WotLK Protection Bloat: Causes and Solutions

My very first impression of the Protection Paladin in WotLK was that the talent tree was absurdly bloated. There are 87 points worth of raid tanking relevant talents (including requisite filler points) in reach of a Protection build – 70 of which are in the Protection tree itself – and there's only 71 points for us to spend. That's a hell of a lot of points, especially compared to some of the almost perfectly streamlined Holy and Retribution builds I've been able to construct. I wouldn't mind having a tree full of great talents if it meant I could still get everything that I want, but unfortunately, the sheer number of required talents precludes that possibility.

Having given it a few days to chew it over, I've found that my opinion hasn't really wavered. There is a lot of bloat in Protection builds. My understanding of the issue has changed a bit, though. I also don't necessarily believe that this is a new problem, since today's builds are also subject to the same bloat; it's just that there currently aren't enough mission critical Protection talents on Live to make it a huge deal.

To begin with, let's break down the 87 Protection points into four distinct categories:

Survival (33 total)

Anticipation (5)
Blessing of Kings (1)
Improved Righteous Fury (3)
Toughness (5)
Divine Guardian (2)
Improved Devotion Aura (3)
Spell Warding (2)
Sacred Duty (2)
Ardent Defender (5)
Judgements of the Just (2)
Deflection (5)

Threat (27 total)

Seals of the Pure (5)
Reckoning (5)
One-Handed Weapon Specialization (5)
Touched by the Light (5)
Avenger's Shield (1)
Shield of the Templar (3)
Hammer of the Righteous (1)
Improved Judgements (2)

Survival/Threat Hybrid (16 total)

Divine Strength (5)
Shield Specialization (3)
Holy Shield (1)
Improved Holy Shield (2)
Combat Expertise (5)

Filler (11 total)

Redoubt (5)
Blessing of Sanctuary (1)
Benediction (5)

Notice how there's a filler category. Take a look over at the Warrior Protection tree and point out all of the requisite filler talents that don't contribute meaningfully to survival or threat. There aren't any. So what would happen if we removed the requirement that Protection Paladins effectively have a 60 point talent build at level 80? Here's the quick math:

1. There are 87 points of worthwhile talents plus requisite filler points
2. There are 11 filler points.
3. There are 71 points available to spend.

87 - 11 = 76

By eliminating the necessity of the 11 filler point investment, it would be possible to create an ideal raid tanking build, with only a five point trade-off being needed. Much like today, most end-game tanks would probably sacrifice Reckoning, since given its nature it necessarily becomes less effective as you become stronger (especially if Seal of Vengeance becomes a mainline tanking seal). That's a little more in line with what we've come to expect.

The ways to actually remove the filler talents are fairly simple, as well:

• Swap the positions of – or unlink – Redoubt and Shield Specialization.
• Unlink Blessing of Sanctuary from Holy Shield.
• Swap the position of Deflection and Benediction.

The only possible hitch might be a segment of Retribution Paladins who are opposed to being forced into taking iBoM over Benediction, though frankly I'm of the opinion that if you're doing a Retribution build and skipping group utility talents, you're doing it wrong.

So tidying up Protection builds for WotLK looks to be about as easy as falling off a log. I would say that, if the tree had those slight tweaks made to it, I might even consider abandoning my Grand Death Knight Experiment at expansion time. It's really that simple.