Protection Warrior Leveling Guide from 1 to 90 — 12.0.5

Thanks to being a tank specialization, Protection Warrior can do big pulls while questing and survive them without issues. Running around and tagging as many enemies as possible before grouping them up and killing them will lead to fast quest completions.

As a tank, you should also queue for Dungeons between questing. Completing dungeons gives a hefty amount of experience, and as a tank you will have quicker queue times than DPS specializations. Enemies you fight in dungeons are generally stronger, granting more experience, and they also use more abilities than the mobs you meet while questing.

Leveling Content

Focus on the main quest line. You are a tank, pull a lot of mobs while questing!
Queue for Dungeons as a tank, the queue times will be short and you will gain a lot of extra experience!

This means that while inside a dungeon, you need to pay more attention and use your abilities in a more thoughtful way than you would otherwise. This, in turn, leads to you learning the class a lot better, preparing you for the end-game content.

Leveling Information

Beginner Leveling Guides

If this is your first character, or want to know more about the leveling process in Midnight, we've got you covered with these two guides!

Basic LevelingMidnight Leveling

While leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

Alternatively, you can purchase Heirloom items. These scale with your level, meaning you will not need to replace your gear while leveling. If you choose this option, prioritize items that have Haste.

Itemization

Leveling Heirlooms

Learn how to use Heirloom gear to level your characters as fast as possible!

Heirlooms Guide

At the start of every new expansion, the one thing in everyone's mind would be how to reach the maximum level. For Midnight, the max level is 90. There are various items to boost your leveling speed and efficiency, allowing you to make the best out of your playtime.

• Gunshoes — Massive movement speed boost that works when Mounts do not, and much faster than ground mounts.
• Goblin Glider Kit — Lets you glide off of ledges and cover vast distances quickly.
• Fried Bonefish — Gives you a speed buff when you kill enemies.
• Light-Step Hoofplates — Do not forget this Mount Equipment to make your mounts faster on the ground.

If you are just starting your journey into Midnight, we have a Level 80 import string for you. You can follow the point-by-point allocation of the below tree once you start gaining levels in Midnight.

The following PvP talents are recommended for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. You may find that different PvP talents work better for you, depending on your playstyle. Experimentation is encouraged!

1. Morale Killer significantly reduces the cooldown of Demoralizing Shout, allowing for more damage reduction and damage output in conjunction with Booming Voice.
2. Dragon Charge improves mobility and inflicts moderate damage to targets along your path.
3. Sword and Board provides a near-constant increase to Shield Slam and Devastate damage through more frequent critical strikes.

To help with understanding what changes for your spec as you level up and progress through the talent tree, use the slider below to select your current level. Each time you level up, move it along, and the section will level up with you!

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Starting at Level 1, you only have one active ability: Slam.

1. Cast Charge to initiate combat whenever possible.
2. Victory Rush activates whenever an enemy is killed. Use it to heal yourself.
3. Use Impending Victory to heal yourself when needed.
4. Cast Avatar to generate a bit of Rage and greatly increase your damage.
5. Cast Demoralizing Shout to reduce the damage you take, and increase the damage you deal (when using the Booming Voice talent).
6. Cast Shield Charge.
7. Cast Shield Slam to deal a lot of damage.
8. Cast Shield Slam to generate Rage and deal damage.
9. Cast Thunder Clap to generate Rage and deal AoE damage.
10. Cast Execute when enemies are below 20% health.
11. Be sure to keep Battle Shout up on yourself and your allies at all times.
12. Spend Rage on Whirlwind to damage multiple targets if you do not need to spend it on your active mitigation to survive.
13. Spend Rage on Revenge to damage multiple targets if you do not need to spend it on your active mitigation to survive.
14. Cast Slam as your filler spell.

• Cast Shield Block as much as possible when tanking something and taking heavy physical damage.
• Further smooth out your damage intake by spending Rage on Ignore Pain.

Class Guides

Warrior Class Guides

Finished leveling your character? Check out our max level guides!

All Warrior Guides

Mwahi

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Mwahi, a Protection Warrior theorycrafter and moderator of the Skyhold Warrior Discord.