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Whether you are a new player or a long-time veteran, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight should provide you with a fresh new WoW experience, regardless of which class you choose to play. The new talent trees have diversified build options and given many specialisations multiple ways to customise their character's setup. Even with being a staple of the WoW scene, Protection Paladin comes armed with some new tools, alongside strong burst damage and a multitude of useful utility options for both you and your group.
This guide will showcase why you should try out Protection Paladin in PvE content. It will run through the best talent builds, rotation, consumables, and pre-raid gear, alongside some helpful tips and tricks.
Updated on April 9, 2023 by Alex Ferriday: The Paladin class received wide-scale changes in Patch 10.07, with the class and spec talent trees being granted a large rework. This guide has been updated to reflect the best new talent options for raids and dungeons, alongside altering some recommendations as to the best consumable choices for your Prot Paladin in Dragonflight.
Why Protection Paladin?
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Cons |
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Best Protection Races
Although WoW races differ in their passive and active abilities, the gaps are minimal, and you should always go for whichever you like the best.
Visually liking your character will help your gameplay a lot.
Unless you are looking to try and completely min-max your output, the difference in racial effects will not have much impact on your enjoyment of the spec.
That being said, there are some nice options to consider if you intend to try out Protection Paladin.
Race |
Racial Name |
Effect |
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Lightforged Draenei |
Strong burst AoE spell which synergises nicely with Prot's multi-target burst damage profile (2.5 min cooldown). |
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Dark Iron Dwarf |
Provides a good self dispell for poison, curse, disease, magic, and bleed effects (2 min cooldown). |
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Blood Elf |
A useful AoE purge that removes a buff from nearby enemies, especially strong in dungeons (2 min cooldown). |
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Tauren |
Passively increases your stamina by a flat amount, which is always welcome when playing a tank. |
Best Talents For Protection Paladin
Protection Paladin Class Talent Tree
A shared tree between all three Paladin specializations, the class tree will let you gather a bunch of extremely useful spells and some powerful passives.
Your route through the tree will vary slightly depending on your build, but the core spells remain very similar.
You can mix and match your utility choices depending on the situation, but don't give up offensive or defensive power to pick up more.
Best Protection Paladin Raid Talent Build
- Talent Build Code:BIEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA0SKJSKiyB0SSo1kkIBhEAAAAAAAAAAAIRSCJIJkkiEk0AgIgAIgA
The Protection raid talent build focuses on reducing the AoE capacity of Avenger's Shield and puts more emphasis on its single target damage.
The differences are not that large between this and the Dungeon build, as most of Prot's abilities are used in the same way whether you are facing one target or many.
Focused Enmity causes Avenger's Shield to deal increased damage to a single target. A standard raid build emphasizes single target damage, as burning down the boss' hp is typically the priority in a raid encounter.
Some of your Core Talents include:
- Blessed Hammer: which turns your Crusader Strike into a spinning AoE hammer, reducing damage enemies deal to you.
- Ardent Defender: a core defensive, which will save you from dying once during the duration, alongside reducing your damage taken.
- Grand Crusader: a proc that resets your Avenger's Shield cooldown, based on avoiding an attack or using Blessed Hammer.
- Bastion of Light: an old active, now taken in Dragonflight, this active ability causes your next three Avenger's Shields or Shields of the Righteous not to incur a Holy Power cost.
- Eye of Tyr: returning from the Legion expansion, this 1-minute active deals a burst of AoE damage and reduces damage taken from afflicted enemies.
Best Protection Paladin Dungeon Talent Build
- Talent Build Code: BIEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA0SaJkiodAtkko0kkIRkIBAAIAAAAAAAAaCJJFBSCJpIBCAICIAAC
Due to the nature of your AoE spells, the Protection dungeon build takes a few talents that enhance your multi-target potential.
Sentinel augments Avenging Wrath with a large survivability increase, and with Divine Toll moving into the class tree, you have a few more points to spend on talents such as Final Stand.
Additional class tree talents include Cleanse Toxins and Blinding Light, which are generally much more helpful in Mythic Plus content, owing to the higher number of enemies and debuffs encountered.
