Protection Paladin Tank Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

The Protection Paladin rotation is based on a priority system. The main goal with your rotation is to generate Holy Power that you can spend on Shield of the Righteous charges while also maintaining Consecration uptime. In addition to this rotation, you will have to make use of your Shield of the Righteous (and to a lesser extent, your Word of Glory) to stay alive.

If you are new to playing Protection Paladin, you can follow the Easy Mode page when still learning, which explains things in an easier way.

You can take a lot of this information with you when you run Mythic+ dungeons; however, the Mythic+ page is more dedicated to situations you constantly encounter in such instances.

2.

Protection Paladin Rotation

Talent Selections
Blood Elf	Bastion of Light	Moment of Glory
Templar
Lightsmith

Opener Single Target Rotation AoE Rotation

2.

Opener for Protection Paladin

1. Before pull: Pre-place Consecration where you will be fighting
2. Before pull: Pull the enemy with Hand of Reckoning
3. Avenger's Shield
4. Avenging Wrath
5. Hammer of Wrath
6. Moment of Glory
7. Avenger's Shield
8. Judgment
9. Eye of Tyr
10. Shield of the Righteous
11. Avenger's Shield
12. Judgment
13. Bastion of Light
14. Hammer of Light
15. Judgment
16. Shield of the Righteous
17. Judgment
18. Shield of the Righteous
19. Hammer of Wrath
20. Divine Toll
21. Holy Bulwark
22. Holy Bulwark
23. Arcane Torrent

3.

Single Target Rotation for Protection Paladin

1. Avenging Wrath
2. Sacred Weapon if you do not have Avenging Wrath active
3. Moment of Glory
4. Eye of Tyr if you have 0-2 Holy Power
5. Hammer of Light if you have any Blessing of Dawn stacks
6. Bastion of Light
7. Consecration (if you are not standing in it)
8. Shield of the Righteous when you are at 3-5 Holy Power to prevent overcapping on Holy Power.
9. Avenger's Shield if Moment of Glory is active
10. Hammer of Wrath
11. Judgment
12. Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer if Shake the Heavens is active
13. Word of Glory if you have Shining Light and Shake the Heavens is active
14. Divine Toll
15. Holy Bulwark (if you have 2 charges available)
16. Avenger's Shield
17. Holy Bulwark (if you have 1 charge available)
18. Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer if Shake the Heavens is not active
19. Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer
20. Arcane Torrent
21. Word of Glory if you have a charge of Shining Light and are below 50% Health
22. Consecration if everything else is on cooldown to refresh the duration

4.

AoE Rotation for Protection Paladin

1. Avenging Wrath
2. Sacred Weapon if you do not have Avenging Wrath active
3. Moment of Glory
4. Eye of Tyr if you have 0-2 Holy Power
5. Hammer of Light if you have any Blessing of Dawn stacks
6. Bastion of Light
7. Consecration (if you are not standing in it)
8. Shield of the Righteous when you are at 3-5 Holy Power to prevent overcapping on Holy Power.
9. Avenger's Shield (to get Bulwark of Righteous Fury stacks)
10. Hammer of Wrath
11. Judgment
12. Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer if Shake the Heavens is active
13. Word of Glory if you have Shining Light and Shake the Heavens is active
14. Divine Toll when you have 0 Holy Power
15. Holy Bulwark
16. Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer if Shake the Heavens is not active
17. Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer
18. Arcane Torrent
19. Word of Glory if you have a charge of Shining Light and are below 50% Health
20. Consecration if everything else is on cooldown to refresh the duration

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).

Shield of the Righteous is your main damage mitigation ability. It costs 3 Holy Power, and each cast grants you a 4.5-second buff that increases your Armor (the amount of Armor is increased by your Strength). Shield of the Righteous deals damage to all enemies directly in front of you and does not require a target to cast.

Shield of the Righteous is off the global cooldown, so you can easily fit it in together with your normal rotation. The exact timing for when to use it depends greatly on your circumstances, but in general, you should aim to have it active whenever you are taking significant amounts of damage. You want to never cap out at 5 Holy Power while using a Holy Power generating ability, but you also want to avoid using Shield of the Righteous when at 3 Holy Power, as you may not have time to build up the Holy Power again should you need it right after each other.

Word of Glory costs 3 Holy Power and is a small heal which is increased by your missing health.

Given its cost of Holy Power, you should wait to use Word of Glory until your health is at a comfortably low level (around 30-50% health) to gain the highest possible benefit from it without dying. Every 5 casts of Shield of the Righteous will give you a buff that makes your next Word of Glory free to cast. While this buff is active, you can not gain more Shining Light charges.

In certain situations, it is also worth taking a hit or two without Shield of the Righteous active (only do this when you can do it safely), but as soon as the hit lands, you instantly heal yourself back up and apply mitigation; that way, you can buy yourself a few seconds buy you time to build up Holy Power for Shield of the Righteous.

Hand of Reckoning is your taunting ability. It only works on a single target and has an 8-second cooldown, forcing the target to attack you for 3 seconds (even if you currently have an immunity effect active), putting you on top of the mob's threat table, and causing you to generate 3 times more threat for 3 seconds.

Given that you will have Shield of the Righteous active and be standing in Consecration while tanking, the below cooldowns should be planned ahead of time when you are going to take larger chunks of damage. Examples include: larger pulls in Mythic+ or Boss Tank Buster abilities.

