Protection Paladin Tank Vault of the Incarnates Raid Guide — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Vault of the Incarnates. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Vault of the Incarnates guides.

On this page, you will find Protection Paladin-specific information to deal with each boss in the Vault of the Incarnates raid. These are not complete encounter guides but rather provide specific tips for doing the bosses as a Protection Paladin.

This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Protection Paladin and how you can deal with each fight as best as possible.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the following string:

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Blessing of Spellwarding has some value on this boss and can be obtained by removing a point in Gift of the Golden Val'kyr or Eye of Tyr.

• Do a tank swap every 4-5 stacks of Burning Wound (or when it times out.
• You can prevent stacks of this being applied with Blessing of Spellwarding or Divine Shield (if you use Divine Shield, taunt immediately after to prevent your co-tank from having their stacks refreshed).
• Save Divine Toll for when adds are grouped up on the boss for more damage and holy power.
• If a raid member is somehow stuck behind the collapsing flame wall during the intermission, you can use Blessing of Spellwarding on them to allow them to run through without being killed.
• Heroic avoid the Molten Spikes as they will knock you into the air.
• Mythic the active tank will always get Greater Flamerift on them. Place these with the other Flamerifts and be ready to interrupt the add that spawns.

For more information, please refer to our Eranog guide.

As this is a pure single-target encounter. I recommend using the default build at the top of this page with one swap. Hammer of the Righteous instead of Blessed Hammer.

• Aim Concussive Slam at Awakened Earth to destroy them.
• Swap after every second Concussive Slam and use Ardent Defender for the second hit.
• Avoid being in the line from Concussive Slam when it is not targeting you as the debuff is applied to every player hit and stacks!
• Always be in range of the boss as if nobody is in range of the boss it will cast Tectonic Barrage.
• Have at least 1 charge of Divine Steed ready for when Terros reaches 100 energy to move out of the Resonating Annihilation.
• Mythic the new mechanic for Mythic is Infused Fallout. You should ideally be moving as a raid when this happens so be ready to move out of the puddle that spawns when the debuff has been removed.

For more information, please refer to our Terros guide.

Blessing of Spellwarding has some value on this boss and can be obtained by removing a point in Gift of the Golden Val'kyr or Eye of Tyr.

• Swap tanking on Opalfang after each Crush hit.
• Move away from the Scorched Ground after Meteor Axes, try and interrupt Dathea or Kadros when you move to keep them with you.
• Avoid reaching 10 stacks of Primal Blizzard by moving into Scorched Ground at 5+ stacks.
• The debuff from Slashing Blaze can be prevented if you have Blessing of Spellwarding or Divine Shield active before it hits you.
• The debuffs from Primal Blizzard can be prevented if you have Blessing of Spellwarding or Divine Shield active.
• Blessing of Spellwarding can be placed on a player to allow them to solo soak one of the Meteor Axes.
• Mythic the Scorched Ground pools reduce in size when players clear their Primal Blizzard. Tank the bosses near Scorched Ground and clear your stacks with the melee DPS to avoid getting frozen.

For more information, please refer to our The Primal Council guide.

I recommend using the default build at the top of this page with one swap for this encounter. Hammer of the Righteous instead of Blessed Hammer.

• Areas where the floor is icy are slippy. Be mindful of this when you move around the room.
• Face the Frostbreath Arachnids away from the raid and, ideally, tank it near the boss facing off the platform's edge. As Freezing Breath can make the room even icier.
• Swap tanking Sennarth on 9-10 stacks of Web Blast or when it times out.
• Save your Divine Steed charges for Gossamer Burst and Repelling Burst. To negate it, you will run in the opposite direction of the push/pull effect. Avoid being close to the edge when this happens, as you can fall off!
• Blessing of Freedom will remove Sticky Webbing stacks from players.
• Blessing of Protection will remove Wrapped in Webs from players.
• When Sennarth has reached the top of the room, she will no longer use Web Blast and, as a result, only requires one Tank. You should aim to make good use of your ranged mob gathering utility such as Judgment, Divine Toll and Avenger's Shield to bring Caustic Spiderlings on the players Wrapped in Webs.
• Divine Shield can be useful in this phase to clear up all of the knockback bombs from Chilling Blast.

