Easy Leveling as a Prot Paladin in 4.1

Who is this for?
This wall of text is for players who are starting out or working on leveling a paladin. New players or old players should (hopefully) be able to make use of this information as a guideline. Note that this is just a guideline document. Just because I wrote a massive guide doesn't meant that I'm right or that there isn't a different way of doing things. That said, if you find any mistakes, or have a suggestion, please let me know right away and I'll do my best to correct the mistake and/or adjust the 'guide'. This is not a questing/zone/gearing guide, this deals with specs/glyphs/rotations. The end goal of this is to have you ready to read the guides listed at the bottom of the post and fully understand them.

OPENING Q&A
Q. Wow, this guide looks horrible and is aesthetically displeasing to me!
A. That doesn't seem to be a question, but you're probably right. I did write the bulk of this in Notepad while I was *coughcough* supposed to be working...

Q. Who are you???
A. Baneoftruth. You might remember me from posts on the official WoW forums such as "Leveling Prot 101" and "Leveling Prot 101". Next question?


Q. No, really, who are you?
A. Alright...I've been playing WoW since 1.0 (Beta installer is on my portable), didn't really pick up the paladin until early TBC, been "main" tanking ever since. I've also been as active as I can be on these forums to try to spread any bits of knowledge or advice I can share to the rest of the community.

Q. Why should I listen to you?
A. If you find a better guide, by all means, use it. If not, might want to give me a shot here. I will never claim to be an expert or superior to anyone else, and I am more than happy to admit when I am wrong or to defer to a more knowledgeable person. Also, I have candy.

Q. I want to tank. Should I play a paladin or a warrior/dk/druid?
A. Pick the class that you feel that you would enjoy. Each class has their own variations and abilities. If you ask a warrior what to tank as, you'll be told, "play a warrior". Ask a druid, you'll get "play a druid". Same goes for paladins/dk's. Each class is fun (trust me), but if you want my personal preference, I will always choose a paladin. I prefer the paladin cooldowns, raid support, and threat abilities/mechanics versus those of a warrior. As I haven't played my DK/Druid yet in Cata, I can't speak against those yet, but I know for me, my heart will always be with my paladin.

Q. But I want to be the main tank!
A. Honestly, the best attitude you can have is to understand that the idea of "main tank" and "off tank" is a little out-dated. Think of it as being a member of a tanking team and there will be a lot less friction between tanks.

Q. What stats should I go for while leveling up?
A. For base stats: Stamina > Strength > Agility. You do NOT need Spirit or Intellect (Spirit fingers won't save a tank, and Intellect doesn't actually make you any smarter or nimble...)
For other stats: Mastery (level 80+) > Dodge/Parry > Expertise > Hit (this order puts survival over threat)

Q. Do I need crit/haste?
A. Crit/haste won't hurt you, but you shouldn't aim to obtain them.

Q. Do I need Spell Power and/or a Spell Power weapon?
A. No, do not directly seek out Spell Power. There are conversions that happen behind the scenes that provide you with Spell Power based on your Attack Power.

Q. I r pal-uh-din, so I can heal myself while tanking, right?
A. Um, no. The only heal you should be using on yourself or anyone else is Word of Glory. Don't ever use anything with a cast time while you have enemies swinging at you.

Q. What professions should I use?
A. I can only make recommendations here. If this is your first character and you don't have another source of income, two gathering professions (Mining + skinning/herbalism) will help you make some extra cash. Otherwise, in terms of net gains by 85...
>JC'ing offers a stam bonus of 123, but you need to use special gems, so this can get annoying at times
>The stam bonus from Mining = Enchanting = Blacksmithing (if you put stam gems in the BS sockets) = 120 stam at max level
>LW'ing gives you a cheap leg enchant and 195 stam to bracers (155 stam higher than the highest stam bracer enchant)
>Inscription offers a cheap shoulder enchant that is 120 stam higher than the Exalted Therazane enchant
>Alchemy gives you the capability to make an "OK" trinket and boosts the duration of flasks (meh)
>Engineering...lolengineering... you can get some "meh" tinkers and a high ilvl helm that will probably be worthless come the next tier of content
>Herbalism doesn't really offer anything, nor does Tailoring
>Skinning gives crit rating, which doesn't really help as a tank (help a bit for threat, but meh)
End advice... Take Mining/JC'ing, Mining/Blacksmithing, or Blacksmithing/JC'ing

For those who were away:

Q. What happened to weapon skills? / Do I still have to "level up" my weapon proficiencies? A. Weapon skills were essentially removed. You no longer have to spend hours upon hours grinding out points of weapon skill.

