WotLK PVE Protection Paladin Guide (2024)

Firstly, thanks for posting a new guide on the warmane forums. We already have plenty of Prot pala guides, but it's always nice to get newer ones, as the old guides often don't get maintained as the years age on.

Haven't had time to go over the best in slot lists yet, but I already noticed a few poignant issues in the rotations section

1) Firstly, the opener is a bit too rigid and fixed.

Depending on whther or not you're able to pre-cast a consecrate in position,(ie stand underneath where boss spawns prior to aggro) you should factor in a precasted consecrate.
Then in some cases you might also need to save Avenger's shield for something else.

For example here's how an opener might look on DBS or Lich King, with a set timer and you're able to pre-pull consecrate, or in other scenarios where you're able to pull the boss into a consecrate from afar (or might need to save Avenger's shield for another reason)

Precasted Sacred Shield -> Precasted Divine Plea > Precasted Holy Shield > Precasted Consecration @ future boss location > start mashing Hand of Reckoning at 0.01 sec left on pull timer > Instantly Wings + HotR on pull the instant AFTER hand of reckoning lands > Judgement if assigned to the debuff, Avenger's shield otherwise > Shield of Righteousness > Judgement or Avenger's shield (whichever wasn't cast earlier, skip avengers if needed for adds in next 20 sec) > Hammer of the Righteous > onto the normal 6-9-6 rotation.

As always it pays to be flexible in the opener, for example your Avenger's Shield may be necessary or more optimally saved for other reasons, eg, Marrowgar spikes, aggro'ing adds (solo tank LK), silencing/interupting spellcasters. As always, tank rotations need to be dynamic and not quite this rigid, although I understand new players like a set-order to learn from, the best guides will communicate a sense of fluidity in an easy to comprehend manner.

2) Secondly, your guide is completely lacking an explanation of the 6-9-6 rotation principal for prolonged DTPS after the opener is accomplished. If anything, your "Priority order" is actively promoting the OPPOSITE by encouraging new players to cast ShR + HoTR in back to back GCD's by listing them in 1) and 2), which correct when ranked by threat per skill, is the mortal sin of high DTPS rotations in the long term, due to causing conflicting cooldown resets in the future.

Also it's worth noting that you have ShR listed at #1, and HotR as #2 on single target threat. Typically HotR does more threat per cast even on single target than ShR assuming no funky block value mechanics at play, such as the item level 200 block value relic, but even then I'm fairly sure HotR still wins out at least in my foggy memory of many years-old sims into the matter. You can probably recheck using Rawr and changing variables like relics/weapons, checking between fast 1.6 swing weapons and weapons like BvB to see how the threat per casts change. For the interim, I'm fairly sure it's more accurate to list HotR as 1st, and ShR as 2nd, but do be sure to double check a trustworthy sim.

The 6-9 rotation concept (apart from having an immature giggity "nice" name) is a concept that all prot paladins should at least be aware of, and no rotation section on a Prot Pala guide is complete without at least acknowledging it. It's an old principal which over the years has been built upon, it shouldn't be religiously followed, but all the most optimal rotations eventually settle upon it, as there is no other soution which perfectly achieves 100% GCD uptime without relying on Avenger's Shields/Sacred shields as filler. Even if the advice merely comes in the form of saying"eventually don't cast ShR and HoTR back to back just once in the rotation, aftwards your cooldowns will line up better", it's better than nothing.

But essentially the way I explain this to new players is something like as follows:

6 = You have 2 main-rotation-skills useable every 6 sec, Hammer of the Righteous and Shield of Righteousness, these should be used every 2nd global.

9= You have 3 main-rotation-skills that are useable every 9 seconds, which are Holy Shield, Consecrate, and Judgement. These should be woven "between" every ShR and HoTR to prevent those skills being cast in back to back GCD's.

Extras = You also have to refresh Sacre shield once per minute, and Avenger's Shield can be used as a freeby for more threat or to fix mistakes.

