Page 1 of 5
1
2
3
... LastLast
  1. #1

    Protection Paladin FAQ (For Patch 3.3)

    Introduction

    First off, I'd like to credit Ronark for letting me use his FAQ for my Protection Paladin FAQ. There are some parts of this FAQ that are directly taken from his FAQ, so it will seem a bit similar. Since I thought Offhand is taking too long to create his and I was in the mood, I am taking the liberty to create this FAQ for the Paladin section of the MMO-C forums.

    Please feel free to provide comments, until I revise this into a solid guide.

    Contents: (Copy the bracketed letters and hit Ctrl+F to skip to a specific part of the FAQ).
    [1VRH]- Version History
    [2ACS]- Acronyms
    [3BSS]- Base Stats
    [4SCS]- Stat Conversations
    [5CTS]- Combat Statistics
    [6EMS]- Enchantments
    [7GMS]- Gemming
    [8CSB]- Consumables
    [1SLS]- Seals
    [2CBA]- Combat Abilities
    [3UTL]- Utilities
    [4DRS]- Tank Rotations
    [5TBS]- Talent Builds
    [6EGE]- Endgame Expectations
    [7UFM]- Useful Macros
    [8CCN]- Conclusion
    [9PSS]- Bonus Material

    [1VRH]- Version History:
    v1.0- Initial Posting, minor format editing.
    v1.1- Various Edits.

    [2ACS]- I’ll start by listing common Acronyms that are used commonly throughout this guide or elsewhere throughout these and other forums.

    AE or AoE- Area of Effect. Generally spells, buffs, or effects that only affect targets in a given range.
    Bubble- A Paladin’s Divine Shield and Hand of Protection spells are referred to as being encased within a bubble through which nothing can enter.
    DI- Divine Intervention
    DoT- Damage over Time. Any spell or ability that deals its damage gradually as time passes, rather than upfront.
    TPS- Threat per Second. The higher your TPS, the better you can hold mobs against the dps.
    DS- Divine Shield.
    DS/G- Divine Sacrifice/Guardian.
    EXP- Expertise
    FoL- Flash of Light.
    HoW- Hammer of Wrath.
    HoF- Hand of Freedom.
    HoJ- Hammer of Justice.
    HoP- Hand of Protection.
    HoR- Hand of Reckoning.
    HoS- Hand of Sacrifice.
    HP- Health Points.
    HW- Holy Wrath.
    INT- Shorthand for a character’s Intellect.
    MA- Main Assist. You target whatever this person targets to ensure it dies quickly.
    MT- Main Tank. The main person that holds the Aggro of a mob.
    n00b- An inexperience or new player. Can also be an insult to a player’s level of thinking.
    NPC- Non-playable Character. A PC is referred to a Playable Character which you directly control.
    OT- Off Tank. Generally either a back-up tank or an extra tank for an encounter.
    Proc- A spell from a talent or gear that requires a chance to be used from attacks or skills. For example, Greatness has procced from Darkmoon Card: Greatness.
    PuG- Pick up Group. A random group of players that band together to conquer greater challenges.
    PvE- Player vs. Environment. Situations in which players fight against computer-controlled opponents.
    PvP- Player vs. Player. Any situation in which players fight against each other in battle.
    QFT- Quoted for Truth.
    SP- Spell Power.
    STR- Shorthand for a character’s Strength.
    STM or STAM- Shorthand for Stamina.
    1337- Having the skillz to pay the billz.



    Listed below are the typical Base Stat values that a Level 80 Paladin should have when they are not wearing any armor, are not affected by any buffs, and do not have any passive talents which increase stats- Note that this may slightly differ, depending on your chosen Race.

    [3BSS]- Base Values at 80
    Health = 6934
    Mana = 4394
    Strength = 175 = 350 Attack Power
    Intellect = 97 = 1455 Mana
    Agility = 86 = 1.65% Crit
    Stamina = 196 = 1960 Health

    All Mana-bound abilities are a percentage of Base mana, or mana with no additional Intellect: That is, as your Mana-pool increases, the cost of your spells does not.


    [4SCS]- Stat Conversations, for Base stats
    Each Base Stat can be broken down to reflect their impact on combat.

    Each point of Strength is worth 2 Attack Power. With proper talents, like Divine Strength, this is increased to 2.3 AP. With Blessing of Kings, the amount gained is again increased, for a total of 2.53 effective AP per 1 Strength. With the Touched by the Light talent, 1 Strength is also equal to = 0.6 Spell Power, which in turn translates to increased threat.

    Each point of Agility is equal to 0.88 Critical Strike Rating or 2 Armor Value or 52.08 Agi is equal to 1% Crit, and for every 59.89 points of Agility, the Paladin gains 1% additional chance to dodge.

    Each point of Stamina is equal to 10 Health. This is further increased by two talents (Sacred Duty + Combat Expertise) totalling 14% increased Stamina.

    Intellect increases your total Mana by 15 points per point of Intellect: Although it is not considered a Tank stat, we are still a Mana-bound class, so buffs like Arcane Intellect will help to increase your sustained threat.


    [5CTS]- Combat Statistics

    Defense = Defense rating increases your chance to dodge, block and parry as well as decreasing the chance to be hit and critically hit. For Heroics which is mostly lvl 82 mobs, you will only require 535 Defense. Raids like 10man and 25man will require 540 Defense, which are lvl 83 mobs. This is to enable your Paladin to be uncrittable, meaning that mobs do zero crit against you. It is also better to be overcapped as more Defense will boost your avoidance stats.

    Dodge = Dodge rating increases the chance to dodge. This should be your main avoidance stat, due to the abundance of the stat on our gears. Due to Icecrown Citadel's Chill of the Throne debuff, it reduces your dodge chance by a FIXED 20%. However, this gives people a common misconception that it reduces the effectiveness of Dodge rating where in fact it DOES NOT. Getting more dodge is to bring your dodge stat back up to par, ie countering the Chill of the Throne reduction.

    Parry = Parry rating increases the chance to parry with your weapon. This is your secondary avoidance stat.

