Leveling a Protection Specc'd Warrior in TBC
 

I recently "dusted off" my level 60 (now level 61) dwarf warrior and would like to get him leveled / geared up.

I have been looking around for some good, decent "protection-based" warrior addons but haven't really seen any that are functional and useful.

I am looking for any suggested addons to help in the long grind to level 70 as a protection specc'd warrior.

I plan on tanking in instances as time allows, but will also be working on completing all of the quests in each zone for the reputation and quest gear rewards worth picking up; I would like some addons that might make the "grind" a little bit easier to bear. Any suggestions?

I would even be interested in seeing any builds posted (through the EU talent calculator; can't access the others from work) that might be helpful for a level 61 protection specc'd warrior to spec to in order to help.

If you are hell bent on just going with prot all the way to 70 then its going to be a long haul working through the quests. One suggestion that I found worked well for me was to go primarily fury spec for the PvE solo questing but I worked up to having 17 points in Prot which got me the 3 points in defiance (+15% threat from memory) and also improved taunt. I found this enabled me to function pretty well in both questing and also as a tank in pre 70 instances. In fact it is only since I started Kara that I have moved to pretty much full prot. Buy the Felsteel tanking set from the AH (unless u can make it of course) it is better than anything you will find outside of epic drops.

Stoneslayer lev 70 Warrior Jubei'Thos

Thanks for the suggestions, Stone.

So... what kind of a build am I looking at when I re-spec?

Why Fury over an Arms build?

I wouldn't say that I am "hell bent" on leveling protection-specc'd, but that is currently the gear that I have (other than a decent 2-H axe (Warsong Axe) I got out of Blood Furnace).

I guess what I'm looking for is a skills combination for when I am "grinding" on mobs (i.e. what abilities to use, stance to remain in most of the time, etc.) I had originally leveled mostly Arms in the past but don't know if that is optimal for leveling in Outlands.

*Bumped!*

For great justice.

You might consider my current warrior build (Varsity, in my signature). It's my rep grinding spec. However, I leveled full prot spec (I ran a ton of instances and found it made sense to play protection) and have only recently adapted to this grinding spec for the billions of Outland factions, etc. The one thing I'd change to your own preference would be the weapon specialization crit bonus under arms. As an orc, we love our axes and I spec'ed accordingly. This spec is very fast for grinding. This is not a PvP spec, it's strictly for grinding mobs. If it were a PvP spec, I would have gone more into Arms for MS. However, I find MS useless in PvE grinds. Instead, I preferred to go down into Fury far enough to grab Bloodthirst. It may seem silly, but 30 points of healing per swing yields great results in keeping you "up" longer and avoiding bandage/food downtime. You will rip stuff up with this spec, I guarantee it.

Good luck

Disregard previous post, I had to respec protection ;) Here is the spec I was talking about though...

Grinding Spec - Dual Wield

Heh. Guess I should play my warrior more often. :rolleyes:

He is now level 62 (woohoo!) and I have kept him Protection-specc'd. What I have found is that his gear is "ok" enough for him to use a 1-h/shield in his DPS gear and does "ok" damage enough for what he needs to do.

It's a shame that he has to pot/foodbuff/eat/bandage more than he ever did from 1-60 though. >.<