This guide discusses Prot Pally PVP in the Cataclysm (Cata) expansion, Patch 4.0.6. This guide provides comprehensive written material and narrated PVP videos.
Please post your feedback, tips, and questions!
Revision History
The first version of this Guide was posted on Oct 14 2010. It has been through many revisions since then; here is the change log for recent revisions:
- 2011 Mar 05: updated 4.1 notes
- 2011 Feb 28: added links to comments that document previous Patch changes (4.0.3a, 4.0.6). Added my take on 4.1 changes
- 2011 Feb 24: added note re: glyphing SoT for Expertise
- 2011 Feb 22: added more notes on Resil
- 2011 Feb 12: rewrote heal macros for clarity (and hopefully so that they work more consistently)
- 2011 Feb 11: mass update for 4.0.6
Table of Contents
- Mechanics Overview
- Resource Mechanics
- Burst and Sustained Damage Mechanics
- Healing Mechanics
- Bubble and Mitigation Mechanics
- Crowd Control Mechanics
- Seal Mechanics
- Team Support Mechanics
- Recommended Talents and Glyphs
- Stats / Enchants / Gems / Gear Recommendations
- General PVP Tips and Tactics
- Macros
- UI / Addons / Power Auras
- Recent Patch Changes
- Narrated PVP Videos
- About the Author
1. Mechanics Overview
The good news is that Prot is a viable PVP spec :)
Prot is a good fit for you if:
- You want to be a melee, and
- You want to be durable, and
- You want to have the capability of generating solid burst damage, and
- You want to have tools to support groups and spot-heal
Here is a brief summary of the spec’s mechanics:
- Our spec-defining ability is Avenger’s Shield (AS), which is an excellent ranged ability that interrupts/silences the target and when glyphed can provide good burst and apply a daze effect
- Our cast-time heals are mana inefficient and do not heal for large amounts. We do have a mana-free “mitigation” heal called Word of Glory (WoG) that is instant cast
- We have multiple mitigation abilities to work with, and when chained together they significantly increase time-to-live
- Shield of the Righteous (SotR) is our new melee “Execute” ability capable of big burst when used with 3 stacks of HoPo and the Sacred Duty (SD) buff
- Mana typically isn’t an issue as long as you keep casting Judgement and are careful not to spam-cast cast-time heals
- Our Judgement spells have been replaced by one Judgement spell. The downside to this is we don’t have the pre-4.0 flexibility of mixing Seals and Judgments with different effects, e.g. the popular combination of Judgement of Justice (applies debuff that limits run speed) with the damage-over-time (DoT) Seal. To apply the run speed limiting debuff in 4.0 you have to use Seal of Justice but the catch is your damage will take a significant hit relative to using Seal of Truth, which is a scaled-down version of the old Seal of Vengeance / Corruption
- We no longer cast Holy Shield (HS); the HS buff is triggered through the use of Shield of the Righteous (SotR) or WoG. The HS buff has a modest impact in PVP – it increases damage blocked from 30% to 40% (mitigation not chance)
2. Resource Mechanics
We have two resources to manage:
- Mana
- Holy Power
We generate mana via the Judgments of the Wise built-in passive which generates 30% of our mana over 10 seconds when Judgement lands on a target successfully. The Sanctuary talent also generates mana when we Block or Dodge. That being said, there are some situations where you may find yourself getting low on mana:
- You are chain casting heals, e.g. Flash of Light (FoL)
- Your target is > 10 yards away so you can’t cast Judgment
- You use mana-intensive abilities, such as Holy Radiance (HR) or Consecration without the talent Hallowed Ground (HG)
I’ve found it helpful to invest 2 points in Improved Judgement (IJ) to extend the range of Judgement to 30 yards. More on this later. I don’t think HG is worth the investment so I only use Consecration when I have enough mana to work with.
We still have Divine Plea (DP) to regen mana, but with the change in 4.0.3a to Shield of the Templar, the most valuable use for Prot for DP is to generate 3 Holy Power instantly.
As of Patch 4.0, all Paladins have a new class mechanic called Holy Power (HoPo). For Prot, Hammer of the Righteous (HotR) and Crusader Strike (CS) build 1 HoPo per use – assuming the blow is not dodge/parried and the target is not immune – up to 3 total (note that HotR and CS now have a shared 3-second cooldown).
We have to manage HoPo carefully. It’s advisable to use your ranged attacks (e.g. AS, Judgment) while closing a gap so that you can cast HotR / CS as soon as you are in melee range to build HoPo.
At 85, you can spend HoPo to cast:
- SotR for the burst damage
- WoG for the heal
- Inquisition for the damage buff
I like the HoPo mechanic because it adds flexibility and situational control – YOU can choose how to spend it and it makes gameplay more dynamic. It reminds me of the awesome Righteous Fury mechanic from Warhammer Online.
3. Burst and Sustained Damage Mechanics
We generate most of our burst from the following abilities:
- AS
- SotR
- Hammer of Wrath (HoW) on targets at 20% or less health
I do not typically use Inquisition in PVP. While it’s excellent for AOE PVE tanking, the Inquisition buff is not guaranteed to provide value in PVP given that you may be CC’d during the time the buff is up. One case where Inquisition is valuable is when casting it prior to a high-burst sequence with Avenging Wrath and a 3-HoPo SotR with Sacred Duty up.
It’s worth noting that these (and some other Paladin) attacks deal Holy damage, which is not mitigated by any resistance. If you’ve read my class guides for other games, you may recall that I favor non-Physical damage, e.g. Swordmaster’s Spirit damage in Warhammer Online and Orc Reaver’s Fire damage in LOTRO, because targets tend to feel equally squishy when you are dealing damage that is not mitigated by armor or resistance.
AS has a 15-second cooldown, and that cooldown can be reset via a 20% proc (with talents) from HotR / CS. Because of this, you want to use AS early and often. Pre-4.0 sometimes we would wait for the right moment to use AS (e.g. chain CC a Healer/Caster for a burst sequence) but that rationale isn’t as valid anymore.
SotR packs a wallop when it crits at 3 HoPo. In general, you should not use SotR unless
- You have 3 HoPo, due to the damage scaling, and
- You have the Sacred Duty (SD) buff proc from Judgment
The SD buff guarantees that SotR will crit. Given that our Crit % has dropped significantly at 85 (i.e. from ~25% at 80 to < 10% at 85) it’s unlikely that SotR will crit without SD.
We generate solid sustained damage from our Seal of Truth (SoT) ability, which is a scaled-down version of the pre-4.0 Seal of Vengeance / Seal of Corruption. It’s also our only DoT so it’s useful for whittling away kiting targets or when we’re CC’d. As of 4.0.6 all single target attacks (including Judgement, Hammer of Wrath, Exorcism, and Templar’s Verdict) can now trigger SoT.
CS and HotR are our main spam attacks so their total damage adds up – typically ~20% of my total damage. They share the same cooldown. CS is Physical damage and delivers decent burst. HotR is an AOE that delivers low single-target Physical damage and AOE Holy damage. I generally favor CS over HotR because it hits significantly harder and PVP is often about focus-firing one target at a time.
4. Healing Mechanics
With the increase in HP pool sizes to 120K+ in blue PVP gear and the lack of scaling for our cast-time heals, we are limited in terms of our in-combat healing capability at 85:
- FoL is very mana intensive (~25% of total mana) but only heals for ~8% of max HP
- Divine Light (DL) has a long cast time and is therefore easy to pushback/interrupt/silence. Holy Light (HL) takes as long to cast as DL, but if you have the Crusader talent proc HL heals for more than DL, so HL is a nice patch-up heal after you get a killing blow and can freecast a slow heal
- WoG heals for ~4% of max HP per HoPo, so it’s not worth using the cooldown unless you have multiple stacks or you really need a heal immediately to buy time
- We have an AoE HoT called Holy Radiance (HR)
- Lay on Hands (LoH) is our silver bullet, but it has a lengthy cooldown (10m or 7m glyphed) and is not usable in arena
- Seal of Insight (SoI) isn’t guaranteed to proc on melee auto attacks and it heals for a very low amount, so this seal is not worth using for Prot. The mana regen effect from SoI is not useful given that we have other effective mana regen tools already
I consider WoG and HR to be “mitigation heals” – they will not outheal incoming damage but they will enable you to stretch out a fight. Check out the Cataclysm 2v2 video posted Dec 22nd in Section 15 – you can see that WoG healing enabled me or my partner to stay alive long enough to win matches.
When you overheal yourself with WoG, the Guarded by the Light (GbtL) talent converts that excess WoG healing into a temporary absorption bubble.
To boost your healing output, you can glyph SoI and WoG (credit: Donnar), but given that our heals don’t scale well at 85, I would recommend taking 0 or 1 of those glyphs.
5. Bubble and Mitigation Mechanics
As with pre-4.0, we can cast Hand of Protection (HoP) on friendly targets to bubble them from Physical damage.
What has changed in 4.0/Cata:
- Sacred Shield (SS) is now a Ret talent and therefore not available to Holy or Prot @ 85
- Divine Shield (DS) duration was reduced from 12 to 8 second
- Divine Protection (DPr) has been changed to a 10-second 20% damage mitigation ability for the Paladin on a 1-min cooldown that no longer procs the Forbearance debuff. So this is an ability that should get a lot of use whenever you are taking focus fire. It is dispellable
- The passive talent Ardent Defender (AD) was changed from a passive to on-use ability (ugh!) and is dispellable
- We gain an awesome mitigation ability at 85 called Guardian of Ancient Kings (GoAK) which is not dispellable and mitigates damage by 50% for 12s. This ability in some ways is better than DS because your damage output is not affected, the duration is 50% longer, and it does not put Forbearance on you
Per Tullkas’s testing, when you use both DPr and AD, they stack additively (20% + 20% = 40% total mitigation, or 60% damage taken). DPr / AD seem to stack multiplicatively with GoAK; i.e. if you have GoAK and DPr up at the same time, you take 40% damage (50% mitigated by GoAK, then 20% of the remaining 50% of the damage is mitigated by DPr).
When we block a melee attack with a shield, we mitigate 30% of the damage or 40% if HS is up. Note that we can’t block spells, which limits the value of the Block and Mastery stats.
6. Crowd Control Mechanics
Our stun, Hammer of Justice (HoJ), has a cooldown of 40 seconds with talents.
