Paladin: Protection

 

Contents

1The Basic Mechanics 1.1Getting rid of Crushing Blows and Critical Hits 1.2Spell Damage and its effect on threat 1.3Hit, Spellhit and Expertise and what they do for you 2Gear 2.1Guidelines 2.1.1AoE / trash tank 2.1.2Main Tank 2.1.35-mans 2.1.4Off-Tank / Special tank 2.2Gear List 2.3Spell damage weapon or not? 2.4Enchants 2.5Gems 2.6Trinkets 3Tanking advice 3.1Basic guidelines 3.2Tips and tricks 3.3Specific fights 3.3.1Morogrim Tidewalker 3.3.2High Astromancer Solarian 3.3.3Hyjal Trash Waves 3.4Rough guidelines of what a Prot Paladin can expect to do in any fight in-game 3.4.1Karazhan, Gruuls Lair and Magtheridon 3.4.2Zulaman 3.4.3Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep 3.4.4Mount Hyjal and Black Temple 3.4.5Sunwell Plateau 4The other stuff 4.1Useful macros 4.2Future additions

[top]The Basic Mechanics

[top]Getting rid of Crushing Blows and Critical Hits

To get rid of Crushing Blows you need a total combined miss/dodge/parry/block of 97.4% as shown on the character screen. Holy Shield will normally provide 30% block for this purpose, [Libram of Repentance] will add another 5.3% block to Holy Shield. Which in turn means you need either 67.4% miss/dodge/parry/block without the Libram, or 62.1% with the Libram. (Again, these are as shown on the character screen, there is an additional 5% base miss rate which is not shown on the character screen, which covers the difference)

Here are stats in order of contribution from fastest to slowest to bringing you toward making you uncrushable, posted with each stats equivalence to 1% uncrushability.

7.9 Block Rating	1% Block
15 Defense Rating	0.25% Miss, 0.25% Dodge, 0.25% Parry, 0.25% Block
18.9 Dodge Rating	1% Dodge
22.4 Parry Rating	1% Parry
25 Agility	1% Dodge

For Defense Rating keep in mind however that it rounds down to the nearest whole defense skill for it's benefit, so adding 15 defense rating will not always add 1% uncrushability. The agility value is without Blessing of Kings.

This macro can be useful if you want a quick in-game summary of how close you are to being uncrushable:

The macro assumes you have 5/5 Anticipation. Change the + 20 to the amount of defense skill you get from Anticipation instead if you don't have 5/5 Anticipation.

Keep in mind when gearing up however that crushing blows are (for the most part) only an issue of mobs of level 73 and bosses. If you feel you will never tank either of those, being uncrushable is a non-issue.

If you are incapable of getting crushing blows while Holy Shield is up, you are also incapable of getting crit. However, you will always be uncrittable if you have 490 defense. Generally speaking resilience is more inefficient for getting rid of crits as a Paladin, while it does provide you with crit immunity faster than defense does, defense has the benefit of providing avoidance as well. Defense is also available very widely on the tanking gear you'll most likely be picking up. Having a few pieces of gear with resilience lying around can be very handy for resist fights however.

This image is a graphical example of how pushing off crushing blows works: http://xs120.xs.to/xs120/07431/hittable.gif

There's a small inaccuracy in the image, ignore the "and crush" just below the first hit table.

If you are fighting mobs lower than level 73 you also don't need a full 490 defense, 485 covers level 72 mobs, 480 covers level 71 mobs, and 475 covers level 70 mobs.

In fights in which you deal with elemental based melee damage (Like Hydross) you are incapable of blocking, but mobs in these kind of fights are also incapable of crushing.

[top]Spell Damage and its effect on threat

Outside of the damage produced by auto-attacking, all abilities you'll use while tanking as a Paladin are affected by spell damage. Righteous Fury applies a 90% increase to the threat caused by all your holy damage.

Ability	Base threat	Base Threat Per Second	Threat scaling	Threat Scaling Per Second
Avenger's Shield	1041.2	34.7	0.26	0.008
Consecration	972.8 (per cast)	121.6	1.9 (per cast)	0.24
Exorcism	1244.5	82.9	0.81	0.05
Hammer of Wrath	1330	204.62	0.81	0.12
Holy Shield	397.58 (per block)	119.27	0.12 (per block)	0.03
Holy Shock	1425	95	0.81	0.05
Holy Wrath	1311	21.85	0.36	0.003
Judgement of Blood	589	58.9	0.81	0.08
Judgement of Righteousness	414.2	41.42	1.4	0.14
Judgement of Vengeance	1140	114	0.81	0.08
Seal of Righteousness	92.52	51.4	0.3	0.16
Seal of Vengeance	285 (per tick)	95	0.32 (per tick)	0.11

This means that each point of spell damage will provide you with approximately 0.5 threat per second. Obviously the benefit is higher in situations in which Exorcism, Avenger's Shield and Hammer of Wrath are usable. The Seal of Righteousness per hit value is using a 1.8 speed weapon, the Seal of Vengeance value is when it's fully stacked. Per second values in general are when the ability is used exactly on every cooldown, Holy Shield's per second value is with 3 blocks in a 10 second period.

