PVE TBC Prot Paladin Tank Guide (Short)

Paladin Guide

Patch: 2.4.3

Author: Legacy-WoW

Welcome to our PVE Protection Paladin guide for WoW TBC. This guide will show you what you need to know to Tank as a Prot Paladin in dungeons and raids. This guide covers everything from talents to consumables. 

Talents

This is the standard Protection Paladin build for TBC.

There isn’t a lot that can be swapped around but one thing you could trade would be Improved Judgement and Blessing of Kings for Pursuit of Justice. Holy paladins usually have Blessing of Kings, so you won’t need it in a raid setting but it can be helpful in dungeons.

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Eternal Earthstorm Diamond or Powerful Earthstorm Diamond
• Red: Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst (only for socket bonus)
• Blue: Solid Empyrean Sapphire 
• Yellow: Enduring Seaspray Emerald or Rigid Lionseye 

Blue gems are only worth it to activate your meta gem. After your meta gem requirement has been met fill blue sockets with red gems.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear. 

• Head: Glyph of the Defender
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Warding or Greater Inscription of the Knight 
• Back: Dodge
• Chest: Exceptional Health
• Bracers: Major Defense or Fortitude 
• Gloves: Threat or Heavy Knothide Armor Kit 
• Legs: Nethercleft Leg Armor 
• Boots: Boar’s Speed or Fortitude 
• Weapon: Major Spellpower 
• Shield: Shield Block or Major Stamina 

If you pick up enchanting you can benefit from Enchant Ring – Spellpower on both rings. Spell power is crucial for Prot Paladin threat generation.

Stat Priority

• Defense (490 raid cap)
• Stamina
• Spell Damage
• Block Value

Defense cap is 490 and can be increased through Block Rating, Dodge Rating and Parry Rating.

Hit and Spell hit are also useful stats that help your threat generation.

Rotation

First Keep Righteous Fury up and use the appropriate Auras.

You would use Retribution Aura against physical encounters and Resistance auras against magic damage encounters.

Your rotation is as follows:

• Pull with Seal of the crusader
• Holy Shield
• Avenging Wrath
• Avenger’s Shield 
• Judgement

Apply Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Righteousness based on your faction.

Keep Holy Shield and Consecration up at all times.

Follow every Judgement with a Seal due to this not triggering a global cool down.

Consumables

Below is a list of consumables which help in any raid.

• Potion: Super Mana Potion, Super Healing Potion 
• Flask: Flask of Fortification or Flask of Blinding Light
• Elixir: Elixir of Major Defense and Elixir of Major Agility or Elixir of Mastery 
• Oil: Superior Wizard Oil 
• Food: Spicy Crawdad or Fisherman’s Feast 
• Drums: Drums of Battle, Drums of Restoration

Professions

• Enchanting – Enchanting both of your rings with Spellpower will give you 24 extra spell power! You can also save money by enchanting your own gear.
• Jewelcrafting – Great gold making choice and you can make your own gems early on. It can also provide starter trinkets, rings neck’s and epic gems.
• Alchemy – Alchemy is great because you can create your own consumables. This can bring their cost down while giving you a boost over tanks that don’t use them.
• Blacksmithing – While this sounds good on paper and will provide you with some starter gear.. It’s very expensive to level and your end game gear will mostly come from drops due to being a paladin instead of a warrior.