Prot Warrior?

[d00mh4cker]

I'm really enjoying tanking this expac but i'm getting a bit bored of the tanks I have at the moment.

Brew monk feels good to tank with but the animations from the abilities are quite lame, the sounds are lame aswell. The only thing that is cool about brew monks is the way they wield their artifact weapon and stagger mechanics.

Guardian druid feels a lot better now then in previous patch but the lack of "oh crap" abilities doesn't feel good. Also they feel a bit slow and repetitive with spamming thrash and swipe.

Vengeance DH feels aweome in many ways. Mobility is super nice, large HP pool. The downside is the GCD and rotation. The rotation is very slow and repetitive and i'm not enhoying the spiking, the complete opposite to brew monk.

I'm not very interested in blood DK at the moment.

But Prot Warrior seem to have a lot of cool abilities and also some "oh crap" buttons. The transmogs are awesome aswell.
Prot paladin is also an option ofcourse.

What's your opinion?

[Donimic]

I'm really enjoying tanking this expac but i'm getting a bit bored of the tanks I have at the moment.

Brew monk feels good to tank with but the animations from the abilities are quite lame, the sounds are lame aswell. The only thing that is cool about brew monks is the way they wield their artifact weapon and stagger mechanics.

Guardian druid feels a lot better now then in previous patch but the lack of "oh crap" abilities doesn't feel good. Also they feel a bit slow and repetitive with spamming thrash and swipe.

Vengeance DH feels aweome in many ways. Mobility is super nice, large HP pool. The downside is the GCD and rotation. The rotation is very slow and repetitive and i'm not enhoying the spiking, the complete opposite to brew monk.

I'm not very interested in blood DK at the moment.

But Prot Warrior seem to have a lot of cool abilities and also some "oh crap" buttons. The transmogs are awesome aswell.
Prot paladin is also an option ofcourse.

What's your opinion?

Doesnt seem like much of a question. You have three of the tanks, say you don't like one, so in reality you are here only to choose between two.
Also: What class should I play threads are not allowed.

[d00mh4cker]

Doesnt seem like much of a question. You have three of the tanks, say you don't like one, so in reality you are here only to choose between two.
Also: What class should I play threads are not allowed.

No I wanted peoples opinion of Prot Warrior. I know prot warrior is really good for m+.

But is it dull? Repetitive rotation? Does it require the player to make decisions or do you just press whatever is up?
Do they spike when taking damage? Mobility looks good by just looking at the abilities but do they feel fast paced compared to other tanks?
Does it feel like you have some sort of "oh crap" button to press when that hunter is accidently pulling more mobs?

There are many threads for arms and fury about the gameplay of the specs, rotation, GCD, abilities, etc etc.

[Shelly]

The Devastator talent gives prot warriors the most control over their playstyle of any class in the game, so if you are finding DH repetitive you should take it. It'll slow down your rotation until you hit certain haste breakpoints but at the same time it gives you a lot of open CDs to play with.

[Donimic]

The Devastator talent gives prot warriors the most control over their playstyle of any class in the game, so if you are finding DH repetitive you should take it. It'll slow down your rotation until you hit certain haste breakpoints but at the same time it gives you a lot of open CDs to play with.

Dear god, please don't take devastator over booming voice.

[Dyeline]

But is it dull? Repetitive rotation? Does it require the player to make decisions or do you just press whatever is up?

This is extremely subjective since I believe all speccs are pretty basic in bfa. You press Thunder Clap whenever it is up, but handling Shield Block uptime/charges, watching Ignore Pain duration and value while trying not to overcap on rage while ALSO not draining it all so you have enough for mitigation makes it one of the more skill intensive tanks. Since the preferred essences for m+ are Visions of Perfection as major and Lucid Dreams as minor, Prot gained some variance which keeps it fresh, IMO.

Do they spike when taking damage?

Only on magic damage that can't be reflected/interrupted. Which is probably true for every tank.

Mobility looks good by just looking at the abilities but do they feel fast paced compared to other tanks?

Actual movement speed-wise, you're as slow as a Dk. However, two charges and heroic leap mean you can close gaps like no other.