Q. What happened to Seal of Light/Wisdom? A. Replaced by Seal of Insight Q. What happened to Blessing of Wisdom? A. It was rolled into Blessing of Might Q. What happened to Blessing of Sanctuary? A. The mana restored by BoS is now granted through talents and supplemented from Judgement Q. What happened to Blessing of Light? A. Holy crap you're old school! BoL was baked into HL/FoL back in TBC. Q. What happened to Divine Intervention? A. Blizzard removed DI with the comment of, "Raid zones are shorter than they were in Vanilla, and teleporters/mounts allow you to get back in position faster, so wipe recovery options aren't really needed." In other words, you'll never see a healer write out in raid chat, "I can't res anyone, it says I'm stunned!" /sadface Q. Should I still be stingy with LoH? A. No, Lay on Hands is down to a 10 minute cooldown, baseline. 7 minute with a glyph. Q. Does Avenger's Shield still slow down pulls with a daze? A. No, Avenger's Shield still silences on hit, but no longer dazes unless you glyph for it. Q. Does our "shield wall" still prevent us from using Avenging Wrath? A. No, Divine Protection no longer causes Forbearance or reduces your damage output. You can stack Avenging Wrath with it. Q. Can I still bubble+hearth? A. 99% no. I'm told that if you're wearing 4pt9 and the gods are smiling on you that you can successfully bubble+hearth. Q. Do I still need to worry about Crushing Blows? A. Yes and no. "Crushing Blows" have not been a concern in a proper raid environment since WotLK came out. It is important to note that you can still suffer a Crushing Blow from a creature that is 4+ levels over you. Come level 85, an unmitigated (unblocked) hit can somewhat be considered the new "Crushing Blow". Your new goal is to stack mastery high enough to get as close to our old friend 102.4% as possible. Q. What happened to Defense Rating? A. It was removed as an antiquated and "annoying" stat. Crit immunity is now acquired via talents for all 4 tanking classes. Q. Do I still need to carry reagents around? A. No. DI was removed, and our Blessings now last an hour without requiring a reagent. Also, Blessings apply group/raid-wide, they're no longer class-restricted. __________ LEVELS 1-10 New Spells: Crusader Strike (CS) - Baseline at level 1 single-target attack. By level 9, this will start generating Holy Power. Use this on cooldown. Judgement (J) - Ranged attack that debuffs your target and causes you to regen mana. Use this on cooldown. Seal of Rigtheousness (SoR) - A 30 minute buff that causes your melee swings to cause additional damage. Always have this active. Devotion Aura (Devo) - A static "aura" that increases your armor. The more armor you have, the less damage you take, so always have this active. Hammer of Justice (HoJ) - A stun. You can use this to interrupt/stun casters. Word of Glory (WoG) - Our "free" heal. WoG is your friend, and you should use it often. Parry - Allows you to parry attacks. A parry is the same as a dodge or a miss with one change...you get a parry-hasted weapon attack right after parrying. Holy Power (HP) - This is our new resource that's used for several abilities. The more charges of HP you have (up to 3), the more powerful the ability that you use to consume the HP will be. Basic theory so far: Use CS, & J on cooldown (Judgement provides you with mana regen), make sure that you have Devotion Aura and SoR active, and use WoG to heal yourself (note that WoG has a 20s cooldown, so try to wait for 3HP to get the biggest bang for your buck). LEVELS 11-17 Use your talents points in this fashion: Divinity (1/3), Divinity (2/3), Divinity (3/3), Eternal Glory (1/2), Eternal Glory (2/2) New spells: Avenger's Shield (AS) - You get this by spec'ing into the Protection tree. This spell is a ranged attack that will 'bounce' to 2 targets after hitting the first. This will NOT break CC. Redemption - You can now ressurect people. Start carrying water if you aren't already. Righteous Fury (RF) - This is your tanking buff, keep this active at all times Hand of Reckoning - This is our single-target taunt... if a mob is targetting someone else, you can use this to force the mob to target you Lay on Hands (LoH) - This is your first big "oh crap" cooldown. Using this one yourself will heal you to full and give you the Forbearance debuff. For now, this debuff doesn't really effect you. Holy Light/Flash of Light - These are healing spells, do not use this while tanking unless you don't have anything actively attacking you. Keep in mind that this spell is not mana efficient for protection; try to stick to WoG for heals. Basic theory so far: Make sure that you have Righteous Fury active to tank. Righteous Fury now persists through death, so you don't need to worry about turning it on should you die. Use Avenger's Shield on cooldown. Try to target casters when using AS, as it will silence them for a couple seconds. Rotation: Single target: AS > CS > Judge > CS > WoG or /flex > CS
*note: It's better to open on single targets with J than with AS if possible, but this will require that you get much closer to the target prior to attacking (J=10 yards, AS=30 yards at the moment). If you feel more comfortable opening with AS from a range, you can.
AoE: AS > CS > Judge > CS > WoG or /flex > CS

