Classic Protection Paladin Tank Stat Priority

1. Stamina;
2. Defense;
3. Strength;
4. Agility;
5. Armor;
6. Intellect;

1. Hit Chance;
2. Spell Power;
3. Strength;
4. Intellect;

Each point of Stamina gives 10 max health points. Having a high health pool is incredibly important as a tank to survive burst damage. This will be your most important primary stat, and should be taken when possible.

Defense reduces the chance that you will be crit in addition to giving you more mitigation. Capping Defense so that you cannot be critically hit requires 440 Defense, which is not obtainable until much later in WoW Classic. Even without the cap, it is a very important defensive stat and should be taken when possible.

Each point of Strength gives 2 Attack Power along with a small amount of block value. This is a great stat both defensively and offensively for threat generation, and is good to take on gear when possible.

Agility gives you dodge chance and increases your chance to crit, with 20 Agility = 1% crit chance. Agility is another useful primary stat, both defensively and offensively for threat generation.

Armor makes you take less physical damage. This is good to have, but you will already have a fair amount passively through your plate gear, and you do not have good armor multipliers the same way that Feral Druids do. This is an important stat, but not one that you need to go out of your way for on gear.

Intellect increases your Mana and you spell crit chance by a small amount. Mana is important since it lets you cast more spells during a fight, but unfortunately you simply cannot afford to take gear with intellect on it as a Protection Paladin. You need the stats on your gear to be about increasing your defensive capabilities, which Intellect will not help you with. Additionally, a small Mana pool can be made up for with heavy consumable usage, which you will need to do.

Hit Chance increases your chance to hit, which is a huge increase to your threat. When you miss an attack, it does not hit and does not proc the Holy damage from Seal of Righteousness, which is a huge threat loss. You will not be able to hit cap your white swings, but hit is still a solid threat generation stat anyways.

The majority of your threat generation comes from Holy damage, specifically from Seal of Righteousness, Consecration, and Holy Shield. For all of these spells, Spell Power is the best way to increase their damage compared to Attack Power, making it a great stat if damage is your focus.

There are several other stats that are technically beneficial as a Protection Paladin, but none that you should take on gear. Mp5 and Spirit can provide more Mana regeneration, but again you should almost always be focused on your defensive capabilities with your stats.