PvE Protection Paladin Tank Talents, Builds, & Glyphs

Protection Paladins in Mists of Pandaria have the option to spec into two different builds, depending on the encounter. Their talents are much more situational rather than overwhelmingly stronger than one another, granting Protection Paladins a fairly high amount of versatility.

Talent Build

Protection Paladins can utilize two primary builds, depending on the encounter and environment. Usually, the primary distinction between the two builds is either Single-Target or AoE. Some talents, such as Pursuit of Justice, Unbreakable Spirit, and Fist of Justice, are overpowered in most encounters, while the rest of the talent rows are highly customizable.

• Speed of Light❌
  For tanks, this talent is not viable unless you specifically take it to pull large packs of mobs in dungeons or the open world. Considering how strong Pursuit of Justice or Long Arm of the Law are, you will only want to use this talent in very niche scenarios.
• Long Arm of the Law✅
  This talent choice can be viable in PvE since Haste massively reduces Judgment‘s cooldown, although it is primarily seen as a PvP talent. It offers a decently strong movement speed bonus for 3 seconds after landing a Judgment, meaning that the effect can be sustained to some degree. However, without sufficient Haste, the Pursuit of Justice talent is better due to no downtime.
• Pursuit of Justice✅
  This is by far the strongest choice in this talent row, offering you a great passive movement speed! The effect increases whenever you have Holy Power, reaching up to a maximum of 30% passive movement speed. This option is slightly worse when you stack a large amount of Haste, becoming weaker than the Long Arm of the Law as the expansion progresses.

Level 30 – Tier II

• Fist of Justice✅
  Arguably the best option for most dungeon and raid encounters, Fist of Justice allows you to have a stun ready every 30 seconds instead of the classic HoJ 1-minute cooldown. While you can’t use it on raid bosses, you may use it on plenty of adds, making it a very valuable crowd control tool. It is also the default choice in encounters where the Incapacitate mechanic offered by Repentance is not viable.
• Repentance✅
  This is the other viable option from the second talent tier, and it’s great against targets that must be incapacitated and avoided. You will generally use this talent to create a CC-chain together with other players, and you will take it for niche encounters.
• Evil is a Point of View❌
  This is by far the worst option from this talent tier. The main issue with it is that it can create chain pulls, especially in dungeon environments, which may lead to wipe scenarios. The talent is only viable in extremely niche situations and open-world scenarios. It may be used to CC elites or an individual mob from a small group of dangerous mobs.

Level 45 – Tier III

• Selfless Healer❌
  This talent is better suited for either the Holy or Retribution specializations, offering the least amount of value for Protection Paladins. Since Eternal Flame directly synergizes with Shield of the Righteous, Selfless Healer can’t compete at all.
• Eternal Flame✅
  Eternal Flame is the strongest self-healing tool in your arsenal, directly synergizing with the Shield of the Righteous effect. In most scenarios, you will take this talent, no matter whether we talk about open-world, dungeons, or raids. The only scenario in which you wouldn’t take this talent is very niche fights where an absorption effect, such as Sacred Shield, is required. In addition, Eternal Flame is not affected by GCD thanks to the Guarded by the Light effect.
• Sacred Shield✅
  This talent is a suitable choice as a mitigation tool, offering a decent damage absorption effect. The effect is quite strong, scaling directly off the Guarded by the Light effect.

Level 60 – Tier IV

• Hand of Purity✅
  This option is viable in dungeon or raid environments where powerful DoT effects must be mitigated at all costs! While it is a situational ability that will only be used in some specific encounters, it is one of the most effective damage mitigation tools for DoT damage besides Divine Shield, which can nullify the damage entirely.
• Unbreakable Spirit✅
  This talent is considered the standard option for most PvE encounters due to how much value it provides. The 50% cooldown reduction to Lay on Hands, Divine Shield, and Divine Protection simply improves your survivability by a huge margin. You will take this talent in most progression runs, with a few exceptions where Hand of Purity is necessary.
• Clemency❌
  This talent choice is strictly PvP-oriented, having little to no real utility in PvE encounters. Since you won’t experience consistent hard CC in PvE, you will want to avoid this talent.

Level 75 – Tier V

• Holy Avenger❌
  While this talent may be viable when combined with a large amount of Haste if you choose to compete with the DPS specializations in terms of raw Damage Output, the reality is that you’re far better off using either Sanctified Wrath or Divine Purpose since it will result in far more Eternal Flame & Shield of the Righteous casts!
• Sanctified Wrath✅
  For Protection Paladins, Sanctified Wrath is both an offensive and defensive cooldown at the same time, allowing them to massively improve their performance for those 30 seconds while Avenging Wrath is active. Due to the spam sequence you can create while Sanctified Wrath is active, this talent provides the highest overall survivability, Threat Generation, and Damage Output.
• Divine Purpose✅
  Divine Purpose is a strong contender with Sanctified Wrath when combined with a very large amount of Haste. However, the RNG makes it somewhat less reliable, especially when considering that you can directly choose when Sanctified Wrath is used, as opposed to the randomness of Divine Purpose.

Level 90 – Tier VI

• Holy Prism❌
  This talent is not viable for a Protection Paladin, offering the worst option from the sixth tier. While the utility it provides can be helpful at the very start of the expansion, its effectiveness quickly falls off when compared to other options.
• Light’s Hammer✅
  This is the best option for AoE encounters, providing you with an ability that has no target limit, lasting up to 14 seconds. Light’s Hammer also provides a small amount of healing while active, adding some utility. The general idea is that you will want to swap to this talent for any AoE encounter and then swap back to Execution Sentence for any Single-Target scenario.
• Execution Sentence✅
  Execution Sentence is the best talent from this row for any Single-Target fight since it provides the best damage output. There is not much else to detail about the ability other than the fact that you will always use it on cooldown, while also being able to use it as a HoT for increased survivability in case Eternal Flame doesn’t keep up with the incoming damage.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Focused Shield
  A glyph that is very useful for Single-Target encounters, significantly increasing your Threat. However, the glyph is very bad for any AoE or Cleave encounter, needing you to replace it asap.
• Glyph of the Alabaster Shield
  A glyph that shines the more Mastery you acquire, increasing your Damage Output and Threat generation by buffing your Shield of the Righteous.
• Glyph of Consecration
• A glyph that allows you to place Consecration as a targeted AoE ability. This glyph makes it easier to do AoE pulls, being very useful in dungeon environments.
• Glyph of Holy Wrath
  Increases the damage of Holy Wrath by 50% against low HP targets. This glyph is useful for AoE farming or for holding aggro in dungeons. Especially useful for large pulls.
• Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous
  A more niche glyph that is useful in fights against targets that deal very high Physical Damage.
• Glyph of Divine Shield
  An amazing option for progression runs in encounters where debuffs must be removed, providing a considerable heal that can relieve stress from your healers.
• Glyph of Divine Protection
  A great choice for encounters where Physical Damage must be mitigated! Once again, this option is great for progression runs where you have to relieve stress from your healers.
• Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice
  One of the best glyphs for enhancing your overall utility, resulting in a direct damage reduction buff for your group!

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Righteous Retreat
  One of the two minor glyphs for Protection Paladin provides actual gameplay changes. The glyph allows you to escape from dangerous situations or open-world ganks.
• Glyph of the Falling Avenger
  The second glyph that can enhance gameplay for Protection Paladins! It turns your Avenging Wrath into a Slow Fall buff, allowing you to survive any fall that would otherwise be fatal safely.