Protection Paladin Spec (Updated for Cataclysm)
For the Prot Paladin there are a couple things to keep in mind. Some of our new talents like Judgements of the Just and Reckoning are better suited for single-target tanking.
While Hallowed Ground is a talent that a tank who will be doing more AoE tanking should have.
Also there are Major Glyphs that you can swap back and forth between trash and bosses such as:
Glyph of Focused Shield
Glyph of Dazing Shield
Talents:
As you can see in my build, I included:
Guarded by the Light Because I want to play around with it for a bit and see how I like the ability to shield myself and provide more damage mitigation.
At the moment I put my non-Prot talent points in:
Crusade for the increased threat from the extra damage.
At level 85 it might be worth it to add:
Judgements of the Pure for increased threat generation also.
Glyphs:
Glyphs in patch 4.0.1 offer some flexibility for various situations depending on the fight you are in or what your current needs are.
Prime Glyphs
You can swap Crusader Strike for Hammer of the Righteous in AoE situations.
Major Glyphs:
Major Glyphs have some wiggle room for situations and you may find yourself swapping some of these glyphs out also.
I’ve gone back and removed Ascetic Crusader because mana has been a non-issue so far.
Some of the other situational major glyphs that I like are:
Glyph of Dazing Shield to daze and slow mobs again.
Glyph of Salvation for situations where you need to stop threat completely on a member of your raid or party.
Glyph of Divine Protection is one that I can potentially see being mandatory to swap in for a boss or two in Cataclysm.
Minor Glyphs:
Minor Glyphs aren’t very interesting and you are free to pick whatever you like.
In Conclusion:
I definitely see some flexibility at level 80 for players to specialize in AoE or Single-target tanking. Your talent choices and glyphs will be able to be customized to your specific role.
Overall, while there will be serious theorycrafters who will be crunching the numbers all of the ideal choices to completely maximize your abilities, I don’t see a lot of areas where you can createa failed spec and regardless of your choices you should be able to be an effective tank based on your play style.
Cataclysm Update!
I’ve got an updated Protection Paladin Spec for Cataclysm.
For Cataclysm you want to make sure you have the following talents:
Eternal Glory
Guarded By The Light
These talents, along with using Word of Glory liberally, will greatly increase your survivability now at the start of Cataclysm and help take some pressure off of healers and their limited mana pools.
Another tip for Cataclysm dungeons and Heroics is don’t be afraid to also use Holy Radiance. With the current state of players being undergeared at the beginning of an expansion it is important to do everything you can to stay alive. Holy Radiance is a huge help.
