Protection Paladin Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Protection Paladins in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.
The other pages of our Protection Paladin guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author
This guide has been written by Treckie, a long-time leading Protection Paladin who competed for world first kills for 5 years. He currently raids in NollTvåTre and has been a caster and an analyst of Blizzard's Mythic Dungeon Invitational. You can watch his stream on Twitch and you can follow him on Twitter.
1. Talent Choices for Protection Paladin
| Level | Choices | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 |
✔
Holy Shield
|
?
Redoubt
|
?
Blessed Hammer
|
| 30 |
✔
First Avenger
|
✔
Crusader's Judgment
|
✔
Bastion of Light
|
| 45 |
?
Fist of Justice
|
?
Repentance
|
?
Blinding Light
|
| 60 |
✘
Retribution Aura
|
✔
Cavalier
|
✔
Blessing of Spellwarding
|
| 75 |
✔
Unbreakable Spirit
|
✘
Final Stand
|
✔
Hand of the Protector
|
| 90 |
✔
Judgment of Light
|
✔
Consecrated Ground
|
✔
Aegis of Light
|
| 100 |
✔
Last Defender
|
✔
Righteous Protector
|
?
Seraphim
|
Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, 
Tome of the Tranquil Mind
and 
Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow
players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of
combat.
2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Protection Paladins
|
✔
Holy Shield
|
?
Redoubt
|
?
Blessed Hammer
|
Holy Shield increases your block chance by 15%, allows you to
block spells, and causes your successful blocks to deal Holy damage to your
attacker.
Redoubt makes your 
Avenger's Shield hit one
additional target and increase your Block value by 75%.
Blessed Hammer replaces 
Hammer of the Righteous. It has
3 charges (up from Hammer of the Righteous' 2), and the hammer can hit all
targets it comes in contact with on its path, multiple times. Enemies that
are hit take Holy damage and deal 12% less damage to you on their next auto
attack.
We heavily recommend Holy Shield as it adds a straight up 15%
chance to block as well as making abilities classified as spells blockable.
Note that this does not include all forms of damage, but rather only
abilities that are normally blockable, as well as abilities classified as
spells; some abilities that deal Physical damage can be classified as spells
as well. Holy Shield is great at reducing overall damage intake, but is not
something to be relied upon against big nuke damage, as you will still have a
fairly high chance of not blocking. It is recommended on most encounters and
shines where the threatening damage is either magic damage or blockable
non-auto-attacks (since Blessed Hammer will not do anything against
that).
Redoubt is mainly to be considered a DPS talent, with
Avenger's Shield hitting an extra target. Since Redoubt increases
Block Value, not chance to block, the defensive value from
the extra Block is very unreliable since your chance to block is likely low
without Holy Shield. The Azerite trait
Soaring Shield works together with Redoubt and will make you
hit 5 targets in total.
The hammers from Blessed Hammer will spiral outwards and can
damage and debuff the same target multiple times depending on the size of the
mob and its position, meaning that the uptime per cast on the 12% damage
reduction debuff will be high (but less, the faster the enemy hits). This
talent does well in terms of reliably reducing auto attack damage by 12%, and
if that is the only real threatening form of damage intake, it is a decent
talent. In terms of damage output, Blessed Hammer can hit multiple targets
but hits incredibly weak, and is not quite worth it.
3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Protection Paladins
|
✔
First Avenger
|
✔
Crusader's Judgment
|
✔
Bastion of Light
|
First Avenger causes Avenger's Shield to deal 50%
increased damage to the first target hit, and also increases the chance for
Grand Crusader to proc by 10%.
Crusader's Judgment causes 
Judgment to have 2
charges,
and it causes Grand Crusader to also grant a charge of
Judgment.
Bastion of Light is an active ability with a 2-minute cooldown.
It immediately grants you 3 charges of 
Shield of the Righteous.
First Avenger provides a big increase in
Grand Crusader proc frequency when it comes to AoE tanking. Since
Avenger's Shield is one of the strongest tools for AoE damage, this
talent is an excellent choice for damage output in AoE situations. The chance
to trigger Grand Crusader can further be increased by
the Azerite trait Inspiring Vanguard, but only once.
Crusader's Judgment will allow you to recharge
Shield of the Righteous slightly faster with more
Judgment casts over time. This is advantageous if the
damage
intake is constantly high and you need to spread out your Shield of the
Righteous casts as much as possible. Overall, Crusader's Judgment is a solid
passive go-to talent defensively, and the best talent offensively against
single target. Make sure to always use your Judgment stacks so you do not end
up wasting any. Crusader's Judgment turns the Azerite trait
Inspiring Vanguard into one of the better
defensive traits, as it increases the chance to trigger Grand Crusader by 5%
(this effect does not stack with itself).
