Protection Paladin Tank Stat Priority (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Contents
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. Active Mitigation Abilities
  • 6. Cooldown Usage
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Utility
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Active Mitigation
  • 6. Cooldowns
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 3. Active Mitigation
    • 3.1. Shield of the Righteous
    • 3.2. Light of the Protector
  • 4. Taunting
  • 5. Cooldown Usage
  • 6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Protection Paladin
    • 6.1. Artifact Ability
    • 6.2. Creative Divine Shield Usage
      • 6.2.1. Divine Shield Taunting
      • 6.2.2. Avoiding Mechanics
      • 6.2.3. Blessing of Protection
    • 6.3. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
      • 6.3.1. Tier 4 Talents
      • 6.3.2. Tier 5 Talents
      • 6.3.3. Tier 6 Talents
      • 6.3.4. Tier 7 Talents
  • 7. ChangeLog
• ×Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Survivability
    • 1.2. DPS
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Paladins
      • 1.1.1. Blessing Mouseover Macros
      • 1.1.2. Lay on Hands Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.3. Hand of the Protector Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.4. Mouseover Cleanse Toxins Macro
      • 1.1.5. Divine Shield
      • 1.1.6. Rebuke
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Protection Paladins
      • 1.2.1. Divine Shield Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.2. Blessing of Protection Cancelaura Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Paladins
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.6. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.7. Omen Threat Meter
      • 2.1.8. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Protection Paladins
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
  • 2. Trinkets
    • 2.1. Non-Raid Trinkets
    • 2.2. Raid Trinkets
  • 3. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 4. Legendary Items
  • 5. Loot Competition
  • 6. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we explain what the best statistics are for Protection Paladins in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5, how the class benefits from each of them.

The statistics priority is important as it influences itemisation choices (gear, enchants, and gems).

The other pages of our Protection Paladin guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Treckie, one of the best Protection Paladins in the world, who raids in Prime. You can watch his stream on Twitch and you can follow him on Twitter.

1. Basics

The stat priority for Protections Paladins depends on whether you are trying to maximise your survivability or your DPS.

1.1. Survivability

1. Haste;
2. Versatility;
3. Mastery;
4. Critical Strike.

Haste increases Shield of the Righteous uptime, and generally smooths the damage intake, making you easier and more predictable to heal. Haste is generally preferred when you need better control of your active mitigation to survive.

Versatility is one of the few ways of gearing to increase the self-heal from Light of the Protector, since it does not scale with Attack Power. This makes Versatility gain a lot of ground for self-healing, and it is a strong stat for total damage reduction.

Mastery is pretty close to Versatility; if you can choose one over the other at a 1:1 ratio, you would prefer Versatility, but it is rarely that simple, and when comparing two pieces, you should choose the one that has the highest amount of Haste. The "issue" with Mastery is that its main form of damage reduction is reducing damage when Shield of the Righteous is up, which usually ends up being a bit redundant due to Shield of the Righteous already reducing the hit by a lot, while Versatility will reduce that hit as well as the hits without Shield of the Righteous up.

Critical Strike looks strong but is actually disappointing, since you need about 7% Critical Strike chance to increase your Shield of the Righteous uptime by 1%. It remains a good DPS stat though (as seen below).

1.2. DPS

1. Haste;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Mastery;
4. Versatility.

2. Getting a Better Understanding

2.1. Statistics Explanations

Mastery, thanks to Mastery: Divine Bulwark, increases your chance to block attacks and your attack power, as well as increasing the amount of damage you can block with Shield of the Righteous. Therefore, it provides a direct increase to your survivability, but the latter effect increases your survivability while you are already taking reduced damage, making it somewhat redundant.

Versatility increases all your damage and healing done, and decreases all damage taken.

Haste reduces your global cooldown and the cooldowns of most of the abilities that are part of your rotation.

Critical Strike increases your damage and healing output, and also gives you avoidance, as you get 1 Parry from for every 1 point of Critical Strike.

Most encounters have abilities that cannot be mitigated or avoided. Also, you need to have a decent amount of health, in order to give yourself the chance to be healed before a subsequent attack kills you. In addition to this minimum amount of Stamina, we feel that Stamina remains quite valuable for Protection Paladins. Therefore, we advise you to consider getting more Stamina than is innately found on your gear (through trinkets, enchants, and gemming, in that order). As you become more comfortable determining the amount of survivability needed for each encounter, you can shift some of that Stamina into other stats.

3. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 13 Jun. 2017: Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
• 28 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Slightly improved the stat description text.
• 17 Oct. 2016: Updated the survivability stat priority slightly, and added more mentions about the value of stats.
• 19 Sep. 2016: Updated survivability stat priority slightly, and added a mention about Mastery.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 20 Jul. 2016: Added separate stat priorities for DPS and survivability.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.