A little help for a newbie prot

Hi everyone, i'm becoming a tank with a warrior, is the class and spec that I've never used before.
So, I'm still low, and reached enough level for the first dungeons, and I need some help with two things:

I've seen in too many videos and guides, and in all of those, a prot war starts his pulls with charge: Defensive stance==> charge.
But idk if I'm missing something, or is just for the lvl, the talents or what (like I said, I never had a prot war), but I have charge available ONLY in battle stance. When I switch to defensive stance, it becomes unusable.Would anyone tell me if there's something wrong that I'm doing or what?
I'm lvl 17, but in Lordaeron I'll be low for a while, so I want to learn.
And another, Is there a rotation for lows? Cause we have not too much skills yet, and the guides are focused on 80's chars. I don't want to fck up the party for losing aggro or diying early.Thanks for all, I'll be waiting.

Not your fault about the charge issue. Those warriors that can charge under defensive stance is because of the talent "Warbringer" (Tier 8 left under protection talent tree).

I'm not pro in prot war so I can't give advice on what skill to use. I guess just use whatever is available
Aoe: Thunder clap, queue Cleave, Shock Wave (fromt talent tree)
SIngle: Rend, Queue Heroic Strike, Devastate (or sunder armor before you get the talent), revenge, shield bash

Once you reach max level, there are lots of skill available making prot war the most complex tank to play in a dungeon but very versatile. They are less complex in raid due to some of their skills being less useful (boss immune to them).

At the end, just read those prot war guide and they will give you some ideas in tanking.

Thanks, so I just have to wait... And read the guides when get to 80

@Cuervo27062
Replied to your question over at: A Letter to Low Level Prot Warriors & Others:
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=404763

Also sent you a private message with a few names of my characters on Lordaeron, so if you have any other questions just mail or /w me if I'm on.

You need warbringer talent to be able to use charge. For tanking always use shield slam, revenge when available for big damage, AOE stun, single target stun when you can, thunder clap only if you got enough rage otherwise it might be better for shield slam. Also in ICC you gonna always have around 80-100 rage so use heroic strike more often to get more aggro. Also make sure to use Cleave when targeting more mobs.

@Overloard99 You know the OP is level 17 right? xD

It's been a while since I tanked at low-level so I'm going off of memory here. Like others have said, you cannot Charge in Defensive Stance until you pick up the Warbringer talent at higher levels.

Here are some tips for holding aggro. Sunder Armor is your friend. It's a high-threat ability, it's instant-cast, and it helps your party do more damage. For single-target, if your enemy gets to 5 stacks of Sunder Armor before dying it's probably fine to just use Heroic Strike. Although at lower levels mobs die pretty quickly.

Multi-target is where things get tricky for warriors, especially in groups with high DPS. Thunder Clap is really your AOE ability. IF you have three or more mobs in a pack you should use it on almost every cooldown. If there are only two mobs (or three if you have Glyph of Cleaving) then you should also use Cleave whenever you have the rage for it. Aside from these two multi-target abilities, you should be cycling through the different mobs in the pack (Tab should be the default hotkey for this) and using single target abilities, which is Sunder Armor to begin with, then Revenge and Shield Slam at higher levels.

So this is your basic priority for pack pulls:
- Thunder Clap
- Cleave
- Cycle through pack and use Sunder Armor


The tricky thing about pack pulls is there is often a "main target", either using a Skull icon or just because the DPS are all attacking one mob coincidentally. In this situation you might want to just use Thunder Clap once to get aggro on the other mobs and then only use single-target threat abilities on the main target. On other pulls the DPS might be using all AOE abilities and you need to spam Thunder Clap on every cooldown and aggressively cycle through the mobs casting Sunder Armor. Tanking and adjusting your rotation to hold aggro based on circumstances is very much a skill that is learned with experience.

Situation - Big pull - No Warbringer, No Shield Slam
Battle Stance -> Retaliation -> Charge -> Defensive Stance -> Bloodrage -> Thunder Clap -> Shield Block -> Spam Revenge/Cleave/Thunder Clap

The shorter version for smaller pulls
Defensive Stance -> Bloodrage -> Taunt/Shoot/Thunder Clap -> Shield Block (if needed) -> Spam Revenge/Thunder Clap -> Sunder Armor

Boss pulls
Battle Stance -> Retaliation -> Defensive Stance -> Bloodrage -> Taunt -> Sunder Armor x1-2 -> Shied Block -> Revenge + Sunder Armor (Add Heroic Strike if you have 50+Rage)

Generally useful tips:

- Warriors are macro monsters. If you don't use macros you're going to mash your keyboard like a maniac. Do yourself a favour and set those up properly.
- Sunder Armor > Heroic Strike as far as threat goes. Use Heroic only at 50+Rage as a dump.
- Ask your party to attack 3 seconds AFTER you've pulled. Amazingly enough sometimes people listen. And you don't lose aggro, ever.
- Engineering (bombs) is extremely useful to get your healer that extra 1-2 seconds to heal you in a sticky situation.
- Learn to use you're cooldowns separately depending on the situation. Shield Wall - when you anticipate a large amount of incoming damage, Last Stand - only use if you're about to die, otherwise it can backfire if it runs out before the end of the fight, Shield Block - use it offensively as well as defensively. It should almost always be on cooldown.

Once you get Shield Slam, use it on CD. You should figure everything else out with a little practice.

Read the Prot Warrior guides, some pretty useful info there as well.