protection paladin guide

[Brutal bear]

Hello.
in this guide I’ll be covering everything you need to know about a protection paladin. This will probably be a wall of text, so I’ll make some chapters to make it more organized. Enjoy the reading!

Words I’ll use, and important words to know:

Avoiddance - Dodge, parry, block etc.


 1.Gear & spec
 2.Gems & enchants
 3.Rotations
 4.Add-ons
 5. Consumable buffs
 Glyphs



Gear & specc

like you all probably know paladins do not need spell power on their weapons anymore. So when you chose your tanking weapon you should pick a weapon with avoidance stats on it. Same counts for shield & every other piece of gear you use.

Stats you need to be aware of:

Defense: the minimum defense you need for heroics is 535 and for raids 540. 570+ Defense rating will not give you anything.

Parry & dodge: for heroics you need about 20%+ dodge and 15%+ parry. & for raiding it’s 26+ dodge and 23% parry. This Is Not hard to get at all, because of the new system with emblems you will gear up very fast. + keep in mind that ever 25 defense rating gives you 1% dodge, 1% parry and 1% chance to be missed.
Expertise: 60 expertise = 15 %, is need for parry cap against bosses, but it’s hard to get so do not aim for it. All though 26 expertise is the minimum, and then you shouldn’t have a problem.

Hit rating: you need around 5-7% hit. If you do not have that you will probably miss, and lose Threat.
Strength: strength is needed for during more damage, and increase the amount of threat you make. Also the talent touched by the light, does so your “spell power spells” also get increased damage.

Stamina: in old times, tanks needed avoidance more than stamina. But in ice crown citadel, only four bosses use melee attacks. And rest will use magic. So you need at least 25k health for heroic. And minimum 40k health for icecrown citadel.

Specc:

Copy your spec from this : Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
The reason I specced with seal of command. Is that it helps you maintain agro on multiple mobs.
because of its AOE effect.

Gems & enchants :

A little copy & paste:

-30 stamina in blue Sockets
- Jewel crafting only: 51 stamina in blue sockets
- 20 defense (if you do not have 540) in yellow Sockets
- 10 parry and 15 stamina in red Sockets
- 10 dodge and 15 stamina in red Sockets
Actually I ignore yellow Sockets and put there gems above but if you want
10 doge and 10 defense in yellow Sockets
10 parry and 10 defense in yellow Sockets
I myself got good enough gear that every Stat Is at its maximum. So I put 30 stamina in every slot. And 1 slot with 10 stats for my Meta gem.

Enchants:

Head - Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector Engineering Only: Mind Amplification Dish
Shoulders - Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle -- Greater Inscription of the Gladiator Inscription Only: Master's Inscription of the Pinnacle
back - Mighty Armor +225 Armor -- Titanweave +16 Defense
Chest - Super Health +275 Health -- Powerful Stats +10 All Stats -- Greater Defense +22 Defense
Wrists - Major Stamina +40 Stamina -- Major Defense +12 Defense Leatherworking Only: Fur Lining - Stamina
Hands - Armsman +10 Parry +2% Threat -- Heavy Borean Armor Kit +18 Stamina Engineering Only: Reticulated Armor Webbing
Legs - Frosthide Leg Armor +55 Stamina +22 Agility
Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality +15 Stamina Minor Runspeed Increase -- Greater Fortitude +22 Stamina
Rings - Enchanting Only: Enchant Ring - Stamina
Belt – Eternal Belt Buckle +1 socket
Weapon – Blade Ward +200 parry rating +damage on next parry
Shield - Major stamina +18 stamina -- Defence +20 defence rating


Again, i max out stamina enchants.

Rotation

96969 is basically a rotation for protection paladin.
6= 6s cD
9= 9s CD

how this rotation works is that you press the 9S CD followed by 6s cd. And the next 9 sec CD , then the other 6sec CD and the first 9 sec CD should be ready.
6 sec CD: HotR and ShoR
9 sec CD: Holy Shield, Judgement, Consecration (loses 1 tick)

So the Rotation should look like this:
Holy Shield (9)
Hammer of the Righteous (6)
Judgement (9)
Shield of Righteousness (6)
Consecration (9)
Hammer of the Righteous (6)
Holy Shield (9)
Shield of Righteousness (6)
Judgement (9)
Hammer of the Righteous (6)
Consecration (9)
Shield of Righteousness (6)
Holy Shield (9) ... and repeat.

Note that the precise order of these abilities can be varied depending upon your situation.

These spells aren’t included in the rotation:

Avenger’s shield – this one should be used when it’s ready ( 30 Sec CD)
Exorcism]– I wouldn’t recommend to use this spell, because it haves a cast time. 1,5s cast time + pushback (15 sec CD)
Holy wrath – Use this thrash tanking only. Great threat tool in ICC!

One buttom macro ( i recommand doing it without the macro but this is for slackers )
this macro do not include avenger's shield etc.

