PVE Protection Paladin Tank Gear & Best In Slot (BiS)

tbc classic pve protection paladin tank gear & best in slot (bis) burning crusade classic

A Quick Note About Stats

  • 1 Stamina = 10 Health
  • 1 Intellect = 15 Mana
  • 20 Strength = 1 Block Value
  • 1 Agility = 2 Armor, 0.04% Dodge, 0.04% Critical Strike Rating (Melee)
  • 2.37 Defence Rating = 1 Defence Skill
  • 7.88 Block Rating = 1% Block Chance
  • 18.92 Dodge Rating = 1% Dodge Chance
  • 23.65 Parry Rating = 1% Parry Chance

Armor

Weapon

Note: It is very easy for Protection Paladins to reach high levels of block chance with gear available in Phase 2, so you may wish to mix-and-match some alternative choices to increase your other defensive stats.

Armor

Weapon

 

About the Author

bobodingo

Sup yall! My name is Bobodingo and I've been playing wow since its release. I'm an avid player trying to make some good, quality content and share my ideas with the rest of the WoW community. I'm always down to have a conversation and bounce ideas off each other!
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Centauri
Centauri
2 years ago

For the Pre-BIS, what about the Trinket “Dabiri’s Enigma”? I realize our health pool is already a little lower and the stamina is likely desired, but it would help hit Defense and Crush Cap a little quicker if you were struggling to get some drops.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Centauri
2 years ago

Dabiri’s Enigma is not a bad trinket by any means. However, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1.) Unfortunately, we (Paladins and Warriors) cannot rely on on-use trinkets for our crush cap. Yes, it does increase our block rating by roughly 15.86% when used, but there is also a cooldown on it, which does make it so we can’t include it in our crush cap, just as we can’t use Redoubt. That being said, though, we can convert the defence rating into mitigation, increasing our total avoidance by roughly 2.04%

If you’re looking at getting into Heroics…

  • We don’t need to be crush capped
  • Our defence requirement is 485, down from 490
  • Goblin Rocket Launcher would be much better than Dabiri’s Enigma due to how hard the mobs hit – having even 500 extra health can be the difference between living and dying

If you’re looking at getting into Raids…

  • We DO need to be crush capped at all times – Figurine of the Colossus provides a passive 4.06% total avoidance
  • Again, Goblin Rocket Launcher would be much better than Dabiri’s Enigma due to how hard the mobs/bosses hit – having even 500 extra health can be the difference between living and dying – this is especially true since we are getting the pre-nerf experience

With the Pre-BiS list above, you are able to reach Defence Cap, Crush Cap and have nearly 12,000 HP unbuffed (depending on your gemming decisions) – which is the ideal setup to entering Tier 4 content. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend entering Karazhan with the intention of tanking until after you’ve gotten that gear.

Alexander Shaner
Alexander Shaner
2 years ago

What is tbcDB and why not use wowhead? Clicking on items like devilshark cape don’t give me any information on where they’re from or anything. Not upset just asking – I don’t know if I’m missing a function of the tbcDB website.

Thanks!

Alexander Shaner
Alexander Shaner
Reply to  Alexander Shaner
2 years ago

I just found the little wowhead button! THanks!

Alexander Shaner
Alexander Shaner
2 years ago

What do you think about the cloak and neckpiece from Frost Lord Ahune? They seem pretty good.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Alexander Shaner
2 years ago

For Hailstone Pendant, the biggest question to ask ourselves is what are we replacing with this?

If we compared Hailstone Pendant to Strength of the Untamed, we would see the following:

  • +6 Stamina (Likely pushed to 7 with our scaling)
  • +19 Hit Rating (1.20% Melee Hit Chance)
  • +3 Defence Rating (Roughly 1.27 Defence Skill – 0.20% total avoidance)
  • -18 Dodge Rating (0.91% Dodge Chance)

Because of our need to maintain crush immunity, and the varying levels of difficulty associated with that across the playerbase, I wouldn’t recommend replacing Strength of the Untamed with Hailstone Pendant. Now, if you had, for example, Mark of the Ravenguard, I would definitely recommend replacing it since Hailstone Pendant only sacrifices 7 total stamina, while providing an additional 0.32% total avoidance.

