Paladin Protection Rotation & Opener

First ~12 casts of actual top-ranked kills. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Avenger's Shield 2 Light's PotentialOff-GCD 3 SentinelOff-GCD 4 Empowering VenomOff-GCD 5 Divine Toll 6 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 7 Hammer of Wrath 8 Hammer of Wrath 9 Holy Bulwark 10 Sacred Weapon 11 Hammer of Wrath 12 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 13 Consecration 14 Blessed Hammer 15 Blessed Hammer

1 SentinelOff-GCD 2 Divine Toll 3 Light's PotentialOff-GCD 4 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 5 Hammer of Wrath 6 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 7 Avenger's Shield 8 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 9 Hammer of Wrath 10 Hammer of Wrath 11 Avenger's Shield 12 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 13 Blessed Hammer 14 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 15 Hammer of Wrath

1 Avenger's Shield 2 Consecration 3 Font of Venomous Rage 4 Judgment 5 Light's PotentialOff-GCD 6 SentinelOff-GCD 7 Divine Toll 8 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 9 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 10 Hammer of Wrath 11 Avenger's Shield 12 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 13 Hammer of Wrath 14 Blessed Hammer 15 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD

#showtooltip Avenger's Shield
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Sentinel
/cast Shield of the Righteous
/cast Avenger's Shield

Ability	Top-player CPM
Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD	17.8
Blessed Hammer	13.5
Judgment	11.3
Avenger's Shield	6.7
Hammer of Wrath	6.0
Consecration	4.9
Word of Glory	2.7
SentinelOff-GCD	1.0
Divine Toll	1.0
Divine SteedOff-GCD	0.8
Ardent DefenderOff-GCD	0.7
Holy Bulwark	0.6
Sacred Weapon	0.6
Guardian of Ancient KingsOff-GCD	0.4

CPM = median casts per minute across the sampled top kills. If you're far below on a core ability, that's usually the first thing to fix.

First ~12 casts after the pull starts, taken from actual top key runs: the AoE opener is the first pack of the run, the single-target opener is the first boss. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 2 Judgment 3 Blessed Hammer 4 Divine SteedOff-GCD 5 Judgment 6 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 7 Judgment 8 Blessed Hammer 9 Avenger's Shield 10 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 11 Judgment 12 Judgment 13 SentinelOff-GCD 14 Hammer of Wrath 15 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD

1 Judgment 2 Blessed Hammer 3 Divine SteedOff-GCD 4 Judgment 5 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 6 Blessed Hammer 7 Avenger's Shield 8 SentinelOff-GCD 9 Liquid LusterOff-GCD 10 Divine Toll 11 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 12 Hammer of Wrath 13 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 14 Avenger's Shield 15 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD

1 Avenger's Shield 2 Avenger's Shield 3 Ardent DefenderOff-GCD 4 Divine SteedOff-GCD 5 Word of Glory 6 Judgment 7 Consecration 8 SentinelOff-GCD 9 Divine Toll 10 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 11 Hammer of Wrath 12 Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD 13 Empowering VenomOff-GCD 14 Holy Bulwark 15 Light's PotentialOff-GCD

#showtooltip Judgment
/cast Shield of the Righteous
/cast Sentinel
/cast Judgment

Collected from public Patch 12.1 guides and checked for this patch. Spell names follow the language you selected on this site and must match your game client. If a macro does not work on your client, report it with the button on the card.

#showtooltip Blessing of Protection
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Blessing of Protection

#showtooltip Blessing of Freedom
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Blessing of Freedom

#showtooltip Blessing of Sacrifice
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Blessing of Sacrifice

#showtooltip Lay on Hands
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Lay on Hands

#showtooltip Word of Glory
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Word of Glory

#showtooltip Intercession
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,dead,exists][] Intercession

#showtooltip Cleanse Toxins
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Cleanse Toxins

#showtooltip Rebuke
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus,exists][] Rebuke

#showtooltip Divine Shield
/stopcasting
/cast Divine Shield
/cancelaura [noknown:Final Stand] Divine Shield

#showtooltip Divine Shield
/stopcasting
/cast Divine Shield
/cancelaura [noknown:Final Stand] Divine Shield
/cancelaura Blessing of Protection
/cancelaura [known:Blessing of Spellwarding] Blessing of Spellwarding

Keybinds are personal — this is not a layout to copy wholesale. What it does say is which abilities you press most, measured from the same top parses above: the more often an ability is cast, the less effort its key should take. Interrupts, defensives and movement are deliberately left out; they barely register in cast data yet must always be within reach, so choose those yourself.

Rows marked Passive are not pressed at all — they fire on their own (auto-attacks, procs) and get no key, even though they top the casts-per-minute table.

Key	Ability	Top-player CPM
1	Shield of the RighteousOff-GCD	19.4
2	Blessed Hammer	13.5
3	Judgment	11.3
4	Avenger's Shield	7.1
5	Hammer of Wrath	6.0
Z	Consecration	4.9
X	Word of Glory	2.7
C	Final Stand	1.2
V	SentinelOff-GCD	1.0
R	Divine Toll	1.0
F	Divine SteedOff-GCD	0.8
T	Ardent DefenderOff-GCD	0.7
G	Holy Bulwark	0.6
Shift+1	Sacred Weapon	0.6
Shift+2	Guardian of Ancient KingsOff-GCD	0.4