Protection Paladin Gearing Guide

Season 3 Protection Paladin Tier Set Bonuses

In Season 3 of The War Within, Blizzard is once again experimenting with tier bonuses, tying them to hero trees instead of specs, meaning that both Lightsmith and Templar have different bonuses for you to use.

Lightsmith

• (2) Set Bonus: Hammer and Anvil’s damage is increased by 15% and it can also be activated by Blessed Hammer and Hammer of the Righteous at 40% effectiveness
• (4) Set Bonus: Hammer and Anvil also grants a stack of Masterwork, causing your next Holy Armament to cast one lesser version of itself on a nearby ally for each stack.

The first of 2 solid tier bonuses, Lightsmith gets some more crit synergy with additional generators proccing Hammer and Anvil, which is particularly nice in multi-target scenarios like M+ where a single Blessed Hammer is basically guaranteed to proc it. There are some safeguards in place to not make this bonus insanely OP, such as a single cast of Blessed Hammer can only being able to proc Hammer and Anvil once and Masterwork stacks being capped at 5.

Despite those restrictions there are some interesting interactions that you’ll want to beware of, including the Sacred Weapon tied to Avenging Wrath triggering the 4-piece bonus and extra Masterwork stacks gained beyond the cap of 5 instead refreshing the duration and firing off a lesser armament to a nearby ally immediately, meaning you’ll want to think about when you press abilities that spend these stacks.Overall this set bonus is looking quite good in both raid and M+, where it seems like Lightsmith is beating out Templar slightly based on current tuning.

Templar

• (2) Set Bonus: Empyrean Hammers deal 20% increased crit damage and their crits have a 50% chance to grant an additional stack of Light’s Deliverance
• (4) Set Bonus: Hammer of Light deals 35% increased damage to its primary target, strikes 3 additional secondary targets, and can be cast 1 more time after Eye of Tyr

Templar is also gaining some more value from crit thanks to the 2p bonus, allowing you to stack up to 60 Light’s Deliverance much faster than in season 2, meaning more Hammer of Light casts. Combined with the 4p bonus that makes Hammer of Light better in ST and AoE that's a lot of extra damage, especially when it also gives you an extra Hammer of Light cast per Eye of Tyr. Having so many extra casts of this defining hero ability is not only satisfying, but it also makes it way easier to maintain your Shake the Heavens buff, increasing the skill floor while also introducing the ability to adjust your rotation slightly to maximize the uptime of Undisputed Ruling

The tables below aim to give you a general list of gear that is good for Protection Paladin, these lists are not a perfect replacement for simming your character.

• Overall
• Raiding
• Mythic+

Note that this section will not include every single trinket, just the most competitive or controversial ones.

Raid Trinkets

Eradicating Arcanocore (Plexus Sentinel) - This is a relatively mediocre offensive trinket with some ST upside, plus it provides passive primary whereas most other offensive options don’t. That being said the damage proc is fairly weak, so this isn’t something you’re going to want to use long term.

Astral Antenna (Loom’ithar) - This crit proc trinket is very similar to Pacemaker, with a slightly stronger proc that can overlap but is significantly less consistent. It being a raid drop means its also easier to get on the Myth track, so while it’s not going to be BiS it’s a solid alternative.

Loom’ithar’s Living Silk (Loom’ithar) - A healer trinket that can also be used by tanks, this isn’t good for personal throughput but potentially has some niche value in M+ as it gives you a group defensive on a 1.5min CD.

Soulbinder’s Embrace (Soulbinder Naazindhri) - This is looking to be the best defensive trinket available this season, providing passive primary stat with a 1min on-use absorb shield to smooth out your damage intake. If you need a defensive option I recommend this over something like the Ritual Mud trinket.

Araz’s Ritual Forge (Forgeweaver Araz) - This on-use trinket gives a ton of primary stat the decays over the 30s duration, however the cooldown is a bit awkward for paladin as it doesn’t line up for every cast of wings and instead you need to sit on it for a bit in order to have it for every other cast. I can see this being very strong specifically on damage amps, but outside of that I think there are better on-use options.

Brand of Ceaseless Ire (The Soul Hunters) - A powerful, tank specific trinket that works similarly to Eye of Kezan from season 2, this is shaping up to be one of the strongest offensive trinket available this season in all forms of content, plus it even has some defensive upside. The decay on stacks is also more forgiving than Eye of Kezan, meaning even if you have some gaps in combat in a M+ environment you’re still able to retain a decent number of stacks.

