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.
Talents
Protection Paladin talents in TBC are highly flexible. Many points are optional depending on your raid role, gear level, group composition, and whether you need more threat or survivability. When choosing talents, identify your weaknesses and spend points where they will have the most impact. For example, Blessing of Kings can be skipped if another Paladin already provides it. Broadly speaking, Protection Paladin builds fall into two archetypes: • Avenger’s Shield (AS): 41+ points in Protection, focused on ranged pulls and dungeon utility. • Sanctity Aura (SA): 21+ points in Retribution, focused on maximizing Holy damage and threat.
Choosing the Right Build
When to Choose Sanctity Aura
Pick Sanctity Aura when your raid’s DPS regularly pushes threat limits. It scales extremely well with gear and raises your long-term threat ceiling.
When to Choose Avenger’s Shield
Avenger’s Shield shines in dungeons and heroics, offering safer ranged pulls and smoother pack control.
Avoid Over-Splitting Talents
Protection has many optional talents, but the strongest builds commit to an archetype rather than spreading points across too many minor bonuses.
Adjust for Raid Assignments
If Blessings or other utilities are already covered by another Paladin, you can shift points into survivability or threat talents instead.
Avenger’s Shield (AS) – Dungeon / Utility Build
Avenger’s Shield is the defining ability of this build. It is a ranged pull on a 30 second cooldown that hits up to three targets, deals Holy damage, and applies a daze. Because the damage is Holy, it gains strong threat scaling through Improved Righteous Fury, allowing you to establish early threat before DPS begin attacking. Important drawbacks: • You cannot block, dodge, or parry while casting Avenger’s Shield. • The spell has no pushback protection and is risky to cast while being actively attacked. • Rank 3 costs a large amount of mana, which will quickly drain your pool if overused. In practice, Avenger’s Shield should be treated as an opening pull tool, not something used repeatedly during combat.
Sanctity Aura (SA) – Raid Threat Build
This build sacrifices some defensive flexibility to maximize threat by picking up Sanctity Aura, which increases Holy damage by 10 percent. Since roughly 80–95 percent of a Protection Paladin’s damage is Holy, this often translates to an 8–9.5 percent increase in overall threat. Best use cases: • Raids where DPS players frequently push threat. • Off-tank situations where extra damage helps while not actively tanking. • Solo and AoE farming where faster kills improve efficiency. Limitations: • Sanctity Aura does not stack, so the build loses value if grouped with a Retribution Paladin. • Losing Avenger’s Shield makes dungeon pulling more awkward without Engineering or external pulls. This is generally the strongest raid tanking build when threat is a concern.
Key Notes
Avenger’s Shield is an opener
Use Avenger’s Shield primarily to start encounters. Casting it while being hit is dangerous due to lost avoidance and lack of pushback protection.
Sanctity Aura improves with gear
As your Holy damage increases, Sanctity Aura becomes increasingly valuable, widening the gap between it and non-SA builds.
Threat needs dictate the build
If DPS are not threat-limited, the convenience and defensive flexibility of Avenger’s Shield may outweigh the raw threat gains of Sanctity Aura.