The daze (snare/slow) effect was removed from the base AS ability but you can and should glyph it back.
Aside from AS, our only “snare” ability is SoJ, but it’s not really a snare, it’s a run speed limiting debuff. As noted in the Overview, we can’t mix and match different Seals and Judgments as we did pre-4.0, because now there is only 1 Judgement spell. Note that SoJ only applies on melee attacks, so you have to close to melee range first before the debuff is applied, whereas pre-4.0 we could apply Judgement of Justice from range.
In 4.0.6 all Paladins can train Rebuke, which is a melee interrupt on a 10 sec cooldown that lockouts the target from the interrupted spell’s school for 4 sec.
7. Seal Mechanics
We have four Seals:
- Seal of Insight (SoI): chance to restore mana/health on melee hit
- Seal of Judgement (SoJ): applies run-buff removing debuff on melee hit
- Seal of Righteousness (SoR): adds Holy damage on melee hit
- Seal of Truth (SoT): same as the pre-4.0 SoV/SoC DoT on melee hit
SoI provides a very minor amount of healing and is therefore not helpful for Prot. In my experience you don’t need SoI for mana regen if you have IJ talented or when you are fighting melees and have Sanctuary talented as your Blocks regen mana. (FWIW, SoI isn’t useful for Prot PVE either, because we glyph SoT to provide an Expertise bonus, and this is necessary to reduce chance for a boss to Parry / Dodge, and the Parry decrease is a big factor as Parry resets a boss’s swing timer.)
SoJ is situational. I’ve found that the effect’s value has been decreased with the increased usage we get out of AS and the fact that you have to melee to apply the debuff, whereas pre-4.0 you could cast JoJ up to 10 yards away to apply the debuff.
SoR adds a flat amount of damage to melee attacks and Judgement but it never crits.
SoT is superior to SoR as a DPS seal in PVP. SoT DoT ticks (Censure in the Combat Log) can crit, and once SoT is stacked to 5, every attack delivers extra damage (Seal of Truth in the Combat Log). As of 4.0.6 all single target attacks (including Judgement, Hammer of Wrath, Exorcism, and Templar’s Verdict) can now trigger SoT.
8. Team Support Mechanics
As with pre-4.0, we can cast Hand of Protection (HoP) on friendly targets to bubble them from Physical damage.
Divine Guardian (DG) was changed to be an AOE raid buff that decreases damage taken – without transferring that damage to the Paladin – and this scales incredibly well the more friendly targets are under attack. Given the lack of damage transfer we can no longer use DG as a tool to pre-emptively break CC such as Sheep/Blind/etc. However, we still have Hand of Sacrifice (HoS) which transfers damage from the friendly target to the Paladin.
In mass combat it’s very helpful to cast DG and HR – this can buy just enough time for friendlies to survive to affect the outcome of a big fight.
In 4.0, the Druid buff Mark of the Wild (MotW) and Paladin buff Blessing of Kings (BoK) provide the same buff, so if you have a Druid in your party/raid you should buff Blessing of Might (BoM).
9. Recommended Talents and Glyphs
Here is the recommended 0/31/10 “Protribution” spec at 85:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sZGrMcRzdRRucbG:szcVdzmMz
Here are comments on the mechanics of select Prot talents:
- Eternal Glory (EG): we are dependent on HoPo for our healing (WoG) and SotR burst damage, and EG makes 30% of your WoG casts consume no HoPo
- Grand Crusader (GC): synergizes with AS by having a 20% chance to remove the cooldown when using HotR or CS. Amazing talent
- Sacred Duty: synergizes with SotR to make it crit more often. Amazing talent
- Shield of the Templar (SotT): this talent provides multiple benefits – in particular it reduces GoAK’s cooldown from 5 min to 3 min and enables Divine Plea to instantly generate 3 HoPo
Guarded by the Light (GbtL) buffs WoG healing and causes it to proc the HS block buff, which provides a modest mitigation increase. GbtL is no longer must-have as it was in 4.0 before 4.0.3a, but I still take it.
You’ll notice that I took all the Prot tree talents (31 points total) except the following:
- Toughness: armor is useless against bleeds and non-Physical damage (i.e. Spells)
- Hallowed Ground: buffs Consecration. I passed on this talent because most players will simply move of Consecration and the cooldown of Consecration is too high for my liking
- Reckoning: don’t spec into Reckoning now because not only is Seal damage nerfed (previously, Reckoning’s extra melee attacks proc’d your Seal) – in addition, Reckoning now only procs off Blocks not your melee attacks (credit: Elemental)
As far as where to invest talent points outside of the Prot tree:
- Crusade: buffs the damage from our main spam attacks so it’s worth considering. As of 4.0.3a, also procs the Crusader buff which increases the next HL heal by 300%
- Improved Judgement (IJ): the extra 20 yard range for Judgement is surprisingly useful. It not only provides better ranged damage capability but also helps mana regeneration when you have no nearby targets to Judge and can drop a target down to the HoW threshold. As of 4.0.6 Judgement stacks SoT, so IJ increases the range that you can stack your SoT DoT. Some Paladins IMO greatly underestimate IJ’s utility in PVP
- Rule of Law: provides a 15% increase in Crit rate for frequently-used abilities (CS/HotR and WoG)
- Pursuit of Justice (PoJ): buffs movement by 15%, which is better than any enchant. And it enables some CC effects cast on you to generate 1 HoPo
For Prime Glyphs: SotR and WoG are must-have. Your 3rd glyph should either be CS or SoT. With CS no longer generating HoPo if the target dodges/parries, it’s now worthwhile to glyph SoT for the Expertise buff, which should reduce your target’s chance to dodge by 2.5% and parry by 2.5%.
There are 2 must-have Major Glyphs:
- Dazing Shield Major Glyph: applies the run debuff daze effect we had prior to 4.0
- Focused Shield Major Glyph: this is the same glyph was had pre-4.0 for buffing AS damage
For the 3rd Major Glyph, I recommend taking Hammer of Justice (HoJ) – the extra 5 yards to our stun can be a life-saver. You can also slot LoH, which in 4.0.3a was changed from a Minor to Major glyph. Situationally (i.e. against Locks and DK’s) Turn Evil is very useful.
For Minor Glyphs: doesn’t really matter. I slotted both Blessings. I would have thought Insight would be worthwhile but you typically won’t go OOM – I slotted Truth.
10. Stats / Enchants / Gems / Gear Recommendations
Stats
Summary: Strength and Resilience are our most important PVP stats
- Each point of Strength grants 2 AP (2.10 with BoK/MotW) and through the Touched by the Light (TbtL) passive 0.60 Spell Power (0.63 with BoK/MotW). TbtL is the reason why Prot favors Strength over Attack Power (AP). If you want to boost your damage and healing, this is the stat to stack
- Resilience provides passive always-on mitigation (i.e. reduction) for all damage in PVP. If you want to improve your survivability, this is the most important stat. Note that once you have a full set of PVP gear, you probably won’t need to gem/enchant any Resil – what you get from gear and socket bonuses is sufficient – and in most PVP situations opponents won’t be targeting you anyway (unless you are the Flag Carrier)
Some players have theorized that Intellect is better than Strength point-for-point as many Paladin abilities have coefficients for Spell Power. Given that we “double-dip” from Str with the TbtL mechanic, Str is better point-for-point compared to Int.
Stat Myths
There are a lot of guides that are (unfortunately) providing misinformation about which stats to stack for Prot. I’ll go through stat myths one-by-one.
“Stack Mastery to boost your survivability”
The Prot Mastery Divine Bulwark boosts Block %, but Block doesn’t do anything against Spells. Mastery does provide some value against melee opponents but not enough to stack.
In addition, you can only block attacks from your front-facing and when you are not incapacitated.
You will gain far more survivability from Resilience than Mastery.
“Stack Stamina to boost your survivability”
Stam does not scale based on the amount of incoming damage whereas Resilience does. For other classes (esp Healers) there may be valid arguments for stacking Stam.
I have seen the benefits of passive mitigation, from stats such as Resilience, over Stam in other games – e.g. Toughness in WAR.
“Stack Stamina because it provides a DPS boost via Vengeance”
Vengeance only consistently stacks anywhere near max in PVE because bosses deal very high sustained DPS which more than offsets the fast rate of Vengeance decay. However in PVP you will rarely get to 75% max Vengeance, let alone 100%. You can easily test this in PVP with the Vengeance Status addon. If you watch any of my videos from Nov 27, 2010 on, you can see my Vengeance Status bar below the HoPo bar.
Keep in mind that any additional benefit from stacking Stam would only kick in after you reach the amount of Vengeance before stacking Stam. Therefore, stacking Stam for the DPS benefit would be as helpful as wearing a floatable life vest while driving a car to prevent drowning – it might help in that rare case you drive into a body of water but otherwise it’s of no value.
“Haste is a good stat for Prot”
Haste is pretty useless for Prot. Remember that Prot is an ability-cooldown-limited spec, not a global-cooldown-limited spec, and that the vast majority of our abilities are instant cast. The only benefits you get from stacking Haste are fasting cast-time heals and slightly faster auto-attacks. In most situations the only in-combat cast-time heal you’ll be able to reliably cast is FoL and it already has a short cast-time and its main mechanics issues (mana inefficiency, small healing amount) are not addressed with Haste.
If you are wondering why Ret Pallies talk about Haste so much – it reduces the cooldown of CS through the Sanctity of Battle talent, which is not applicable for Prot.
Enchants
- Weapon: Landslide or Avalanche
- Shield: Titanium Plating – please note this is a must-have for the 50% Disarm reduction as we can’t generate HoPo when Disarmed
- Head: 60 Str/35 Resil (PVP enchant)
- Shoulders: 50 Str/25 Crit (Therazane faction) or 50 Str / 25 Resil (PVP enchant)
- Back: 65 or 50 Crit
- Chest: 20 Stats, 15 Stats, or 40 Resil
- Wrist: 50 Str, 65 Crit, or 50 Hit
- Hands: 50 or 35 Strength
- Waist: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle for the 2nd gem slot
- Legs: Dragonscale Leg Armor
- Feet: 50 Hit
Gems
- Red sockets: always Str
- Yellow sockets: Str/Crit, Str/Resil, or Resil
- Blue sockets: Str/Hit
- Meta socket: Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond (+54 Str and 3% Increased Critical Damage)
Reforging
Reforge the following stats to Hit until you reach the 5% cap, then reforge to Crit:
- Haste (almost completely useless for Prot)
- Mastery (only helpful against melees)
- Expertise (actually not that bad, reduces avoidance for any target)
Gear
In general you should stick with PVP gear instead of PVE gear, given that there are 1+ PVP items with Strength and Resilience for each slot. You want to use the Pally Scaled PVP set and off-set plate pieces and the accessories that have Strength on them.
