"How can you be a protection warrior at level one?" I hear you all asking. It's a matter of heart. Of drive. Of the mentality of a protection warrior.

Leveling from 1-70 while protection specced was a pain, but it allowed me to practice my tanking skills on the way to 70. I tanked everything from VC to Gnomer to BRD, on up through all of the Burning Crusade instances as I leveled through them. And now I find myself the warrior tank in my small guild of friends who is the best geared, and is one of the go-to guys when we do our ZA attempts.

Being prot at heart has its advantages.