___________
LEVELS 18-27
Use your talent points in this fashion:
Judgements of the Just (1/2), Judgements of the Just (2/2), Toughness (1/3), Toughness (2/3), Toughness (3/3)

At level 25, you unlock your glyph capability. 1 Prime, 1 Major, and 1 Minor can now be used. Locate the following Glyphs:
Prime: Glyph of Crusader Strike (*note* You may choose to hold off on getting this glyph and wait until level 29 for the Hammer of the Righteous glyph.)
Major: Lay on Hands
Minor: Blessing of Kings

New Spells:
Exorcism (Exo) - This is a ranged spell (30 yards) that inflicts Holy damage. If the target is undead/Demon, it will always be a critical hit. You can use this spell to initiate pulls or to try to finish off a fleeing mob (as long as nothing is actively swinging at you.)
Hand of Protection (HoP) - Protects a party member (or you) from physical attacks for 10 seconds. Causes Forbearance (conflicts with Lay on Hands). This is your "oh crap, everything is charging the healer!" ability. Immunity from HoP essentially makes a target "disappear" for the duration of the spell. Once the spell wears off, though, that target is vulnerable again.
Blessing of Kings (BoK) - Increases Str/Agi/Stam/Int by 5% and magical resists by X (X changes based on your level). This buff is identical to a Druid's Mark of the Wild. If there is a druid in your group, only one of you need to buff...let the druid do it. You'll get another buff later on that you'll use when you have a druid in your group, so you may as well get into the habit now of letting the druid buff.
Consecration (Cons) - Eats 55% of your mana to deal holy damage to enemies within 8 yards for 10 seconds. Use this only when you are fighting groups of 4+ mobs. This spell WILL break crowd control (Sheep, sap, etc.)
Retribution Aura - Causes damage to targets upon striking you. You *can* use this for AoE threat, but bear in mind that Devotion Aura will reduce your damage intake during AoE tanking (and many mobs attacking you = lots of damage coming in, so more mitigation is good!), and it will also "accidentally" generate threat if a mob hits a group member. Note that Retribution Aura generates threat on whoever is struck, so if your healer gets hit, he gains the threat, not you.

Basic theory so far:
Make sure that you keep Blessing of Kings. You can use Exo to pull (I use this on bosses). An advanced pull method that I use for larger groups is... target mob #5 w/ Exo, hit mobs #2/3/4 with AS, Judge onto mob #1. Drop Consecrate only for large groups.