    Block = Block rating increases your chance to block with your shield. This is your third stat as a shield user. However, this is the least needed stat, except that it helps proc Holy Shield which is good for AoE threat. The only case where you would stack this rating is for Heroic Anub'arak in 25man Trial of the Grand Crusader.

    Expertise Cap = Expertise increases your chance to successfully land attacks by ignoring an opponent’s chance to Dodge and Parry. Depending on your opponent, you may require additional Expertise rating to completely ignore an opponent’s Dodge and Parry chance. With every 8.2 Expertise rating equal to 1 Expertise, and each point of Expertise lowering your opponent’s chance to Dodge and Parry by 0.25%, you would need a total of 214 Expertise rating (or 26 Expertise) to hit the Soft Cap of 6.5% for a Raid Boss. Both Humans and Dwarves have Racial abilities which lower the amount of Expertise needed to hit a Raid Boss. Humans receive 3 Expertise when using either Swords or Maces, and Dwarves receive 5 Expertise when using Maces alone. Due to Bosses having Parry from being attacked in front of them, the hard cap is actually 56. However, it is enough to be Soft Capped at 26. Note that Glyph of Seal of Vengeance gives you 10 Expertise while you are using SoVeng/Corr.

    Hit Cap = Hit rating increases your chance to successfully land attacks. Increasing your Hit rating is sometimes a good way to increase your TPS until you reach the soft hit cap. The Hit Cap for all melee-bound abilities is 5%, plus an additional 1% for each level that your target is above you. For a raid boss, this is a total of 8% hit. For every 32.79 Hit Rating, you’ll gain 1% Hit. But as Protection Paladins, you will NEVER need to worry about your skills missing. Extra hit is only needed if you are actually doing decent threat but your dps is doing too much threat assuming they are specced into decrease threat talents.

    Critical Strike = Increases your chance to Critically Hit with attacks for 200% damage. While most of the Paladin’s abilities are Melee-oriented, some abilities (like Exorcism) are Spell-oriented; Thus, they only hit for 50% additional damage instead of 100%. For every 45.91 points of Critical Strike rating, you will gain an additional 1% chance to Crit.

    [6EMS]- Enchantments
    Enchantments are the best way to improve upon your gear once you obtain them. The following are considered as some Tanking enchants:

    Cloak: Either Major Agility or Titanweave or Mighty Armor
    Chest: Super Health or Greater Defense or Powerful Stats
    Bracers: Major Stamina
    Gloves:Heavy Borean Armor Kit or Major Agility
    Boots: Greater Fortitude or Superior Agility or Tuskarr's Vitality (Get this only if you do not have Pursuit of Justice)
    Weapon: Mongoose or Blood Draining or Accuracy (I do not recommend Blade Ward, mainly due to the lack of uptime)
    Shield: Defense or Major Stamina

    Q: Why are there Agility enchants here?
    A: Agility gives Dodge % at almost the same rate as Dodge rating as well as giving us armor and crit, hence they are considered as tanking enchants.

    Q: So many enchants to choose from! What do I take?
    A: If you happen to be starting out as a fresh Protection Paladin, it would be best to take the Defense enchants first as you require the needed 535 Defense for Heroic Dungeons. Once you obtain better gear, you can either go for the health options to boost your survivability or stick with the Avoidance enchants (eg, Def/Agi).

    Q: What's wrong with Armsman?
    A: The usefulness of this enchant is very small actually. 10 Parry rating is not a lot compared to the Agility enchant, and 2% extra threat isn't one of the best ways to improve your threat.

    In addition to Scrolls, you can also enhance other pieces of gear with crafted Armorkits or purchased Inscriptions (Not to be confused with the Inscription profession):

    Helm: Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector - Obtained through Revered status with the Argent Crusade (Not to be confused with the Argent Tournament's faction).
    Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Gladiator or Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle - Obtained through Exalted status with the Sons of Hodir.
    Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle- Obtained from a Blacksmith.
    Leggings: Frosthide Leg Armor- Obtained from a Leatherworker.

    These professions buff your tanking effectiveness:
    Jewelcrafting - 63 stam, using the 3 JC-only gems.
    Blacksmithing - 60 stam through the 2 extra sockets, assuming you put 30 stam in both.
    Enchanting - 60 stam as ring enchants.
    Leatherworking - 60 stam from the bracer enchant.
    Mining - 60 Stam Passive Skill
    Inscription - Extra dodge rating from the shoulder enchant, if you are using this over the 30 stamina Wintergrasp enchant.
    Herbalism - A HoT based on your total HP - Lifeblood
    Engineering - Extra 885 armor to gloves, in addition to a number of explosives for a touch of extra threat. (Cheers to Iselian)

    [7GMS]- Gemming
    Meta - Austere Earthsiege Diamond
    All slots - Solid Majestic Zircon

    Except, that if the gear bonus gives 9 or more stamina, you should be matching the colour sockets with:
    Yellow: Enduring Eye of Zul or Vivid Eye of Zul
    Red: Shifting Dreadstone or Regal Dreadstone
    Blue: Solid Majestic Zircon

    Q: I'm a fresh 80, my defense is still low. Should I use these gems?
    A: The first requirement you should meet is the 535 Defense for Heroic Dungeon (lvl 82). You should gem for this using the Thick King's Amber types of Gem. As you obtain better gear, you will notice your Defense is more than enough without gemming Defense.

    Q: What about having Effulgent Skyflare Diamond?
    A: It's is not really needed, as Blizzard stopped designing encounters based on the Sartharion +3 Flame Breath as well as that some bosses are mainly physical damage. I am not very sure about Sindragosa's Frost Breath though.

    Q: Why is there an Agility gem here?
    A: Agility gives Dodge % at almost the same rate as Dodge rating as well as giving us armor and crit, hence it is considered a tanking gem. There is some debate on the topic of Agi vs Dodge, but it is said that Dodge is better. Ultimately, it comes down to your own preference, with some consideration for which fights you will be tanking.

    [8CSB]- Consumables

    Flask - Flask of Stoneblood
    Food - Any kind of food that gives 40 stamina. Dragonfin Filet or Fish Feast or Snapper Extreme or Blackened Dragonfin
    Potion - Indestructible or Health Pot. I'd recommend Indestructible for Raids as it is a 2 minute buff. Otherwise, Health pots on the fly.

