Welcome to our Mists of Pandaria Classic (MoP Classic) Protection Paladin Class Guide for Phase 1, it focuses on getting you up to speed with the Spec for PvE content, Dungeons and Raiding. The guide includes key information for what has changed going into MoP, the best Talent builds, Major Glyphs, your Rotation, Gearing and Consumables for Protection Paladin.
Table of Content:
What’s New for Protection Paladins in Mists of Pandaria Classic
Mists of Pandaria represents one of the biggest steps forward in terms of class design. A lot of classes are getting reworked, changed, or improved. Paladin are part of them, with each spec receiving groundbreaking changes. Retribution and Protection are both receiving insane changes. For Protection, the new talents especially are a big improvement. Here are some other major changes:
- Blinding Light has been added.
- Blessing of Might now gives 3000 Mastery at level 90.
- Guardian of the ancient kings now has a reduced cooldown.
- Hand of Salvation reduces threat to 0.
- Emancipate is a new mobility tool.
- Holy power can be stacked to 5.
- Judgment always gives 1 Holy Power.
- Seals are now passive stat / effects, and Auras are gone.
- Grand Crusader procs way more often.
Is Protection Paladin Good?
Yes, they are good. Protection Paladins are always welcomed in any type of content due to the amount of utility and off-healing they can put out. With an amazing AoE threat, you will be one of the best dungeon tanks there is. You might struggle a bit more to survive raid encounters compared to Brewmasters or Blood DKs, but you bring a lot more as an off-tank while still being resilient enough to tank every raid boss.
Best Talents & Glyphs for Protection Paladin in MoP Classic
With the new talent system, you have a lot more utility choices that would change based on each encounter. This guide will provide you with both a raid and a dungeon build, but always consider changing options depending on what you are about to face in the raid, not just the type of content you are playing.
Protection Paladin Raiding Talent Build
As a Protection Paladin you have incredible talent choices, with a lot of them being able to switch around depending on the encounter needs or your personal preferences. On the first row, you will find all your mobility options. In raiding, Speed of Light is often a very good choice as it helps you move around fast when required, helps you get into the fight faster (like a Charge, so your Warriors don’t get to the boss before you). But you can play Pursuit of Justice to get a bit faster all the time.
The second row is the crowd control option. By default, you just play Fist of Justice all the time, but depending on the dungeon or the encounter, you should think about the other choices.
The third row is the first true throughput row, in this case healing output. Eternal Flame is the most common choice, you will get the most healing from this spell and it synergizes very well with the Protection Playstyle, helping the raid and yourself when physical mitigation isn’t enough. You can consider playing Sacred shield, which is a bit easier to play around and still gives a good amount of damage reduction.
The next row is usually just a utility choice. Clemency is leaning more into the raid utility power of the Paladin and Unbreakable Spirit increases the number of Lay on Hands and Divine Protection you would be able to use in a fight.
Finally, the last two rows are the most important ones. You mostly have two choices on the level 75 row: Holy Avenger or Divine Purpose. Holy Avenger is a very interesting choice, as getting more Holy Power for 18 seconds can be used for healing, mitigation or damage. It’s a very versatile choice, and a very good Protection Paladin using this correctly can save a fight. Divine Purpose on the other is more random, but feels very good to play. It also gives a more streamlined Holy Power management and synergizes very well with Eternal Flame. It’s more of a personal choice, with Holy Avenger having the higher skill cap.
The last choice is between Holy Prism, Light’s Hammer and Execution Sentence. In Single target, Execution Sentence is the best choice. If you need AoE, your choice will be between Holy Prism and Light’s Hammer. The latter is the best if you can stay in it for its full duration, but if you move a lot, Holy Prism is better.
Best Protection Paladin Raid Glyphs
Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Focused Shield, Glyph of Alabaster Shield and Glyph of Final Wrath.
Other choices might be Glyph of World of Glory, Glyph of Divine Protection, Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice.
Minor Glyphs aren’t that great, but you can consider some like Glyph of the Righteous Retreat and Glyph of Focused Wrath.
Protection Paladin Dungeons & Challenge Mode Talent Build
The choices in the Dungeon Talent Build might be different from the raid build, but the reasoning behind each choice is the same as the raid build, so if you want more context on each choice and what you can change, you can read the detailed description in the raiding part of the guide.
Dungeon Glyph for Protection Paladin MoP Classic
Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Focused Shield, Glyph of Alabaster Shield and Glyph of Final Wrath.
