Protection Warrior needed buffs

Classes Warrior
1

Im playing Prot for a few years and now im feeling its time for some buffs. Its been a hard time pulling rage for shield block on high M+ and im struggling a lot against direct magic damage. To solve this issues i think we need two buffs:

Shield block should cost less rage, so we have a better time using our rage for revenge (aggro) or ignore pain (survivability). Zero rage cost should be ideal to match other tanks that have a cooldown on the active mitigation. I.e. Monk shuffle and Dh demon spikes.

Our blocks should affect direct spells at 35% effectiveness, so we have a better time smothing the damage to compensate our low hps (Shields can block fireballs). All the othrer tanks have a better time smothing magic dmg i.e. Demon hunter tatoos 15% dr passive, monks stagger magic damage, dk gigga hps, druid high health pool and bonus hps received, and Palas standing on the consacration passive dr.

Direct spells that could be blocked: corroded claws, Wretched Phlegm, bonestrike, shadowcore, scribe, soul split, reaping scythe, all kind of bolts etc. (Almost all that spells can be reflect/deflected but when you face multiple targets or no SR is up, we just get wrecked). Spell Reflect magic dr should last the entire 5s being a diferent bonus from the ‘‘reflecting next spell’’?

What you guys out there thinks?
Im almost at 1700 rio and i face a hard time doing the 19s keys.
PS.: Ignore the level 11 troll.

36 Likes
2

Agree that Prot could use some help, not just in mitigation but in damage as well.

Another way that would not take much to change would be to simply buff Ignore Pain absorb per rage and perhaps the Ignore Pain ceiling to help against unblockable damage. A higher ceiling will also reward saving more rage for periods of high incoming damage.

A reduction in Shield Block cooldown might also help, and it may also reduce the dominance of Bolster which is basically mandatory at this point, imo. Or just buff Heavy Repercussions (+1s to Shield Block per Shield Slam is pathetic).

I also feel that Thunderclap was overnerfed coming into SL, and the damage it does is way too little. A direct, significant buff to Thunderclap damage will help us in the damage department, where we are below average, and also help in maintaining threat on dangerous mob packs where we may not be able to comfortably spend rage on Revenge.

Just some random thoughts.

10 Likes
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Quote of the day from the healer when the prot warrior tank died (his non brightness) and the BM hunter (they exist luckily) had his pet tank to save a boss fight wipe… “dam, the pet was so much easier to keep alive than the warrior was…”

16 Likes
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They kinda stuffed Prot into a Tank box and dusted off their hands. It’s absolutely horrible to do enough damage to do anything outside of holding aggro. Harder mobs take forever to kill. While the DPS specs can survive longer with health restores and shields, I always loved Prot because it was a safe way to dish out the damage. Now, it’s just a slow turtle waiting as the HP trickles off the mobs while keeping up defenses. It’s kinda sad.

I switched to Fury, because i couldn’t do SL content like that, but I still love Protection and keep a one handed weapon with a shield and update them to higher item levels when I can just in cast tank bails out of the dungeon.

4 Likes
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I see players say a lot of stupid nonsense too.

As for OP, not gonna tell you your business cause I ain’t doing those key levels. But it sounds like you’re running up against the wall where “kite meta” is in full swing and everyone who isn’t DH is hurting.

6 Likes
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Let me disclaimer by acknowledging that I haven’t progressed very far in M+ yet during Shadowlands as I’ve spent a good amount of my time leveling multiple classes and getting a feel for everything on offer, but I have tanked all 8 dungeons on low keys (up to 5’s) as a Demon Hunter, Death Knight, and of course my true love, the Warrior.

Prot Warrior’s squishiness often feels a lot like the DK, with 2 exceptions:

  1. DK can self heal very well
  2. DK does not have to choose between threat or survival

I really love the Warrior class and I don’t believe it’s garbage like a lot of people claim, but it does need some improvements.

Our mitigation is really strong if Ignore Pain and Shield Block are both active, and it should be since we lack the self heals that other tanks have and thus we heavily rely on the watchful eye of our healer, BUT the Rage costs of some abilities and cooldown on Shield Block make that very difficult to maintain while also generating enough threat on multiple mobs.

This is often exacerbated at the start of a pull where groups are spread out. If Thunder Clap doesn’t hit everything we often have no choice but to use Revenge for initial aggro which leaves us mostly defenseless for a few seconds.

I would like to propose the following changes:

Shield Block
I don’t believe that Shield Block should be free as there should be some planning involved, but I do agree that it’s Rage cost is FAR too high.
Rage cost should be reduced from 30 to 10.

The duration of 6 seconds feels too short, but instead of outright buffing it, perhaps a talent choice would be a better option.
Heavy Repercussions sounds OK but it’s not strong enough to compel me to take it. The choice is between Anger Management or Bolster.

Replace / Rework Heavy Repercussions with a talent which:
a) Increases the duration of Shield Block by 2 sec, and increases the maximum number of charges by 1.
OR
b) Increases the duration of Shield Block by 2 sec, and reduces the recharge time by 3 sec.