Then I'll give a visual example such as:

Single target sample 6-9 rotation
6 HoTR -> 9 HS -> 6 ShR -> 9 Cons -> 6 HotR -> 9 Judge -> 6 ShR etc etc
If possible I'd link a gif of an action bar with the 5 skills perfectly coming off cooldown the moment they're next used.

By using your skills in the order of a 6 second CD > 9 second CD > 6 second CD > 9 second CD pattern, you will achieve perfect GCD uptime and minimise cooldown overhead (where an ability sits ready on your actionbars unused for more than 1.5 seconds). The "6-9" rotation is the defacto rotation all prot paladins should strive to "fall in to the groove on" once in a prolonged fight.

For example, when a scenario occurs that required you to withhold consecrate for AoE, or HotR for adds (or any other temporary deviation from the 6-9 rotation), what will inevitably happen is at some point in the next 9 seconds, 2 of your main skills WILL come off cooldown at the same time, causing a GCD gap where you have nothing to cast for over 1 second. By being aware of the 6-9 principal, ie, not casting HoTR and ShR in 2 GCD's back to back, you will eventually cause all future cooldowns resets from having a conflict or being forced to sit for 1.5 seconds without a skill available to cast (apart from Sacred shield or Avengers shield).

In an oversimplified manner, we can generally explain once a cooldown conflict happens, you can return to a 6-9 principal'd rotation by casting either Sacred Shield or Avenger's Shield (to create a GCD's worth of "leeway") and then making sure NOT to cast HoTR + ShR back to back in the next 2 GCD's that follow. However, wasting a GCD to "reset" like this in the middle of a rotation, whilst common advice given to new prot paladins, has always been suboptimal.
In the hands of an experienced Ppala, if they properly understand the 6-9 principal (and can plan ahead 4-5 GCD's) you can often pick a more optimal GCD order without needing to waste an unneccessary GCD and waste a cooldown like Avenger's shield, or be forced into refreshing Sacred shield early (eg with >30 sec remaining)

Then additionally, in a very optimised 6-9 principal'd rotation with no deviations or mistakes, every 2nd consecutive Judgement is an opportunity to cast either Avenger's Shield or refresh Sacred Shield without dropping the 20 second duration judgement debuff from the boss. Simply skip the judgement, and cast the other GCD instead.

Even in high-AoE situations the 6-9 principal doesn't change, just situations will arise where you are required to withhold a skill CD and then return to the 6-9 rotation later, or instantly cast Consecrate as your FIRST skill, but even then you can typically do a 6-9 principal'd rotations in the likes of:

if exactly 3 mobs (AoE)
6 HoTR > 9 Consecrate > 6 ShR > 9 HS > 6 HoTR > 9 Judgement > etc

If 5+ mobs (AoE)
9 Consecrate > 6 HoTR > 9 Holy Shield > 6 ShR > 9 Judgement > etc

In either variant Avenger's shield can be used a ANY TIME without throwing off the 6-9 principal.

It'll be quite the challenge to condense all of this information down in a manner where new players can easily understand it without sounding like a novel. In my guild discord chats I'm a fan of simplifying it down to "after the first 20 seconds of a boss once you're sure you aren't losing boss aggro, just stop casting HotR + ShR in back to back GCD's ever for the rest of the fight" and they end up "accidentally" falling into a 6-9 principal'd rotation without needing to know the full theory behind why it works.

I haven't had time to go over the BiS lists but in general, as long as you encourage players to collect multiple armor sets and think clearly about when 264 armor pieces vs the 277 avoidance/stam pieces vs various hit rating/expertise item swaps are needed, you can't have done too badly. Encourage players to swap equipment regularly between boss encounters. Eg, armor set on Marrowgar, then a higher Expertise/Stamina set for LDW, and back to Armor set for gunship without sacrificing too much hit rating or falling under expertise softcap.

As a wise man once said, If I had more time, I would've written a shorter letter. Polish and finesse down the key information into the least words possible when writing a quality guide.

Cheers for your contribution. Good luck condensing all the info down.

WotLK PVE Protection Paladin Guide (2024)
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