[larsberg]

Note: This information is only valid until the 3.x patch is released. After that, pick your shield back up, fellow protection warriors! We will pretend to be fury warriors no longer! Stack STR and SBV and have fun in Defensive Stance.

Originally posted at WoW Forums -> Casual Prot Warrior's guide to dps & soloing

500-700 dps on same level mobs at 70, using only very cheap consumables and blue to green quality gear. This isn't describing a hunter or feral druid. Nor is it that holy priest whose +healing is now some +dmg as well - it's a dual-wielding protection warrior! And you don't even have to be a very good one - I'm casual and don't even have regular access to Moroes, much less 25-man content and any dps plate that otherwise is getting sharded.

Devastate is the only spammable instant warrior attack that's based on weapon damage - and only deep protection warriors have it! This guide shows how to gear around and make good use of it to be able to solo grind daily kill-quests easily and even "play the kitty" and do acceptable melee dps when you aren't needed to tank pulls.

TLDR Version
Gear yourself to hit around 10% to hit (or above 150-ish hit rating). After that, stack as much strength, crit, and AP as you can from your gear.
Grab a pair of 80+ dps weapons. Hopefully you have a Sun Eater, KD, or Blazefury with Mongoose on it. If you need another weapon, grab a rep weapon like the Aldor exalted sword or the SSO revered sword.
Keep up Battle Shout + basic food and weapon buffs
Charge, Victory Rush (if available), spam Devastate. Heroic Strike if over 17 rage if you have Imp HS, 20 if you don't.

Welcome yourself to the well over 500 dps club!

Much Longer Version
Please feel free to respond with corrections or other approaches and I'll update these posts. I'm no theorycrafter, and am relying on my experiences and pulling numbers from elitistjerks, tankspot, and wowwiki. Even then, I'm no Ciderhelm either, and may have missed other things I could try out. Feel free to sticky if you find useful, and report for abuse if you think it's a terror to the tank community.

Stats
First, make sure you've got around 10% or so to hit. Dual-weilding suffers an additional 19% miss rate, above the base 5% miss rate for a same-level mob. Expertise per normal tanking rules also helps, but I'm assuming in this that you don't have access to anything with that other than the thrown weapon from MgT. Less than 10% and I found that I was often rage-starved and not doing much damage against same-level mobs. Above about 220-ish hit rating, I found that there was not a significant payback, compared to the strength I was giving up to get it.

After that, stack as much strength as you can. Pick up additional crit as well.

Don't stack stamina! Don't do it. You'll still hit ~8k easily, which is more than enough for soloing.

With very basic blues, you should be sitting over 1700 AP, 24% crit, and 10% hit (buffed with battle shout up). The numbers above of 500-700 dps on same-level mobs out on the Isle were generated with that, over several days of daily questing.

Rotation (Lazy Battle Stance grinding)
Make sure you already have Battle Shout up - bloodrage and buff if you don't. Don't waste a cooldown while grinding on it.

Charge.
Spam Devastate.
If you have > 17 rage and Imp. Heroic Strike, queue it up. If you have the untalented version, wait for > 20 rage.
Just before Victory Rush fades, use it. As Farothin and Handyhoof pointed out, it's affected by armor reduction, so 3-4 sunder debuffs will help.
If you've lost more than 3k health at this point in the grinding, bandage. Otherwise, find the next mob and repeat!

Rotation (Instance 'zerker Stance dps)
Very similar to what a fury warrior does - see DPS Warrior Compendium - Elitist Jerks for details. Basically:

If the mob has > 20% health:
Whirlwind if there's one mob (or the tank is rockin' a mouseover devastate macro)
Spam Devastate while Whirlwind is on cooldown
If you have a ton of rage AND are way behind on the threat meter, queue up Heroic Strike

If the mob has < 20% health:
Spam execute

Note that serious fury warriors have Improved Berzerker Stance, which reduces their threat by a further 10%. You're not going to get the benefit of that, so you need to be a little more careful.

