There is a thread , marked as sticky , regarding a guide about protection warriors. But it does not cover to many aspects. Thats why i will try make another one , wich maybe will help people around in some ways.
Why i am doing this ? Answer : seen to many warriors with 2 dps specs.

Before starting , regarding : gear - gems - enchants - consumables - voting shop , check this thread Protection Warrior Guide by nbzaccurate , who did a very nice job posting.
The only thing i want to say in adition is about gems. Before tanking the ICC raid, you should use gems to get the socket bonus, like this :
Yellow : Enduring Eye of Zul
Red : Regal Dreadstone
Blue : Solid Majestic Zircon

Now lets go to warrior skills , considering you already have some tanking gear.

The skills are preety much always coming after same rule. I am not sure what patches have changed in time or if this is still 100 % acurate. But its probably be close to reality.

Battle Shout _______________________ 78 (split)
Cleave _____________________________ damage + 225 (split)
Commanding Shout ___________________ 80 (split)
Concussion Blow ____________________ damage only
Damage Shield ______________________ damage only
Demoralising Shout _________________ 63 (split)
Devastate __________________________ damage + 5% of AP
Dodge/Parry/Block___________________ 1 (in defensive stance with Improved Defensive Stance only)
Heroic Strike ______________________ damage + 259
Heroic Throw _______________________ 1.50 x damage
Rage Gain __________________________ 5 (stance modifier is not applied)
Rend _______________________________ damage only
Revenge ____________________________ damage + 121
Shield Bash ________________________ 36
Shield Slam ________________________ damage + 770
Shockwave __________________________ damage only
Slam _______________________________ damage + 140
Spell Reflect ______________________ damage only (only for spells aimed at you, not your party members with Imp Spell Reflect)
Sunder Armour ______________________ 345 + 5%AP
Thunder Clap _______________________ 1.85 x damage
Vigilance __________________________ 10% of target's generated threat (stance modifier is not applied)

Or simplified , this is for a tank at around 5k gs geared properly.It is taken from a test made by some warrior:

Devastate 5+ 1961
Sunder Armour 975
Revenge 4522
Shield Slam 7242
Conc. Blow 3385
Shockwave 3164
Auto attack 882
Heroic Strike 2599
Thunderclap 2605
Heroic Throw 3417
Damage Shield 542

Here is how these abilities break down in terms of threat per second:
Shield slam > Revenge > Heroic Strike > Devastate

This is how your tanking abilities break down in terms of threat per rage:
Revenge > Shield slam > Devastate > Heroic Strike


To make it more simple for you : when shield slam is ready , always use. After go for revenge , devastate . And use concussion blow and shockwave whenever u have them ( even if enemy is imune , it still does the threat ). Heroic strike : ALWAYS.
If u fight aoe replace heroic strike with cleave.

You can make macros to link heroic strike to every skill u make.Or cleave to make your situation easier.I will give a few macros , to get easier on the road.


If u have target on friend , will cast intervene. If u have on enemy will cast first charge , and at 2nd press intercept. If u dont press for 14 sec will go from initial sequence.

#showtooltip
/castsequence [harm] reset=14 Charge,intercept; [help] Intervene

Now this macro is my panic macro , when i need to survive at all costs.:

#showtooltip
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Enraged Regeneration
/use Last Stand
/use Shield Wall
/use Bloodrage
/use Nightmare Seed
/use runic healing potion
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Casts the defensive skills u see in macro and also has comand to remove eror sounds.

For tanking single targets i use this :

#showtooltip
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Shield Slam
/use heroic strike
/use Shield Block
/use Bloodrage
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

You understand what it does , next to this i do revenge , devastate , stuns etc. But i always press this macro cause i have heroic strike in it , even if shield slam its not ready.

The defense rating in 335 for a warrior is 540. Why should you aim for this ? Because , if you are under it the lvl 83 mobs or ??? level can crit you.Not sure but if i remember corect 540 def rating is equal with -5.7 % chance to be crit, wich is what you should aim. Lets say you have 510 def rating. This will bring a chance of being crit by the stated mobs by ... lets say 1 %. Not a big number. But what its gonna happen , is this ( creating a scenario ) : warrior dodge, dodges, pary , gets hit , dodges , dodges , gets a critical hit , gets a normal hit.
What can possible go wrong in this scenario ? Tanking hard hit gangsta bosses will kill you if it happenes like i said . A critical hit from a boss means realy high damage , followed by another hit means a preety ugly death. With defense rating removing the crit chance , makes the whole picture more safe.
Also defense rating increases dodge , pary , block.

For the end : some word on hit or expertise. Yellow skills need 8 % hit against ??? bosses, or lvl 83. This is what you need , white hits dont help to much cause you are tank , u need to aim survival and threat. Expertise cap is 26.
Dont gem for either ( you will have it on the gear relatively easy ) , when it comes for gear just good to know when to stop and prefer maybe the dodge gear instead of an item with expertise / hit wich places you over the needed limit.
Another thing you need to know : on molten curent situation at 11.06.2011 has the threat values incorect, so you have to remember that.But if warrior does hes skills corect, he can keep agro without having to many problems.


This thread is trying to cover what the other sticky doesnt cover. Also , datas are from my own experience and other websites.