Keep in mind as well that your threat directly scales up, any percentage damage increase effects will also increase the threat you put out by an equal amount. So a Shadow Priest in the raid will increase your threat output by 5%, and Avenging Wrath increases your threat output by 30% for it's duration.

Incoming damage also influences your threat in it's way; Spiritual Attunement also generates some threat for you. The threat contribution from this is approximately 5% of the damage you take. Spiritual Attunement on a single target is still easily responsible for 50 threat per second, and most likely more. Note however that it's aggro works like healing aggro, it gets split between multiple targets if there are multiple targets that are aware of you.

One final thing of note is that casting a Seal in and of itself also generates some threat. Casting a max rank Seal of Righteousness is approximately 120 threat, other seals most likely produce a comparable amount. (With thanks to Shalcker for testing)

[top]Hit, Spellhit and Expertise and what they do for you

• Hit affects auto-attack, Seal of Blood, Avenger's Shield, Hammer of Wrath and Righteous Defense. It takes a bit less than 9% hit to be hit capped, the exception is Righteous Defense, while it uses melee hit to reduce it's chance to be resisted, it has the resist rate a spell does, so you'd need 16% hit to cap it against level 73's and bosses.
• Spellhit affects Seal of Vengeance, all damage dealing Judgements except Judgement of Blood, Consecration, Holy Shield, Exorcism, Holy Wrath, Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, Thorns and Fire Shield. Consecration can only have it's first tick fully resisted. It takes 16% spellhit to be hit capped against level 73 targets and bosses, or 6% spellhit against level 72 targets (And 1% less needed per level below that).
• Expertise affects auto-attack and Seal of Blood. I'm unsure of the exact "cap" on expertise, though some quick WWS browsing seems to indicate an approximately 6% dodge rate and 12% parry rate on bosses.
• Seal of Righteousness and Judgement of Blood are special in that they're incapable of either missing or fully resisting; if your auto-attack hits your Seal of Righteousness will hit as well, and if you cast Judgement of Blood it'll always land.

Is either stat worth gearing for? I'd say situationally yes. Spellhit is alas quite rare outside of spell damage weaponry, though having a few high stamina rings with some spellhit around (Like for example [Ashyen's Gift]) can be useful in fights in which you want to be as certain as possible that most of your threat moves connect. Normal hit is less valuable in this role, though in a situation in which you need to quickly grab two or three adds (Like at Al'ar or Shade of Akama) normal hit can be valuable to increase the performance of Avenger's Shield and Righteous Defense. It's currently hard to say how good (or bad) expertise is; it's the best from a sustained TPS perspective despite only increasing your auto-attack and Seal threat due to it's lower cost compared to the other two ratings (See this post by PsiVen.) and it also increases your survivability. Normal hit and spellhit will help with burst threat capabilities more though; expertise will not help you in those situations where you want to be sure your judgement or avenger's shield lands.

Ratings needed for 1% hit with each different rating:

15.8 hit rating	1% hit
12.6 spellhit rating	1% spellhit
7.8 expertise rating	0.5% less dodges, 0.5% less parries

[top]Gear

[top]Guidelines

The gear you intend on accumulating solely depends on two things:

• What role your presently active act in your raiding/unraiding status
• What special situations will call for you to change that particular status to something special

Given those two standards, you're going to look at four primary "tanking roles":

[top]AoE / trash tank

The first of these standards would be what we're known "best" for, and that is for AoE tanking and burning through trash mobs, this being due to our large threat output with proper itemization, and our capability to maintain so many mobs in a nice small clean radius. For this type of role, these are going to be your primary statistics:

• Block value
• Stamina
• Spell damage

The reason for this is, you want to take damage, because Consecrate is an expensive spell, and if you're running into single trash mobs and judging and spamming high threat spells, you want to mitigate as much damage as you can- while still intaking some to an extent (whereas with a boss you find yourself trying to avoid damage altogether), you want high stamina to provide a much easier to heal health pool, so taking even large sums of damage from multiple mobs in early tanking stages with low block value is not painful, and of course spell damage to frontload as much threat as possible in order to provide for the fastest and easiest clear.

[top]Main Tank

In this kind of role, you'll want to aim for these stats:

• Stamina
• Avoidance
• Block Value

Your primary goal as MT is generally to ensure your survivability. Due to the fact that bosses hit a lot harder than normal mobs do, the higher avoidance you'll want in this role won't hurt your mana recovery through Spiritual Attunement very much. Threat is also less of an issue in this role; it's still important but you'll also get some advantages you would not get otherwise when acting in an MT position. If a fight really makes your threat very important, it's likely your group setup will be optimized to maximize your threat, and of course the hunters will use their misdirection on you.

The MT role is also the one for which becoming uncrushable is important. It is one of the largest reductions to your damage in-take you can achieve when tanking bosses. Mobs that aren't bosses that crush are also very few and far between.