Consumables
You're not cheap when you're grouped up and tanking; don't be cheap when you're solo. A couple of gold in consumables to get through your quests or grinding will save a significant amount of time.

Roasted Clefthoof (+20 strength for 30 minutes)
Adamantite Sharpening Stone or Weightstone (+12 dmg, +14 crit rating for one hour)

Gems
Strength. Really, that's it. You can add some Crit if you need to match a socket bonus that's Strength, but otherwise avoid your normal temptation - don't just jam a Solid Star of Elune in everything that looks gem-shaped out of habit!

Weapons
You should already have an over 80dps weapon from tanking - Sun Eater, KD, Blazefury, etc. Equip and use it. If you don't have a second one as well, pick up something like the Vindicator's Brand from Aldor - Exalted or the Sun Breaker from Shattered Sun Offensive - Revered.

You probably have Mongoose or Executioner on your tanking weapon, and that's great. You can enchant on the cheap for your second - +20 strength isn't bad. And if you really want to be cheap, you can always get +7 damage.

Prefer your slower weapon in your mainhand for increased devastate damage, as it is affected by 1/2 of the weapon's damage range, unless your slower weapon is significantly lower dps. See the tankspot devastate FAQ for the exact tradeoff: Devastate FAQ - TankSpot

Gear piece examples

The dual-wield fury warrior pre-raid guild is at WoW Forums -> Pre-Raid Fury Gearing - Lists Inside and is an excellent source. However, if you want to gear up a little bit more cheaply and without any PVP grinding, here are some items I have, all of which are either straightforward or cheap for a tank to obtain. For all of the quest rewards, they were dps gear available when there was either no warrior tank option or even my pitiful gear at the time was better than the tank reward.

Note that these are just examples of easily-obtained quest or AH items. You can get significantly better items from instance runs - items you were likely sharding!

Helm (Enchant AP and Hit rating)
Overlord's Helm of Second Sight (Quest - Overlord's Helmet of Second Sight - Items - World of Warcraft)
Ragesteel Helm (BOE blacksmith - Ragesteel Helm - Items - World of Warcraft)

Neck
Shattered Sun Pendant of Might (SSO Exalted - Shattered Sun Pendant of Might - Items - World of Warcraft)
Insignia of the Mag'hari Hero (Quest - Insignia of the Mag'hari Hero - Items - World of Warcraft)

Shoulders (appropriate AP & Crit)
Ragesteel Shoulders (BOE blacksmith - Ragesteel Shoulders - Items - World of Warcraft)

Back (Enchant 12 agility)
Nomad's Woven Cloak (Quest - Nomad's Woven Cloak - Items - World of Warcraft)

Chest
Chestplate of A'dal (Quest - Chestplate of A'dal - Items - World of Warcraft)
Ragesteel Breastplate (BOE blacksmith - Ragesteel Breastplate - Items - World of Warcraft)
Adamantite Breastplate (BOE blacksmith - Adamantite Breastplate - Item - World of Warcraft)

Wrist (Enchant AP or Strength)
Adamantite Plate Bracers (BOE blacksmith - Adamantite Plate Bracers - Item - World of Warcraft)
Sha'tari Wrought Armguards (Quest - Sha'tari Wrought Armguards - Items - World of Warcraft)

Gloves (Enchant AP or Strength)
Ragesteel Gloves (BOE blacksmith - Ragesteel Gloves - Items - World of Warcraft)
Adamantite Plate Gloves (BOE blacksmith - Adamantite Plate Gloves - Item - World of Warcraft)

Legs
Vanquisher's Legplates (Heroic Mech - Vanquisher's Legplates - Items - World of Warcraft)
Legguards of the Shattered Hand (BOE world drop - Legguards of the Shattered Hand - Items - World of Warcraft)

Waist
Borak's Belt of Bravery (Quest - Borak's Belt of Bravery - Item - World of Warcraft)
Red Belt of Battle (BOE Blacksmith - Red Belt of Battle - Item - World of Warcraft)