Make sure that your first purchase with Conqueror points is a/the weapon – this is the case for any MDPS class or Hunter. Get the Mace (Vicious Gladiator’s Bonecracker) or Axe (Vicious Gladiator’s Hacker), as these have the highest max-damage number for 2.6 Str weapons. The Sword (Vicious Gladiator’s Slicer) is a no-no because it has a lower max-damage number and PVP is all about burst. If you play a Human or Dwarf Paladin, take the Mace over the Axe per the 3 Expertise racial (contributed by: Marko, Tullkas).
For PVP shield, get Vicious Gladiator’s Shield Wall.
Aside from the classic PVP trinket which removes CC, we have two Str trinkets available that have different mechanics:
- Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Badge of Victory: 1520 Str for 20 sec, 2 min cooldown, activated on-use
- Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Insignia of Victory: 912 Str for 20 sec, 1 min internal cooldown, proc chance of 15%
Which trinket (Insignia or Badge) depends on what are you trying to maximize:
- For controlled burst, go with the Badge
- For higher average benefit, go with the Insignia
For a great breakdown on the new PVP points systems and the order to buy PVP pieces, read Cynwise’s excellent article on PVP Gear in Cataclysm for Season 9. If you want to understand the relationship between arena team rating and weekly max Conqueror points, check out Felbent’s chart or a points calculator. Keep in mind that a Prot Pally can buy their 1H weapon with 2 days of Arena – Monday and Tuesday – it’s super easy.
The one non-PVP item you should consider picking up is Darkmoon Card Hurricane (DMCH), as Andy suggested:
the main reason for my post was to mention that this spec does really well with the Darkmoon Hurricane deck. Average damage is around 5k’ish but it can crit and I’ve seen 8k+ numbers from it previously. On my damage meter it’s normally sitting just below my melee or auto attack damage. If you don’t need the resilience from the other trinkets I would recommend grabbing this trinket for this spec.
DMCH synergizes great with our class mechanics!
11. General PVP Tips and Tactics
- When closing the gap to opponents, open with AS and Judgement – there is no point anymore in saving AS. You want to use CS or HotR as soon as you are in melee range to start building HoPo and to proc the cooldown reset for AS
- Use enemy Pets as Holy Power batteries, esp as you are making your way to your target while they are kiting you. Against Mages, do not get caught in No Man’s Land – where you are taking fire from the Mage and their pets but are out of melee range of any of them
- Remember that CS / HotR will not build Holy Power on an Immune (e.g. bubbled / Ice Block’d) target or a target that dodges or parries your attack (e.g. Rogue with Evasion), so plan accordingly
- If you are low on health and have 3 Holy Power and your opponent is also at low health but above Hammer of Wrath range, you can choose to finish with SotR or heal with WoG. If you go with WoG you have a 30% chance to get an EG proc which restores those 3 Holy Power and you can use SotR immediately. It really depends on the situation, but against DPS classes going the WoG route is the more conservative play in 1v1s
- If you need to bubble yourself to heal up, it’s a good idea to use a GCD while you’re bubbled to cast Judgement, which procs your mana regen. Then spam-cast FoL. That way you can heal up without going bone dry on mana
12. Macros
Macros can be a HUGE help for simplifying your keybinds and thereby improving gameplay. Below are some of the key macros you see me using throughout my videos.
CS / Judgement
This macro is simply for convenience, so I can hit the same button at least 3 times in a row when engaging a target in melee range:
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=2 crusader strike, judgement, crusader strike
I do also keybind Judgement separately, so that I can use it without having to use CS first.
HotR / Judgement
Same macro as the previous one, but for HotR
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=2 hammer of the righteous, judgement, hammer of the righteous
Bubble Me or You or Us
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:ctrl] divine guardian; [help] hand of protection; divine shield
Here’s how this macro works:
- If you hit the macro with the Ctrl key, you bubble everyone else
- If you have a friendly player targeted and you hit the macro, you bubble them with HoP
- If you don’t have a friendly player targeted you bubble yourself with DS
As a side note, I map this macro to the “B” key (“B” as in “Bubble”) for easy recall.
Mitigation Chaining (DP / GoAK / AD)
/cast [mod:ctrl] guardian of ancient kings
/castsequence reset=30 divine protection, guardian of ancient kings, ardent defender
Divine Plea On / Off
#showtooltip
/cancelaura Divine Plea
/cast Divine Plea
Pressing this once will cast DP, which generates 3 HoPo, and pressing it again will remove DP. This is a great macro if you need an emergency WoG heal or SotR.
Cast-Time Focus Heal
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:ctrl] holy light
/cast [@focus, mod:shift, nodead] flash of light; flash of light
If you press Shift with this macro, you FoL your focus. Otherwise you either cast FoL or HL.
WoG Focus Heal
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:ctrl] holy radiance
/cast [@focus, mod:shift, nodead] word of glory; word of glory
If you press Shift with this macro, you WoG your focus. Otherwise you either cast WoG or HR.
Hand of Sacrifice
#showtooltip hand of sacrifice
/cast [help] hand of sacrifice; [target=focus, exists, nodead] hand of sacrifice
If you have a friendly player targeted, this casts HoS on them. Otherwise this macro casts it on your focus target, if you have one.
In-Combat Aura Switch
/cancelaura
/castsequence retribution aura, resistance aura
Before engaging in combat, use this macro to get to the Aura you want to have up. Then during combat you can simply hit the macro to switch to the other Aura. For simplicity, I map this macro to the “A” key (“A” as in “Aura”) for easy recall.
Maximum Burst (credit: Spiegelmann)
Cast Inquisition (with your 2 HoPo) for 8 secs
Activate my macro:
#showtooltip
/use Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s badge of Victory
/cast Divine Plea
/cast Avenging Wrath
Then SotR
PVP Self-Buff
No Druid around, use this:
/castsequence reset=10 blessing of kings, seal of truth
With a Druid around, use this:
/castsequence reset=10 blessing of might, seal of truth
13. UI / Addons / Power Auras
To turn on enemy health bars with class colors with the default UI functionality:
- to show the health bar over all players, use the keybind for Show All Name Plates
- to color the health bars of enemy players per their class: check the box for: Options | Interface| Combat | Class Colors in Nameplates
I recommend the following addons specifically for Prot:
- Range Display: this simple but highly useful addon shows distance to target, focus, and mouseover
- Power Auras: highly customizable addon that can display buffs, debuffs, procs, etc. Non-trivial to learn. Below are some Auras I use
- OmniCC: displays numeric cooldown over your abilities
- Quartz: elegant cast bar addon, shows latency
- Rogue Spam Reborn: suppresses annoying error messages including “you have no target” or “out of range” et al
- Vengeance Status: displays your current Vengeance AP buff. RAWR!
For Arenas, the following two addons are must-have:
- Gladius: provides enemy health, mana, and casting bars
- Gladiminish: enhances Gladius to provide diminishing return timers for CC
Power Auras
Please do not ask me technical questions about how to use PA, you can ask those on the addon site.
Here are some of my auras:
- Hammer of Wrath: when HoW is usable on your target, this aura displays the HoW icon and makes a clear sword unsheathing sound
Version:4.4; ignoremaj:false; icon:INV_Hammer_04; buffname:Hammer of Wrath; x:99; bufftype:7; owntex:true; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; sound:50; exact:true; size:0.15; texmode:2; ismounted:0
- Sacred Duty: when SD procs, this aura displays the SD icon with the timer til the buff expires and makes a clear bell ringing sound
Version:4.4; ignoremaj:false; icon:Ability_Paladin_JudgementRed; buffname:Sacred Duty; x:136; owntex:true; isResting:0; mine:true; inVehicle:0; sound:36; exact:true; size:0.15; texmode:2; ismounted:0; timer.g:0.1882; timer.h:1.11; timer.enabled:true; timer.r:0.1451; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:BOTTOM; timer.Transparent:true
- Crusade: if you land the KB on an opponent, you get this buff icon with timer. The buff increases your next HL cast by 300%
Version:4.9; ignoremaj:false; icon:Spell_Holy_Crusade; buffname:Crusader; x:172; owntex:true; isResting:0; mine:true; inVehicle:0; sound:61; exact:true; size:0.15; texmode:2; ismounted:0; timer.g:0.1882; timer.h:1.11; timer.enabled:true; timer.r:0.1451; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:BOTTOM; timer.Transparent:true
14. Recent Patch Changes
The Devs are still making a lot of tweaks to Paladins in Patch 4.x. Below is a summary of changes (documented and undocumented) for recent patches and their impacts.
Current Live Version: 4.0.6
Analysis for Previous Versions: 4.0.3a | 4.0.6
My comments for changes are in italics.
Patch 4.1 Changes (Official Patch Notes)
- Word of Glory now has a 20-second cooldown. This is a monster nerf for Prot and Ret in PVP. Here’s the explanation given by Blizzard:
Word of Glory: We want Retribution and Protection paladins to have reasonable healing on themselves or others, but we know paladins sometimes feel like they can’t use their Holy Power on anything but their heals in some situations. We’d rather these two specs spend most of their Holy Power on damage-dealing abilities, with occasional healing.
IMO Prot and Ret will be steeply nerfed PVP if the WoG nerf goes in with even a 5-sec cooldown let alone 20-sec, without some other strong compensating mechanics, e.g. increased CC.
Back-to-back WoG heals (via Eternal Glory for either spec, or Divine Purpose for Ret) or WoG heals cast within 2 GCDs of each other (e.g. WoG, Divine Plea, WoG) are a huge part of what make Prot and Ret viable in PVP.
Anyone who debates that point IMO is either ignorant about the mechanics of those specs in PVP or biased against Paladins.
I’m very perplexed by the reasoning for the nerf mentioned by Blizzard. Granted, Blue posters often get skewered / nitpicked by players for anything they say, but this is one case where I think the concerns of the playerbase are entirely warranted.
