Protection Paladin build for Wrath of the Lich King



I’m not dead. And to prove this, I’m going to answer one of my vis­i­tor, who asks the following:

Do you have any idea of where and how you’ll be using tal­ent points in wrath, for lev­el­ing and for raiding/instancing? Ive been look­ing all over the net for prot pallys and their respec­tive specs/preferences in the Wrath Beta, and Im not find­ing any­thing. With the huge changes, both in required gear, and talents/skills in general.…I was hop­ing for bet­ter guid­ance from some­one who may already be in there. Thanks in advance,

Mike (Thorn­dramyr of Rexxar/USA)

Well Mike, the build I would go con­sid­er­ing the cur­rent ver­sion that is live on the beta servers (Build 9014) would be:

Build for leveling

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZaxVA0kgteIRhoEb

Noth­ing to add here, the build is straight for­ward (3 cheers for Reck­on­ing — will be again useful).

Build for raiding/instancing

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZaxVA0kMteIRhoEf000M

Same build with­out Reck­on­ing and deeper into Retri for extra 2% dam­age. I some­how feel that the tal­ents aren’t really bal­anced yet to pro­vide an equal and fair dis­tri­b­u­tion of tal­ents (see the 1 point in Imp Devo­tion Aura and the 2 in Crusade).

Dis­claimer

Due to the very bad con­di­tions the Euro­pean Beta servers are/were until a week ago, I’m only 72 there so I’m not able to test these builds. We don’t have pre­made char­ac­ters avail­able also.

These build we’re made from the top of my head, after I read your ques­tion. They might change slightly or a lot, but this is what I would go for first.

Things to remem­ber: Pro­tec­tion Pal­adins will LOVE strength in WotLK. So act accordingly.

This post and the build are open to dis­cus­sion, as always.

That is all.

See More Pop­u­lar Posts:

• A Guide to Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin Glyphs
• Patch 3.1 Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin Specs and Glyphs
• Best WotLK Weapon Enchant for Pro­tec­tion Paladins
• Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin build for Wrath of the Lich King
• A ques­tion for all tanks

Sim­i­lar Posts of Interest:

• I refuse to blog about Wrath of the Lich King
• The cur­rent WotLK Pal­adin Pro­tec­tion tree is broken
• Unof­fi­cial World of War­craft Wrath of the Lich King Guide by Kil­ler­Guides Review
• Inter­est­ing Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin builds
• New offi­cial Wrath of the Lich King infor­ma­tion released

 

31 Responses to “Protection Paladin build for Wrath of the Lich King”

1. Mike says:

   03/10/2008 at 01:53

   Thanks for reply­ing so quickly. While it doesnt appear the cast rota­tion has changed, do you fore­see any rea­son com­ing to change the rotation?

   Reply
2. Tepisor says:

   03/10/2008 at 10:01

   Yes, the rota­tion will def­i­nitely change for 3 main reasons:

   - seals now last 2 min­utes, even if you judge them thus remov­ing the need to reseal;
   – intro­duc­tion of Ham­mer of the Right­eous;
   – Avenger’s Shield is now instant which means you can eas­ily throw that in the rotation;

   Per­son­ally I haven’t thought yet of a good rota­tion. Maybe I’ll do that in the next cou­ple of days.

   Reply
3. Tensas says:

   03/10/2008 at 13:03

   I would take Judge­ments of the Just and full Improved Devo­tion Aura over 2% extra dmg. We seem to be doing plenty of dmg for threat, but the 6% heal­ing and slow­ing incom­ing attacks by 20% seems worth­while. Or does Judge­ments of the Just not work on Raid Bosses? Also, I have been think­ing about Improved Ham­mer of Jus­tice. The spell inter­rupt mechanic is important.

