Holy Spank Batman! Complete Protection Breakdown

Holy Spank Batman!

A guide to Protection Paladin’s in Wrath of the Lich King

By: Hinata of Destiny, Arygos




With the release of the new talent trees in Patch 3.0.2 and the addition of Shield of Righteousness when you reach level 75; Tankadins have become versatile AoE and Single-Target Tanks. In this guide I will breakdown the different talents for your reading pleasure. I will also breakdown the necessary stats you will need to be effective in your tanking. I will than go over the usage of some of the abilities you will be using on trash and boss fights.



Talents, The Breakdown



In this section of the guide I will breakdown every talent in the Protection tree and give information regarding its use-ability in raiding. Each talent will have a number in brackets ranging from 1 – 5 rating it’s raiding effectiveness at Level 80. 1 being the best and 5 being the worst.

Blessing of Kings(Improved Blessing of Kings)(BoK) [4]

The base BoK(2%) is a good starter talent for a leveling Protection Paladin. Once you reach level 14 and have filled in all 5 points in BoK and Improved BoK it is a wonderful buff while leveling.

While not a necessary talent for Tankadins, in some and certainly most tanking builds it can usually be picked up. Especially if you are using the 6969 Rotation.

Divine Strength [1]

Divine Strength is a must have for any Protection Paladin serious about raiding. In the past Paladins needed to stack spell power to effectively build threat, but this is no longer the case. The new Protection abilities Hammer of the Righteous(HotR) and Shield of Righteousness(SoR) are modified by your strength and not your spell power. These abilities are the major threat gaining abilities for Tankadins and you need to stack strength to ensure your threat is well-held.

Stoicism [5]

This talent is not worth putting points into. The affects are more welcomed for a PvP build.

Guardian’s Favor [4]

This talent is decent filler for an Offtank(OT) Tankadin but can easily be switched out for Vindication(Retribution tree)

Anticipation [1]

Another must have for Tankadins. If you want to tank you need good avoidance and this is an easy 5%.

Improved Righteous Fury [1]

What is better than reduced damage? Well not taking any at all, but you take what you can get.

Toughness [1]

More armor = less damage. The movement slowing is pretty worthless. With the new shields having 7000+ armor on them that 10% stacks up fast and adds to your mitigation greatly.

Divine Guardian [4]

More filler than anything this ability is nice for an OT to sacrifice themselves to give the healers a slightly easier job.

Improved Hammer of Justice [2]

Can also be used as filler. This ability is decent with the addition of the interrupt to HoJ. Would be a much better ability if the interrupt worked as intended.

Improved Devotion Aura [2]

Useful filler ability with the healing increase to the party/raid. And the extra armor as well

Blessing of Sanctuary [1]

A must because it leads to Holy Shield. Also the gain effect is tremendously great on a tank because with high avoidance they never have to worry about not being able to use an ability.

Reckoning [4]

A nice ability for seal stacking. Picked up as filler to reach the 6th tier on the Protection tree most often.

Sacred Duty [1]

The stamina is a major buff for any tank. The reduced cooldown is decently good while leveling(or jumping off your flyer). The reduced attack speed penalty is nice allowing you to fight at normal speed while fully protected.

One-Handed Weapon Specialization [1]

The increased damage is amazing for threat gane. It is most definitely worth all 5 points to max out this ability.

Holy Shield [1]

A must have for Tankadins and a must be running at all times ability. This ability can and must likely will be the difference between you being alive and being dead.

Ardent Defender [1]

What is better than more reduced damage? Again not taking any but we take what we can get. This damage reduction gives healers a extra second or 2 to get that major heal off before you become boss monster munchies.

Redoubt [1]

The increased block value greatly increases the damage done by Shield of Righteousness and therefore increases your threat. The proc chance to block is very nice on boss monsters.

Combat Expertise [1]

Expertise is a needed stat as it reduces the chance you will be dodged or parried. Stamina is health the more the merrier. The increase to crit is just a nice bonus to give you a chance to get a super high threat gain.

Touched by the Light [1]

This talent is the soul reason Tankadins no longer need to stack spell power on their gear. You are now free to take that tanking sword/mace/axe and use it as a warrior would.

Avenger’s Shield [1]

The first ranged attack Tankadins get that is not limited to demons and undead. This is also their pulling ability.

Guarded by the Light [1]

The reduced spell damage is decently good, but the real reason for taking this ability is the reduced mana cost of your spells. This reduction makes SoR cost barely any mana.

Shield of the Templar [1]

More damage reduction. More damage. Live longer. Higher threat gain.

Judgements of the Just [1]

This affect has been tracked to work on bosses so it reduces the bosses white damage and makes the fight a bit easier for everyone.

