Cataclysm Classic Protection Paladin Rotation and Cooldowns

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

Protection Paladin focuses on generating as much Holy Power as possible with our Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous abilities to be able to use Shield of the Righteous and Word of Glory. The focus with this rotation is maximizing our damage output to establish a large threat lead with the ability to cast Word of Glory to spot heal yourself as needed. Remember that you have Hand of Reckoning and Righteous Defense should you need to taunt! We will primarily opt to use Seal of Truth but if you find yourself in a situation where you are taking a large amount of incoming damage and are not concerned with your personal DPS consider switching to Seal of Insight for a small amount of self-healing.

1. Keep Righteous Fury active;
2. Keep Seal of Truth active;
3. Cast Shield of the Righteous when you have 3 Holy Power;
4. Cast Crusader Strike on cooldown to generate Holy Power;
5. Cast Avenger's Shield on cooldown;
6. Cast Hammer of Wrath on cooldown (only usable against an enemy below 20% health);
7. Cast Judgement on cooldown especially to maintain the Judgements of the Just debuff;
8. Cast Consecration;
9. Cast Holy Wrath.

The rotation changes from two targets and onward, staying mostly the same, but puts a larger emphasis on Consecration while also using Hammer of the Righteous in place of Crusader Strike and trying to maintain Inquisition as much as possible.

1. Keep Righteous Fury active;
2. Keep Seal of Truth active;
3. Cast Hammer of the Righteous on cooldown;
4. Maintain Inquisition as much as possible, ideally used with 3 Holy Power;
5. Cast Avenger's Shield on cooldown;
6. Cast Consecration on cooldown;
7. Cast Holy Wrath on cooldown;
8. Cast Judgement on cooldown;

Protection Paladins has some of the strongest personal defensive cooldowns in the game and understanding how to properly utilize them will allow you to mitigate massive amounts of damage and make both your personal survivability much easier and make your Healers job much simpler.

1. Guardian of Ancient Kings — reduces incoming damage by 50% for 12 seconds, try to utilize this in a situation where you are expecting to take a large amount of incoming damage or there is a period of time where you will only be able to received a limited amount of healing.
2. Holy Shield — increases the amount of damage blocked by 20% for 10 seconds. This is a relatively short cooldown at 30 seconds and should be used mostly on cooldown unless you expect there to be a period where you are not taking any blockable attacks.
3. Avenging Wrath — is a flat 20% Damage and Healing increase for 20 seconds this should be used on the pull to establish threat but do not underestimate the added Healing portion of this as it can make it into a powerful cooldown to heal yourself when paired with a 3 point Word of Glory.
4. Divine Protection — reduces incoming Magic damage by 40% (Or 20% Physical Damage and 20% Magic Damage if Glyph of Divine Protection is slotted) this ability is a great way to mitigate incoming Spell Damage and is ideally used preemptively to mitigate a large single hit.
5. Ardent Defender — reduces all incoming damage by 20% and also causes an otherwise fatal attack to return you to 15% health, allowing you to cheat death. This cooldown can be used to either mitigate damage in a phase where your healers may struggle to keep up or to prevent yourself from dying if you find yourself at consistently low health for a longer period of time.
6. Divine Guardian — is a raid cooldown that reduces the damage taken of everyone but the Paladin who casts it in the raid by 20% for 6 seconds. While this has no personal defensive uses it is an incredible way to mitigate damage on your raid, try to use this with a large source of incoming damage on your entire raid.