   Reply
4. gar says:

   13/10/2008 at 15:04

   http://wotlkwiki.info/talent/paladin.html?tal=050020000000000000000000000050053503310251533312301550000000000000000000000000

   Reply
5. Ranto says:

   16/10/2008 at 15:06

   Is Antic­i­pa­tion nec­es­sary? Doesn’t dodg­ing mean you’re not hit (and there­fore not trig­ger­ing some reac­tive abil­i­ties and not gen­er­at­ing threat from reflec­tive damage)?

   Reply
6. Talent Builds in 3.0.2 (work in progress) « WoW Insanity says:

   17/10/2008 at 18:34

   […] I Tank Stuff (Lev­el­ing) (Raid/Instance) Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin Build for WOTLK […]

   Reply
7. Remi says:

   18/10/2008 at 17:34

   Anticipation’s worth it, as Bless­ing of Sanc­tu­ary has been retooled, and now dodg­ing and par­ry­ing as well as block­ing give the affected tar­get of BoS either 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% of their max­i­mum mana, so cou­pled with ham­mer of the right­eous and a solid rota­tion, you’re pretty set.

   Reply
8. haume says:

   19/10/2008 at 20:21

   Is just me or Threat is now hard to get com­pared to warriors.

   ive been n many 10 man and i just cant get the ago over them even AoE agro
   Same for retadins, they deal so much dps that i cant get any mobs on me … they go on war­rior because the war­ior use his new spell that trans­fer 10% threat of the retadin on him.

   im verry well geared T5 and hyjal gear now at 700 spel dam­age unbufed but still the retadin are over threat­ing me a lot.
   if only avenger shield had not a 30 sec cooldown.. it would be per­fect spell to spam with hamme of righteous

   Reply
9. Proto says:

   20/10/2008 at 16:10

   It is just you. Our threat is ridicu­lous now. I am less geared than you and T6 toons aren’t pulling off me. Maybe it is your cast cycle?

   Reply
10. Lagom says:

    21/10/2008 at 05:47

    What about “Seals Of Pure?” Doesn’t this look like an inter­est­ing area to spec in for prot pally?

    Reply
11. Tepisor says:

    25/10/2008 at 07:16

    @Lagom — “Seal of Pure” is inter­est­ing, but worth it only if you are hav­ing threat issues. And from what I’ve seen our threat sky-rocketed so those 5 points can be invested safely in other more use­ful tal­ents. Sorry for the late answer.

    Reply
12. Catylist says:

    23/11/2008 at 13:32

    http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/paladin/talents.html?tal=050000000000000000000000000050053500313251533312321532000000000000000000000000

    That’s my cur­rent build. It works great, and you sac­ri­fice noth­ing. Max Threat and max defenses.

    Reply
13. dui says:

    29/12/2008 at 21:50

    “now at 700 spel dam­age unbufed” i would think thats the prob­lem right there .…. drop the slow spell power mace and pick up a nice fast high white dmg weapon and get some str
    if any­thing war­riors cant keep up with aggro ive had war­riors ask me to stop taunt­ing mobs off of them when actu­ally i just ripped aggro and never taunted. The amount of threat we have now is insane run­ning heroic usaully the grp is dps­ing before i ever reach the mobs after throw­ing my fris­bee and they never take their eyes off me ;p

    Reply
14. Ozzee says:

    10/01/2009 at 00:06

    Threat has never been an issue, PERIOD. Even on an ini­tial tick of con­se­cra­tion is enough to hold aggro on hunters vol­ley right of the bat. Its true, I have taken aggro from war­riors with­out even taunt­ing. I actu­ally used 2 pts in pur­suit of jus­tice just cause I hate run­ning slow. Gives me a lit­tle edge on pick­ing up adds. I am the guild OT. Going into the holy tree is point­less. Guardians Favor and Reck­on­ing are point­less IMO. We actu­ally run Prot Warrior/ Prot Pally Hero­ics. LMAO I avg at least 2k plus DPS. Try it. 2 tank 5 man = NEVER WIPE & Easy Mode Achieve­ments! Ozzee — PVP Light­nings Blade. Check out my spec.

