Protection Warrior (Outdated)

[Prydain]

This guide is currently outdated in some parts, however some stuff stays the same (key cds, consumables, addons, tips)

Warrior - Protection

Talents

-Cookie-Cutter (15/3/53): This spec is the standard that you will see most of ICC tanks using right now. It has the best combo for threat and survivability.

-Safeguard (15/3/53): This spec shifts two points from Shield Spec to Safeguard.

-Survivability (8/10/53): This focus less on threat and more towards survivability. This spec is great for fight that are physical (Saurfang, Festergut, etc) If you have two prot warriors in your raid, one should grab this spec.

Glyphs

-Glyph of Last Stand: Simply amazing. Allows to get more use out of your major cool-down.

-Glyph of Shield Wall: While you may dislike this glyph at first glance, you will see its true potential when combined with Imp Disc. Allowing you to use it twice or more in a fight rather than saving it for some special moments that might never happen.

-Glyph of Devastate: Greatest glyph for threat boost on our filler ability, and ideally a must have.

-Glyph of Blocking: This is a nice glyph for multi-target fights and for fast hitting bosses.

-Glyph of Vigilance: This glyph is only recommended if you can't do as much threat as you need to, a fix to threat issue.

-Glyph of Taunt: This glyph is only good if a fight is sensitive on taunt and cannot miss (Festergut, Saurfang, Putricide, Lich King)

-Glyph of Cleaving: Great Glyph for 5-man and trash fights.

-Glyph of Enraged Regeneration: A very nice glyph for soloing but rather useless in a raid environment.

Stats

-Defense: You need 540 Defense (689 Defense Rating) in order to become immune to critical hits. Each point of Defense Skill adds 0.04% to the player's chance to be -Missed, to Dodge, and to Parry, before diminishing returns are taken into account, and adds 0.04% to the player's chance to Block with no diminishing returns. This means +25 Defense will grant you an extra 1% Miss, Parry, Dodge, and Block

-Expertise: This is your primary threat stat as a warrior. The soft cap is 6.5% dodge or 26 expertise (214 expertise rating), and the hard cap is 14% parry or 56 expertise (460 expertise rating). Ideally you want to be at least at the soft cap.

-Hit: You want to have 8% hit to avoid getting any of your special missed. As a tank you will probably want at least 5%, however Hit is not as important as Expertise for a tank.

-Stamina: This is what determines how hard you can get hit before you die.

-Armor: This stat is great for any fight and exceptionally awesome for 100% physical encounters.

-Dodge & Parry: Ideally you just want to have what you can get from gear since in the final tier diminishing returns start kicking in already, making each additional point of dodge/parry become less valuable.

-Resilience: This stat works as a bandage for a tank. It can help you reach the crit immune cap, however you don't get any other benefit out of it. Unlike Defense, where you get Dodge, Parry, Miss Chance, Block.

Key Cooldowns

-Shield Wall - Damage reduction cooldown. Becomes very powerful after glyphing and speccing.

-Last Stand - A great cool-down when healing is behind or you need to survive large hits.

-Enrage Regeneration - It becomes very powerful when used simultaneous with LS/Sta Trinket

-Shield Block - This small cool-down is one of the most underrated, it's very versatile. For one it works great with Shield Slam because the damage scales with SS, and boost your threat with Damage Shield and feeding you with more rage through Shield Spec. On top of that it increases the uptime of Enrage from Imp Def Stance, as well as letting you use Revenge for some very nice threat. And if you are in hunger for more block glyph of Shield Block is wonderful.

Rotation

Heroic Throw + Charge for extra rage at the start (if possible), Shield Block+Shield Slam for snap threat. Then Devastate x3 (Glyphed), Thunder Clap, Demo Shout.

After your debuffs are up it becomes a priority queue: Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate. And Heroic Strike replacing every normal swing.

Save Concussion Blow, Shockwave and Berserker Rage for situational use.

Enchants

-Head: Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector

-Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Gladiator > Master's Inscription of the Pinnacle (Inscription) > Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle

-Cloak: Mighty Armor > Titanweave

-Chest: Super Health > Greater Defense

-Bracer: Fur Lining - Stamina > Major Stamina

-Hands: Reticulated Armor Webbing (Engineering) > Glove Reinforcements > Heavy Borean Armor Kit > Armsman

-Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle

-Legs: Frosthide Leg Armor

-Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality > Greater Fortitude

-Rings: Stamina (Enchanting)

-Weapon: Blood Draining > Mongoose > Blade Ward

-Shield: Major Stamina > Defense

Gems

Meta Gem: Austere Earthsiege Diamond > Eternal Earthsiege Diamond

Blue: Solid Dragon's Eye (JC) > Solid Majestic Zircon

Red/Purple: Regal Dreadstone > Guardian's Dreadstone

If you are lacking some defense go with Enduring Eye of Zul. If you are lacking Expertise too then pick up Resolute Ametrine.

If you are tackling ICC content you want a Purple gem to activate your Meta Gem and then go for full stamina.

Consumables

Flask of Stoneblood

Indestructible Potion

Rhinolicious Wormsteak

Addons

-Omen Threat Meter: This addon provides accurate values of your group's relative threat level on individual enemies, so that you can see when you're in danger of pulling aggro (or, if you're next on the snack list if your tank bites it). This info is usually only critical in raids, where only tanks can survive aggro, but it's useful for any multi-player situation.

-Tidy Plates + Threat Plates: Enhances World of Warcraft's nameplates (ie. floating health bars) and provides a built-in API which can be used to create your own design. This download comes with two Theme packages (Neon and Grey), but many alternatives are available.

-Power Auras Classic: This addon was created to provide visual cues (auras) when you gain buffs, debuffs and many more. Very useful for shorts buffs or debuffs, it allows you to draw in the center of the screen, or around your character, very customizable visual effects, rather than having to look at or mouseover buff/debuff icons/actionbars.

-SnowfallKeyPress: This addon accelerates key bindings so that they are activated by key press rather than key release. This allows you to activate your abilities faster than you could otherwise. This can really make a difference for situations where you need to react quickly, like when casting heals, when dispelling, when interrupting spells, or in PvP.

-Grid: The compact grid of units lets you select a group member quickly, while retaining a good overview of the whole group. It displays as much information as possible without overloading the user. You can set it in a way so you can see who is pulling aggro by simply looking at your frame.

Additional Tips

-If a mob is in melee range don't use Heroic Throw in your rotation, since it resets the swing timer.

-Tier10 for Prot Warriors is not as good as you may think. Going for the frost badges off-pieces with Pillar of Might is better until you can get all 277 gear.

-When picking up a new weapon, it should be a fast one. The main reason is Heroic Strike; the more you can hit, the more threat you will do.

-You might want to bind Heroic Strike to mouse wheel scroll up since you will be using it every 1.2-1.8 sec. Same deal for Cleave using mouse wheel scroll down

-Use Shattering Throw when an enemy is not hitting you in conjunction with raid cool-downs if you can. (Rotface's Slime Spray, Offtanking Saurfang, PP, Sindragosa, etc)

-Always keep an extra set of trinkets and switch them around on a per fight basis. 2 Stam, 1 Armor 1 Stam, 2 Armor.

Sources and Other Resources

Elitist Jerks: Warrior's Forum

Tankspot.com

[Varibash]

I agree with all of this, except for I am not a fan of stacking all stam gems, you can duel stam trinket, but I socket to make sure I keep my cap's (exp/hit) keeping those 2 caps can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but yes while having a very large health poll is important, once you get over 70k hp raid buffed it actually benefits you to start stacking some avoidance, just my 2cents, take or leave it.