Protection Warrior

Mjolnir

OG
Hi, I've been toying with this idea for a while, I'm new to twinking but have always wanted to make one, and I think I've finally decided what I'm looking for. First of all, my server (Anub'arak) is not huge on pvp and I rarely see any serious twinks around (besides the one with the "of the Horde" title... jeez!) so I'm looking towards more of a solo build, not specifically for flag carrying or anything. My aim is to be a hindrance and distraction to my opponents, while being able to dish out some damage at the same time. I'd like some input on my gear choices, since I'm not really sure if what I've chosen will provide the best function for what I want.



I am Horde, so my race will be Tauren, which is the natural choice I believe. The 5% bonus hp and the War Stomp racial are both really nice. I will be picking up Mining and Herbalism for the stamina and the heal. My gear is focused on a mix of avoidance, armour and stamina. (Enchants are in brackets)





Head: Helm of the Mountain (Lesser Arcanum of Constitution) It's a toss up between this and the Avenguard Helm. I like the huge bonus armour and the defense rating, but the 15 extra stam is also a ton. I'd like some input on this one.



Neck: Woven Ivy Necklace I am fairly positive on this one. It has a nice mix of stats, and at this point I am not really interested in a farming a Fire Opal Necklace, which, admittedly, would have more stam, but it's a big time investment.



Shoulders: Strengthened Stockade Pauldrons (Greater Inscription of the Gladiator) This seems like the only real choice. I only need about 30 more Shards on my main to get these, and I have the inscription purchased.



Back: Nightfall Drape (Dodge) This one looks really nice for avoidance. Granted, I will also pick up a Sergeant's Cloak to have (along with an armour enchant) because I like to have options, whether they are practical or not. :)



Chest: Warrior's Embrace (Exceptional Health) Again, this chest focuses much more on avoidance than the other option I was looking at, Hydralick Armor, which, admittedly, has some nice offensive stats as well. I will probably end up getting both.



Bracers: First Sergeant's Plate Bracers (Fortitude) This one I am really unsure of. While they have less stam, the Berserker Bracers are very nice for offense, as well as additional armour. As well, there are the Runed Golem Shackles which I stumbled upon while searching. They have a small amount of defense, but no stam at all, so I'm leaning away from them.



Hands: Cragfists (Superior Agility) seem to be the best option, obviously "of the Bear/Monkey". There are not many rare plate gloves in the 40-49 range, the only other option I can see is the Plated Fist of Hakoo which seems to be more offensive. Vice Grips are nice, but I'm not really interested in the AP.



Waist: Atal'ai Girdle, as much as I dread the thoughts of farming, is miles above the rest in terms of stam, with an "of the Bear/Monkey" configuration. The only other belt I see anywhere close would be the Defiler's Plate Girdle, which I will probably pick up anyway, in case I ever decide to go Arms/Fury for a bit.



Legs: Silvershell Leggings (Nethercleft Leg Armor) This one was a tough choice, mainly because I've yet to get a good idea of how much these go for on my server. If I can't find them, the next best option would be Heavy Lamellar Leggings/High Chief's Legguards which would actually have more stam, and more agility if I found an "of the Monkey" version.



Feet: Boots of Avoidance (Fortitude) Not only do these come with enough almost stam and agility to match the high-level greens of the bracket, they have the most armour and a huge amount of dodge. If I'm missing a better option, please enlighten me!



Ring 1: Ring of Saviors I will admit I haven't done a ton of research on rings, but this one seems like a solid choice. It has a nice amount of stam, and a cooldown to pop, even if it isn't all that good.



Ring 2: Thrall's Resolve I'm sure you guys might see some better options for this one (I am aware of the Dark Iron Ring, but what I said for the necklace also applies here) but I really like this ring. It might not have a ton of stam, but the 150 armour is quite substantial. I'm pretty sure it's available at 49, but if I'm wrong please inform me. The one other option I'm looking at is the Drakeclaw Band, which is quite attractive, and since I will be going to ST anyway, I will keep an eye out for it. It was also brought to my attention that the Deadman's Hand might be worth picking up. Lots of choices here.



Trinket 1: Rune of Duty This seems like a good trinket all-around. Respectable amount of stam and nice regeneration.



Trinket 2: Defiler's Talisman This slot I am really unsure of. The talisman was simply the first trinket that I saw while searching. The Insignia of the Horde also seems like a good option, I know that I couldn't go without my epic Insignia at 80 in the arena, but I'm not sure how useful it is in Battlegrounds with the 5 minute cooldown. The Inherited Insignia of the Horde is even better, but it will take me a while to get enough shards for it. I've also seen the Nifty Stopwatch which is an interesting trinket. In the end I will probably get as many of these as I can, but I would like an opinion on what the best combo would be.