Bastion of Light can be considered a form of a cooldown, if you
want a longer period of reliable Shield of the Righteous coverage.
It pairs well with Righteous Protector to be able to dish out a
couple of 
Light of the Protector heals in a short amount of time, but,
due to Light of the Protector being on the global cooldown, it will upset your
rotation a lot. That said, it can still help you achieve about +40 seconds
of straight Shield of the Righteous coverage, which can be really strong on
encounters that favor this timing.
4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Protection Paladins
|
?
Fist of Justice
|
?
Repentance
|
?
Blinding Light
|
Fist of Justice causes your Judgment to reduce the remaining cooldown of 
Hammer of Justice by 6 seconds.
Repentance is an active ability with an 15-second cooldown. It is a form of crowd-control that incapacitates the target for up to 1 minute. Damage done will break the effect. Repentance can only be used against Humanoids, Demons, Undead, Dragonkin, and Giants.
Blinding Light is an active ability with an 90-second cooldown.
It disorients all enemies within a 10-yard radius around you for 6 seconds. Non-holy damage done to them will break the disorient effect.
The choice in this tier is entirely up to you;
Fist of Justice
vastly reduces the cooldown of 
Hammer of Justice. It does, however,
suffer from diminishing returns if your group likes randomly stunning
constantly, and unless used often, Hammer of Justice by itself might be
enough without the lowered cooldown. It is generally the go-to talent though,
since you can just throw it out every 25 seconds or so (more often with
Crusader's Judgment).
Repentance has its uses, in cases where you want to crowd
control some important add in a trash pack, or maybe an important add on a boss
fight. While a mob is under the effect of repentance, mobs have a slightly
shorter body pull range, but will still pull you into combat should you get
to close.
Blinding Light is a great AoE crowd control/interrupt for 5-man
content, and it does not suffer from diminishing returns. This means that if
the add is susceptible to crowd control, it can be interrupted no matter how
many other stuns it has already suffered. Its long cooldown means that using it
requires more planning.
5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Protection Paladins
|
✘
Retribution Aura
|
✔
Cavalier
|
✔
Blessing of Spellwarding
|
Retribution Aura is an aura that is applied to all party or raid
members within 60 yards. Whenever yourself or an ally affected by Retribution
Aura receives a melee attack, the attacker takes a small amount of Holy
damage.
Cavalier causes your Divine Steed to have 2 charges.
Blessing of Spellwarding replaces
Blessing of Protection. It has a 3-minute cooldown (down from 5),
and it protects against all magical attacks, instead of against Physical
damage. Otherwise, it functions exactly like Blessing of Protection, but
since you can still receive Physical damage while it is active, it does not
prevent you from tanking a mob with it active.
The first question you need to ask yourself when looking at these talents is
if you need 
Blessing of Protection. Since
Blessing of Spellwarding replaces Blessing of Protection, you first
have to make sure what you need the most; both can be used to cheese plenty of
mechanics and abilities, especially in raids. If you do not particularly feel
you need either, you get to choose.
Retribution Aura is incredibly weak. Its damage is barely even
worth it even in large AoE pulls, and in most cases Cavalier will
provide more DPS by making you able to move between mobs faster.
Cavalier is a great go-to talent for general use and during
movement-heavy fights (and Mythic+ dungeons), or simply if
Blessing of Protection is needed.
Blessing of Spellwarding is an amazing tool for both dungeons and
raiding, for any situation that involves magic damage, giving you a
magic-damage immunity. Aside from that, it also prevents the application of
numerous debuffs (such as Necrotic), but does not remove them; this
allows you to perform creative fight strategies. Note that unlike Blessing of
Protection, the bosses will still target you while it is active. That said,
they may choose to ignore you with a targeted spell if Spellwarding is
active.
6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Protection Paladins
|
✔
Unbreakable Spirit
|
✘
Final Stand
|
✔
Hand of the Protector
|
Unbreakable Spirit reduces the cooldown of
Divine Shield, 
Ardent Defender, and
Lay on Hands by 30%.
Final Stand causes your Divine Shield to also force
all targets within 15 yards to attack you for its 8-second duration.
Hand of the Protector replaces 
Light of the Protector.
