Protection Talent Guide
This arms talent guide will let you know which of the arms talents you should go for, and which you should pass up unless you're going full into this tree, which is never really recommended since having points into Fury or Arms really help you out in the long run. We will go over each talent, analyze what it does, and why you would or wouldn't want it.
Return to the new Warrior Talent Guide. The Warrior Talent Guide will link you to all 3 different Talent builds and explain how they work, and why you would ever need or use them, including important talents to pick up as well as often ignored ones.
Tier 1
Tier 1 is available at level ten, when your first talents open up.
Improved Bloodrage
Max 2 Points, Increases the instant Rage generated by your Bloodrage ability.
While an alright talent to start building some rage pre-battle (maximum skill giving you 6 more rage), there's better things out there in tier 1 to help you out. Situational at best.
- Situational
Tactical Mastery
Max 3 points. You retain additional rage points when you change stances.
This is another situational talent for a Warrior, if you're horde you should consider this a little bit more since you lack Fear Ward support from your priests, however, this is still at best up to the player's playstyle.
- Depends on playstyle
Anticipation
Max 5 points, Increases your Defense skill.
This is probably the best tier1 talent you can get if you're going up this talent tree; increasing your defensive skill by up to 20 and rounding up your defense.
- Recommended
Tier 2
Shield Specialization
Max 5 points, Increases your chance to block attacks with a shield and has a chance to generate 1 rage when a block occurs.
Great for a main tank or for warriors who will be tanking a lot, otherwise, this talent isn't as good as toughness.
- Great for Main Tanks and Frequent Offtanks
Toughness
Max 5 points, Increases your armor value from items.
All damage taken is reduced by 5% with this talent maxed thanks to the defensive increase, a must have for serious tankers!
- Must Have
Tier 3
Last Stand
1 point skill, When activated, this ability temporarily grants you 30% of your maximum hit points for 20 seconds. After the effect expires, the hit points are lost (Active).
This talent is one of the greatest ones in this tree, expanding your HP by 30% lets you survive tough encounters and big damage spikes, must get talent if you're going up this tree!
-
Must Have
Improved Shield Block
Max 1 point, Allows your Shield Block ability to block an additional attack and increases the duration by 1 second.
Get this talent if you find yourself using Shield Block often or needing its resources often during battles - at only one point, you should invest into it regardless
- Recommended
Improved Revenge
Max 3 points, Gives your Revenge ability a chance to stun the target for 3 sec.
At max, it gives you a 45% chance to stun your enemy with Revenge. A good talent if you're doing small instances, since it'll save you from being hit by trash often, however, remember many bosses are immune so if you're going for higher-end things, you may want to skip this talent.
Great in PvP if you get it for that purpose, stunning your opponents is always welcome within it!
- Situational
Defiance
Max 3 points, Increases the threat generated by your attacks while in Defensive Stance.
Great talent for both offtanks and maintanks alike, this is the kind of thing you should be investing for - keeping aggro and keeping your hitpoints up with your defensive stance!
- Recommended for PvE Tanking
Tier 4
Improved Sunder Armor
Max 3 points, Reduces the cost of your Sunder Armor ability.
A great talent for main tanks, Sunder Armor is one of the abilities you will be using the most as you tank stronger and stronger monsters so this is a good investment
- Recommended for Tanks
Improved Disarm
Max 3 points, Increases the duration of your Disarm ability
This is a good PvP talent to have, and while Protection Warriors don't usually PvP, this is a good addition and might prove worthwhile in select PvE encounters as well, however, it's best if you do Improved Taunt and Sunder Armor if Tanking.
- Situational - Offtank and PvP
Improved Taunt
Max 2 points, Reduces the cooldown of your Taunt ability.
At maximum giving you 2 seconds less cooldown on taunt, this is a talent that shouldn't be missed if you're serious about tanking - 2 seconds can mean life and death for a cloth user!
- Recommended for PvE Tanking
Tier 5
Improved Shield Wall
2 point, Increases the effect duration of your Shield Wall ability.
Giving you 5 seconds more on Shield Wall is always a good thing - it's 5 seconds more your healers can have (and your group can have) with relative less stress on keeping you up!
- Recommended
Concussion Blow
1 point, Stuns the opponent for 5 sec (Active).
Great for PvP, costing 15 rage this lets you attempt to stun an enemy - while this is also good for interrupting enemy casters and several other PvE areas this talent does shine the best in PvP. It's only 1 point, so why not give have it around?
- Recommended
Improved Shield Bash
Max 2 points, Gives your Shield Bash ability a chance to silence the target for 3 sec.
This is a great threat generator and one of your best talents this far up in the protection tree, greatly recommended, it also silences enemy casters in both PvE and PvP!
- Recommended
Tier 6
Shield Mastery
3 point talent, Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield.
Increasing the damage absorbed by 30% at max is a great addition to your already formidable defense, get this if you're this far up in the protection tree as you likely have a shield out most of the time!
- Recommended
One-Handed Weapon Specialization
5 point talent, Increases the damage you deal with One-Handed Melee weapons.
Situational talent, if you're tanking you won't be looking to do much damage so this talent should be largely ignored unless you have extra points laying around.
- Situational
Tier 7
Shield Slam
1 point talent, Slam the target with your shield, causing damage and has a 50% chance of dispelling 1 magic effect on the target. Also causes a high amount of threat.
- Recommended!
Improved Defensive Stance
3 point talent, Reduces all spell damage taken while in Defensive Stance.
A 6% decrease in spell damage received at maximum rank, this is purely a PvP talent since many bosses will also be sporting many other skills and physical damage, making that 6% increase largely irrelevant in the long run.
- Recommended for PvP
Focused Rage
3 point, Reduces the rage cost of your offensive abilities.
3 rage less on all of your abilities give you a great advantage when keeping your rage bar up and your abilities ready to go; this is a talent all tanks should have or should at least consider!
- Recommended
Tier 8
Vitality
5 point talent, Increases your total Stamina and Strength.
A 10% HP/STR increase by the 5th point make this talent worthwhile to your cause as you strive to get Devastate - remember, higher HP means less chances of dying, and if you've gathered your gear decently enough you'll be that much harder to take down with this talent going.
- Recommended
Tier 9
Devastate
1 point, An instant weapon attack that causes 50% of weapon damage plus X and additional threat for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. In addition, this will renew the duration of the Sunder Armor attack.
Not much to say about this talent, it's a great tanking warrior skill that will let you both deal out more damage, refresh your sunder armors so you don't need to use them past the initial phase, and extra threat! What more could a main tank want? Get this talent if you can. Make sure you use this with over 3 sunders on.
- Must Have
Comments or questions? Email us ([email protected]) or post on our forums!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.
