Paladin Protection (WoW Talent Tree)  

See Paladin Talent Builds

Primary Uses

The protection tree is the paladin's tanking tree, specializing in reducing incoming damage and generating threat. There are many early talents in the tree that can be useful for Holy or Retribution paladins to round out their build and add some survivability. Deeper in the tree, however, the focus is entirely on tanking.

Tier 1

• Blessing of Kings - Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing total stats by 2% for 30 minutes. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.
• Improved Blessing of Kings (4 - Requires Blessing of Kings) - Increases the effectiveness of Blessing of Kings by an additional 2/4/6/8%.
• Divine Strength - Increases your total Strength by 3/6/9/12/15%.

Tier 2

(Requires 5 point in Protection)

• Stoicism - Reduces the duration of all Stun effects by an additional 30% and reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by an additional 10/20/30%.
• Guardian's Favor - Reduces the cooldown of your Hand of Protection by 60/120 sec and increases the duration of your Hand of Freedom by 2/4 sec
• Anticipation - Increases your chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Tier 3

(Requires 10 point in Protection)

• Improved Righteous Fury (3) -
• Toughness (5) -

Tier 4

(Requires 15 point in Protection)

• Divine Guardian (2) -
• Improved Hammer of Justice (3) -
• Improved Devotion Aura (3) -

Tier 5

• Spell Warding - All spell damage taken is reduced by 4%
• This is a very nice talent to pick up, particularly for tanking paladins. Paladins have no innate skill to mitigate or prevent spell damage so having this, along with Improved Righteous Fury allows 10% mitigation on all incoming spell damage.
• Blessing Of Sanctuary - Reduces damage deal from all sources and when melee attacks are blocked, the attacker will take a set amount of holy damage.
• This is a must have for tanking paladins. The damage reduction and reflection are great but it's mandatory because it's required to pick up Holy shield in Tier 7.
• Reckoning - Gives a chance, when hit by any damaging attack, to have your next 4 swings within 8 seconds generate an additional attack.
• This is a fantastic skill for leveling protection paladins, particularly if you're going to be doing any AoE grinding/questing. If 5 or 6 mobs are attacking you, this will proc almost constantly allowing you to quickly burn down enemies. It does lose it's luster past Kara because any tanking paladin will, by that point, have so much pure avoidance or be working toward that, they they won't be getting hit as often. Still a great talent for leveling and through many of the level 70 instances.

Tier 6

• Sacred Duty - Increases total stamina by 6%, reduces the cooldown on your Divine Shield by 60 seconds and reduces the attack speed penalty by 100%
• This is generally picked up by tanking paladins just for the additional stamina. Having the extra 6% allows a little more room when gearing to pick up avoidance or other stats. The Divine Shield effects are good for solo play, but obviously a tank should never bubble.
• One-Handed Weapon Specialization - Increases all damage dealt while a one-handed melee weapon is equipped by 5%
• This is a fantastic talent. Note that it doesn't just increase your white weapon damage (which, for a tanking paladin, is minuscule) but all damage while a one-handed weapon is equipped.

Tier 7

• Holy Shield - Increase block chance by 30% for 10 seconds and deals holy damage after each blocked attack. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 35% additional threat. Each blocked attack consumes a charge. 4 Charges.
• This is a requirement for tanking not just for the threat but for the additional block. Remember to have Holy Shield active when you're checking your uncrit/uncrush status.
• Improved Holy Shield - Increases damage caused by your Holy Shield by an additional 25% and increases charges available by 4.
• Like Holy shield this is mandatory. The additional charges help a tank to maintain uncrushability against faster attacking bosses like Prince.
• Ardent Defender - When you have less than 35% health damage from all attacks is reduced by 30%
• There's some debate on the usefullness of this ability. In many situations it can make all the difference in the world. But against some enemies, it's possible for them to leapfrog the 35% health and just outright kill you. Some reasoning is if you're consistently getting below 35% health then there are other problems. That said it can make or break certain situations. If you have the points, it may be worth spending them here.

Tier 8

• Combat Expertise - Increases your expertise by 5 and your total stamina by 10%.
• This one is nice to have just for the stamina boost as paladins generally have the lowest health of all of the tanking classes.

Tier 9

• Avenger's Shield - Hurls a shield at the enemy causing a high amount of holy damage, dazing them and jumping to 2 additional enemies.
• While this isn't a must have (and many raiding builds will skip this one) it is nice in instances to have a ranged pull. Note though that it's not a precise one. If you're facing 4 mobs and the rogue saps one, you can almost guarantee that the shield will breakl the sap. THat said, if you crowd control after the pull it can be very helpful. The high threat to you means that if a sheep or a seduce breaks that you don't have a dead mage or succubus. Handy to have but not a requirement. But seriously, it looks cool. How many classes get to throw a glowing picnic table at mobs?

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