    Reply
    • Wrecktem says:

      17/02/2009 at 10:30

      I run as OT and also run with our MT and do hero­ics the way you said. Man talk about easy peasy. I still over dps any new­bie DPS’ers and get close to 2k myself. I love it and am hop­ing for no nerfs in the future.

      Reply
15. kuru says:

    26/01/2009 at 18:42

    im con­sid­er­ing on turn­ing my pally into a tank, but i need info/advice. im cur­rently only 73 and wanted to get some prac­tice in before hit­ting 80 and, hope­fully, doing heroics.

    what are some impor­tant things i should know… like which bless­ing, seal, judge­ment, tank rota­tion, stats to look for?

    im think­ing i should be using devo aura, sanc­tu­ary bless­ing, seal and judge­ment of wis­dom. hope that’s right. but im not sure what my tank­ing rota­tion should be after pulling with avenger’s shield?

    any kind of advice would be great, thanks

    Reply
    • Tepisor says:

      28/01/2009 at 11:44

      Hey kuru,

      Glad you stopped by.

      You got the bless­ings and seals cor­rect. At least, that’s what I’m using. But I always judge light, instead of wis­dom. It’s a per­sonal preference.

      Regard­ing stats, your first pri­or­ity is get­ting Crit capped. That means get­ting 530 DEF for hero­ics and 540 for raids. Then stack STA, STR and AGI in this order. That’s it.

      Regard­ing the rota­tion, my default one is: AS — Holy Shield — Judge — Shield of Right­eous­ness — Ham­mer of the Right­eous — Con­se­cra­tion. Then I repeat from Judgement.

      It’s not a per­fect rota­tion by any means, but that’s what I’m using and I never had any problems.

      Reply
      • Rekt says:

        13/02/2009 at 18:38

        So the Defense req is now 530, I see you wrote. How much does avoid­ance come into play now? I know we used to shoot for about 102.4 in BC. It seems that the gear selec­tion doesn’t include a lot of dodge/parry/block, and instead has fairly hefty defense bonuses.

        Here’s my cur­rent rotation…seal wis or cor­rupt, judge light — avenger’s shield, con­se­crate, shield of right­eous­ness to get fast threat so group can dps imme­di­ately, holy shield, ham­mer of right­eous­ness again, then go light a smoke, get a drink etc.

        I wouldn’t mind see­ing some gear rec­om­men­da­tions for prep for raids/heroics. I cur­rently have piecers from crafted saronite tank set, and pieces from the 75+ 5-mans.

        Thanks!

        Rekt
        80 Horde Pal­adin, Hyrdaxis

        Reply
        • Tepisor says:

          17/02/2009 at 06:59

          The defense required to be crit immune are 535 for hero­ics and 540 for raids.

          That’s the min­i­mum. It doesn’t mean this is a cap. After these val­ues, Defense is still the best stat to go for.

          102.4 avoid­ance was needed in TBC to be crush immune. Now crush­ing blows don’t exist any­more. Hence, there is one less thing to worry about.

          I’m not a big the­o­rycraft­ing guy, but from what I read, reach­ing 102.4 again means you’ll block every attack. I’ll look more into it and get back on it.

          Reply
16. Shabby says:

    04/02/2009 at 15:38

    I per­son­ally use seal of cor­rup­tion, using ham­mer of righeous­ness and avenger shield it puts some holy dots on what ever it hits caus­ing more aggro on mobs. I do judge­ment wise­dom though.

    Reply
17. Nextdoor says:

    17/02/2009 at 04:53

    Thanks for the thread. The info was exactly the kind of stuff I was look­ing for. One addi­tion, Shield of Right­eous­ness is train­able at level 75. As a 73, at the moment, it con­fused me for a bit; think­ing I goofed up the tal­ent build.