    [1SLS]- Seals
    Currently, there are 3 choices for a Seal when choosing to Tank in a raid environment:

    Seal of Vengeance-
    What the Seal Hit does:
    ---> Applies a DoT effect on auto-swing only that deals [(1.3% SPH + 2.5% AP) * 5] * [X] Holy
    damage over 15 seconds, stacking up to 5 times, with X being the number of stacks on the target.
    ---> Strikes for 7% Weapon damage, based on the number of stacks on your target (max of 33%
    weapon damage when fully stacked); Unlike normal spells, when this crits it strikes for 200%
    damage instead of 150%.
    What the Judgement does: Deals [1 + (22% SPH) + (14% AP)] * [1 + (X/10)] Holy damage, with X being the number of stacks on the target.

    Seal of Vengeance, or the Horde equivalent Seal of Corruption, is your main seal as a Protection Paladin.

    The initial damage done by the DoT, Seal Hit, and Judgement effect of the spell can all be increased by speccing into Seals of the Pure for 5 talent points in the first tier of the Holy tree.


    Seal of Command-
    What the Seal Hit does: Deals 36% Weapon Damage, but as Holy damage instead of Physical damage: Can chain to up to 2 additional targets when applied with a single target Melee ability, excluding Judgement.
    What the Judgement does: Deals [19% Weapon Damage + 8% AP + 13% SP] Holy damage.

    Seal of Command is learned by spending 10 points in the Retribution tree, and an additional 1 point in the spell itself- Thus, the earliest that this spell can be obtained is at level 20. The seal does a percentage of your weapon damage on every hit, but as Holy damage rather than Physical. In addition, the spell will also hit up to two additional targets (often refereed to as "cleaving") when proc'd off any single-target melee ability outside of Judgement- either White hits, Crusader Strike, or Hammer of the Righteous. You could spec into this talent for some needed AoE threat.


    Seal of Righteousness-
    What the Seal does: Deals [Base Weapon Speed * (2.2% AP + 4.4% SP)] additional Holy damage.
    What the Judgement does: Deals [1 + 20% AP + 32% SP] Holy damage.

    Seal of Righteousness is the basic Seal for all Paladin specs at the earlier levels of their career. It scales the most with Spell Power, and deals a portion of Holy spell damage on each hit. Because of the scaling, it is often not used by a Paladin once Seal of Command is obtainable. However, testing has shown that with points in Seals of the Pure, it can be viable to use in single target fights in which you cannot stack Seal of Vengeance, due to the increased Judgement damage.
    *Important Note*---> Unlike other DPS Seals, Seal of Righteousness cannot crit.


    [2CBA]- Combat Abilities
    Outside of Seals, most of a Paladin’s Combat Abilities are either enhanced or obtained by spending points in the Protection talent tree.

    Hammer of the Righteous: This is our 51 point talent skill. What it does is hit your target and 2 additional targets (3 additional if glyphed) for 4 times your main hand's damage per second as Holy damage. This is off the DPS value of your Main Hand Weapon (ie 111dps), not the damage range (100-200 melee). Hence, the speed of weapons do not matter for this spell. It is also one of your AOE skills.

    Avenger's Shield: This is our 41 point talent skill, which is mainly used for pulls or extra threat. It throws a shield at your target and then, bouncing off your current target and to 2 more targets. Due to Shield of the Templar, this can be used to pull casters to you as it silences them for 3 seconds, except silence immune mobs.

    Judgement: A Judgement focuses the energy of the current Seal being used, and releases its lawful punishment upon your enemy. Judgement spells are broken down into three separate abilities, which all have a shared cooldown: Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Light, and Judgement of Justice. Depending on which Judgement is used, attackers can gain a benefit when striking your Judged target. They can be used while Disarmed, but not while Silenced or Spell-locked out of the Holy school. Additionally, casting Judgement on your current target also reduces the mob's attack speed by 20% if you are specced into Judgements of the Just.

    Holy Shield: The 31 point Talent in the Protection Tree, which is needed to obtain the Avenger's Shield talent. Some of you may feel that the spell is useless, but this spell is good for your AOE threat. This is because multi-mob does proc through the Holy Shield charges, 1k each on a well geared paladin.

    Shield of Righteousness: A trainable spell obtained at level 75, which slams the target with your shield, causing Holy damage based on your block value plus an additional 520. This is your main spell which does the most threat on a single mob.

    Consecration: Consecration is a ABAoE spell that damages enemies that enter and leave the area. The damage dealt by Consecration is dealt equally between all ticks, meaning that the initial tick, a middle tick, and the final tick of the spell should all deal the same portion of damage, as long as outside factors remain consistent. Despite Consecration’s large Mana cost, it is still invaluable to use for Threat, even against single targets. Finally, Consecration scales off your Spell Hit table, meaning any ticks of the spell can miss or be resisted with less than 17% Spell Hit.

    Exorcism: One of three of the Paladin’s Ranged attacks, Exorcism deals Holy damage after a short cast. Due to the purifying potential of the spell, it will instantly strike for Critical damage when used on Demon- or Undead- type mobs. However, this is never used in your rotation as it makes a 1.5 second cast as of Patch 3.2. A Prot Paladin should never be doing a timed cast (ie, this and Healing Spells) while tanking as it renders you 100% hittable because your Paladin is trying to cast a spell and not avoiding hits. If you need a ranged pull, there's Hand of Reckoning and Avenger's Shield to be used.

    Hammer of Wrath: The Hammer of Wrath is the Paladin’s finishing skill; It is only useable on targets with less than 20% health remaining. However, the spell does deal instant Holy damage. The hammer can also be fired from a longer range, and thus does not require the Paladin to be in melee range for execution.

    Holy Wrath: Undead and Demon targets will sob beneath you once you unleash your Holy Wrath. Every 30 seconds, a Paladin can stun all Undead and Demon targets in range for a brief moment while dealing some moderate Holy damage. The spell can be used offensively to cut through weak groups with ease, or defensively, giving you ample time to heal yourself if wounded. The stun effect on Holy Wrath, like all stuns, is subject to diminishing returns. This can be used in your AOE tanking IF most of your targets are undead/demon.

