PvE Protection Paladin Tank Best in Slot (BiS) & Pre-Raid Gear - WotLK Classic - Warcraft Tavern (2024)

Fresh 80

As a fresh level 80, there are multiple viable alternatives when it comes to your Weapon & Shield Slots, especially since Phase 3 comes with a new item vendor and the Heroic ++ Dungeons. Your weapon choices will be split between options that grant Hit Rating and defensive stats or weapons that grant Expertise Rating and defensive stats. The available shields that you may use have a much more linear path, with almost all of them providing varied defense-oriented stats.

The best weapon option for increasing your overall Hit Rating is Shiver, followed up by Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm. The latter option is a mix between Hit Rating and Expertise Rating, with the only disadvantage being that it doesn’t grant any defense-oriented stat. The main issue with the two items is that you can now acquire them for the same price, as in the previous expansion they were specific raid drops. This means that the incentive to acquire Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm will be greatly diminished, as Shiver is simply the better option.

The next viable alternative for increasing your overall Hit Rating is Stoneguard. While it grants defense-oriented stats such as Dodge Rating and Parry Rating besides Hit Rating, the main issue when compared to Shiver is that it grants no Defense Rating at all.

As for alternatives that increase your Expertise Rating, either one of the Legacy of Thunder or the Peacekeeper Blade will be the best possible option, with the former being the stronger choice. Both items grant a great mix of defense-oriented items and Expertise Rating, meaning that you should use whichever you find first.

The best option you can acquire for your Shield Slot will be The Boreal Guard. This is because the item has the highest overall available stats that can be acquired before actually entering any raid, with a sole focus on defense-oriented stats. The next-best alternative will be the Shieldwall of the Breaker, followed up closely by The Skull of Ruin.

The reason why the Shieldwall of the Breaker performs better than The Skull of Ruin in our current setup despite the fact that it grants Expertise Rating is due to the higher Defense Rating paired up with a higher Stamina value granted through the Gem Socket it provides.

Pre-Toc/Onyxia’s Lair

For your Weapon & Shield slots, you will have many interesting choices in Ulduar that can fit the BiS spot. The best possible Weapons are Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers & Shiver while the best possible Shields are the Bulwark of Algalon and The Boreal Guard.

Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers would normally be the actual BiS due to its very high baseline stats combined with a great amount of Defense Rating, Parry Rating, and Expertise to help you reach your soft Cap. However, depending on your current Hit Rating, you will find situations in which you will want to use either Shiver or Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm instead. The only downside of using Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm is that the item has no Defense Rating, meaning that you need to gain it from your other items.

Titanguard is another viable option that grants a good amount of Hit Rating, Defense Rating, and Stamina, being close in power to Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm.

Both the Bulwark of Algalon and The Boreal Guard have very similar types of stats with the main difference being that one grants you Parry Rating while the other one grants you Dodge Rating. From a raw stats point of view, the Bulwark of Algalon will always be considered BiS.

The Northern Barrier can be considered the last viable alternative to the other Shields, however, you will want to find an upgrade to this item as fast as possible since its stats are not great when compared to the previous options.

Best-in-Slot

There are many options available for your Weapon & Shield slots, with a great deal of variety in the stats they offer. Your BiS for this phase will depend entirely on the rest of your gear slots, as it is bound by your current Hit Rating.

For your Main-Hand Slot, you will have to choose, depending on your current Hit Rating, between theSilverwing Defender/Orgrim’s Deflectorwhich is a defense-oriented option, and theStormpike Cleaver/Hellscream Slicerwhich is the Hit Rating-focused alternative.

For our current setup, we will focus on Hit Rating options before any defense-oriented option or any Expertise Rating option. Since we mentioned that the Stormpike Cleaver/Hellscream Slicer is the BiS option for increasing your Hit Rating, the next-best alternative will be its 245 Ilvl version, the Stormpike Cleaver/Hellscream Slicer as it grants the same types of stats in overall lower amounts.

The only other high-end Hit Rating alternative that will be available for you is Shiver. While not granting as many stats as the ToC options, Shiver will still prove itself to be a great option solely due to its Hit Rating. The disadvantage created by the lower stats is balanced out by the fact that you can now easily acquire it with the new Sidereal Essence currency instead of having to grind for the weapon.

If you already have plenty of Hit Rating and Expertise Rating, just as stated above, the Silverwing Defender/Orgrim’s Deflecto will be your actual BiS. This is due to the great secondary stat combination of Defense Rating, Dodge Rating, and Parry Rating, with each stat granted in almost equal amounts. The next-best defense-oriented alternative will be the Honor of the Fallen/Blood and Glory as it grants precisely the same types of stats and the same weapon swing speed. The main difference between the items is the stat spread itself and the amount of stats granted.

If you somehow still have issues with your Expertise Rating, the only viable option that you can use is Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers. This item is the previous BiS from the second phase of the expansion, which grants an incredible amount of stats. You may also use other less effective options, however, you will truly want to acquire Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers if you plan on increasing your Expertise Rating from your weapon slot.

For your Shield Slot, the BiS will be the Crystal Plated Vanguard/Forlorn Barrier. This is due to the item having the highest overall stats, with both baseline stats and secondary stats reaching extraordinary amounts. The main feature of this item is its Block Value, which is especially useful for Protection Paladins.

While you will especially want to prioritize Block Value for certain encounters such as Anub’Arak, the next-best alternative will actually be theBulwark of Algalon, even if it doesn’t grant any Block Value.

The rest of the items are extremely close in terms of performance, with each version having a slight improvement over the previous in terms of granting survivability. As mentioned previously, Block Value and Parry Rating/Dodge Rating can be extremely similar in terms of raw performance, however, some encounters will demand a specific set based entirely on increasing your overall Block Value.

As viable alternatives that specialize in increasing overall Block Value, you will be able to use theBulwark of the Royal Guard/Aegis of the Coliseumand its 232 Ilvl version. Naturally, theCrystal Plated Vanguardwill be stronger than the 232 IlvlBulwark of the Royal Guard/Aegis of the Coliseum, however, since it lacks a Gem Socket, it will be weaker than the 245 IlvlBulwark of the Royal Guard/Aegis of the Coliseum.