Protection Paladin Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits — Shadowlands 9.0.2
Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits are the most important character customization options in Shadowlands. They have a substantial impact on your toolkit and performance as Protection Paladin. This page's purpose is to help you pick the right options according to the content you intend to do in Shadowlands.
Introduction: Prerequisites
This page assumes that you are already familiar with Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits. If that is not the case, we have a number of pages that can help you get up to speed:
- Covenants Guide, which explains what Covenants are, what perks they bring, and how you can join one;
- Paladin Covenant Abilities, which lists all the abilities that Paladins gain by joining each Covenant;
- How To Change Covenant?, which tells you how you can switch Covenant (rejoining a former Covenant will require you to perform a number of tasks to regain their trusts);
- General Soulbind Guide, which explains what Soulbinds are and how you can pledge yourself to them to open up their Soulbind tree;
- Paladin Conduits, which lists all of the Conduits available to Paladins.
Summary of the Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits
Your choice of Covenant as a Protection Paladin is a big choice of your adventure into the Shadowlands. To help you make this choice we have summarised some of the strengths and weaknesses of each covenant:
Covenant | Focus | Details | Grade |
---|---|---|---|
Kyrian | Raiding | Combining ![]() ![]() ![]() |
B |
M+ | ![]() ![]() |
S | |
Venthyr | Raiding | Very High Burst DPS, ability to cast ![]() ![]() |
A |
M+ | The high DPS from ![]() ![]() |
C | |
Night Fae | Raiding | Provides buffs for your raid group which need to have some pre-planned
use to be the most effective. ![]() |
B |
M+ | The buffs can be quite difficult to manage, as each should go on a
different player, but if you are able to manage this task successfully you
can provide a good bonus to your group. ![]() |
C | |
Necrolord | Raiding | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
F |
M+ | Similar to raiding, the concerns with having to alter how you use
![]() ![]() |
E |
An additional note about Arena, as this is an important part of the gearing process this season: Kyrian and Night Fae do quite well in this area. Kyrian gives you more Holy Power for healing, and Night Fae allows you buff your team.
We advise this all-purpose Pelagos (Kyrian) tree for Raiding,Mythic+, and Torghast as Protection Paladin. For more in-depth information about Soulbinds and Covenants as Protection Paladin, please continue to the Choosing the Right Covenant section below.
Best Conduits for Protection Paladin
Conduits are very similar to Azerite Traits in that they are something that
you specifically target to enhance your character. They are also shared among
all covenants with the exception of one Potency Conduit, which is
Covenant-specific and interact with the Class ability from that Covenant. These
are Ringing Clarity,
Hallowed Discernment,
Righteous Might and
The Long Summer.
Your first Potency Conduit will always be Punish the Guilty, on some
Soulbind trees you will find yourself in a position where you are looking to
insert another Potency Conduit (as not all trees will facilitate you using 2x
Potency Conduits), the Covenant Potency Conduits mentioned above will be
that 2nd choice.
Best Potency Conduits for Protection Paladin
Punish the Guilty (still your best option after recent nerfs)
Ringing Clarity,
Hallowed Discernment,
Righteous Might, or
The Long Summer
Best Endurance Conduits for Protection Paladin
Best Finesse Conduits for Protection Paladin
Conduits for Protection Paladin
The Conduits mentioned under each sub-section are ranked from best to worst.
Protection Paladin Potency Conduits
Punish the Guilty turns what was already a strong ability (
Shield of the Righteous) into an even stronger one! A must have for any Protection Paladin.
Ringing Clarity (Kyrian) allows your
Divine Toll to have a chance to cast 3 more times on the main target. This also means that on Single Target each
Divine Toll has a chance to generate 4 Holy Power!
Hallowed Discernment (Venthyr) allows
Ashen Hallow to heal the lowest health ally and strikes the lowest health enemy an additional time in its duration.
The Long Summer (Night Fae) increases the duration of
Blessing of Summer.
Righteous Might (Necrolord) increases the damage dealt by
Vanquisher's Hammer and heals you for the damage done.
Vengeful Shock makes targets hit by your
Avenger's Shield take more damage for 5 seconds. Was previously a powerful pick but recent tuning has made it a low priority pick.
Protection Paladin Endurance Conduits
Resolute Defender allows
Shield of the Righteous the ability to extend the duration of
Ardent Defender turning it into a more powerful defensive cooldown.
Shielding Words applies a shield after you heal with
Word of Glory as this is only really cast when it is free, its lower down on the list.