    Hand of Reckoning: This is your main taunt skill, and also used to pull mobs. When a mob is not targetting you, it taunts the mob to you as well as dealing a percentage of your AP in Holy damage for added threat.

    Righteous Defense: This is another taunt that taunts up to 3 targets. This also can be casted on your Party member to taunt the mobs that are aggro-ed to him. But be careful, you could taunt off mobs that your other tank might be tanking! Also used as a spare taunt if the Hand of Reckoning misses.

    Righteous Fury: This spell is your threat buff which should be on you all the time. It is removed when you die, change spec, or cancel it. So remember to rebuff it!

    [3UTL]- Utilities

    Being a Hybrid, the paladin brings many utilities to a group, both Offensively and Defensively.

    Blessings and Greater Blessings:

    Blessing of Might: Blessing of Might replaces Battle shout on the buff bar, and offers up to 687.5 Attack Power when fully talented into. This is most optimal for physical classes, such as Warriors, Hunters, Deathknights, and Rogues, as well as Feral Druids.

    Blessing of Kings: Often used as a back-up Blessing with multiple Paladins or a smaller group sizes, Blessing of Kings increases all of the target's base stats (Strength, Intellect, Agility, Spirit, and Stamina) by 10%. It is useful to use on Tanks for larger health pools, on Spell caster DPS for larger Mana pools and regen, and Physical DPS for more AP. Generally, all classes should have Kings on them.
    *Important Note*---> Blessing of Kings is applied multiplicity with other effects that increase stats by a percentage. For example, a Paladin with Divine Strength (x15% STR) and Blessing of Kings (x10% STR) would gain a total of 26% increased Strength.

    Blessing of Wisdom: Most of the time, you will have either a Shaman or a Holy Paladin use Blessing of Wisdom- However, in smaller 5man instances, you may not have both or either of these. Some classes may prefer Wisdom over Kings for mana regen as well. Note that in larger raids, a Restoration Shaman may drop their Mana Tide totem- this will more than likely override a Ret Paladin's Wisdom, due to the higher amount of Mana restored every 5 seconds.

    Blessing of Sanctuary: This should be your main Blessing next to Blessing of Kings if you have another Paladin with you. For Heroics, it helps to replenish your mana for 2% every time you dodge/parry/block an attack. For Raids, it gives a 3% damage taken reduction if you have 3-4 Paladins in raid and one is a Prot.

    Hand spells:

    Hand of Freedom: Hand of Freedom prevents movement effects such as roots and snares from affecting the target. This works wonders in PvP battles because we have a limited amount of ways to catch up to a fleeing target. When talented, this spell also removes all stuns from the target, but does not prevent any additional stuns from being applied. Stronger stuns, such as Maexxna's Web Warp, may be immune to its effects.

    Hand of Protection: When an ally is in suddenly threatened, Hand of Protection can be used to prevent any physical damage. Because the bubble blocks all physical damage, the target of the spell can also not physically attack: however, they can still freely cast spells. This ability also causes Forbearance on the target, so they cannot be affected by Divine shield or another Hand of Protection.

    Hand of Sacrifice: Hand of Sacrifice redirects damage taken from the target, and instead depletes it from your own Health pool. While in some cases this may be unwanted, when combined with Divine Shield all the damage done to the player is negated.
    *Important Note*---> Damage received through Hand of Sacrifice can also break Crowd Control effects which break on damage (Freeze Trap, Repentance, Polymorph, etc).

    Hand of Salvation: The best thing about this Hand is that it is usable on other people that pull aggro quickly, and a timed Salvation can help keep the mobs on the tank. When Glyphed, it also reduces the amount of damage done to yourself by 30%.

    Other Utilities:

    Divine Shield: Divine Shield is what makes a Paladin unique in the World of Warcraft. This creates an impenetrable shield around your Paladin rendering ALL attacks immune as long as the Divine Shield lasts. This also can be used to remove any debuffs currently on your Paladin. As Protection Paladin, this is rarely used though as Divine Shield makes you immune to mobs and thus force mobs to change target.

    Divine Protection: Another unique Protection Paladin spell, the so-called Shield Wall. This creates a shield around you that reduces all damage taken by 50%. This is not the same as Divine Shield though, as it allows mobs to continue attacking you.

    Vindication: Vindication is applied from other attacks and needs to be specced into after spending 10 points in the Retribution tree- The amount of Attack Power reduced scales with your level, and as such does not require any additional training for higher ranks. At level 80, the amount of AP reduced is equal to either 287 or 574, depending on how many points you invest in the talent.

    Sacred Shield: Sacred Shield reduces incoming damage every 6 seconds by placing a shield on our target that reduces a total of 500 damage, plus 75% of our Spell power. With the Divine Guardian talent, the length and the amount absorbed by Sacred Shield is increased. Similar Sacred Shield effects do not stack. However, it is recommended that if you have a Holy Paladin specced into the Divine Guardian talent, it is better to let him cast Sacred Shield on you as his Sacred Shield absorb is better than yours since he has more SP than Prot Paladins.
    *Important Note*---> The absorb effect from this ability will not "roll" with itself- meaning that if you had part of a damage shield remaining and are stuck again after 6 seconds, a new refreshed shield will be place on you or your target instead.

    Divine Sacrifice: Divine Sacrifice is a talent in the Protection tree that is available after spending 10 points. Some Protection Paladins will pick it up to negate a large portion of Party-oriented and Raid-wide damage. Note that it is, however, the prerequisite for the Divine Guardian talent.

    Cleanse: Cleanse removes one Poison, Magical, and Disease effect form the target. This is useful for assisting other teammates when a large amount of people are inflicted with ill status conditions.