/castsequence judgement of light,hammer of the righteous,consecration,shield of righteousness,holy shield

Ad-dons:
This is only add-ons that paladin tanks must have :

Pallypower : Sorts out paladin buffs.
Omen: a threat meter

Flasks & food buff.

- Flask : Flask of stoneblood
- food : Dragonfin filet or Fish feast .

Glyphs :

1. Glyph of Avenger's Shield
2. Glyph of Divine Plea
3. Glyph of Seal of Vengeance



Hope you learned a lot by reading this guide! Enjoy your tanking.
Written by Brutal bear & alittle copy&paste

[axel310]

Nice guide but i doubt paladins need help O.o they can take aggro over a warrior tank using just concecration. But oh well. Good guilde +rep

[R 3 A L 1 T Y]

Nice guide

Thanks for contributing

plus rep

[Sottaly]

As a Paladin tank I must disagree on Glyph of Avenger's Shield. In my opinion Glyph of Hammer of Righteous is much better since you'll be using it far more often.

[BlQ]

The reason I specced with seal of command. Is that it helps you maintain agro on multiple mobs.
because of its AOE effect.

I lol'ed

All though 26 expertise is the minimum, and then you shouldn’t have a problem.

I have 21 Expertise ith my 6k gearscore pallytank. now tell me how 26 expertise is the minimum you should have as a low-geared tank?




I also use 2 macros to have better control of the abbilities.
Rest of the guide is okay.

[Bendiix]

As a Paladin tank I must disagree on Glyph of Avenger's Shield. In my opinion Glyph of Hammer of Righteous is much better since you'll be using it far more often.

i agree on this. i have 5.9k gs paladin tank. and the avenger's shield is only good as a ranged cleave pull.. other then that is a waste of mana

[tsler]

I don't see why you wouldn't spec into Crusade instead of Conviction, Crusade is massively superior.. the spec you should be taking is Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft.. Also you should be picking up Vindication.

[Sottaly]

I don't see why you wouldn't spec into Crusade instead of Conviction, Crusade is massively superior.. the spec you should be taking is Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft.. Also you should be picking up Vindication.

I can vouch for this.

[BlodyWarior]

nice guide only change i would do in the spec i would drop the 5 points in Convition since youre crit will most likely not be any higher than ~15% and drop them in, 2points vindication to unlock the next tier, 2 points might or leave 2 in conviction can be considered as seein fit, and drop the last 3 points in crusade for 3% extra dmg and an adition 3% on humanoid, demons, undead, elemental, giving you a 6% extra dmg for a 3~5% critloss. Crusade talent will only leave out dragonkin, wyrkin and beasts from what i can think of now, but these arent heavily found in raids anyways.

[Silvera]

Nice guide but i doubt paladins need help O.o they can take aggro over a warrior tank using just concecration. But oh well. Good guilde +rep

I guess that must mean the warrior tank sucks, because I've seen a mere paladin dps be 1% aggro from taking it from a pala tank (Which is experienced, and good geared). :x
Of course the warrior is different in tanking than the paladin, but he should be able to keep aggro. Regardless, a tank shouldn't just overaggro when not needed (In raids, for example, so you dont do your rotation ealier than supposed to)

[Brutal bear]

i agree on this. i have 5.9k gs paladin tank. and the avenger's shield is only good as a ranged cleave pull.. other then that is a waste of mana

you say a waste of mana ?, in my experience paladins should never have to worry about mana when you'r specced correctly

[Brutal bear]

I don't see why you wouldn't spec into Crusade instead of Conviction, Crusade is massively superior.. the spec you should be taking is Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft.. Also you should be picking up Vindication.

i dont know why i posted that specc either. my current specc is like that. i'm gonna edit that

[Sottaly]

you say a waste of mana ?, in my experience paladins should never have to worry about mana when you'r specced correctly

You shouldn't, it's just a plain old waste unless you're pulling casters.

[Tevek]

I lol'ed





I have 21 Expertise ith my 6k gearscore pallytank. now tell me how 26 expertise is the minimum you should have as a low-geared tank?

I have 34 expertise on my paladin. It's recommended to get 26.

[ot4ku1992]

I have 34 expertise on my paladin. It's recommended to get 26.

Yepp.
Since 26 exp is for the dodge cap, it's useful for not loosing too much aggro.
Unless you are hitting the parry cap, expertise is a nice stat not only in the offense.
Because decreasing the chance of the boss to parry also decreases the dmg income, especially in ICC where the bosses hit relativly slow.
(Everytime they parry, they instant hit you back, this is more important when the bosses hit slowly but harder -> higher dmg spickes)

Glyph of Avenger's Shield: I wouldn't recommend using this one...
Your instant aggro at the beginning of the fight may be a bit higher, but since you produce the most damage (so do I at least) with Hammer of the Righteous / Seal of Corruption the increase of Hammer of the Righteous would be far more useful then the increase from an ability which you can only use every 30 seconds.