Protection Paladin Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — 12.1.5

Historically Templar has been the defacto Damage Hero Tree and Lightsmith has been more defensive-oriented one. This season has mixed it up with buffs to Consecration in addition to Protection Paladin damage in general. This has led to Lightsmith now being both a defensive and offensive oriented option, which makes it a better choice in most content. Our current recommendations are as follows:

• Raid - Lightsmith
• Mythic+ - Lightsmith

While both Hero Talents share similar damage profiles, Lightsmith pulls ahead in terms of raw damage. Templar can offer higher burst in very short windows, but most encounters do not work that way, so you will default to Lightsmith for pretty much every type of content. You may opt to use Templar for chill content such as Weekly Keys or Delves where you can properly leverage its burst output.

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The builds listed above are popular recommendations, covering various different loadouts suited to each style of endgame content. Each Talent Build will have it's own rotation, and can also be manipulated further for specific types of content and to better benefit your group.

Combat Information

Rotations and Mythic+

Want to dive deeper? These guides will teach you how to utilize our Talent Builds in endgame content!

RotationMythic+

The Omnium Folio is a new system introduced in Midnight's Patch 12.0.7. This system grants you one new rune to select per week for 5 weeks and will increase your throughput slightly. It is not a big borrowed power system but a minor enhancement.

Our recommendation would be the below options for most content in game. You can freely swap between the options on each row for specific pieces of content. For example the Week 4 row may change based on your specific gear situation at the time:

• Week 1: Rune of Void-Touched Orbs
• Week 2: Rune of Void-Tainted Shell
• Week 3: Rune of Lingering
• Week 4: Rune of Critical Power (Damage) / Rune of Masterful Cunning (Defensive)
• Week 5: Rune of Echoes

New in Midnight are Apex Talents which sit at the end of the Protection talent tree. These are unlocked at Levels 81, 84, 87 and 90, and are all passive effects which impact your rotation when they trigger.

They all revolve around the buff (triggered by Judgment), which adds additional effects to Avenger's Shield.

• First Point ( Glory of the Vanguard): Enables Vanguard to deal additional damage to enemies between you and the target.
• Second and Third Points ( Glory of the Vanguard): Vanguard generates Holy Power when consumed.
• Fourth Point ( Glory of the Vanguard): Every cast of Avenger's Shield while you have Avenging Wrath has the effects of Vanguard (Holy Power + Additional Damage), you also gain some bonus AoE damage to Shield of the Righteous.

Protection Paladin gets to pick between the Templar and Lightsmith Hero Talents from Level 71.

The recommendation in Season 2 would be towards Templar talent builds.

Templar is focused around big bursts of damage. Every time you use Divine Toll you will be able to cast Hammer of Light. As these have a 1 minute cooldown it pairs perfectly with Avenging Wrath (with Righteous Protector talented) to create very frequent high damage burst windows.

This Hero Talent tree offers a very methodolical rotation flow for Protection Paladin and creates an exciting moment of gameplay every minute when all of the abilities are available.

Lightsmith is more utility focused as the focus of this Hero Talent is applying Holy Bulwark / Sacred Weapon to players. Holy Bulwark provide a damage absorb shield to the player, and Sacred Weapon gives bonus damage or healing to the player. Every time you cast the Bulwark/Weapon you will also provide lesser versions to other players too making a well timed Holy Bulwark a small group absorb shield benefiting your healer in Mythic+!

You will also never need to worry about Weapon Oils again as you gain access to Rite of Sanctification where you can imbue your main hand weapon with a much stronger buff that is only available for Lightsmith Paladins!

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 (30% if you are Alliance).
• You gain 10% increased Experience while leveling (30% if you are Alliance).
• 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.

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 it.
• 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.
• Inquisition for additional damage on a single target or Guardian of the Forgotten Queen to have two more immunity charges available in addition to Divine Shield.

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.

Panthea

Guide Author

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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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Protection Paladin Guide Protection Paladin Easy Mode Protection Paladin Macros Protection Paladin Rotation Protection Paladin Gear Protection Paladin Stats