    Hammer of Justice: Mainly used in PvP, but also in PvE to help prevent spell casting, Hammer of Justice will stun it's target for 6 seconds. It's chance to hit targets is dependent upon your Spell Hit chance and not your Melee Hit chance.. However, all other spell statistics (Resist, Spell Reflect, etc.) still affect Hammer of Justice.
    *Important Note*---> This ability will also interrupt spell casting of ONLY mobs when they are immune to the stun effect- Players immune to stun effects will NOT be interrupted.

    Lay on Hands: A powerful heal on a 20 minute cooldown, Lay on Hands can be used in many situations to prevent a wipe or to prevent yourself from being killed. Its cooldown can be reduced to 15 minutes with a glyph, and further to 11 minutes with talents in the Holy tree.
    *Important Note*---> This ability will also cause Forbearance when used on yourself. Except when another Paladin casts it on you.


    [4DRS]- Tank Rotations

    Unlike other classes, a Protection Paladin has no true rotation - Instead, you must watch the cooldown of your abilities and use them once they are available, much like an Enhancement Shaman or Affliction Warlock. Depending on the situation, you may do more threat with one specific ability than you would with another.

    Single-target-
    Hand of Reckoning and/or Avenger's Shield > Holy Shield > Shield of Righteousness > then go into 96969 rotation.

    What's the 96969 rotation? Press a 8+ second cd spell then a 6 second skill then a 8+ second skill.
    8+ second = Holy Shield, Consecration, Judgement.
    6 second = Shield of Righteousness, Hammer of the Righteous.
    So it goes something like this: Judgement > Shield of Righteousness > Consecration > Hammer of Righteousness > Holy Shield > repeat.

    With 2pcT9 and/or 2pcT10 Bonuses, your highest threat spell is Hammer of the Righteous.
    This takes higher priority over Shield of Righteousness. Hence you start with:
    Hand of Reckoning and/or Avenger's Shield > Holy Shield > Hammer of the Righteous > 96969.

    Multi-target-
    You should be spamming Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Shield, Consecration, Avenger's Shield. And using Shield of Righteousness, Judgement on tab targets. Holy Wrath if your targets are mostly Demon/Undead.


    [5TBS]- Talent Builds
    Depending on which aspect of play a player wants to participate in will determine where he or she places their Talent Points. I’ll list some come builds for all aspects of play.

    PvE Build:
    http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sZV0t...dxfMobc:G0pzcm
    This is my current build that I use for Raiding. You will be using the Seal of Vengeance/Corruption all the time, as it became the staple seal of Protection Paladins. The points in the Retribution tree are both defensive and offensive. Vindication is your mitigation debuff a la Demoralizing Shout. If you do not raid with a Retribution Paladin, then Heart of the Crusader will bring an added 3% crit to your raid. Further down the tree is the Crusade talent which adds 3% more damage and another 3% damage if your target is Humanoid, Undead, Demon, or Elemental. Crusade has been proven to be better than Seals of the Pure, if the mobs are Humanoid, Demon, Undead or Elemental.

    If you want Seal of Command, simply take 1 point out of Conviction and put it into the Seal of Command talent.

    http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sVZE0...sIufdxo:G0pzcm
    If you prefer to have Divinity, then this build is built around it. Because of the lack of points, the Crusade talent is unobtainable here. So, Seals of the Pure will help your threat in this build. There is 2 free points for your choice.

    PvP Build: Unfortunately I do not PVP. So any comments would be appreciated.


    [6EGE]- Endgame Expectations

    PvE:
    As a Protection Paladin, you are expected to be very well geared in order to survive boss hits for as long as possible. You have an array of Hand spells at your disposal as well as 3 cooldowns to use for survival of yourself and your party/raid members. You are the person who prevents death from befalling your DPS and Healing members, by utilizing taunt skills and Hand of Protection.

    [7UFM]- Useful Macros
    There is no need to macro Righteous Defense, as the macro is inbuilt into the spell.

    I use a simple Divine Shield macro. Pressing it once casts it, it is canceled on the second press:
    Code:
    #showtooltip Divine Shield
    /cancelaura Divine Shield
    /cast Divine Shield
    /cast Hand of Reckoning
    Works if you want to remove debuffs on yourself while tanking. Just becareful that once the Divine Shield goes up, the boss will momentarily turn to and hit the second person on threat list (In most cases, it is a DPS!) until you cancel the Divine Shield.

    If you are here to look for 1 button spam macros, then this is the wrong place.

    [8CCN]- Conclusion
    Please provide any further discussions for the Protection Paladin below.
    Do refrain from trolling or flaming, and try to be constructive in your comments.

  2. #2

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    [9PSS]- Bonus Material
    Q: Why do I die so quickly when I turn away from Mobs?
    A: This is because your back is facing them, which renders you 100% hittable as you are not able to dodge/parry/block anything from behind. To kite mobs, strafe run from them (Q or E button) so they hit your side instead of your back. (With your front facing them a little, if possible)

    Q: I have decent gear, but my threat isn't very good!
    A: There can be many ways on why your threat isn't good. One is that you forgot to put up Righteous Fury. Or you are not using your full rotation. Or your DPS are not misdirecting-ing threat to you. Or some idiot taunted off you.

    Q: I run out of mana WTF!
    A: You actually have mana regenerating skills. Divine Plea should be up all the time if possible. Try to chain pull through the trash so you are attacking something all the time, and remember to be mindful of your healer. Another way you can mana regen is through Blessing of Sanctuary. This spell replenishes 2% of your mana everytime you dodge/parry/block, which works best when tanking multiple mobs. There are times you still can run OOM, so drink between pulls (Bring your own water if you have to!). 5k Mana does not take very long to drink up with.

    Q: My guild tells me that I suck, what can I do to improve?
    A: There are many ways you can improve. Read up on the boss fights before hand. Start using those Cooldowns, eg Divine Protection or Lay on Hands! Work with your guild leaders for the strategy. Revise and repeat. It helps if you have a good memory for all the fights. Research what gear you need, and farm for it (even those in the lower tier). For some of the fights, the guild relies on YOU to pace the fight. You have to help yourself improve, other people cannot do it for you.

    Q: Why do some people tell me I need 8% Hit?
    A: It is actually not needed. I've raided with zero hit and still held aggro.

    I may have some of my own tricks to be added later.

