Season of Discovery Protection Paladin Tank Talents and Runes
On this page, you will find out the best PvE talents for your Protection Paladin Tank in WoW Classic — Season of Discovery, as well as advised runes.
Protection Paladin Tank Talent Build
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The build highlighted above may seem strange at a glance, but this is recommended for
a Tank Paladin. As we have reached max level and many changes have been made to move some Runes
to be baseline ability or just new additions we find ourselves deep in the Protection tree
once again. The Rune Malleable Protection allows us to not only use
Divine Protection
as a defensive cooldown but it also increases our Attack Power scaling with the amount of Defense
rating we currently having making it much easier to focus on a Defensive build as opposed to having
to venture deep into the Retribution tree to generate competitive threat.
Recommended Rune Engravings
Gloves — Hand of Reckoning
Pants — Avenger's Shield
Chest — Aegis
Waist — Malleable Protection
Feet — Guarded by the Light
Head — Improved Sanctuary
Wrist — Hammer of the Righteous
Back — Shield of Righteousness
Ring — Holy Specialization
Ring — Defense Specialization
Hand of Reckoning is almost certainly required due to the strength of having a conventional taunt, as well as the
the massive threat generation bonus added to
Righteous Fury, and the additional Mana received while being healed with it active. The damage reduced below
35% is a massive component of this that makes it basically required as a Protection Paladin. We are not casting
many, if any, heals so
Beacon of Light does not offer any real benefit. While
Crusader Strike is a considerable increase
in damage, it will not outweigh the threat granted by
Hand of Reckoning's
Righteous Fury multiplier.
Avenger's Shield has become our default choice for this slot with the changes making
Exorcist baseline. Avenger's Shiedl
acts as a great way to generate threat on multiple targets at once and fills a hole in our kit by allowing us to pull mobs from farther away or
generate snap threat on a target outside of melee range when
Hand of Reckoning is on cooldown.
Aegis is a great way to mitigate incoming damage as it now stacks with
Redoubt allowing us to mitigate massive amounts
of incoming Physical damage. With
Seal of Martyrdom becoming a baseline ability this is an easy choice to make as we can now benefit
from both Martyrdom and Aegis.
Divine Storm is another ability there is a case to be made for in situations where you are fighting
exclusively spell casters or incoming damage is minimal in order to deal additional damage and generate threat but more often than not we will
find ourselves defaulting to Aegis for the physical damage mitigation.
Malleable Protection has replaced what was once Enlightened Judgements and allows us to use our
Divine Protection ability
to mitigate 50% of incoming damage as opposed to becoming Immune allowing us to maintain threat while this powerful defensive cooldown is active.
It also grants us Attack Power based on the current amount of Defense Rating when
Holy Shield is active incentivizing us to delve deeper
into the Protection tree.
Guarded by the Light due to significant changes made to
Seal of Martyrdom we will now want to opt for Guarded by the Light
which will greatly minimize any Mana issues we have by generating 5% of our Maximum Mana back every 3 seconds for 15 seconds, this buff is re-applied
any time you Melee attack so we will have near 100% uptime of this buff. While it does limit our healing with abilities like
Holy Light,
Flash of Light, and
Holy Shock we will rarely if ever be casting these abilities while tanking so this is a minimal loss.
Improved Sanctuary increases the damage prevented by our
Blessing of Sanctuary by 100% and increases the damage it deals by 30%
of our Shield Block value making Shield Block an even more valuable stat. While
Wrath is a strong choice if you find yourself playing
a build running
Consecration we want to focus more heavily on mitigating incoming damage.
Hammer of the Righteous fills the rotational void as a Protection Paladin while also offering a great source of multi-target threat. The emphasis
this puts on your weapon by causing four times your main-hand damage per second as Holy Damage will make this an incredible tool to not only establish AoE
threat, but quickly snap targets onto you as they spawn.
Purifying Power is another great option, especially with becoming baseline
Exorcist,
but only in a situation where you are struggling to hold ranged threat or need the extra stun from
Holy Wrath.
Shield of Righteousness deals a ton of Holy damage to the target based off of our current Shield Block value, this is another ability that
fills what can at times be a rather empty rotation and while there are other interesting options found in the Back slot none of them synergize
particularly well with the current Protection kit as we are likely to have too little crit to benefit enough from
Righteous Vengeance
in a way that would outweigh the damage dealt by Shield of the Righteous.
Holy Specialization and
Defense Specialization gives us a better chance to hit with our abilities that scale off our
Spell hit rating specifically
Exorcism and
Holy Wrath while Defense Specialization allows us to mitigate more damage and
grants a bit of Attack Power thanks to
Malleable Protection.
More engravings are likely to come out as we reach later phases. Make sure to checkout our general Rune guide to get a better understanding of what all tools you have available to your Paladin.
Notable Protection Paladin Talents
With the focus being shifted more now into mitigating incoming damage while still being quite competitive when it comes
to damage dealt and threat generated we have returned to what is a much more conventional build for Protection
Paladin largely in part to the addition of Runes like Malleable Protection, listed below we have included
some key talents to lookout for while enjoying your journey through the Season of Discovery.
Toughness scales off your Armor, becoming more important as you get better gear.
As we near closer to end game, Armor values will increase on both gear and shields, so
maximizing the benefit of this stat is important to mitigate incoming physical damage.
Improved Righteous Fury increases the threat generated while your
Righteous Fury ability is
active by an additional 50%. While this is an incredibly simple passive effect its impact is huge in your ability to
generate threat and maintain aggro on the target.
Holy Shield increases your Block chance by 30% for 10 seconds and Deals Holy Damage to anyone who attacks
while it is active allowing you to deal damage and generate threat. While it is limited to 4 charges you will also be gaining
Attack Power based on your current Defense Rating thanks to the addition of
Malleable Protection.
Vindication now reduces the targets Attack Power while granting you, the Paladin Attack Power as long
as the debuff is active. This both allows you to lessen the incoming damage from your enemies but also deal more Damage
and as a result generate more threat.
Changelog
- 07 Jul. 2024: Updated for Phase 4.
- 30 Mar. 2024: Updated for Phase 3.
- 11 Feb. 2024: Updated for Phase 2.
- 16 Dec. 2023: Guide updated.
More Classic Paladin Guides
More Season of Discovery Class Guides
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
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This guide has been written by Sellin, a former top 10 US raider and current season 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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