PVE Protection Paladin Tank Guide

Prot Paladin Tank Guide

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Gear & Best In Slot (BiS)

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Welcome to the Protection Paladin guide for World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade Classic. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Protection Paladin in raids and dungeons. This guide includes rotations, gems, enchants and gearing information.

Best Races

There are four choices of races when it comes to creating a Paladin.

Horde

• Blood Elf: Blood Elves come equipped with a free ranged pull, Mana Tap and a free AoE silence, Arcane Torrent. These allow the Paladin to create a more seamless experience when completing dungeons since you’ll have less downtime.

Alliance

• Dwarf: Dwarves come equipped with Stoneform, which helps the tank in various situations but an important note to remember is that Poison and Disease effects can be cleansed with Cleanse and Bleed effects can be negated using Divine Shield.
• Human: Humans come equipped with Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization which increases our Expertise and reduces the chance our abilities will be dodged or parried
• Draenei: Draenei come equipped with Heroic Presence which is great since our Righteous Defense relies on melee hit rating, not spell hit rating

On Alliance, Humans are generally considered the best race to be a tank since we’re able to lower the risk of being “parry-hasted.”

Best Professions

Engineering

During Phase 1, Engineering allows us to craft Goblin Rocket Launcher which provides a significant amount of stamina. We can equip this in both trinket slots as it is not unique. During Phase 2, we can craft Tankatronic Goggles. Throughout all phases, we can create things like, Dense Dynamite to help with AoE threat and extra pulling mechanisms. We can also craft Field Repair Bot 110G, allowing your group to purchase reagents and repair any damaged items.

Enchanting

Using the enchanting profession, we can increase our total spell power by 24 with Enchant Ring – Spellpower on both rings. You do need to maintain Enchanting to benefit from the ring enchants, unlike in original TBC. It’s also a great method for making gold and a great way to help your guild members. 

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing provides certain pieces of gear (Bracers of the Green Fortress, Gauntlets of the Iron Tower, Helm of the Stalwart Defender and Oathkeeper’s Helm) that benefits tanks, but there is only one that you cannot buy from the Auction House or other players: Boots of the Protector The pattern for these boots drops from SSC (Serpent Shrine Cavern) which may allow the player to obtain Boots of the Resilient which provide more overall avoidance along with two gem sockets. 

Jewelcrafting

The main appeal to picking Jewelcrafting would be the improved gems (Falling Star) and the ability to craft Figurine – Living Ruby Serpent beginning in Phase 1. It has less Stamina than Goblin Rocket Launcher and thus lowers our survivability. It certainly appeals to casters but in terms of tanking, it’s not what would be considered to be optimal.

Leatherworking

The main appeal for raiders to pick up Leatherworking used to be stacking Drums of Battle but since Blizzard has confirmed that they are nerfing the usefulness of this item, raiders won’t likely be expected to carry them in TBC Classic.

Alchemy

In Phase 5, we can craft Guardian’s Alchemist Stone, which provides a significant amount of defense but in this Phase with access to Black Temple or Sunwell Plateau loot, we will be able to exceed the defense cap without the assistance of trinkets.

Gathering Professions

There’s no absolute benefit from choosing gathering professions until later expansions.

Reputations to Consider

The first reputation that Protection Paladins should focus on reaching Revered with would be Keepers of Time – We gain access to Glyph of the Defender, our head enchant of choice for the entire expansion, Timewarden’s Leggings, our Pre-Raid BiS leg item, and Continuum Blade, which is considered to be one of our Pre-Raid BiS weapons.

The second reputation that Protection Paladins should focus on reaching Revered with is Cenarion Expedition – We gain access to Strength of the Untamed, our necklace of choice to enter heroics with and use until we are able to purchase Necklace of the Juggernaut.

The next three reputations that we would be focusing on as a Protection Paladin would be The Scryers or The Aldor (Depending on your choice, of course), Lower City and Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Reaching Exalted with The Scryers or The Aldor allows you to gain access to Greater Inscription of the Knight or Greater Inscription of Warding, respectively. Reaching Exalted with Lower City allows you to gain access to Gavel of Unearthed Secrets. Reaching Exalted with Honor Hold grants access to Blade of the Archmage, while reaching Exalted with Thrallmar grants access to Stormcaller.