Season of Discovery Protection Warrior Tank Guide

Protection Warriors have traditionally been the best tanks in WoW Classic, especially defensively, with Shield Block as their fundamental defense which makes them tough in moment to moment gameplay and multiple cooldowns such as Last Stand making them extra tough in particularly tough situations.

While there are many new tank specializations in Season of Discovery, the wall they have to climb in order to displace Warrior from the top tanking tier in the end game is tall, and Warriors are getting multiple new tools to ensure they stay at the top.

Strengths

• Can deal significant damage while not actively tanking with Gladiator Stance
• Has the widest array of tanking tools in WoW Classic SoD, with multiple defensive cooldowns and well established tanking tier sets
• Shield Block allows you to remove critical hits and crushing blows from the combat table by itself, without extra runes or higher level skills and gear being needed

Weaknesses

• Gearing can be difficult, due to the high popularity of Warriors in groups
• Solo leveling is slow and dangerous: dying is a constant possibility and dropping combat can be hard
• More unforgiving of mistakes or improper play compared to other tanks, especially when using an offensive build that does not use a shield by default

Protection Warriors in Season of Discovery are similar to what they have always been at their core, although the usage of a shield, rather than dual-wield tanking is being encouraged by new runes that specifically require a shield, such as Gladiator Stance and Devastate, which also deals significant damage and extra threat.

Area effect threat is also being increased through Furious Thunder, as is in-combat mobility with the new Warbringer rune. Focused Rage brings extra Rage cost reductions to make the rotation more fluid and Enraged Regeneration, Rallying Cry, or Intervene are flexible new runes that can all have a place in the right encounter.

Thus, as the rotation, gearing options, and talent decisions for Protection Warrior have changed with the coming of Season of Discovery, browse the guides in the Table of Content at the top of this page to find all the information you'll need to master this new game mode!

We started this guide by stating that Protection Warriors will eventually be, if not from the start, one of the top tanks in WoW Classic. The best way to ensure that you get there quickly is to spam as many Engineering crafts as you can afford to supplement your rotation. Take Mining along with it during the leveling trek because, otherwise, you will be running out of gold very fast!

Once maximum level, it is wise to combine Engineering with Blacksmithing, as there will be various new bind on pickup crafted gear that will be best in slot in SoD, such as Tempered Interference-Negating Helmet and the new Shoulderplates of Dread, with further important BoP crafts expected down the line.

The main feature of Season of Discovery is the new Rune Discovery system, which allows you to discover and attach special abilities to your gear slots after finding them across the world. We list all of Warrior's runes and where they can be located in the guide below: