantly.
- Double Time
- This is an incredible boost to your mobility, it gives you 2 charges of Charge.
- Thunder Clap
- When talented into Rend your Thunder Clap automatically applies Rend to 5 enemies meaning that you never need to press Rend manually.
- Bounding Stride
- Gives you a huge movement speed boost after Heroic Leap.
- Intervene
- A very powerful external defensive in niche scenarios. Most of the time you should use it for mobility or to aid your co-tank during periods of heavy damage intake.
Hero Talents
- Storm Shield
- Default pick because Storm Bolt isn't used a lot in Raids.
- Can be swapped out for Storm Bolts if it's useful.
- Keep Your Feet on the Ground
- Default pick as Steadfast as the Peaks is not very useful.
- Thorim's Might
- Very nice boost to Rage generation which is great for both defense and offense.
- Flashing Skies
- Simply outperforms the other option as more Lightning Strikes synergises well with Burst of Power.
When to use this spec
Pick this talent loadout if you are comfortable with your damage intake and want to push the damage. To make your life easier, boss-specific talent loadouts are available in the Raids section.
Hero Talents
- Boneshaker
- Can pick either talent here depending on the fight, Shockwave is rarely used in Raid encounters.
- Arterial Bleed
- Default pick for Raid since it's better for single-target and most of the time One Against Many doesn't have enough targets to be valuable.
- No Stranger to Pain
- Default pick since it's just a way better option than Veteran Vitality.
Rotation
Protection Warrior
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Each time you take damage you have a chance to cast Shield Wall for 4 sec and gain Luck of the Draw!, which increases your damage dealt by 15%.
- 4-Set: During Luck of the Draw! Shield Slam's chance to critically strike is increased by 75% and its critical strikes reduce the cooldown of Shield Charge by 12 seconds.
Mountain Thane
Colossus
Opener
- The goal of the opener is to get Shield Block active as soon as possible to avoid the possibility of getting one shot after Charging in while also getting all your offensive cooldowns rolling.
- Below, you can see an example of how your opener might look, depending on when you get your first Burst of Power proc among other factors.
Priority List
Make sure to keep this list in mind, unless some bosses or scenarios require you to hold some abilities listed here
- Cast Ignore Pain as your main Rage spender.
- Maintain Shield Block at 100% uptime.
- Cast Ravager on cooldown.
- Cast Avatar on cooldown.
- Cast Demoralizing Shout on cooldown.
- Cast Thunderous Roar on cooldown.
- Cast Shield Charge on cooldown.
- Use your Violent Outburst proc
- Thunder Blast on 2+ targets if Avatar is active
- On single target/under 6 targets with Shield Slam
- Over 6 targets with Thunder Clap
- Cast Thunder Blast if you are at 2 stacks.
- Cast Shield Slam if Burst of Power is active.
- Cast Thunder Blast.
- Cast Shield Slam on cooldown.
- CastRevenge to apply Deep Wounds on AoE.
- Cast Execute on 2 or less targets.
Opener
- The goal of the opener is to get Shield Block active as soon as possible to avoid the possibility of getting one shot after Charging in while also getting all your offensive cooldowns rolling.
- Below, you can see an example of how your opener might look, depending on proc and other factors.
Priority List
Make sure to keep this list in mind, unless some bosses or scenarios require you to hold some abilities listed here
- Cast Ignore Pain as your main Rage spender.
- Maintain Shield Block at 100% uptime.
- Cast Ravager on cooldown.
- Cast Avatar on cooldown.
- Cast Demoralizing Shout on cooldown.
- Cast Thunderous Roar on cooldown.
- Cast Shield Charge on cooldown.
- Use your Violent Outburst proc
- On single target/under 8 targets with Shield Slam
- Over 8 targets with Thunder Clap
- Cast Shield Slam on cooldown.
- Cast Demolish on cooldown.
- Cast Thunder Clap on cooldown.
- CastRevenge to apply Deep Wounds on AoE.
- Cast Execute on 2 or less targets.
Defensive Stance vs. Battle Stance
- When swapping stances there are some factors you need to keep in mind:
- Defensive Stance provides you with a 20% flat damage reduction and an additional 5% magic damage reduction.
- Battle Stance provides you with a 3% critical chance and a 10% reduction on slow and cc effects.
- Stay in Defensive Stance at all times when taking any damage since the 3% crit chance is just not worth it losing 20% or 25% damage reduction.
- If you are not tanking anything and don't have any debuffs that do heavy damage to you, swapping to Battle Stance is totally fine and provides a small DPS gain.
Defensive Cooldowns
- Demoralizing Shout
- Most of the time you should use this on cooldown as it's a DPS increase when talented into Booming Voice. You also have Thunderlord that heavily reduces the cooldown which further incentivizes using it as much as possible.