Rotation:
Single target: AS > CS > Judge > CS > Cons > CS > WoG > CS
*note: Same range rule applies here that applied in the prior level bracket. AS=30 yards, Judge=10 yards, but you have a new option. You can cast Exorcism at 30 yards, then Judge on the way in. This is actually my recommended course of action.
AoE: AS > CS > Judge > CS > Cons > CS > WoG > CS

LEVELS 28-37
Use your talent points in this fashion:
Hammer of the Rigtheous (1/1), Sanctuary (1/3), Sanctuary (2/3), Sanctuary (3/3), Wrath of the Lightbringer (1/2)

Note that you can replace your Crusader Strike Prime glyph with a Hammer of the Righteous Prime glyph for additional AoE threat.

New Spells:
Hammer of the Righteous (HotR) - The AoE replacement for CS. This will hit multiple targets around you (I believe this caps at 10 targets) and will grant you 1 HP.
Holy Wrath (HW) - The "new" primary AoE threat spell. This will hit up to 10 targets, evenly dividing damage between them, for Holy damage. Undead and demons will be stunned for 3 seconds. (You can and will glyph this later to also stun Dragonkin/Elementals.) This spell WILL break Crowd Control.
Divine Protection - The Paladin version of a Warrior's Shield Wall. This will reduce all damage you take (spell/physical) by 20% for 10 seconds. This is on a short 1 minute cooldown, so don't be afraid to use it often, and even use it on trash pulls in instances. For the "older" players, this spell does not reduce your damage output or cause Forbearance anymore.
Seal of Insight - Allows your melee hits to restore health and mana to you. Use this in lieu of Seal of Righteousness only when you're struggling to stay alive. Personally, I switch to this Seal the moment the healer dies.
Cleanse - Removes 1 poison and 1 disease effect. It's always a good idea to remove poisons/diseases from yourself, as your healer may be busy, or simply unaware that you are afflicted.
Righteous Defense (RD) - Our second "taunt" ability. This one works by targetting a player/friendly target (npc), or targetting mobs. If you target a player/friendly target (npc), up to 3 of the mobs attacking that player/friendly target (npc) will be taunted on to you. If you target a mob, the system on the back-end will determine who that mob is targetting and taunt the mob you targetted plus up to two other mobs that were also targetting that player/friendly target (npc).

Basic theory so far:
You now have two new abilities available for your rotation. Use Hammer of the Righteous ONLY when you are fighting more than 1 target. Use Crusader Strike for single target. If you have a threat meter installed (this would be an addon, as I haven't covered addons in this guide I'll just mention that Omen is a good threat meter to use) and see that you have a decent threat lead over the dps and/or your healer is struggling, just switch to Seal of Insight.

Rotation:
Single target: Exo (only on pull) --> AS > CS > Judge > CS > HW > CS > WoG > CS
AoE: AS > HotR > Judge > HotR > HW > HotR > WoG > HotR

___________
LEVELS 38-47
Use your talent points in this fashion:
Shield of the Righteous (1/1), Wrath of the Lightbringer (2/2), Grand Crusader (1/2), Grand Crusader (2/2), Hallowed Ground (1/2)

New Spells:
Shield of the Righteous (ShotR) - The primary Holy Power "finisher" move. This will consume HP to slam the enemy with your shield. Damage increases per charge of HP, and this is only worthwhile at 3 HP.
Concentration Aura - This is an aura to help casters/healers, you should never have to use it.
Divine Plea - For now, this just restores 10% of your mana and reduces the strength of your healing spells by 50% for the duration of the Divine Plea buff (15 seconds)
Seal of Truth (SoT) - This is your new tanking seal, replacing SoR
Hammer of Wrath (HoW) - This is your new finishing move, use this on cooldown as soon as your target is below 20% health

Basic theory so far:
You now have a new use for Holy Power. Shield of the Righteous does a sizeable chunk of damage and threat, but is only truly worthwhile with 3HP. Keep in mind that just because you can use ShotR doesn't mean you always should. If you have a decent threat lead on your target, or if you are taking heavy damage, you should continue to use WoG on yourself instead of ShotR. Substitute HoW in for J/AS/HW/Cons on cooldown as soon as your target is below 20% health. Do not substitute HoW for CS/HotR.

