[7.2 Guide] Protection - Back with Vengeance

[Deleted]

I haven't played Prot in quite a while, but while we have ways of increasing our Block (Mastery) and Parry (Crit), it seems we don't have any way to increase Dodge anymore. I'm sitting on base 3%, and I'm assuming that I'll always be at 3%?

I guess so, the only way we have to avoid damage completely is via parry. Moreover imho Dodge doesn't really fit the fantasy of the class either

[therealstegblob]

Plate tanks haven't had ways to increase dodge since WoD (maybe MoP? I forget.)

[Wannabwarrior]

So what are you folks doing for all these ranged mobs that jump out of range, stand back and cast/shoot bows/guns, etc.?

I was in Halls of Valor last night and that one stupid mob that is up on that perch surrounded by stairs just sits there casting and doing heavy damage. Meanwhile his goons on the stairs need to be tanked.

Are we just spamming Heroic Throw on the mobs that refuse to come to the party? Or do we move the party to them?

I'm loving my Warrior but my very dungeon runs so far are making me miss ranged silences and grips. (no hate pls).

[handoverfizt]

The one u are talking about has the three mobs on the stairs and one on the perch. I just thunderclap at bottom and run or leap to the perch. He stops his range spell when u get in melee range. If its the same mob

[Wannabwarrior]

The one u are talking about has the three mobs on the stairs and one on the perch. I just thunderclap at bottom and run or leap to the perch. He stops his range spell when u get in melee range. If its the same mob

Yeah that sounds like the same one. I guess my DPS were just going balls to the wall because I tried that and got peeled off of.

[fireblades]

Can you please explain Ignore Pain stacking up to 3 times, as it does not auto stack. Are we talking about pooling rage, using it at max, on the next hit it's absorbed but with the damage taken + rage gen ability, Ignore pain again, and a third time before it's drained?

[Brainseeker]

Can you please explain Ignore Pain stacking up to 3 times, as it does not auto stack. Are we talking about pooling rage, using it at max, on the next hit it's absorbed but with the damage taken + rage gen ability, Ignore pain again, and a third time before it's drained?

It does auto stack? If for example you cast a 60rage IP and get a 500k shield, you can cast a 20 rage IP right after that and your total IP will be like 630k (total of the 2 combined). Up to a max of 3 60rage IP's.

[Uaeko]

It does auto stack? If for example you cast a 60rage IP and get a 500k shield, you can cast a 20 rage IP right after that and your total IP will be like 630k (total of the 2 combined). Up to a max of 3 60rage IP's.

In my 2nd to last invasion ever (yay) I had the glorious site of 1 mil absorb going on the stage 4 boss dood. I teared up a little. And then he hit me and it was gone. And I was sad again.

[Brewschii]

New Prot War here. A few basic questions:
- Is it 30% DR when you block an attack? And 100% for a crit block? Think I read that somewhere.
- Is it two rolls to crit block -- one to block, then if it's successful another role to see if it crits?

If there's a place I can read about super basic stuff like this, let me know. Thanks!

[Deleted]

New Prot War here. A few basic questions:
- Is it 30% DR when you block an attack? And 100% for a crit block? Think I read that somewhere.
- Is it two rolls to crit block -- one to block, then if it's successful another role to see if it crits?

If there's a place I can read about super basic stuff like this, let me know. Thanks!

- Normal block is 30%, crit is 2x that so 60% (100% would be insane :-))
- Been a while back but I believe it is a double roll, so first roll to see if a hit is blocked, parried, hit, etc second roll to see if the block then crits. But might be mistaken here :-)

[Valech]

So what are you folks doing for all these ranged mobs that jump out of range, stand back and cast/shoot bows/guns, etc.?

I was in Halls of Valor last night and that one stupid mob that is up on that perch surrounded by stairs just sits there casting and doing heavy damage. Meanwhile his goons on the stairs need to be tanked.

Are we just spamming Heroic Throw on the mobs that refuse to come to the party? Or do we move the party to them?

I'm loving my Warrior but my very dungeon runs so far are making me miss ranged silences and grips. (no hate pls).

they jump away in a straight line from you. stand so that they jump to a place without mobs. then you can safely charge them.

[Deleted]

How are you guys finding mythics so far, and do you think the lack of self healing puts us bottom of the pile for the challenge modes again?

[Sal the Shieldhog]

In comparison to most of the other tanks, we're pretty strong. Our DPS isn't as good, but defensively? We're one of the strongest tanks in that department. Ignore Pain is insane for Mythics - we'll be one of the best tanks for pushing Mythic+, without a doubt.

[Deleted]

Quoting someone here but I think this info should be placed in the first post somewhere;

After many, many hours of running sims and evaluating the actual defensive benefits of each secondary, I've finally come up with a stat priority for Protection. It is:

Versatility > Mastery > Haste > Crit

Now I know what a lot of you are thinking: "How did haste go from being the best to being 2nd worst?" The thing is, haste was never the "best". It was never proven with simulations or math (at least in the places I look) that haste is our best stat defensively. The whole "haste is best" rumor started all the way back during Legion alpha; everyone saw that Shield Block, Shield Slam, and Revenge scaled with haste, so everyone just assumed (including myself) that it was our best stat. That rumor was passed around, and now it's in all of the guides. The main problem with figuring out a stat priority for Prot was that there were no working simulations for the spec until somewhat recently. You also can't exactly base a stat priority off off napkin math as there are just too many variables to consider. So while it's a bit late, we have a real stat priority now.

So why is the stat priority above correct? It comes down to our two main forms of AM, Shield Block and Ignore Pain, and how each stat actually affects those (and by extension affects our survivability).