I have read some inane arguments that Prot and Ret shouldn’t have offhealing capability in PVP, but what the people saying those things fail to take into account is that relative to other DPS classes, we lack CC. As such, we heal because that’s what is needed in some situations to help friendly players, because we can’t peel to the extent other classes do.
- Walk in the Light (passive) removes the cooldown of Word of Glory. N/A for Prot
- Divine Guardian cooldown is now 3 minutes, up from 2. Minor nerf to Prot
- Grand Crusader will now generate a charge of Holy Power if the Avenger Shield it procs is used within 6 seconds. Very nice buff that should help offset the nerf to HoPo generation in 4.0.6
- Divine Storm now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets. N/A for Prot
- Sacred Shield’s internal cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds, up from 30. N/A for Prot
15. Narrated PVP Videos
Below are my narrated PVP videos, in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Although some of the mechanics in the older videos are outdated, there are points I make in each video which are timeless.
2011 Jan 31 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a): 3v3 Arena Volume 2
2011 Jan 28 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a): 3v3 Arena Volume 1
2011 Jan 19 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a): 2v2 Arena Volume 4
2011 Jan 11 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a): Victory by Landslide
2011 Jan 08 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a): 2v2 Arena Volume 3
2011 Jan 05 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a): 2v2 Arena Volume 2
2010 Dec 31 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a)
2010 Dec 22 (Cataclysm, Patch 4.0.3a): 2v2 Arena Volume 1
2010 Nov 27 (WotLK, Patch 4.0.3a)
2010 Oct 24 (WotLK, Patch 4.0.1)
2010 Oct 21 (WotLK, Patch 4.0.1)
2010 Oct 16 (WotLK, Patch 4.0.1)
2010 Oct 14 (WotLK, Patch 4.0.1):
16. About the Author
Added this section due to this (predictable) post on the WoW forums, prior to the launch of Cataclysm:
It doesn’t look like you have that good pvp gear and experience, i wonder what prompted you to make this post ?
My Paladin hit level 80 over the summer of 2010. I didn’t get to 5k PVP GearScore until 2 months before Patch 4.0, so I had very little time to Arena before 4.0 launched.
I earned the 2k rating Achievement in 2v2 and 3v3 in Cataclysm as Prot and was the highest-rated Prot Pally in the Shadowburn battlegroup in 2v2 and 3v3. You can see my Arena teams here:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/wildhammer/taugrimm/pvp
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Hi Guys.
I have been especially vocal about the WoG nerf on the forums (waste of time of course).
For what it`s worth, i`ve been doing ok in BGs the last few days being top of damage and kills a few times even in Alterac (although there being one massive melee fire fight going for nearly 10 mins with me right in the middle helped lol), and still staying within the top 5 in kills and damage everytime. Although maybe I have been `lucky` and just struck a lot of new 85`s. BUT I find I have to be super anal about tactics and really have to stay right out of open spaces as the super OP Hunters and Mages just keep kiting and hitting me and I can`t do shit against that especially as they can shoot thru walls and rocks lol (why can`t we?..).
Funnily Warriors and Rogues are still the only ones who will go toe to toe though, everyone else runs away.
I have found that healing potions help a to cover the WoG nerf a little if used prudently(very much a case of better than nothing)as well as flipping over to SoI when it`s `safe` to to help with mana and health regen., this has especially helped. Also being a lot more efficient with my use of LoH. I have been doing a LOT of training in PvE against bosses and not using WoG at all which has also helped me too.
But I fully realise these are bandaids and would not be as useful if at all in Arena. But I don`t want to give up on Prot as I love the concept and will unfortunately have to wait until Blizzard wakes up to themselves (I realise a long wait).
The worst result of this WoG nerf is that that STUPID *@#%&? Forebearance raises it`s ugly head a lot more. Getting rid of THAT would make a massive difference.
hey man! great site. and amazing info.
check out my prot pvp paly, i love it. i’ve levelled as prot till 79, switched to holy for pvp, then back to prot for cata and it’s better and stronger than ever. me and my friend -arms warr. have gotten up to 1200 rating so far. It’s great. What would you recommend for going up against a mage/rogue team? We can usually beat them, but it’s just annoying getting slowed and frozen by the mage and slowed by the rogue, after all my cd’s pop i can’t move sometimes and become a sittign target. I can usually surivive enough to hit a wog and then hit my hot, but it’s a close call most times.
great site, keep it up!
take care.
hey tau, loved the guide, i was wondering, since im a tailor and can put swordguard on my cloak, should i still roll with landslide on my mace? the extra 1k attack power is badass, but the 600 dodge proc and 15% speed boost is just awesome.
Well rets are getting their WoG back as Selfless healer now makes WoG only have a 5-10 second cooldown. Blizzard missing the point utterly again.. why they dont just remove the cooldown from WoG and just sort Selfless Healer out as this was the cause of the problems is beyond me.
Prots are stuck with the 20 second WoG, HoR is down to 10% mana cost, and our block bonus is down to 5% instead of 10% with.. whatever skill it is.. cant remember.
I’m currently debating whether to get Cata and start playing WoW again or not. So I’ve been checking out the new specs we have. So far they all seem pretty viable to play. I like Holy, Ret, and Prot. So I’m just trying to find the one that’d be the better choice over the 3 spec’s for battle grounds. do you have any video’s of you against Ret and Holy paladins that are closely geared to your level? also just in your opinion, how do you do vs Ret and Holy paladins? Lastly what do you think of Ret and Holy pally’s?
Hey man. I got back into cata and it’s awesome. I have a full bloodthirsty geared prot paly, and it is great. I can usually get enough burst to take down a healer- holy paly/priest and restos and ret. I have a macro set for trinks and avenging wrath ans 70% reduced damage. It’s insane. Prot is amazing.
well after reading this guide and all the comments. watching more vids on YouTube, it sounds like prot is the way to go. im trying to find a good server and battle group also. where can i get updated stats about the battle groups and realm population and A/H ratio?
Well if u have no prefference for any spec i would chose holy pally as they wasnt affected by the WoG nerf and prot pallys arent what they used to be in terms of survability. I recomend u trying them all and see what fits u bether :)
trying all them out is gona take a long time and money for gearing. specing. etc. ive played some of each. i like em all. but i think im gona do prot and holy. that way i have survivability and damage. and when i feel like sitting back and relaxing i got holy. with some spike damage. again i still need a place where i can get info so i can choose a good server and battle group. i am horde fyi.
No offence intended, but people should understand that as of 4.1 the viability of Protection in PVP was practically nullified.
We’re no longer able to live against casters or any physical DPS that has half a brain. PVP Prot was all about preservation and forcing the enemy team to either OOM or run out of cooldowns. We can’t do that anymore and I gave up before the WoG nerf even hit. The fact that people are still talking about Prot PVP post 4.1 kinda annoys me, it was a viable spec pre 4.1 but it no longer has any real viability since self preservation is out of the picture.
If you find it amusing to annoy people in BG’s or in Arena then by all means spec Prot PVP and go nuts, you can have some pretty fun times if you know what you’re doing. Just don’t expect to hit high ratings anymore, or be able to take any class 1v1. A Prot Paladin in 2’s over 2000 these days is a total rarity.
Before you post any response, understand this. I took a 2’s team to 2292 as Prot PVP with a Blood DK. The DK transferred but we are rather sure we could have kept going higher if we had bothered to continue playing. I still keep in contact with the DK, he’s playing Frost and recently hit 2200 in 3’s. I’m playing Ret now, but I’m not so crash at it and I can’t really get a stable 3’s team anyway.
Vortimosa. i now realize prot is bad. ok. but then what is good on a pally? ret? if we cnt survive with prot how are we even gona get a shot off with it? and healing? arnt we like the worst healers in the game. well outa the onces that can heal others.
Vortimosa is right.
When I heard about the introduction of the 20-sec cooldown for WoG, I knew it meant the end of Prot in competitive arena (e.g. 2k+). In arena, WoG was a hugely critical tool for Prot as we often had to use WoG to heal our partner(s).
It was uncommon pre-4.1 to find a Prot above 2k in 2v2 or 3v3. AFAIK, I was the only player to crack 2k as Prot in Cataclysm in my battlegroup (Shadowburn) in either the 2v2 or 3v3 bracket (and I’m talking after the stupid rating bug was fixed in December).
I couldn’t imagine getting to 2k in any comp now in 2v2 or 3v3, as there is no sustainable way that the Prot can protect their partner(s).
What is the point of doing 2’s when you get matched against two frost mages? I have a CD on my hand of freedom, I have a CD on my trink, and i have a CD on my freedom racial (human). That’s 3. Whats the point after that then i get frozen again and again. My aveng. shield is good, and rebuke is good, but whats the point after all that, i cant make my aveng come up untill CS crits and thats if im near enough to hit them. It was a pointless fight. My friend is an arms warr. and we were both just running around getting frozen and poly’d. we couldnt hide. it’s a stupid fight. we each did a pathetic 18k damage.
I also went toe to toe with a dk, i couldnt see which spec, but it was me and him left. I had full health – 133k and he had 80k, down from 140k. As we went on, his health went up, mine went down. I had him to 30k when I died. How did he heal so much? I felt completely useless against him. My stun, even though specced into, wasn’t enough. This is insane.
needless to say…im depressed….lol
jordan thats a blood dk for you. all i got to say
Well, I still haven`t done Arena yet.
But in BG`s I have no problems generally and am now pretty much always top or close to top damage, and pretty well always in the top 3 for killing blows and or honor kills. Tol Barad is a push over, and the only toons that can beat me one on one are casters/Hunters that hit me when i`m otherwise occupied and stay at a distance that I can`t make up.
I have been running Ret too but I can`t get the same results as with Prot with equivalent spec weapon etc. I have noticed that most Prot definitely seem to be Horde, but i`m Human and being able to use 2 Strength PvP Tokens is a big help.
I have also noticed that we can now shake off disarm (I don`t have Titanium plating on my shield yet as i`m saving it for when I get the Vicious shield, but might not bother now..)
In any case, i`m not giving up.
Well, a little light on this Prot Pala cave we are in is always welcome. I have invested enough time on my toon that I really wouldn´t like to abandon him to his luck.
Anthoneo, could you please comment a little more on your post patch strategy?
Thanks for the hope.
Mavros
Thanks Mavros :-) I`m not sure what I can add to what I have said in my previous couple of posts,if you have a specific question it might be easier.