    BIS List
    To be added later.

    The Future of Prot - In the Cataclysm expansion
    At the moment, I have not looked into this.

    Thank you for reading! Do check back for updates!

  3. #3

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    don't forget about Blessing of Sanctuary

  4. #4

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by roeleert
    don't forget about Blessing of Sanctuary
    Edited it in, thanks.

  5. #5

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by Larvez
    I am going to start off by being pedantic and say it is not known as 69696 rotaion, it is known as the 96969 rotation, the reason being we have 3 9sec cd abilities and 2 6 sec cd abilities as you did in fact correctly name.

    And secondly you talent build is wrong for a PvE prot pala, you have commited the cardinal sin for any prot pala. 2 points in Improved Judgements is just so wrong that in all honesty, even tho you said don't, you sdeserve to be flamed.

    All you need is 1 point in Improved Judgement, the reason being as our 96969 rotation suggest we will be using judgement every 9 seconds, thus making Judgement an 8 second cast is completely pointless, and decent prot pala will be aware of this.

    So in future please refrain from making faq's about a class when you obviously choose to play it because we make it look easy enough for any tom, dick or harry to play it.
    Which is why I have mentioned 8+ seconds instead of 9. Did you know Hammer and Shield are 8 seconds? And there is no need to be an ass about the rotation. 1 second out of whack isn't going to make you lose aggro on a mob.

    If you feel like doing a guide, go ahead. It's a few hours of work.

  6. #6

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Under the professions section, you do not seem to have made any mention of Engineering or Alchemy.

    The Reticulated Armor Webbing provided by Engineering offers an extra 885 armor to you gloves, although i'm not sure how this figures compared to the stamina gains of other proffesions & the loss of the glove enchant.

    For Alchemy I was under the impression that Flask of Stoneblood gained increased effectiveness in order to bring it into line with the stamina gains of other professions, in additon to an increased duration. This means it could be not only an alternative to other profesions as it provides the same level of benefit, but can also reduce costs of raiding by not require as many flasks.

    Of course I may be wrong about both of the above as i'm a bit off a noob when it comes to tanking.

  7. #7

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by Sundowner
    Under the professions section, you do not seem to have made any mention of Engineering or Alchemy.

    The Reticulated Armor Webbing provided by Engineering offers an extra 885 armor to you gloves, although i'm not sure how this figures compared to the stamina gains of other proffesions & the loss of the glove enchant.

    For Alchemy I was under the impression that Flask of Stoneblood gained increased effectiveness in order to bring it into line with the stamina gains of other professions, in additon to an increased duration. This means it could be not only an alternative to other profesions as it provides the same level of benefit, but can also reduce costs of raiding by not require as many flasks.

    Of course I may be wrong about both of the above as i'm a bit off a noob when it comes to tanking.
    Yes, I have looked into the Engineering enchants, but they do not seem to tailored very well for Tankers. So I've omitted them for the time being.

    As for the Alchemy one, I never knew about that but you don't really flask often though.

    Quote Originally Posted by Larvez
    Yeah ofc i know there 8 seconds, but the fact of the mater is you still will not be using any of them more than every 9 seconds, so why waste a point in improve judgement when you can put it elsewhere
    Count the points in the Ret tree please. Has it occured to you there's no where else to put the points? As I've said, there's no need to be making a perfect rotation. Benediction? That talent has lost its usefulness with Divine Plea + Blessing of Sanctuary.

  8. #8

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by Larvez
    The 2nd point in Imp Judgement is 100% wasted, if you count the 1.5 sec global cooldown, and the fact judgement will be used 6 cds later, you can physical only use it every 9 seconds/ 1 point = 9 seconds / 2 points = 8 seconds, so as i said it is 100% completely wasted.

    Whilst the other options are not gonna be ground breaking, but your options are

    Benedicition will make all our spells cheaper coz they are all instant
    Sanctity of Battle 1% crit to spells and attacks and 5% damage to exorcism whish can be used to pull
    Seals of the Pure - Increase our seal / judgement damage by 3%

    Depending on the fights your on you could even take 1 point in divinity, altho personally this would be my last option as its more likely to result in more over healing, but each to their own.

    I apologise for my harsh attitude earlier, but i have seen a fair share of prot palas being rolled coz they think its easy and outright suck at tanking, and as i said, personally i see 2 points in improved judgements as a cardinal sin, due to the above reason.

    Other than that you may want to edit the area where you talk about our rotation as i think you have left in the comments about the ret rotation, as prot pala is pretty strict once you get going
    I hear you but I hate to break it to you, that 1 point is really wasted if I am to use that Crusade spec. If I put it in Benediction, it's wasted because the mana reduction is very small at 2% across the spells. You can easily recoup the mana loss from having Divine Plea and Blessing of Sanctuary. I can't put that point into Prot/Holy because it's needed for the deep ret. The 2nd build is more flexible with the 2 extra point (the 1 point in 2/2 judgement and a free point)

    And uh, it wasn't my idea of a build to begin with. I found it in one of the threads one night, and thought it was a great build for the current content.

  9. #9

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    Block = Block rating increases your chance to block with your shield. This is your third stat as a shield user. However, this is the least needed stat, except that it helps proc Holy Shield which is good for AoE threat.
    Block can be unrealistically useful in heroics, which many tanks still run (not everyone is bleeding edge progression). Maybe a sidenote for the Anub-gimmick fight?


    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    Expertise Cap = Expertise increases your chance to successfully land attacks by ignoring an opponent’s chance to Dodge and Parry. Depending on your opponent, you may require additional Expertise rating to completely ignore an opponent’s Dodge and Parry chance. With every 8.2 Expertise rating equal to 1 Expertise, and each point of Expertise lowering your opponent’s chance to Dodge and Parry by 0.25%, you would need a total of 214 Expertise rating (or 26 Expertise) to hit the Soft Cap of 6.5% for a Raid Boss. Both Humans and Dwarves have Racial abilities which lower the amount of Expertise needed to hit a Raid Boss. Humans receive 3 Expertise when using either Swords or Maces, and Dwarves receive 5 Expertise when using Maces alone. Due to Bosses having Parry from being attacked in front of them, the hard cap is actually 56. But you should not be worrying about this as Parry "Gib" is turned off for most bosses.
    It's still being determined just how many bosses have their parry-haste turned off. Gormok is the only one to be confirmed. Tests on Maintankadin are showing several bosses do not have it turned off.

