Protection Warrior Artifact Weapon: Scale of the Earth-Warder – Legion 7.3.5

By Llarold Last Updated: 2018/07/02 Changelog Patch: 11.0.5

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Scale of the Earth-WarderLlaroldcreates videos on Youtubestreams on TwitchBlood Death Knight GuideArtifacts in Battle for AzerothThe Power in Our HandsConcordance of the Legionfallcontent going awayAhead of the CurveMage Tower ChallengesBFA pre-patchfull list you can read hereArtifact Appearance GuideProtection Artifact Weapon: Scale of the Earth-WarderActive Ability

Scale of the Earth-Warder grants the ability Neltharion's Fury.

Neltharion's Fury deals AoE damage and is a potent defensive cooldown against autoattacks, particularly strong when tanking large packs.

You can cast other defensive abilities while channeling, but moving will cancel the cast. It is also canceled by CC and knockbacks, so be careful when timing it!

Important Traits

Scales of Earth gives Critical Blocks a 25% chance to deal damage to enemies in front of you and gives you a 30% armor buff for 6 seconds. This is an incredibly strong trait, both offensively and defensively, and adds a lot of power to Neltharion's Fury.

Dragon Scales gives Blocks a 20% chance to increase your next Ignore Pain by 40%. This is the strongest defensive trait in the tree.

Rumbling Voice and Might of the Vrykul each make Demoralizing Shout a stronger cooldown, both offensively and defensively.

Reflective Plating massively buffs Spell Reflection, turning it into a consistently strong magic defense cooldown with a short cooldown.

Rage of the Fallen and Thunder Crash are the best dps traits.

Dragon Skin is the strongest defensive minor trait available. It's worth 2% more self-healing per rank, and that's great.

Relics and the Netherlight CrucibleNetherlight CrucibleTumultuous AftershockTumultuous AftershockProt Warrior Netherlight Crucible Video GuideThe Netherlight Crucible for Prot WarriorsTier 2 TraitsAntorus, the Burning ThroneInsignia of the Grand Army

Defensive Value

Light Speed/Master of Shadows

Refractive Shell

Murderous Intent

Shadowbind/Chaotic Darkness

Light's Embrace

Shocklight

Tragically, Secure in the Light and Infusion of Light only proc from "Healing spells and abilities." Despite being a great absorb, Ignore Pain does not count as a heal.

Light Speed and Master of Shadows are must-haves for the defensively-minded tank. The damage reduction value of movement speed from Light Speed is underrated, but the Avoidance provided by Master of Shadows is a serious amount of damage reduction against AoE damage. If they are up against each other in the tree, base your choice on the traits below. If the best trait is in the middle, you're simultaneously lucky and unlucky. Avoidance is solid damage reduction and slightly more reliable than movement speed, so Master of Shadows is a slightly safer choice unless you already have a ton of Avoidance on your gear. (Also, how are you so lucky?!)

The self-healing provided by Shadowbind & Chaotic Darkness is pretty modest. They are both excellent DPS traits, but their defensive value is near the bottom of the pack. They do provide about as much healing as Light's Embrace, which doesn't grant *any* damage, so they are better choices in that situation.

Refractive Shell is a good defensive gain, (~600k shielding/minute, so ~10k HPS), but its lack of offensive value is a drawback.

Offensive Value

Shadowbind/Chaotic Darkness

Infusion of Light/Secure in the Light

Light Speed

Torment the Weak

Dark Sorrows

Murderous Intent/Shocklight

Master of Shadows

Light Speed is good for both offense and defense.

Shadowbind and Chaotic Darkness are hands-down the two best offensive traits, and unlike Torment the Weak and Dark Sorrows, they have modest defensive value.

Mastery isn't a great offensive stat, making Master of Shadows not a great offensive trait.

Torment the Weak is a great trait for single-target DPS, but it has some problems for tanks. In addition to its lack of defensive value, it is predicated on maintaining a DoT on a single target as much as possible. Because Prot Warriors deal near-constant AoE damage, that can become an impossible feat in multi-target scenarios, resulting in a lot of lost DPS in the place tank damage actually matters most.

Dark Sorrows was buffed to deal 40% increased damage, but its 8-second fuse and the low proc rate of 1 PPM still make it a niche choice at best. It can deal a lot of damage in large-scale AoE, but it can't do much of anything in other scenarios.

