Season of Discovery Protection Paladin Tank Stat Priority
On this page, you will find out the optimal PvE stat priority for your Protection Paladin Tank in WoW Classic - Season of Discovery. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations.
Stat Priority for Protection Paladins
Defensive Stats
- Stamina;
- Strength;
- Agility;
- Armor;
- Intellect;
Threat Generation Stats
- Hit Chance (to 9%);
- Strength;
- Spell Damage;
- Intellect;
Stats Further Explained
Stamina
1 point of Stamina equals 10 hit points, having a high amount of Stamina as a tank is crucial to be able to survive any kind of encounter but especially against spell casters are you are not able to dodge, block, or parry incoming spell damage. Stamina is the most reliable as it is a flat increase to health as opposed to other mitigation stats.
Strength
Strength grants a flat increase to your Attack Power stat as well as giving a slight amount of block rating, due to the addition of abilities in Season of Discovery this stat has become even more valuable as a you can now generate a significant amount of threat with physical damage in addition to what you were already able to do with spell damage modifying abilities.
Agility
Agility provides dodge rating and a very slight amount of crit, while this stat can help your threat/survivability it is often not worth losing out on either Stamina or Strength to obtain.
Armor
Armor causes you to take less physical damage, while this is a great stat to have you do not really need to target it as all gear naturally comes with it and the majority of mail gear you will be targeting is of highest armor values currently available.
Intellect
1 point of Intellect equals 15 Mana and a small amount of spell crit. Intellect is an incredible stat for Paladin as especially early on mana can be an issue but due to many changes made in Season of Discovery you will not have to worry anywhere near as much about this stat.
Hit Chance
Hit Chance increases your chance to hit, which is the single largest
way to increase your threat generation, missed abilities generate 0 threat. With
the addition of the Rune Holy Specialization and various Weapon Specialization
Runes it will be much easier to gain Hit Rating though reaching either Melee or Spell cap is not realistic
or advisable as we will be focusing more heavily on Defensive Stats. The Melee hit Cap being 9% and the
Spell Cap being 16%.
Spell Damage
A considerable amount of Paladin threat comes from Spell Damage though in Season of
Discovery many of the new tools available to us such as Divine Storm scale
with our Attack Power as opposed to Spell Damage. This stat is still a key part of
playing Protection Paladin as it will bolster your abilities such as
Seal of Righteousness
and
Holy Shield to deal more holy damage when attacking.
Changelog
- 07 Jul. 2024: Updated for Phase 4.
- 31 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
Classic Reputation Guides

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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