Protection Paladin Guide — Class Guides · WoW Classic

Tanking with a shield: Holy Shield, more block and armour, damage reduction and threat.

A plate-wearing holy warrior who heals with the Light, protects with blessings, auras and seals, and fights in melee. Paladins heal, tank or deal damage with a two-handed weapon. More about the paladin

Class: Paladin
Roles: Tank
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Leveling
Top talent: Holy Shield
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Classic

How to play

Protection paladins tank with Righteous Fury, which raises the threat of holy damage, and Holy Shield, which adds block chance and deals holy damage on each block. Consecration hits everything around you, which makes the paladin the best tank in Classic for holding whole packs of enemies.

Classic Protection has limits: no Taunt, a mana pool that has to last the fight, and few cooldowns against big hits. That makes it a strong dungeon and farming tank, famous for pulling half of Stratholme or Scholomance at once, but rarely a main raid tank.

Spell damage raises your threat from Consecration, Holy Shield and Seal of Righteousness, so Protection paladins mix spell damage gear with Stamina and defense. Blessing of Sanctuary cuts the damage you take and hits back.

At a glance

Single-target threat
Holding several enemies
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Classic.

Rotation and priorities

1Righteous Fury on before every pull.
2Holy Shield whenever it is ready: it is your block and much of your threat.
3Consecration on packs, as mana allows.
4Seal of Righteousness up, judged whenever Judgement is ready for steady threat.
5Blessing of Sanctuary on yourself.
6Lay on Hands or Divine Shield when everything goes wrong.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

The best area tank in Classic: Consecration and Holy Shield hold whole packs.
Very hard to kill, with Lay on Hands, Divine Shield and your own heals.
Can farm dungeon pulls of undead alone.

Weaknesses

No Taunt: an enemy that gets loose is hard to win back.
Runs out of mana in long fights.
Few raid spots in Classic.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Stamina
2
Defenseto 440 for raid bosses
3
Spell damageraises threat
4
Armour
5
Intellectmana for long pulls
6
Block value

What to look for

A one-handed weapon with spell damage and a shield with high block value.
Stamina and defense for bosses; for dungeon packs, spell damage gear raises threat and speeds up kills.
Enough Intellect that your mana lasts a whole pull.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Holy
Protection
Retribution

Holy Shield Tankadin
TankPvE
11319
11/31/9
A Protection tank: Holy Shield and Improved Righteous Fury hold threat with Consecration on whole packs, while Redoubt and Anticipation raise your defenses.
- Consecration 1/1
- Improved Righteous Fury 3/3
- Blessing of Sanctuary 1/1
- One-Handed Weapon Specialization 5/5
- Holy Shield 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Sanctuary AoE Farmer
TankLeveling
112119
11/21/19
Built for AoE farming: Blessing of Sanctuary and Redoubt punish every hit you take, while Consecration and Improved Hammer of Justice clear and control packs.
- Consecration 1/1
- Shield Specialization 3/3
- Improved Hammer of Justice 3/3
- Blessing of Sanctuary 1/1
- Improved Retribution Aura 2/2
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Holy Shield · top talent, up to 1
Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec, and deals 65 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 20% additional threat. Each block expends a charge. 4 charges.
Precision · tier 2, up to 3
Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 3%.
Guardian's Favor · tier 2, up to 2
Reduces the cooldown of your Blessing of Protection by 120 sec and increases the duration of your Blessing of Freedom by 6 sec.
Toughness · tier 2, up to 5
Increases your armor value from items by 10%.
Improved Righteous Fury · tier 3, up to 3
Increases the amount of threat generated by your Righteous Fury spell by 50%.
Shield Specialization · tier 3, up to 3
Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield by 30%.
Anticipation · tier 3, up to 5
Increases your Defense skill by 10.
Improved Hammer of Justice · tier 4, up to 3
Decreases the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice spell by 15 sec.
Blessing of Sanctuary · tier 5, up to 1
Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage dealt from all sources by up to 10 for 5 min. In addition, when the target blocks a melee attack the attacker will take 14 Holy damage. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.
One-Handed Weapon Specialization · tier 6, up to 5
Increases the damage you deal with one-handed melee weapons by 10%.

Protection abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.