Season of Discovery Protection Paladin Tank Talents and Runes

The build highlighted above may seem strange at a glance, but this is recommended for a Tank Paladin. Due to limitations with talent points at the current level, it allows you to reach Consecration, which is made considerably more powerful with the addition of the Wrath Rune. It also maximizes passive threat generating tools such as Improved Righteous Fury, followed up with spending the rest of the points in the Retribution tree to further maximize your ability to generate threat. While there are many talents later in the Protection tree that will serve us well, there are just not enough talent points currently available to be able to reach them while still being able to get Consecration.

Gloves — Hand of Reckoning

Pants — Exorcist

Chest — Seal of Martyrdom

Waist — Sheath of Light

Feet — Guarded by the Light

Head — Wrath

Wrist — Hammer of the Righteous

Hand of Reckoning is almost certainly required due to the strength of having a conventional taunt, as well as the the massive threat generation bonus added to Righteous Fury, and the additional Mana received while being healed with it active. The damage reduced below 35% is a massive component of this that makes it basically required as a Protection Paladin. We are not casting many, if any, heals so Beacon of Light does not offer any real benefit. While Crusader Strike is a considerable increase in damage, it will not outweigh the threat granted by Hand of Reckoning's Righteous Fury multiplier.

Exorcist will be our default choice for the leg slot as it synergizes incredibly with not only The Art of War and Wrath, but also takes full advantage of the increasingly relevant Undead/Demon type mobs found in later game content. Avenger's Shield is another strong choice to consider, especially in a strictly multi-target situation or if you are in desperate need of a slow. There are several utility Runes that can also be found in this slot that we will typically not choose to take. If you find your group struggling to survive, consider moving towards one of these options. It will be rare that you need to deviate from Exorcist or Avenger's Shield.

Seal of Martyrdom deals a considerable amount of bonus Holy damage and is a much stronger alternative to Seal of Righteousness, but still benefits from talents that augment it such as Improved Seal of Righteousness. The Mana returned from this is another big part of why it is taken instead of spending a talent point into Seal of Command which is often comparable, but slightly less damage. There does not appear to be enough incoming damage at this point in time to warrant concern for the damage return aspect of the Rune. The chest slot is one of the most diverse for Protection Paladin; if you find yourself in a situation constantly fighting multiple mobs and especially on trash Divine Storm can yield better results at maintaining AoE threat or even quickly picking up new adds that spawn on a boss. Aegis is another strong option, though the focus at this point in the game is often on maximizing threat as opposed to mitigating damage. If you find yourself constantly dying due to incoming physical damage feel free to pivot to this.

Sheath of Light is a great choice for the waist slot due to the increase in damage from your abilities such as Exorcism/ Avenger's Shield. The buff is incredibly easy to maintain just by melee attacking your target. Enlightened Judgements is a strong option, but the focus on Protection Paladin threat being tied to physical damage makes the spell hit less valuable.

The Art of War greatly increases the amount of threat output possible due to the chance to reset your Exorcism ability. While you may not have a ton of critical strike rating, any reset will provide you with a considerable amount more threat than the alternatives available. There are other great options available if you find yourself struggling with Mana. If you are not running Seal of Martyrdom, then Guarded by the Light gives a ton of Mana back, but can often be redundant due to the nature of other sources of Mana return such as Crusader Strike and Hand of Reckoning.

Wrath allows your Consecration ability to be able to crit while also causing your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells to double dip with your Melee Critical strike rating. The ability for Consecration to crit is a massive threat increase in AoE situations, as well as a considerable bonus when generating single target threat. With our highlighted build above and the vast limitations on block value currently available, we recommended this over the alternative of Improved Sanctuary. Improved Sanctuary is likely to become an extremely strong option when more block is available or in a content-soloing focused build.

Hammer of the Righteous fills the rotational void as a Protection Paladin while also offering a great source of multi-target threat. The emphasis this puts on your weapon by causing four times your main-hand damage per second as Holy Damage will make this an incredible tool to not only establish AoE threat, but quickly snap targets onto you as they spawn. Purifying Power is another great option, especially paired with Exorcist, but only in a situation where you are struggling to hold ranged threat or need the extra stun from Holy Wrath.

More engravings are likely to come out as we reach higher level caps. Make sure to checkout our general Rune guide to get a better understanding of what all tools you have available to your Paladin.

Our recommended build is a bit different than typically expected as a Tank Paladin, but due to the emergence of powerful tools like Wrath, some non-conventional builds can lead to better results, listed below we have included some key talents to lookout for while enjoying your journey through the Season of Discovery.

Consecration deals damage to enemies with an area 8 yards around the Paladin when cast, this will be a massive part of the threat/damage rotation due to the strength of the Wrath in both single target and AoE situations.

Toughness scales off your Armor, becoming more important as you get better gear. As we near closer to end game, Armor values will increase on both gear and shields, so maximizing the benefit of this stat is important to mitigate incoming physical damage.

Improved Righteous Fury increases the threat generated while your Righteous Fury ability is active by an additional 50%. While this is an incredibly simple passive effect its impact is huge in your ability to generate threat and maintain aggro on the target.

Pursuit of Justice increases your movement speed. The single largest weakness as a Protection Paladin, or any Paladin really, is the greatly limited options when it comes to mobility; this helps mitigate the shortcoming.