For Icebound Cloak, you gain, by default, an additional 1.62% total avoidance – this is coming only from the defence rating attached. Comparing that to Devilshark Cape providing an additional 2.25% total avoidance by default, along with the increased Block Value, I wouldn’t recommend replacing Devilshark Cape with Icebound Cloak.

Are they worthwhile picking up and using until you get the other items listed? Absolutely. They are great items but unfortunately, they fall slightly short in comparison to the other two items listed.

Alexander Shaner
Alexander Shaner
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

Makes sense, thanks. Just to be sure though, if in my case I still had 103% avoidance with the icebound cloak, I would want the extra stam from it right?

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Alexander Shaner
2 years ago

If you are able to maintain crush immunity regardless of which cloak you have equipped, it generally comes down to your personal preference.

With Icebound Cloak, you’re bound to receive LESS physical damage when hit, thanks to the additional armor, resulting in a roughly 1.85% difference in damage mitigation. However, when it comes to casters, you’re likely to take MORE damage, since Devilshark Cape has increased dodge chance.

I generally don’t recommend choosing gear based on an extra 9 Stamina (Sacred Duty and Combat Expertise + the initial 8) This is mainly due to the fact that most of the damage we receive ranges from 2,500 – 5,000 or more in terms of boss fights. Theoretically, with 90 health, we’d really only be saving ourselves roughly 0.04% – 0.02% of the incoming damage, respectively. Is the additional stamina beneficial? Absolutely. I just wouldn’t solely recommend basing your decision on that.

In terms of threat generation, the only thing that would play a role is your Block Chance for Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary. Icebound Cloak wins the threat battle with an additional 0.08% Block Chance.

For general tanking purposes, Icebound Cloak would typically show more benefit since enough of our threat is reactive, and relies on us blocking attacks, and with 0.08% increased Block Chance, Icebound Cloak is the better choice. We also wouldn’t necessarily want to dodge more attacks than we block since the less damage we take, the less mana we receive through Spiritual Attunement.

In certain situations, Devilshark Cape would be the better choice:

  1. Your healers may be slightly under-geared for the content
  2. Maybe it’s their first time raiding, or running heriocs
  3. You’re tanking casters where we will be generating next to no reactive threat

If you happened to have both cloaks, I would recommend holding onto both since they excel in their own ways, in various situations.

strandead10
strandead10(@strandead10)
8 months ago

Thanks for the information!

Odïn
Odïn
2 years ago

how about thunderfury for phase 1? isn’t it better if u’re tanking 3-4 mobs at ones or if u’re tanking a boss because of the reduced attack speed? as well as the proc dmg

Last edited 2 years ago by Odïn
Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Odïn
2 years ago

As a Protection Paladin, Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker provides little to no benefit for a couple of reasons:

  1. The AoE threat has been massively reduced in TBC.
  2. Using Gavel of Unearthed Secrets will provide an additional 19.88 DPS or 37.77 TPS through Consecration (It will also affect Holy Shield and your different seals)
  3. One of the key things to keep in mind about the reduced attack speed…
  4. Blessing of Sanctuary, Holy Shield and Retribution Aura are all considered reactive abilities and rely on you being hit or blocking an attack to proc
  5. Assuming the boss or mob in question has a 2-second swing timer, you would see one less attack during the 12-second debuff (This is incredibly important to remember since it’s unlikely that you’ll have consistent uptime on it past the initial 12 seconds)
Last edited 2 years ago by Kurathis
Lacura
Lacura
2 years ago

how about “tankatronic goggles” instead of “Justicar Faceguard” or “Faceguard of Determination” ? Is the T4 bonus with 4 set items (+15% holy shield damage) necessary?

