Stat Priorities
Stat Outline
Strength is your primary stat, increasing the potency of all attack power scaling abilities, the armor provided by Shield of the Righteous, as well as granting a small amount of parry
Haste reduces your global cooldown, as well as the cooldown of several rotational abilities including Judgment, Hammer of Wrath, Blessed Hammer, Hammer of the Righteous, and Avenger’s Shield
Critical Strike increases your damage output and grants parry, thanks to the Riposte passive
Mastery grants additional block chance and attack power, as well as bonus damage reduction while standing inside your consecrate
Versatility provides a flat percent increase to your damage and healing, while also granting half of that value as damage reduction
Stat Ranking
As with many other specs, when initially gearing your character you’ll want to focus strictly on item level, as increases in Strength, Stamina, and Armor tend to be significantly more important than the differences between secondary stats. This of course is less true for jewelry pieces and trinkets as they tend to lack multiple of these traits.
When comparing gear of similar item level, you can use the following general stat priority for a decent mix of damage and survivability, however if you’re looking to optimize your offensive output you should always sim your character.
Item Level > Haste > Mastery until 52% Block Chance (M+ only) > Crit > Mastery > Vers
Why Mastery until 52% Block Chance?
Since paladins are able to block spells, Mastery is an extremely powerful stat when it comes to mitigating them and other forms of magic or periodic damage. Consistency is of course very important for tanks, so the goal of 52% block baseline is to be able to get yourself to 100% spell block using other short duration buffs or talents. First is Improved Holy Shield, which grants 8% spell block chance, then there’s Barricade of Faith which grants 10% block chance for 10s after using Avenger’s Shield, and finally there’s Faith in the Light which grants 30% block chance for 6s after using Word of Glory, totalling 48% additional block chance.
Reaching this block breakpoint is not always needed, particularly in raid when a proper defensive rotation is more than enough to mitigate incoming damage, so in many forms of content you can choose to ignore this breakpoint. That being said, it will likely be quite useful in M+ as you push into higher key levels, not only helping to mitigate trash abilities but also being extremely good against bosses like Big M.O.M.M.A, Voidstone Monstrosity, and K.U.-J.0. The actual raw amount of mastery required to hit this breakpoint is roughly 10,800 however this assumes no other forms of external mastery increases, so if you have the Skyfury shaman buff or opt for a mastery flask you won’t need as much.
Races
For the most part your choice of race can be entirely based on aesthetic preferences, however in competitive content many players opt to play either Dwarf and Dark Iron Dwarf as they have the unique ability to remove debuffs on a 2min CD using Stoneform or Fireblood, which can be extremely valuable in certain dungeons and raid encounters.
Enchants
Cloak: Chant of Leeching Fangs
Chest: Crystalline Radiance
Bracers: Chant of Armored Leech
Boots: Scout’s March
Legs: Stormbound Armor Kit
Rings: Radiant Haste
Weapon: Authority of the Depths (ST) or Authority of Radiant Power (AoE and Defense)
Gems
Algari Diamond: Elusive Blasphemite (speed increase) or Culminating Blasphemite (very minor damage increase)
Other Gems: To maximize the benefits of your Algari Diamond (and Elemental Focusing Lens embellishment if you’re using it) you’ll want to insert 1 of each gem colour outside of ambers. This means you’ll want one each of Quick Ruby, Quick Sapphire, Quick Onyx, then fill out the rest of your sockets with Deadly Emeralds.
Consumables
Food: Feast of the Midnight Masquerade (Primary) or Beledar’s Bounty (Secondary)
Phials: Flask of Tempered Swiftness
Potions: Tempered Potion
Health Potions: Algari Healing Potion
Weapon Oil: Algari Mana Oil (Templar) or Rite of Sanctification (Lightsmith)