As a Protection Paladin in World of Warcraft, you step into the role of a steadfast and dependable tank. Known for a smooth damage intake, thanks to your shield and potent active mitigation, you’ll find yourself well-equipped to handle incoming attacks. Protection Paladins possess a unique and versatile toolkit unmatched by other tank classes, making them a compelling choice for players eager to lead the charge.
This guide is your comprehensive resource, specifically designed to explore the nuances of the Protection Paladin. While we delve into the specifics of this specialization, broader tanking strategies are outside the scope of this document. For a deeper understanding of general tanking principles and techniques to enhance your gameplay, we recommend consulting our detailed tanking guide.
Protection Paladin: Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- Robust Active Mitigation and Cooldowns: Protection Paladins excel at mitigating predictable damage through a strong suite of active mitigation tools and defensive cooldowns.
- Exceptional Group Utility and Damage Reduction: Blessings and Auras provide unparalleled group utility and damage reduction capabilities, enhancing raid and party survivability.
- Impressive Burst Damage and Threat Generation: Cooldowns enable strong burst damage potential, crucial for establishing and maintaining threat, especially at the start of encounters.
- Powerful Emergency Cooldowns: Skills like Lay on Hands and Divine Shield offer critical safety nets in dire situations, allowing you to survive otherwise fatal moments.
- Effective Self and Group Healing: Word of Glory and Lay on Hands provide significant self-healing and group healing support, increasing sustain and reducing healer pressure.
- Poison and Disease Cleansing: Cleanse Toxins allows for the removal of debilitating poisons and diseases, offering valuable utility in various encounters.
Weaknesses
- Slow Start-up for Mitigation: Activating Shield of the Righteous requires multiple GCDs, making the beginning of combat potentially vulnerable. This can be mitigated by pre-emptive cooldown usage like Ardent Defender or Guardian of Ancient Kings.
- Damage Reduction Tied to Consecration: Moving out of Consecration results in a loss of valuable damage reduction, requiring strategic positioning.
- Subpar Mobility: Outside of Divine Steed, Protection Paladins possess limited mobility, which can be challenging in highly mobile encounters.
- Punishing Rotational Mistakes: Errors in your rotation can significantly impact mitigation and threat generation, demanding precise execution and understanding of priority.
Protection Paladin Updates in The War Within Expansion
Patch 11.0.7 Protection Paladin Changes
Protection Paladin Guide Updates for Patch 11.0.7
Currently, there are no specific changes impacting the Protection Paladin specialization in Patch 11.0.7. However, the introduction of the Cyrce’s Circlet ring from Siren’s Isle presents a new gearing option. For detailed guidance on how to effectively utilize this new ring and optimize your gear, please refer to our dedicated gear page.
To stay informed about broader Paladin class adjustments, visit our comprehensive Class Changes page, which tracks all recent updates for the Paladin class.
Overview of Paladin Class Changes in The War Within
Patch 11.0.5 Protection Paladin Changes
Protection Paladin and Guide Changes in The War Within 20th Anniversary Patch (11.0.5)
Patch 11.0.5 brought significant updates to Protection Paladins, encompassing both talent trees and core abilities. Notably, numerous new talents have been integrated into the core Paladin talent tree, expanding customization and build options.
General Paladin Changes:
Key highlights of the general Paladin changes include:
- Avenging Wrath Rework: Avenging Wrath has been relocated to the spec tree and now inherently includes the effects of Avenging Wrath: Might, streamlining its functionality.
- Divine Toll as a Core Talent: Divine Toll has replaced Avenging Wrath in the core tree, making it significantly more accessible for all Paladin specializations.
- Empyreal Ward for Enhanced Healing: Empyreal Ward is a new talent that grants the target of Lay on Hands bonus armor for 30 seconds and crucially, ignores healing reduction effects on the initial heal.
- Lightbearer for Group Healing: Lightbearer, a new talent, introduces a reactive group heal, causing a portion of healing received from other players to also heal four nearby allies.
- Lead the Charge for Mobility: Lead the Charge is a novel talent that reduces the cooldown of movement abilities for four nearby allies, providing a mini Time Spiral-like effect for raid or party mobility.
- Lightforged Blessing Improvement: Lightforged Blessing’s healing output has been increased to 3% of maximum health (up from 1%), enhancing its passive healing contribution.
- Blessing of Dawn Enhancement: Blessing of Dawn from Of Dusk and Dawn has received a 10% increase, improving the effectiveness of this talent.
