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about me
Hi I'm Ryken! I started playing on Warmane's Lordaeron realm in January of 2024. You could say that I'm a paladin enthusiast...

Guild History
< Storm Peaks Ski Patrol >
25/03/21 — 25/05/16

< The Drunk Shark >
25/05/23 — 25/08/10

< Heroes of the Heavens >
25/04/19 — NOW

< Storm Peaks Ski Patrol >
25/08/10 — WE ARE SO BACK
talents


Holy 0 / Protection 55 / Retribution 16

Divine Strength [5/5]: Increases your total Strength by 15%.

Anticipation [5/5]: Increases your chance to dodge by 5%.

Divine Sacrifice [1/1]: 30% of all damage taken by party members within 30 yards is redirected to the Paladin (up to a maximum of 40% of the Paladin's health times the number of party members). Damage which reduces the Paladin below 20% health will break the effect. Lasts 10 sec. 2 min cooldown.

Must-have. Your sexiest spell as a prot paladin.

Improved Righteous Fury [3/3]: While Righteous Fury is active, all damage taken is reduced by 6%.

Toughness [5/5]: Increases your armor value from items by 10% and reduces the duration of all movement slowing effects by 30%.

Divine Guardian [2/2]: When Divine Sacrifice is activated, your party and raid members within 30 yards take 20% reduced damage for 6 sec. In addition, increases the duration of your Sacred Shield by 100% and the amount absorbed by 20%.

If you are playing a spec that is expected to pick up D Sac you will also want to pair it with this handy little addition. Most of the time when people want you to D Sac what they actually mean is that they want your Divine Guardian (% damage reduction for the raid) as opposed to the damage transfer of the original talent. The following cancel aura macro that lets you activate the reduction without the redirection:

/cancelaura Divine Sacrifice
/cast Divine Sacrifice

However, as a prot paladin, you rarely if ever want to use this macro. You are big and beefy and you were built to take that damage transfer without having to use a personal cooldown. The only time you would want to use it is if you're using D Sac itself as a self-cooldown, but if you weigh your options that isn't really what you want out of it. The option is there, but you should only take it in desperate situations. D Sac with cancel aura as a self-cooldown: 20% reduction for you (and the raid). D Sac without cancel aura as a cooldown for (primarily) your tanking buddy: 50% reduction for them. 50! That is bigger than a base IBF (not that this is a cooldown measuring contest).

Improved Hammer of Justice [2/2]: Decreases the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice spell by 20 sec.

"Optional" talent that is actually pretty mandatory. You will want this for DBS HC (Beasts) and LoD (Valkyrs).

Improved Devotion Aura [3/3]: Increases the armor bonus of your Devotion Aura by 50% and increases the amount healed on any target affected by any of your Auras by 6%.

A niche interaction that you should be aware of is that this overwrites other Devo Auras, meaning if your raid requires a Devo AM (I can count on one hand the amount of times that was needed) you need to swap off of it for the duration. Devo AM > Improved Devo Aura but they do not stack.

Blessing of Sanctuary [1/1]: Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage taken from all sources by 3% for 10 min and increasing strength and stamina by 10%. In addition, when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack the target will gain 2% of maximum displayed mana. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.

Your go-to prot paladin buff.

Sacred Duty [2/2]: Increases your total Stamina by 4%, reduces the cooldown of your Divine Shield and Divine Protection spells by 60 sec.

One-Handed Weapon Specialization [3/3]: Increases all damage you deal when a one-handed melee weapon is equipped by 10%.

Spiritual Attunement [1/2]: A passive ability that gives the Paladin mana when healed by other friendly targets' spells. The amount of mana gained is equal to 5% of the amount healed.

First talent that you don't dump all of your points into (because there's no need for it). One point is nice, two points is excessive.

Holy Shield [1/1]: Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec and deals 79 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Each block expends a charge. 8 charges.

Part of your regular rotation.

Ardent Defender [3/3]: Damage that takes you below 35% health is reduced by 20%. In addition, attacks which would otherwise kill you cause you to be healed by up to 30% of your maximum health (amount healed based on defense). This healing effect cannot occur more often than once every 2 min.