Being able to help out your healer with important dispels helps to make Prot one of the utility tanks around, and added to your powerful Word of Glory off heals, the spec can shine in a supportive role.
Bulwark of Righteous Fury is a former Shadowlands legendary and helps to empower your Shield of the Righteous damage, which is especially good against multiple enemies.
Additional targets hit thanks to Soaring Shield means you can quickly build up stacks and unleash them in an Avenging Wrath combo for large damage.
The removal of Holy Power gain from Avenger's Shield means Prot is not quite as spammy as it was in Shadowlands, and you may find yourself having to concentrate to keep up your Shield of the Righteous mitigation.
If you know it will drop, kiting can be a good next option, as you don't want to be face-tanking high-difficulty enemies without the damage reduction.
Be careful when kiting, as running out of your Consecration means you will lose your damage taken reduction from Divine Bulwark.
How To Play The Rotation
The Basics
As a Tank specialisation, Protection strikes a balance between dishing out damage and using their abilities to reduce incoming damage to stay alive.
While you are not solely focused on damage like a DPS, it is your job to hold the aggro of enemies, and doing as much damage as possible will aid you in this task.
Similarly to the other Paladin specs, Prot utilises the Holy Power resource. Certain abilities will generate Holy Power, up to a maximum of five, and others will spend it, using three at a time.
It is the core gameplay loop of building and spending that Prot relies on, and being comfortable with how the resource works is essential.
You do not want to overcap, i.e. waste Holy Power by continuing to generate above five.
Prot Paladin follows a pretty simple damaging rotation centered around keeping your abilities on cooldown. Your primary rotational spells are:
Sequence |
Ability |
Explanation |
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2. |
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3. |
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4. |
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5. |
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6. |
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Shift Avenger's Shield above Judgment in your priority list when there is more than one enemy present.
These are your core damaging spells, and you will build and spend Holy Power through them. However, there is one more core spell that also consumes Holy Power; Word of Glory.
This strong single-target heal can be applied to either yourself or an ally. Is it a great tool for self sustain and helping your healer(s) out with the group's health.
For pure damage, you would want to only spend Holy Power on Shield of the Righteous, but you can use Word of Glory liberally, depending on the situation.
If your health is fine, it is essential you prop up the group with this spell, as part of playing Protection Paladin well is looking out for your team members, as well as places to use your utility spells.
As a tank, you also have a number of important defensive cooldowns:
Ability |
Explanation |
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While some of these cooldowns are pretty long, they can be substantially reduced by selecting the best available talents as options, such as Righteous Protector, to help bring them down to a manageable timer via the spending of Holy Power.
These cooldowns are essential for keeping you alive if you are doing high-end content, and knowing when to use them is something the best Protection Paladins are aware of ahead of time.
Try to practice using them and figuring out when they are necessary. Some are stronger than others, and blowing a big defensive on something avoidable could be costly in the long run.
Divine Shield is a good panic button but will drop all the aggro you currently have unless you are talented into Final Stand.
Protection Paladin Macros
One of the most important macros for any class and spec is combining your trinket uses with your cooldowns. This can be done by referencing the slot the trinket is currently equipped, either slot 13 or 14.
You will want to combine trinkets with Avenging Wrath when playing a Protection Paladin.
- #showtooltip /cast Avenging Wrath /use 13
Another helpful macro can be to cancel certain buffs. Divine Shield will make you fully immune to all damage, but it will drop all of your aggro, and instead of right-clicking the buff, you can simply use this macro in place of the spell, and recast it to cancel the buff.
- #showtooltip /cast Divine Shield /cancelaura Divine Shield
If you need to interrupt an enemy at a set time, having them as your focus will allow you to use this macro for an easy interrupt rather than retargeting during the fight.
- #showtooltip /cast [@focus,harm,nodead] [ ] Rebuke
Due to having so many utility spells, there may be times you need to cast a certain helpful ability on an ally. Instead of having to target their player frame, you can use this macro in place of the spell, e.g. for Blessing of Freedom.