- Shield Wall
- This should be your first go-to when you need a big defensive as this spell also gets heavily reduced cooldown from Anger Management & Impenetrable Wall if talented.
- Spell Block
- Very powerful defensive in any pull or boss where there are a lot of casts on you and should be used as a high priority defensive whenever that's the case. Since Spell Block doesn't do anything outside of spell damage it's usually not used on cooldown but more so when it fits a certain pull.
- Last Stand
- Usually the last defensive you use because of the very long cooldown and niche effect as it doesn't provide any damage reduction.
- Impending Victory
- Not necessarily a defensive cooldown but a very nice self-heal tool. Just press it whenever you feel like a small heal would be useful.
Offensive Cooldowns
- Shield Charge
- Use on cooldown preferably while under the effect of Avatar and Booming Voice.
- Ravager
- Usually lines up with every 2nd Avatar.
- Avatar
- Use on cooldown as much as possible, extra important because of cooldown reduction from Anger Management.
- Thunderous Roar
- Use on cooldown preferably while under the effect of Avatar, Booming Voice and Demolish.
- Champion's Spear
- Extra important to line up with your other offensive cooldowns because of the critical strike damage increase from Champion's Might.
Deep Dive
Protection Warrior
Spell Reflection
- Spell Reflection is highly complex in the sense that it works differently for every mechanic and is often times the difference between Protection Warrior being very strong or mediocre.
- There is no one way to know at first glance if a spell cast on you is reflectable or not outside of just knowing beforehand through knowledge.
- To easier acquire this knowledge I highly recommend this Spell Reflection Resource.
- Some important notes about Spell Reflection:
- A spell does not always have to target you to be reflectable.
- Spell Reflection provides 20% magic damage taken reduction for 5 seconds.
- If a spell gets reflected and consumes the buff you still keep the 20% magic damage reduction for the full 5 seconds.
Managing Ignore Pain
- Ignore Pain is your primary Rage spender together with Revenge, one is full damage where the other one is full defensive value.
- Juggling both is your main job when it comes to how you spend your rage.
- Ignore Pain as the ability is different from all the others it does not occur a GCD when pressed but has its own small internal GCD, making it so you can press it while normally playing your rotation.
- Where on the other hand Revenge is a normal spender and also a GCD.
- Revenge is a tool to apply your Deep Wounds and do damage in your normal rotation.
- As a rule of thumb, you want to always use Ignore Pain when reaching your Rage cap to not overcap and while taking any damage to just become tankier.
Shield Slam & Violent Outburst
- Since Shield Slam is at the top of your priority list and it also resets its cooldown very frequently it's very important to make sure that it always gets used on cooldown.
- While doing so you need to make sure to never overcap on Rage as spending Rage reduces the cooldown of both offensive & defensive abilities.
- Violent Outburst is a proc that needs to be managed as it is a significant loss if you ever spend it on a Thunder Clap instead of a Shield Slam.
- On Single Target or below 8 Targets use this proc with Shield Slam.
- Above 8 Targets use it on Thunder Clap.
- When you're playing Mountain Thane the management of Violent Outburst changes significantly.
- Thunder Blast on 2+ targets if Avatar is active
- Thunder Clap on 4+ targets if Avatar is active.
- On single-target or below 6 targets use this proc with Shield Slam.
- Above 6 targets use it on Thunder Clap.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Liberation of Undermine
Protection Warrior
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Vexie
Cauldron
Rik
Stix
Sprocketmonger
One-Armed Bandit
Mug'zee
Gallywix
Tank mechanics
- Tank Buster is the only tank mechanic of this fight
- This mechanic does physical damage, knocks the active tank back and leaves a physical bleed on them. On Heroic and Mythic difficulties it also leaves an Oil Slick.
- As the inactive tank, taunt when the cast succeeds and move the boss out of the Oil Slick.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Position the boss in such a way that there are no Oil Slick pools between the boss and the abandoned Geargrinder bikes. Otherwise the launched bikes will get stunned in the pools, which will prevent them from removing Protective Plating.
Tank mechanics
- Flarendo casts Eruption Stomp on the active tank.
- This is a big magic hit, always use Spell Reflection combined with another defensive.
- Spell Block works on this mechanic.
- Torq will cast Lightning Bash on the active tank.
- This is a big physical hit, be ready to immediately Death Strike right after the hit.
- Every time Colossal Clash happens, swap sides and taunt swap the bosses with your co-tank.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Make sure to help your group soak every Scrapbomb on Flarendo side.
- Look for opportunities to Storm Bolt the Voltaic Images.