Golden Path provides passive healing to
Consecration. The healing it provides is very minor and shouldn't be chased after for that purpose. It is a nice perk rather than a powerful modification of a spell.
Royal Decree adds a nice perk to
Guardian of Ancient Kings where it makes your next
Word of Glory free, additionally it reduces the cooldown of
Guardian of Ancient Kings.
Divine Call reduces the cooldown of
Divine Shield when you take damage, but this cooldown reduction has a cooldown of its own making this conduit very unappealing.
Protection Paladin Finesse Conduits
Light's Barding increases the duration of
Divine Steed. Finally a way to make our movement speed boost last a reasonable amount of time!
Echoing Blessings modifies your blessings. It gives a small speed boost to
Blessing of Freedom, but the main reason this would be used is the additional damage reduction it provides to
Blessing of Sacrifice and
Blessing of Protection. All of these effects stay for an additional 8 seconds after the blessing ends.
Pure Concentration allows your
Concentration Aura to also reduce the duration of Fear effects. Very specific conditions are required for you to need this conduit. It is more of a "I will take it if I need it" rather than a "I must use it".
Wrench Evil reduces the cast time of
Turn Evil and increases the range by 10 yards. As you do not really use
Turn Evil that often in normal play. Enhancing it at the cost of another conduit seems like a waste of a conduit.
Choosing the right Covenant
Before going more in depth about Covenants it is important to understand that any of the 4 Covenants can be played as Protection Paladin. There will definitely be better and worse options but the choice will not be hindering your daily activities.
While all of the Covenants have their place some simply perform better on a day to day basis than others. Kyrian and Venthyr are the two that stand out the most for Protection Paladin due to their powerful class abilities and Soulbinds.
- Kyrian — Strong in AoE scenarios, Good generic pick
- Venthyr — Strong single-target DPS, group healing, and the ability to teleport!
- Night Fae — Utility for group members
- Necrolord — High single target DPS but quite restrictive
Kyrian For Protection Paladin
Kyrian is a good generic option for Protection Paladins .
Divine Toll fires up to 5
Avenger's Shield on nearby enemies
(total amount is based on enemy count). Each of the
Avenger's Shield
will generate holy power, and bounce to nearby targets. It can be further
enhanced and have a good place in single target scenarios with the
Ringing Clarity conduit.
Summon Steward summons an owlkin steward. You can speak with your
steward and he will offer you a range of services, the most important of which
are
Phial of Serenity. This potion restores 20% of your health and more
importantly removes all diseases, poisons, curses and bleeds on you. Being able
to remove any of these is a huge benefit of being a Kyrian, as it means that
you can use
Divine Shield elsewhere.
Kyrian Soulbinds
While Pelagos, Kleia and Forgelite Prime Mikanikos all provide
their own strengths, Pelagos is your go to Soulbind. Combat Meditation
is a powerful throughput increase, and
Let Go of the Past is a consistent
piece of Magical Damage Reduction.
As an alternative you can also use Kleia. All of her benefits are tied to
group play. Valiant Strikes,
Mentorship and
Pointed Courage all tie into this.
Mikanikos unfortunately is a very weak Soulbind. Would avoid using until a rework happens.
Venthyr For Protection Paladin
Kyrian's focus was AoE, Venthyr's focus is high single-target burst. It really shines on longer encounters, such as Raiding.
Ashen Hallow, when used, creates a large red consecration style
circle on your targeted location. This will last for 30 seconds and will deal
very high damage to 5 targets. Whilst you are inside the
Ashen Hallow
you are able to use
Hammer of Wrath and the damage of it will be
increased by 100%. It will also heal allies in the area. Yes, it has a 4-minute
cooldown, but the power of it more than justifies the cost.
Door of Shadows is a targeted teleport. If you have played
Overwatch before, you know what to expect. Pick a location that is within
Line of Sight and after a 1.5-second cast you are teleported there. Typical
uses of this are to cover large distances of space, traverse vertically, skip
packs in M+, etc.; possibilities are endless!
Venthyr Soulbinds
Nadjia the Mistblade provides you with a mini bloodlust in the form of
Thrill Seeker and increases the effectiveness of consumables with
Exacting Preparation. Nadjia will be picked when you need more
DPS.
General Draven provides you with more personal defensive utility than the
others Service In Stone provides you with damage reduction at low health
and
Enduring Gloom provides you with a health shield when you use
Door of Shadows and
Hold Your Ground provides you with
more Stamina when standing still. Draven will be picked when you need more
Effective Health for Raid Progression.
