Season of Discovery Protection Paladin Tank Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

As a Protection Paladin in Season of Discovery, Mana is much less of an issue, but certainly something you must consider at all times. Your threat will be primarily generated by keeping up Seal of Righteousness/ Seal of Martyrdom for holy damage procs. Judgement and Avenger's Shield/ Exorcism should be used for a burst of single-target threat.

It is increasingly popular to tank using Divine Storm in place of Aegis, as it not only greatly increases your DPS/Threat output, but provides some healing to yourself and some party members. While block is a great stat, the current damage profiles are not high enough to warrant always using Aegis. Should you find yourself comfortable with the incoming damage, consider switching over.

Your rotation should look something like this:

• Ensure you have Righteous Fury active.
• Ensure you have an Aura active.
• Ensure you have a Blessing active.
• Cast Exorcism pre-pull.
• If the mob will survive longer than 20 seconds, use Seal of the Crusader and unleash it with Judgement to apply the debuff.
• Keep Seal of Righteousness/ Seal of Martyrdom up.
• Cast Consecration on cooldown.
• Use Exorcism on cooldown.
• Use Hammer of the Righteous on cooldown.
• If Runed for, use Divine Storm on cooldown.
• Use Judgement on cooldown.
• Use Hand of Reckoning if you lose threat on your target.
• If a mob is fleeing and you are not currently being melee attacked, cast Hammer of Wrath.

Protection Paladins use one of two seals mainly; Seal of Righteousness or Seal of Martyrdom. Seal of Righteousness deals flat Holy damage and is a great source of threat generation. Seal of Martyrdom behaves similarly, but in addition to dealing Holy damage to the target it will deal 10% of its damage to the Paladin and return 20% of this damage to the party/raid in the form of Mana. Which seal you use will depend largely on what content you are doing, with Seal of Martyrdom being a bit higher threat generation and having a bit of utility. The only downside being the damage you will be taking from attacking with it active. Typically, if you are struggling with threat it is recommended to pursue Divine Storm in the chest Rune slot.

Blessings are incredibly powerful buffs unique to Paladin, Each Paladin is able to have 1 blessing active per friendly target so make sure if you are playing with another Paladin to coordinate who is giving what blessing to each party member. Remember with utility abilities like Blessing of Freedom and Blessing of Protection this will remove the buffs so make sure to reapply them after using either of these.

Blessing of Freedom removes all snare/slow effects and makes the target immune to them for the duration of this buff. This is an incredibly powerful tool both for avoiding slows but in some cases completely ignoring boss mechanics.

Blessing of Protection makes the target immune to all Physical damage. It can also be used to remove pesky stuns like Kidney Shot. This blessing shines especially on caster DPS who either pulled aggro or find themselves in the middle of a pack of mobs.

Blessing of Might increases the Attack Power of the friendly target for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Blessing of Wisdom increases the Mana per 5 of the friendly target for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Blessing of Salvation Reduces the threat the the friendly target generates by 30% for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Blessing of Light Increases the amount of healing the target receives with Holy Light and Flash of Light for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Auras are passive buffs the Paladin can choose which will benefit allies within 30 yards, these range from extra resistances against specific schools of magic to less spell casting push back. Each Paladin may only have one Aura active at a time so make sure to coordinate if there is another Paladin in your group.

Concentration Aura gives a 35% chance to ignore spell push back when taking damage.

Frost Resistance Aura increases Frost resistance of all party members.

Fire Resistance Aura increases the Fire resistance of all party members.

Devotion Aura increases the Armor value of all party members.

Retribution Aura causes Holy damage to anyone who attacks a friendly target this aura active.

Lay on Hands is a massive heal that heals a friendly target for the Paladin's total max health. This costs all of your current Mana, so make sure only to use this in an absolute emergency.

Divine Protection renders the Paladin immune to all physical damage for 8 seconds. During this time the Paladin will not be able to cast any physical attacks or melee swing. This is a weaker version of Divine Shield and should only really be used in a situation where Divine Shield is unavailable.

Divine Shield protects the Paladin from all incoming damage and spells for 10 seconds, but increases attack speed by 100% while it is active. This is an incredibly strong cooldown that can be used not only to mitigate damage but in some cases completely trivialize mechanics.

Divine Intervention the Paladin sacrifices themselves to shield an ally from all attacks and spells. This effect will render the target completely immune for 3 minutes though they will not be able to move or act while the buff is active. This ability only really should be used as wipe protection in a situation where your group is certainly going to die.

Hammer of Justice stuns the target. This can act as a psuedo interrupt and should be used often to mitigate as much damage as possible.

Cleanse cleanses a friendly target, removing 1 disease, poison and magic effect.

Purify purifies a friendly target, removing 1 disease and poison effect.

Turn Undead fears an Undead target for 15 seconds.

Sense Undead shows the location of all nearby Undead on your mini map.