Cataclysm Classic Protection Paladin Spell Summary

Protection has gained many new abilities in Cataclysm. Knowing how to properly utilize them will help you maximize not only your personal DPS but your contribution to your groups.

Protection is one of the strongest tanks in Cataclysm but to maximize your threat output and personal survivability you will need a thorough understanding of how each of your abilities function and how to best utilize them.

• Crusader Strike — is a short cooldown, instant melee attack that deals Holy damage based on your Weapon Damage. This attack also generates one Holy Power which is required to use Inquisition and Shield of the Righteous which are huge parts of our damage dealing kit.
• Hammer of the Righteous — is a short cooldown, instant melee attack that deals Holy damage based on your Weapon Damage. This ability hits multiple targets and generates one Holy Power which is required to use Inquisition and Shield of the Righteous which are huge parts of our damage dealing kit. While it deals less single target damage than Crusader Strike this will be our default choice in a situation where we are fighting two or more enemies.
• Shield of the Righteous — is an instant cast burst of of damage that scales with the amount of Holy Power spent to cast it. This ability is best used with 3 Holy Power and should be used as often as possible.
• Inquisition — increases your Holy Damage dealt by 30% for four seconds per charge of Holy Power consumed to activate it.
• Hammer of Wrath — is an instant cast, short cooldown ranged attack that can only be used on enemies below 20% health.
• Judgement — is an instant cast, short cooldown ranged attack that deals damage based off of your Attack Power and the seal you currently have active. This ability does apply Replenishment so it is crucial to use to maintain this buff not only for your personal mana but to benefit your entire group.
• Holy Wrath — is an instant cast burst of Holy Damage to all nearby enemies. This ability will also stun any Undead or Demon and with the Glyph of Holy Wrath active will also stun Dragonkin and Elementals.
• Consecration — summons a small area of consecrated ground beneath the Paladin dealing Holy damage to any enemy standing inside of the area.
• Hand of Reckoning — taunts the target forcing it to attack you.
• Righteous Defense — redirects aggro from a friendly target forcing up to three enemies attacking the target to attack you instead.

Protection Paladin has some of the most powerful cooldowns in the game both offensively and defensively properly utilizing these tools will allow you to not only deal maximum threat but also greatly increase not only your personal survivability but the survivability of your entire group.

• Avenging Wrath. — increases your healing and damage done by 20% for twenty seconds. This massive DPS increase will greatly increase your ability to generate threat and should be used as often as possible to establish threat early and maximizing your personal DPS. The best way to reduce incoming damage is killing your enemy.
• Holy Shield — a thirty-second cooldown that increases the amount you block by 20% for ten seconds. This should be used on cooldown when you are consistently taking incoming Physical damage.
• Ardent Defender — a three-minute cooldown that reduces incoming damage by 20% for ten seconds. This is a great way to reduce incoming damage but should be used for the Cheat Death-like effect in a situation where you would otherwise die.
• Divine Plea — a two-minute cooldown that regenerates 12% of your mana over nine seconds, but reduces the amount of healing your abilities do by 50% while it is active. Use this early and often to maintain your Mana. This ability also generates a Holy Power thanks to Shield of the Templar
• Guardian of Ancient Kings — reduces all incoming damage by 50% for twelve seconds.
• Lay on Hands — a ten-minute cooldown that instantly heals a friendly target for an amount equal to your total max health. This ability is best used only in emergencies where your target would otherwise die.
• Divine Protection — is a one-minute cooldown that reduces incoming Magic damage by 40%. When glyphed for Glyph of Divine Protection it now mitigates 20% Physical damage as well but will only reduce 20% Magic Damage making this Glyph a situational choice.
• Divine Shield — is a five-minute cooldown that makes you immune to all incoming sources of damage for eight seconds while reducing the damage you deal by 50%. This ability is one of the strongest defensive cooldowns in the game and can be used in a number of ways outside of avoiding incoming damage. This ability can be used to trivialize many raid mechanics so always try to be prepared to understand how to best utilize this ability in each encounter. Though this is an incredible way to avoid damage do keep in mind you will not be able to hold threat while under the effects of Divine Shield.
• Hand of Sacrifice — is a two-minute cooldown that redirects 30% of the damage being dealt to the target to the Paladin who casted the Hand of Sacrifice. This lasts 12 seconds or until the target has transferred 100% of its maximum health in damage.
• Hand of Protection — is a five-minute cooldown that instantly makes the target immune to incoming Physical damage for ten seconds. While Hand of Protection is active the target cannot attack or use any Physical abilities. Like Divine Shield this ability can be used in many situations to completely trivialize mechanics.
• Hand of Salvation — is a two-minute cooldown that reduces the targets threat by 2% every second for ten seconds.
• Hand of Freedom — is a twenty five-second cooldown that removes and makes the target immune to movement impairing abilities for six seconds.

In addition to the many rotational abilities and cooldowns you find yourself using Paladin has been given a number of incredible tools that you will find yourself using.

• Cleanse — removes 1 Disease and Posion effect from a friendly target.
• Rebuke — is a ten-second cooldown melee ranged interrupt that allows you to disrupt spell casting. The amount of time you spend in melee range will depend entirely on the encounter but having the ability to interrupt is incredibly powerful especially in emergency situations and smaller group size content.
• Hammer of Justice — is a one-minute cooldown instant cast stun that will stun your target for six seconds.
• Word of Glory — is an instant burst of healing on a friendly target. This ability scales directly with the amount of Holy Power consumed to use it and is best used with 3 Holy Power. as Protection the goal is to maximize our Shield of the Righteous casts but in a situation where you would otherwise die or to save a party member consider casting it.
• Holy Light — is a slow, extremely efficient heal. This is a great ability to use in low damage situations where you have plenty of time between of incoming damage. Remember as a Tank you are not able to Parry or Dodge while casting.
• Flash of Light — is a quick, expensive healing ability. While this can help triage in an emergency it is typically good to avoid using this ability unless your target is likely to die without immediate healing. Remember as a Tank you are not able to Parry or Dodge while casting.

Seals, Blessings and Auras are two of the Paladins most iconic abilities. While largely simplified in Cataclysm these abilities still play a massive part in how you play your Paladin. Remember, you can only have one Seal, Blessing and Aura active per Paladin so in group content make sure you are coordinating who is using what.

• Crusader Aura — increases the mounted movement speed of all nearby party/raid members by 20%.
• Devotion Aura — increases the armor of all nearby party/raid members.
• Resistance Aura — increases the Fire, Frost, and Shadow resistance of all nearby party/raid members by 195.
• Retribution Aura — returns a small amount of Holy damage to enemies that attack any nearby party/raid member with the aura active.
• Concentration Aura — causes all party members to lose 35% less casting or channeling time when damage.
• Seal of Corruption — applies a stacking Holy damage debuff to the target, stacking up to five times. Each attack with this seal active also deals up to an additional 15% of weapon damage based on how many Seal of Corruption stacks are active on the target. This will be the default seal as Protection due to the Glyph of Seal of Truth which greatly increases our Expertise rating while it is active.
• Seal of Insight — causes your melee attacks to have a chance to restore health and 4% of the Paladins base mana.
• Seal of Righteousness — causes each of your melee attacks to deal additional Holy damage.
• Blessing of Kings — increases the targets Strength, Agility, Stamina and Intellect by 5% as well as increasing all magical resistances by 97.
• Blessing of Might — increases the targets Melee Attack Power by 20%, Ranged Attack Power by 10% and restores mana every five seconds.