One thing people need to realize is that Shield Block is no longer our "main" defensive ability. Ignore Pain provides the majority of survivability. So stats that increase our already powerful Ignore Pain are going to be strong.

Note: If it seems like what I'm saying below is anecdotal or "guess-work", I assure you it's not. There are just way too many sims to link here that shows everything I'm saying.

Versatility

The main reason Versatility is our best stat is the fact that it "double-dips". It provides a % increase to our IP's absorb, and it provides passive DR. In fact, if it didn't provide that DR, Mastery would be our best stat, as it actually increases IP's absorb more than Versatility does (in addition to the bonuses to block/crit-block).

Mastery vs. Haste

Compared to haste, Mastery just does everything better (besides DPS). Even though haste provides more rage (and therefore more IP casts), in terms of total IP absorb, Mastery wins out because of the extra Attack Power it gives you.

To give an example: In my tests, running haste over Mastery only provided about an 8% rage generation increase. That only got me about 8 more Ignore Pain casts.

Another thing we have to look at is blocking. This is the main reason people thought haste was so good, because it provided high Shield Block uptime. So while haste increases your Shield Block uptime, it's actually worse than Mastery in terms of total damage blocked. At 0% haste (with HR), our Shield Block uptime is already quite high at around 71%. Depending on the fight, that's already enough for a very high effective uptime.

Crit

Because they increased the diminishing returns on parry so significantly, Crit is just not a good stat for survivability anymore.

I figured I might as well find out what our DPS stat priority is while I was as it, so here it is (it's pretty much what you'd expect):

Haste > Crit > Mastery > Versatility

[Heladys]

So what are you folks doing for all these ranged mobs that jump out of range, stand back and cast/shoot bows/guns, etc.?

I was in Halls of Valor last night and that one stupid mob that is up on that perch surrounded by stairs just sits there casting and doing heavy damage. Meanwhile his goons on the stairs need to be tanked.

Are we just spamming Heroic Throw on the mobs that refuse to come to the party? Or do we move the party to them?

I'm loving my Warrior but my very dungeon runs so far are making me miss ranged silences and grips. (no hate pls).

Charge them, or LOS them, or have a DK grip them.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

Quoting someone here but I think this info should be placed in the first post somewhere;

I know, I will put it in, I just haven't had time to update it. It'll be done tonight, since I will have time (\o/).

[Xequecal]

How are you guys finding mythics so far, and do you think the lack of self healing puts us bottom of the pile for the challenge modes again?

No other tank comes even remotely close to Warrior for Mythic dungeons. Ignore Pain is simply a massive design flaw. The problem with IP is that unlike literally every active mitigation ability on every other tank, it does not scale much with damage taken. At a certain gear level, all your IPs are the same size, and while you do get more of them if the boss hits you harder, a massive fraction of your Rage generation is fixed regardless of incoming damage. For this to be a viable form of active mitigation in Mythic raids, it has to be overpowered everywhere else.

Ignore Pain in its current state is probably overtuned in Mythic raids and the result is it is "Brewmaster-in-BRF" level overpowered in all other content. The other tanks are just pathetic and barely count as viable in comparison.

[Wannabwarrior]

No other tank comes even remotely close to Warrior for Mythic dungeons. Ignore Pain is simply a massive design flaw. The problem with IP is that unlike literally every active mitigation ability on every other tank, it does not scale much with damage taken. At a certain gear level, all your IPs are the same size, and while you do get more of them if the boss hits you harder, a massive fraction of your Rage generation is fixed regardless of incoming damage. For this to be a viable form of active mitigation in Mythic raids, it has to be overpowered everywhere else.

Ignore Pain in its current state is probably overtuned in Mythic raids and the result is it is "Brewmaster-in-BRF" level overpowered in all other content. The other tanks are just pathetic and barely count as viable in comparison.

I get that it's the person behind the keyboard with me but I just feel like I'm doing something terribly wrong.

I tanked all the way from Classic through Cata and some tiny bit of tanking in WoD. But I can't get a grasp on tanking atm.

Mobs constantly jumping out of range, bosses spewing multiple adds during a fight (first boss in Neltharion's Lair), to knowing if I should Shield Block or IP.

Like I get that Warrior is extremely strong, but I feel like I'm doing a disservice to my group at the moment because I can't wrap my head around tanking all of the sudden.

So when are you shield blocking? Do you pop IP the second you get Dragon Scales or wait?

Ugh, I just feel so woefully confused and that's a new issue for me. Everyone claims Warrior is OP and I'm struggling for real heh.

[Cybrus]

So when are you shield blocking? Do you pop IP the second you get Dragon Scales or wait?

Shield block increases your shield slam damage by 30% or more depending on your 100 talent, plus it allows you to proc critical blocks more often which in turn causes more Dragon Scale and the middle gold trait procs. So off cooldown when you know you're receiving auto-attacks or at pull for your burst.

Dragon Scales proc should be used when you have 60 rage to allow you the greatest IP absorb, but if you can't get 60 in its duration use it right before it's about to fall off to ensure you get the highest rage usage out of it. If you're about to die though, use it if you think you won't make it. Adds are what make prot amazing in my opinion. Getting killing blows gives us boners with Impending Victory. Thunder Clap won't hold threat like it used to, try to use taunt on ranged adds coupled with a heroic throw or stack all the melee mobs on the ranged mob.

Always try to have IP rolling if you're not going for damage, the cap is 1.5-2mil shielding I think. A good tank can also get that much on the mobs leading up to an encounter with use of intervene as well to build rage then keep themselves fed throughout with weak 20 rage IPs so the barrier doesn't fall off.

[Uaeko]

Well. Hells bells. Glad I kept a couple Versatility items around and am still not 110. Versatility here I come and bye bye Haste!



Also, is there an preferred relic out there we should hunt down for Prot?