While I don`t claim to be an expert, I am continuously looking at ways to make Prot work as well as it can with the nerfs and do enough PvP to be able to see that I haven`t just had a few lucky days. I even finished Alterac Valley with top killing blows on 2 occasions, so I guess I must be doing something right…
I will say that I would love to see how Taugrimm would go if he finished speccing his gear up though. His main grief seems with the lesser ability to heal a partner, but if it were 3`s and there was a good Priest for example, I would think it might be a different story? Again I have NOT been in Arena and appreciate that it IS different, but everywhere else, and I do PvP everyday, I rarely have trouble with anyone 1 on 1 even Frost Mages AS LONG AS I can keep them in range lol. If they can keep distance it is pretty hard.
And I am puzzled at everyone`s fear of DKs.
One thing I can suggest for regular BG`s and Tol Barad etc., other than the Strength Flask, is the Lesser Invisibility Potion (very handy for sneaking up on casters and Hunters). Also some of the combination Health / Mana potions.
One other thing that may or may not have something to do with it, I don`t use any macros at all. They just don`t work with this spec. slowing everything down. To me proof of that (besides the visible difference)is in the fact that I am rarely not in the top 3 for damage anywhere. While the individual crits aren`t as high as `DPS` classes, the pace we can put them out seems to give a higher average. This combined with the right tactics seems to make the difference for me at least… have a look at my gear, it`s nothing special. And i`m relatively a noob, but I learn fast.
The only thing I totally suck at is hanging onto Flags lol…
Thanks for the answer, I have not PvPd lately because we were finishing our WoLK professions and instances before jumping to Cata, and for some reason (maybe at 80 if you don´t hava Cata you can´t queue for BGs) we couldn´t get into BGs.
I am not too good at PvP, but I really believe that it takes your game to a whole new level and love the adrenaline, so I am exited to know that Prot Palys can still compete.
I’ve just been doing a few Battlegrounds, started with Arathi, then Warsong, then Tol Barad.
Prot is still a great and viable spec. We just have to really figure out what we’re doing for Arenas, esp. 2v2, full dps. But that aside, we won Arathi. I was in the top 3 for damage, and capped 4 flags. I had a holy paly healing me as I took down a mage, rogue, and hunter, one after the other, not 3v1. That was the highlight battle. I was also in the top 5 for heals…hahaha. In the warsong BG, I ran the flag twice, and we capped and won. I had 1 healer on me as 5 horde (a dk) pulled me down to th etunnel to try and kill me. I killed a rogue, and managed to run up and cap the flag.
In tol barad I just finished, I took on two ret paladins. Started fighting one, and a second came along. Both had 117k and 120k health respectively. Both were wearing full pvp gear w/ vicious weap. (I’m pretty sure, all the signs for pvp gear were there). I had both paladins at 30k health, when one did Hand of Protection and healed himself up to 50k. The other paladin and I kept going toe to toe, and I mangaed to kill him. The other paladin had me down to 30k, and I had just popped ardent defender, when he managed to kill me. I had him down to 20k health. It was a great fight.
My main macro for burst is as follows:
/cast Guardian of Ancient Kings
/cast Divine Protection
/cast Avenging Wrath
/cast Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Badge of Victory
/cast Inquisition
/stop cast
I usually run out, hit with crusader and judgement (i have number 1 bound for both) and get either 1 or 2 hopo for inquisition. Increasing my damage by 50%, str. by 1520, and damage reduction by 70%. It’s quite the macro. Usually I can take most people im fighting from their max health to almost 20% in a matter of seconds with this macro.
Anyways, don’t give up on prot even though the wog nerf has screwed us over. Just keep fighting.
Just did a couple of hours of BGs after a week off levelling up my DK Mining bitch.
The worst I finished was 5th in killing blows, and got second killing blows and top damage twice. Several times I easily cleaned up Blood Elf and Tauren Ret Pallies in Vicious gear (I only have Bloodthirsty still), in some instances at the same time, so there`s hope for us yet it seems.
And we definitely seem to have gotten a secret buff against Disarm it seems as it is instantly shaken off now.
Like Jordan said, just keep fighting!
Random BG’s are fun. But you likely won’t get an invite to RBG. Proc and Ret atm are not viable. No invites. They barely bring enough damage but lack CC that other damage classes bring. This is not a put down but reality. Blizz wants paladins as holy only.
I do actually get invites to RBGs often but because i`m in a very different timezone it`s hard. I do plan to do one tomorrow so we`ll see how it goes… CC is easy with Prot though, that is how I get many of the invites to RBGs actually, you can easily tie up half a dozen opposition players and keep them busy while others take flags etc. It comes down to method rather than relying on spells and macros etc.
But I agree what you say about Blizz.
Sorry, but how do you tie up 6 opposition with only one stun (hammer of justice) and with the only slow debuff limiting maximal run speed to normal pace?
Do you mean that prot pallies survivability and damage mitigation means the opposition is spending more time plowing damage in to you as opposed to going for FC?
Im not criticizing, just hoping to get some pvp tips from someone whose played longer :)
“Do you mean that prot pallies survivability and damage mitigation means the opposition is spending more time plowing damage in to you as opposed to going for FC?”
Exactly this. I basically run around them changing target every several seconds to draw their attention back to me if they are focusing on the FC. It often amazes me how long I can survive doing this lol. I generally only die once in BG`s these days, 3 times on a bad day.
So lately instead of just going for kills i`ve been doing this in BGs and it`s a new kind of fun and helps the team better, and sometimes helps me top honor kills and damage too.
If I try and do the same thing in Ret spec though I die pretty quickly lol.
Ok, the BG didn`t happen but a Ret Pally was kind enough to offer to do some Arena with me so I could lose my Arena cherry.
We won 5 out of 7 matches and in 2 cases I was against the 2 from the other teams by myself and won. He said my rating was up to 1550, I didn`t see that though. Anyway I had capped my Conquest points already so that was that with the Ret. Had another go today with a Mage and we had 20 matches winning half.
So let`s see how it goes once I have better gear.
okay now that taurens can be pally’s would it be better to use a def tauren pally in arena’s because of the health buff, or does it really matter…ive been thinking about switching my belf to a tauren for a while, just need to make sure its worth my time :)
Sincere apologies for the rant, but I want to make a couple of points.
I did 8 hours straight of rated and normal BGs with my guild today.
Only finished not in the top 3 for killing blows 4 times, and was top damage several times. Killed more Ret Pallies than I could count (in one BG alone I killed the same one 5 times), then some idiot Dwarf Ret tries to tell me `you don`t understand Paladin mechanics` lol. He finished with one kill in that one and I had 12…idiot. I think the last time a Ret killed me one on one Jesus was wearing sandals.
I`m NOT trying to brag or anything, far from it. I am still learning. But I still only have Bloodthirsty gear other than the shield yet am doing well in PvP. Now I look at the current Arena ratings for 2v2 in Cyclone and see 2 Prot Pallies in the top 40 and only one Ret and two Holys. And I also see teams that I was up against in Arena several times all there including the number 1 ranked team (God knows how we got put in with them).
SO my point it, Prot is NOT at all dead from what I can see if I can get consistent results like the above. Prot is a lot of work to make work, but it can.
I`m really getting SICK of people saying how much `better` Ret is, it isn`t at all. I now tend to single out Ret Paladins as easy kills.
Don`t give up guys. Prot rules.
Did you check the specs of those players to make sure that they were truly Prot PVP Pallies? Armory lists the specs of the players based on when Armory last compiled the rankings. In many cases, those Pallies showing up as Prot are using Prot for PVE not PVP. So they are probably using Holy or Ret for PVP.
Anyway, let me know.
Most of friends who play protection in PVP are PVE geared in rated BG’s. And he usually has two or more healers with him.
Hi Taugrim.
I went back a few times to recheck and they were Prot everytime I looked except the last when one of them was in Holy spec. Going through the top 100 there are a couple more Prot though. In all honesty I just think there aren`t enough people giving it a SERIOUS go with Prot.
Hello all, new to the forum, just thought I would pose a question, just really got into pvp (BGs) have been doing it on a warrior and a paladin. both have good resilience and it is night and day between the two. As a ret Paladin I continually get my ass handed to me, whether it is fear spam, mages and their infinite freezes that last 10 seconds or any number of other kiting classes. Is there something I am missing or is ret the red headed step child right now? I do the normal stuff keep inquistion up, judge, avenging wrath etc etc… have the trinket but as far as just being fodder for ranged classes is that just what paladins are nowadays?
Ret is dead at the moment for PVP. It is a dps spec that really can’t dps. You get kited all over, frozen, blinded, etc and you can’t get out. Roll something else or quit until they fix it but I don’t think they will ever fix it. It has been 8 months and really no relief. Even the most current changes in 4.2 are no help. I have been playing on the PTR. It is really frustrating. In BG’s I never see RET. The top 10 are all Mages, followed by Rogues, and DK’s.
Hey i could use some help on getting my prot pally better in pvp because i am getting hammered .
@Bob, you haven`t given us much to go on mate… get your Pally set up as per this guide then we can take it from there. You shouldn`t be getting hammered at all, you should be doing the hammering.
First, it really depends on your gear and your experience with prot itself. It’s a good spec to play, you should be able to at least hold your own.
Secondly, are you talking more BG’s or Arena? If it’s bg’s, you probably need better gear, and don’t go out alone if you are inexperienced. Same with Arenas, if you’re not experienced, you’ll learn fast. Otherwise, it comes down to gear, and your parter(s) gear and experience as well.
Third, setting up your keybindings, number bars, and macros will help immensely. Set yourself a burst damage macro. Set your keybindings for quick heals, and attacks all within range. Keep your stuns and kicks up.
Fourth, read this blog. Follow it. You’ll be fine. Practice makes perfect.
good luck!
ps. if u want to, check out my character, Polifema @Gorgonnash.
Cya
Funny how several people keep saying “read this blog”, “follow it”, etc… And the guy who wrote the damn thing (Taugrimm) swears up and down that Prot is dead, and he himself left WoW behind for RIFT…
Ya, but obviously these people are all playing the game, and they have chosen to be this spec. If they hate it, it’s quite easy to change it.
