Mists of Pandaria Classic Protection Paladin Rotation and Cooldowns

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

Protection Paladin in Mists of Pandaria is one of the strongest tanks due to its ability to scale with gear and the classes unique interaction with Haste thanks to our Sanctity of Battle spell. Sanctity causes our Haste rating to reduce the cooldown of important Holy Power generating rotational abilities like Crusader Strike/ Hammer of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield (When you have a Grand Crusader proc), and Judgement. It also reduces the cooldown of non-Holy Power generating abilities that are still a huge part of the rotation like Consecration and Holy Wrath. As you gain more and more Haste rating you will be able to cast more of these Holy Power generating abilities and this will be your highest priority, as a Protection Paladin your survivability is almost entirely tied to your active mitigation, in this case your Shield of the Righteous ability which on top of dealing a massive amount of damage and threat it also reduces incoming physical damage and grants you Bastion of Glory stacks which will increase the effectiveness of your Eternal Flame when cast on yourself.

Protection Paladin focuses entirely on spending as much Holy Power as possible as often as possible. With your Holy Power cap being 5 thanks to Boundless Conviction, we will rarely if ever want to be above 3 Holy Power. Shield of the Righteous should be cast as soon as you achieve 3 Holy Power unless you are instead casting a Eternal Flame, which ideally is cast at 3 Holy Power with 5 Bastion of Glory stacks, though do not be afraid to cast Eternal Flame at 1 or 2 Holy Power if you find yourself in a situation where the healing could save you or an ally from dying.

The priority order is as follows:

Protection Paladin does not so much have a rotation, but more so priority order to follow to maximize your up time of Shield of the Righteous while leaving your generating abilities off of cooldown for the shortest amount of time possible. Our goal is to maximize the amount of Holy Power generated and spent without wasting any by either leaving an ability off cooldown or by going over the Holy Power cap of 5. Highlighted below should be your list of priorities on an average encounter:

1. Keep Seal of Truth active.
2. Make sure to prepot your Potion of Mogu Power.
3. Cast Avenger's Shield as you walk into the boss, even without a Grand Crusader proc this should be kept on cooldown as Grand Crusader will instantly reset the cooldown.
4. Cast Shield of the Righteous as soon as you achieve 3 Holy Power, the goal is to maximize the amount of Casts.
5. Maintain your Eternal Flame buff, if possible try to cast this only when you have 5 stacks of Bastion of Glory or are at risk of otherwise dying, but try to keep the buff active on yourself at all times.
6. Cast Crusader Strike on cooldown to generate Holy Power.
7. Cast Judgement on cooldown to generate Holy Power.
8. Cast Holy Wrath to deal damage and start its cooldown.
9. Cast the level 90 talents you have chosen unless your raid has a specifically planned out time for Light's Hammer for additional healing on your group.
10. Cast Hammer of Wrath on cooldown (only usable against an enemy below 20% health).
11. Cast Consecration on cooldown to deal damage and start its cooldown.

Your AoE Rotation is a bit different due to the emphasis on generating as much threat as possible on multiple enemies. The rotation highlighted below is again a priority system that puts an emphasis on keeping multiple targets attacking you while still generating as much Holy Power as possible in order to keep your Shield of the Righteous active to mitigate the incoming damage as best as possible.

The priority order is as follows:

1. Keep Seal of Righteousness active against 3 or more mobs. If you find yourself struggling to survive then switch to Seal of Insight for the added self healing;
2. Make sure to prepot your Potion of Mogu Power
3. Cast Avenger's Shield as you walk into the boss, even without a Grand Crusader proc this should be kept on cooldown as Grand Crusader will instantly reset the cooldown;
4. Cast Consecration on cooldown to deal damage and start its cooldown;
5. Cast Hammer of the Righteous on cooldown to generate Holy Power;
6. Cast Judgement on cooldown to generate Holy Power;
7. Cast Shield of the Righteous as soon as you achieve 3 Holy Power, the goal is to maximize the amount of Casts;
8. Maintain your Eternal Flame buff, if possible try to cast this only when you have 5 stacks of Bastion of Glory or are at risk of otherwise dying, but try to keep the buff active on yourself at all times;
9. Cast Holy Wrath to deal damage and start its cooldown;
10. Cast the level 90 talents you have chosen unless your raid has a specifically planned out time for Light's Hammer for additional healing on your group;
11. Cast Hammer of Wrath on cooldown (only usable against an enemy below 20% health);

Protection Paladins are incredibly sturdy outside of cooldowns, but making the most of your cooldowns can be the differene between surviving and dying in any given encounter. It is crucial to understand how each of them functions and the best time to utilize them.

Guardian of Ancient Kings reduces all incoming damage by 50% for 12 seconds. Guardian should be used in a situation where you are taking a massive amount of incoming damage or in a situation where you are likely to receive less incoming healing, for example if your group is moving a great distance or your entire raid is taking damage. This can also be used towards the start of encounters to allow yourself time stabilize and generate a considerable amount of Vengeance which directly increases the healing of your Eternal Flame.

Avenging Wrath increases your damage and healing by 20%. Avenging Wrath is an ability that you can use to either deal extra damage or greatly improve your ability to self-sustain depending on the encounter. It is difficult to say exactly how it should be used as there are a large number of factors but if you find yourself comfortable with the damage a boss is dealing then use this ability to deal extra damage, the quicker you are able to kill an enemy the less overall healing is required. If you find yourself struggling to survive a specific part of an encounter then consider using this to bolster your ability to self heal via abilities like Eternal Flame.

Divine Protection reduces incoming Magic damage taken by 40%. This is ideally used to mitigate a large amount of incoming Magic damage but if you find yourself in a situation where the encounter is dealing a large amount of physical damage and you are not getting much value from the Magic damage reduction consider using Glyph of Divine Protection which reduces the Magic damage reduction to 20%, but will now also grant 20% Physical damage reduction as well.

Ardent Defender reduces incoming damage by 20% for 10 seconds. This ability also has a 'cheat death' effect that will cause an attack that would otherwise kill you to immediately return you to 15% of your maximum health. This ability can be used as mentioned as a tool to avoid a killing blow but is often times better used for its flat 20% damage reduction to smooth damage taken throughout the encounter as the 15% health that you will be returned too is rarely enough to survive another incoming boss attack. This can also be used to soak very specific boss abilities that are designated to be one shot abilities so make sure to coordinate this with your group as it is an incredibly powerful tool.

Devotion Aura reduces all incoming Magic damage by 20% for 6 seconds. This is an incredibly powerful raid cooldown and it is important to coordinate the usage of this with your party members to avoid overlapping any more defensive cooldowns than necessary. If you find yourself in the rare scenario where your group is not taking advantage of this consider using Glyph of Devotion Aura which reduces its cooldown, but also causes it to no longer effect your group making it a personal cooldown.