Does it feel like you have some sort of "oh crap" button to press when that hunter is accidently pulling more mobs?

Arguably the best buttons of all tanks. Last Stand is on a short cooldown and makes you basically immune to physical damage through it's duration.
Talenting Anger Management (you should) means you have something up for every pack.


Hope this is the kind of breakdown you were looking for.

[Alahondor]

Heya, I play Prot Warrior in lowish keys (8-11's) pretty regularly, and have tanked up to Za'qual on heroic. Unfortunately it's the only tanking class I've played this expansion so I can't offer you any insight into how it differs with the others.

With Prot you will never have downtime. There is not a single moment where you have nothing you CAN press (although that doesn't mean you SHOULD press something). It has the highest APM of every spec in the game at the moment, just over brewmaster. There is a fair degree of decision making at lower gear levels, but once you get to higher gear it smooths out and it becomes a lot of just keeping shield block up, and dumping rage into ignore pain. You'll find periods where you are rage starved even at ~430 ilvl depending on the size of packs you're pulling in m+ and on boss fights, and you will have decisions to make in those instances. Unfortunately we have very little variance in our talent choices, as the playstyle and success in tanking is built around the current meta build. For example, we can mitigate an incredible amount of damage through shield block, and one of our talents gives us a 100% block chance while last stand is active. So use all your shield block charges, last stand, then your shield blocks are back up, and you have something like ~50 seconds (if memory serves) of active mitigation without having to change anything. That is just one example of how our 'rotation' is more or less up to you and how you decide to play it, but there is certainly more to watch than say, the stagger bar for Brewmaster. I can't go without mentioning Ignore Pain as it bears a huge weight on the success of the class, but that's simply up to you and your skill as to how much uptime you have.

It's an incredibly rewarding tanking class. You'll start inexperienced and without practice and feel squishy, but as you keep at it and get better you'll find yourself feeling like a shield wall. One of the best feelings is when you can focus up and play the class nearly perfect, and see just how little damage a boss is dealing to you.

Speaking on mobility, though. You have two charges of intercept/charge which makes it easy to get around, plus heroic leap. Our mobility is rivaled only by Vengeance.

And finally, the repetitiveness. It's not more repetitive than other classes I've played. Shield slam on CD, thunder clap on CD, hit those revenge procs. Ignore revenge for devastate if you need more shield slam and use your active mitigation. You'll find yourself worrying more about what mechanics are coming in than on other tanking classes, as there are times you ignore shield block for more ignore pain (first phase of King Mechagon for example, since there are no melee attacks). Demoralizing voice is very strong (do NOT take devastator EVER) too, so you've just got a lot of buttons to help stay alive. It is absolutely worth playing!

[d00mh4cker]

This is extremely subjective since I believe all speccs are pretty basic in bfa. You press Thunder Clap whenever it is up, but handling Shield Block uptime/charges, watching Ignore Pain duration and value while trying not to overcap on rage while ALSO not draining it all so you have enough for mitigation makes it one of the more skill intensive tanks. Since the preferred essences for m+ are Visions of Perfection as major and Lucid Dreams as minor, Prot gained some variance which keeps it fresh, IMO.


Only on magic damage that can't be reflected/interrupted. Which is probably true for every tank.


Actual movement speed-wise, you're as slow as a Dk. However, two charges and heroic leap mean you can close gaps like no other.


Arguably the best buttons of all tanks. Last Stand is on a short cooldown and makes you basically immune to physical damage through it's duration.
Talenting Anger Management (you should) means you have something up for every pack.


Hope this is the kind of breakdown you were looking for.

Thanks for an awesome reply!

- - - Updated - - -

Heya, I play Prot Warrior in lowish keys (8-11's) pretty regularly, and have tanked up to Za'qual on heroic. Unfortunately it's the only tanking class I've played this expansion so I can't offer you any insight into how it differs with the others.