Weapon: Viking Warhammer (Lifestealing) This would appear to be the one-handed weapon with the highest stamina in the bracket. The enchant I am unsure of, but from what I've read Lifestealing does more healing than Crusader, and seems like a good way to keep me alive longer. The only other weapon options I'm looking at are the Heirloom weapons, but I need to get a solid number on the stats of those at 49 first. The Sharpened Scarlet Kris seems to be the best candidate of them, as it has both stam and resilience. I may also look into Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge depending on how much stam it has.



Shield: Wall of the Dead (Major Stamina) No contest here. Most stam, most armor, the proc is icing on the cake.



Ranged: Outrider's Bow Couldn't find anything better than this. Nice amount of stam and some agility as well.



I was trying to get all this plugged into Warcrafter's sandbox feature last night, but I am having some trouble with the BoA shoulders (there doesn't seem to be the Gladiator enchant either) and I am unsure of how to get the items with random enchantments to be what I want. I was able to add gem sockets and use gems that matched the stats fairly closely, however, and I substituted the shoulders for Wyrmslayer Spaulders to get a rough estimate of health, armour and avoidance. It came out to about 60% damage reduction (I can't remember the exact figure), around 5200 hp and roughly 35-40% avoidance, I can't recall that either. I registered there earlier so I will be able to save it and link it once everything is added.





My talent tree is one of the things I really have no idea how to go about. This is a quick outline of what I want. I tried to focus more on the avoidance talents while still picking up some useful things like the stuns, reflection, etc. If anyone has/knows a prot warrior of this level I would be interested in looking at their talents.



In the meantime I will continue researching, if I missed anything of great importance please inform me. I will most likely update this post later, or post additional information when I see fit (without double-posting of course :)).
 
You pretty much got it here in terms of gear. I would go with Avenguard Helm and Hydralisk Armor for your helm and chest. Boots of Avoidance are good, there are ST mail boots that can drop of the stamina brand (totals 39 stamina on boots with fortitude enchant), although you may want to go with Boar's Speed.



I would go with Crusader over Lifestealing, mostly for the fact that it will give you 100 strength as well.



I'll respond again later... trying to actually pay attention to my professor today :)
 
For cloaks, there's also the Grovekeeper's Drape, though I'd personally go for your two choices first.



Also for chest there's the Spiderfang Carapace, which gives nice amounts of hit rating... though it's hard to get since it drops from the Ring of Law event.



If you don't want to play the RNG game on the Atal'ai Girdle, there's the Atal'alarion's Tusk Ring which also drops in Sunken Temple.



An alternative to the Boots of Avoidance are the Defiler's Plate Greaves, which have a built in speed boost. The Boots of Avoidance are a bit better in my opinion, but they also happen to look like moldy socks on my Undead Warrior, so I'm going with the Defiler's for aesthetics. :)



With rings, I'd avoid the Ring of Saviors. Been looking around, and frankly I think it's just bad. I'd take an Aquamarine Signet of the Bear or a Legionnaire's Band over that. They also make decent alternatives to your Thrall's Resolve if you are unable to pick it up. Obviously the Dark Iron rings are much better, but I hear you on wanting to avoid that grind...



For the gloves, I'd picked up some Edgemaster's Handguards to help reach the hit cap. Hopefully that engineering flashlight comes out with 3.1 and I can replace those handguards with the Plated Fist of Hakoo.



On trinkets I always carry my insignia, but I can understand switching it out when it's on cooldown. If I were to do that, I'd swap the Defiler's Talisman for the Rune of the Guard Captain, it has +Hit and 20 AP... it's a really good trinket and AFAIK only available to Horde, so enjoy the spoils. :)



Main hand weapons are kind of up in the air, although there's an interesting discussion here about the Hammer of the Northern Wind if you're willing to give up the stats.



On the ranged weapon, I went for the Charmed Ancient Bone for the +Hit (and looks). If you're not aiming for the hit cap or reach it with other gear, then the Outrider's Bow would probably be a better choice.



Good luck on the Silvershell Leggings, I can't quote you a price 'cause I've yet to see a pair yet! I currently have some High Chief's Legguards of the Bear to hold me over.



Finally a note on shoulders, I'd pick up a pair of Wyrmslayer Spaulders just to be safe. Lots of uncertainty in the air about the Gladiator 'chant on BoA shoulders, and in my opinion without the 'chant the Wyrmslayer Spaulders are a better choice over the BoAs (both of 'em).



P.S. O' yeah, 'ello everyone! This is my first post, but I've been lurking for a while digging up info for my own 49 Prot Warrior. Thought I'd register and share what I've got so far. :)
 
Welcome to twinkinfo Anid :).