Feet
Vortex Walking Boots (Ogri'la Exalted - Vortex Walking Boots - Items - World of Warcraft)
Sha'tari Wrought Greaves (Quest - Sha'tari Wrought Greaves - Items - World of Warcraft)

Finger
Overseer's Signet (Quest - Overseer's Signet - Items - World of Warcraft)
Band of Anguish (Quest - Band of Anguish - Items - World of Warcraft)

Trinkets
Skyguard Silver Cross (Skyguard Exalted - Skyguard Silver Cross - Items - World of Warcraft)
Terokkar Tablet of Precision (Quest - Terokkar Tablet of Precision - Items - World of Warcraft)

Thrown
Felsteel Whisper Knives (BOE blacksmith - Felsteel Whisper Knives - Items - World of Warcraft)

[Ciderhelm]

Thanks for reposting this! Now I've got to figure out where to put it.

[Rishkkin]

nice guilde, would have been helpful to me a few weeks ago before I found my new guild. (wasn't doing raids or 5 mans sor my gera choice was very limited).

[Galushi]

I'd reccomend at all possible to use a slow mainhand weapon. Using a fast mainhand kills your devastate dmg by a bit. Also since mongoose/executioner are PPM enchants, itll have much greater proc rate when devastate spammed with a slow weapon.

[larsberg]

Yeah, I point out that using a slow weapon is much better than a fast one unless the dps difference is large. Do you think I should point out the exact tradeoff? Or is the pointer to the Devastate FAQ I have in there sufficient?

[Finelle]

The actual damage difference is half the median damage difference between the two weapons. Note that this is referring to the damage of the weapon itself, as opposed to per swing damage which factors in attack power. I find that after a few devastates, the damage difference of a slow and fast weapon gets lost in the +35 per sunder. High attack power and high weapon dps should be the basis of choosing weapons, and weapon speed only as a tiebreaker. This is because a large proportion (~50%) of damage comes from white autoattacks. It would make no sense to lose autoattack damage to gain minimal amounts of devastate damage.

I would also add that, counterintuitively, prot warriors can sometimes grind and kill faster than a Fury warrior in similar gear. The difference is in the free sunder afforded by the Devastate. Mere seconds into the fight, the mob is already suffering from five stacked sunders. The primary damage ability of the protection warrior (Devastate) raises autoattack damage by fantastic amounts. This becomes more and more apparent as gear improves and gains Armor Penetration stats. My fury set has 731 Armor Penetration and I actually prefer prot grinding.

[*Siona*]

All the same, there are some very easy to obtain slow weapons which work great as main hands for devastate. Case in point: Gladiator's Slicer is very easy to obtain from honor and will last you until The Decapitator from Prince in Kara for a slow main hand. I had the Gladiator's Slicer only a few days after hitting 70 because I had a fair amount of honor saved up from leveling.

[Battler]

I think the OP meant the Sha'tari Wrought Armguards instead of the Nexus-bracers of Vigor, which is a drop.

Also, getting exalted with SSO isn't difficult at all in order to get the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might (as well as while getting the tanking neck and shield 1 or 2).

Lastly, Ravager Dogs are a decent alternate consumable too.

[Tizack]

For me as a prot warrior. when i farm. i actually stick with the sword and board. all i do is stack SBV. i am a raiding warrior though. and i have like very peices of SBV gear imaginable. i usually get around 900-1050 SBV then i just devastate a couple times and then shield slam for 800-1k depending on what i am farming. its rather affective for farming the trees in sketis since i am a herbalist. but while doing this i stack hit and expertise on my trinket and ring neck area as much as i can.

Anyway i do like the guild very nice. that my take on prot farmin :P

[loquatious]

Are you sure about the 1700 AP? I'm a prot warrior and have some pretty good dps gear, full epics including red belt of battle, ZA boots, Gruul bracers, T4 Shoulders / helm, HmGT Weapons (Ex+mongoose), Bulwark of the Ancient kings, etc. My unbuffed ap is about 1750. I didnt put your items to gether but to think with some of the T4 best in class epics i still only have 50 more AP than someone in blues? Tell me it aint so!