Its
cooldown is 15 seconds (down from Light of the Protector's 20 seconds),
and it can be used on any friendly target, not just yourself. It heals for
the same amount as Light of the Protector.
Unbreakable Spirit will generally be your comfort pick, mainly
due to reducing the cooldown of 
Ardent Defender by 30%. With a
limited cooldown kit, this makes a sizable difference, allowing you to have
something for emergencies more often. The reduction of 
Divine Shield
and 
Lay on Hands will only be useful in very rare situations, as
their cooldowns are still too long to rely on.
If you need another strong defensive cooldown, then you could take
Final Stand. It is an extremely powerful tanking cooldown, since it
actively makes you immune to all damage for its duration. It comes with a
rather long cooldown, but we do not have that many cooldowns to choose from.
That being said, it can be hard to justify using Final Stand over
Unbreakable Spirit
or Hand of the Protector. On most fights, having either the ability to
use Ardent Defender more often, or self-heal/raid-heal with Hand
of the Protector will usually be preferred. There are also some bosses where
you might want to use Divine Shield to remove a debuff, or soak a
mechanic or ability; the boss will still target you for 3 seconds during
Divine
Shield after you use taunt and you would not need to run Final Stand. All in
all,
this talent does not add a lot and we do not recommend taking it outside of
very rare cases. Its greatest feature is that it can make some Necrotic pulls
in Mythic+ much easier, but we still do not feel that it is necessary.
Hand of the Protector is your go-to talent when you or your group is
struggling to stay alive, and you are able to greatly help out with throwing
very strong heals on group members. This only lowers the cooldown of your
self-heal by 2 seconds, but you can now use it on others as well.
Proper usage of Hand of the Protector can make a huge difference in terms of
saving other team members from dying, but since it is on the global cooldown,
you may have to make sacrifices with your own rotation to do this.
7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Protection Paladins
|
✔
Judgment of Light
|
✔
Consecrated Ground
|
✔
Aegis of Light
|
Judgment of Light causes Judgment to apply a debuff with 25
charges to the target, called Judgment of Light. When the target is attacked,
the attacker is healed and one charge is consumed.
Consecrated Ground increases the size of your
Consecration by 15%, and also reduces the movement
speed of enemies in your Consecration by 50%.
Aegis of Light is an active ability with a 3-minute cooldown.
It is a channeled ability that, for 6 seconds, reduces the damage you and any
allies located within a 10-yard radius behind you take by 20%.
The default raiding choice in this tier should be
Judgment of Light, since it is easy to use and provides a steady
amount of passive raid healing. The healing itself is not high, but it can
still make a difference and it is generally a strong choice compared to the
other talents in this tier.
Consecrated Ground makes it easier to stand inside
Consecration if you are moving around a bit, as you
want to make sure you are standing within it. The slow makes Consecrated
Ground your default choice when it comes to Mythic+ dungeons, where kiting
enemies can potentially help deal with some troublesome affixes, or just
running away from mobs to give you a few seconds of not taking damage.
Aegis of Light is a great choice of a talent to add a raid
cooldown, but given its positional requirement (reducing the damage of your
allies behind you), using it effectively while tanking can be difficult. It
does also work as a personal 20% damage reduction, but in most cases it is
undesirable due to its 3-minute cooldown and the fact that you have to stand
still channeling; it can still be used against nukes if you make sure to have
Shield of the Righteous up beforehand, and then cancel the cast
after the hit has landed. There are multiple encounters where it can be used
to help the raid out, however. On tank-swapping encounters where there are
moments during which you are not actively tanking, this ability can be
excellent for the raid.
8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Protection Paladins
|
✔
Last Defender
|
✔
Righteous Protector
|
?
Seraphim
|
Last Defender causes you to take 3% reduced damage and deal 3%
increased damage for each enemy within an 8-yard radius around you. The
effect has diminishing returns, however.
Righteous Protector causes your
Shield of the Righteous casts to reduce the remaining cooldown of
Light of the Protector and 
Avenging Wrath
by 3
seconds.
Seraphim is an active ability with a 45-second cooldown. It
increases your Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, and Versatility by 748 each,
and
it lasts 8 seconds per charge of Shield of the Righteous available
when
using it, consuming the charges in the process. It can consume up to 2
charges.
Last Defender is a good passive talent when you are constantly AoE
tanking. It shines when you can consistently tank a lot of mobs to really
make sure you use the talent effectively. It is rare that you
can get much benefit out of it in raiding, and it even has limited use in
dungeons. It will be greatly effective in a few pulls each instance, but
rather ineffective on most others. It is a comfortable pick, however, as it is
easy to get overwhelmed against multiple mobs compared to fewer.