Remember how I said D Sac is the sexiest prot paladin ability out there? Yeah, so basically I lied—though Ardent is more of a passive than something that requires active decision making like D Sac. The amount of times it will save your ass is inestimable, single-handedly making prot paladin the best tank in this expansion (but don't quote me on this).

Redoubt [3/3]: Increases your block value by 30% and damaging melee and ranged attacks against you have a 10% chance to increase your chance to block by 30%. Lasts 10 sec or 5 blocks.

Combat Expertise [3/3]: Increases your expertise by 6, total Stamina and chance to critically hit by 6%.

Touched by the Light [3/3]: Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 60% of your Strength and increases the amount healed by your critical heals by 30%.

Spell power affects spells like Consecration -> Righteous Fury makes you generate threat based on holy damage dealt -> passively getting more holy spell damage without having to build spell power/intellect means you will have better aggro.

Avenger's Shield [1/1]: Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing [440 - 536+0.07*SPH+0.07*AP] to [440 - 536+0.07*SPH+0.07*AP] Holy damage, Dazing them and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Lasts 10 sec.

Genuinely the most memorable spell that made want to come back and play prot paladin again after having experimented with it in MoP a couple years back.

Guarded by the Light [2/2]: Reduces spell damage taken by 6% and gives a 100% chance to refresh the duration of your Divine Plea when you hit an enemy. In addition, your Divine Plea spell is 100% less likely to be dispelled.

Gives you infinite Divine Plea uptime which combined with the corresponding glyph gives you permanent 3% damage reduction.

Shield of the Templar [3/3]: Reduces all damage taken by 3% and grants your Avenger's Shield a 100% chance to silence your targets for 3 sec.

Allows your Avenger's Shield to interrupt enemy mob spellcasting.

Judgements of the Just [2/2]: Reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 10 sec, increases the duration of your Seal of Justice effect by 1 sec and your Judgement spells also reduce the melee attack speed of the target by 20%.

Hammer of the Righteous [1/1]: Hammer the current target and up to 3 additional nearby targets, causing 4 times your main hand damage per second as Holy damage.

Part of your regular rotation.



Deflection [5/5]: Increases your Parry chance by 5%.

Improved Judgements [2/2]: Decreases the cooldown of your Judgement spells by 2 sec.

Necessary. Makes for a smooth rotation, as you want to alternate 9 sec and 6 sec spells for efficient threat generation. If your Judgement is 10 sec, it will create a weird buffer.

Heart of the Crusader [3/3]: In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 3%.

Vindication [2/2]: Gives the Paladin's damaging attacks a chance to reduce the target's attack power by 46 for 10 sec.

Certain encounters demand you to have this even if there are retris in your group, as movement during the fight can make it so you, the tank, are the only player capable of applying this debuff to the bosses that you're tanking. Prime example is BPC HC when melee are on Keleseth.

Conviction [2/5]: Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 2%.

Fully optional but better than everything else this talent tier has to offer. Minimal stat increase.

Seal of Command [1/1]: All melee attacks deal [0.36*mw] to [0.36*MW] additional Holy damage. When used with attacks or abilities that strike a single target, this additional Holy damage will strike up to 2 additional targets. Lasts 30 min. Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing [0.19*mw+0.08*AP+0.13*SPH] to [0.19*MW+0.08*AP+0.13*SPH] Holy damage.

Your best friend for AoE pulls.

Crusade [1/3]: Increases all damage caused by 1% and all damage caused against Humanoids, Demons, Undead and Elementals by an additional 1%.

Once again, fully optional but still your best bet. Good for ICC specifically.

What other options do I have if I want to cook?

Some other talents you'll find even the best of the best prot paladins spec'ing into are Reckoning, Pursuit of Justice, Sanctity of Battle, Sanctified Retribution... Just do what feels right for your playstyle. Same principles apply as with any other artistic endeavor (which theorycrafting counts as): learn the rules before you break them.

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