Theotar the Mad Duke is a more Single Target DPS focused Soulbind.
Soothing Shade provides you with a random chance to spawn a Parasol
which grants you with Mastery and
Refined Palate provides you and the
with a buff to your Potions. Theotar will be picked when you are focusing on
more Single Target DPS such as Raiding.
Night Fae For Protection Paladin
Night Fae is the group utility pick for Protection Paladins.
Blessing of the Seasons provides you with a new Blessing spell which
rotates through 4 individual spells. They always rotate in the following order
Blessing of Summer >
Blessing of Autumn >
Blessing of Winter >
Blessing of Spring. These Blessings are best
used on other players rather than yourself as the benefit to the group will be
greater on them rather than yourself.
Blessing of Summer — Adds a damage proc to all attacks
Blessing of Autumn — Increases cooldown reduction
Blessing of Winter — Adds a small damage proc to attacks and reduces enemy attack speed/li>
Blessing of Spring — Increases healing done and received
Soulshape is very similar to
Ghost Wolf but accessible to
all! Whilst you are in the travel form you are unable to cast spells, but if
you press
Soulshape again you will blink a short distance!
Night Fae Soulbinds
Dreamweaver was previously a good pick in previous iterations,
however you are unable to avoid Podtender now which ultimately makes
it a less than ideal pick. When
Podtender triggers, you lose all
threat, are unable to be resurrected until the effect is over, and worst of all
you just have to sit there and watch whatever killed you kill others.
Korayn is similar to General Draven as it is a strictly
defensive option. The final trait, Face Your Foes, is very strong and up
all the time as you are always facing your foe.
Because of the issues above with Dreamweaver, we would recommend
Niya. Grove Invigoration provides you with additional
health/mastery whenever you cast
Blessing of the Seasons, which is a
nice bonus.
Niya's Tools: Poison will trigger from
Avenger's Shield making it a
consistent DPS increase.
Necrolord For Protection Paladin
Necrolord is our last Covenant. When stacked against the other covenants it does not have a remaining clear strength, but its still strong in its own right.
Vanquisher's Hammer is a strong single-target damaging ability that
when cast will make your next
Word of Glory trigger
Shield of the Righteous. Whilst this seems good in theory, it quite
heavily restricts how you use
Word of Glory as you only get 1 free cast
each time
Vanquisher's Hammer's cooldown is back.
Fleshcraft looks appealing at first: a shield that is up to 50%
health every 2 minutes. This ability comes with some
downsides however. You are not able to dodge/parry during the 4-second
channel. This channel can be interrupted. You are also rooted in place when
channelling.
Necrolord Soulbinds
Plague Deviser Marileth provides you with some interesting effects.
Volatile Solvent makes your
Fleshcraft stronger based on what
type of corpse was used for it. 120 mastery for humanoids, 2% primary stats for
beasts, 5% stamina for demons, and a 5% heal for undead.
Ooz's Frictionless Coating provides you with a 15% shield every 30
seconds (it triggers when below 50% health, but as part of normal play as a
Protection Paladin its every 30 seconds at least).
Ultimate Form is the
end Ability where you will regenerate Health during and after
Fleshcraft and be immune to Crowd Control.
Emeni will be your go to pick. Lead by Example provides you
and nearby allies with primary stat when you use
Vanquisher's Hammer.
Emeni's Magnificent Skin provides you with a max health buff for 30
seconds after using
Fleshcraft. The final Ability
Gnashing Chompers provides you with stacking haste when an enemy is
defeated, great in M+, not so great in most raiding scenarios, you will
realistically pick
Gristled Toes instead so you can access the 2nd
Potency Conduit.
Bonesmith Heirmir unlocks much later in the Covenant campaign and
provides you with more DPS purely from Serrated Spaulders.
Changelog
- 20 Jan. 2021: Added summary table of Covenants.
- 05 Dec. 2020: Added small note to Punish the Guilty to indicate it is still best after nerfs.
- 21 Nov. 2020: Updated to fix Soulbind trees and update some information with regards to Fleshcraft.
- 20 Nov. 2020: Updated with latest changes.
- 17 Nov. 2020: Page created
More Paladin Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Panthea, who raids in Catalyst and is the author of TankNotes. He plays all tanks and is a Moderator for the Hammer of Wrath Paladin Discord. You can follow him on Twitter.
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