Tank mechanics
- Sonic Blast deals sonic damage in a frontal cone with every melee attack, and applies a stack of Tinnitus.
- Rotate your defensive cooldowns whenever you are tanking the boss and getting more than 5+ stacks.
- Keep an eye out for Tinnitus stacks on your co-tank. Try to keep them from going over 4 stacks, but do not taunt back before your own debuff fades.
- Never face the boss towards the raid so it does not cleave other players with the tank mechanic.
- Do not be in front of the boss when you are not actively tanking to not accidentally extend your stacks.
- Resonance forces you to always keep the boss at least 15 yards apart from Amplifiers. Any of them gaining too much additional power can lead to a raid wipe. This means you have to move the boss away from new spawned Amplifiers after each Amplification! cast.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Try to move the boss close to Pyrotechnics after Sparkblast Ignition cast to allow an efficient cleave on them. However, keep an eye on nearby Amplifiers - its better to give up on good cleave than to give additional power to an Amplifier.
Tank mechanic
- This fight consists of 3 tank mechanics.
- Demolish, Meltdown and Rolling Rubbish
- While Demolish and Meltdown are the two tank hits the boss does, Rolling Rubbish is the main mechanic of the fight, that the active tank is forced into when the boss starts casting Electromagnetic Sorting.
- The boss always does Demolish into Electromagnetic Sorting followed by Meltdown so make sure that the off-tank taunts the boss after the main tank has been hit by both Demolish and Rolling Rubbish.
- While affected by Rolling Rubbish make sure to roll over as many Garbage Dumps as possible and then straight into the boss for maximum amount of damage.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Demolish deals partial magic damage which can be blocked by Spell Block, rotate your other defensives whenever you don't have Spell Block ready.
- Melee hits from Lockenstock apply a stack of Gravi-Gunk to the active tank. This increases your damage taken and reduces your movement speed per stack.
- Use defensives at high stacks of this debuff.
- Do not get caught off guard by the movement speed slow from this mechanic.
- Pyro Party Pack is a raid-wide AOE that deals fall off damage.
- As the active tank - Heroic Leap away from the raid with this mechanic to minimize the incoming damage to the group.
- As inactive tank - taunt when the cast succeeds.
Tank mechanics
- The Big Hit
- The ability does heavy physical damage and leaves a Shocking Field at your location shortly after dealing damage.
- Since there is a short delay between you taking damage and leaving a Shocking Field, you can safely stack the new puddle in the old Shocking Field, greatly reducing area denial.
- As the inactive tank, you can taunt at any point during the cast or after it is over as it does not change targets.
- Some of the Token combinations will spawn a Coil as a Fabulous Prize. Activating them will do physical damage to you, knock you back, clear the 2 closest Shocking Field, and have an extra effect based on the type of the coil:
- Coils always spawn at the position of the active tank, so be aware of your position when Fabulous Prize is dispensed. It is recommended to place them at the edges of the room to make it easier for the group to deal with the coil mechanics.
- Use these Coils throughout the fight to clean the room if needed.
Tank mechanics
- This boss has two tank mechanics, Molten Gold Knuckles and Double Whammy Shot.
- Molten Gold Knuckles does high physical damage and low magic damage, it also knocks you back and applies Golden Drip.
- You will be affected with 30 stacks of Golden Drip to remove these, you simply just have to keep moving your character until the stacks are fully removed.
- Spell Block works on the magic damage of this mechanic.
- Double Whammy Shot is targeted on a random player in the raid, as a tank you have to stand in between the boss and the targeted player and try to mitigate as much damage as possible when the shot goes off, use Shield Wall on this.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- When the boss casts Earthshaker Gaol you want to position the boss close to the walls so that the boss can be cleaved down together with the adds.
- While doing this make sure the boss is not inside the wall cause then the Gallagio Goon gets Enraged.
Stat Priority
Protection Warrior
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Protection Warrior. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. This makes managing certain mechanics a lot easier.
In general, Leech is really strong for tanks, especially in AoE scenarios it can be by far the best stat you can have.
Avoidance is great but most of the time tanks are not struggling to survive the typical Area of Effect abilities.