Using the AS triggered by a Grand Crusader proc will now generate 1 HP. If you can, sub in a proc'd AS for a Judge or HW, but don't otherwise break your rotation.

It's also important to note that Avenger's Shield will apply the DoT from SoT to every target it hits. This means that you should probably allow the CC to go out first, wait for the spell effect to show that the mob is CC'd, then throw your shield. If you throw AS the moment he CC is cast, the server does not yet know that the target is CC'd, and your shield will bounce to that target and break what was just CC'd.

Rotation:
Single target: Exo (only on pull) --> AS > CS > Judge > CS > HW > CS > ShotR/WoG > CS
AoE: AS > HotR > Judge > HotR > HW > HotR > ShotR/WoG > HotR

LEVELS 48-57
Use your talent points as such:
Holy Shield (1/1), Vindication (1/1), Guarded by the Light (GbtL) (1/2), GbtL (2/2), Hallowed Ground (2/2)

At level 50, you unlock your glyph capability. 1 Prime, 1 Major, and 1 Minor can now be used. Locate the following Glyphs:
Prime: Glyph of Seal of Truth - Grants you 10 Expertise just for having SoT active
Major: Glyph of Holy Wrath - Your Holy Wrath spell now also stuns Dragonkin and Elementals
Minor: Seal of Truth - Reduces the mana cost of Seal of Truth by 50%

New Spells:
Holy Shield (HS) - A passive ability that increases the amount of damage you block by 10%. This means when you block a melee hit while HS is active, the damage is reduced by 40%.
Divine Shield (DS) - The full immunity bubble. You should only use this while tanking for a split second to remove debuffs (on rare occassions you will use it for longer). Using DS will effectively make whatever you are tanking run loose killing your dps/healer, as mobs ignore immune targets.
Plate Specialization - You can equip Plate as of level 40, so try to have plate equipped into every slot to gain a 5% boost to your primary attribute (in this case, stamina).
Hand of Freedom - Remove/prevents movement impairing effects for 6 seconds. Use this to get out of snares/roots/etc.
Rebuke - This will interrupt spell casting and prevent casting for 4 seconds. This cannot miss, so don't worry about hit rating for spell interrupt purposes.
Blessing of Might (BoM) - Increases Attack Power by 10% and restores mana. This buff should only be used when you have a druid in your group.

Basic theory so far:
Use Rebuke to interrupt casters as much as possible. This will reduce incoming dmg.
With 2/2 GbtL, you should always remember that your WoG overheals (only on yourself) will never be wasted. Overhealing with WoG and 2/2 GbtL will create a protective shield around you for a few seconds.

Rotation:
Single target: Exo (only on pull) --> AS > CS > Judge > CS > HW > CS > WoG > CS
AoE: AS > HotR > Judge > HotR > HW > HotR > WoG > HotR

___________
LEVELS 58-67
Use your talent points as such:
Shield of the Templar (ShotT) (1/3), ShotT (2/3), ShotT (3/3), Sacred Duty (SD) (1/2), SD (2/2)

New Spells:
Crusader Aura - You can now move faster while mounted, hooray! Just don't forget to switch back to Devotion Aura before combat!
Divine Light - Another Holy/healer spell, similar to Holy Light/Flash of Light. Don't use this
Seal of Justice - PvP seal, reduces maximum run speed to 100%
Hand of Salvation - This will reduce the total threat of the effected target by 2% every second for 10 seconds. Use this if you have a dps that's chasing you on threat

Basic theory so far:
Your Divine Plea now generates 3HP (Thanks to 3/3 ShotT), so use DP before a pull so that you can ShotR right away. The initial ShotR will give you a nice threat lead and cause Holy Shield to activate.