    I haven’t had much oppor­tu­nity to tank yet, but I can attest to the power of Pal­adins aggro hold­ing ablity. With Con­se­crate and Hand of Reck­on­ing, even the most aggres­sive DPS player can be han­dled. If not, they pulled some­thing from waay out of the cen­ter of bat­tle and THEY can tank it.

    Reply
18. Syn says:

    17/02/2009 at 18:56

    Why does your lvling build req lvl 80? maybe rethink that one?

    Reply
19. Kappy says:

    24/02/2009 at 20:31

    Hey like the site glad to see u try­ing to help prot pallys and some good ques­tions going on here:)
    I was hav­ing prob­lems with ret pallys and other hight out­put dps pulling off of me so i went to the net and put toghe­hter the foll­wing build http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Khadgar&n=Kappy
    along with this i use the glyph of ven­gence and the one for my ham­mers.
    rota­tion is SoV at all times Aveng. shield , holly shield JoL the SoR(look at my glyph it increases sheild for 5 sec after the judg­ment) HoR.
    with this build and rota­tion i was able to do almost 2100 dps on patch and aver­age 1800 dps stop­ping the agro prob­lems. This build and rota­tion is bassed of of my judg­ments there the most impor­tant try it and see what u think

    Reply
    • Dom says:

      05/03/2009 at 01:24

      dude.
      Why only 3/5 in Kings
      if you use it as your main Buff Full 5/5.…
      and if you use BoS don’t waste points in it :S

      Reply
20. Dom says:

    05/03/2009 at 01:22

    Seal of Wis­dom are you insane?
    With Divine Plea we rarely run out of mana..
    Seal of Cor­rup­tion is an insane dam­age dealer
    Stack Block,Defense,Stam and Strength
    I’m sit­ting at 1.4k Str and 2.5K Sta­mina Uncrit­table
    I’m doing insane dam­age with Shield of Rightous­ness
    Get­ting near 8k Crits.
    Devo Aura -> BoK for hero­ics for added Dam­age -> Seal of Cor­rup­tion -> Judge­ment of Wis­dom
    Avenger Shield -> holy Shield -> Con­se­crate -> Shield of R -> ham­mer of R -> -> holy shield -> Shield of R -> Con­se­crate -> ham­mer of R -> holy shield -> Shield of R — > Con­se­crate -> ham­mer of R etc etc, chuck in AS when ya can
    I hit 2.5k DPS ish , and will out DPS most peo­ple if its an undead instance.
    Being paly atm is awe­some
    Will be extra inter­est­ing with intr­duc­tion of Exorcism

    Reply
    • Neuron says:

      13/04/2009 at 01:49

      Dom, thanks for info, can you pub­lish link to your build pls.

      Thanks

      Neu

      Reply
21. Shabby says:

    05/03/2009 at 14:41

    im with dom here i do the same exact stuff as he does and end up almost out dps­ing a lot of dps

    Reply
22. Tom says:

    27/05/2009 at 13:43

    Hey just start­ing out as a tank and was won­der­ing a few things
    Firstly al lot of peo­ple talk about seal of cor­rup­tion — Has that gone out with all the recent patches?? If you could tell me where it is or what is the up to date alter­na­tive.
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Tepisor says:

      27/05/2009 at 16:42

      Seal of Cor­rup­tion is the horde equiv­a­lent of Seal of Vengeance. What side are you on?

      Reply
23. Tom says:

    29/05/2009 at 12:44

    Im on Horde , was just con­fused by the mat­ter

    Reply
24. Centillion says:

    29/01/2010 at 19:02

    If you want a good build.. Look up Cen­til­lion on Storm­rage. My char­ac­ter is great for instances, and with hero­ics at 80 will be able to raid with­out dif­fi­culty. Def rate for uncrit­table is now 540. Use the 9696969 rota­tion for max TPS/DPS. You use your 6 sec CDs fol­lowed by your 9 sec CDs.. Etc.

    Reply