Prot Warrior gameplay

[Bexlyn]

Hi guys, I've mained a DK since WOTLK and prior to that a warlock from classic onwards. I'm getting a bit bored of the DK and do not enjoy the spiky Blood gameplay, so looking to switch tanking classes. I've always liked shields, so both warrior and pally appeal to me aesthetically over the other tank classes. So a couple of questions:

1) How is prot to play? Seems like alot of buttons (complex?)
2) Are there any races that are significantly better than others? I saw on wowhead Kul Tirans are supposedly the best (although I play horde). Preferably undead is my race of choice
3) Is the talent synergy as good as it appears to be for the standard build?

cheers!

[flipmode45]

I've played warrior, DH and Pally tanking. I like warrior the best with pally next.

Warriors do have plenty of skills and I like that' I'm a human for the stun dispel racial. Can't speak to the other races.

I once heard warrior tanking described as 'shout'n and stomp'n ' and it's pretty accurate. We have great AoE dmg and in M+ it's normal to do similar dmg to the DPS on pulls with 4 or more in them. Talents synergize well around avatar, thunder clap and demoralizing shout. The shout increases your dmg against affected targets with a talent, the Avatar talent makes your thunder clap (stomp) have half a cooldown and another talent increases teh dmg of thunderclap. Use Vision of Perfection for extra Avatar uptime, and everything lines up pretty well.

Your mitigation is based off shield block and ignore pain (absorbs dmg), and both are off the global CD, so between your offense attacks and two abilities off the GCD, you push buttons alot. You also stack haste so everything goes faster.

We have lots of 'oh sh!t' buttons. Last stand increases health, shield wall and demo shout reduces dmg, + trinkets and you can use them all intermittently to survive well. The weakness is magic dmg, but it's not a deal breaker.

Put all this together and you'll see why bestkeystones.com has warriors at the top of all the tanking charts in M+. Single Target dmg is a bit low (although I don't know how it stacks up with other tanks), but we do fine on raid bosses as well.

Utility is a throw with threat, and an AoE stun + another with a talent. add in the ability to charge to your teammate or a target + leap and you have mobility too.

They're a good class.

[LazyCoding]

1. yes more buttons than other tanks. faster play.
2.no idea. I don't think there is too much difference.
3.It is even better than you think. with this build aoe damage during avatar window is quite honestly at a stupid level. and also very low CD on defensive CDs.
But when I play prot warrior I really feel the lack of self-heal comparing to BDK and VDH. Like hundreds of times a day I go "oops I can't heal up". The mitigation is very good but at the times you somehow do lose a lot HP you will miss your BDK. In my experience vengance DH is between prot and blood DK. It has better mitigation than BDK and better self-heal than Prot. And MUCH like really really MUCH more mobile than BDK. So since you have been a slow DK for so long maybe you should play DH a little and just repeatedly leap around the dungeon . Warrior is also more mobile but I just like dh's mobility better. (interestingly I don't like havoc's mobility.just vengance)


But I am Arms main and play all these tanks only as alts. So quite subjective opinion mine is.

[DazManianDevil]

Hi guys, I've mained a DK since WOTLK and prior to that a warlock from classic onwards. I'm getting a bit bored of the DK and do not enjoy the spiky Blood gameplay, so looking to switch tanking classes. I've always liked shields, so both warrior and pally appeal to me aesthetically over the other tank classes. So a couple of questions:

1) How is prot to play? Seems like alot of buttons (complex?)
2) Are there any races that are significantly better than others? I saw on wowhead Kul Tirans are supposedly the best (although I play horde). Preferably undead is my race of choice
3) Is the talent synergy as good as it appears to be for the standard build?

cheers!

Huh, I never noticed BDK being spiky, however that's also subjective.
OT: Prot Warrior is a lot of fun, though I've only dabbled in tanking up to +12/13 range in M+.
It does reward proactive mitigation in Shield Block and Ignore pain while Last Stand is amazing as it gives +% max hp and shield block effect through talents.
Give it a try, I personally like BDK a lot more than Prot War but I'll freely admit they feel very different and it could be just what you're looking for.

Also can we talk about Mobility on Prot Warr? Mmff
1) I wouldn't call Prot complex but it can feel VERY spammy if you're used to other tanks, be ready to use twice as many binds as your BDK.
2) Undead is really strong, you get a passive life steal proc and a second fear breaker which can be huge in some keys (Atal Dazar on Rezan, smol adds in KR and the new Awakened pillar etc)
3) I really like the talent synergy for prot warrior, it rewards a lot of clappin and dancin' around, albeit super spammy at times during Avatar.
I also play Devastate over Booming voice cause I'm bad

[Mirishka]

Hi guys, I've mained a DK since WOTLK and prior to that a warlock from classic onwards. I'm getting a bit bored of the DK and do not enjoy the spiky Blood gameplay, so looking to switch tanking classes. I've always liked shields, so both warrior and pally appeal to me aesthetically over the other tank classes. So a couple of questions:

1) How is prot to play? Seems like alot of buttons (complex?)
2) Are there any races that are significantly better than others? I saw on wowhead Kul Tirans are supposedly the best (although I play horde). Preferably undead is my race of choice
3) Is the talent synergy as good as it appears to be for the standard build?

cheers!

Prot warrior is IMO the most fun tank. I've mained one to some extent or another since mid-vanilla.

1. Great fun to play. Warrior tank has a very active/reactive playstyle, great mobility and no empty GCDs.

2. For alliance, KTs are great tanks and so are mechagnomes (their insta-heal at low health is practically an extra tank cooldown). Several other races have useful racials as well. I can't really comment about how good Undead's are, much less for tanking, as I don't play one.

3. They have fantastic talent synergy, especially as it relates to Avatar/Thunder Clap/Demo Shout. With Perfection essence you have obscenely high uptime on Avatar.

[Arikus]

2) Are there any races that are significantly better than others? I saw on wowhead Kul Tirans are supposedly the best (although I play horde). Preferably undead is my race of choice

There are many good race abilities :
Bloodelf: mass purge!
Tauren: stomp as a second ae stun
Highmountain Tauren: bullrush (charge+stun)
Goblin: even more mobility with rocket jump
Zandalari: Loa Buff + that channeled regeneration (after combat or when you jump away and heal)

My warrior is high mountain tauren, but sometimes the enemies are so small that I don't see them in front of me (hello Motherlode)