Leveling as a Protection Paladin can provide good survivability while questing, as well as getting you used to the skills you will use as a tank throughout your career. With the dungeon finder tab you now have the ability to queue as a Tank and get almost constant groups as you level. Make sure you join the group near a repair merchant so you can sell and repair in between dungeons. Many days that is all the time you have before you find another group. I used a 51/20 build to level and tank.
The Build
Protection
10 - 14 Redoubt
15 - 17 Precision
18 - 19 Toughness (2/5)
20 - Blessing of Kings
21 - 23 Shield Specialization
24 - 26 Toughness (5/5)
27 - 29 Improved Righteous Fury
30 - 34 Reckoning
35 - Blessing of Sanctuary
36 - 39 One-handed Weapon Specialization (4/5)
40 - Holy Shield
41 - 42 Sacred Duty
43 - One-handed Weapon Specialization (5/5)
44 - Improved Holy Shield (1/2)
45 - 49 Combat Expertise
50 - Avenger's Shield
Retribution
51 - 55 Deflection
56 - 58 Heart of the Crusader
59 - 60 Improved Judgements
61 - Seal of Command
62 - 63 Pursuit fof Justice
64 - 68 Conviction
69 - 70 Sanctity of Battle
Stats
- Strength (str)
- 1 strength = 2 attack power (AP) = 0.14 dps weapon (white) damage.
- 2 strength = 1 block value before talents, 1.3 block value with the Redoubt talent
- The Divine Strength talent increases total strength by 15%.
- Agility (agi)
- 59.89 agility = +1% dodge chance. This is somewhat less efficient than Dodge Rating at increasing your dodge chance (45.25 dodge rating = +1% dodge chance), but with Blessing of Kings the number decreases to 54.45 agility, which makes it roughly 80% as good as dodge rating for dodge purposes.
- 52.08 agility = +1% melee crit chance.
- 1 agility = 2 armor.
- Agility is often overlooked as a tanking stat, but it's actually an efficient way to get avoidance, mitigation, and threat from one stat.
- Stamina (sta)
- 1 stamina = +10 total health (hp).
- 10 stamina = +3 spell power (SP) from the Touched by the Light talent.
- The Sacred Duty and Combat Expertise talents increase total stamina by 8% and 6% respectively, for a total increase of 14.48% with both talents. If you're buffed with Blessing of Kings or Blessing of Sanctuary as well, then each additional point of stamina increases your total health by approximately 12.6.
- Intellect (int)
- 1 intellect = +15 total mana. This increases the size of your starting mana pool and the maximum amount of mana you can store at any point. It also increases the rate of mana regeneration from effects that restore a fraction of your mana pool, such as Replenishment, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Divine Plea. This is a nice effect, but it doesn't make intellect worthwhile as a stat for tanking gear.
- 166.67 Intellect = +1% chance to crit with spells, but all Prot paladin offensive abilities except Exorcism use the melee crit rate.
- Spirit (spi)
- Increases mana regeneration outside of the five-second rule. As a tank, this effect is negligible (and frankly it's negligible for all paladin specs).
(The Protection Paladin Field Manual, 2009)
Gear
A good/decent 1 handed weapon. (blue when possible, heirloom if you have a sugardaddy 80 on your account, equivalent to your level)
A good/decent Shield with a shield spike. (iron, mithril, etc)
All other gear can be greens/blues from AH and quest. You can also collect gear by tanking dungeons. Lots of blue drops and completion rewards.
Buffs
Retribution Aura(RA): Reflects damage every time you are hit.
Blessing of Sanctuary(BoS): This not only reduces damage taken by blocking it increases Strength and Stamina as well as regens mana.
Righteous Fury(RF): With improved talent, this reduces incoming damage by 6% and increases threat for tanking.
Seal of Light(SoL): Chance to heal yourself every time you swing. (use when leveling)
Seal of Wisdom (SoW): Returns mana back to you with every swing. (use when leveling
Seal of Command/Corruption: Increased damage output while tanking
