I have always loved to experiment with different specs and to try them out. I’ve found 3 best-practice builds that can fit every aspect of a Protection Paladin’s role in a raid and/or outside it. They might look the same, but if you examine them carefully, you’ll see essential differences between them. Here they are. Key talents are bolded.

Grind/Quest build

0/49/12

Overview

This build is best put to practice when grinding large groups of mobs at the same time, like the Demon Hunter Supplicant’s in Shadowmoon Valley. It can be used to tank in raids like Karazhan or Gruul’s Lair, but you’re probably better off choosing another build if you want to tank higher content.

It has all the good stuff in it: Ardent Defender, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and Combat Expertise. Furthermore, I’ve also included Reckoning, the much debated talent of Protection Paladins. I don’t want to start endless discussions, but you’ll find out it’s very useful when you stick to grinding large packs of mobs because it procs very often and it really makes a difference.

The downside of this build is that it lacks even they slightest mitigation against Spell Damage. Also, you might want to be very careful how you manage your mana, because not getting healed means you don’t get mana back and we all know that a OOM Paladin is a dead Paladin.

Offtank build

0/46/15

Overview

As the name already state the obvious, this build is made for offtanking. It can be also used for main tanking, but in low end raids (Karazhan, Gruul, etc.). This is also the build I’m currently using.

This time around, Reckoning is not needed, as you’ll rarely tank more than 2-3 mobs at the same time. Also, you’ll find out that the better gear you’ll have, the proc rate will begin to drop (only natural since you need to take hits in order for it to trigger and better gear means better avoidance) so the 5 points invested here should go somewhere else. You’ll notice that I’ve included Precision (3% hit rating with melee and spells goes a long way - you don’t want your Avenger’s Shield to miss at a critical point or your Righteous Defense to be resisted - by the way, for those that didn’t know, Righteous Defense is affected by melee hit rating and not spell hit rating) and Improved Seal of the Crusader (for helping your raid DPS). Other than that, it’s almost the same with the previous build, with extra Spell Damage protection from Spell Warding.

Main tank build

0/49/12

Overview

Yes, the well known build that became a standard for all Protection Paladins. It’s like the flagship for all builds.

This build has it all. Maximum damage mitigation, maximum stamina gains, maximum Armor and Defense that can be achieved by talents.

For encounters with heavy Spell Damage, a wise thing to do is take 3 points out of One-Handed Weapon Specialization and put them in Pursuit of Justice, getting down to 0/46/15.

Ok, so there are my builds. If you could provide any feedback, it would be appreciated.