[top]5-mans

For this sort of situation, becomining uncrushable is not required, and your best bet is to look for a mix of the stats of the above roles. You're not neccesarily forced to stack anything in particular, and as being a tank in 5 mans and such puts you in a situation where any of the stats benefit you in different places (as you're tanking trash, bosses, casters, etc) you'll find that all stats really help. The important thing is to make sure you're pushing your 485 defense for crit immunity, although anything past that is not neccesary for anything "special" , it certainly does benefit your avoidance a good sum, so defense is always good.

[top]Off-Tank / Special tank

You're the person that takes Gruuls offhits, tanks the last add on Mag, does the AoE stuff on A'lar, Morogrim, Solarian, Akama, etcetera. You're not the main tank, but you're the guy that does the other tanking role(s) vital to an encounter's success.

You'll typically act as the tank that handles the encounters "gimmick", and these differ a lot per encounter. Sometimes you might need to be uncrushable, other times you don't so you can focus on other stats instead. Where other tanks will swap trinkets and one or two pieces of gear for specific fights while keeping their same overall gear, you shouldn't be surprised if you're swapping half your gear or more.

[top]Gear List

For a list of gear and a general guideline on which items are best or not, it's recommended to simply check this thread over on the Maintankadin forums: Maintankadin :: View topic - MT gear progression

I'd recommend taking the numbers before each item linked there with a grain of salt however. Those numbers are more rough guidelines, and you should definitely think about how the item's statistics apply to your situation before blindly equiping it.

[top]Spell damage weapon or not?

Spell damage weapons are a fact of Protection Paladin life. You will nearly always be using a spell damage weapon, as the amount of threat you gain through using one is so large that the minor amount of mitigation or avoidance you gain by using a normal weapon can not compare.

However, you should nevertheless keep a good alternative avoidance weapon around for situations in which your threat doesn't matter much but your survivability does. Situations where this is the case are far less frequent than situations in which you'll need your spell damage weapon's threat, but they do occur. One of the best examples of a situation like this is being the tank on Fathom-Lord Karathress.

Typically for a spell damage weapon more spell damage is better, outside of the stamina the weapons might come with the other stats on them are largely useless. Spell hit and intellect do both have some minor use, but are not important enough to make them something you should seek after when choosing what weapon to use.

[top]Enchants

As a general rule of the thumb, for progression boss tanking purposes health enchants are better, while for farming boss tanking purposes threat enchants are better, while avoidance enchants work out best for AoE tanking. As with all gearing choices, if at all possible it's recommended to keep multiple pieces of gear around used for different purposes.

In general for the following tables Defense contributions are rounded down to a whole defense skill, and Stamina contributions are with the Combat Expertise and Sacred Duty talents, though as with defense rounded down. Avoidance is the total of miss, dodge and parry an enchant gives. Armor values are with the Toughness talent where appropriate. Blessing of Kings is not included and will thus add another 10% benefit when appropriate.

Head Enchants		Wrist Enchants
[Glyph of the Defender]	1.42% avoidance, 0.24% block and 0.24% crit reduction	[Major Defense]	0.6% avoidance, 0.2% block, 0.2% crit reduction
[Glyph of the Gladiator]	20 stamina, 0.5% crit reduction	[Fortitude]	13 Stamina
[Glyph of Power]	22 spell damage, 1.1% spell hit	[Spellpower]	15 spell damage
Shoulder Enchants		Glove Enchants
[Greater Inscription of the Knight]	1.25% avoidance, 0.24% block, 0.24% crit reduction	[Glove Reinforcements]	240 armor
[Greater Inscription of Warding]	1.27% avoidance, 0.16% block, 0.16% crit reduction	[Heavy Knothide Armor Kit]	11 stamina
[Fortitude of the Scourge]	18 stamina, 100 armor	[Threat]	2% threat
[Heavy Knothide Armor Kit]	11 stamina	[Spell Strike]	1.19% spell hit
[Greater Inscription of the Orb]	12 spell damage, 0.68% spell crit	[Superior Agility]	0.6% avoidance, 33 armor
[Greater Inscription of Discipline]	18 spell damage, 0.45% spell crit
Cloak Enchants		Leg Enchants
[Steelweave]	0.6% avoidance, 0.2% block, 0.2% crit reduction	[Nethercleft Leg Armor]	46 Stamina, 0.48% avoidance, 26 armor
[Dodge]	0.63% avoidance	[Runic Spellthread]	23 Stamina, 35 spell damage
[Greater Agility]	0.48% avoidance, 26 armor
[Major Armor]	120 Armor
Chest Enchants		Boot Enchants
[Defense]	0.72% avoidance, 0.24% block, 0.24% crit reduction	[Dexterity]	0.48% avoidance, 26 armor
[Exceptional Health]	150 health	[Fortitude]	13 Stamina
[Exceptional Stats]	6 Stamina, 0.24% avoidance, 13 armor	[Boar's Speed]	10 Stamina, 8% run speed
[Major Resilience]	0.38% crit reduction
Shield Enchants
[Shield Block]	1.9% Block
[Major Stamina]	20 Stamina
[Felsteel Shield Spike]	26-38 damage when blocking

[top]Gems

Gem choices are (generally) rather simple. As with most tanks, you'll most likely want to get as much stamina as you can get your hands on. So +12 stamina (or +15 stamina if you have access to epic gems) are most of the time your best choice.

