Protection Warrior Tier Bonuses
Let’s take a look at the Protection Warrior Tier Bonuses in the World of Warcraft 10.1 update!
2pc: Shield Slam deals 15% bonus damage and reduces the cooldown of Last Stand by 1s. During Last Stand these effects are doubled.
Shield Slam bonus damage is nice, and a 30% single target bump to that during Last Stand is also good. Last Stand on its own is slightly a weaker cooldown, paired with Bolster it can open up other talent options for damage while maintaining full Shield Block uptime. With Bolster talented (which we’ll be default choosing with this tier), Last Stand will have a variable cooldown for 1m20s to 1m40s depending on frequency of Shield Slam and how aggressive we play.
4pc: For 10s after Last Stand ends, Shield Slam unleashes a wave of force(physical damage) to enemies in front of you and reduces damage they deal to you by 5% for 5s.
Last Stand lasts for 15s, for 10s afterwards, Shield Slam will gain a nice AoE component to the playstyle, a buff you’ll most definitely be wanting to track while gaining a defensive benefit as well with the 5% applied damage reduction. This is going to add an interesting playstyle that benefits from what warriors are good at, playing aggressively. We burn rage to absorb loads of damage, keep up our self sustain and reduce the cooldowns of our defensive and offensive abilities, this tier set bonus turns Last Stand into an offensive cooldown that happens to increase our maximum health by 30% for 15s. It fits the theme nicely of aggressive play to have more of our abilities more often. The odd part about it is the benefit is only gained after Last Stand ends, instead of the first 10s during its duration, meaning you’ll be having to track multiple buffs if you don’t already to see which phase of the tier you’re in, Big single target Shield Slam Buff? or Shield Slam AoE buff? Admittedly it does add a slight change to the gameplay with both Single target and AoE gains, it may be at odd timings but at least we’re getting both.