With Prot you will never have downtime. There is not a single moment where you have nothing you CAN press (although that doesn't mean you SHOULD press something). It has the highest APM of every spec in the game at the moment, just over brewmaster. There is a fair degree of decision making at lower gear levels, but once you get to higher gear it smooths out and it becomes a lot of just keeping shield block up, and dumping rage into ignore pain. You'll find periods where you are rage starved even at ~430 ilvl depending on the size of packs you're pulling in m+ and on boss fights, and you will have decisions to make in those instances. Unfortunately we have very little variance in our talent choices, as the playstyle and success in tanking is built around the current meta build. For example, we can mitigate an incredible amount of damage through shield block, and one of our talents gives us a 100% block chance while last stand is active. So use all your shield block charges, last stand, then your shield blocks are back up, and you have something like ~50 seconds (if memory serves) of active mitigation without having to change anything. That is just one example of how our 'rotation' is more or less up to you and how you decide to play it, but there is certainly more to watch than say, the stagger bar for Brewmaster. I can't go without mentioning Ignore Pain as it bears a huge weight on the success of the class, but that's simply up to you and your skill as to how much uptime you have.

It's an incredibly rewarding tanking class. You'll start inexperienced and without practice and feel squishy, but as you keep at it and get better you'll find yourself feeling like a shield wall. One of the best feelings is when you can focus up and play the class nearly perfect, and see just how little damage a boss is dealing to you.

Speaking on mobility, though. You have two charges of intercept/charge which makes it easy to get around, plus heroic leap. Our mobility is rivaled only by Vengeance.

And finally, the repetitiveness. It's not more repetitive than other classes I've played. Shield slam on CD, thunder clap on CD, hit those revenge procs. Ignore revenge for devastate if you need more shield slam and use your active mitigation. You'll find yourself worrying more about what mechanics are coming in than on other tanking classes, as there are times you ignore shield block for more ignore pain (first phase of King Mechagon for example, since there are no melee attacks). Demoralizing voice is very strong (do NOT take devastator EVER) too, so you've just got a lot of buttons to help stay alive. It is absolutely worth playing!

Thank you!

[Flashforcash]

Dear god, please don't take devastator over booming voice.

devastator is the go to talent for ST dps/raid, booming voice is better for m+ tho

[Cede]

Ignore revenge for devastate if you need more shield slam

Wrong. Revenge is on the list of CD resets for Shield Slam and it hits harder then Devastate.

Demoralizing voice is very strong (do NOT take devastator EVER)

Also wrong. Devastator is the top single target DPS talent on the row, not by a lot but it will beat Booming Voice. You can use it in the current raid to DPS since there is little/no adds/cleave.

[azkhane]

Wrong. Revenge is on the list of CD resets for Shield Slam and it hits harder then Devastate.



Also wrong. Devastator is the top single target DPS talent on the row, not by a lot but it will beat Booming Voice. You can use it in the current raid to DPS since there is little/no adds/cleave.

single target dps lol, dont listen to this guy, seriously handycaped man or obvious trolling, devastator right now is useless, boomign voice gives the perfect balance between dps increase and survival, also improving AoE dmg you know the real dps tanks matters

[Cede]

single target dps lol, dont listen to this guy, seriously handycaped man or obvious trolling, devastator right now is useless, boomign voice gives the perfect balance between dps increase and survival, also improving AoE dmg you know the real dps tanks matters

Argue all you want; however, the facts are in a single target situation (most of the fights in EP) Devastator will out DPS Booming Voice by a noticeable margin. Sim it yourself if you want, this sim isn't even with the Za'qul weapon which will do even more damage over BV. BV doesn't really qualify as improving survival when you aren't using it on CD and you shouldn't be using it on CD if you aren't actively tanking or about to swap since the extra rage gain over Devastator is lost the longer you delay it. I'm not even in a crit heavy build and it beats BV by almost 7%. You know how much a DPS would give up to get 7% more damage?

https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/repo...KbRsx2kqoDutde

Even on Hectic Add Cleave, there isn't any fights in EP that actually falls into that category that I'm aware of, Devastator will do more DPS than BV.

https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/repo...4Yv6hg8h8K8GbA

[Flashforcash]

single target dps lol, dont listen to this guy, seriously handycaped man or obvious trolling, devastator right now is useless, boomign voice gives the perfect balance between dps increase and survival, also improving AoE dmg you know the real dps tanks matters

You clearly dont raid mythic. And if you do you should prolly Read up on some theorycraft. BV is the go to talent in m+ but for mythic raiding devastator is better in Every aspect.