Hitcap should always be a priority, although it is a little harder to reach it as a prot warrior. The flashlight will make that pretty trivial of course.



I guess your gear depends on what you're priority is in PvP. I'd recommend picking up a pure stamina set that should net you approx 5500 health for just flag carrying and nothing else.



You will also want to accumulate a set that is built around Shield Slam DPS. You'll probably want to zone in at around 4000+ health with some decent defensive and offensive stats. All the pieces above will assist you in both areas.
 
Thanks for the input. I'm pretty confident that 5500 hp will be relatively easy to hit if I choose the items with max stam (which will also give me room for things like Boar's Speed on the boots instead of Fortitude), and I will get all those pvp pieces once I have the honour/marks available. I'm pretty sure there is a Ring of Saviors on my server's AH right now, I will check the price of it and if it isn't too high I will probably buy it for a stam set. The Legionnaire's Band looks like a nice all-around ring though, if being a little lower on stam than I'd like. I also forgot to closely at the Hammer of the Northern Wind on my AH as well, for around ~150g if I remember correctly. Admittedly my Thrall's Resolve is fairly situational ring, having lackluster stats besides the armour.



I'm still looking into the spec... I've looked at a twink guild on my server, though the two 49 prot warriors I found were a little iffy. What I'm mainly wondering is if it's worth going deep enough to get the stam and expertise talent. Anyway, when I find more about that I'll post an update.
 
you're gearing him like a tank. : /



Seriously, your survivability will be fine from cooldowns. You should gear for offensive stats. Prot warriors at 49 aren't like 29 and 19. They have excellent burst potential. My concussion blows can crit for 1850. My Shield slams can crit for 1300. That's Non-Berserking. Bloomsprout headpiece on head. Grovekeeper's on back. Hydralick/Spiderfang on chest. Etc.



[char=Anub%27arak]Fourtypounds[/char]
 
I have realized that prot warriors can do some pretty good damage, but I'm looking more towards a defensive set. I plan on picking up some dps gear, but I think that if I want to dps I will respec. I understand where you're coming from, but I think our playstyles are a little different. I want to be an annoyance, someone people will have a hard time killing, you know what I mean? I thought about wanting to do dps, but I'm levelling a mage to do that, and I wanted to try something new.
 
Pick up both sets in my opinion.



If you're running around killing things, switch to your DPS set and blow stuff up.



If you're running the flag, switch to your high stam set if you have a healer, and feel unkillable :)
 
That's the plan. Another thing I'm interested in is AB, so essentially surviving as long as possible and being a thorn in my opponents' sides. :)



That being said, I've noticed that with the changes to the Heavy Mithril set in 3.1, a few of the pieces now have the most stam and armour of the brackets (legs and gloves from what I've seen), whether this outways the benefits of the agility on the other pieces I'm not sure yet.
 
Agility equals crit as well, so I wouldn't necessarily sac that for more armor. I would look at the potential stam upgrade first.
 
yeah like tai stated before definetely get 2 sets and i havent heard word on the dualspecs for lvl 40s and up so if that happens gogogo.
 
So much to say, here's my 0.02...



1) Get a Phantom Blade. Put a Steel Weapon Chain on it. Thank me later when you fight rogues. Both can be a little hard to get but a little do diligence will get you far.



2) I would strongly recommend to either go full out FC or full out DPS. The specs are going to vary by quite a bit. You can succeed at both as a hybrid but you won't be able to excel.



3) Few spec suggestions:

FC1

FC2

DPS



You can make a hybrid from those as you see fit.



Got to run but I will add more later.
 
Thanks for the input Strontia. I'll take your advice and craft myself a Phantom Blade along with the chain on my paladin and send them over. Of those 3 builds I'm liking the second one for pure defense, and I am starting to look into the DPS aspect of prot warriors, so that third build will be helpful.



With that in mind, I've got a rough sketch of what my warrior will look like in his full defensive gear: Here



The hp is quite good right now but will be several hundred higher since the BoA shoulders (I used Wyrmslayer as a placeholder) have several points more of stam along with the Gladiator enchant. I couldn't get the random enchants on the gloves or belt either, so I added sockets and used gems (16 AP and 12 stam) that fit the random enchantments best.
 
I would love to twink at 49, But i have trouble levelling from 1-19 as it is...lol
 
My advice, avoid Prot, it's weak.

Without healing debuffs you will almost never kill a healer, and stance dancing will consume almost every point of rage you have.

I tried Prot for a week because all I've been hearing is about how Prot is the new pvp spec and totally pwns Arms, but I fail to see how...oh joy, we get a random stun and a stun we can do every so often (and hope it doesn't miss o_O),take a little less dmg, but that's really about it, so back to Arms I went.

