Protection Paladin Guide — Class Guides · WoW Burning Crusade

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: Avenger's Shield
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Burning Crusade

How to play

Protection paladins are the best area tanks of The Burning Crusade: Consecration, Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield and Righteous Fury hold whole packs, and Righteous Defense gives you a taunt. Spell damage raises your threat.

Against bosses, Holy Shield's extra block chance makes you uncrushable with less avoidance than a warrior needs, and Ardent Defender cuts the damage you take at low health. Reach 490 defense, then build Stamina, avoidance and spell damage.

Mana is threat: Blessing of Sanctuary and a Judgement of Wisdom on the target keep it flowing. In dungeons a Protection paladin can pull several packs at once.

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 Burning Crusade.

Rotation and priorities

1Righteous Fury before every pull.
2Avenger's Shield to pull and to hit several enemies.
3Holy Shield whenever it is ready; never let it drop on a boss.
4Consecration whenever it is ready.
5Judge your Seal of Righteousness (or Blood or Vengeance) whenever Judgement is ready.
6Righteous Defense if an enemy gets loose.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

The best area tank in TBC.
Holy Shield makes it easy to be uncrushable.
Strong threat from the first second.

Weaknesses

Fewer emergency cooldowns than a warrior.
Mana runs low if no one keeps Judgement of Wisdom on the target.
Holy damage does little to enemies resistant to it.

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
Defenseto 490: bosses can't crit you
2
Stamina
3
Spell damageraises threat
4
Dodge, parry and block
5
Armour
6
Intellect

What to look for

Defense to 490; with Holy Shield you become uncrushable with modest avoidance.
Spell damage tanking gear raises threat on packs.
Stamina gems, and shield block value for Holy Shield.

Items worth chasing

Moroes' Lucky Pocket WatchDodge on use, for heavy hits.
Aldori Legacy DefenderA pre-raid tanking shield.
Gavel of Unearthed SecretsA one-hander with spell damage and Stamina.

Builds

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

Holy
Protection
Retribution

Avenger's Shield Warden
TankPvE
4714
0/47/14
Protection tank: Avenger's Shield to pull, Holy Shield and Improved Holy Shield for blocks, Combat Expertise for avoidance and Seal of Command from Retribution.
- Blessing of Sanctuary 1/1
- Improved Holy Shield 2/2
- Holy Shield 1/1
- Combat Expertise 5/5
- Avenger's Shield 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Sanctity Shieldbearer
TankPvELeveling
4021
0/40/21
Protection with Retribution damage: Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary for AoE tanking and grinding, Sanctity Aura and Seal of Command for more Holy damage.
- Blessing of Sanctuary 1/1
- Improved Holy Shield 2/2
- Holy Shield 1/1
- Combat Expertise 5/5
- Sanctity Aura 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Avenger's Shield · top talent, up to 1
Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing 270 to 330 Holy damage, Dazing them and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Lasts 6 sec.
Blessing of Kings · tier 3, up to 1
Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing total stats by 10% for 10 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.
Spell Warding · tier 5, up to 2
All spell damage taken is reduced by 4%.
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 10 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.
Reckoning · tier 5, up to 5
Gives you a 10% chance after being hit by any damaging attack that the next 4 weapon swings within 8 sec will generate an additional attack.
Sacred Duty · tier 6, up to 2
Increases your total Stamina by 6%, reduces the cooldown of your Divine Shield spell by 60 sec and reduces the attack speed penalty by 100%.
One-Handed Weapon Specialization · tier 6, up to 5
Increases all damage you deal when a one-handed melee weapon is equipped by 5%.
Improved Holy Shield · tier 7, up to 2
Increases damage caused by your Holy Shield by 20% and increases the number of charges of your Holy Shield by 4.
Holy Shield · tier 7, up to 1
Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec and deals 59 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 35% additional threat. Each block expends a charge. 4 charges.
Combat Expertise · tier 8, up to 5
Increases your expertise by 5 and your total Stamina 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.