Protection Paladin PvP Guide for WotLK Classic
Welcome to our PvP Protection Paladin guide for Wrath Classic. Here you will learn all you need to know to properly play Protection Paladin in PvP scenarios.
Overview
Protection Paladin offers some of the strongest sustained damage in any PvP situation in the game along with unmatched tankiness and incredibly strong off healing potential. Protection Paladin in PvP in Wrath is the truest definition of a Hybrid.
Talent Build
The talent build listed above takes a lot of the major bonuses from Retribution
without taking the benefits exclusive to two-handed weapons, while also going deep
into Protection to get One-Handed Weapon Specialization. This build
may at first feel awkward because of the lack of buttons in both the Retribution
and Protection trees, but the amount of sustainability and uptime you have allows you
to stick to a target and deal a considerable amount of damage.
For Glyphs you will be using Glyph of Judgement, which is a flat damage increase
to your Judgement ability,
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, which will grant you 10
Expertise while
Seal of Vengeance is active, helping you massively
in PvP to avoid being dodged or parried, and lastly
Glyph of Salvation which turns
your
Hand of Salvation ability into a 20% damage reduction cooldown
when cast on yourself.
Dealing Damage
As a Protection Paladin in PvP there is no real set rotation you should be
focusing on. The usage of your damaging abilities depends on many factors but
the most important thing as a Protection Paladin is to stay on your target as
much as you possibly can. As a Paladin your mobility will be quite limited,
but if you take advantage of Hand of Freedom to remove all
slows, roots, and even stuns thanks to
Divine Purpose, along with
Judgement of Justice to lessen the effectiveness of
your enemies' movespeed bonuses, you can stick to a target quite well.
Seal of Vengeance is the primary Seal you will be using in PvP
as it synergizes well with your spells all being on short cooldowns and puts
more emphasis on your burst potential. This seal is chosen over Command or Righteousness
because as Protection you are likely to have much better uptime than
Retribution, and the additional burst damage it causes when unleashing your judgements
is quite noticeable at 5 stacks.
Judgement of Light,
Judgement of Wisdom, or
Judgement of Justice
should be used on cooldown to deal as much damage as possible. If you are following
our spec recommendation you will also be receiving the majority of your Mana back
every time you cast Judgement. Mana may become an issue in longer fights, so it is
important to take advantage of this nearly-free source of damage.
Shield of Righteousness will be the majority of your damage.
In a situation where you are fighting someone with a movement speed
increase, having as high uptime as possible on
Judgement of Justice
will help your damage considerably.
Hammer of Wrath is your execute and deals massive damage to
targets below 20% health. If you are able to cast Hammer of Wrath you probably
should.
Exorcism is not a new ability, but one that is now much more usable in
PvP thanks to
The Art of War. This should only be used when you have an Art of War
proc but can it can be used to deal a considerable amount of damage or spent on an
instant-cast
Flash Heal as well.
Consecration can be used to try and pull stealthed enemies out
of hiding.
Utility Abilities
Paladins offer some of the best utility in the game; taking full advantage of your utility is what really separates a good Paladin from a great one. When used correctly, Paladin has a response to almost every situation you could think of.
Hand of Freedom is a great tool to keep you or your allies
mobile, removing all root and slow effects from whomever you cast it on. This is,
however, a Magic effect and able to be dispelled or spell-stolen, so you cannot
always depend on it.
Divine Shield is a complete immunity that clears most debuffs
from you. Using this can save your life or keep you offensive in a situation
where you are constantly being crowd-controlled. This effect can be dispelled by
Priests casting
Mass Dispel, so it is important to keep this in
mind when playing against a Priest.
Cleanse is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, dispels
in the game. Removing one Magic, Poison, and Disease effect from your ally in PvP
is a massive advantage. Make sure you have this in a place you can easily use it,
as dispelling a crowd-controlling effect off your teammates could turn the tide
of any fight.
Hand of Protection protects you or an ally with a shield
that grants immunity to all Physical damage and Physical effects. This can be used
to both stop damage or remove stuns such as
Kidney Shot. Keep in
mind that this is a Magic effect and can be dispelled or spell-stolen. If you
are fighting against a Mage it is a good idea to be ready to cancel the buff off
of yourself or you risk the Mage potentially stealing the shield.
Repentance is a powerful ranged crowd control ability that
incapacitates your target. This is a great tool to close the gap or set up burst
on a target. Keep in mind that because this is an incapacitate effect it breaks
on any damage dealt, including damage-over-time effects.
Hammer of Justice is a short-range stun that can be used as a
pseudo-interrupt if needed. Hammer of Justice is both great in an offensive
situation where you might need to shut down a spell or heal cast, or in a
defensive one where you need to create distance or give yourself time to heal.
Turn Evil allows you to fear Undead or Demons. This is only
particularly useful against Warlocks and Death Knights,
but oftentimes crowd-controlling their pet
can have a major impact on the fight as their demons will not be able to use
their abilities while feared.
Righteous Fury reduces your damage taken by a flat 6% when
the buff is active, assuming you are talented into the improved version in the
Protection tree.
Avenging Wrath is a massive damage increase, but stops you
from using your defensive abilities such as
Divine Shield for a short time.
Using Avenging Wrath effectively can win you games because of how much it increases
your damage, but it can just as easily lose them if you are not prepared for the
damage you may receive while you are not able to use any of your defensive cooldowns.
Aura
The Aura you will be using in PvP will almost exclusively be
Devotion Aura, but for specific situations where you feel like
you are taking too much damage you can switch to a resistance aura for the type
of damage you are taking to lessen the burden on your healer.
Stats
As a Protection Paladin your largest focus stats-wise will be Resilience and Stamina. Protection Paladins deal a large amount of damage with just Strength which will be plentiful on any gear and the lack of Paladin's mobility can make it easy for them to find themselves in a situation where they will be taking a considerable amount of damage, so defensive stats can be more beneficial for them than other classes.
Resilience
Resilience is the largest source of damage mitigation you can get from stats. Resilience is a flat damage reduction from all sources and getting as much of this as possible especially early on can help you in most PvP situations. Protection Paladin deals a lot of damage baseline, so putting an emphasis on this stat is important.
Strength
Strength increases your damage by being the single-largest source of Attack Power.
Assuming you are talented in Divine Strength, each point of Strength
will grant 2.2 Attack Power.
Stamina
Stamina increases your healthpool and, especially early on, there are times where the raw health added by certain pieces can make a major difference in your survivability.
Attack Power
Attack Power increases the damage of your abilities and auto-attacks.
Agility/Critical Strike
Critical Strike and Agility both have very marginal benefits for Protection,
but are damage increases either way. 30% Crit is the sweet spot for Protection as
it will guarantee your uptime of Vengeance and
Righteous Vengeance
and will lead to more
The Art of War procs.
Gearing
The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for a Protection Paladin in PvP.
Protection Paladin Arena Teams and Compositions
When it comes to evaluating Protection Paladin's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.
Changelog
- 18 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 26 Sep. 2022: Page added.
This guide has been written by Sellin, a former top 10 US raider and several time Gladiator, long time WoW Player and passionate about all things Warcraft and Theorycrafting. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him on Twitch.
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