Socket bonuses are usually not worth considering, though a few exception items in which I find them worth it do exist; [Justicar Shoulderguards] being a prime example, and [Crystalforge Faceguard] being another good example.

In case you do want to grab the socket bonuses, Dodge/Stamina gems are usually the best choice for red sockets while using blue quality gems, while Agility/Stamina are better for red sockets when using epic quality gems (There being no epic version of the dodge/stamina gem outside of heroic instances), while Defense/Stamina gems are the best choices for yellow sockets. Spell damage/Stamina gems are also a viable option for red sockets, but I find upgrading threat to generally be the lowest priority.

Whether a [Powerful Earthstorm Diamond] or [Eternal Earthstorm Diamond] is better is a function of your block value and the amount of hits something would need to kill you. With talents and Blessing of Kings the Powerful Earthstorm Diamond provides 230 health, meaning that the Eternal Earthstorm Diamond is better if the amount of blocks you'd do before dying would end up blocking 230 or more damage due to having it. As an example, if it takes 3 hits for you to die on a boss fight, you'd need 766 Block Value to make the Eternal Earthstorm Diamond better, if it takes 6 hits however you'd only need 383 Block Value to make the Eternal Earthstorm Diamond better. That is of course assuming the primary damage burst you are taking is physical damage, if it's magical damage instead the Powerful Earthstorm Diamond is always better.

This formula can be used to calculate when which gem is better:

NBV = Needed Block Value
HtD = Hits to Death

[top]Trinkets

Trinkets are items which you'll probably build a large collection of, and which you should swap around based on the fight. This is because individual trinkets are far more focused on a single stat than other equipment is, as well as the fact that trinkets provide nice activatable or proccing abilities.

You can click on the headers of this table to sort. Useful if you're looking to have more of a specific stat.

Trinket	Stamina	Avoidance	Crit Reduction	Crush Avoidance	Spell Damage	Notes
[Gnomish Poultryizer]	45	0	0	0	0	Can be used as an alternative pulling tool.
[Goblin Rocket Launcher]	45	0	0	0	0	Can be used as an alternative pulling tool.
[Figurine - Dawnstone Crab]	0	1.56%	0.52%	2.08%	0
[Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent]	33	0	0	0	0	Smaller cousin of the Crimson version. Reasonably good for the same reason.
[Runed Fungalcap]	0	0	0.76%	0	0
[Figurine of the Colossus]	0	0	0	4.06%	0	Use is effectively equal to gaining 190 block value when not fully blocking attacks, and better when fully blocking attacks.
[Adamantine Figurine]	0	1.56%	0.52%	2.08%	0
[Alembic of Infernal Power]	0	0	0.84%	0	0
[Regal Protectorate]	0	1.2%	0.4%	1.6%	0
[Medallion of the Horde]	0	0	0.51%	0	0	Use effect can be useful on a few encounters.
[Dabiri's Enigma]	0	1.44%	0.48%	1.92%	0	Use effect is quite good for damage reduction while AoE tanking.
[Brooch of the Immortal King]	0	1.56%	0.52%	2.08%	0
[Commander's Badge]	45	0	0	0	0
[Styleen's Impeding Scarab]	0	0.96%	0.32%	3.05%	0	Kind of hard to come by.
[Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch]	0	2.01%	0	0	0	Extremely high amount of dodge from the use effect, shorter duration than most trinkets of it's kind however.
[Timelapse Shard]	27	0	0.61%	0	0	Just don't right-click it while equiped.
[Tome of Fiery Redemption]	0	0	0	0	0	Proc lasts 15 seconds, and appears to have a 45 second cooldown. One of the best threat trinkets, especially due to being able to stack with Avenging Wrath.
[Spyglass of the Hidden Fleet]	40	0	0	0	0
[Scarab of Displacement]	0	2.04%	0.68%	2.72%	0	The downside on the use basically doesn't matter much for us.
[Violet Badge]	36	0	0	0	0
[Darkmoon Card: Vengeance]	51	0	0	0	0	Unlike most trinkets of it's kind it can proc on avoided attacks as well.
[Ashtongue Talisman of Zeal]	0	0	0	0	0	Basically makes all your Judgements do an average of 456 more threat per cast.
[Shadowmoon Insignia]	0	3.49%	0.6%	4.09%	0
[Ancient Aqir Artifact]	0	1.9%	0	1.9%	0	Use is typically somewhat underrated. Not quite as good as an avoidance trinket to use, but still a quite potent boost to your survivability.
[Battlemaster's Audacity]	0	0	0	0	47
[Timbal's Focusing Crystal]	0	0	0	0	44	Procs from Consecration, the proc has a 15 second cooldown however, and does not deal holy damage so won't cause extra threat.
[Commendation of Kael'thas]	57	0	0	0	0	Extremely good trinket overall.
[Figurine - Empyrean Tortoise]	0	2.04%	0.68%	2.72%	0
[Figurine - Crimson Serpent]	49	0	0	0	0	Great mix of stamina and threat, if you can get the materials.
[Guardian's Alchemist Stone]	0	2.64%	0.88%	3.52%	0