Hammer of the Righteous [1]

This ability is the end of the Protection tree. This should be used when tanking 2 or more mobs for at least 2 shots before switching back to SoR to hold the target the DPS is working on at the current time.



Talents in Retribution for Protection Paladins



Deflection [1]

5% more avoidance for you to keep the damage off you.

Benediction [4]

This reduces the mana cost of Exorcism, Avenger’s Shield, Holy Shield, HotR, SoR, Holy Wrath, and all your Seals and Judgements. This ability is mainly for the OT who is not taking much damage and cannot rely on Spiritual Attunement to restore his mana.

Improved Judgements [1]

This ability is amazingly affective when you have any item or ability that your judgements trigger. 1 Point for the 6969 Rotation.

Heart of the Crusader [1]

A very nice benefit for the raid increasing the crit strike chance of all attacks against the target. Makes that boss go down a little easier and a little smoother.

Pursuit of Justice [1]

Increased movement speed is a major benefit in the tanking game especially on fights like Anub'Rekhan in Naxxaramas.


Talents in Holy for Protection Paladins

Seals of the Pure

More damage from Seals equals more threat. And with the upcoming changes that also increase the damage of your Judgements as well this is a significant talent for the Tankadin build.



Stats for a Protection Paladin



Here I will be listing the stats a Tankadin need to be an effective tank. These are by no means in any order.

540 Defense – A must have for all Tankadins and Warrior tanks. This is the level 80 cap to be uncrittable against boss mobs.

102.4% Avoidance – While not mandatory, thanks to the removal of boss mob crushing blows, it is very helpful. Tankadins are the only tanking class that can reach the block cap 100% of the time with Holy Shield active.

Hit Rating – You need to 295 Hit Rating to cap

Expertise – 65 Expertise Rating is necessary to cap. This can be reduced to 41 for Humans by using a Mace or Sword and to 24.6 for Dwarves by using a Mace. This is a soft cap

And as always stack Stamina but also stack Strength along with it. Tankadins, Protection Warrions, and Deathknight Tanks will all be fighting over the same gear.



Abilties and When to Use Them



This section will remain relatively small as I will only be discussing the two new abilities Hammer of the Righteous and Shield of Righteousness.

Hammer of the Righteous(HotR)

This ability hits upto 3 targets for 4 times your weapon DPS. This ability should be used whenever you are tanking 2 or more mobs to build high initial threat and make sure their wont be any healer aggro off the mob you are not targeting. Should also be used on Single-Target focus for that extra threat boost.

Shield of Righteousness(SoR)

This ability hits 1 target for [Shield Block Value(SBV) + 390] Rank 1 and [SBV + 520] Rank 2. With a decent amount of strength this ability can hit for over 2000 damage without a crit. This should be used at all times when tanking any mobs.



Small Information for the Protection Paladin



Just a few small tidbits Tankadins need to know.

You will want to have 2 weapons on you. 1 Tanking weapon with tanking stats i.e. defense, hit rating, expertise. The other should be a spell power weapon. The reason behind this is when you tank 4+ mobs you rely heavily on Consecrate to hold aggro on some of the mobs because your HotR will only hit 3 targets. The extra spell power from the spell power weapon will be more than enough to sustain aggro on the extra mobs. The spell power weapon does not need to be epic just enough to give your Consecrate that extra boost to hold the extra mobs.


6969 Rotation Macros

I did not make these macros I found them on another thread on the site. All kudos for their creation go to that user.

9 Second

I think you're massively undervaluing Improved Devotion Aura.
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I am a sexy, shoeless God of War!

Oh and it's 102.4%, not 102.5 for block capped.

And where do you get the Expertise cap from?

65 Expertise Rating at 80 is 8 Expertise. Adding in the 6 from Combat Expertise brings us to 14, or 3.5% reduction in block/parry/dodge. I assume you're also counting in the 10 Expertise from the SoV glyph which brings us to a 6% reduction, which is roughly the point where Dodge is eliminated and Expertise loses some of it's effectiveness.

The problem is you don't say any of this. You don't offer any real explaination for most of your ratings. It's less of a "complete" guide and more of a quick review.
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I am a sexy, shoeless God of War!

Imp Devo is an easy 2 on your ranking scales, and reckoning is definitely a 5

i'd put HoJ as 3 or even 4 for 25-mans.