Unyielding Netherprism (Fractillus) - A very interesting trinket option that increases in strength over time until you choose to spend the stacks, similar to Spymaster’s Web from season 1 but for Agility and Strength users. This is really nice paired with Avenging Wrath which also has a variable cooldown, allowing you to have some additional power on every cast of the ability instead of every other like Araz’s Ritual Forge. The main downside is that there are no passive stats on it, only a passive damage proc, so defensively this trinket is quite weak.

Perfidious Projector (Nexus-King Salhadaar) - An on-use trinket with a large damage hit on a 2min CD, this is great if you need to burst something down quickly or for damage amps, though you likely need to highroll some crits for it to be better than some of the other damage options.

All-Devouring Nucleus (Dimensius, the All-Devouring) - This cheat death trinket is looking to be quite weak, as the effect itself only puts you at 20% health when it procs with no other DR effect, leaving you very vulnerable and likely to die immediately after. It also lacks primary stat, making it something you’ll almost always pass on.

Mythic+ Trinkets

Cursed Stone Idol (Halls of Atonement) - The only 1.5min CD trinket available to Paladin this season, this one is actually pretty nice with an effect that scales in AoE and passive primary state, making it a decent in-between option if you want an on-use trinket that has more defensive value while also being closer to matching Avenging Wrath’s cooldown.

Codex of the First Technique (Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder) - This trinket was very controversial back in Shadowlands, however moving into Season 3 it just generally seems undertuned both in terms of the defensive value and damage output, so you’ll want to avoid it in all situations.

Ticking Sack of Terror (Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder) - This is a decent pure damage option, not as strong as some of the other trinkets this season but something you’ll be happy to use until you can get a Brand of Ceaseless Ire and Tome of Light’s Devotion.

So’leah’s Secret Technique (Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit) - A stat stick trinket where the stat it provides is based on the highest stat of the person you use it on, so it can be quite good if you’re able to find someone who gives the secondary you want. When both your personal and given benefit are taken into account this trinket is also over budget, making it a very good passive option, just make sure you remember to rebuff your target as needed as the bonus only lasts for 30mins.

Ara-Kara Sacbrood (Ara-Kara) - While this trinket was very good back in season 1, with the options available in season 3 it seems like it’s falling behind a bit, particularly for tanks who favour trinkets that provide a bit more consistency. Still it's a solid option, and can be one of the strongest trinkets this season if you high roll stacks.

Void Pactstone (The Dawnbreaker) - This passive trinket has a small damage proc that also provides haste, and while decent this isn’t anything worth hunting for, just something nice to hold you over until you find a better option.

Signet of the Priory (Priory of the Sacred Flame) - This returning on-use trinket remains a fine option, however similar to Araz’s Ritual Forge it's a bit off lining up properly with Avenging Wrath since its on a 2min CD. It also is a bit weaker comparatively since it gives secondary instead of primary, however passively it’s better since it has that missing strength there, so it’s a tradeoff.

Tome of Light’s Devotion (Priory of the Sacred Flame) - This trinket swaps between giving passive armor with a magic shield proc and passive crit with a damage proc, and is once again looking to be one of the most powerful offensive options available to tanks this tier. It has an on-use effect on a 1.5 minute CD that immediately swaps what effect the trinket gives without hitting the 50 stack swap threshold, and if you use it such that you stay in the crit and damage proc effect as much as possible this can do a massive amount of damage. Importantly this on-use effect does not share a cooldown with other on-use weapons or trinkets, so it can be paired with another on-use trinket without much fuss.

Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker (Operation: Floodgate) - This passive stat trinket option offers a crit buff that procs every minute and can be extended by further crits, up to a max of 30s. This extension is quite easy to maintain in both ST and AoE as long as you have uptime, making it a powerful passive choice for raw stats in all forms of content, particularly if you can time the proc to overlap with Avenging Wrath.

Ringing Ritual Mud (Operation: Floodgate) - Returning in season 3, this defensive option is a bit niche, gaining value specifically in situations where you’re taking a lot of periodic damage to reduce its cooldown. Outside of that I prefer Soulbinder’s Embrace, which has a lower base cooldown and has passive primary stat instead of the mud’s versatility.

Trinket Recommendations

• Raid - Tome of Light’s Devotion and Brand of Ceaseless Ire
• M+ Dungeons - Brand of Ceaseless Ire and So’leah’s Secret Technique
• Defensive Option - Soulbinder’s Embrace
• Solid but not BiS Options - Ara-Kara Sacbrood for a more RNG stat stick, Seaforium Pacemaker if you can line up procs with Avenging Wrath, Perfidious Projector if you need to burst low health adds, Unyielding Netherprism for stronger Avenging Wrath windows
• Situational - Loom’ithar’s Living Silk if a group defensive is valuable

In The War Within you’re able to equip 2 pieces of crafted “embellishment” gear, though the throughput value these provide has been significantly decreased compared to Dragonflight. That being said, if you are looking to optimize your gear, you will want to make sure you craft one of these 2 sets.

Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension (Weapon) + Writhing Armor Banding (Flexible)

This embellishment combo is especially strong during the start of the patch when you don’t have a high ilvl weapon yet, but it loses value once you obtain a weapon on the Myth track or if you’re doing short duration content, as the Ascension buff itself takes 80 seconds to ramp up to its full value. This means that in M+ content or raid bosses that are less than 5mins long you’ll likely want to use something else.

Elemental Focusing Lens x2 (Flexible)

An embellishment that scales with ilvl and gives your abilities a chance to deal a flat amount of damage depending on the gems you have socketed. Unlike Ascension this has no ramp up time, and is looking like the most consistent option for Protection Paladin this season. Note that since this effect scales off your gems, it does require you to have at least 1 gem socketed in order to function.

Dawnthread Lining x2 (Flexible)

If you prefer stats instead of damage procs then this is the embellishment for you, though it has the downside of only being active while above 80% health which can be difficult to maintain as a tank player in some situations. Because of this I generally will recommend Elemental Focusing Lens instead, but this is still a fine option and actually overtakes the lens if you’re able to maintain the buff consistently.

Binding of Binding (Ring) + Elemental Focusing Lens OR Dawnthread Lining (Flexible)

For competitive M+ pushers this may be your preferred loadout, as the Binding of Binding ring allows you to buff up either a single other ally who also has the ring, or the rest of your party if there’s no one to bind to. Outside of being a ring you get to choose the stats for this has no benefit to you, which is why I generally don’t recommend it. As your 2nd embellishment you can use either Elemental Focusing Lens or Dawnthread Lining depending on which you prefer.

Recommendations:

• Dawnthread Lining x2 if you think you can maintain 80% uptime, otherwise Elemental Focusing Lens x2 on Bracers, Belt, or Tier off-piece

Cantrip Items

In this section I’ll discuss some special effect items available in season 3, going over the potential situations you would use them in and giving you my recommended choices.

Interloper’s Plated Sabatons (Boots, The Soul Hunters) - These cantrip boots give your Reshii Wraps absorb effect a higher proc rate, where the increase scales based on the difficulty the boots drop from. Since this is entirely defensive it isn’t great in raids, but will likely be something you want to try and grab for M+, though keep in mind dropping ilvl to wear these boots likely isn’t worth it.

Band of the Shattered Soul (Ring, Dimensius, the All-Devouring) - This ring grants an additional absorb shield when your Reshii Wraps effect procs, however this shield only works against Cosmic damage specifically. This makes the value of the cantrip effect itself relatively niche, however the stats on it are solid for Prot Paladin so it’s just a nice bonus on an already good ring. Similar to the boots I would not recommend dropping ilvl to wear this item unless your sim says so.

Reshii Wraps Artifact Cloak

Newly added in patch 11.2, Reshii Wraps is an Artifact Cloak that will be available to all players and is the only cloak available in season 3, granting a unique effect based on your role that can be amplified by a couple other items. For tanks that effect is an absorb shield proc that automatically triggers at low health with a cooldown, so it's a moderate defensive boost.

This cloak can be obtained on day 1 by doing campaign quests on K’aresh, and you’ll be able to upgrade it using Ethereal Strands. You can also choose what secondary stats you want on the cloak using Fiber slots, where the best Fibers are created by Tailors. My general fiber recommendation is the Chronomatic Fiber which grants haste, but you can of course always sim your character to see what's best for you.

To find out more about the Reshii Wraps, check out the Method Reshii Wraps Overview Guide.

Best D.I.S.C Belt & Miniature Titan Disc Effects

Added in patch 11.1.7, players can obtain the Durable Information Securing Container belt which can be upgraded up to 701 ilvl and empowered with a passive abilities that can provide stats, damage output, or even heal your allies. This belt will get replaced by something with more ilvl in Season 3, but it can be a nice initial boost for new characters.

In terms of what powers I recommend for Protection Paladin, Critical Chain is currently the best in both Raid and M+ scenarios, with Spark Burst being a close second.

For more information about unlocking the DISC belt and the different Miniature Titan Disc effects available, check out Method's D.I.S.C Belt Guide.