Murderous Intent/Shocklight can increase the offensive value of Concordance if you line up your cooldowns with it, but that can require some luck and the results aren't that big even in the best-case scenarios.

Tier 3 TraitsBastion of the AspectsVrykul Shield Training

Defensive Value

Dragon Skin

Bastion of the Aspects

Vrykul Shield Training

Dragon Skin is not the best defensive trait in every situation, but it is the best all-around choice. It will also synergize well with the Tier 21 4-piece bonus (Item - Warrior T21 Protection 2P Bonus - the link is correct, the title is currently bugged) as it currently exists.

Bastion of the Aspects is the best damage reduction against autoattack damage, but it is useless against everything else. This trait is still very good, the best in some situations, but it's not as versatile as Dragon Skin. This trait will synergize wonderfully with the Tier 21 2-piece bonus (Item - Warrior T21 Protection 2P Bonus) as it currently exists.

Intolerance is pretty much worthless, and should never be taken. NEVER! If it's on the relic itself and the relic is a decent item level upgrade, then it's probably still worth it, but you should never voluntarily take Intolerance in the Netherlight Crucible.

Offensive Value

Thunder Crash

Rage of the Fallen

Shatter the Bones

Shatter the Bones is good in single target, but weak in AoE. Considering tank DPS has the biggest impact in AoE, this trait falls behind pretty quickly.

Rage of the Fallen and Thunder Crash are great in AoE and single target. They are reasonably competitive with each other, dependent on how aggressively you are playing and how much AoE you are handling. If you are super aggressive, Rage of the Fallen outweighs Thunder Crash. If you are playing very defensively, then Thunder Crash is the clear winner. Thundergod's Vigor and Thunder Crash synergize very well, particularly against large-scale AoE.

Early TraitsEmpowered TraitsConcordance of the Legionfall

Protection of the Valarjar is a 1-pointer, and the first new trait. It's great! Get it ASAP.

Bastion of the Aspects is the new minor trait, and will noticeably reduce autoattack damage intake. It's good, not great, due to its lack of effect against spell or ability damage. You will need to put in all 4 points to reach the following traits, so it is still a rather high priority.

Gleaming Scales greatly increases the damage reduction value of Spell Reflection, giving Warriors a 50% damage reduction tool on a fairly short cooldown. Strong overall, and helps fix a hole in the class' defensive toolkit.

Neltharion's Thunder provides solid damage reduction against targets that will be alive for a while. Stacking it fully can take some time, so its value won't be as good against low-health enemies. As such, it will be best for pushing higher level Mythic dungeons, or tanking add packs during raid encounters. Against single targets, it's cool. Not earth-shatteringly great, but pretty helpful.

Concordance of the Legionfall is a random Versatility proc. It can only be unlocked once you have put 4 points into every single minor trait in the tree.

Dragon Skin is one of the best minor traits available, and should be at the top of the list for putting in a 4th trait.

Shatter the Bones and Rage of the Fallen are the two best DPS traits, and should be high 4/4 priorities as well.

Intolerance remains one of the weakest traits in the tree, and should be your lowest priority.

Recommended build pathsRage of the FallenThunder CrashToughnessempower your weaponRelics

Thunder Crash - This trait scales at a higher rate than Rage of the Fallen, but Thunder Clap is used less frequently than Revenge. This trait plays extremely well with Thundergod's Vigor!

Rage of the Fallen - Although Revenge was nerfed in 7.2.5, this trait is still valuable for DPS.

Shatter the Bones - The best minor trait for single-target DPS, but not great for AoE.

Rage of the FallenThunder CrashDevastatorRevenge

Dragon Skin - The premiere minor trait for survival.

Bastion of the Aspects - Autoattack damage is generally not that dangerous, but it all adds up and this reduces it very effectively. At this point, it definitely appears to supplant the following trait as a backup defensive option. Against large-scale AoE packs, this is the best defensive trait.

Vrykul Shield Training - Kinda weak, but reliable against physical damage.

Intolerance - The value of a larger Rage pool falls off quickly.

Leaping Giants is a fun Relic trait for dungeons and some raid encounters. With a few Relics and Bounding Stride, you can bring its cooldown to 20 seconds, and make even Monks and Demon Hunters envy how mobile you are! Beyond that, it's not great, so this trait should never be a high priority.

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Tags: PvE