- #showtooltip
- /cast [@NAMEOFPLAYER] Blessing of Freedom
Best Stats And Gear For Protection Paladin
Once the first Dragonflight season begins, you will get most of your BiS (best in slot) PvE gear from the Vault of the Incarnates raid or high-level Mythic Plus.
Before tackling that content, however, you will want to gear up using easier methods. Both Mythic zero dungeons and early renown levels can set you up for a smooth entry into the season and can be farmed quite reliably without much time investment.
This list will prioritise items featuring the Haste stat but also include a healthy mix of secondaries. Here are the following recommendations for your Best in Slot Pre Raid gear.
Slot |
Gear Name |
Source |
Boss |
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Head |
Brackenhide Hollow |
Decatriarch Wratheye |
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Neck |
Uldaman |
Bromach |
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Shoulders |
Halls of Infusion |
Primal Tsunami |
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Back |
Ruby Life Pools |
Kokia Blazehoof |
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Chest |
The Azure Vault |
Umbrelskul |
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Wrists |
Iskaara Tuskarr |
Renown Level 14 |
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Hands |
Dragonscale Expedition |
Renown Level 12 |
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Waist |
Brackenhide Hollow |
Gutshot |
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Legs |
The Nokhud Offensive |
Granyth |
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Feet |
Maruuk Centaur |
Renown Level 11 |
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Ring |
Halls of Infusion |
Khajin the Unyielding |
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Ring |
The Nokhud Offensive |
The Raging Tempest |
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Trinket |
The Nokhud Offensive |
Granyth |
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Trinket |
Halls of Infusion |
Watcher Irideus |
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Weapon |
Neltharus |
Forgemaster Gorek |
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Shield |
The Azure Vault |
Umbrelskul |
If you can either craft it yourself or have the gold to purchase them, then getting some gear from Blacksmithing is the ultimate option for pre-raid.
The list above is orientated towards easy-to-acquire gear, but if you want to reach maximum power for the start of the season, consider investing in some crafted items.
Stat Priority
Your primary stat as a Protection Paladin is Strength, and this should be your number one goal in acquiring, as it directly increases the damage of your spells and the Armor gained from your Shield of the Righteous.
As a tank, you should also consider maximising your Armor and Stamina, as these will help to keep you alive, which is your main role. Additionally, you have four secondary stats to choose from:
- Critical Strike, which increases the chance for extra effective attacks and heals.
- Haste, which increases your attack speed and decreases certain cooldowns.
- Mastery, which grants damage reduction and chance to block magic damage whilst in your Consecration, overall chance to block, as well as Attack Power.
- Versatility, which increases damage and healing as well as reduces damage taken.
For survivability, your general stat priority should be:
- Strength > Haste > Mastery > Versatility > Critical Strike
Although Haste is your best secondary stat, once you reach around 25-30 percent, you can start prioritising other stats, as your rotation will be sufficiently smoothed out, and you will start to encounter diminishing returns,
Due to the flexible nature of secondary stats, you might want to try simming your character using tools such as Raidbots.
This will let you know which stats to aim for regarding DPS output, and if you are not having any trouble surviving, investing in more damage will always be the next best thing.
Gems, Enchants, And Consumables
As noted above, you will want to go for Strength followed by Haste when gemming.
Your best gems will be:
- One Fierce Illimited Diamond (Strength and Haste)
- Multiple Quick Ysemerald (Haste)
Gems are created via the Jewelcrafting profession, and you should try to socket the highest quality gems you can find, which will result in a higher amount of stats.
Your best enchants are:
Gear Slot |
Enchant Name |
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Weapon |
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Neck |
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Cloak |
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Chest |
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Wrists |
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Legs |
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Boots |
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Rings |
Your list of consumables is as follows:
- Phial: Phial of Elemental Chaos (Raid) / Phial of the Eye in the Storm (Dungeon)
- Potion: Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
- Health Potion: Refreshing Healing Potion
- Food: Hoard of Draconic Delicacies / Timely Demise
- Weapon Buff: Howling Rune
In the same way as acquiring your gems, try to get the highest quality consumables you can and remember to be well stocked up before taking on any end-game content.