Raid Protection: A Prot Warrior Guide: Mists of Pandaria: Protection Warrior Single Target Rotation

To DPS or Not to DPS That Is The Question

Everything has changed for us (how many times have I said this so far!). Before we could just go balls-to-the-wall, trying to put out as much DPS as we could manage to help our raid. We knew our defence cap would mitigate most of our incoming damage and we had a few damage reduction cooldowns to pop where needed. Any extra rage we had was spent on cleave or heroic strike and everything was lovely.......

Patch 5.0.4 dropped and how we generated rage and spent it totally changed. We are now endlessly searching for and saving rage to spend on our Active Mitigation abilities and because threat is no longer really an issue for us we no longer really have much rage spare to dump..... ever!

The Pull

There are a few really good ideas for the pull. Pre-potting, dropping banners, activating Recklessness etc etc. However I am going to give you a standard version of this for single target:

Battle Shout -> Berserker Rage -> Heroic Throw -> Charge -> Shield Slam -> Revenge -> Active Mitigation (Shield Barrier or Shield Block)

This can be altered for a maximum start by adding in Recklessness and your tier 6 talent: Avatar, Bloodbath or Stormbolt before Heroic Throw and Skull Banner after Shield Slam:

Battle Shout -> Recklessness -> Berserker Rage -> [Avatar or Bloodbath] -> [Heroic Throw or Stormbolt] -> Charge -> Shield Slam -> Skull Banner -> Revenge -> Active Mitigation (Shield Barrier or Shield Block)

If you are going to Pre-pot (Using a potion before the pull so you can use another during) then do this before you Heroic Throw or Stormbolt.

You can also Heroic Leap instead of Charge however you will lose the rage that is generated from Charge if you do, meaning more time between the pull and the start of your Active Mitigation abilities.

The Rotation

Just like in Cataclysm there is no set Protection Warrior Rotation. Instead we use a priority system:

For Times Where You Are Taking Damage (Active Tank In A Raid, Dungeon Tank etc)

- Active Mitigation Ability of Choice (Shield Barrier or Shield Block)

- Shield Slam

- Revenge

- Devastate

- Thunderclap

- Stormbolt (if taken as Talent)

Obviously any other damage reduction abilities should be used on cooldown or when arranged with your raid leader.

For Times Where You Aren't Taking Damage (Non-Active Tank In A Raid)

- Shield Slam