[top]Tanking advice

[top]Basic guidelines

• Your most basic tanking rotation will generally be Holy Shield > Consecration > Judgement > Holy Shield > etc.; note that there is a period in which you're not really doing much after Judging, this is a good time to use any extra abilities if applicable. That includes using Avenger's Shield or Hammer of Wrath on a boss that allows for it, as well as obviously using Exorcism if your target is undead or a demon.
• Always try to figure out a position that you can use Consecration. Not disturbing crowd control is even more important, but nine times out of ten you can find a spot where you can use Consecration without having to worry about accidentally breaking crowd control. Consecration is responsible for a very large amount of your threat, easily 25% or thereabouts, so dropping it is usually the least preferable option.
• For any fight that you're expecting to last for more than 30 seconds, put up a debuff judgement. Which one entirely depends on the situation. Worried about threat? Crusader. Worried about mana? Wisdom. Want to help out healing a bit on keeping melee up against AoE damage? Light. Avenger's Shield will make up for the threat lost from not immediately judging Righteousness, and if you decide to use Crusader, you'll usually catch up on threat in less time than a single Judgement cooldown.
• Remember that Holy Shield is only your highest priority in a situation in which you're capable of getting crushed, but don't underestimate the threat it produces either. Consecration is however probably your better choice as highest priority ability in any AoE situation.
• Couple of adds that spawn close together? Use Avenger's Shield!

[top]Tips and tricks

• At the start of a pull, use Consecration before the mob reaches you, and don't use Holy Shield until the mob reaches you. Then keep refreshing Consecration as it becomes available until it would start interfering with your use of Holy Shield. This can get you in a few extra ticks of consecration you would not be able to get otherwise.
• Similar to the above, if the mob is casting a spell and you can cast both Holy Shield and Consecration before it finishes, use Consecration first, and then use Holy Shield. This will temporarily remove the ticks you'd normally lose because of not wanting to extend the time between Holy Shield dropping and refreshing it.
• Mobs which attack slow or cast spells are also perfect targets for trying to weave in a quick Avenger's Shield or Hammer of Wrath! Remember that doing so is risky however, while casting you are incapable of blocking, dodging or parrying. Only do so if you're absolutely certain it's safe and you could use the extra threat.
• Make clever use of your faction specific seal/judgement! Seal of Vengeance can be used to have some constantly ticking threat on a mob that's likely to run out of your range at some point due to an aggro clear, while Judgement of Blood has an advantage in that it will always hit. The qualities of both these seals can be extremely useful in the right situation.
• As long as no one else does anything with the mobs involved in any way, you can use Divine Shield to get a free 12 second headstart on mobs. This can be very handy on pulling AoE packs, since there'll be a lot of mobs in them that you otherwise don't start off with initial threat on. It also gives your AoE a clearly identifiable clue that they can now start their thing. (With thanks to Lookit and Bhrimstone for pointing this out)

[top]Specific fights

The following section is not intended to be a detailed guide for all bosses in-game.

[top]Morogrim Tidewalker

• The basic tactic here is to wait for the earthquake, throw three or four Holy Lights, and then switch to normally tanking the Murlocs which will most likely have reached you by this point.
• Make sure to communicate to the healers present that as attractive as it is, fully healing up the raid from earthquake is something that's best waited with until after the Murlocs have reached you.
• A weapon/shield/libram swapping macro is exceptionally useful here, since you'll be wanting to get initial aggro through as strong heals as possible, but will want to use tanking (or spelldamage) gear once the Murlocs have reached you. You can use /castsequence to make one of these fairly easily, here's my own one for example:
  
  

  /castsequence Gavel of Pure Light, Hammer of Judgement
  /castsequence Triptych Shield of the Ancients, Kaz'rogal's Hardened Heart
  /castsequence Libram of Absolute Truth, Libram of the Eternal Rest

• Apart from the weapon swapping it shouldn't be needed to make any other concessions to your gear.
• If you're having issues getting graved by Morogrim a possible option is to outrange the graves, this will make the fight last a bit larger as there won't be any damage from your mages/warlocks on Morogrim while AoEing.
• If you're having issues getting initial Murloc aggro, it's an idea to give the healers Blessing of Salvation if they don't have it. If there's still problems, having a warlock who makes a point of being on low health for you to heal up after Earthquakes is also extremely nice, Fel Armor and Blessing of Light combined on a warlock makes for far better and more reliable heals than throwing a few heals on random people in the raid.
• At higher gear levels the more significant challenge here is not running out of mana. There's a few tricks you can use for this, like having some murlocs in your back so they're practically guaranteed to hit you. Don't be afraid to use mana potions as needed. Alternatively switch to heavier spell damage gear which isn't technically tanking gear, or switch into a few pieces of healing gear.