I’m playing also, howbeit more limited due to a growing relationship. Getting back into playing though, and Prot is my Main. Bloodniron (Gnomeregan/Alliance). I’ve joined Arena Pass as well, and its Bloodniron (Arena Tournament 1/Alliance). I have not joined a team yet. Was hoping a RL friend would/will join me. I dual-spec Prot/Prot (MS-PvP/OS-Tanking), and still do nicely in BGz. Have not done any Arena since Patch, so…
Have fun out there, and let’s show that Prot is indeed viable!
The Blog is good, the spec information is solid. The fact the Taugrim walked away is his personal choice and irrelevant. If he came back, finished gearing up and had a proper go at it he would do better. I hope he does :-)
And I really don`t care of others say Prot is dead, I love the spec. I have ranted enough above about how well I am doing despite still learing and don`t need to go on about it. I really think many Paladins don`t do well because of laziness. It is a spec that really needs you to use your head with tactics, whereas most other specs they just sit there hitting their Macros. I don`t use one single macro.
I have finally found a decent 2`s partner and we are currently at over 65% win rate (and still learning to work together) and I still have mainly Bloodthirsty gear so I can only see a lot more improvement coming. I have been doing some PvP with my Blood DK alt and compared to my Pally it`s a joke lol.
I think we should all take advantage of this Forum to help and encourage each other , and show others that Paladins, esp Prot, can pwn, as well as being great fun. That has been my motivation for posting so much ;-)
Anthoneo@Daggerspine.
I agree with you. But I think it comes down to how people approach games. I just want to have fun with it. That said, its hard to have fun when you are getting beat down all the time. I still have not got into any Arena, but have done well with BG’s.
I love the spec as well, and in fact, I really can’t seem to wrap my mind around anything else, or any other class even. I’ve tried several and they just do not hold my interest. I am a Prot Paladin, for better or for worse, lol.
Why not? I don’t consider a macro as cheating. A well designed macro can save your ass and that of your teammates as well. I don’t use macros on my attacks, but I use one for that “Oh Sh*t” moment that happens once in awhile.
It goes something like this:
/cast Guardian of Ancient Kings
/cast Ardent Defender
/cast Divine Protection
/cast Divine Guardian
/cast Avenging Wrath
GratZ… What’s the class/spec of your partner?
Again I agree, and thank you and others like you for continuing to fly the Prot flag high. I must say that when Taugrim bailed, I felt disheartened (as I’m sure many of us did) because I truly respect him. His notes on how bad things were going to get, combined with a wee bit o’ my own troubles (getting thru a divorce and what-not) made me pretty well leave the game behind for awhile.
But now I’m back, with a Vengeance, lol…
Bloodniron@Gnomeregan/Arena Tournament 1
Hey Blood, good to see you back mate. Yeah divorce can be a distraction..
And I too was disappointed when Taugrim stopped playing.
I hear what you say about people being frustrated about being beat down, but I think it`s maybe the players as much as or more than the spec. I can only talk from my own experience…
That 8 hour BG session with my guild I mentioned, it was my first time doing anything like that with the guild, all very experienced guys with various toons.
At the start they were like `Prot Pally` lol, um, you stay and guard the bases` . After one game I had enough of that crap, and got stuck into it from the next one and they all went quiet coz I was consistently in the top 3 pretty much every time. There was a very experienced Ret and Holy in there and only the Ret was near me for results (both these guys had played Prot in the past). At the end of the session it was only me and the Guild boss still going and he asked if i wanted to do Arena with him lol.
Regarding macros, I realise I am firmly against the grain with that. My reason is not because of any worry about `cheating`, I have tried macros and for me they didn`t work well at all. The short story is that for me they slowed everything down, interrupts screwed with them, they took away flexibility, and I went OOM much more often.
I find using a multi button mouse for all the bread and butter attacks, the keyboard for all the HP and trinket ones, then practicing A LOT to learn them all by touch, gives me the reaction speed and flexibility I need to make Prot work well.
I will say that this method is not proving as successful with my DK , but with Prots small amount of total spells and attacks, it is the better way for me anyway.
It might pay to add that due to certain RL experience for many years I am used to thinking ahead and in complex combinations, so that`s another reason I don`t like going automated, it isn`t `alive`. But I feel that anyone can do this with enough practice and the right mouse.
My current partner (I hope he stays) is a Gnome Demonology Warlock.
:-)
Arena changes as you move higher. It is quick to get to 1550, after that it becomes a struggle. Prot pallys do okay in bg’s but in rbg’s the dk or warrior gets the role to be the FC. The dk for example brings CC that prot does not have. Twos are only for points. You have to be on a 3v3 team or higher to get rated weapon. At the moment the only PVP role for paladins in holy. Many prot pallys are in PVE gear in rbg’s with 2 or more healers helping him. Blizz does nor care and ret and prot are both dead. The new fixes in 4.2 do little to change things. I have been playing on the PTR. It really is sad.
That`s what I thought, but on my very first day we went against the number 1 ranked team 3 times even though we were ranked at 1550 (they are 2718) so it appears to be random ?… We lost all 3, but weren`t owned and the last match went for probably 10 minutes (that was with a Ret Pally partner).
They are an Arms Warrior and a Resto Shaman. I hope I get a chance to go against them with my new partner and better gear.
Unfortunately in the search for a good partner I went through some shockers and my ranking dropped to 1349, but things will be different now. I have tried a Ret Pally, a Frost Mage, a Rogue, Shaman, and now the Warlock with interestingly the Ret and Warlock by far the best.
Either way time will prove me right or wrong, and based on experience thus far I remain positive.
I know what you`re saying about flag carrying though, that`s a mission with Prot and one thing I suck at.
Hopefully someone can help me out with my question, cuz i am at a complete loss for words haha…..so i stuck with prot and im loving it, currently 83 specd the same as Taugrim
My last bg in the 80-84 bracket i went 29 and 7 with 104 HKs. I was 3rd in damage dealt overall, 2nd on my team and had 1 flag return. We won WG 3-0 yet i only received 78 honor points. The only person on my team who got lower had just joined the match was 0-0 with 10k damage no caps, no returns 15 HK and he got 60 honor points.
This wasnt just a one time occurrence either. Ever since 81 I usually have been at the tops of damage dealt, HKs and KBs (not all the time, but most times), yet consistently one of the lowest (if not last) when it comes to total honor received. (and when i say consistently I literally mean EVERY TIME without fail).
So my question is, what am i doing wrong and how can I fix it? I should be hitting in the high hundreds for Honor on BG wins, yet i havent hit triple digits since the 75-79 bracket.
Hopefully someones expertise can help me out, cuz 85 is coming quick! Thanks for the help!
I bet its not your doing its what your wearing. I bet most other players just have on more Heirloom and Guild Achievement gear then you do. Or their guild is a higher rank.
I’m in a max level gear and my alts are always geared out to the teeth in any gear I can pass down., most of which have Xp and Honor boost. Plus i have several guild perks that net me more honor and xp and I toss out my banners too on long flag defense fights, like when holding down the Stables or Farm.
Other then that, just toss that shield around, use your buffs always and fight on the flag where you get 50% bonus. The more players and enemeys you touch the more Honor Kills you get and the more honor you get.
Typo: I meant to say “Max level Guild” not gear.
That’s the way to represent! Not that there’s anything wrong with staying and guarding the bases. In fact, that’s kinda what its about! But I’m with you in liking to get into the melee a bit.
Except for the fact he’s Worgen, that’s the same as my latest Alt I’m gonna try. A Demonology ‘Lock named Demoniron. He’s still sitting at 17, but I need to play him some more. I made a fully-decked level 85 version of him on one of the Arena Pass servers, but I don’t know how to play a high level ‘Lock, so… I need to get some ideas from a website or two in that regard.
Good luck to you, and to all!
So I switched up from ret to a prot/pvp set up…. and wow talk about a major difference. Just a question should I be mixing in any pve tank/ret gear or just stick with as much pvp oriented gear as I can find? only 2500 resil atm but man what a difference from ret.
Stick with PVP gear. Resilience is king, and PVE gear has a lot of stats for mitigation/avoidance that are not important for PVP.
Resilience has diminishing returns at 3000. So how much damage should you give up for how much resilience?
There is no doubt that you survive as prot but damage is not great and you bring no CC to the game. So who would want you other than being a FC in RBG’s which btw, dk’s and warriors are more desirable??
Do the 4.2 changes make a protpala playable again in 4.2? Arenawise + rbg.
The 4.2 changes aren’t going to do much to impact Prot PvP one way or the other. There are significant improvements to Ret via the Selfless Healer changes reducing the CD on WoG, and Holy is getting some mobility buffs, as well as a WoG boost, and dispell protection on Beacon of Light (though this could be viewed as a nerf for those that were using beacon to help protect other things from dispells)
The only real “buffs” prot will see are in the form of nerfs to other classes, but that’s not going to help being back those that abandoned prot after 4.1.
Anybody still uses this in arena/(r)bg? I can’t let go of it :)
I’ve found this saying: “Due to the WoG-nerf, I’ve been able to merge my prot-pvp and prot-pve specs by dumping Eternal Glory and Guarded by the Light.”
Made his spec looking like http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/saurfang/Knaughty/talent/primary
Do you think this is valid?
Also, what would you guys do different in spec & gear between arena and flagcarrier?
I’m thinking stamina gems, enchants, mending enchant as flag carrier maybe?
Every day and loving it.
Unfortunately after finding a good 2`s partner that gave me over 65% win rate, he`s been awol for 2 weeks so i`ve been asking anyone to partner and have gone through a few `duds` dropping my rating lol. But in BG`s and RBG`s it`s pwnage on parade lol.
4.2 > “Seal of Righteousness now can be activated by any melee ability, not just single target melee abilities. This adds Hammer of the Righteous (the physical component) and Divine Storm to the list of abilities that can activate this seal. In addition, Seal of Righteousness procs can now be critical effects.”
Think this would change our choice of Seal of Truth?
I keep spamming the forum but can’t help it :) Truly hope some others are still in love with Protadins. I know other classes probably would be a better choice, but for me fun is the most important factor. I need something that’s a bit forgiven and last long while doing decent damage.
Can we talk more about the changes 4.2 cold mean for us, prots in PVP?
– Choice of Seal, with the Righteousness buff?
– Change in spec (maybe dumping Eternal Glory + Guardd by the light)?
– Str + Crit still our choices?
– Should we try stacking expertise (till cap) or mastery ?
– Best weapon enchant stays Landslide?
– Difference in spec, gems, enchants, … for being FC in RBG?
