TBC Classic Protection Paladin Guide

As Alliance you can choose to be one of three races as a Paladin: Draenei, Dwarf, or Human. Each Alliance race will offer you some kind of benefit as a Protection Paladin but Dwarf will often be the best choice due almost entirely to Stoneform. This ability acts as an extra defensive cooldown and can help remove pesky bleeds that may otherwise not be able to be removed. Human and Draenei both offer offensive benefits in the form of Mace Specialization/Sword Specialization and Heroic Presence but especially early in the gearing process an extra defensive cooldown will make a larger difference than the added Hit/Expertise.

Dwarf is the sturdiest of the options for Alliance Paladin thanks to Stoneform and Frost Resistance. Stoneform increases armor by 10% and removes Poison, Bleed, and Disease effects and will make you immune to them for the 8-second duration of the buff. While the debuff removal is a bit redundant with Cleanse available, the ability to remove Bleed effects and the added Armor can be the difference between surviving an encounter with large amounts of incoming Physical damage.

• Find Treasure allows you to sense nearby treasure, making it appear on the minimap. Lasts until canceled.
• Frost Resistance increases your frost resistance by 10.
• Stoneform removes any active and grants immunity to Bleed, Disease, and Poison effects for 8 seconds while also increasing your Armor value by 10% on a 3-minute cooldown.

Human is often considered the second best choice for Protection Paladin thanks to Sword Specialization/Mace Specialization. The majority of your time as a Tank will be spent attacking mobs from the front so the Expertise granted from these racial abilities will help minimize how many times your attacks are dodged/parried. If you are interested in PvP it also offers Perception which greatly increases your ability to see stealthed targets. There are also a few very niche uses in PvE where mobs will begin an encounter in stealth and this can help to find them quickly to begin building threat.

• Diplomacy increases your reputation gains by 10%.
• Sword Specialization increases your Expertise with one and two-handed swords by 5.
• Mace Specialization increases your Expertise with one and two-handed maces by 5.
• The Human Spirit increases your Spirit by 10%.
• Perception dramatically increases your stealth detection for 20 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown.

Draenei is still a great option for your Protection Paladin thanks to Heroic Presence and Shadow Resistance. Shadow Damage is the most common type of Magic Damage in the Burning Crusade so the added resistant will help mitigating damage throughout your adventures in Outland. Heroic Presence provides some bonus Hit Rating to not only you but everyone in your party allowing you to continue focusing on maximizing your Spell Damage and Stamina.

• Shadow Resistance increases your Shadow Resistance by 10.
• Heroic Presence increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.
• Gift of the Naaru applies a heal-over-time effect to a target healing them over the course of 15 seconds.
• Gemcutting increases your Jewelcrafting skill by 5.

With the addition of Blood Elves in The Burning Crusade Horde can now also be Paladin. Magic Resistance is a rather underrated racial ability as the most dangerous encounters for a Protection Paladin will include Magic damage so any form of added mitigation against Magic will be quite helpful. Arcane Torrent is also an incredible tool to not only interrupt but gather mobs that would otherwise be busy chain casting.

• Mana Tap steals Mana from your current target, applying a buff that will stack up to 3 times. Using Arcane Torrent will consume these buffs and grant Mana based off your current amount of stacks.
• Arcane Torrent silences all enemies within 8 yards and consumes any Mana Tap stacks returning mana based off of your Mana Tap stacks.
• Magic Resistance increases your resistance to all types of Magic by 5.
• Arcane Affinity increases your Enchanting skill by 10.