Protection Warrior is a solid physical tank, able to absorb and mitigate damage. However, in Wotlk, their survival cooldowns are above the average, ending up being the least competitive tank in the meta. They are still viable to clear all content, just need slightly better healers.

Stats for Protection Warrior Wotlk

Stat priority

540 Defense rating > 8% hit cap > 20 Expertise > Stamina > Armor > Avoidance

Note: For Halion and Syndragosa the expertise needed is 50, has for each time these bosses parry, their attack speed increases by a lot.

Protection Warrior Stats Overview

Hit Cap

Melee hit cap is 8%, it increases the chance to hit the target, missing attacks and abilities will reduce threat by a lot, and with it the ability to tank properly.

Expertise

Expertise lowers the chance of getting dodged or parried, has a melee class 26 expertise is the soft cap, with [Vitality] giving 6 expertise the amount needed is 20 expertise.

Stamina

Stamina increases the health pool, by having a larger health pool the healers will have more time to heal.

Armor

Armor reduces the amount of damage taken by a percentage, it’s the best stat after stamina.

Avoidance

Dodge, parry and block are good stats, however they are based on RNG with diminishing returns, their value and survivability for a tank can end up falling short.

Stats Breakdown without increasing effects

33 hit rating ≈ 1% to hit

33 expertise rating ≈ 1 expertise

33 haste rating ≈ 1% haste

45 critical chance ≈ 1% critical

1 stamina ≈ 10 Health

1 intellect ≈ 15 mana

1 agility ≈ 1 attack power

1 strength ≈ 2 attack power

1 critical chance ≈ 84 agility

14 Armor Penetration ≈ 1% Armor ignore