Warcrafter’s Guide to the Paladin — Protection Specialization
This guide is not necessarily designed as a traditional “BiS list” or scaled against “Absolute optimisation”. Be that as it may, the gear, talent, and glyph suggestions are built on a fairly long time of playing paladins (since the original vanilla release), in addition to a bit of active testing, adapting to YggdrasilWoW, and a bit of simulator testing from a few off-the-shelf simulator programs. This guide is primarily catered towards PvE play, but contains a few tidbits for PvP too, from my experience, achievement hunting lol.
I am not the type of player who prefers to assume that there is only one way to achieve something; there are obviously a few setups and builds that are considered “most efficient” - I do believe the spirit of the game is, first and foremost, to enjoy the game and have some fun with it, which comes naturally with freedom for some and min-maxing or big boom numbers for others. I fall into the first camp. With that being said, here’s a bit of the overall knowledge and information I have to share for Paladins.
—
Race Selection
Canonically speaking, Horde paladins didn’t really exist during Vanilla; however, they were introduced later on in TBC, and continue to persist in WotLK as well. Horde paladins are limited to Blood Elves only.
Human
- Every Man for Himself — Has a few interesting use-cases in PvE, and is great for PvP.
- Sword & Mace Expertise — Very useful for Protection. Your primary endgame tank weapon is a mace in most cases, and on Yggdrasil we also have the legendary tank sword, making this racial an excellent fit.
- Diplomacy — Useful if you’re an achievement hunter doing rep farms.
Dwarf
- Stoneform — Increases armour and serves as a solid physical damage cooldown. Pairs well endgame with Sindragosa’s Cruel Claw.
- Frost Resistance — Quite nice for tanking endgame WotLK content, given a lot of it is frost damage (barring Ruby Sanctum).
- Mace Expertise — Same as humans but without the sword component. Still a nice use case for tanking.
Draenei
- Heroic Presence — +1% hit rating, reducing your hit cap requirement. The most in-demand racial in end-game Alliance raids.
- Gift of the Naaru — A HoT effect, a decent bonus for a tank.
- Shadow Resistance — Nice for all endgame raids including Ruby Sanctum.
Blood Elf
- The only Horde option.
- Arcane Torrent — A useful interrupt that also returns 6% mana, helping with mana control on longer fights.
- Arcane Resistance — Nice for both PvP and tanking in PvE.
—
Stats
Primary Stats
Strength
Your main way to gain threat, as this scales up your damage dealt and also increases your block value. At end-game setups, it helps to gem some of this within reason.
- 1 Strength = 2 Attack Power
- 10 Strength = 5 Block Value (6.5 or so with Redoubt)
- 10 Strength = 6 Spell Power (Touched by the Light)
Stamina
Your core stat. Increases your total Health Pool. This is what you basically gem all over the place.
- 1 Stamina = 10 Health Points
Agility
Boosts damage and threat output a little while also providing a small boost to damage resistance. Not a stat you bother gemming on a Protection Paladin at all.
- 59.89 Agility = 1% Dodge chance
- 52.08 Agility = 1% Melee attack crit chance (most abilities excluding Exorcism and Consecration scale with this)
- 1 Agility = 2 Armour points
Intellect
Not entirely useless, but not something you will gem. You rely on your base pool and raid buffs.
- 1 Intellect = 15 Mana
- 166.6 Intellect = 1% Spell crit chance
—
Core Rating Stats
Defence Rating
You want 540 Defence rating as a Protection Paladin. Most classes start at a baseline of 400. Reaching 540 ensures you are uncrittable. Not something you gem at end-game tiers, though you may need to gem a little earlier on.
Hit Rating
An absolute necessity. You must reach 8% or 263 hit rating.
- Drops to 230 if you are a Draenei or have one in your group (note: in your group, not just the raid). I personally avoid relying on group comp unless my character themselves is a Draenei.
- On a Paladin, I rarely find any need to gem this, but it’s important for ensuring good threat generation.
Expertise
Prevents your melee swings from being parried by the boss, which serves a dual purpose: you hit the boss and generate threat, and you prevent bosses from getting a 40% swing timer reduction on a parry. Note that “Expertise” and “Expertise Rating” are different things — you are looking at the Expertise number itself.
- I usually target 26/26 for most general use cases in most raids.
- For Ruby Sanctum, where Halion hits quite hard and has a higher parry rating (15%), it helps to approach the true hard cap of 56/56 on higher difficulties.
- It’s easier to reach for Humans and Dwarves due to weapon expertise racials, and even easier for Humans on Yggdrasil due to the legendary tank sword. Generally, I do not gem this.
Secondary Defensive Stats
These rise intrinsically in relation to your Defence Rating. Worth knowing, but not generally gemmed.
- Dodge Rating — You dodge an attack and take zero damage. Suffers from diminishing returns in 3.3.5a and is further reduced by Chill of the Throne in ICC. I personally do not bother with this much.
- Parry Rating — You parry a melee swing and take no damage. Cannot parry spells. Has the added benefit of reducing your own swing timer by 40% when it procs. Prioritised higher than Dodge, but also has a diminishing returns problem.
- Block Rating — Blocks a melee swing, reducing incoming damage by your block value. Prioritised higher than Dodge overall, but not worth gemming.
Special mention for Strength: For paladins above all other tanks, this stat is brilliant. If balanced properly with your Stamina and HP goals, it simultaneously reduces incoming damage and generates threat.
Food note: The Fish Feast is actually the most effective on a Paladin in Protection spec compared to most other classes, due to the fairly even split between physical swing attacks and holy/spell power damage. That said, Dragonfin Fillet is sometimes worth using as well.
—
Gems
Prot Paladins do not really bother with gem socket bonuses in general. I personally only concern myself with items where sockets are either red+blue or only red, where I may bother matching some sockets for a really juicy +12 Stamina bonus, or if I’ve reached a comfortable Stamina level and want to introduce some Strength.
Yellow sockets are basically a write-off — but place a Nightmare Tear into at least one of them. This activates your preferred Meta, which is the Austere Earthsiege Diamond. I do not think any other Meta gem fits the bill for a Protection Paladin.
—
Talents
The above is a generalised all-purpose spec that includes all of the “core” talents.
In the Prot tree, Spiritual Attunement, Improved Devotion Aura, Reckoning, and Divine Sacrifice/Divine Guardian are talents people tend to either omit or alter. Of those, Divine Sacrifice is too useful and the only one I would argue to absolutely keep.
Spiritual Attunement is mostly a mana control thing — I keep it due to my interest in aspects beyond hardcore raiding.
It’s worth reading the descriptions and making your own assessments. Don’t be afraid to play around with your talents before settling. Note that in the Retribution tree, Vindication is another option some people like to take as a further defensive ability.
—
Gear
This is merely one of many different possible setups — it’s best to understand the stats from the earlier section and work through your gear from there. This can serve as a starting point. Note this is the gear at fully maxed Yggdrasil BiS, including Faith’s Bastion (Yggdrasil’s legendary tank weapon).
Barring the legendary weapon, most tanks tend to use either Havoc’s Call from LK 25HC or Mithrios from LK 25HC as their primary weapons — the former for general and threat use, and the latter when extra expertise is needed.
The Libram used is a DPS one. Strength does so much more for a Protection Paladin than Dodge ever could. Plus, it’s not very honourable to be dodgy. Wouldn’t suit a paladin, would it? Lol.
—
Glyphs
Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Divine Plea — Turns Divine Plea into an additional defensive cooldown.
- Glyph of Seal of Vengeance (or Seal of Corruption if Horde) — Provides +10 Expertise. A real lifesaver.
- Glyph of Righteous Defence — Ensures your taunts will not miss, regardless of hit rating.
Minor Glyphs
- Glyph of Sense Undead — The only one I consider among the “core” minors.
- Glyph of Lay on Hands
- Glyph of Kings
—
Enchants
| Slot | Enchant | Where? |
|---|
| Head | Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector | Argent Crusade Exalted Rep |
| Shoulder | Greater Inscription of the Gladiator | PvP Accessories Vendor @ SW/Orgrimmar |
| Back | Major Agility | Enchanter |
| Chest | Powerful Stats | Enchanter |
| Bracers | Major Stamina | Enchanter |
| Gloves | Armsman | Enchanter |
| Boots | Greater Fortitude | Enchanter |
| Pants | Frosthide Leg Armour | Leatherworker |
| Weapon | Blade Ward | Enchanter (Ulduar Recipe) |
| Shield | Major Stamina | Enchanter |
Some of these can be subject to change — boots and back are the most likely candidates, where some prefer Icewalker and Armour respectively. Beyond this, there are LW wrists, Engineer gloves or cloak enchants, Inscription shoulders, and similar profession-specific options.
—
Professions
- Blacksmithing — Two bonus sockets. Synergises well with Jewelcrafting.
- Jewelcrafting — 51 Stamina gems (or 34 Strength, depending on how you play it).
- Mining — Toughness passive adds a net +60 Stamina.
- Engineering — Utility reasons: boots, Jeeves, parachute.
—
Rotations, Spells & Defensives
Seals
- Seal of Vengeance (or Corruption if Horde) — Almost always your go-to.
- Seal of Command — Worth using on non-boss fights with more than 5 targets.
- Seal swapping mid-fight is possible at a more advanced level for optimised threat.
Judgements
- Use Judgement of Wisdom as your default unless you have no Holy Paladin, in which case switch to Judgement of Light.
Blessings
- Always keep Blessing of Sanctuary on yourself, even if other paladins in the raid want different buffs. You can cast a smaller one on yourself. This is key for mana control.
- If you have specced into Improved Devotion Aura, ask your raid leader to set you on that aura — or simply veto them, lol.
Defensive Cooldowns
Divine Protection, Divine Plea, Sindragosa’s Cruel Claw, and Corroded Skeleton Key — plus strategic uptime of Sacred Shield, and Ardent Defender when used smartly.
Pre-Pull
Activate Divine Plea, Sacred Shield, Holy Shield, and Avenging Wrath before engaging.
Opening
Hand of Reckoning + Avenger’s Shield, followed by Hammer of the Righteous, Judgement of Wisdom, and Shield of Righteousness, casting the latter two alternatively 4-5 times. This becomes your primary spam rotation.
Ongoing
Keep Holy Shield, Sacred Shield, Divine Plea, and Consecration up at all times. Use Holy Wrath to stun trash, or on undead bosses for extra threat. Hammer of Wrath when available on CD. Avenger’s Shield to hit far-away adds. Holy Wrath on CD — except during LK, where tanks need to save it for Valkyr.
—
Flasks & Consumables
Beyond a certain gear level, you’ll generally use Flask of Endless Rage rather than Flask of the Stoneblood. Sometimes, Elixir of Mighty Strength + Elixir of Protection is worth using instead.
Haste potions are useful when you need a serious initial threat boost. Fire, Frost, and Shadow resistance potions have merit for specific fights (Sindragosa, Halion, LK heroic) for min-maxing.
Blacksmithing crafted Greater Rune of Warding and Greater Rune of Shielding are interesting items for truly going all-out as a tank, though I only use these occasionally.
Keep Scrolls of Strength on yourself to replace the mostly useless spirit buff.
—
Macros & Addons
Macros I like to have:
- Mouseover macro for Hand of Reckoning
- Divine Shield enable/disable macro
- Seal swapper macro (mostly just to save bar space)
Addons worth having:
- VuhDo — I have Hands of Salvation, Freedom, Protection, and Sacrifice bound to it, along with Righteous Defence for easy taunting.
- Omen / Details / Skada — For threat monitoring.
- Pally Power
—
Guide by @Zeleot on YggdrasilWoW.
