Protection Warrior
Mountain Thane
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Protection Warrior (Mountain Thane) deals 87% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 4 of 12) and 88% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 1 of 11).
At a glance
4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · share of manual DPS kept
| Fight | Manual DPS | SBA + cooldown | SBA alone | Assisted Highlight | Rank (SBA + cooldown) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M+ dungeon | 219,038 | 86.9%−13.06% | 54.4%−45.56% | 99.8%−0.20% | 4 of 12 |
| Raid boss | 157,023 | 87.6%−12.39% | 52.3%−47.65% | 99.4%−0.59% | 1 of 11 |
What the assistant costs
M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · data as of 2026-10-23 12:52 UTC
- Manual219.0Kreference
- SBA + cooldown190.4K87% of manual
- SBA alone119.2K54% of manual
- Assisted Highlight218.6K100% of manual
Cooldowns and defensives
Cooldowns in SBA + cooldown
The button alone never presses these. In SBA + cooldown you press them on your own keys, with your potion and on-use trinket, and the simulator presses them on time.
Best talents for the button
Our standard build is already the best we found for one-button play on a raid boss.
Best of 371 builds tested with the button on the raid boss (2026-10-22): our standard build, the 3 most played builds on Warcraft Logs for this hero talent, then every single talent swap from the best of them. Defensive talents are locked: the search never trades survival for damage.
Searched on the raid boss only: SimulationCraft does not support tanks in its dungeon fight, so AoE talents for Mythic+ are not tested.
CkEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAkBAAGzYmZmZmxsZmZZGjxoxMGWMzMzYGmZAAAAwyMDwMGgB2glFjGzAYWiZ2AmZGMbAwMDAAzAjBIn game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it. SimulationCraft's standard build. Every figure on this page uses it.
Where the damage comes from
M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · data as of 2026-10-23 12:52 UTC
Damage per second and casts per ability, averaged over the simulated fights. Pets and summons show their own name in brackets.
| Ability | Manual | SBA + cooldown | SBA + cooldown vs manual |
|---|---|---|---|
 Thunder Blast | 44.2K20.1% · 51.2 casts | 41.3K21.7% · 47.1 casts | −2,897 |
 Shield Slam | 38.8K17.7% · 110.5 casts | 34.8K18.2% · 99.4 casts | −4,068 |
 Thunder Clap | 19.5K8.9% · 55.3 casts | 14.1K7.4% · 43.5 casts | −5,440 |
 Revenge | 16.9K7.7% · 53.6 casts | 10.6K5.5% · 35.1 casts | −6,330 |
 Phalanx | 15.7K7.2% · 82.4 casts | 12.7K6.7% · 70.6 casts | −3,012 |
 Devastator | 10.6K4.8% · 248.6 casts | 10.5K5.5% · 248.6 casts | −89 |
 Ravager | 8,0833.7% · 30.3 casts | 8,1194.3% · 30.1 casts | +36 |
 Perfected Guillotine | 7,9743.6% · 27.1 casts | 7,9774.2% · 27.1 casts | +3 |
 Lightning Strike (Thunder Blast) | 7,8163.6% · 67.1 casts | 7,1543.7% · 61.8 casts | −662 |
 Bloody Rebuke | 7,7303.5% · 183.9 casts | 7,5434.0% · 172.7 casts | −187 |
 Rend | 7,1473.3% · 285.5 casts | 7,0183.7% · 233.1 casts | −129 |
| Lightning Strike Ground Current | 6,9873.2% · 67.1 casts | 6,4603.4% · 61.8 casts | −527 |
| Auto Attack (Main Hand) | 5,9732.7% · 248.6 casts | 5,9233.1% · 248.6 casts | −50 |
 Execute (Damage) | 2,8881.3% · 12 casts | 1,2750.7% · 5.4 casts | −1,613 |
 Shield Charge (AoE) | 2,0050.9% · 5.2 casts | 2,1361.1% · 5.3 casts | +131 |
| Lightning Strike Ground Current | 2,0670.9% · 17.1 casts | 1,4170.7% · 13.4 casts | −650 |
| Lightning Strike (Thunder Clap) | 2,0230.9% · 17.1 casts | 1,5480.8% · 13.4 casts | −475 |
| Shield Charge (Main) | 2,0230.9% · 8.3 casts | 1,9751.0% · 8.3 casts | −48 |
| Lightning Strike Ground Current | 1,8950.9% · 15.5 casts | 1,1760.6% · 10.2 casts | −719 |
 Venomfang Burst | 1,7580.8% · 78.7 casts | 1,7570.9% · 78.6 casts | −1 |
| Lightning Strike (Revenge) | 1,7380.8% · 15.5 casts | 1,1470.6% · 10.2 casts | −591 |
 Devour Morsel | 1,6000.7% · 47 casts | 1,5780.8% · 46.4 casts | −22 |
| Venomfang | 1,3400.6% · 83.8 casts | 1,3390.7% · 83.7 casts | −1 |
 Wrecking Throw | 1,1700.5% · 5.3 casts | – | −1,170 |
 Rune of Unleashed Fire | 9560.4% · 54.4 casts | 9540.5% · 54.4 casts | −2 |
| Lightning Strike (Execute) | 3900.2% · 3.6 casts | 1700.1% · 1.6 casts | −220 |
 Rune of Lingering | 2580.1% · 54.4 casts | 2580.1% · 54.4 casts | +0 |
| Lightning Strike Ground Current | 370.0% · 3.6 casts | 390.0% · 1.6 casts | +2 |
 Charge (Impact) | 30.0% · 1 casts | 30.0% · 1 casts | +0 |
| Total | 219.7K | 190.9K | −28.7K |
A dash means the ability was never used in that mode. Damage is attributed the way SimulationCraft reports it, so a pet's damage appears under the pet.
Questions about Protection Warrior (Mountain Thane)
How much DPS does Protection Warrior (Mountain Thane) lose with the Single-Button Assistant?
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Protection Warrior (Mountain Thane) deals 87% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 4 of 12) and 88% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 1 of 11).
Related builds
Other hero talents of Protection Warrior
DPS lost with SBA + cooldown, 4-piece set, SimulationCraft's talents (a top player's build for the hero talents SimulationCraft has no profile for). All specs · Ranking
How it's measured, and its limits
- SBA + cooldown is a best case: the simulator never misplays. It is always better to sim your own character.
- Manual play is SimulationCraft's own rotation executed perfectly, so it is an upper bound for what a person can do, not a typical player.
- Assisted Highlight assumes every suggestion is seen and pressed at once, which is generous for a player reading the highlight.
- The M+ dungeon is SimulationCraft's own DungeonSlice fight style, its approximation of Mythic+ pulls, not a specific dungeon route. Nothing hits the tank there, so SimulationCraft does not support it for tanks.
- The raid boss is SimulationCraft's Patchwerk fight with a boss that hits the tank. Only damage is compared: survival is not measured.
Full method, reliability rule and patches: Sources · Simulated with SimulationCraft 1210-01 (WoW 12.1.5.70575) 710c240 +16 patches, 10,000 iterations per figure.