My final WOTLK Prot build

October 29, 2008 – 5:56 am

After 2 weeks of laggy server, BG is finally playable and Arena is still laggy but not too bad during off peak hours.

I’ve been so frustrated with patch 3.0 I even though of quiting wow, loggin on was pointless and when it last for 2 weeks I start to accept that I don’t need wow anymore lol.

Not to mention getting WTFowned everyday by Paladins in blue/s1 gear literrally made me sick.

anyway, that is why I’ve been absent, the server lag and stupid Paladins prevent me from enjoying the game.

After I spended 2000 gold or something on respecing, I think I’m finaly contempt with the spec that I choose, I will probably use it for leveling up to 80 because I love it so much.

It is 0/38/23 at level 70 and 0/38/33 at level 80

This is a Fury/Prot Hybrid build, I would still like to call this a Prot spec really because I’ll be playing 1H+Shield 100% of the time against all classes.

DPS Rotation would be Shield Slam > Bloodthirst > Heroic Strike > Shield Slam etc.

If you didn’t know Shield Slam is not on the same cooldown as Bloodthirst, so the Burst potential is amazing with Bloodthirst.

I believe this build is Superior in every way vs other 50+ PVP Prot Spec because of the following reasons

Bloodthirst > Devastate - Hands down simply because it deals way more damage in 1 GCD and the Healing effect can really stack up. Devastate damage is just too low and take too much GCD for it to become effective. Not to mention that in 3.0.3 Bloodthirst is going to get buffed to 5sec cooldown and 50% AP damage.

Enrage > Imp Def Stance - Even though it cost more talent points its just better because it will work againts casters.

Furious Attack > Warbringer, this is something that Prot desperately need to be competitive in Arena. Playing 1H-Shield with Furious Attack is incredible, I’ve never had so much fun playing the Warrior because healing classes can’t laugh at me anymore.

But I find the proc rate of Furious Attack is pretty bad, it can be hard to stack 2x for some reason even with all the spamming of Shield Slam and Bloodthirst, Furious Attack can still wear off easily. Oh well its still better than no healing debuff.

Improve Berskerer Rage - This is like drinking a Rage potion every 20 second, it is amazing to play with Improve Berserker Rage if you don’t have Tactical Mastery.

This is an incredibly good build, I have been able to kill any geared class 1vs1, and the DPS is still respectable. Shield Slam damage is nearly as high as Full Prot because you can still get Imp Shield Bash for 10% dmg and Shield Mastery, the main thing different than Full Prot is 1H Mastery which you can get at level 80.

This brings me to the subject of 1vs1 as Warrior, playing 1H+Shield is now better in every way againts any class. This is because you gain Shield Slam as an additional instant damage for only 20 rage,

and your Shield Slam damage is as high as your 2Hander Slam damage and it gives you the Ability to stay in Battle Stance and Spell Reflect.

Or Defensive Stance > Shield Block > Revenge vs Melee classes, You also will deal more damage in Defensive Stance because you gain Revenge as another attack which is about 1500 damage (untalented) for 5 rage.

I haven’t seen Warriors using Shield Block much at all, didn’t they notice that it Blocks ALL attacks for 10 sec, this is like the Warrior’s version of Evasion.

Well I think Warriors will always need to switch to 1H+Shield in any 1vs1 situation no matter what spec you are. If you’re not doing this yet, you need to start and I’ll guarantee that you’ll have more success in PVP.

13 Responses to “My final WOTLK Prot build”
Ehi Murth,
I was waiting for this post since 3.0 release.
I tought about quitting wow too, but then I realized that I like this version much more then the previous.
As usual you came up with a very very good build, that I’m going to try,
Only thing I will miss will be warbringer, and shockwave is a lot of fun too in AV.
Anyway Protection looks like the more easy build to play for a warrior, because as you said, we need to switch ALWAYS to shield, so it’s better to stay 100% shield and have a build that uses it at its best

By Luomo on Oct 29, 2008
Hi, I like your lvl 70 spec pretty much and surely gonna try it (playing full prot atm with shockwave for pvp), but as regards your lvl 80 spec, wouldn´t it be better to go for something like 0/42/29? You lose 3 less rage for offensive abilities and 1 point in one hand specialization, but you gain 5% crit (even for your team members in arena for example) and heroic fury (which makes up a bit for the loss of warbringer) and you can spend 2 more points in fury elsewhere (maybe precision depending on how much hit the first arena tiers have).

By Pipo on Oct 29, 2008
Yea it was a dilemma choosing to get Heroic Fury + Rampage or not.

I didn’t like Heroic Fury that much becuase it only dispel Rooting effect, (frost nova, improved hamstring, entangling root etc) and not slowing effect.

so it is like a weaker version of escape artist, which is kind of sad for a 31 point.

I though when playing without tactical mastery, focused rage would be extremely usefull.