Rotation:
Single target: DP > Exo (only on pull) --> AS > ShotR > Judge > CS > HW> CS > Judge> CS > WoG > CS
AoE: DP > AS > ShotR > HotR > Judge > HotR > HW > HotR > WoG > HotR

___________
LEVELS 68-77
Use your talent points as such:
Ardent Defender (1/1), Improved Judgement (1/2), Improved Judgement (2/2), Crusade (1/3), Crusade (2/3)

At level 75, you unlock your glyph capability. 1 Prime, 1 Major, and 1 Minor can now be used. Locate the following Glyphs:
Prime: Glyph of Shield of the Righteous - 10% increase of ShotR damage is a no-brainer
Major: Your choice here...Divine Protection (I'm not a fan of this one, but others are), Hammer of Wrath, Ascetic Crusader (this is what I use)
Minor: Glyph of Blessing of Might or Glyph of Insight

New Spells:
Ardent Defender (AD) - This is another "oh crap" ability to put on your bars. Pop this if you see your life dropping low and you have the thought of, "I think I'm going to die in the next 10 seconds. AD will save you and put you up to 15% health.
Avenging Wrath (AW) - Increases your damage/healing output by 20% for 20 seconds. Use this early in pulls to gain a threat lead.
Resistance Aura - Increases your (and your party's) resistances to magical damage. Use this while fighting large groups of casters.

Basic theory so far:
Pop AW on pulls for more threat. Your Judgement now has a 30 yard range, so the range issue between AS and J is no longer an issue. However, you should still open with an Exo prior to the Judge.

If AD is clearly going to proc (you're going to "die"), try to have 3HP saved up so that you can hit yourself with a 3HP WoG right after the proc.

Rotation:
Single target: DP > Exo (only on pull) --> AS > AW > ShotR > CS > Judge > CS > HW > CS > ShotR/WoG
AoE: DP > AW > AS > ShotR > HotR > Judge > HotR > HW > HotR > AS > ShotR/WoG

LEVELS 78-85
Use your talent points in this fashion:
Crusade (3/3), Pursuit of Justice (1/2), Pursuit of Justice (2/2), Rule of Law (1/3), Rule of Law (2/3), Rule of Law (3/3)

New Spells:
Turn Evil - Fears an undead/demon target for 20 seconds. Has a cast time, and a feared target may accidentally pull a second group of mobs. You'll likely never ever use this spell.
Hand of Sacrifice - Transfers 30% of the damage taken by the target to you for 12 seconds or until the caster has transferred 100% of their maximum health. The damage transferred is reduced by your passive damage reduction from armor and any damage reduction spells you may have active (Divine Shield, Divine Protection)
Mastery - Increases your chance to block melee attacks by 18%. Each point of mastery increases block chance by 2.25%. This is your new best friend.
Inquisition - Another ability that is fueled by Holy Power. Increases Holy damage by 30%. Each HP used for this ability increases the duration by 4 seconds (lasts for 4/8/12 seconds). Use this ONLY for extra AoE threat with HotR/AS/AW/Cons. Do not bother with this for single target.
Holy Radiance - Another Holy spell, but this one has no cast time. Sure, it won't heal you or anyone else for much, but every little bit adds up. Have this one on your bars and use it during AoE's to help your healer a little bit.
Guardian of Ancient Kings - The new uber damage reduction ability. Reduces damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds, 3 minute cooldown.

Basic theory so far:
I advise adjusting your spec sometime at or after level 80.
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sZhrhcRddRRucbr:kosqbRMmz
If you want, you can pull a point from PoJ to get 3/3 Rule of Law.

If you re-spec as suggested, you'll have a new spell to help your group - Divine Guardian. This is like a shield wall for your entire group/raid, minus yourself. It's not so important in normal 5-man's, but it's awesome in heroics and raids.

Rotation:
Single target: DP > Exo (only on pull) --> AS > AW > ShotR > CS > Judge > CS > HW > CS > ShotR/WoG
AoE: DP > AW > AS > ShotR > HotR > Judge > HotR > HW > HotR > AS > ShotR/WoG


The end - Guide written by Baneoftruth