I fail to see Prot's "Superior" damage, and as for its better survivability, maybe it's just my battlegroup, but it won't help much when you constantly fight a never ending stream of the enemy team.



Just my 2 cents.



Grats to myself on post 1 btw whewt!!!
 
Lol, welcome to twinkinfo Kaos :)



Against a healer, prot is very weak. However, against squishy casters where you can just concussive blow + shield slam (I hope I got that right, I've never played a prot warrior) or against squishy rogues. I'm not sure how well you'd stand up to other classes, I've never had issues with them 1v1 myself.



I'd just recommend sticking to your guns and doing what you like best. If you're more comfortable with arms (I know I am), MS away. I think MS has much more utility anyway. Prot is nice just because you can carry the flag and put out some nice DPS against your oncoming offense trying to get the flag back from you.
 
As a rogue, against prot warriors..

I hate them.

Revenge, Overpower, Swing, Revenge, Overpower >_<

Revenge stuns are pretty OP too ...



bleed kiting + warrior = /dance
 
Finished my Prot warrior about a week ago, and I've been having a lot of fun with him.



He is definitely weak against healers, there is no doubt. Even priests can keep up against me unless I catch 'em with their pants down (low health or my Concussion Blow is off of CD). Mages and Warlocks get shredded if I can close the gap. Melee classes are absolutely trivial to me, Shield Block and Disarm allows me to obliterate them. Hunters can be a problem depending on skill level, though I can Shield Block the pets... in fact I often blow a Challenging Shout just to pull the pets off of everyone else.



I don't stance dance much as Prot... I much prefer to just stay in Def. Stance and build up my rage. Just about everything I'd need is there. All I really switch for is the occasional intercept.



The survivability is pretty huge though, especially with the Shield Wall and Shield Block. As a FC I can pop Shield Block and just walk backwards for the next 15 seconds, completely negating any melee damage. Shield Wall lets me soak a lot of damage, and Last Stand helps for those moments when I need to hold out just a lil' bit longer before a healer shows (or so I can fear-bomb or something on my way out).



It makes a difference in AB too. I could solo assault a node and though I'll die, I can still tie up everyone there for at least half a minute. As one person, I'll gladly tie up four opponents and make it a 14 to 11 game. :)



But survivability only goes so far. If you're getting assist trained by five twinks, you're gonna die... Prot or not.



Nothing wrong with Arms though, it's still an excellent build. In fact, I picked up a Kang's just for 3.1 when we have dual specs. MS is great utility, along with the bleeds and such. Though since Wrath I've found I end up in Battle stance a lot more to use the much more frequent Overpower procs... which makes using Pummel troublesome (having to switch stances and then Pummel really made the timing hard).



Still, there's some real nice candy down that Arms tree which I miss from when I played Arms in the 39 bracket.
 
My playstyle is more direct, I figure if I really wanna be a nuisance, then the best way is to repeatedly send them back to their gy.

Never been big on flag running, imo, that's a druids job (or any other class that's not so easily locked down).

About the only thing I ever really have troubles against are druids, and mostly just cuz of the roots..if my trinket is up the first is easy.
 
I'm leveling a prot. warrior right now, I made a guide for 39 and while it's okay I hate my battlegroup for the times I play. I'll prob be moving to 49 soon.



The nice thing about a prot warrior is that when you stack offense you are usually stacking defense too.



Example: Agil adds armor and dodge. Str adds 1 point of block for every 2 str (not sure if this is the same at 49 as it is at 39) and concussion blow get +.75 dmg for every 1 pt of AP.



What I feel is take stamina, strength and then agil. I like my crit chance at 15% so with talents my herioc's and thunderclaps crit 30% of the time.



Shield block value is even more important at this level then 39 because shield slam's dmg is based off your block value.



Balance your stats, I don't think a min/max will work in this bracket.



Also, prot's arent weak against healers. Remember that you can disarm them for an extra +10% dmg. Wait till there 3/4s to 1/2 then shield bash there heal, when they start casting again, concussion blow, then shield bash again, at that point someone dies.



These are some builds I would go with:



0/11/29

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LZGx0oZiIzrxbzc

*Reduced rage cost, str, stam and expertise, and imp. defensive stance are great talents but my most notable annoyance is being snared and not being able to snare, piercing howl and toughness solves all that. Plus you said you wanted to be really annoying, this will do it.



7/0/33

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LGMZZiIzr0bdi0h

Maximized rage production minimized rage cost.



There's lots of fun options at 49, I would play to your own style. Remember that stand dancing for rage will be different in 3.1 and it might diminish the importance of tactical master(or make it more important).
 
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