I even though about spending 10 points in Arms instead to get 3/3 Iron Will, 2/3 Tactical Mastery, but that would mean losing out o 10% damage which is quite a lot. (especially when everything will stack up so nicely with Flurry, Enrage, Deathwish)

Warbringer is probably the only reason I would spec that deep into prot, but would have to loose Furious Attack ><

By Murth on Oct 29, 2008

Yeah, but on another side i really hate Warbringer, because of its stun diminishing effect =( I often was in a situation where i would have been able to charge someone but then thought about it just like “Hey, if you charge him, your stuns are screwed, so just wait a few seconds and fuck him up with concussion blow and shockwave =/”. Really would like seeing charge changed to a root/spell interrupt effect like feral charge. I even could imagine playing deep prot then for arena. Devastating and shield slaming the focus target for dispell and sunder armor -> imp. disarm for nuke support on the dispelled/sunderer target -> (maybe imp. intervene on the focused teammate) -> charging on the healer and locking him down with concussion blow/shockwave/shield bash silence/fear/weapon throw silence (on lvl 80).

By Pipo on Oct 30, 2008

Glad to hear you haven’t given up faith. My server got gummed up too with 3.0 but things have eased up this week and the game’s much more playable.

To your complaints about Pallies, have you read about the multiple changes (nerfs) to pallies that are coming? Might cheer you up.

By Pearlmoon on Oct 30, 2008

Hey Murth,

First time poster here, though been reading and watching your vids for some time Thanks for your dedication to the Warrior Class. I am certainly going to try this build out tonight. Keep up the work!

By Thrakk on Nov 8, 2008

Interesting spec, I’m gonna try it out next time. Hope to see a video showing off the burst damage of this spec.

Question: Is the dmg bonus of Improved revenge > than the free second wind proc against warriors? That seemed to be the big deterrent from choosing Improved Revenge in the past.

By Doe on Nov 20, 2008

Hard to say, the first 3sec stun is definately worth it, but the 2nd (1.5s) and 3rd (0.75s) stun is pretty much giving away free heal to arms spec warriors.

but 1vs1 spec wise you’d still win with higher damage while holding a shield and last stand.

in the past going to defensive stance wasn’t really worth it, but now I use it all the time againts any melee classes just for Shield Block and Revenge.

Your DPS is higher while in Defensive Stance just because of Revenge, and you take 10% less damage so its a win win,

I’d use it againts Ret Paladins, Feral Druids, Rogues, Ench Shamans aswell

By Murth on Nov 20, 2008

Mirth,
I really enjoy the work that you do. It’s very detailed and through. I’ve been spec’d as full protection for sometime and I decided to give you build a shot. I’m curious as to how you handle the lack of movement and stun that warbringer adds to a deeper protection build. This always seemed very useful, without having to stance change, especially against 1v1 mages who always keep their distance.

By Ravenous on Nov 23, 2008

I have been experimenting with a modification of this build (with anticipation to help with tanking ability at the moment without need to respec), and am happy so far. As for giving up Warbringing, though I really like the idea of that talent, I think piercing howl is more important against those ranged dps who love to hover just between melee and charge range so you can’t use warbringer charge/intercept them easily anyway; also that furious attack has to make healers sweat a bit as Murth points out.

Anyway thanks for the work in coming up with this build, it really showed a side I had not considered before and I like the results (and I always like having a build not everyone and his brother is using, which is the case unless your spec really catches on all over :P). Keep up the good work, other tips on the site I am finding very useful as well

By Kroze on Nov 27, 2008

Hi Murth,

> I haven’t seen Warriors using Shield Block much at all, didn’t they notice that it Blocks ALL attacks for 10 sec.

Especially as an arms warrior Shield Block is very nice if you have Unrelenting Assault. You can then use Revenge every sec. for 10 sec. And with Shield Mastery you can do this every 40 sec! It’s even better with Improved Revenge for the increased damage and the stun chance.

Thanks for all the tips and the nice video’s!

By Huornh on Dec 12, 2008

One interesting thing that I noticed about defensive stance yesterday, is that when you have 37 talent points spent in arms, you get the talent that reduces the revenge cooldown to 1 second. Basically this means you can spam revenge 4-5 times whenever it procs, seems like pretty massive single target damage, and perhaps this is a bug they did not realize when they made the talent, nonetheless it seems like a pretty great way to spam damage when you are tanking a boss.

By Mips on Dec 31, 2008

Even if you don’t dodge, parry or block each attack? If that’s the case it sounds like a bug, but when using shield block it’s working as intended imo. Btw with shield block it’s also useful against bladestorming warriors: every second they whirlwind, you block it and can use revenge (if you have the rage for it).

What I said earlier about improved revenge is only true if you want to use it to stun an opponent. To just do a lot of damage in a short time you don’t want him to be stunned because he needs to hit you for the revenges

But in a bladestorm/improved execute build (with unrelenting assault) it’s also very nice to alternate between bladestorm and shield block + revenges.

By Huornh on Jan 1, 2009

World of Warcraft Warrior PVP - Murth