I agree with the approach, without raid buffs DW Devastate+WW will do respectable dps with my AP.

[Batkos]

I think he means 1700AP with battle shout up. I have collected some nice DPS gear from quests, heroics and raiding and sit around 1850AP with battle shout up. Also i find grinding in berserker stance the best, the extra rage i generate allows me to spam devastate and heroic strike together (as I have improved both) and using wirlwind once its off cooldown.

Using this I find I am killing mobs almost as fast as my feral druid in cat form, makes for easy grinding. Nice starting guide though.

[larsberg]

Source: Batkos I think he means 1700AP with battle shout up.

That's correct - I meant with battle shout up. I'm jealous of your 1800 AP!

[larsberg]

Source: Battler I think the OP meant the Sha'tari Wrought Armguards instead of the Nexus-bracers of Vigor, which is a drop.

Thank you very much for the wrist correction and the SSO note - you're correct on both counts! I'll add it shortly...

[Xodiv]

There is some easily-obtained BoE leather gear that's a big help at that level, depending on how you feel about leather.

[item]Fel Leather Gloves[/item]
[item]Fel Leather Boots[/item]
[item]Fel Leather Leggings[/item]

Would it be worth noting [item]Furious Gizmatic Goggles[/item] since many tanks are already engineers for the tanking gogs?

[item]Natasha's Choker[/item] is a quest reward neck.

My 2c. Great guide, more people need to realize prot can do some DPS.

[Krakbak]

I main tank pretty much everything, but I have our other MT will tank curator, and I put on all the Arcane Resist gear I have matched with the best DPS gear I have left over. I'm usually sporting 230 Arcane Resist, 11-12K health (buffed), 2000 AP (buffed), 130~ish Hit rating (don't remember actual) and dual wield DPS (Executioner/Blazefury). I eat the "hateful bolts" from Curator. Pop retalliation on first invocation and am in Berzerker stance the whole time. I can pull 700 DPS on curator.

Against Shade in "full dps gear" I keep forgetting to see what I hit. But that fight is a little iffy, sometimes you're standing in Flame Wreath and he ports across room away from you. Same with Prince, you spend more time running from the Enfeeble and not doing DPS.

All in all, good guide. There are a lot of great pieces of gear that will allow you to up your DPS, although I admit, I solo in my "Threat" SBV set because I just don't get hurt and I can take on a lot of stuff. Takes a little longer though, but its fun to round up 5+ guys and get to work.

[KAOSFAYT]

Huge Amount of Help thanks for your Info!

[Khung]

Have been looking for this kind of info for sooooo long.
Well, I followed your suggestions, bought some of the new PvP gear (blue quality) you get with reputation, bought a couple of Ragesteel pieces, boosted my +Hit and... BANG!!!!!!!!!

156 Hit rating
22.4% Crit
1580 AP unbuffed (around 1900 with Battle Shout up)
aaaannnndddd....

around 500 dps!!!!!!!!!!! (no food buff, no sharpening stone yet!!!)

Now I have to fine tune all this, maybe I can increase Crit rating and reduce my AP. But I must admit... before I tried this I was sitting around 250-300 dps only!!!

Thanks a lot for this little guide!!!!

[Kazeyonoma]

Khung, don't reduce your AP, you want that as high as possible, just look towards upgrades that increase both stats, namely honor point gear from BG grinding, or do casual arenas just for points, s3 or soon s4 items will be huge upgrades from the Savage PvP gear.

[Khung]

Thx.
You are right, it's better to focus on improving the PvP gear by doing some BG or/and Arena.
Honor is now very easy to farm, and one can get 2-3 epics in few days of honor grinding.
Thanks for the hint!

[larsberg]

That's excellent Khung! Like Kaze said, once you've gotten enough hit, focus on stacking STR, then AP, then crit. From what I've seen, that will definitely do more to boost your dps than stacking more crit/hit.