[Kaver]

Seeing how great Prot Warrior perform in M+ currently I can't help but look back at how people cried about the past nerf and laugh :P

[Marweinicus1]

I've used Devastator at the beginning of BfA cuz of Legion, it was the to-go-to talent. Switched to Booming Voice at the start of Uldir. It may not look like an improvement, but it is. You'll get so much more rage.

Prot Warrior now is nowhere near as fun as it was in Legion, the GCD changes messed up the way it plays. Now it feels sluggish. It's still a lot of fun though. But it all comes down to what you enjoy yourself obviously, so just try them out.

[Big Law]

I main a hunter but tanking dungeons is my favorite thing to do in game.

I played all of them and have each at max level for a few years now.

In order I rank them as

1) Warrior
2) DK
3) Pally
4) DH
5) Monk
6) Druid

Warrior is my favorite and DK is damn near tied... both get played most of the time.

Pally is cool too but I love warrior so much that sometimes it's hard to enjoy the pally... It is lots of fun to play though (especially while leveling)

I'd enjoy DH a lot more if I didn't have to use infernal strike or whatever the leap is in my rotation (maybe I dont HAVE to, but it is recommended)


I'm not a fan of monk or druid tanking and would rather heal with those classes.

[Kluian05]

What are some good tips for a new tank as a prot warrior?

I see the earlier post mentioned a shield block x2, last stand, shield block x2 rotation and that is helpful. Anything else a new prot warrior should know to do?

What Azerite traits should I aim for? Outside of thunderclap, is it okay to pick up DPS oriented traits like rising tide and thunderblast? If I mostly see myself as tanking just in mythic+, increasing damage output seems helpful. Rising tide also has the extra benefit of an emergency shield when dropped under 50% health.

[kran1um]

Argue all you want; however, the facts are in a single target situation (most of the fights in EP) Devastator will out DPS Booming Voice by a noticeable margin. Sim it yourself if you want, this sim isn't even with the Za'qul weapon which will do even more damage over BV. BV doesn't really qualify as improving survival when you aren't using it on CD and you shouldn't be using it on CD if you aren't actively tanking or about to swap since the extra rage gain over Devastator is lost the longer you delay it. I'm not even in a crit heavy build and it beats BV by almost 7%. You know how much a DPS would give up to get 7% more damage?

https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/repo...KbRsx2kqoDutde

Even on Hectic Add Cleave, there isn't any fights in EP that actually falls into that category that I'm aware of, Devastator will do more DPS than BV.

https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/repo...4Yv6hg8h8K8GbA

Who the hell sims dps for tanks/healers?!? You in the MDI? Hate to be your healer.

[quite an expert in wow]

Who the hell sims dps for tanks/healers?!? You in the MDI? Hate to be your healer.

why would they not????????????????????????????

please dont tell me you are the healer that 'only heals' and just stands still when there is nothing to heal

[Cede]

Who the hell sims dps for tanks/healers?!? You in the MDI? Hate to be your healer.

I'd hate it if you were my healer. Pure mitigation is a stupid way to look at tanks that small minded fools focus on. There is a reason top end players don't focus only on mitigation, it doesn't make that big of a difference. You have tanks breaking 30k DPS on most of the fights in there right now, in what world does it make sense to cripple DPS for a very minor defensive gain?

I personally haven't focused on damage since we aren't on farm yet, we are a small guild (about 13 people) of a couple groups of RL friends so we only run heroic and keys, currently 8/8H and 1360 IO. I will be focusing on DPS from here on out though and that means DPS trinkets (punch card and orgozoa), DPS essences (Crucible major, Rustbolt tanking/Vision minor), and DPS talents (Devestator). And my healers won't say a word other than asking why I wasn't doing more damage before.