– Favourite heal (Devine Light) remains with new manacosts?
I also found a new guide on our spec. Dhyana’s Protadin PvP Pally Guide.
Don’t know this guys and his pvp results aren’t that promising but this got my attention:
“Heres a fun one I call the Falcon Punch. The idea is to use your strongest ability to it’s fullest. Start out by getting 3 charges of Holy Power with Crusader strike, make a macro that uses Avenging Wrath, Inquisition, and your Bloodthirsty Bade of Victory to work all at once, and keep your Divine Plea (which restores 3 charges of Holy Power) close. Use your judgement to proc Sacred Duty, which makes Shield of the Righteous a 100% garunteed crit, when your sacred duty has proc’d, immediately Stun your target with Hammer of Justice, activate your Inquisition, Avenging Wrath, and Trinket macro to activate all 3 at once, use divine plea, and then use Shield of the Righteous. This super combo usually leads to 20k crit’s on plate types, and 30k on cloth types. Immediately use Avengers Shield when all of this is still in play, to make it also do 20-30k crit on your target. This makes a 40-60k in around 3 seconds possible. Crusader Strike, if it crits, can also do 15, making, in the right circumstances, a 60k+ easily attainable, if everything crits, in a very short amount of time.”
60k damage in 3 secs, gonna try it tonight :)
As Human (no need of medallion), is Darkmoon Hurricane a real option for us? It’s nature damage is getting buffed in 4.2 aswell…
Is it worth the loss of resilience for the extra damage?
No, use both strength trinkets.
Hurricane has +321 str and a chance for 5k-8k chance to hit in 4.2. So, all are strenght. I’d just be bout losing around 350 resi vs gaining quite a bit damage
Think about it… the Math can decide it for you (I would think…)
My Darkmoon Hurricane card gives me +321 Strength 100% of the time. I use the Insignia of Victory trink also…
On the other hand, if I swap the DM:H trink out for my Badge of Victory trink, I will get +1520 Str for 20 seconds, after which I will have to wait 100 seconds before I can ‘Use’ it again. And ya have to remember to ‘Use’ it…
There could be a point saying ya use it for extra burst once every two minutes, for the kill shot or some shit, but then it will be like every other CD… never around when ya need it…
So I meant to conclude by saying that I personally think that the DM:H trink wins out. It gets +7000 damage proc decently often, plus +321 Strength.
When ya divide the Badge of Victory’s +1520 Str by 6 [2 minutes (120 seconds) divided by 20 seconds = 6], ya get an average of +253 Strength
DM:H is better for damage for sure, but is the improvement in damage worth the loss of +340 resi?
More thoughts:
– Guarded By The Light no longer interacts with Holy Shield in any way. (4.2)
Would it be valid to drop this for ‘Long Arm of the Law’ which seems to stack with Pursuit of Justice?
– I also see several pvpprots taking glyph of seal of truth for expertise. It gives this extra in 4.2: “Glyph of Seal of Truth expertise bonus now also works when Seal of Righteousness is active.” Think this could be something?
I think leave GBTL at 2 points because even an extra 5% on WOG can help, and at least it`s a given buff. But if you have a way to test it by all means and let us know. LAOTL would certainly be handy for Prot.
Glyph SoT for Prot PvP in my opinion yes.
So far, I’ve always and everywhere read that Expertise means pretty much nothing for us in PvP… But I’m hip to learning something new. Can you show that Expertise is now an important PvP Prot stat?
What i’ve read is that expertise isn’t needed if you stand behind your opponent all the time. This isn’t so in pvp, so that’s why it’s good to keep it at 20 (cap) for pvp.
As a human female with a mace + the SoT glyph, i get 13 expertise for free. So i only need 7 to be capped = 211 rating.
I hear ya, that makes sense. We’re Paladin for a reason, right? I want to be in someone’s face giving them shit, not sneaking around trying to stab (hack, slash) them in the back, lol… And it looks like I’m at 10 points Exp. without the glyph so 20 with… I just don’t know about glyphing that…
HASTE: What about Haste? I messed around with gear in the Arena Pass and created a set of gear and spec that had a buttload of Haste, and I would think that it would, in theory, mean more damage because extra ability or two every minute… Thoughts, anyone?
Grats to Glince @ Crushridge for the 2298 Arena rating for 2`s. I`m coming!
Up yours to anyone who says Prot can`t pwn.
Are you sure he played?
I see 2298 team-rating, but 1000 personal and 0 played this season.
Would love to see his pvpgear and yours, Anthoneo. What’s your armory info?
That just means he hasn`t played this week, it`s been reset. Mine is Anthoneo @ daggerspine. See my post above explaining my rating atm. I am confident I can break 2000 with my current spec going by comparisons with players in my guild and my results in Arena. The other day I took down a Belf Ret Pally and an undead Rogue by myself.
Looks like you’re the guy i should talk too :)
You’re rating says 1210, you dropped that much without the warlock? What rating did you get this season? I have played my mage but felt heartache for my protpala :)
I have only been doing Arena for about a month now. I was just short of 1550 after only 2 weeks of Arena. A few losing streaks with partners that died in the first 2 mins fixed that lol.
The irony is that my `good` partner has been away levelling his new toon….. a Prot Paladin…
I know how it feels like, takes forever finding someone willing to play with us. it’s also a pain to just strand before that 1550 :/
We should play 3s , with 3 protpalas, saving WOGs for healing the target they decide to Nuke :)
Some quick questions bout your gear…
How come you reforged to haste a bit and use a pve weapon, instead of the vicious one?
I’m Phyll @ Auchindoun EU btw…
The reason I use that weapon: other than resil it`s the same basic spec as the Vicious weapon and if I waited until I could get enough Conquest points to get it, it`d be ages.
The weapon I was using previously was only a little below the Vicious weapons also, so it was much wiser to go this way and use my hard won Conquest points for armour etc.
Also, Swords look cooler ;-)
Regarding the reforge, there are a few exceptions to things in this guide ;-) My advice is to reforge your weapon Crit to Haste.
Anthoneo, Glince hasn’t played in the +2k team he’s in at all. He has none played this season there and they haven’t reset the season totals yet. Your season total is still there, also with a different weekly to prove it.
You haven’t done alot of arena yourself so far, and don’t have 1550 in 2s, 3s, …
I like you and how you like prot in pvp aswell, but i’m dissappointed a bit since i thought i found someone who really speaks from experience…
Um, I have explained my situation and have not said anything that was not true.
My best personal rating was 1480. No I haven`t done a lot of Arena yet, only just over 100 matches. It`s hard to find people to partner a Prot Paladin these days mate. The current `Team` is new hence the low number.
But I do BG`s and Rated BG`s everyday. There are also a few very experienced Paladins in my Guild and we compare notes all the time.
Regarding my opinions on spec etc., they are based on daily PvP experience, and many many hours of testing on Dummies using Add-ons to measure DPS.
Regarding Glince, he was not ranked that high several weeks ago so if he isn`t playing, I can`t see how he has suddenly climbed up the later to be well inside the top 100. I don`t know him personally but simply saw the ranking that wasn`t there before. Also I was not aware one can gain a rating and be in a Team that one isn`t a member of. I must be missing something. So my bad I guess.
I have done my best to answer your questions, and am sorry that I have apparently offended.
Grats to Prot Paladin Glince @ Crushridge for the 2298 Arena rating for 2`s. I`m coming so watch out!
Up yours to anyone who says Prot can`t pwn :-)
Personally, I doubt that this Glince does much PvP at all, or he recently started. He only has 633 HK’s…
AND what’s more, if you look at the ‘Achievements’ section of his armory, click the PvP section, then look at Arena, you will notice that he does not have ANY Arena achieve’s (not even one win…) and barely any BG’s…
Probably a great Tank though…
FWIW I was ranked at 1550 in my first matches as stated here at the time, but I haven`t counted that because it soon dropped. I am not personally worried about the current rating as a personal evaluation ATM as it is hard to always win and get your rating up when your partner of the moment is dead most of the time lol.
The fact that other Melee class in Vicious gear are no problem in Arena except for maybe Arms Warriors. And Ret Paladins,Rogues and most DKs are easy meat tells me at least that I am doing something right.
In BG`s it is extremely rare to be killed one on one and hasn`t happened for a while now.
Taugrim has been kind enough to give us this forum to discuss Prot and compare notes, and I don`t think someone`s opinion is invalid purely based on their current Arena rating.
I am happy with my results and will continue to fight for Prot.
Can you give me your skype, gmail, facebook… ? I’d love to be able to talk faster with you…
Check my facebook for contact.
Anthoneo please don’t get me wrong here. I appreciate your input HUGELY! It’s rare to find a protpala pvp these days, so i guess we’re just diehards :-)
I didn’t mean to ‘diss’ or point you with the finger and i hope you don’t think i did. I’m not an expert at all, just trying to have fun in pvp and for me that seems to be with prot.
One thing i was wondering, isn’t it better to stack resilience + Stamina gems, enchants, … and just removing damage things to survivability things for being FC in a RBG?
FC is about staying alive for as long we can so that could be a thing. Does seem like less fun though but yeah :/
The only real problem i have in arena 1v1 is a frost mage. I also tend to use my WOG on not ideal times still, so i get in probs when i need it for real and it’s on CD. Wasn’t at start of cata and i guess i’m still used to it.
Best partner imo in 2s is a high burst damager like arms or frost or ret.
There are diminishing returns on resilience after 3000. I would begin to add stamina.
Marko, I have seen that many times also but have not been able to find any definitive stats on it that are what I consider reliable….
I`ve seen the commonly stated `over 3400` has little benefit, but is that only said because that`s basically the limit of the Vicious gear?…. Have you found some actual Blizz stats on it? Or someone who has done some actual testing with proper protocols? I would REALLY like to know….
WoWWiki has an article on it but it`s vague and only says:
“The resilience cap is currently 9523. Equipping 9523 resilience will provide 100% damage reduction. Having more than 9523 resilience equipped provides absolutely no benefit. However, equipping this amount of resilience is currently impossible. In Patch 4.1.0, diminishing returns on resilience will provide a real resilience cap.”
This was obviously written pre 4.1.0 release.
All the other articles i`ve found are also quite old, and seem to be all theory with people arguing over what is right, and who`s calculation is correct.
The new season 10 PvP gear is a big jump in spec especially with Resil, so does this mean that Resil doesn`t really have much in the way of diminishing returns, or that Blizz will reset the equation, or that it just means we will have more options when speccing?