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Lacura
2 years ago

Unfortunately, Tankatronic Goggles are not available to players until Phase 2 – originally, it was released with Black Temple, but Blizzard decided to expedite it and release it with Tier 5 content.

The 4-Piece Set Bonus of the Justicar set increases total threat generated by Holy Shield by roughly 71.56 per block (This is assuming zero spell damage, since it’ll still equal the same). Is it necessary? Not really. However, you will notice a difference in your threat generation.

If Tankatronic Goggles were available in Phase 1, what we’d have to look at is what each helmet offers since, as a Paladin, we’re heavily invested in mitigation to reach and maintain the crush cap (102.4% combined avoidance)

Tankatronic Goggles – 2.78% total avoidance
Justicar Faceguard – 2.26% total avoidance
Faceguard of Determination – 5.74% total avoidance

Realistically, Faceguard of Determination is the better choice in terms of mitigation, losing out on 31 Stamina (310 Health) when compared to Tankatronic Goggles. Faceguard of Determination also increases your block rating (why it has more total avoidance) which we rely on for Holy Shield procs.

Here_to_pump
Here_to_pump
2 years ago

You should take another look at gavel of unearthed secrets. 2.70 is mighty slow for a tanking weapon. I would hate for someone to grind out lower city rep and then spend gold on the gavel. The thrallmar and honor hold exalted weapons are better choices but even continuum blade is better than the gavel.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Here_to_pump
2 years ago

How are they better exactly?

Here_to_pump
Here_to_pump
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

You undervalue the 0.90 second swing difference. For every 5 swings with gavel, you are swinging 7 times with a 1.80 speed weapon. That is:
– 2 extra swings of SoR.
– 2 extra chances to apply vengeance or corruption.
– 2 extra chances to proc SoW or SoL.
If you do the math you will see how much better these are versus 13-14 stamina or 38 spellpower if you are using continuum blade. The good part about continuum blade is that it has more stamina and spell hit (a stat which you fail to mention here).

0.90 faster swing, 6 stamina, 8 spell hit > 38 spellpower.

Here_to_pump
Here_to_pump
Reply to  Here_to_pump
2 years ago

EDIT: for every 2 swings with gavel, you are swinging 3 times with a 1.80 speed weapon.
To explain this better:
– 2 swings versus 3.
– 4 swings versus 6.
– 8 swings versus 12.
– 16 swings versus 24.
– 32 swings versus 48.
Now apply that to your seal.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Here_to_pump
2 years ago

Blade of the Archmage:

  • 1.8 Weapon Speed (Over the course of 1 minute, that would be about 34 attacks – 60 ÷ 1.8 = 33 + your initial melee attack opener)
  • Seal of Righteousness causes 100 damage per successful melee attack (269 spell damage)
  • Assuming no attacks miss, are dodged, parried, or blocked, it would be 34 x 100 = 3,400 (3,400 x 1.90 = 6,460 threat or 107.67 tps)

 
Gavel of Unearthed Secrets:

  • 2.70 Weapon Speed (Over the course of 1 minute, that would be about 23 attacks – 60 ÷ 2.70 = 22 + your initial melee attack opener)
  • Seal of Righteousness causes 150 damage per successful melee attack (269 spell damage)
  • Assuming no attacks miss, are dodged, parried, or blocked, it would be 23 x 150 = 3,450 (3,450 x 1.90 = 6,555 threat or 109.25 tps)

Seal of Righteousness’ DoT effect cannot be critical strikes, so Blade of the Archmage’s 0.21% additional critical strike rating does not come into play.

Applying the Seal of Vengeance DoT is just a chance-on-hit. It was not guaranteed to happen on each melee attack until Patch 3.0.2, which saw some other changes to it, too. If you look at or conduct some tests, you will see that there are times where each weapon will generate those stacks faster than the other – this is because it is a chance to apply a stack, and not guaranteed to happen.
 
