Protection Paladin Tank Spell Summary — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Introduction

If you are new to Protection, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialisation, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Protection and are comfortable with it in Legion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2. Main Resource of Protection Paladins

While Mana is your primary resource, Protection Paladins do not have to manage Mana in any way, unlike other tanks who rely on specific resources like Rage or Pain; the cooldowns/recharge times of your abilities, as well as the number of available global cooldowns will serve as limiting factors. You should consider your Shield of the Righteous charges your main resource. You will spend most of your time dealing damage and using active mitigation abilities to help your healers keep you alive.

3. Basic Abilities for Protection Paladins

These are your core skills that are available regardless of talents, and form the core gameplay of the specialization.

Judgment deals Holy damage to the target, and also reduces the remaining cooldown of your Shield of the Righteous by 2 seconds (4 seconds if you score a critical strike). Its cooldown is reduced by your Haste.

Consecration affects an area on the ground around you for 12 seconds, dealing Holy damage to any enemies who stand in it. While you stand in your own Consecration, your Mastery: Divine Bulwark reduces all damage you take. Its cooldown is reduced by your Haste. Note you can only have one Consecration active at any one time, meaning if you are to recast it before its duration is out, it will remove the old one.

Avenger's Shield deals Holy damage to the target, interrupting and silencing them, and also bounces to up to 2 nearby enemies. It can bounce to 3 nearby enemies with the Redoubt talent. Its cooldown is reduced by your Haste. Also, when you avoid a melee attack or use Hammer of the Righteous, you have a 15% chance to reset the remaining cooldown of Avenger's Shield. Casting Avenger's Shield increases the damage dealt and Armor increase of your next Shield of the Righteous cast by 20%.

Hammer of the Righteous deals Physical damage to your target. While you stand within your Consecration, the hammer deals AoE damage as well. When using the Blessed Hammer talent, it will replace Hammer of the Righteous and instead causes a hammer to spin around you, damaging any enemies it hits and causing them to deal reduced auto attack damage to you. Its cooldown is reduced by your Haste.

3.1. Utility for Protection Paladins

Blessing of Protection protects the targeted ally from all physical damage for 10 seconds, and it has a 5-minute cooldown. It can be used to clear harmful physical damage debuffs and bleeds from the target. Bosses will not attack targets affected by Blessing of Protection. When using the Blessing of Spellwarding talent, Blessing of Protection is replaced by an ability with a 3-minute cooldown that instead protects from Magic attacks. When used on yourself, however, it will not cause mobs to stop attacking you, but if they have a spell they use on the tank, they will simply choose another target for that spell, should Blessing of Spellwarding be active.

Blessing of Sacrifice lasts 12 seconds, transferring 30% of the damage taken by your target to you. The effect is automatically canceled if the transferred damage would cause you to fall below 20% health. This cooldown is excellent for reducing the damage taken by the other tank, or other raid members.

Blessing of Freedom removes movement-impairing effects from the targeted ally, also granting them immunity to such effects for 8 seconds.

4. Important Procs for Protection Paladins

Grand Crusader is a proc with a 15% chance of occurring when avoiding melee attacks or using Hammer of the Righteous. It resets the cooldown of Avenger's Shield. The chance for this effect to proc is increased to 25% if you are using the First Avenger talent, and can be increased by another 5% with the Azerite trait Inspiring Vanguard.

5. Active Mitigation for Protection Paladins

Shield of the Righteous requires no target to cast, deals Holy damage to targets in front of you, and increases your Armor for the next 4.5 seconds. The ability has 3 charges and a 18-second recharge time, and as with most of your other key abilities, its recharge time is reduced by your Haste.

Light of the Protector is a small heal which is increased by your missing health.

6. Cooldowns for Protection Paladins

• Guardian of Ancient Kings provides you with a 50% damage reduction for 8 seconds, on a 5-minute cooldown. You should use this before a period of large damage when you are unable to use Shield of the Righteous, or when the damage is Magic and Shield of the Righteous will not do anything.
• Ardent Defender is another powerful defensive ability, with a 2-minute cooldown and an 8-second duration. It reduces all damage taken by 20% while it is active, and it causes the first killing blow against you to heal you up to 12% of your maximum health instead of killing you (the latter effect consumes the Ardent Defender). This ability is best used to bypass deadly encounter mechanics, or to save your life in critical moments. It also allows you to play at low health and still be safe.
• Avenging Wrath increases both damage done and healing done by 20%, as well as gives your Paladin abilities 20% critical strike chance. This is not only an offensive cooldown, but also very useful defensively, as it increases self healing and chance to critical strike with Light of the Protector. The increase to critical strike also impacts Judgment, helping to reduce the cooldown of Shield of the Righteous.
• Lay on Hands is essentially a massive heal with a very long cooldown. It will heal you (or a targeted ally) for your maximum health, with a 10-minute cooldown. It is best used as an emergency heal, either for yourself or another raid member, if you are unable to cast Light of the Protector due to its global cooldown, or cause you recently used it.
• Divine Shield makes you immune to all damage for 8 seconds. Normally, this ability is difficult to use while tanking (since the boss will immediately attack the next target on the threat table unless you Taunt it, and only lasts for 3 seconds), but it can be employed to clear certain debuffs, or to avoid fatal encounter mechanics. Final Stand, however, turns Divine Shield into a usable tank cooldown that makes you immune to damage while also forcing all enemies to attack you.

7. Changelog