Protection Paladin Tank Easy Mode — Midnight Season 1

This build is what you would use when you are fighting a Raid Boss which is on its own, Bosses that have infrequent add spawns, or Open World content. If there are going to be multiple enemies consitently we would recommend the AoE and Mythic+ build instead.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This is our recommended build for AoE scenarios. This works well for AoE Fights in Raids, as well as most Mythic+. It can work in all scenarios but some of the talents will have no benefit if there are not many targets available.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The main goal of your rotation is to generate Shield of the Righteous charges while also maintaining Consecration uptime. It acts more as a priority system rather than a strict rotation due to the high availability of most of the spells. If you would like to learn more about the nuances of how your rotational priority changes in AoE & Single Target scenarios visit our rotation page.

• Cooldowns: Use Avenging Wrath, followed by Divine Toll and Hammer of Light when they are available.
• Consecration should be used when you are not standing in it due to moving to a new location or it has timed out for damage reduction.
• To spend Holy Power use Shield of the Righteous when you are at 3-5 Holy Power to prevent overcapping on Holy Power. If you are below 50% Health use Word of Glory instead to stay alive!
• Generating Holy Power will be priortised in this order: Hammer of Wrath, Judgment Avenger's Shield (if you have a Vanguard proc from the Apex Talent), Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer
• If everything else is on cooldown you will then use Avenger's Shield or Consecration just to refresh the duration.

Note that the above-mentioned points do not cover how to use your defensive spells rotationally, visit the defensive spells portion of this guide for more information on those.

When you cast Judgment / Hammer of Wrath you will have a chance to gain Vanguard (this buff is guaranteed when you have Avenging Wrath active). This will lead to increased Holy Power generation, especially when you have Avenging Wrath active you will find yourself casting Shield of the Righteous more often (Casting this has no GCD meaning you can cast it and another spell).

Default to using Devotion Aura. If there is a Holy Paladin in your group use Crusader Aura instead.

The tier set bonus for Season 1 has no impact on the rotation for Protection Paladins and adds more damage to Shield of the Righteous.

The Combat Assistant one-button rotation mode added with 11.1.7 is a significant decrease in throughput compared to playing with a normal rotation, this is due to the rotation currently used and the additional delay it imposes on your abilities while in use.

As of writing the assisted rotation does not use Word of Glory or Avenging Wrath. Therefore it may lead to scenarios where you will want to self heal but not have the Holy Power available leading to potential survival concerns, it also deals significantly less damage than a standard rotation (Approximately ~40% less DPS).

We recommend avoiding its use for now, and instead to follow the rotational advice present on this page.

Shield of the Righteous and Word of Glory are your two active mitigation abilities (though Word of Glory is a heal, so it does not really mitigate damage). Since Shield of the Righteous is off the Global Cooldown, it is easy to fit in whenever best suited to reduce physical damage intake without upsetting your rotation. However, due to Word of Glory, being on the global cooldown, it is likely to delay your rotation when you use it. There is no issue with this if the healing will save your life.

Shield of the Righteous uptime is relatively high under normal play scenarios. Your aim will be to have it as close to 100% as your gear/talents will allow.

However, if you have low amounts of haste, you will want to pay attention to not overcapping the buff. It can be extended for 3x the base duration 4.5s x 3 = 13.5s. If you are above 9-second duration, try to avoid pressing Shield of the Righteous unless you are about to go over 5 Holy Power.

Due to the strength of Shield of the Righteous, it is best to try to use these cooldowns in a plan based on the damage you anticipate to take.

• Guardian of Ancient Kings should be used before a period of high damage intake or when your healers are unable to heal you for a while.
• Ardent Defender is best used to bypass deadly encounter mechanics or to save your life in critical moments or at the start of an encounter before you get your first Shield of the Righteous.
• Avenging Wrath increases damage done and healing done by 20%, as well as 20% critical strike chance. This is a good offensive cooldown, but also very useful defensively for self-healing.
• Lay on Hands should be used as an emergency reactive cooldown to top yourself off when you have dropped low on health. Note that you can also use it to save other raid members.
• Divine Shield can be used to clear debuffs or avoid fatal damage as you are immune to damage for its duration. Final Stand turns Divine Shield into a usable tank cooldown that makes you immune to damage while also forcing all enemies to attack you; without the Final Stand talent, however, the boss will not attack you and instead move to the next target on the threat table.

You can read more about all the spells in the spell summary page.