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

- Revenge 

- Devastate

- Thunderclap

- Stormbolt (if taken as Talent)

- Heroic Strike or Cleave on cooldown

Mists of Pandaria: Protection Warrior Active Mitigation

We're Not Death Knights..... WTF??

Any of you who ever rolled a Death Knight tank will be very familiar with why you must use Death Strike when ever you can and how you have to plan your rotation around it.

With the introduction of patch 5.0.4 and the subsequent launch of Mists of Pandaria, Protection Warrior's mechanics have changed forever. Gone are the days where we could reach the CTC Cap (Combat Table Coverage Cap) due to the introduction of a 2 roll defence style and enter the days where we now have to endlessly save rage in order to give us a few seconds of damage reduction.

So What Is Active Mitigation?

Active Mitigation is the use of abilities to reduce incoming damage - it has nothing to do with Dodge, Parry or Block but rather an ability in your spell book that you can pop (on a short cooldown - if any at all) that reduces the damage you take.

Why Should I Give a Flying Orc About This??

Assuming you are here because you play a Protection Warrior then this should be fairly obvious. You are a tank. Among your many functions within your Party or Raid is your ability to keep agro and take as little damage as possible. Active Mitigation reduces the damage you take which therefore helps out your healers with mana and the ability to target someone other than you for a second.

Ok I'm Convinced, What Are My Active Mitigation Abilities?

As a Protection Warrior you have 2 Active Mitigation abilities:

- Shield Barrier

and

- Shield Block

Shield Block blocks every single melee attack against you for 6 seconds and Shield Barrier absorbs a certain amount of damage against you for 6 seconds (or until it has absorbed the set amount of damage).

So When Should I Use Them?

Shield Block should be used when you are taking melee damage and Shield Barrier when you are taking spell damage or "unblock-able" damage. 

Shield Barrier can be used with either 20, 40 or 60 rage (amount of damage absorbed increases depending on how much rage you spend on it) where as Shield Block can only be used with 60 rage. You can only have 1 Shield Barrier active at any one time but you can stack up to 2 Shield Block (extends the time period).

To Summarise

These abilities are there to be used so use them and use them as you see fit but remember Block for melee and Barrier for spell.