Protection Warrior Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic (2024)

Last updated on Sep 06, 2022 at 17:37by Abide13 comments

Welcome to our Wrath of the Lich King Protection Warrior leveling guide. Herewe will help guide you through your Protection Warrior's leveling journey toward Level80. Make sure to use the sliders shown down below to have the guide update asyou level up.

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 1

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

• Levels 10 to 12 — 3 points inImproved Thunder Clap.
• Levels 13 & 14 — 2 points inShield Specialization.
• Levels 15 to 17 — 3 points inIncite.
• Levels 18 & 19 — 2 points inShield Specialization.

Improved Thunder Clap gives you a nicedamage boost early on, along with Incite.

• Levels 20 & 21 — 2 points inImproved Revenge.
• Levels 22 & 23 — 2 points inShield Mastery.
• Levels 24 — 1 point inShield Specialization.
• Levels 25 & 26 — 2 points inImproved Bloodrage.
• Levels 27 to 29 — 3 points inAnticipation.

Improved Revenge is the main focus ofthis build, greatly increasing Revenge damage as well as making it hita second target. Shield Mastery is good for the reduced cooldownon Shield Block. Improved Berserker Rage is good for additionalrage.

• Level 30 — 1 point inConcussion Blow.
• Levels 31 & 32 — 2 points inAnticipation.
• Levels 33 & 34 — 2 points inImproved Disciplines.
• Levels 35 to 39 — 5 points inOne-Handed Weapon Specialization.

Concussion Blow does decent damage andstuns the target. Improved Disciplines is decent to reduce the cooldownon Retaliation for big AoE pulls.One-Handed Weapon Specialization is a nice overall damage boost.

• Levels 40 & 41 — 2 points inImproved Defensive Stance.
• Levels 42 to 44 — 3 points inFocused Rage.
• Levels 45 to 47 — 3 points inVitality.
• Levels 48 & 49 — 2 points inGag Order.

Improved Defensive Stance is anotherbig damage boost. Focused Rage helps with Rage issues, whileVitality gives a great stat increase. Lastly, Gag Order isgood for the extra damage on Shield Slam.

• Level 50 — 1 point inDevastate.
• Level 51 — 1 point inWarbringer.
• Levels 52 to 54 — 3 points inCritical Block.
• Levels 55 to 57 — 3 points inSword and Board.

Devastate is a good, spammable spellfor single-target damage. Warbringer is good utility, andCritical Block is some decent mitigation and more crit chance onShield Slam. Finally, Sword and Board is even more damage withDevastate and can proc free Shield Slams.

• Level 58 — Make sure to respecbefore continuing.
• Level 58 — 1 point inImproved Revenge.
• Levels 59 & 60 — 2 points inShield Mastery.
• Level 61 — 1 point inShield Specialization.
• Levels 62 & 63 — 2 points inImproved Bloodrage.
• Levels 64 to 66 — 3 points inAnticipation.
• Level 67 — 1 point inConcussion Blow.
• Levels 68 & 69 — 2 points inGag Order.
• Level 70 — 1 point inAnticipation.

Here we are retaking most of the Protectiontalents we had previously. Improved Revenge pairs up greatly withUnrelenting Assault for absurd Revenge damage.

• Level 71 — 1 point inAnticipation.
• Levels 72 to 76 — 5 points inOne-Handed Weapon Specialization.
• Levels 77 & 78 — 2 points inImproved Defensive Stance.
• Levels 79 & 80 — 2 points inArmored to the Teeth.

One-Handed Weapon Specialization,Improved Defensive Stance, and Armored to the Teeth all give youa big damage boost.

Your leveling glyphs will differ from your endgame glyphs. Glyphs can be ahuge boost to your leveling speed as some greatly improve the baseline power ofyour key abilities. Be sure to check the price of these glyphs on your server tovastly improve your leveling experience.

1. Glyph of Cleaving
2. Glyph of Sweeping Strikes

1. Glyph of Battle
2. Glyph of Bloodrage
3. Glyph of Thunder Clap

1. Keep Battle Shout's buff up.
2. Heroic Strike all Rage.
3. Bloodrage to prevent your Rage fromdecaying between mobs.
4. Charge your enemy.
5. Charge your enemy and switch toDefensive Stance.
6. Charge your enemy.
7. Taunt far away enemies and proximitynearby ones; gather around 2-6 mobs.
8. Aggro as many nearby enemies as you canwithout moving too far.
9. Sweeping Strikes and swap toDefensive Stance.
10. Shield Block for damage reduction andguaranteed Revenge procs.
11. Revenge every possible time it isavailable.
12. Thunder Clap if no Revengeproc or if it is on cooldown.
13. Thunder Clap if no Revengeproc.
14. Shield Slam singular mobs.
15. Mortal Strike singular mobs.
16. Cleave when AoEing if you haveat least 45 Rage.
17. Rend anything that will live for most of thebleed duration.
18. Thunder Clap does great damage early on andstarts to fall off in the later levels.
19. Victory Rush make sure to use this before theproc expires.
20. Overpower if any of your attacksare dodged.
21. Heroic Strike rest of Rage.
22. Heroic Strike single targets only ifyou have a large surplus of Rage.

Protection does not differ much from otherspecs in the early levels. Utilize Victory Rush and Thunder Clapas your main damage sources to quickly move from mob to mob.

With Improved Revenge, they way youplay will change drastically. You will want to aggro ideally 4-6 melee-attackingmobs at a time, gather them up, use Shield Block, and spam Revengeto destroy them all thanks to the 60% damage boost and cleave component. UseThunder Clap as a filler between Revenge uses. Swap back and forthbetween Defensive Stance and Battle Stance to useVictory Rush when Revenge is on cooldown. Shield Slam is agood Rage dump to use before swapping stances, or if fighting a single mob.

Make sure to respec here for the even higherRevenge damage spec through Unrelenting Assault. This removes thecooldown from Revenge, allowing you to use it every global cooldown. Gather asmany mobs as you can without taking too much damage, use Sweeping Strikes,use Shield Block, and spam Revenge to melt everything. Throw insome Cleaves if you have enough Rage and you will melt large packs ofmobs at a time.

Training spells can be rather expensive, especially if you try to learn everyspell available to you. Here we will give you a list of your top-priority spellsthat you will want to train so you know which ones you can avoid and save somemoney.

• Be sure to keep these spells at max rank — Battle Shout,Thunder Clap, Revenge, Cleave, Shield Slam,Mortal Strike.

• Rend — You can stop training this spell after Rank 3 as youwill stop using it shortly after.

• Heroic Strike — This skill gets a very minor damage increase witheach rank. You can hold off on training this skill if you are low on gold.

• Charge — The only benefit of increasing the rank of this spellis the increased Rage it generates. Only train this when you have excess gold asthe few extra Rage points are generally not game changing.

• These spells only have 1 rank and should be trained as soon aspossible — Victory Rush, Hamstring, Overpower,Shield Bash, Shield Block, Disarm, Retaliation,Intimidating Shout, Shield Wall, Berserker Rage,Recklessness, Spell Reflection, Shattering Throw,Enraged Regeneration.

• Save your gold instead of training these spells —Demoralizing Shout, Mocking Blow, Execute,Challenging Shout, Slam, Whirlwind, Pummel,Commanding Shout, Intervene.

Congratulations on hitting Level 80 in Wrath of the Lich King! Now that yourleveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-80 Protection Warriorgameplay by reading ourProtection Warrior Guide, which coverseverything you need to know to properly play your Protection Warrior.