That aside, looking at how hard we are to kill geared/specced for damage, I honestly think that if one were to gem and enchant for stamina instead of crit and strength etc., you would literally be unkillable. I actually saw a Prot Pally with something crazy like 157k health once lol…so it is possible. Also some of the other specs i`ve fought in BGs who couldn`t do anything at all damage wise but were impossible to kill had obviously done that also.
So your damage would be terrible, therefore it would need to be a clear choice between pure survival, or balance with damage dealing. I can`t see it making a difference with Flag carrying though because we have no effective CC for that purpose. I generally never die while carrying the flag, but they do stop me enough so it`s dropped.
On this point, I have been thinking of doing this `Survival spec` with my old Bloodthirsty gear just to see what happens, and prolly will just for fun. Might even try it in Arena lol. Will let you know what happens if I do ;-)
Anthoneo, nice post. Really need to give me your details so we can talk alot more :)
I played RBG yesterday, tryong to be FC but they woudn’t let me cause atm i only have 3.3k resi (full bloodthirsthy + vicious weapons and a ring). So i had to go ret which i dont like in cata tbh.
I’m gonna farm like crazy wednesday and guessing i’ll be full vicious by the end of the week. That will give me around 3.7 k resi, not resi gemmed or enchanted. Pure DPS.
We are a weird thing. What’s our purpose in arena? We aren’t dps,we dont heal, … just being annoying? I think going stamina, … would be great for rbg, but no fun in arena cause damage will be even lower, but im gonna try it :)
Is our damage rly this bad? In regular bg i can top sometimes…
Blizz is getting rid of us by making us unplayable.
Say what you want, you tend toward the negative, so… But those of us who are up to a challenge have found that it is playable, and fun!
@Dave. Our purpose in Arena is the same as everyone else, to win. However, Prot Paladins need to use their head more than their keyboard to do well thanks to less than favorable game mechanics. Taugrim also talks a lot about tactics.
I am presently trying to figure out what I can do better in Arena, I can`t understand why in BG`s etc. I have little trouble taking down 2 players by myself in most situations yet in Arena it is much harder with me only able maybe 1/4 of the time. Particularly as everyone in BGs is using potions etc….
We are an anomaly, but that to me is part of the fun, I often top the DPS, kills, or honor kills in BGs as many of us do, and RBGs are no different. So no, our damage is not bad at all, but we have to be smart how we use and balance it with survival. I can go into a BG as Ret and do obscene amounts of damage and pwn eveyone, however IF the other team is smart and focusses me, I die VERY quickly as Ret. So DPS isn`t everything.
I also think more than other specs, our choice of partner is extremely important.
@Marko. I know it`s frustrating mate. Until we get a fair go from Blizz with specs (and i`m certainly not holding my breath… ) we are never likely to be top of the rankings. But we can certainly do better than many other specs if played right. But yeah, like Blood said, try and be positive mate. Prot is still piles of fun, and there is nothing more rewarding than pwning others who at first laughed at or ignored you ;-)
Full Vicious now (Phyll @ Auchindoun EU PVP), giving me 3669 resi.
Hitcapped + 4 rating away from exp capped (mace + SoT glyph = 13 exp), rest is crit.
Was wondering about the ‘Holy Shield’ change, making it an extra cooldown.
Do we still use it? Is it usefull in PVP and if so, when?
I thought about it and macro’d it to SotR + WoG:
SotR macro:
#showtooltip Shield of the Righteous
/cast Holy Shield
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/cast Shield of the Righteous
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Should be enough with these 2 i think…
I kinda saw this as a nerf going from passive to active. An extra button to push is a pain, but yeah definitely use it.
I play prot pally pvp and love it. I tried ret for 5 weeks in cata and didn’t really care for it. Did some arena, bg’s….not my thing. I switched back to prot and right off the bat felt at home again and have been doing pretty well. I’ve scoured the web for info and advice and have not found much. I’ve seen Taugrim’s vids and learned quite a bit but for some reason never visited the blog (stupid, stupid me). I think it’s great that you guys have kept the blog going helping people and are positive about prot pally’s in pvp. I’ll def keep up on the blog from now on, I’m always looking to improve. Please keep up the great work!!
I hear you Tri. Prot has easy basics and is fun to master. It’s forgiven for mistakes and keeps you going a long time in bg. Probably there’re better choices for arena but still, it depends a lot from your partner.
A good tip for you guys is to look at Towelliee’s video’s on tgn network youtube. He’s a crazy (literally) paladin tank, that also does arena and bg as prot. His last bg video is a great example of what we can do and how much fun we can be. He gives great tips in the video as well (spec, do and don’ts, …). Just be warned, he can sound a bit annoying to some. I can personally live with it.
Phyll, EU Auchindoun
World of Warcraft – Protection Paladin PvP Battlegrounds! Pwn ep4! (Towelliee) – TGN.TV
This is the title when searching in youtube…
Tell me if you like it, cheers
Prot Paladin`s dead in PvP eh? Yesterday in Guineas I got top killing blows, top honor kills, top damage AND TOP HEALING all in the same battle. (no one tell Blizzard)
For any doubters I even took a photo of the screen lol.
Oh and I changed my mind about Flag carrying, it`s easy now :-p
Sorry typo, I meant Gilneas.
41k WoG. Average 18k with plenty 25k+. very few under 10k, none of these using trinkets or AW…… Come back Taugrimm :-)
Hey Anthoneo,
41k WOG’s are sweet. The problem is the cooldown though, not the amount of healing.
Still, i believe prot is an awesome spec, especially for bgs. We seem invincible!
I don`t think the cooldown is such a problem anymore with the WoGs average more than double before for me anyway (even though of course the cooldown sux) . I would rather have WoGs that big and a 20 sec cooldown than a spammable one that only gives me token heals. Yes we are untouchable in BGs, I actually hardly ever use WoG now. Also, if I do use it in a BG I will have either AW or a Trinket popped so the heals should be even bigger.
I thought only Holy Pallies got this buff, but something must have rubbed off on us… One thing`s for sure, no way i`m saying anything on the WoW forums about any of this lol. The Blizz `Fun police` might get wind of it.
I find myself getting called to be flag carrier most of the time now too, it`s kind of weird but cool.
Have you seen the difference in ilvl between the honorgear (vicious) from last week and the viciousgear this week? Gotta farm all over again :-(
Yep, dunno how your post got in above mine from last night. But yeah, not happy at all…. Used a shitload of Gold on enchants etc, now it`s all gone…
I`ve managed to at least get one bit of Ruthless gear this week. The worst thing is how to decide what to upgrade, and what should wait until we can get Ruthless…. just going to cost so much for enchants….the balancing act is far harder now.
Just checking to make sure everyone knows the Blizz screwed everyone and there is now `Season 10 Vicious` gear that is slightly better than season 9. So we gotta go through it all again if we want to be competitive while we`re waiting to get Ruthless gear. It looks the same as Bloodthirsty lol.
On another note. got WoGs up to 55k, but when there are the now invincible Holy Paladins or Shamans around am getting OOM way too often (never did last season), so we need to look at ways to get Intellect in without compromising Strength.
Too bad we can’t put links here. I’d link my new set with reforging and enchants.
Be sure to check wowreforge dot com
I’m at 3850 resi in this set, not gemming resi (strictly str, crit and hit).
Just need to find a way to play better, starting to stop clicking.
2 questions:
1) Does anyone know a good up 2 date guide/video of being flag carrier in RBG?
Like do’s ad don’ts, …
Should we gem/enchant the same for being FC in RBG as we do now or should we rly go for stamina, extra resil, dodge, …?
2) Is everything still pretty much valid in Taugrims guide? Meaning Changes from 4.0.6 to 4.1 to 4.2 now?
I know Holy Shield is now non-passive.
I don`t know of a guide but can speak from my own experience for what that`s worth. I have been doing a lot of Flag carrying lately and now have a few Ironman Acheivements (cap all 3 without dying in one battle).
In my experience there is no difference between Rated and normal BGs (except people tend to be bossier) although the Rated BGs tend to be easier as no one is using potions etc.
I have found simply focus on survival and NOT fighting back, just keep going. I generally have little trouble even without support (although I am always on Battleground chat making sure I have support, but I don`t always get it of course and do find myself alone quite a lot at the last bit anyway if my support is tied up). I have found the best support seems to be from Holy Pallies, Shamans and Druids or Priests although anyone is far better than nothing and I am always yelling for more lol.
In the case that I am getting a little low on health, I will fight back and build up HP so I can pop off a 40~60k WoG then off I go again. Although I generally have enough HP simply as a result of being attacked to give myself a good heal or two with WoG anyway.
As a rule, utilise Divine Protection and Holy Shield if you are being hit hard, and of course Ardent Defender. You have Divine Guardian also don`t forget and GoaK as well. I find I very rarely have to use LoH, but will use FoL.
For anti CC we have HoF and for humans there is also EMFH and Turn Evil for minions. So we have a lot of tools to help as FC. Don`t bubble because it will make you drop the flag.
Oh, I sometimes will use Seal of Insight if mana is getting too low and i`m getting hit really hard (Divine Plea doesn`t help much at all but is better than nothing), but mostly Seal of Truth is fine.
If the enemy around me are melee including DKs, I can get through them pretty easily and only find myself in trouble when there are enough casters hitting me with constant CC and pinning me long enough, but that is pretty rare as if it gets that bad help generally arrives in time to save my butt.
As far as carrying the flag, always go left and stick to the edge (either faction), what ever BG it is. Except Eye of the Storm where you have several possible bases to go to.
Regarding Gems etc, certainly if you wanted to specialise in this and be virtually unkillable, gemming for Stam and Resil instead of Hit and Crit would certainly help. I don`t know if i`d Enchant for Stam or Resil instead of strength as it would affect your healing ability, but it could be worth experimenting with perhaps. Intellect also.
I find that 90% of times I will die as FC is when i`ve gotten the flag to base and am waiting to cap, the others leave me then next thing the whole enemy team comes in lol.
I don`t think i`ve missed anything… I hope this helps anyway.
As far as this guide goes, the basics are all still valid in my opinion as far as stats, gemming, enchants etc. There are a few exceptions and changes now, but they are relatively minor although I feel positive more than not, and we have been covering those anyway.
Have fun :-)