    As a side note, expertise and hit are the highest threat increasing stats until expertise's soft cap. After that, strength.



    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    Gloves:Heavy Borean Armor Kit (I'm serious, Armsman is CRAP)
    The 10 parry rating is indeed, "crap". The 2% threat increase is not. That's a good 200 tps for any Icecrown-progressing tank, in the least 100 tps for any heroic'ing tank. If you are going for absolute survival first, then 18 stamina is preferred.



    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    These professions buff your tanking effectiveness:
    Jewelcrafting - 60 stam, using the 3 JC-only gems.
    Blacksmithing - 60 stam through the 2 extra sockets, assuming you put 30 stam in both.
    Enchanting - 60 stam as ring enchants.
    Leatherworking - 60 stam from the bracer enchant.
    Mining - 60 Stam Passive Skill
    Inscription - Extra dodge rating from the shoulder enchant, if you are using this over the 30 stamina Wintergrasp enchant.
    Herbalism - A HoT based on your total HP - Lifeblood
    Engineering has an extra 885 armor to gloves, in addition to a number of explosives for a touch of extra threat.




    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    [7GMS]- Gemming
    Meta - Austere Earthsiege Diamond
    All slots - Solid Majestic Zircon

    Except, that if the gear bonus gives 9 or more stamina, you should be matching the colour sockets with:
    Yellow: Enduring Eye of Zul or Vivid Eye of Zul
    Red: Regal Dreadstone
    Blue: Solid Majestic Zircon
    Many far-end progression tanks will go pure stamina, judging by the damage intake we'll be receiving. That said, we still need 1 red for our meta activation. That goes to the agility vs dodge discussion, which has been "mathed" out to a large extent. Agility is, generally, "better" (as per the 'mathing') and so a Shifting Dreadstone is preferred. Yay armor through agility, and a touch of crit.



    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    [8CSB]- Consumables

    Flask - Flask of Stoneblood
    Food - Any kind of food that gives 40 stamina. Best is Fish Feast. Or use Dragonfin Filet or Snapper Extreme
    Potion - Indestructible or Health Pot. I'd recommend Indestructible for Raids as it is a 2 minute buff. Otherwise, Health pots on the fly.[/url]
    The Fish Feast is less helpful than the Dragonfin Filet, but that's getting to details (Dragonfin gives scaling strength, and some block).



    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    Seal of Command is learned by spending 10 points in the Retribution tree, and an additional 1 point in the spell itself- Thus, the earliest that this spell can be obtained is at level 20. The seal does a percentage of your weapon damage on every hit, but as Holy damage rather than Physical. In addition, the spell will also hit up to two additional targets (often refereed to as "cleaving") when proc'd off any single-target melee ability outside of Judgement- either White hits, Crusader Strike, or Hammer of the Righteous. You could spec into this talent, but it is not really needed.
    I heavily disagree with the final part. SoComm not only makes heroics laughable (or, as said on the tanking forums, "Like having cotton candy flavored sex on a chocolate flavored stick") but it has some good use in raids. Snap threat on both Lady Deathwhisper's adds and the Gunship fight (assuming you're not jumping across), where the adds won't live long enough to see major use of Seal of Vengeance/Corruption anyway. I'd wager in the Frost Wing it will see more use as well. And it's amazing for trash. It is well worth dropping one point in Conviction for.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    Consecration: Consecration is a ABAoE spell that damages enemies that enter and leave the area. The damage dealt by Consecration is dealt equally between all ticks, meaning that the initial tick, a middle tick, and the final tick of the spell should all deal the same portion of damage, as long as outside factors remain consistent. Despite Consecration’s large Mana cost, it is still invaluable to use for Threat, even against single targets. Finally, Consecration scales off your Spell Hit table, meaning any ticks of the spell can miss or be resisted with less than 17% Spell Hit.
    Not true, thankfully. The first tick of consecration can miss, but for some reason it doesn't seem to actually drop its damage any. Even if the first tick does miss, however, the rest will still hit.



    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    [4DRS]- DPS Rotations

    Unlike other DPS specs of other classes, a Protection Paladin has no true rotation - Instead, you must watch the cooldown of your abilities and use them once they are available, much like an Enhancement Shaman or Affliction Warlock. Depending on the situation, you may do more damage with one specific ability than you would with another.

    Single-target DPS-
    Hand of Reckoning and/or Avenger's Shield > Holy Shield > Shield of Righteousness > then go into 69696 rotation.
    What's the 69696 rotation? Press a 8+ second cd spell then a 6 second skill then a 8 second skill.
    8+ second = Holy Shield, Consecration, Judgement. 6 second = Shield of Righteousness, Hammer of the Righteous.

    Multi-target DPS-
    You should be spamming Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Shield, Consecration, Avenger's Shield. And using Shield of Righteousness, Judgement on tab targets. Holy Wrath if your targets are mostly Demon/Undead.
    Sidenote, if you are running with SoComm for AoE tanking, Shield of Righteousness will proc the seal, making it not entirely worthless.



    Quote Originally Posted by Jin84
    [7UFM]- Useful Macros
    There is no need to macro Righteous Defense, as the macro is inbuilt into the spell.

    I use a simple Divine Shield macro. Pressing it once casts it, it is canceled on the second press:
    Code:
    #showtooltip Divine Shield
    /cancelaura Divine Shield
    /cast Divine Shield
    Works if you want to remove debuffs on yourself while tanking. Just becareful that once the Divine Shield goes up, the boss will momentarily turn to and hit the second person on threat list (In most cases, it is a DPS!) until you cancel the Divine Shield.
    A boss -will- attack you through Divine Shield if you taunt them. Since Hand of Reckoning is off of the GCD, using this macro in time with the taunt is a good way to clear debuffs and not get your top-threat dps one shot.