[top]High Astromancer Solarian

Thanks to Bellator, Dodo and Morganim

• What you do here depends on how the "spotlights" where the adds come from spawn. Your best course of action is to put consecration on a spot where the adds from two "spotlights" are likely to pass through, while using Avenger's Shield on the adds from the third "spotlight" (And being ready to throw a quick Judgement of Righteousness on the fourth add from that area)
• Unlike what you're used to from Morogrim, each of the adds here will spawn with a bit of threat on random people in your raid; estimated at around 1000 threat. Because of that it's important that as many people as possible gather up on your position because it's likely the initial consecration ticks will not be enough to have the mobs switch their targets to you.
• Having a set of raid frames here that can tell you if someone has aggro can be quite helpful as well for a quick Righteous Defense. Also keep an eye out for any adds that run elsewhere than where you are, or which are running out of the AoE area.
• It's likely a few of the adds will have generated some initial aggro on some of your AoEers as well; as with Morogrim, your primary focus here isn't to take all the damage the adds do, but to ensure that the adds do not all focus on one person not capable of taking the damage.

[top]Hyjal Trash Waves

• There's a number of methods to use here, I prefer mostly aggroing the mobs through Holy Wrath as they run just through an encampments gate, which will usually lead to any mobs that aren't aggroed heavily on an NPC or another tank running to you. Frequently this'll lead to aggroing about 4 mobs on 12 mob waves, 6 mobs on 14 mob waves, and 8 mobs on the one 16 mob wave, all of which is survivable if geared well enough (This is speaking from a point of view with generally 5 tanks present, you'll end up tanking more with less tanks there, the highest I've seen from 12 mob waves is 8 mobs when we only had 3 tanks there).
• Once you have your initial aggro, remember that Consecration is your primary move to use here; your guild should heavily consider AoEing every single trash wave in Hyjal if they have you tanking.
• Make sure to position carefully after having used Holy Wrath, you want to be as sure as possible that all mobs are in front of you, to reduce incoming damage as much as possible.
• Make clear to your other tanks that you should be very capable of keeping all Ghouls, Crypt Fiends and Fel Hunters occupied; but that Abominations in particular can cause some nasty damage spikes on you, due to their 2 second stun ability as you can't dodge, parry or block while stunned.
• The Horde camp has a few waves which include only a few mobs arriving by land; generally you can tank the entire group of mobs arriving by land by yourself in these waves. The one exception is wave 4 of the Kaz'rogal waves, which has 6 Crypt Fiends and 2 Shadowy Necromancers arriving by land. The 2 Necromancers make this trash wave nasty to solo tank, though not impossible when geared well enough.
• In the case of waves which have only Abominations, Shadowy Necromancers and Banshees, be careful with usage of Holy Wrath. You're probably better off using Avenger's Shield, or even just Exorcism and Judgement to pull mobs onto you here, as each of these mobs hit quite hard individually compared to the mobs you'd normally be tanking.
• [Free Action Potion]s are quite useful for any Hyjal waves in which it's likely you'll grab a lot of abominations initially, as you'll be immune to their stun while the potion lasts.
• If you have an activatable trinket equipped you'll find that the time between waves is generally too short to use it on every wave. If you have a second activatable trinket to swap in however, you can do so after a wave is dead and it should be ready by the time a new wave arrives. This is handy to maximize your survivability as especially at the start of a wave you're likely to have the most mobs on you.

[top]Rough guidelines of what a Prot Paladin can expect to do in any fight in-game

[top]Karazhan, Gruuls Lair and Magtheridon

• Attumen the Huntsman - Tank either Midnight or Attumen; a sufficiently geared Prot Paladin can also easily tank both at the same time.
• Moroes - Tank anything; tanking Moroes himself is preferrable as Prot Paladins aren't too strong on building off-tank threat (Especially at the expected gear level for Moroes, this gets less bad with more spell damage). However the nature of this fight is such that there is more than a significant enough of build time on Moroes before DPS starts on him.
• Maiden of Virtue - Tank Maiden. The silence is annoying, but can be worked around by spamming your buttons.
• Oz - Keep any add occupied and/or tank the Crone.
• Romulo and Julianne - Preferably tank Romulo; though tanking Julianne is viable as well.
• Big Bad Wolf - Tank.
• Curator - Tank Curator; can also try keeping adds that spawn occupied. Make sure to save Avenging Wrath for Evocation for the nice damage/threat boost.
• Terestrian Illhoof - Tank any of the mobs involved. Can also potentially keep imps occupied, though will take more damage doing so than an AoE class due to the lower damage dealt. Also quite viable to tank both Illhoof and Kil'rek at the same time.
• Shade of Aran - Healing; or keeping non-CCed elementals busy during that phase of the encounter.
• Netherspite - Tank.
• Prince Malchezaar - Tank.
• Nightbane - Tank adds during flying phases; if you have fear ward or a shaman good at timing Tremor Totem drops tanking Nightbane himself is viable as well. Post 2.3 tanking Nightbane will always be viable due to the fear AI change.
• High King Maulgar - Tank Maulgar, Blindeye or Olm. Tanking Kiggler is possible as well due to ranged taunt and getting disarmed not mattering that much as long as you have capped unarmed skill.
• Gruul - Either main tank or off-tank; off-tanking will require a good stock of [Blue Ogre Brew], the timing of the silence is semi-random and may result in being left open to crushing blows from time to time.
• Magtheridon - Tank adds and/or Magtheridon.

