Protection Paladin Rotation Guide - Midnight Pre-Patch

By Pumps Updated: 2026/01/20

Protection Paladin Rotation in Midnight

Avoid Holy Power Waste - Holy Power should be spent intentionally. It has a constant ebb and flow that you will get used to the more you play.

Keep Abilities on Cooldown - Cast Shield of the Righteous and Judgment on cooldown. When unavailable, cast fillers. Filler Priority is Avenger's Shield ➜ Consecration

Align Procs and CDs - Avenging Wrath is cast on cooldown generally, roughly every 60-120 seconds. Track procs such as Divine Purpose and Shining Light.

Hero Talent Choices The current recommendations in are:

Situation

Hero Talent

Link

Single Target

Delves/Open World

Best Protection Paladin Rotation
For all forms of content, Protection follows a simple priority list of what spells to cast. Below, we break down the main priority lists for Protection Paladins: Single-Target Rotation, AoE Rotation, and your opener sequence.

Use the ✘ markers next to selected builds and talents to populate the priority list.

Options

Instruments of the Divine
Templar
Lightsmith

Priority

Consecration pre-place this before the pull
Blessed Hammer (pre-use before pull if talented)
Hand of Reckoning on pull (if you are tanking first in Raid) Taunt
Ardent Defender on pull (if you are tanking first in Raid) Ardent
Avenging Wrath AW
Divine Toll Divine Toll
Hammer of Light
Shield of the Righteous at 5 holy power if talented Instrument of the Divine
Shield of the Righteous
Judgment on cooldown Judgment
Avenger's Shield AS
Blessed Hammer on cooldown
Holy Bulwark outside of Avenging Wrath
Maintain Consecration as a filler

Use the ✘ markers next to selected builds and talents to populate the priority list.

Options

Instruments of the Divine
Templar
Lightsmith

Priority

Consecration pre-place this before the pull
Blessed Hammer (pre-use before pull if talented)
Hand of Reckoning on pull (if you are tanking first in Raid) Taunt
Ardent Defender on pull (if you are tanking first in Raid) Ardent
Avenger's Shield AS
Avenging Wrath AW
Divine Toll Divine Toll
Hammer of Light
Shield of the Righteous at 5 holy power if talented Instrument of the Divine
Shield of the Righteous
Judgment on cooldown Judgment
Blessed Hammer on cooldown
Holy Bulwark outside of Avenging Wrath
Maintain Consecration as a filler

Use the ✘ markers next to talent selections to populate the priority list.

Talents

Instruments of the Divine
Templar
Lightsmith

Sequence

Consecration pre-place this before the pull
Blessed Hammer (pre-use before pull if talented)
Hand of Reckoning on pull (if you are tanking first in Raid) Taunt
Ardent Defender on pull (if you are tanking first in Raid) Ardent
Avenger's Shield AS
Avenging Wrath AW
Divine Toll Divine Toll
Hammer of Light
Shield of the Righteous at 5 holy power if talented Instrument of the Divine
Shield of the Righteous
Judgment on cooldown Judgment
Blessed Hammer on cooldown
Holy Bulwark outside of Avenging Wrath
Maintain Consecration as a filler
Proceed onto the normal priority list

]

Opener Tips

If you are meant to be the first to Tank in a raid situation it can be a good idea to open with Hand of Reckoning.
Our initial damage taken on a pull can often be an issue, hence Ardent Defender is a great tool to use on pull.

Pre-Combat Check

Before any combat happens, it is important for Protection Paladins to make sure the following are done. This applies to raids, dungeons, delves, or even open-world content.

Single Button Rotation Assistant Losses for Protection Paladin

For Protection Paladins, Rotation Assist performs a heavily simplified rotation, which has issues and results in a significant DPS loss. It also fails to account for our primary purpose as a Tank, which is to maintain aggro and survive. Rotation Assist regularly receives updates and improvements and can be a handy learning tool for new players, but I currently advise against its general use as it lacks deterministic capabilities.

Rotation Assist Losses for Protection Paladin

When using the Rotation Assist, you can expect the following losses when compared to performing your rotation perfectly:

Assisted Highlight: About ~10% DPS Loss
Single-Button Assistant: About ~20% DPS Loss

Protection Paladin Cooldowns Not Used by Rotation Assist

As a Tank, your defensive cooldowns are not managed by the Rotation Assist, and it can't accurately predict incoming damage. You should not follow Rotation Assist blindly. Understanding when and where to use your cooldowns is one of the most important aspects of tanking.

When using both Assisted Highlight and Single-Button Assistant, you will still need to use the following cooldowns manually. You can scroll down to the Cooldown section of this guide to learn more about when to use them.

Protection Paladin Major Cooldown Usage

While this buff is active, you want to try to get as many casts of Judgment as possible. As it changes to Hammer of Wrath, a more powerful and enhanced version during Avenging Wrath.

This is a very strong button for Protection as it will mass interrupt and cast 3 additional interrupts over the next 15 seconds if you are talented into Divine Resonance. These blanket interrupts Divine Toll an integral part of the Templar toolkit.

A mighty bubble of immunity! This can be used as a safety net or to immune/cheese certain mechanics. Its usefulness depends on the encounter, ranging from a life-saving cooldown to providing a bit of breathing room. It's worth noting that if you are tanking without Final Stand talented, you will drop all aggro/threat while inside bubble.

A 50% damage reduction on a fairly long cooldown, this is our biggest damage reduction cooldown and should be reserved for dangerous periods during a pull or encounter.

An extremely short cooldown that should be used as frequently as possible to smooth overall damage intake. Rarely, it can be held for a short time to align with bigger damage spikes.

Protection Paladin Cooldown Interaction

Protection Paladin has a small selection of cooldowns with varying durations and timers. In ideal circumstances, such as when you have a full understanding of the encounter, you should be able to time or hold certain cooldowns to pair with others as they become available again. You should only aim to do this if you will not lose a use of any individual cooldown across the duration of the encounter. If you do not have the necessary understanding to properly time your cooldowns for the encounter, then using them off cooldown can be a fine initial strategy.

Our Protection Paladin guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs. Make sure to check our changelog for this page by clicking on View Changelog in the Quick Facts column or on the book icon at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Protection Paladin guides for , make sure to browse the Navigation Bar at the top of the page.

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Tags: PvE

Protection Paladin Rotation Guide - Midnight Pre-Patch

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