https://www.iqgaming.org/tbcprotwarrior
The Ultimate Burning Crusade Protection Warrior GuideContents1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
a. Defensive Stance
b. Uncrittable
c. Understanding the Combat Mechanics of TBC
d. The Crushing Blow
e. The Exponential Returns of Avoidance
7.
a. Weapon Expertise
b. Hit rating and spell interruption
c. Parry Mechanics
d. Boss avoidance
e. Taunt and Focus Mechanics
8.
a. Threat from your abilities
b. Rage generation
c. Skill Rotations
d. Decision making
9.
a. Talent Selection
b. Skill Decisions
c. Itemization
d. Rings and Trinkets
10.
a. Talent Selection
b. Skill Decisions
c. Itemization
d. Rings and Trinkets
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22. 1. Introduction
This guide will be a compendium of knowledge concerning protection warriors. Much of this guide is designed for the purpose of the Main Tank role. This guide is designed for PvE and raiding purposes.
This guide was originally written by Quigon, of Elitist Jerks, and then re-mastered for TBC Classic. I've gone through his guide and added edits, changes, and updates based on the current climate of the game, and stripped out information that has been shown to be obsolete. I've also added in some personal expertise from the WoW TBC Private Server Scene.
90% of this guide is owed credit to Quigon, of Elitist Jerks.
This guide is broken up into several sections. Some of the information will overlap between sections as there is no way to concisely define each key topic. The best way to use this guide is to look through the Contents at the beginning of the post, and find the section or subtopic that best relates to the information that you are looking for.
Itemization is a hugely important issue for the Protection Warrior. However, as Protection Warriors, you will sometimes need to maximize your threat, and other times maximize your mitigation; two styles which are not often at parity. Therefore, there are entire sections dedicated to talents and itemization related to a defensive minded maximum-mitigation warrior, and another section for the aggressive threat-heavy warrior.
This guide has been modified and edited from the original Elitist Jerks Guide that was created back in Vanilla TBC. Surprisingly, the tenets of a good protection warrior have withstood the test of time, and 99% of the resources from the vanilla era have remained as the best way to min-max your character. In a number of places in this compendium there will be math involved. Many of these equations are the result of hard work of other individuals. This guide would not exist if it were not for the hard work of so many other individuals who gathered the raw data used to create the equations contained herein.
This guide aims to be as objective as possible, but sometimes math must give way to practicality and reality, and sometimes opinion. Just be aware of this, and read the guide knowing that there are prejudices and opinions laden within each topic. There is a lot of opinion when it comes to tanking. It is possible that your opinion may not agree with the guide, therefore feel free to post anything that you think might contribute to this guide in Discord, as we will include any piece of useful information.
2. Frequently Asked Questions1. What is the Best Talent Specialization for a Protection Warrior?
The answer to this question is: it depends. If you run a melee heavy group, you may want to use Curse of Recklessness, this means an improved form of attack power reduction would be prudent. Either through a warlock, druid, main tank warrior, or offtank warrior, someone should have this ability. Therefore, your spec depends on that of your team. This issue is addressed in each of the talent spec questions of the various styles of warrior: Max Mitigation and Aggressive.
