Protection Paladin Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.0.7)

Last updated on Dec 15, 2024 at 16:00 by Panthea 67 comments

On this page, you will find our Level by Level Protection Paladin leveling guide for The War Within. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Paladin leveling guide.

1.

Gear Options

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

2.

Level by Level Rotation and Talents

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 70
2.1.

Talents to Level Up as an Protection Paladin

This is our recommended talent tree up to level 80.

2.2.

Rotation to Level Up as a Protection Paladin

Protection Paladin rotation is a priority system, which means you do not have a strict rotation, but rather, when two abilities become available at the same time, you prioritize which one to press according to the rotation below.

When you first create your Paladin, you will only have one ability available to you: Crusader Strike Icon Crusader Strike. Once you reach level 10, you can officially specialize in Protection.

  1. Cast Consecration Icon Consecration
  2. Cast Avenging Wrath Icon Avenging Wrath.
  3. Cast Eye of Tyr Icon Eye of Tyr
  4. Cast Hammer of Light Icon Hammer of Light
  5. Cast Judgment Icon Judgment to generate Holy Power.
  6. Cast Hammer of Wrath Icon Hammer of Wrath on targets below 20% health to generate Holy Power.
  7. Cast Shield of the Righteous Icon Shield of the Righteous when you have 3 Holy Power (or more).
  8. Cast Divine Toll Icon Divine Toll.
  9. Cast Avenger's Shield Icon Avenger's Shield to deal damage to multiple targets, this spell goes highest in priority for damage against 3+ targets.
  10. Cast Crusader Strike Icon Crusader Strike.
  11. Your Crusader Strike Icon Crusader Strike will now become Hammer of the Righteous Icon Hammer of the Righteous or Blessed Hammer Icon Blessed Hammer.
  12. Cast Hammer of the Righteous Icon Hammer of the Righteous/Blessed Hammer Icon Blessed Hammer.

Active mitigation comes into play most of the time when leveling since we get Shield of the Righteous Icon Shield of the Righteous already at level 2. This means that we can spend our Holy Power on dealing AoE damage while also reducing physical damage taken by increasing our Armor.

Starting at Level 10, the Dungeon Finder opens up, and you can now queue up and test your tanking capabilities. Tanking at this level should not be too complicated, but it can definitely be very frustrating as other players will generally try to rush through it since it is such a low level. This means you may not learn a lot about tanking the first few dungeons, but keep playing, and you will learn while leveling. A more in-depth analysis of the rotation can be found on the rotation page linked here.

2.3.

Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Protection Paladin

To prevent cluttering the guide with a lot of the same information, we recommend you take a look at our dedicated spell page, which will provide you with more in-depth information on Protection Paladin spells.

2.3.1.

Protection Paladin PvP Talents for Leveling

  1. Steed of Glory Icon Steed of Glory increases the duration of Divine Steed Icon Divine Steed by 2 seconds, which means you can travel a lot further per Steed charge, allowing you to quickly get between two places. Note, however, that it does cause you to knock back enemies that get close to you, which can be a negative aspect if you are trying to gather them up to AoE.
  2. Warrior of Light Icon Warrior of Light makes Shield of the Righteous Icon Shield of the Righteous deal 30% more damage at the cost of less Armor granted. This is generally fine for outdoor content since tanks usually do not struggle to survive in outdoor content.
  3. Aura of Reckoning Icon Aura of Reckoning will give you passive additional damage after you are hit 50 times.
3.

Best Heirloom Items for Protection Paladin Leveling

When deciding on which heirlooms to purchase or use, you will want to target items that offer the most Strength. Choosing item pieces with Haste can help you kill enemies fast and more consistently, as the overall time until you gain enough Holy Power to use your Spender, which usually acts as your finishing move, is reduced with more Haste.

4.

Quest Rewards

You should equip new quest rewards when their item level starts beating out your previous set of gear.

5.

Consumables

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

  • Gunshoes Icon Gunshoes are a mandatory item for leveling. They provide an extremely large movement speed increase. It is a bonus comparable to what you get when flying. It is highly recommended you stock up on these items when leveling in The War Within.
  • Goblin Glider Kit Icon Goblin Glider Kit can be a lifesaver when jumping off large cliffs or when you want to cover a long distance.
5.1.

Gunshoes Macro

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

  • #showtooltip
  • /use Gunshoes
  • /cancelaura Gunshoes
6.

Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 80! Now that you have hit Level 80 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.

7.

Changelog

  • 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
  • 26 Oct. 2024: Updated Talents and Rotation Ability Unlocks.
  • 22 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
  • 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Launch with Hero Talent Choices to level 80 and an updated rotation.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated talent calculator for Patch 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated leveling tree to show correct talents per level.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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