    A well written FAQ! Hopefully we can have it clear up a number of questions. Hope my bits help :>


    As to going 2/2 Improved Judgements, there are a number of places it helps, such as when you break from the 96969 rotation (which does happen, believe it or not) and when you are not tanking for a period of time (hi there Festergut and Deathbringer Saurfang).
    I stream many games! WoW, SC2, TF2, old SNES games and mods, and many more! Find my stream here! I also upload many of my stream VODs and many offline recordings (usually of SC2 casts) to my YouTube, found here!. Follow, subscribe, and thanks!

  10. #10

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Hey, Thanks Iselian for your tips. I'll edit some of those later. I typed this up through the night and now it's 8am.

    As for the SoComm comment, maybe I could trade the 1 point in conviction for the SoComm. But I generally do not have problems doing AOE in heroics and raids, so I guess it's only needed for the weaker geared characters?

  11. #11
    Immortal Ronark's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Illinois, USA
    Posts
    7,193

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    A few missing things:

    Agility adds to your armor at a rate of 1 agility to 2 armor value.
    You forgot the +225 armor to Cloak, which is better than Agility when above the defense cap.
    JC gives 63 total stamina.
    Forgot to mention that HV/BC is applied via HotR.
    HotR does not chain the SoC effect- It only procs the normal SoC hit.
    Clean up some of your wording- There is a lot of information referring to DPS rather than TPS, and there is also a lot of opinionated information.

  12. #12

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Ok, good point on it being a filler, so yeah i wasn't paying attention when looking at 1 point options.

    But personally I still don't like the idea of 2/2 imp judgements, as in my mind a waste is still a waste and altho maybe not a good reason, but heroics are a pain in the backside and also a fight like vezzax kind makes benediction a better choice in my mind.

    But your points about mana are equally true and i guess perhaps my old school way of thinking may have blinded me a tad.

    So yeah, i will admit that maybe its not as bad as it could be and situationally i guess you could use it that 1 second faster, but all down to personal preference i guess.

  13. #13
    Mechagnome
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    580

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by Larvez
    Ok, good point on it being a filler, so yeah i wasn't paying attention when looking at 1 point options.

    But personally I still don't like the idea of 2/2 imp judgements, as in my mind a waste is still a waste and altho maybe not a good reason, but heroics are a pain in the backside and also a fight like vezzax kind makes benediction a better choice in my mind.

    But your points about mana are equally true and i guess perhaps my old school way of thinking may have blinded me a tad.

    So yeah, i will admit that maybe its not as bad as it could be and situationally i guess you could use it that 1 second faster, but all down to personal preference i guess.
    Saurfang really provides the first legitimate PvE reasoning behind taking 2/2 Improved Judgements, since you won't be using Consecration on every cooldown and therefore won't be locked into 969 by the global cooldown.

    2% mana reduction on spells which are, on the whole, relatively cheap as it is simply isn't going to make a difference, even on Vezax where you don't have your full means of mana regeneration.

    A couple of notes on the guide from me:

    In the section on rotation, you seem to have just replaced the word "Retribution" with the word "Protection" in Ronark's sentence about having a FCFS priority, rather than a set rotation. There's even a mention about "other DPS classes" in there. A few sentences later you start talking about the 969 rotation, so obviously one does exist.

    In the useful macros section, you mention that there's no need to macro Righteous Defense, because the macro is built-in. This is true to the extent that using RD on an enemy target will cast it on their target (assuming their target is friendly), but I've found having a mouseover macro to use in combination with raid frames to be extremely helpful for using RD quickly.

    Speaking of Righteous Defense, you've called it an AoE taunt. It's not, it's a targetted taunt; it just functions slightly different to others.

    In consumables, there's no mention of agility food (I'll look up the name of it tomorrow, if somebody hasn't already), which in terms of survival is better than both Fish Feast and the strength food, which contribute either fully or primarily to threat aside from the stamina provided by all types of food.

    As far as parry hasting goes, from what I remember reading in blue posts I think it's still enabled for the majority of bosses. It's only disabled for those with particularly hard melee hits (Gormok, for example) where parry hasting had the possibility of providing fight-ending damage spikes.

    On the topic of Armsman:
    In order to get a 200 TPS gain from it, you'd have to be doing 10k TPS in the first place. Considering Paladin TPS, and how much of a threat lead they have in all but a couple of fights, I'm not sure anybody can actually argue that it's a worthwhile enchant.

  14. #14

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Sorry for all the mistakes, was like in the dead of the morning when I was typing this up, starting from 2am and ending at 8am. As well as that most of the wording is straight off my mind, for which I apologize.

    I really appreciate all your replies.

    I will deal with each issue as it comes by, as well as add any special misconceptions that arises in the Paladin section.

  15. #15

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    As far as armsman goes, the TPS boost is negligible due to the fact that you won't need it. If you are threat capping your DPS, this enchant isn't going to save you. If you aren't threat capping them, then you don't need any extra threat anyway.

  16. #16

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    agi food > str food > fish feast

    agi/stam gem > dodge/stam gem

    agi (16) to boot is a good enchant, same for agi to gloves (20) those enchant are good when you have ''enough'' hp and go full avoidance (at the same time as getting socket bonus with def/stam and agi/stam

    armor (225) to cloak is good too for the armor set.


  17. #17

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    For your boots though, you'd really want 22 stam or 15 stam + run speed. Gloves would be a more acceptable place to put agility but you're better off going pure stam anyway unless it's for something special like total avoidance.

  18. #18

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by InbredPsychosis
    unless it's for something special like total avoidance.
    which is exactly what i said

  19. #19

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by mitchimitch
    which is exactly what i said
    Nevertheless, you'd still want stam or tuskarr's vitality.

    DON'T HAVE TO BE MEAN, GOSH. EVERYONE ON THIS FORUM IS MEAN!

  20. #20

    Re: Protection Paladin FAQ (For 3.3)

    Quote Originally Posted by InbredPsychosis
    DON'T HAVE TO BE MEAN, GOSH. EVERYONE ON THIS FORUM IS MEAN!
    Welcome to MMO-C

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •