Content Type: Gaming Guides
Welcome to the Protection Paladin Tank guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5a. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Protection Paladin in a raid. The guide includes Talents, Glyphs, Gems, Enchantments, BiS Gear, Add-ons, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.
Talent Tree
First, we have a core build that consists of all talents that are necessary for tanking. From here, you have 13 talent points to allocate where you see fit.
Below we have a standard build that takes some damage talents from the Retribution tree. We still have our core taking talents, but we add the damage for better threat generation. For multitanking purposes, one 1 talent point from Crusade can be re-allocated to Seal of Command. Divinity can also be taken for increased survivability.
Glyphs
Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Divine Plea
- Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous or Glyph of Righteous Defense
- Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Minor Glyphs
Gems
Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps. There are two options for gemming as a Protection Paladin: flat stamina and combined stats.
- Meta: Austere Earthsiege Diamond requires 1 Red and 2 Blue gems to activate
- Red: Regal Dreadstone or Sovereign Dreadstone (x2)
- Rest is filled with Solid Majestic Zircon
Option #2:
- Meta: Austere Earthsiege Diamond
- Red: Regal Dreadstone or Sovereign Dreadstone
- Yellow: Enduring Eye of Zul
- Blue: Solid Majestic Zircon
Enchants
- Head – Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector
- Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle
- Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Mighty Armor or Enchant Cloak – Titanweave
- Chest – Enchant Chest – Greater Defense, Powerful Stats or Enchant Chest – Super Health
- Bracers – Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina
- Gloves – Heavy Borean Armor Kit or Enchant Gloves – Armsman
- Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
- Legs – Frosthide Leg Armor
- Boots – Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality or Enchant Boots – Greater Fortitude
- Weapons – Enchant Weapon – Blade Ward or Enchant Weapon Mongoose
- Shield – Enchant Shield – Major Stamina or Enchant Shield – Defense
Rotation
To put it simply, there is one main rotation for a Protection Paladin: the 969 rotation. It uses 5 skills: two with 6-sec cooldown and tree with 9-sec cooldown. Use a 9-sec skill, then a 6-sec skill, then a 9-sec skill, then another 6sec skill and so on.
9-sec CD:
6-sec CD:
Stat Priority
Defense -> Stamina -> Armor -> Expertise & Hit rating -> Strength -> Parry, Dodge -> Block
Defense rating over 540 is mandatory to be the main tank, as it makes you uncrittable. Hit cap for raids is 8% (263 rating) or at least 5% (164 rating) against level 80 mobs if you’re just starting. Expertise cap is 26, which can be easily acquired through Combat Expertise, Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, racial weapon passives, and gear.
Stamina & Armor are self-explanatory – the more the merrier. Strength isn’t a priority for a tank. Parry, Dodge, and Block are left out for last because Defense already increases all of them. It’s worth mentioning that Block is last on the list because it only reduces the damage, not mitigates it completely.
BiS Gear
There is no real BiS list for tanks as a good tank will always want to adjust his armor depending on the encounter. Rings, Trinkets, and Amulets are often changed depending on the needed stats: HP Pool, Armor or Resists.
Armor
- Head – Sanctified Lightsworn Faceguard
- Shoulder – Sanctified Lightsworn Shoulderguards
- Cloak – Royal Crimson Cloak
- Chest – Sanctified Lightsworn Chestguard
- Bracers – Bracers of Dark Reckoning
- Gloves – Sanctified Lightsworn Handguards
- Waist – Belt of Broken Bones
- Legs – Legguards of Lost Hope
- Boots – Treads of Impending Resurrection
- Amulet – Marrowgar’s Scratching Choker or Noose of Malachite
- Rings – Juggernaut Band and Ashen Band of Endless Courage
- Trinkets – Corroded Skeleton Key, Sindragosa’s Flawless Fang or Satrina’s Impeding Scarab
Weapons
- Main-hand – Mithrios, Bronzebeard’s Legacy
- Shield – Icecrown Glacial Wall
Hi, the core build of that specialization should be in my opinion 0/51/5. Indeed, Jugements of the Just is kind of useless on bosses, because they can’t be slowed, you never use Seal of Justice, and your Hammer of Justice doesn’t affect them… So put two points just to reduce by 10 sec its cooldown seems expensive.
After that, if you are beginning in tanking at level 80, the second build is indeed nice, because you’re dealing more damage to generate more instant threat. Now, instead of the two points in Jugements of the Just, you can take the Seal of Command to increase your multi-tanking (mainly in donjons, or for tanking adds in raids). You can put the last point in 2/2 Spiritual Harmonization to complete it : it will be a good way to manage your mana issues, because new tank will have more difficulty to keep up the Divine Plea all the time.
For advanced tanking (MT1), I recommand a 5/56/10 build with : 5/5 in Divinity to help a lot your heals in raids, and 5/5 in Seal of the Pure to increase a lot the damage/threat generation of your Seal of Vengeance/Corruption. That will largely compensate for the loss of damage of the Retribution tree. The 5 points you have left will be put in Benediction, to reduce well enough the amount of mana used in the processus of taking the aggro. At this level, you don’t need to reduce by 2 seconds the cooldown of your Judgements (because you have mastered the timing of the 969 rotation), and the bonus of 3% in critical strike will be applied by a Retribution Paladin.
Hello! Thanks a bunch for the guide! What do you recommend for librams
My opinion is that Libram of the Sacred Shield is the BiS for a prot pally but Libram of Defiance works too for endgame tanking.
this guide is tottally wrong.
forget crusade forget conviction wtf why you need damage on a tank?
Hi! Sorry for the delay.
In short, damage does play a role in threat generation. Main tanks in higher tier encounters tend to take less damage in favor of more survivability (but it also depends on encounter strategy).
As this guide is oriented more for beginners & intermidiate players – this build will work for them. If you join a guild, you’ll definitely change your build according to your new role.
If you want a standard build – put two points into Judgements of the Just [Tier 10 @Protection Tree] and leave Deflection 5/5 [Tier 1 @Retribution Tree]. That leaves you with a 0/53/5 core build with 13 points to spend where you see it necessary.