Other choices might be Glyph of World of Glory, Glyph of Divine Protection, Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice.
Minor Glyphs aren’t that great, but you can consider some things like Glyph of the Righteous Retreat and Glyph of Focused Wrath.
Rotation for Protection Paladin in MoP Classic
Protection Paladins use Holy Power generators to then spend that on their abilities. Here are the different rotations and how to Tank as a Protection Paladin.
Single Target Rotation & Priority
- Maintain Righteous Fury during the fight.
- Maintain Seal of Insight.
- Use Avenging Wrath on Cooldown.
- Use Holy Avenger on Cooldown.
- Spend Holy Power on Shield of the Righteous for damage and mitigation. If you are facing magic damage, or your friends are in danger, Use Eternal Flame.
- Use Execution Sentence (or Light’s Hammer) on Cooldown.
- Generate Holy Power with Crusader Strike, Judgment and Avenger’s Shield.
- Stay in Consecration.
- Cast Hammer of Wrath on cooldown when available.
- Cast Holy Wrath.
Regarding your other mitigation tool, you'll want to use Guardian of the Ancient Kings, Divine Protection and Ardent Defender to help you survive big damage spikes.
Regarding Openers, use Judgment, Crusader’s Strike and Avenger shield to get them on Cooldown and apply your buffs & debuffs, then Avenging Wrath, Holy Avenger and Execution Sentence, and follow with the single target priority.
AoE Rotation & Priority
The AoE Rotation is pretty much the same, replacing Crusader Strike with Hammer of the Righteous, and maintaining Consecration as one of the highest priorities.
Best Gear & Stats for Protection Paladin in MoP Classic
Best in Slot (BiS Gear) aren’t as big in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Reforging is the new hype, so you can tailor your gear better than before.
The gear you should aim for are: Trinkets, Tier Sets and Weapons.
The best weapons you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:
- Masterwork Phantasmal Hammer, from Blacksmithing.
- Inelava, Spirit of Inebriation, from Yan-Zhu the Uncasked, Stormstout Brewery.
- Dubious Handaxe, from the Sha of Doubt, Temple of Jade.
The best pre-raid Protection Paladin Trinkets are:
- Relic of Niuzao, from Inscription.
- Relic of Xuen from Inscription.
- Lessons of the Darkmaster, from Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance.
- Heart of Fire, from Master Snowdrift, in Shado-Pan Monastery.
MoP Classic Protection Paladin Stat Priority
Reach your Hit cap, so 7.5% and then your Expertise cap, so around 15%. Then, Strength is your best stat.
Regarding the other stats, having a lot of Haste is usually best for Protection Paladins. You want to generate as much Holy Power as possible, and keep a high uptime on Shield of the Righteous. After that, Mastery is better than Critical strike.
Best Consumables, Enchants & Gems for Protection Paladin in MoP Classic
The following tables outline the recommended Consumables, Enchants and Gems for Protection Paladin in Raiding and Dungeon content.
Consumables:
| Type | Consumable |
| Food | Chun Tian Spring Rolls - Stuffed Lushrooms |
| Flask | Flask of Spring Blossoms (DPS) - Flask of the Earth (Tanking) |
| Potion | Virmen’s Bite (DPS) - Potion of the Mountains (Tanking) |
Enchants:
| Gear | Enchant |
| Shoulder | Greater Ox Horn Inscription |
| Back | Enchant Cloak - Greater Protection or Accuracy |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Superior Stamina |
| Wrists | Enchant Bracers - Exceptional Strength |
| Hands | Enchant Gloves - Greater Haste or Superior Expertise |
| Legs | Ironscale Leg Armor |
| Feet | Enchant Boots - Pandaren’s Step |
| Weapons | Enchant Weapon - Dancing Steel |
| Shield | Enchant Shield - Greater Parry |
Gems:
| Type | Gems |
| White | Reverberating Primal Diamond |
| Yellow | Wicked Vermilion Onyx - Crafty Vermilion Onyx - Quick Sun Radiance |
| Red | Wicked Vermilion Onyx |
| Blue | Lightning Wild Jade |
| Prismatic | Quick Sun Radiance |
We hope this guide helped you improve your Protection Paladin Gameplay and better understand the spec. To check out all of our MoP Classic content, such as Class Guides, Tier Lists and more, you can browse our full library of MoP Classic Guides.
