Contents:

1. Basic Talent Specialization
2. The Core Abilities
3. The Supporting Abilities
4. Glyph Choices
5. Putting it all Together

Disclaimer: Not all options are covered, as there are numerous ways to customize your talent and glyph choices playing a Protection Paladin. This guide is geared toward the choices I made and why I chose those options.

1. Basic Talent Specialization.

Wowhead Link to Build

The build linked above should not, by any means, be viewed as the only way to spec a Paladin for tanking. The build does, however, have all of the talents that should be taken to increase survivability, leaving fourteen talent points left to place wherever one chooses. For an in-depth review of practically everything one would want to know about Paladin tanking I suggest taking a look at this thread over at Elitist Jerks. If you’re interested in just a quick, basic guide that gets you started and then figuring out the rest as you go read on here:

2. The Core Abilities.

• Avenger’s Shield
  26% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown, Requires Shields
  Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing [1100 + 0.07 * SPH + 0.07 * AP] to [1344 + 0.07 * SPH + 0.07 * AP] Holy damage, Dazing them and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Lasts 10 sec.
• Consecration
  22% of base mana, Instant cast, 8 sec cooldown
  Consecrates the land beneath the Paladin, doing [8 * (113 + 0.04 * SPH + 0.04 * AP)] Holy damage over 8 sec to enemies who enter the area.
• Hammer of the Righteous
  6% of base mana, Melee Range, Instant cast, 6 sec cooldown, Requires One-Handed Melee Weapon
  Hammer the current target and up to 2 additional nearby targets, causing 4 times your main hand damage per second as Holy damage.
• Holy Shield
  10% of base mana, Instant cast, 8 sec cooldown, Requires Shields
  Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec and deals 274 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Each block expends a charge. 8 charges.
• Shield of Righteousness
  6% of base mana, Melee Range, Instant cast, 6 sec cooldown, Requires Shields
  Slam the target with your shield, causing Holy damage based on your block value plus an additional 520.

3. The Supporting Abilities.

• Devotion Aura
  Instant
  Gives 1205 additional armor to party and raid members within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
• Divine Plea
  Instant, 1 min cooldown
  You gain 25% of your total mana over 15 sec, but the amount healed by your Flash of Light, Holy Light, and Holy Shock spells is reduced by 50%.
• Hand of Reckoning
  3% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast, 8 sec cooldown
  Taunts the target to attack you. If the target is not currently targeting you, causes [1 + 0.5 * AP] Holy damage.
• Righteous Defense
  40 yd range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown
  Come to the defense of a friendly target, commanding up to 3 enemies attacking the target to attack the Paladin instead.
• Righteous Fury
  24% of base mana, Instant cast
  Increases the threat generated by your Holy spells by 80%. Lasts until cancelled.
• Seal of Corruption
  14% of base mana, Instant cast
  Fills the Paladin with holy power, causing attacks to apply Blood Corruption, which deals [(0.013 * SPH + 0.025 * AP) * 6] additional Holy damage over 15 sec. Once stacked to 5 times, each of the Paladins attacks also deals 33% weapon damage as additional Holy damage. Blood Corruption can stack up to 5 times. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 min.

  Unleashing this Seal’s energy will deal [1 + 0.22 * SPH + 0.14 * AP] Holy damage to an enemy, increased by 10% for each application of Blood Corruption on the target.

4. Glyph Choices.

• Glyph of Divine Plea
  Major Glyph, Classes: Paladin, Requires Level 71, Item Level 45
  Use: While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.
• Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous
  Major Glyph, Classes: Paladin, Requires Level 60, Item Level 45
  Use: Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.
• Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
  Major Glyph, Classes: Paladin, Requires Level 50, Item Level 55
  Use: Your Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption also grants 10 expertise while active.

5. Putting it all Together.

Tanking as a paladin can seem quite overwhelming at first with all of the spells and abilities available, but the basic things to remember are actually rather simple. Make sure Righteous Defense is active (without it you will probably not be able to keep enough threat on your targets). Generally speaking, you’ll want to pull with Avenger’s Shield and have Consecration ready as soon as your target/targets are within range. This should be a good start and allow you to hold onto your targets well, but following up with Hammer of the Righteous is a good idea to gain a little more threat on more than one target.

So far that gives us: Avenger’s Shield -> Consecration -> Hammer of the Righteous.

From this point things are generally fairly simple. Most mobs can be controlled easily enough from this point by simply using your other abilities by timing the cooldowns to weave them into a rotation. The typical rotation you’ll most likely encounter ends up being something like this:

Shield of Righteousness -> Holy Shield -> Hammer of the Righteous -> Consecration -> Shield of the Righteous -> Judgement …

Don’t fret about getting the rotation down perfectly. Your main concern should be on getting the initial burst of threat on your target/targets and maintaining the threat on the primary target. There are certainly a number of utility spells that will aid in encounters as you ind appropriate uses and understand where they are best used. This guide is not intended to do more than provide a basic overview of how to go about starting your journey upon paladin tanking, not to be an all-inclusive guide that would, naturally, span a much longer post than this one already is. With the information presented here you should have a good starting point to be able to control basic encounters as you learn more about the spells and abilities at your disposal.