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. As we have reached max level and many changes have been made to move some Runes to be baseline ability or just new additions we find ourselves deep in the Protection tree once again. The Rune Malleable Protection allows us to not only use Divine Protection as a defensive cooldown but it also increases our Attack Power scaling with the amount of Defense rating we currently having making it much easier to focus on a Defensive build as opposed to having to venture deep into the Retribution tree to generate competitive threat.

Gloves — Hand of Reckoning

Pants — Avenger's Shield

Chest — Aegis

Waist — Malleable Protection

Feet — Guarded by the Light

Head — Improved Sanctuary

Wrist — Hammer of the Righteous

Back — Shield of Righteousness

Ring — Holy Specialization

Ring — Defense Specialization

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.

Avenger's Shield has become our default choice for this slot with the changes making Exorcist baseline. Avenger's Shiedl acts as a great way to generate threat on multiple targets at once and fills a hole in our kit by allowing us to pull mobs from farther away or generate snap threat on a target outside of melee range when Hand of Reckoning is on cooldown.

Aegis is a great way to mitigate incoming damage as it now stacks with Redoubt allowing us to mitigate massive amounts of incoming Physical damage. With Seal of Martyrdom becoming a baseline ability this is an easy choice to make as we can now benefit from both Martyrdom and Aegis. Divine Storm is another ability there is a case to be made for in situations where you are fighting exclusively spell casters or incoming damage is minimal in order to deal additional damage and generate threat but more often than not we will find ourselves defaulting to Aegis for the physical damage mitigation.

Malleable Protection has replaced what was once Enlightened Judgements and allows us to use our Divine Protection ability to mitigate 50% of incoming damage as opposed to becoming Immune allowing us to maintain threat while this powerful defensive cooldown is active. It also grants us Attack Power based on the current amount of Defense Rating when Holy Shield is active incentivizing us to delve deeper into the Protection tree.

Guarded by the Light due to significant changes made to Seal of Martyrdom we will now want to opt for Guarded by the Light which will greatly minimize any Mana issues we have by generating 5% of our Maximum Mana back every 3 seconds for 15 seconds, this buff is re-applied any time you Melee attack so we will have near 100% uptime of this buff. While it does limit our healing with abilities like Holy Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Shock we will rarely if ever be casting these abilities while tanking so this is a minimal loss.

Improved Sanctuary increases the damage prevented by our Blessing of Sanctuary by 100% and increases the damage it deals by 30% of our Shield Block value making Shield Block an even more valuable stat. While Wrath is a strong choice if you find yourself playing a build running Consecration we want to focus more heavily on mitigating incoming damage.

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 with becoming baseline Exorcist, but only in a situation where you are struggling to hold ranged threat or need the extra stun from Holy Wrath.

Shield of Righteousness deals a ton of Holy damage to the target based off of our current Shield Block value, this is another ability that fills what can at times be a rather empty rotation and while there are other interesting options found in the Back slot none of them synergize particularly well with the current Protection kit as we are likely to have too little crit to benefit enough from Righteous Vengeance in a way that would outweigh the damage dealt by Shield of the Righteous.

Holy Specialization and Defense Specialization gives us a better chance to hit with our abilities that scale off our Spell hit rating specifically Exorcism and Holy Wrath while Defense Specialization allows us to mitigate more damage and grants a bit of Attack Power thanks to Malleable Protection.

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

With the focus being shifted more now into mitigating incoming damage while still being quite competitive when it comes to damage dealt and threat generated we have returned to what is a much more conventional build for Protection Paladin largely in part to the addition of Runes like Malleable Protection, listed below we have included some key talents to lookout for while enjoying your journey through the Season of Discovery.

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.

Holy Shield increases your Block chance by 30% for 10 seconds and Deals Holy Damage to anyone who attacks while it is active allowing you to deal damage and generate threat. While it is limited to 4 charges you will also be gaining Attack Power based on your current Defense Rating thanks to the addition of Malleable Protection.

Vindication now reduces the targets Attack Power while granting you, the Paladin Attack Power as long as the debuff is active. This both allows you to lessen the incoming damage from your enemies but also deal more Damage and as a result generate more threat.