• Guardian of Ancient Kings provides you with a 50% damage reduction for 8 seconds on a 5-minute cooldown. You should use this before a period of large damage.
• Ardent Defender is another powerful defensive ability with a 2-minute cooldown and an 8-second duration. It reduces all damage taken by 20% while it is active, and it causes the first killing blow against you to heal you up to 12% of your maximum health instead of killing you (the latter effect consumes the Ardent Defender). This ability is best used to bypass deadly encounter mechanics or to save your life in critical moments. It also allows you to play at low health and still be safe.
• Avenging Wrath increases both damage done and healing done by 20%, as well as gives your Paladin abilities 20% critical strike chance. This also gives you access to Hammer of Wrath, giving you more Holy Power.
• Lay on Hands is essentially a massive heal with a very long cooldown. It will heal you (or a targeted ally) for your maximum health, with a 10-minute cooldown. It is best used as an emergency heal, either for yourself or another raid member, if you are unable to cast Word of Glory due to its global cooldown or because you recently used it.
• Divine Shield makes you immune to all damage for 8 seconds. Normally, this ability is difficult to use while tanking (since the boss will immediately attack the next target on the threat table unless you Taunt it, and it only lasts for 3 seconds), but it can be employed to clear certain debuffs or to avoid fatal encounter mechanics. Final Stand, however, turns Divine Shield into a usable tank cooldown that makes you immune to damage while also forcing all enemies to attack you.

While the information we gave in the previous section will yield very good results, there are a few things you should be aware of in order to play your Protection Paladin to its full potential.

Divine Shield (and to a lesser extent, Blessing of Protection) frequently allow you to bypass or break certain encounter mechanics. While this sort of thing is usually an advanced technique, there are some simple tricks that you can use to great effect, even if you are not an experienced Protection Paladin.

Taunting a boss with Hand of Reckoning forces them to attack you for 3 seconds (commonly called a "3-second fixate"). You can use this in combination with Divine Shield to "cheese" certain mechanics. Simply cast Reckoning and then immediately cast Divine Shield. Then, use a macro such as this one to cancel Divine Shield about 2 seconds later. The idea is that while the 3-second fixate is up, the boss will continue to attack you, despite you being shielded by Divine Shield. For this reason, it is important to cancel Divine Shield before the 3-second fixate is up.

You can use this to remove many harmful debuffs (most DoTs and bleeds) or to avoid an otherwise fatal attack. Also, note that some attacks do bypass Divine Shield and this trick will obviously not work for those effects.

There are a number of encounter mechanics that choose a random target (or several random targets) from amongst a raid group. Many of these effects ignore players who are immune, having such effects applied when targets are being chosen. By using Divine Shield at the appropriate time, you can often divert the target choice to another player or, in many cases, eliminate the spell cast entirely, resulting in an easier encounter.

Blessing of Protection lets you pull many of the same tricks on other players (since you can cast it on any raid member). It removes many Physical DoTs and bleeds. In a raid team with several Paladins, this can eliminate the danger from an otherwise complicated mechanic.

In addition, mobs that fixate on a random player often ignore that the target is in fact immune from Blessing of Protection. This is particularly helpful when the mob targets a caster or healer, as it can allow them to skip kiting a mob and maintain their full DPS/HPS output.

Finally, Blessing of Protection frequently bypasses the target-selection mechanics the same way Divine Shield does. Casting Blessing of Protection on a player before the target-selection process can ensure that they do not get chosen. This can allow them to move to locations that would otherwise be dangerous to themselves or the raid.

Keep in mind that if you take the tier 4 Blessing of Spellwarding talent, your Blessing of Protection is replaced by this new ability that instead protects against Magic damage and sometimes prevents the application of debuffs. It does, however, not remove Magic debuffs like Divine Shield does.

Blessing of Spellwarding functions the same way that Blessing of Protection does, causing it to instead grant magic damage immunity. Its usage remains largely the same as for Blessing of Protection, but is adapted to magic damage.

Hand of the Protector can be used to help with off-healing a bit. But due to Word of Glory already being able to be cast on other players, the talent only makes it slightly stronger without fundamentally changing Word of Glory. This means an unempowered Word of Glory may be strong enough to push someone out of harm's way without the talent.

Sentinel replaces Avenging Wrath. Sentinel will start with 15 stacks of Divine Resolve. Each stack gives you 2% maximum health and reduces your damage taken by 2% for 20 seconds. After 5 seconds, you will lose 1 stack per second, but spending 3 Holy Power will prevent a stack from being lost. You retain the other bonuses of Avenging Wrath with Sentinel (increased damage and the ability to cast Hammer of Wrath at any target).

Final Stand allows you to continue tanking (and forces all targets within 15 yards to attack you) for the duration of your Divine Shield. Obviously, this turns Divine Shield into an even more powerful cooldown and can be used to completely negate boss mechanics for 8 seconds.

Auras are here to stay. They all function the same way they did in Shadowlands, with the exception of Retribution Aura, which now has an additional effect, making it even more powerful.

• Devotion Aura: When active, this Aura will reduce the damage everyone in range takes by 3%. This Aura will be used by default, the only exceptions to this are when you have multiple Paladins in the group, where one will use another Aura to ensure you all benefit from multiple Auras. In the scenario you have a Holy Paladin in the group, they should use Devotion Aura as their Aura Mastery will empower it to make it stronger.
• Crusader Aura: When active, this will increase all mounted speed by 20% for all players in range. Interestingly, this also applies to Divine Steed. This Aura will primarily be used when you are mounted.