Gear
Protection Warrior
Overall BiS
Farmable Alternatives
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Fullthrottle Facerig | Vexie and the Geargrinders |
| Neck | Semi-Charmed Amulet | Rik Reverb |
| Shoulder | Enforcer's Backalley Shoulderplates | Tier / Catalyst |
| Cloak | Enforcer's Backalley Allegiance | Catalyst |
| Chest | Enforcer's Backalley Vestplate | Tier / Catalyst |
| Wrist | Revved-Up Vambraces | Vexie and the Geargrinders |
| Gloves | Enforcer's Backalley Crushers | Tier / Catalyst |
| Belt | Enforcer's Backalley Girdle | Catalyst |
| Legs | Enforcer's Backalley Chausses | Tier / Catalyst |
| Boots | Everforged Sabatons | Crafting |
| Ring 1 | Cyrce's Circlet | Siren Isle |
| Ring 2 | The Jastor Diamond | Chrome King Gallywix |
| Trinket 1 | Eye of Kezan | Chrome King Gallywix |
| Trinket 2 | Chromebustible Bomb Suit | Chrome King Gallywix |
| Weapon | Everforged Longsword | Crafting |
| Shield | Titan of Industry | Rik Reverb |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Waxsteel Greathelm | Darkflame Cleft |
| Neck | Flickering Glowtorc | Darkflame Cleft |
| Shoulder | Skyscorcher Pauldrons | THE MOTHERLODE!! |
| Cloak | Candlebearer's Shroud | Darkflame Cleft |
| Chest | Abdominal Securing Chestguard | Theater of Pain |
| Wrist | Flameforged Armguard | Priory of the Sacred Flame |
| Gloves | Caliginous Claspers | Darkflame Cleft |
| Belt | Venture Contractor's Floodlight | Operation: Floodgate |
| Legs | Thunder-Clad Legguards | The Rookery |
| Boots | Sabatons of Rampaging Elements | THE MOTHERLODE!! |
| Ring 1 | Wick's Golden Loop | Darkflame Cleft |
| Ring 2 | Bloodoath Signet | Theater of Pain |
| Trinket 1 | Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker | Operation: Floodgate |
| Trinket 2 | Signet of the Priory | Priory of the Sacred Flame |
| Weapon | Tearing Sawtooth Blade | Operation Mechagon: Workshop |
| Shield | Galebreaker Bulwark | The Rookery |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- House of Cards
- Strong on-use trinket for damage, lines up well with your offensive cooldowns.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Reverb Radio
- Good passive stat proc trinket.
Embellishments
- Writhing Armor Banding
- Empowers any Nerubian embellishment by 100%.
- Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
- Gain a random secondary stat stacking up over time.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 675 item level and regular items are 678 on max item level, therefore, it's a small loss to equip crafted items outside of your 2x Embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
Protection Warrior
- Phials
- Flask of Alchemical Chaos -- maximum DPS.
- Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Feast of the Midnight Masquerade
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Potion Bomb of Power -- group potion, this is a DPS loss for you.
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion
- Mana Oil
- Algari Mana Oil
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Versatile Ruby
- Elusive Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem colour to enhance your Blasphemite.
- Deadly Emerald
- Quick Onyx
- Deadly Sapphire
- Culminating Blasphemite is the best raw output option but using Elusive Blasphemite can help you maintain uptime and dodge mechanics easier. This is an extremely minor dps gain in exchange for a valuable 10% movement speed.
Enchantments
| Head | S.A.D. |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Leeching Fangs |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Leech S.A.D. |
| Belt | S.A.D. |
| Legs | Stormbound Armor Kit |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Versatility Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Council's Guile |
You buy S.A.D. from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists and Belt.
Races
Protection Warrior
For min-maxing a Protection Warrior in Raids, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your characters. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Is very valuable because you can dispel yourself or remove dangerous bleed effects.
- On top of that using Stoneform gives you 10% physical DR which can be used as a small extra 8 second personal when tanking.
- Arcane Torrent -- Blood Elf
- Strong racial to dispel or purge enemies, the value is very limited but sometimes can come in handy.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
- Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate again to teleport to the rift.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
Recommendation
As tank picking a racial for damage is most of the times such a small gain that its not worth. If you care about min-maxing your DPS go with the highest DPS racial.
That being said the recommended race for raid tanks is for sure Dwarf the one use physical damage reduction and ability to self dispel when needed are insanely strong and should not be undervalued.
Macros
Protection Warrior
Discover recommended macros for Protection Warrior for Raids and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Taunt Macros
Taunt Macro --- This macro either casts Taunt at your target or your mouseover (very handy to pick up mobs)
#showtooltip Taunt
/cast [@mouseover,exists,harm][@target,exists,harm] TauntBoss 1 Taunt --- Casts Taunt on Boss1
/cast [@boss1] TauntBoss 2 Taunt --- Casts Taunt on Boss2
/cast [@boss2] TauntMouseover Macros
Cursor Macros
Recommended Macros
Addons
Protection Warrior
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Protection Warrior, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
Weakauras
Changes this Patch
Protection Warrior
Patch 11.1
Patch 11.0.5
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0.1
FAQ
Protection Warrior
Q: Why did I die to magic damage during Spell Block?
Credits
Written By: Wolfdisco, Meeres
Reviewed By: Sho