Volatle

One thing my guild-master always told us while raiding vanilla was "A dead dps is no dps." That core idea is true in playing vanilla. I've killed C'thun pre-tbc. 9/15 Naxx pre-tbc. Not dying is the most important thing. Dps will come after you get used to the fight and don't die. Having racial advantage won't fix your dps if you don't know your class or the fight. Learn the class & the fight and racial bonuses won't matter.

Leveling as protection will be terrible. Reason 1 - Warriors need RAGE to kill. I'm leveling with mostly fury. Once you get Enrage talent. You'll see an decrease in killing time. It's huge. I might go Arm's at 39 for M/S. fury tree 0/5 0/5 0/1/3/5* *max enrage and get death wish before adding more than 1 talent into improved battle shout 0/0/5 0/1/0 0/5 1 I'm leveling everything 2-3hr's. But i doddle around and do instances sometimes. Keep ahead as a warrior. If the zone requires 23, i'd rather be 25+. KILL EVERYTHING in your path. Group only when the area quest is packed. Un-group when running the quest to get max xp off solo mobs. I'm currently 28. This is working for me. Hope it helps. *Edit When tanking, you need rage. Only way to get that is with fury IMO while leveling. Instances are easy if you pull right.