You are correct in terms of saying that with Blade of the Archmage we would have a higher likelihood to receive more procs from Seal of Light or Seal of Wisdom (Assuming you also meant the Judgement application, as well) The question is whether the increase in either resource’s regeneration is worth it.

Using the above-mentioned statistics and timeframe (assuming no misses or dodges), we have the potential to see:
 
Seal of Light:

  • Gavel of Unearthed Secrets: 3,059 Healing
  • 50.98 HPS
  • Blade of the Archmage: 4,522 Healing
  • 75.37 HPS

Judgement of Light:

  • Gavel of Unearthed Secrets: 2,185 Healing
  • 36.42 HPS
  • Blade of the Archmage: 3,230 Healing
  • 53.83 HPS

Seal of Wisdom:

  • Gavel of Unearthed Secrets: 2,783 Mana
  • 46.38 MPS
  • Blade of the Archmage: 4,114 Mana
  • 68.57 MPS

Judgement of Wisdom:

  • Gavel of Unearthed Secrets: 1,702 Mana
  • 28.37 MPS
  • Blade of the Archmage: 2,516 Mana
  • 41.93 MPS

You are correct in saying that Continuum Blade DOES have more stamina (On a Protection Paladin, that 6 becomes 7 – so, our health increases by 70) We’ve already deduced that faster weapons don’t necessarily cause more damage or threat with Seal of Righteousness, and applying Seal of Vengeance stacks is not guaranteed to be faster. Because of this, Continuum Blade would only appeal to Paladins for the +70 Health and +0.63% Spell Hit Chance. With Continuum Blade equipped, our spell damage is 231:

  • Seal of Righteousness: 100.13 TPS
  • You’re losing TPS potential using this weapon while only gaining 70 Health and 0.63% Spell Hit Chance. It’s not worth it in this case.
Here_to_pump
Here_to_pump
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

I’m not sure where you are getting those figures for SoR but right now on the live server gavel is not causing 50 more damage per swing than the swords. It is closer to 30-35.
You continually dismiss the simple concepts of chance and speed when discussing vengeance or corruption stacking. It is a fact that the faster something occurs the faster the outcome could be positive. The weapons themselves do not have an inherited difference in chance. Take your own figures for example:

  • 34 swings over 1 minute = 34 chances to get a stack.
  • 23 swings over 1 minute = 23 chances to get a stack.

Dismissing this with “there are times where each weapon will generate those stacks faster than the other” means nothing. There are times where gavel will reach 5 stacks at the same rate or faster than the swords BUT the swords will do it faster more often.
Your dismissal of the relevance of spell hit is very disappointing. Your spell causes a big fat 0 TPS if it doesn’t land. If you can fit spell hit on a weapon/necklace/ring slot you definitely take it.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Here_to_pump
2 years ago

Sacrificing 38 spell damage (ignoring the critical strike rating at this point) is like sacrificing 9.03 TPS from Consecration – an ability that does not rely on Spell Hit Rating. No one is denying that spell hit rating is beneficial, I’m saying that given how our spell damage affects our Consecration damage, it’s more beneficial to go for +9.03 TPS than it would be to get 0.63% Spell Hit given the fact that it’s RNG – we don’t know how many times Exorcism will miss, or any ability for that matter. Consecration is guaranteed to hit 8 times per rotation.

“There are times where gavel will reach 5 stacks at the same rate or faster than the swords BUT the swords will do it faster more often.”

That’s not necessarily true. If we both flipped a coin, and you flipped faster than I did, hoping for 5 heads, I could still beat you every time to 5 tails. The same rule applies for Vengeance stacking. Yes, given the speed, you have more opportunity for it to stack, but that doesn’t mean it WILL stack any faster or AS fast as with the Gavel. Will it sometimes? Absolutely. Will it not sometimes? Absolutely. That’s the beauty of RNG – it’s not something we can know when something will proc or be triggered, however you’d like to say it. I gather you’ve run some tests, what were your average results?