For this boss, I suggest you use the default build at the top of this page.

• Swap after 2-3 stacks of Zephyr Slam.
• The knockback from Zephyr Slam increases in distance for each stack you have. After 3 stacks, you will fly off the platform. However, you can get knocked into a tornado to negate this.
• Keep an eye on the locations of tornadoes and be mindful of where they are moving to when Crosswinds is cast.
• Aim to use Divine Steed when Cyclone has ~3 seconds left on the cast to avoid being pulled into the boss.
• If you are the active tank on the boss ensure you are in melee range when Cyclone ends to ensure the boss does not hit a random target in melee range.
• When the intermission add knockback happens if you are not going up to the platform use Divine Shield or Blessing of Spellwarding to avoid being knocked away.
• Heroic/Mythic: Have Divine Toll ready for when you land on the platform to gather all of the adds.

For more information, please refer to our Dathea, Ascended guide.

For this boss, I suggest you use the default build at the top of this page.

• Keep Kurog near an altar (not the middle of the room) in Phase 1. If he is in the middle of the room, he will gain stacks of all 4 elemental buffs and deal serious damage to the raid!
• Move into two altars each time you enter Phase 1 to ensure the raid does not get overwhelmed by the damage from Kurog's ticking damage and to guarantee which adds spawn in the intermission.
• Sundering Strike is a 1-stack swap.
• Ensure Sundering Strike is pointed away from the raid and if you are not tanking the boss, to not stand in it, as it deals damage and applies a DoT to anyone hit.
• Taunt immediately after your co-tank is hit with Sundering Strike to prevent Kurog from chasing them.
• Heroic/Mythic: The stun from Icy Tempest can be prevented or broken with Divine Shield. Avoid being hit by these, though, as it deals a lot of damage.
• Mythic An elemental is spawned each time Kurog moves into a new altar. These adds cast a conal attack similar to Kurog. Face these away from the raid.
• Mythic Blessing of Freedom can be used to remove Frost Snare from the add spawned on the Altar of Frost.

For more information, please refer to our Kurog Grimtotem guide.

For this boss, there are two roles to play, the boss tank and the add tank. The boss tank moves the boss around the room and breaks eggs to get the raid into Phase 2 cleanly. The add tank roams around the edge of the room to kill add waves as they spawn.

If you are the add tank, I suggest you use the default build at the top of this page.

If you are the boss tank, I would suggest using Sentinel.

• A Protection Paladin should ideally be the add tank for this boss.
• Boss Tank: Mortal Stoneclaws will reduce the healing you receive while the debuff is active. Ensure you are on full health before you are hit and have both your baseline defensives active ( Consecration and Shield of the Righteous) and if possible, one additional defensive such as Sentinel / Guardian of Ancient Kings / Ardent Defender.
• Add Tank: Silence the Mages so they move into the groups of adds to ensure they die quickly.
• Add Tank: Stop the casts from Mages and Stormbringers with Avenger's Shield / Divine Toll / Hammer of Justice.
• Phase 2: Mortal Stoneclaws is doubled in power and duration. Swap after 1 stack.

For more information, please refer to our Broodkeeper Diurna guide.

For this boss, I suggest you use the default build at the top of this page.

• Swap on 1 stack of Electrified Jaws.
• Avoid Lightning Breath.
• During the intermissions, group the adds together to ensure they die quickly.
• Phase 3: Thunderous Blast will deal damage to the raid based on the amount of damage you took. This ignores immunities..
• Mitigate this with Ardent Defender / Guardian of Ancient Kings or external healer defensives.
• Mythic Hurricane Wing will no longer have pools to remove the pushback. You will instead need to counter the pushback with mobility tools. An example sequence of abilities is below:
  1. Hurricane Wing 1: Divine Steed.
  2. Hurricane Wing 2: Demonic Gateway and Divine Steed.
  3. Hurricane Wing 3: Divine Steed.
  4. Hurricane Wing 4: Blessing of Spellwarding.