I see a lot of prot warriors running around with bad specs and gear builds, so I’d like to help them out with my spin on it. You hear people talk about armor pen + block value, but those people didn’t get gladiator in season 5 or 6 like I did. Season 7 was when it became very powerful due to a set bonus increasing shield slam/shockwave damage, and that was when Swifty started to get into the playstyle, popularizing it.
While I have gotten some insane crits (13900 highest so far) with a block value / armor pen set, that is not the best way to play prot in prepatch as you have no survivability and need to rely on recklessness to get the big burst windows. Your overall dps will be much higher with the following build (I discuss both though in the video if you want to try block value gearing).
Gladiator Protection Warrior WOTLK Classic Prepatch Spec Talent Guide - YouTube
More tips:
For the simplest prot warrior build (and in my opinion the most effective) just gear like an arms warrior and even enchant like one. The only two exceptions are using gnomeregan autoblocker (or coren’s lucky coin) along with getting a + shield block VALUE (not rating) enchant on your shield. Other than that, all the gear is identical to a full brutal arms warrior.
The spec has a lot of tweaking you can do, especially at level 70 because you lack the ability to get shockwave as well as impale, but I give you the best talents you need to be successful in the video.
You will struggle to one vs one resto druids and some resto shamans who know how to kite (since you don’t have tactical mastery and your slams on druids pop the lifeblooms). Some dot classes will require shield wall to make it a fair fight as well.
Here is your best rotation for maximum shield slam damage, and when you don’t have access to these abilities prioritize revenge, devastate and heroic strike over shield slam:
Defensive stance → charge ->block trinket → shield block → disarm → shield bash → zerker stance → recklessness (if up) → (if necessary) blood rage → shield slam
Going into zerker to squeeze 5% more damage is risky because you might not have time to hit the shield slam before shield bash’s 10% damage buff goes away in 3 seconds. If you can time it so you get a white hit right after swapping to zerker you won’t have to blood rage and the shield slam should make the 3 second window.
Hamstring early on the charge so you can sit in defensive stance after that without having to lose your rage to apply it.
Like I said before, be careful of shield slamming druids when they are low on health as you might just heal them back up when a lifebloom is up. In general, you want to stun the druid twice (conc + shockwave) and then silence after when his hots are nearly about to fall off. Keep in mind charge does not have the same dr as your other stuns, so start with that when you decide to switch to a druid.
You can spell reflect on your teammates as well as yourself.