[top]Zulaman

• Nalorakk - Works well as tank in either human or bear form. Ardent Defender works well with the DoT damage done in bear form, though the silence is annoying.
• Akil'zon - Most likely depends on raid setup whether you'll tank or heal. Tanking is definitely viable. Doing the gauntlet on the way to this boss is also possible as only tank; just tell people to stand on top of you and you'll generally get all mobs on you.
• Jan'alai - Tank the Dragonhawk hatchlings. If you have some FR gear it helps. You can easily hold aggro on an entire platform's worth of hatchlings at once (And in full FR gear can go for hatching both platforms in a single Hatcher spawn; though ensure that one hatcher is still killed anyway). I recommend the following ability use: Use Judgement of Righteousness on the first Hatchling that spawns, use Avenger's Shield on the next two, use Judgement of Righteousness on one of the next four, and use Righteous Defense to taunt the other three (Who should all be going for the same healer). After this healing aggro gets divided amongst enough targets for Consecration to be enough to grab all Hatchlings that spawn.
• Halazzi - Tank anything involved in the encounter. It's also possible to tank both Halazzi and the Lynx add that spawns at the same time, but there's little reason to do so as you need a second tank to soak Saber Lash anyway.
• Hex Lord Malacrass - Tank anything in the encounter. If you're tanking Malacrass himself, I'd recommend keeping up Judgement of Light on him; this will provide reasonable amount of healing from the damage Spirit Bolts do on the melee.
• Zul'jin - Tank; however your raid might be more comfortable with the other tank you have along tanking Zul'jin so you have extra healing available. One thing to keep in mind is that Zul'jin's aggro does not reset aggro until after he actually changes into a new form; do not blow your abilities too early.

[top]Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep

• Hydross the Unstable - Tank adds or Hydross himself. Will require [Lesser Invisibility Potion] to safely pull Hydross if frost tank. With sufficient gear tanking all adds at once is viable; if you are one of Hydross's tanks, tanking some adds of your equipped resistance as well as Hydross is viable too. Keep in mind that Holy Shield does nothing here, you can't block elemental based melee damage.
• The Lurker Below - Tanks adds and/or Lurker. Best to position so you're swimming in the water; remember that you don't have Feral Charge or Intercept to quickly get back in case of a whirl + geyser combo. With recent changes to Consecration range it might be possible to tank Lurker and hit him with Consecration now while standing on the edge of the platform; we haven't run SSC since then, so I can't test this myself.
• Morogrim Tidewalker - Tank the Murlocs. Unless there are two Prot Paladins this should always be the preferred role. See the fight-specific advice above for more details.
• Fathom-Lord Karathress - Tank the Hunter add, (and) his pet, or Karathress. Tanking other mobs is possible, but Feral Druids are better at taking the burst from the Shaman, while Warriors can help interrupt the heals from the Priest.
• Leotheras the Blind - Tank Leo during human phases. Alliance Paladins in particular will find Seal of Vengeance to be potentially quite useful here. Tanking the demon is possible as well, but a Prot Paladin is probably not the strongest class for this, though a few people have reported great success tanking the demon as Prot Paladin (The biggest issue I'd see being that you might run into mana issues if you're particularly lucky with resists).
• Lady Vashj - Tank Vashj, tank Nagas during phase 2.
• Al'ar - Tanks adds or Al'ar; in phase 2 of the fight Avenger's Shield is extremely good for grabbing the adds that spawn after each meteor.
• Void Reaver - Tank; it's helpful if your Prot Paladin can pull here. With sufficient spell damage gear for it, it's possible for a Prot Paladin to keep aggro for the vast majority of the fight.
• High Astromancer Solarian - Tank the Solarium Agents. See the above section for more details.
• Kael'thas Sunstrider - Tank two to three weapons in phase two, tank Master Engineer Telonicus, tank Phoenixes in phase four and five. Tanking Kael'thas himself is also possible, but will make getting Shock Barriers down before a second Pyroblast more important due to less different abilities to deal with the damage than a warrior. With changes to Fear Ward being universal and Fear no longer causing a mob to ignore you tanking Sanguinar is viable as well now, though I'd still recommend a warrior for this.