Here_to_pump
Here_to_pump
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

“given the fact it’s RNG” – i’m really not sure if you understand the concept of spell hit rating. You are putting the RNG in your favour by increasing your spell hit rating. Since so much of paladin threat relies on it you’d be a fool to pass up the opportunity to have it. You are able to put spell damage into just about every gear slot but you will find spell hit opportunities are much fewer (enter continuum blade and the sword from murmur as big phase 1 options). You only have a limited amount of time where you can sustain consecration as it is so mana intensive. This is why you want to increase the hit chance of your other spells.
You COULD still beat me every time to 5 tails, but since I am getting more flips than you in the same amount of time my average time to 5 heads will be faster. What makes the speed even more relevant is when switching between seals. To get the maximum benefit out of twisting you are time limited in getting your application of vengeance (corruption), or even your righteousness hit on the target and your proc from wisdom or light. I will be doing more testing when I next get the chance.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Here_to_pump
2 years ago

We can agree to disagree. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Paladin
Paladin
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

I would just like to state that I have gone the full 15 seconds with no doges/miss/parry with the KOT sword and not refreshed seal of vengeance. This actually happens very often, or it will take over a minute to get the full 5 stacks. The 2.7 weapon will allow for better seal twisting for more threat.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Paladin
2 years ago

I’ve never heard of, nor experienced myself, Seal of Vengeance stacks taking more than a minute to reach 5. That sounds like an extremely long run of bad luck.

orcfoe
orcfoe
Reply to  Here_to_pump
2 years ago

yeah you’re simply wrong. my 99 parses say gavel is dope.

Cro
Cro
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

Seal procs like wisdom and vengeacne etc doesn’t go off of a chance to hit they are based on procs per minute which means you will see a 2.7 weapon apply stack’s land more often per hit that you would with a fast weapon. Judgements however are based on a chance on hit which DOES proc more with a fast weapon

Better_than_you
Better_than_you
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

Gavel is no good. Your missing common sense a lot. If gavel swings slower and you miss one time. That window of you not generating threat is way bigger than if the faster weapon were to miss. The slow speed of the gavel is a gamble on if your going to lose threat or not compare it to rolling a dice vs the thrallmar sword which literally is like gambling but your dice now only has 4 sides and they are 3-6. Your never going to beat the other dice with only four sides doesn’t matter if your lucky and roll 6 every time eventually the sword dice will take the lead and it won’t be by a little it will continue to grow and grow as the gap between the threat efficiency is shown. Miss once parried once how long is that exactly before you land a hit? Enough time for the sword to miss parry and land a hit granting threat. It’s obvious.

Inquizitor
Inquizitor
Reply to  Better_than_you
2 years ago

The creator of the guide doesn’t even use gavel of unearthed secrets himself. Check the comments section of the prot paladin stat priority page.

Kurathis
Kurathis(@kurathis)
Reply to  Inquizitor
2 years ago

You are absolutely correct – I am currently not using Gavel of Unearthed Secrets or Blade of the Archmage. This is due to me not currently having enough reputation to purchase items that require Exalted with either of the two mentioned factions. Continuum Blade is a stepping-stone weapon and when I do have enough reputation with either faction, I will be upgrading to the applicable weapon.

Inquizitor
Inquizitor
Reply to  Kurathis
2 years ago

Comment removed.

Admin Note:
We’re happy to have constructive feedback on the guides on the site, the goal is always to provide the best information possible to players.
However this recent comment is going the route into personal attacks and will be removed.

Last edited 2 years ago by Furious
orcfoe
orcfoe
Reply to  Better_than_you
2 years ago

post your parses tho. gavel is good for 98-99 range. you getting 100s consistent with blade of the archmage?

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