Righteous Protector increases the frequency with which you can
use Light of the Protector and
Avenging Wrath, this is an great talent in
single-target where more self-healing would be beneficial. You can further
increase the
frequency of self-heals by using the Tier 5 Hand of the Protector
talent. This talent allows you to use Avenging Wrath more often for either
burst damage, or stronger heals during a period of time when you are taking
more damage.
Seraphim does not provide much survivability, since despite
its bonuses, it consumes charges of Shield of the Righteous, making
it very expensive to cast. It does provide solid damage output and is
generally your go-to talent for Mythic+. With the downtime in dungeons,
Seraphim will always have a high effective uptime on packs where it matters,
since you should not use Seraphim when mobs are about to die but rather save
to start the next pull with. And while Last Defender does well in
constant AoE situations, dungeons usually shift in the amount of enemies you
deal with at once, which makes Seraphim more versatile.
However, you will not use this for raids during progression, unless the
damage the boss does is very low. As Shield of the Righteous reduces Physical
damage only, and since both Mastery and Versatility reduce damage, Seraphim
will not be very costly defensively if Shield of the Righteous does not do
anything in the first place.
9. PvP Talents (War Mode)
Battle for Azeroth introduces a new system called "War Mode". Opting into War Mode makes you eligible for open world PvP, but also grants you the following benefits:
- World Quests at maximum level have 10% increased rewards.
- You gain 10% increased experience while leveling.
- Allows you to earn Conquest Points towards weekly gear rewards.
- Grants you the use of PvP talents in the open world.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended that you enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself eligible for open world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
The first talent you can choose is not class specific and all handle crowd
control effects slightly differently. We recommend 
Adaptation or
Relentless if you do not care too much about PvP and just want
something passive that you do not have to think about too much. Alternatively
Gladiator's Medallion is generally a stronger talent when engaged
in PvP as you can choose when to use it instead.
9.1. PvP Talents for Protection Paladins
This list is going to be assuming you care little about actual PvP combat, and focuses rather on optimal talents for outdoor PvE such as World Questing and Leveling.
Warrior of Light makes Shield of the Righteous deal
30% more damage at the cost of less armor granted. This is generally fine for
outdoor content since tanks usually do not struggle to survive in outdoor
content.
Steed of Glory increases the duration of
Divine Steed by 2 seconds, which means you can travel a lot further
per steed charge, allowing you to quickly get between two
places. Note however that it does cause you to knock back enemies that get
close to you, which can be a negative aspect if you are trying to gather
them up to AoE.
Unbound Freedom turns your Blessing of Freedom into
a 30% speed increase, helping you get around slightly faster when questing
and leveling.
Inquisition is a very minor single-target damage
increase
in most situations, but can come into play and be effective when up against
world
quest elites where you might have other people hit as well, or when playing
in a group. It does however put a very useful off global cooldown spell used
to pull and engage mobs on a 20-second cooldown instead of 8 seconds.
Talents, such as Hallowed Ground and 
Shield of Virtue,
do what Protection Paladins already do very well with either
Blessing of Freedom or Avenger's Shield.
Shield of Virtue most importantly makes Avenger's Shield silence players, as
it does not do it normally, but it will silence targets around it as well and
has very limited use.
Most other talents are either very weak or benefit players around you instead and are very limited in use.
10. Changelog
- 04 Sep. 2018: Minor rewording on level 100 talents.
- 03 Sep. 2018: Minor wording changes on Tier 1, 2, and 7 talents.
- 27 Aug. 2018: Updated Repentance paragraph.
- 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
- 04 Aug. 2018: Fixed Inquisition link.
- 21 Jul. 2018: Changed wording to better reflect Unbreakable Spirit vs Hand of the Protector.
- 18 Jul. 2018: Added War Mode talents.
CONTENTS
FROM THE PALADIN FORUMS
- Beacon of Faith in M+
- Gearing up as prot paladin, then respecc?
- Prot Pally questions
- AoE Tanking in Dungeons
- BiS leggo for mythic+
IN THE SAME CATEGORY
- Tanking Guide
- Transmog Paladin Sets
- Transmog Paladin Models
- Holy Paladin Talent Builds
- Retribution Paladin Talent Builds
- Level up a Paladin
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- Battle of Dazar'alor Raid Testing: H+ M Nov 15th - 19th
- ExceL's Angels Q&A: Submit Your Questions!
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