[top]Mount Hyjal and Black Temple

• Hyjal in general - Perfect tank during trash waves. See advice above for more details.
• Rage Winterchill - Tank or heal; depending on raid composition.
• Anetheron - Good Infernal tank with proper FR gear. Exorcism and Avenger's Shield make for easily grabbing the Infernals as long as people make at least some effort to move towards your tanking spot. Anetheron tanking just as viable, but not as much of an advantage over other tanks.
• Kaz'rogal - Probably best off healing; though damage taken is most likely high enough to prevent running out of mana.
• Azgalor - Doomguard tank or healing; silence is very frequent and annoying and will cost you a good amount of threat on Azgalor himself.
• Archimonde - Healing; ability to not get feared here is too important due to the inability to dodge/parry/block while feared.
• High Warlord Naj'entus - Tanking Naj'entus. Note that that this fight rewards bringing a lot of healing, so might be better to heal here.
• Supremus - Main tank Supremus or help soak Hateful Strikes.
• Shade of Akama - Tank the Ashtongue Rogues, Spiritbinders and Elementalists; Avenger's Shield is very good for those as they spawn in neat groups of three. Alternatively tanking the Ashtongue Defenders works pretty easily as well with Consecration easily outaggroing any healers, and Righteous Defense being a great ability to ensure they run towards you after they spawn.
• Teron Gorefiend - Tank Teron. However, due to the nature of the encounter potentially better off healing; tanking Teron himself is much like any other fight, but more healers is a good counter to being unlucky with healers constantly being picked for Shadow of Death.
• Gurtogg Bloodboil - Tank Gurtogg. As with Naj'entus, taking more healers is heavily rewarded here, so you might be preferred to help healing. Getting Fel Rage as Prot Paladin is fun though. Also remember that you can't generate threat during Fel Rage phases, so these are a perfect time to use Seal of Wisdom instead.
• Reliquary of Souls - Heal or tank. No gear switching possible in between phases, and mechanics make warriors required tanks for the second phase. The second phase requires spell reflect unless your guild heavily outgears the encounter. Paladins are the only tanks whose threat scales up with the aura at a nearly equal rate to the damage increase it gives (Spiritual Attunement and threat of rebuffing a Seal not scaling, while the rest does), and despite not having too good a way to dump mana, the Soul Scream does a lot lower damage per mana than it does damage per rage.
• Mother Shahraz - Heal or serve as Saber Lash soak. Maintanking not viable due to frequent silence around Mother Shahraz. Keeping up a Judgement while otherwise not attacking is recommended while off-tanking, and you can usually throw one or two heals after each Saber Lash.
• Illidari Council - Tank Veras Darkshadow or Lady Malande. Gathios the Shatterer is better tanked by a Warrior due to Spell Reflect usability. Lady Malande can also favor a warrior due to need to interrupt, but should still be viably tankable as Paladin.
• Illidan Stormrage - Can tank anything here. Note that you will need 72.4% combined dodge/parry/block before Holy Shield to avoid Shear if you tank Illidan (Or 67.1% with a [Libram of Repentance]). This is different from crushing blows because you can not count on being missed. Flames of Azzinoth tanking is same as for any other tank, though due to incapability of blocking elemental based melee attacks it might be better to tank the second Flame to be DPSed, threat is slightly helped by the fact that the Flames count as Demons, making Exorcism usable however, and it is certainly possible to be the tank on the first flame; however a good druid or warrior will most likely produce better threat.

[top]Sunwell Plateau

• Kalecgos - Same as any other tank, alternatively some guilds like to use a Protection Paladin wearing some Arcane Resist gear to tank Kalecgos in the normal realm for the entire encounter, using Divine Shield to clear Arcane Buffets if needed. For tanking the demon, it's recommended you use the Righteous Defense taunt macro lower in this article; otherwise you'll have to specifically target Kalecgos's half-elf form to cast Righteous Defense. Using Divine Shield in reaction to a Corrupting Strike works as well, the demon will turn to Kalecgos shortly, but you'll save yourself from a big damage spike. Just ensure Righteous Defense is ready if you do so.
• Brutallus - Same as any other tank. A Paladin's advantage here is high threat due to Brutallus being a demon with an extremely high attack rate (Making Exorcism usable and maximizing Holy Shield's threat), downside is that we're on the same level of survivability as a Warrior for the encounter, with less cooldowns to use for Stomps. Clearing Stomp with either Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection does not work.
• Felmyst - Optimal job here is tanking the skeletons during the flight phases. A more detailed explanation will be added to the specific fights section as I experience this myself.
  Other Sunwell bosses will be added later.

[top]The other stuff

[top]Useful macros

Easier to use taunt macro:

The above macro will first attempt to cast Righteous Defense on your target, if that fails it'll attempt to cast it on your target's target, and if that fails, it'll simply turn it into your next active instant spell, usable by simply clicking on someone in your raid or party frames.

Judgement + instant seal re-cast macro:

This will cast Judgement and immediately reapply a seal of your choice. These type of macros can be good and bad; if you don't have Improved Judgement there's little reason not to use a macro like this, but if you do have Improved Judgement you might want to be able to use Judgement without using up a global cooldown.

Current avoidance + block macro:

This will print in one of your chat frames how much avoidance you have, to make it easier to find out how close you are to push off crushing blows. Make sure to use Holy Shield before using if you don't want to calculate how much it adds yourself. The macro assumes you have 5/5 Anticipation. Change the + 20 to the amount of defense skill you get from Anticipation instead if you don't have 5/5 Anticipation.

Quick Divine Shield + Cancel macro:

This can be handy for clearing certain debuffs in case of emergencies.

[top]Future additions

• More math to back things up.
• Talents.
• Some more pieces of fight specific advice.
• Open to suggestions