This gives us a real meaningful choice between the 3 options on the level 50 row.
Anger Management for a more offensive build (more Avatar uptime)
Bolster for a stronger “Oh $h1#!” cooldown (15 sec of shield block on 2 min cd)
or my new talent for a smoother defensive build (more Shield Block uptime)

Ignore Pain
Generally I think this is doing it’s job, but I would like to see the max absorb amount increased. It seems like we can currently store around 2 IP’s worth of absorb, but I’d like to see that increased to 3 (or increased roughly by 50%). It’s not often that I have enough Rage for that, but in the rare event that I do, it would feel good to know I can plan ahead a little and bank some life for those heavy hits that are coming up.

Revenge
When it doesn’t proc, it costs too much. Aside from Thunder Clap, Revenge is our next best tool for gaining/maintaining threat on multiple mobs, but due to it’s high cost it’s often a choice between threat or survival.
Rage cost should be reduced from 20 to 10.
Alternatively, keep the standard cost as it is, but rework the Best Served Cold talent to include a reduced rage cost.

For example, the talent currently does the following:
Revenge deals 20% more damage, or 50% more damage when your successful dodges or parries have made it cost no Rage.

I would change it to:
Revenge deals 20% more damage and it’s Rage cost is reduced by 10.
The damage bonus could even be reduced to 10%. The idea being that overall damage of Revenge should remain similar, but allow more uses due to reduced Rage cost.

TL;DR
Shield Block - Reduce Rage cost from 30 to 10.
Ignore Pain - Increase max absorb which can be stored by around 50%.
Revenge - Reduce Rage cost from 20 to 10.

I feel like these small changes could make a huge difference to our survivability in Mythic+ dungeons, and make the whole experience a little less stressful, and a little more enjoyable.

At the end of the day we’re all here to have fun, right?!

19 Likes
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I think that Protection Warrior needs to be fun again.

I’m thinking on leveling mine to use as an alt but protection doesnt really calls me. Talents looks too generic and with low impact of the gameplay.

1 Like
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Prot mitigation is great we just need a big damage buff. Pallas and DHs are literally doing 3k damage in raids and I’m stuck at 1.9

5 Likes
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I’m going to weigh in here, particularly since I’m maining DK this round.

  1. DK does heal extremely well. Better than any other tank, in fact. The exchange is that they mitigate less damage. My blood setup with boneshield is only around 45% after the recent buff. Prot warrior has significantly more than that just from armor, without pressing any buttons at all. This has been a significant problem for blood in Nathria progression, where at lower gear levels they were at much greater risk of being gibbed.

  2. Mostly true for single target, where every tank holds threat just fine and things are pretty static. But the choice of marrowrend vs heart strike is both a threat choice vs multitarget, and also a direct survival question because heart strike generates significantly more RP for death strikes.

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Ngl, DK could really use a higher stamina modifier. All that self-healing kinda comes to naught if one gets blown to bits in an opening cold GCD.

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After having gradually optimized more and more, this may be what gets me the most, if only because it’s the least likely to be corrected.

12

I’m somewhat inclined to agree. I’m not even nearly doing the key levels where kiting becomes the mandatory play, but the cold open as blood is… tense, to put it gently. Then again, getting absolutely mutilated by standard damage is a problem shared by all tanks right now. So I dunno.

13

It is a universal problem, true, but the little somethings some specs have to mitigate the cold open gets real noticeable, if only from a QoL sort of perspective (as your first pull will always be with CDs, and anything thereafter can avoid cold opens with banked resource). Personally, I’d like to see mitigation be a little less reliant on GCDs, even if I’m fine with and even appreciate (given sufficient eHP) rotational impact on back-loaded survivability (e.g., self-healing, PuriBrew, etc.).

14

you see what I think the problem really is? they buff us for m+ and we end up dominating raid, I think they see us as a ‘‘fine’’ tank after limit used it in the race to world first and now they simply won’t buff prot.

15

Depends on whether they’re capable of buffs that are more than just skill-specific or, worse, spec-wide aura buffs.

The jury’s out on that, though.

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Just for anyone who wants to tell this beast how to play his spec. He’s timed 4 18 keys.

He’s also #6 ranked warrior tank in the world on RaiderIO.

raider . io/characters/us/tol-barad/Kessig

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I kinda think that blizzard has an idea of what they want prot warrior to be but just haven’t had the time to really design it to be that way. Maybe because it will take a noticeable overhaul of some talents and abilities and that takes time and testing ya know.

I don’t think we are trash by any means, just not fully where we should be. I’ll continue to hold out hope and main my warrior.

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That is why my very measured suggestion is simply that Spell Reflection is changed as follows:

Two separate auras, one for spell reflection, consumed upon reflection. One for 20% magic damage reduction for 5 seconds, not consumed until expiration.

This would not affect raid performance, as it would perform equally, but would provide a considerably more reliable short cooldown to soften repeat spellcasts or spell damage, addressing a targeted issue in Mythic+ with heavy caster density areas by enabling you to enjoy the 20% spell damage reduction for the full 5 seconds without it being peeled by a single spell bolt.

3 Likes
19

I miss prot warrior from the WotLK days or even MOP. I think they should make the block mechanic have a percentage to deflect a spell. Kinda like the Hunters turtle shell defensive. Not spell reflect but deflect. I recently have been pvping as prot and it makes me sad to be globaled by a sub rogue as prot. We got all this armor and a shield but it feels like it does nothing sometimes. I hope that blizz finds a way to tweak the class soon anyhow.

20

Bro, it didn’t do that in Wrath or MoP.

In fact, Shield Block was on a minute cooldown in Wrath and block explicitly only affected melee attacks.

3 Likes