I had some spare time last week and while waiting for some BG queues I roamed around Shattrath and inspected some Paladins. I was really glad to see many Protection Paladins (apparently they are very popular on my server). To my surprise, I found some that made some big mistakes in their builds and gear. So here is a list of what I discovered along with some tips on how to correct them.

General guide in terms of gear

• You don’t need Agility, Strength and Intellect on your items. Sure, they are nice to have, but these are not your primary stats so seek to replace them. Remember Spiritual Attunement?
• What you need are Defense Rating, Stamina, Block Rating, Dodge, Block Value and Spell Damage. Stack these and you’ll do a great job;

General guide in terms of builds

• Don’t invest in Divine Intellect! Protection Paladins don’t need any Intellect in items or in talents. That’s why Spiritual Attunement exists;
• Don’t invest in Improved Devotion Aura or Improved Concentration Aura! There are simply much better places to invest your points in so going for these is just a waste;
• Don’t invest in Improved Hammer of Justice! Although stunning is useful in some situations, it’s not worth investing 3 points in it;
• Don’t invest in Stoicism! Even with the 10% stun resist chance you’ll probably still be stunned and besides, who needs dispel resistance? This is clearly a PvP talent and should not be part of any PvE build of a Protection Paladin;
• I saw some Protection Paladins with Pursuit of Justice. In my opinion, this becomes an useful talent only when you start main tanking high end content where every type of damage mitigation is very important, especially Spell Damage, where we are weaker than other tanks;

Common builds

You can check some of the builds I currently play with in this post: Interesting Protection Paladin builds. Also, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll do my best to answer.