Benediction's a 3 or maybe 4, you don't really need it, it's a filler.
Vindication is a 5. ALmost nothing hurts from taking it and the mob's loss is nigh-irrelevant.
You completely missed Pursuit of Justice, Seal of Command, Heart of the Crusader, Improved Blessing of might and Conviction. PoJ and Heart are a 3, and the others are a 4 or 5.
Seals of the Pure, in Holy tree, is also a notable 3 or 4
"Uncrushability" is at 102,4 and not 102,5%
While the hit/expertise values are mentioned, i'd add that they're not mandatory, but just a limit in case you reach it. New tanks can barely afford more hit/exp than what comes natively in tank gear.

I'd also add that HotR, regardless of the number of targets, is a worthy ability to use and your #2 single-target threat move(#1 being ShoR), ShoR and HotR are always to be used whenever there's any kind of focus target killing to be done, and HotR just never leaves your threat gen moves' priority.

The 2 weapons comment... I don't know how much it's worth to have a second weapon early on either. It's definitely something to look for but not a priority.


Blessing of Kings: Blessing of Kings is actually very likely to be in your hands. Holy Paladins, at least early on, will surely go into Ret instead of Prot for the extra 8% crit they can get there.

Ret paladins are the ones who can best give BoK, followed by Prot Paladins and then by holy paladins. SPec for what you have, if you can't rely on smoeone else to Kings, then it's up to you(and you can't expect "Pugadins" to have it)
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Death Spacegoat and Spankadin in development.
Definitely not Konata-chan.

You're forgetting seals of the pure, which is in most L80 tankadin builds to some degree.

You might mention that one point (ONLY) in improved judgement helps with the 6969 rotation.

I am not convinced about benediction for a main tank: mana should not be such an issue.

I disagree about avoiding kings, but that argument's been done to death in the talents sub-forum.

Thanks for the guide. It's great to see people putting some time and effort into Maintankadin rather than just negative comments and flame wars

I agree with Ulushnar's points; several details here are either incorrect or do not reflect any consensus I've seen. A good start though.

Improved Devotion Aura is 602 armor that you can't get any other way, and nobody else in a raid is going to take this talent. This aspect of it is too often underrated IMO.
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Gladiator Psiven, 80 Tankadin
Bloodsail Admiral Psivenia, 70 Warrior
70 Belfadin, 62 Druid, 60 Priest, 60 Warlock
Longtime addict of Space - Glory Through Conquest

Imp.Stoneskin totem is X+20% rather than X+30% armour, and if you have 2 shammies in the raid you will have that up since there aren't many raid buffing Earth totems.

Its not quite as good as imp.devo though, and you might not be in range of it all the time.

Imp Devo is a solid talent for a few reasons:

1) You're not always in range of your tree for the drood healing equiv.

2) You don't lose your healing if your drood goes boom.

3) As mentioned by prior posters you simply can't gain the armor elsewhere with a static click.

4) You're also giving that armor to your other tanks as in most cases tanks are (relatively) close to each other.


Also, I've found that imp hoj has fairly impressive raid utility now that it interrupts spell casting. As much as we like to wave off the trash on the way to bosses, it is still something that needs to be done. There's also enough bosses with adds that are susceptible to the hammer that its worthwhile as a pick up.

Your numbers on expertise are very -very- wrong. True expertise cap is ~15% to completely stop all parries as well as dodges. I'm not necessarily advocating that you go out and try for this, but that is the true expertise cap.

Finally, another note on the 102.4 number to beginning tankadins in particular: Don't sweat this initially. It is NOT easy to obtain out of the gate. Yes, it is something you want to aim for, but you can't build Rome in a day.
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Arthas, we're coming for you. (Eventually)

Just a heads up, Vindication would never be taken by a Prot Paladin in pretty much any build, and it does not in fact work on bosses.
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2/2 in Imp Judgments is generally considered to be a wast of 1 talent point. In the current 6969 rotation reducing your Judgment cool downs to 8 seconds will generally be wasted. 1/2 in Imp Judgments allows your Judgments to fit nicely in our threat rotation as it sets the Judgment cool down to 9 seconds.

Another thing to consider when looking at talents is whether you'll be running primarily 5/10 mans or 25 man. In a 25 man setting you can fairly safely assume that others will be around to handle certain abilities (such as Kings, Heart of the Crusader, spell interrupts) so you can focus on talents that strictly improve your ability to tank the mob in your face. In a 5/10 man setting, it's more likely that you'll be the only on who can offer some of these abilities so you need to at least consider a more flexible build. If your primary focus will be on 5/10 man content then I'd definitely value Blessing of Kings, Heart of the Crusader, and to some degree Imp Hammer of Justice more.

As for Vindication...it would be the most OP talent in the game if it worked on bosses. I might consider taking it for timed run rewards/achievements if it was found to significantly speed up trash mobs, but only if I already out geared the encounter to begin with.
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Revisions posted.
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Hinata of Crit Happens - 80 - Arygos