Protection Paladin Specific Changes:
Key changes specifically for Protection Paladins in Patch 11.0.5:
- Damage Increase: Overall damage output has been increased by 6%, enhancing offensive capabilities.
- Armor Buff: Base Armor and armor granted by Shield of the Righteous have both been increased by 10%, improving survivability against physical damage.
- Shield of the Righteous and Word of Glory Buff: Shield of the Righteous damage and Word of Glory healing have been significantly increased by 20%, boosting both damage and self-sustain.
- Cooldown Reduction: The cooldown of Blessed Hammer, Hammer of the Righteous, and Judgment has been reduced by 10%, leading to more frequent ability usage.
- Talent Tree Adjustments: Some talents have been repositioned within the talent trees, requiring players to re-evaluate their builds.
- Talent Point Reduction: Gift of the Golden Val’kyr and Uther’s Counsel now only cost 1 talent point each, increasing talent point efficiency.
- Refining Fire Talent: A new talent, Refining Fire, has been added, applying a damage-over-time (DoT) effect to targets hit by Avenger’s Shield, enhancing AoE damage.
Hero Talent Changes: Lightsmith
The Lightsmith Hero Talent tree underwent revisions, with less effective talents being replaced to improve overall performance and build viability:
- Removed Talents: Fear No Evil and Excoriation have been removed from the Lightsmith tree.
- Added Talents: Authoritative Rebuke and Tempered in Battle have been introduced to replace the removed talents, offering new gameplay options.
- Tempered in Battle Specialization: Tempered in Battle is designed to excel in single-target encounters, while its synergy with Punishment makes it particularly strong in Mythic+ dungeons and AoE situations.
For a comprehensive overview of all class changes in The War Within expansion, please refer to our dedicated class changes page.
Full Overview of Class Changes in The War Within
Leveling Your Protection Paladin
If you are starting fresh and need to level a Paladin to max level, our leveling guide is available to assist you. Leveling as a Protection Paladin, while not always the fastest method, provides the advantage of being able to efficiently handle large groups of enemies using your area-of-effect (AoE) abilities.
Protection Paladin Leveling Guide
When leveling as a tank, it’s beneficial to familiarize yourself with the role throughout the process. Leveling content is generally not overly challenging, allowing you to learn tanking mechanics gradually. Addons, such as threat plates and buff/debuff trackers, are highly recommended for effective tanking. Practicing in dungeons while leveling will give you valuable experience with these addons before tackling end-game content.
Protection Paladin Addons and Macros Guide
Protection Paladin Gameplay Basics
The core of tanking revolves around managing threat to ensure enemies attack you and mitigating incoming damage to survive. For Protection Paladins, this primarily involves generating Holy Power to fuel Shield of the Righteous, your primary active mitigation tool. In situations with high incoming damage, supplementary defensive cooldowns are crucial, such as when pulling large enemy packs or during boss encounters. If you are new to the Protection Paladin specialization, our Easy Mode guide provides a streamlined approach to get you started quickly.
Protection Paladin Easy Mode Guide
Once you’ve grasped the basics, delve into our Talent and Rotation pages for in-depth knowledge to further refine your gameplay.
Protection Paladin Talents and Builds Guide Protection Paladin Rotation and Cooldowns Guide
Gearing Up Your Protection Paladin
Tanks are often in demand, making it relatively easier to find groups, which can accelerate the gearing process. Initially, prioritize higher item level gear to maximize overall stats. As you acquire gear of similar item levels, consult our stat priority, gems, enchants, and consumables guides to optimize your build. For end-game gearing strategies, our BiS (Best-in-Slot) and Gear page provides detailed information.
Protection Paladin Stat Priority Guide Protection Paladin Enchants and Gems Guide Protection Paladin Best in Slot Gear Guide
End-Game Protection Paladin
End-game content in World of Warcraft presents diverse challenges and playstyles, depending on your focus. Tanking in raids and Mythic+ dungeons, while sharing core principles, differ significantly in execution and gearing priorities. Our dedicated guides for raid and Mythic+ tanking will provide specialized insights. Player versus Player (PvP) combat is generally not suited for tank specializations. If you are interested in Paladin PvP, we recommend exploring the Holy or Retribution specializations.
Retribution Paladin PvP Guide
Holy Paladin PvP Guide
Improving Your Protection Paladin Gameplay
Tanking can be demanding, especially when troubleshooting mistakes. We offer several resources to help you improve your Protection Paladin skills and performance.
Protection Paladin Improvement Guide Protection Paladin FAQ Protection Paladin Simulations
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