In this article, we present you with the best gems and enchants that you can get for a Protection Warrior in WoW 4.3, including profession-specific perks. We also list the best consumables: food, flasks, and potions.

Make sure to check our Gear Optimisation Guide, which serves as a support guide for this article. The other articles of our Protection Warrior guide can be accessed from the table of content on the left.

1. Gems↑top

Sockets	Gems
	Austere Shadowspirit Diamond
	102.4% Avoidance Cap reached? → Solid Deepholm Iolite, Solid Ocean Sapphire (cheaper), or Solid Chimera's Eye (JC) Otherwise → Fractured Lightstone, Fractured Amberjewel (cheaper), or Fractured Chimera's Eye (JC)
	102.4% Avoidance Cap reached? → Solid Deepholm Iolite, Solid Ocean Sapphire (cheaper), or Solid Chimera's Eye (JC) Otherwise → Puissant Elven Peridot or Puissant Dream Emerald (cheaper)
	102.4% Avoidance Cap reached? → Regal Elven Peridot, Regal Dream Emerald (cheaper) Otherwise → Fractured Lightstone, Fractured Amberjewel (cheaper), or Fractured Chimera's Eye (JC)
	102.4% Avoidance Cap reached? → Defender's Shadow Spinel or Defender's Demonseye (cheaper) Otherwise → Fine Lava Coral, Fine Ember Topaz (cheaper)

Your gemming strategy depends greatly on how far you are from reaching the 102.4% avoidance cap. This cap should always be your absolute priority and concern in all of your gear optimisation choices.

Therefore:

• If you have already reached the cap, Mastery gems are of little value to you, and you should focus on avoidance statistics or Stamina.
• If you have not yet reached the cap, you will have to choose between mixed Mastery/Stamina or Parry/Mastery gems and pure Mastery gems, so that you reach the cap and do not exceed it (since extra Mastery is wasted).

If you are unable to reach the cap, we advise you to simply gem pure Mastery gems everywhere (as long as you have the minimum amount of Stamina required).

2. Enchants↑top

Slot	Main Enchantments	Extra Enchantments
Head	Arcanum of the Earthen Ring
Shoulders	Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz Inscription of the Earth Prince (Inscription)
Back	Enchant Cloak - Protection
Chest	Enchant Chest - Greater Stamina
Wrists	Enchant Bracer - Major Stamina Enchant Bracer - Superior Dodge Draconic Embossment - Stamina (Leatherworking)	Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
Hands	Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery	Quickflip Deflection Plates (Engineering) Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
Waist		Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering) Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Legs	Drakehide Leg Armor Drakehide Leg Reinforcements (Leatherworking)
Feet	Enchant Boots - Mastery
Rings	Enchant Ring - Greater Stamina (Enchanting)
Weapon	Enchant Weapon - Windwalk
Shield	Enchant Shield - Mastery

Note that Extra Enchantments can be applied to an item in addition to a Main Enchantment.

3. Consumables↑top

Depending on your currently desired statistics, you should choose between the following foods:

• Lavascale Minestrone: 90 Mastery Rating;
• Blackbelly Sushi: 90 Parry Rating;
• Mushroom Sauce Mudfish: 90 Dodge Rating.

For a flask, you should use Flask of Steelskin. Alternatively, you may choose to use Prismatic Elixir and Elixir of the Master (note that you can use both of these at the same time), for fights where you prefer the magic damage reduction or increase in Mastery.

As far as potions go, your best choices are:

• Earthen Potion a few seconds before the pull;
• Mythical Healing Potion or Earthen Potion (again) during the encounter.

4. Summing-up Profession Perks↑top

Choosing a profession for your Protection Warrior can impact your raid performance. As a rule, you should shy away from gathering professions (with the exception of Mining).

As Mastery Rating is preferred over Stamina, in most cases, you should aim to use professions that provide Mastery Rating bonuses (Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing). Indeed, Jewelecrafting and Blacksmithing are excellent professions, as they allow for the highest degree of customisation. Engineering can also be extremely useful, as you can use the armor-increasing hand-enchant when it is most needed.

Profession	Perks
Blacksmithing	Provides a 100 Mastery Rating or 150 Stamina gain through two extra sockets: Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves. Only provides an 80 Mastery Rating gain, if you are still using Fractured Amberjewel and not the newer Fractured Lightstone, and a 120 Stamina gain, if you are still using Solid Ocean Sapphire and not the newer Solid Deepholm Iolite.
Jewelcrafting	Provides a 51 Mastery Rating gain through the ability to use 3 Fractured Chimera's Eye, or a 78 Stamina gain through the ability to use 3 Solid Chimera's Eye (if you gem for Stamina). It does provide an 81 Mastery Rating gain, if you are still using Fractured Amberjewel and not the newer Fractured Lightstone, and a 123 Stamina gain, if you are still using Solid Ocean Sapphire and not the newer Solid Deepholm Iolite.
Engineering	Provides a 1500 armor bonus for 12 seconds, on a 1 minute cooldown, through Quickflip Deflection Plates. Also provides Grounded Plasma Shield, an additional Waist enchant that can be used as a survival tool during encounters, but it runs the risk of backfiring (in which case, you taunt and take aggro on all nearby mobs).
Alchemy	Provides a 191 Stamina gain to your flask through Mixology.
Leatherworking	Provides a 155 Stamina gain through Draconic Embossment - Stamina. Also provides Drakehide Leg Reinforcements, a much cheaper equivalent to Drakehide Leg Armor, the traditional leg enchant.
Enchanting	Provides a 120 Stamina gain through Enchant Ring - Greater Stamina.
Inscription	Provides a 120 Stamina gain through Inscription of the Earth Prince. It also saves you from the trouble of farming reputation with Therazane to get the usual enchantment.
Mining	Provides a 120 Stamina gain, through Toughness.