Paladin • Protection • PVE
Protection Paladin (PVE)
A spell-powered tank with unmatched AoE threat and strong mitigation, excelling in multi-target encounters with proper gearing and support.
Overview
Protection Paladins are significantly stronger in The Burning Crusade due to new talents, baseline Consecration, and the addition of a true taunt. While they are not always used as the primary main tank, Protection Paladins excel as raid tanks thanks to unmatched AoE threat, powerful utility, and strong raid-wide buffs. A single Protection Paladin is a staple in most raid compositions, enabling aggressive AoE strategies and providing critical blessings, judgments, and survivability tools.
Strengths
Exceptional Threat Generation
Threat is largely spell-based, making Protection Paladins extremely reliable on pull. Abilities like Avenging Wrath, Judgement, Exorcism, and Avenger’s Shield allow strong ranged threat before DPS even engages.
Best AoE Tank in TBC
Consecration provides unrivaled AoE threat, allowing Warlocks and Mages to freely unleash AoE damage and quickly clear large trash packs.
Powerful Raid Utility
Blessings, Auras, Judgements, and Divine Intervention provide unmatched raid-wide utility beyond pure tanking.
No Rage Dependency
Protection Paladins use Mana instead of Rage, allowing immediate access to threat tools without relying on incoming damage.
Versatility & Emergency Support
Capable of off-healing in emergencies and especially effective against Undead and Demon enemies due to Holy damage scaling.
Weaknesses
High Damage Intake Early
Protection Paladins take the most damage in lower gear levels and are especially vulnerable to caster-heavy encounters.
Limited Taunt Control
Only one taunt (Righteous Defense), which can be awkward to use and unreliable if initial threat abilities miss.
Immobility
Once Consecration is placed, repositioning is difficult. Unlike other tanks, Paladins lack Charge, Intervene, or gap-closers.
Reflective Threat Dependency
Much of a Paladin’s threat comes from reflective effects like Holy Shield, meaning threat drops sharply if enemies stop attacking.
Mana Reliant
Without sufficient incoming damage or healing to fuel Spiritual Attunement, Protection Paladins can quickly run out of Mana.
Races
Alliance
Human
BiSSword and Mace Specialization provide valuable expertise, reducing parries and dodges for smoother threat and reduced parry-haste.
Horde
Blood Elf
Arcane Torrent offers a powerful AoE silence and ranged pull, greatly improving dungeon flow and caster control.
Human — Best Alliance PvE Choice
Sword and Mace Specialization grant 5 expertise, reducing dodges and parries. This increases threat reliability and lowers the risk of parry-haste. Perception provides niche PvE and strong PvP utility. Best for: Threat consistency, raid tanking
Dwarf
Stoneform provides bonus armor and removes poisons, diseases, and bleeds. Excellent for physical-heavy encounters despite some overlap with Cleanse. Best for: Physical mitigation, bleed removal
Draenei
Heroic Presence reduces hit requirements for your party and helps reliability on key abilities. Shadow Resistance also provides useful mitigation against common magic damage. Best for: Party utility, hit consistency
Blood Elf — Only Horde Option
Arcane Torrent is a free AoE silence and Mana return, making dungeon pulls smoother and caster packs far easier to control. Magic Resistance adds small but valuable mitigation against spell damage. Best for: Dungeon control, caster shutdown