Patch 3.2 is around the corner, and here we look at the changes to the Protection in the upcoming patch. There’s been some fixes and changes to block in general. General tanking stats have been changed as well.

Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.

Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.

On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren’s Lucky Coin, Lavanthor’s Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.

Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.

Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.

Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.

Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.

Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%. In addition, the benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player’s level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player’s level.

Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead heal the paladin for up to 10/20/30% of maximum health depending on the paladin’s defense rating (example: a paladin with defense equal to only 5 times his or her level will receive no healing from the talent, while a paladin who is immune to critical strikes from boss creatures through defense will receive the maximum amount).

Guarded by the Light: This talent will no longer cause Divine Plea’s duration to be refreshed by using Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Justice, or Judgement of Light.

The good news is that Block Value on all items have been doubled, but sadly few tank gear in the game nowadays have block rating or block value. Most tank gear now only have mainly Defense, Dodge, Parry stats, gear with Block Rating and Block Value are few.

Also, Dodge and Parry now has a higher cost per percentage. You now need 15% more Agility, or Dodge Rating per 1 percent of Dodge. So expect your stats to drop a little.

Only way to fix this is to gear up more I guess. Good thing there’s the new 5 man instance and Emblems of Conquests dropping all around.

Finally Patch 3.1 has finally been released. Changes have been made to the talent trees. Holy got a little nerfed, Protection got some new talents and Retribution gets somewhat balanced. Unforunately still no improvement on Seals.

With my exams coming within a month and busy preparing for it, I am sorry to say I can’t post a detailed informative document on the new talent specs. I will post core talent builds for each spec, so there will be leftover/spare talent points. These talent points are for you to decide on the kind of build you want.

The good thing (or bad depending the way you see it) about Patch 3.1 is that talent points are freed up, so you can have more variation with your build. Holy Paladins used to spec probably 51/0/20 to amp their critical chance, now with 3.1 you can spec into Protection for Divine Sacrifice and Divine Guardian. Retribution paladins can also opt to have that talent now that less talent points are needed for a proper Retribution build. This makes the paladin a more “hybrid” class.

HOLY (51/5/5)

In the Holy tree it is still the same old 51 points allocation, feel free to switch between Improved Lay on Hands and Blessed Hands.

Divinity is a exciting new talent, improving heals given and received by 5%.

Benediction is specifically for Holy Shock, so if you find the 5 points here not worthwhile simply pump them into Protection for Divine Sacrifce and Divine Guardian. Divine Guardian increases the duration of Sacred Shield by 100% and amount absorbed by 20%, which is a solid talent. Alternatively invest remaining points in Retribution tree for more critical chance.

PROTECTION (0/56/6)

While reading through sites for info on Protection build, the ironic thing is that the new talent Divine Sacrifice is deemed more a offtank/non-tank spell. This seems more usable in a situation when the whole raid is taking heavy damage, such as EoE Phase 2 ,instead of in a boss fight, so use it wisely. You are only bringing more hurt upon yourself if it is used in a boss fight, apart from boss damage you are taking damage from other party members. In my build you can see I left Divine Sacrifice out, but it is optional. Probably in 25 man raids where raid takes heavy damage it will be needed.

Remember to spend only 1 point in Improved Judgements, this is because of the 9 6 9 rotation. If you don’t already know, 9 6 9 rotation is a spell rotation for tankadins. You can read about it HERE and the SacredDuty blog has a post on it.

Divinity might seem to be a Holy talent, but it works for Protection as well. It increases healing received by 5%, that is enough reason to take it.

RETRIBUTION (0/5/52)

Retribution tree went through some tweaks, what used to require heavy points investment, now has talent points reduced considerably. Seal of Blood/Martyr had Judgement damage reduced but Seal damage increased, bringing a balance to it.

You can see I have no points in Improved Blessing of Might, this is due to Warrior’s Battle Shout. There are problems of Blessing of Might clashing with Battle Shout (Sorry but I will have to look into it in detail in later posts.) Seal of Command is optional.

From then on it’s pretty much the core talents for Retribution paladins. The remaining talent points can be invested in the Protection Tree for the new talents, it will help raid survivability. With instant Flash of Lights and Divine Sacrifice, you can provide additional support in situations where the raid is taking damage or you are unable to DPS the target.

Finally came up with gear guides to prepare yourselves for raids.

All three specs are here:

Holy Gear Guide

Protection Gear Guide

I excluded some items either they are deemed too low level or restricted to selected people. For example Sonic Booster is excluded due to the fact you have to be an Engineer to be able to use it. It does not cater to the majority so I will not put it in the list.

If you feel I have left out some items feel free to comment or email me.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

New guide added for Protection paladins.
This looks at the changes in 3.0, new talent build and the new tanking cycle.

Click this link to read the guide.

I wrote a page on Paladin glyphs and my assessment of them. The glyph guide is listed in Guides

Click this link to read the Glyph Guide.