Pandaria [Guide] Protection Warrior PvE 5.4

[Pugnadeus]

Introduction
Hello, I am Pugnadeus. I am a Protection Warrior and a Guild Master of Nephulous on Frostwolf. I have been playing Protection Warrior since Cataclysm where I main tanked in my guild and was still able to perform as the other tanks, even though the other tanks were far more stronger then Protection Warriors. In Mists of Pandaria it was our time to shine again, with the introduction of Shield Barrier we have been rampaging tanking through MoP. Protection Warriors are the class that is flexible in a lot of ways, we can provide CC from the melee range with shockwave and ranged CC with our Stormbolt. If it's needed we can help our raid members with Vigilance, Intervene and Rallying Cry and we can boost the raid DPS with our Skull Banner.

Talents

This is the talent build I usually use, it provides me more CC and the Dragon Roar to interrupt most of the mobs who can't be targeted by CC, and it increases my overall DPS and enables me to build more Threat, if I'm needed I can use Storm Bolt to CC mobs from distance and I can use Enraged Regeneration with Berserker Rage to heal myself to survive longer if needed.

Tier 1 - Mobility
Juggernaut - Allows us to use charge more oftenly
Double Time - I don't really see a use of this talent, if we're going to use charge oftenly it means we'll move a lot during the fight, Double Time allows us to move more quickly but for a short period of time, after that you're pretty much drained up.
Warbringer - This is the talent I like, it provides our charge an ability to snare the target, giving us time to build aggro on it before it runs away. Should be used only on encounters where you need additional CC.

Tier 2 - Survival Ability
Enraged Regeneration is the only ability I would consider using here. Impending Victory will just heal us twice the less and also burn our overall rage and it has to be cast on melee range.

Tier 3 - Crowd Control
Disrupting Shout for interrupting enemy casters, Staggering Shout should be used if you have to lock a certain mob, but I do not recommend using it oftenly.

Tier 4 - Area of Effect
Dragon Roar and Shockwave are the only talents you should consider here, Shockwave is an AoE stun, but the stunnable units will probably have diminishing returns so I suggest using Dragon's Roar on boss fights, since it provides a lot more DPS then Shockwave can provide.

Tier 5 - Personal Damage Reduction Ability
Vigilance is the only choice here, since Taunt has NO cooldown during this duration, if you're skilled you can manage to taunt 12 or more mobs during the duration so it can be used as a mocking banner, but to taunt the mobs only of your selection. It also provides a sweet 30% damage reduction buff during the duration.

Tier 6 - Damage Increase
Stormbolt and Bloodbath are the only choices here, I recommend Bloodbath only on fights where you will be fighting the boss in melee range, or the bosses where you need to hit that enrage timer. Storm Bolt should be used for interrupting mobs and it can be used on bosses with Vengenace to create an ultimate ranged damage hit which has the damage level of an Execute.

Stat Priority and Choices

The Protection Warriors have two paths and I will tell you about them below.

Mastery
I won't be covering much of the mastery warrior, since I had played it for 2 months and when I switched to parry, I noticed that Parry beats Mastery by a large amount. Mastery Warrior provides more smooth damage input, but he is really weak against Magic Damage.

Stat Priority for this Choice is :
7.5% hit > 15% Expertise > Mastery > Stamina > Parry/Dodge

WARNING : Only pick this choice if you're able to keep Shield Block on yourself 60-80% of the time, Mastery choice MIGHT actually outscale Parry path in SoO gear, providing that you have great knowledge of the Protection Warrior.

Parry
This is where I found the Warrior shine, it grants riposte critical rating, giving us the chance to completely avoid a melee attack. At ToT gear in fights you will be able to keep 30% parry the whole time along with some procs.

Stat Priority for this Choice is :
7.5% hit > 15% Expertise > Parry > Stamina > Mastery > Dodge

The reason why I prefer parry is because 27% of your strength goes into parry rating.

Gems
When gemming try to hit each socket bonus, since it enables you to min-max your gear and there are no gems that are useless to you.

Mastery
Red: [Keen Vermilion Onyx] - 160 Expertise + 160 Mastery
Yellow: [Fractured Sun's Radiance] - 320 Mastery
Blue: [Sensei's Wild Jade] - 160 Hit + 160 Mastery

Parry
Red: [Defender's Imperial Amethyst] - 160 Parry + 120 Stamina
Yellow: [Defender's Imperial Amethyst] - 160 Parry + 120 Stamina
Blue: [Puissant Wild Jade] - 160 Mastery + 120 Stamina

Enchants
Shoulder: Greater Ox Horn Inscription - 300 Stamina + 100 Dodge
Cloak: 200 Stamina
Chest: 300 Stamina
Bracers: 180 Mastery
Gloves: 170 Mastery
Legs: Ironscale Leg Armor - 430 Stamina + 165 Dodge
Boots: Pandaren Step - 140 Mastery + Minor Speed Increase
Weapon: Dancing Steel - 1650 Strength on proc

Priority
Shield Slam > Revenge > Shout > Devastate

Be sure to use Thunder Clap when there are 2 or more enemies. You could include Thunder Clap in single target rotation, but only if you picked the Glyph of Resonating Power.

Shield Block or Shield Barrier
It really can't be answered, but always ask yourself the same question - Which one is going to reduce more damage? I personally prioritize Shield Barrier since I get strength from Dancing Steel and combined with Vengenace I get a solid 100-120k Shield each time I use it. Shield Block would only be useful on fights like Megaera when the head goes berserk and just starts hitting you around 3 times per second.

BiS List
Head : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96737
Neck : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96544
Shoulder : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96739
Cloak : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96480
Chest : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96418
Wrist : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96428
Hands : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96736
Belt : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96446
Legs : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96733
Feet : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96478
Ring : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96481
Ring : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96377
Trinket : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96555
Trinket : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96421
One-Hand : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96376
Shield : http://mop.openwow.com/item=96554

Ending
This is my first guide, if you feel like I should add answer or have any additional questions, feel free to ask them here or send me a private message.

[Vitadrop]

Nice guide pug :)
-Zhark ^^