Protection Paladin
Lightsmith
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Protection Paladin (Lightsmith) deals 88% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 3 of 12) and 74% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 6 of 11).
At a glance
4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · share of manual DPS kept
| Fight | Manual DPS | SBA + cooldown | SBA alone | Assisted Highlight | Rank (SBA + cooldown) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M+ dungeon | 180,932 | 87.8%−12.21% | 58.3%−41.73% | 93.9%−6.05% | 3 of 12 |
| Raid boss | 176,945 | 74.5%−25.51% | 51.2%−48.75% | 80.6%−19.44% | 6 of 11 |
What the assistant costs
M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · data as of 2026-10-23 12:52 UTC
- Manual180.9Kreference
- SBA + cooldown158.8K88% of manual
- SBA alone105.4K58% of manual
- Assisted Highlight170.0K94% of manual
Cooldowns and defensives
Cooldowns in SBA + cooldown
The button alone never presses these. In SBA + cooldown you press them on your own keys, with your potion and on-use trinket, and the simulator presses them on time.
Defensives the button never presses
Checked in game: they are not in the Single-Button Assistant's list. Press them yourself.
Best talents for the button
Our standard build is already the best we found for one-button play on a raid boss.
Best of 338 builds tested with the button on the raid boss (2026-10-22): our standard build, the 3 most played builds on Warcraft Logs for this hero talent, then every single talent swap from the best of them. Defensive talents are locked: the search never trades survival for damage.
Searched on the raid boss only: SimulationCraft does not support tanks in its dungeon fight, so AoE talents for Mythic+ are not tested.
CIEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAsNzYWmZMzYmxyyALzCDDAwAAAAAAg0MDzYmZMzs1GAGYGYGsNAAACwMzyySLzMWsthBghZYMAYmBAzAM2AIn game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it. SimulationCraft's standard build. Every figure on this page uses it.
Where the damage comes from
M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · data as of 2026-10-23 12:52 UTC
Damage per second and casts per ability, averaged over the simulated fights. Pets and summons show their own name in brackets.
| Ability | Manual | SBA + cooldown | SBA + cooldown vs manual |
|---|---|---|---|
 Shield of the Righteous | 37.3K20.5% · 91.3 casts | 29.5K18.5% · 98.4 casts | −7,831 |
 Hammer of Wrath | 11.4K6.3% · 39.4 casts | 9,0755.7% · 32.7 casts | −2,284 |
 Divine Guidance | 10.9K6.0% · 28.7 casts | 8,0185.0% · 20.1 casts | −2,896 |
 Sacred Weapon (Proc Damage) | 10.5K5.8% · 40.1 casts | 7,9145.0% · 31 casts | −2,544 |
 Judgment | 10.1K5.6% · 72.3 casts | 10.1K6.3% · 70.2 casts | −71 |
 Consecration (Tick) | 9,9035.5% | 8,5715.4% | −1,332 |
 Refining Fire | 8,6834.8% | 8,9815.6% | +298 |
 Perfected Guillotine | 8,2144.5% · 26 casts | 8,1825.1% · 25.9 casts | −32 |
 Lesser Weapon | 7,4064.1% · 86.8 casts | 4,7983.0% · 71.6 casts | −2,608 |
| Melee | 7,0383.9% · 209.5 casts | 7,0794.4% · 209.7 casts | +41 |
 Blaze of Glory | 5,5973.1% · 31.1 casts | 5,3013.3% · 29.7 casts | −296 |
 Avenger's Shield | 5,4453.0% · 37.3 casts | 5,4913.4% · 38.2 casts | +46 |
 Glory of the Vanguard (As) | 4,2692.4% · 25.7 casts | 3,8432.4% · 23.5 casts | −426 |
 Blessed Hammer (Tick) | 3,9182.2% | 3,1992.0% | −719 |
 Unrelenting Edict | 3,8892.1% · 39.2 casts | 3,0911.9% · 32.5 casts | −798 |
 Hammer and Anvil (Judgment) | 3,6072.0% · 31.6 casts | 3,5512.2% · 30.3 casts | −56 |
| Unrelenting Edict | 3,2891.8% · 71.9 casts | 3,2592.0% · 69.8 casts | −30 |
| Hammer and Anvil (Hammer Of Wrath) | 2,9651.6% · 21.2 casts | 2,4481.5% · 17.2 casts | −517 |
 Forge's Reckoning | 2,5851.4% · 39.2 casts | 2,7571.7% · 43.3 casts | +172 |
| Avenger's Shield | 2,6761.5% · 15.2 casts | 2,7031.7% · 15.6 casts | +27 |
| Hammer and Anvil (Divine Toll) | 2,6041.4% · 13.4 casts | 2,5551.6% · 13.6 casts | −49 |
| Avenger's Shield | 2,3331.3% · 13.4 casts | 2,2431.4% · 13.6 casts | −90 |
| Glory of the Vanguard (As AoE) | 2,1701.2% · 25.7 casts | 2,0361.3% · 23.5 casts | −134 |
| Glory of the Vanguard (As Dt AoE) | 1,9511.1% · 13.3 casts | 1,9421.2% · 13.5 casts | −9 |
| Glory of the Vanguard (As Dt) | 1,8291.0% · 13.3 casts | 1,7631.1% · 13.5 casts | −66 |
 Venomfang Burst | 1,8271.0% · 76.1 casts | 1,8201.1% · 75.9 casts | −7 |
 Devour Morsel | 1,0920.6% · 28 casts | 1,5921.0% · 42.7 casts | +500 |
 Tyr's Enforcer | 1,3680.8% · 67.9 casts | 1,4110.9% · 69.7 casts | +43 |
| Venomfang | 1,3800.8% · 80.3 casts | 1,3740.9% · 80.2 casts | −6 |
| Unrelenting Edict | 1,2960.7% · 455 casts | 1,0510.7% · 362.4 casts | −245 |
| Tyr's Enforcer | 8940.5% · 31.4 casts | 8590.5% · 31.9 casts | −35 |
| Consecration | 7850.4% | 7050.4% | −80 |
| Tyr's Enforcer | 6840.4% · 27.3 casts | 7670.5% · 28.7 casts | +83 |
 Rune of Unleashed Fire | 4860.3% · 54.1 casts | 4880.3% · 54.3 casts | +2 |
| Consecration | 4250.2% | 3990.3% | −26 |
| Consecration | 3640.2% | 3490.2% | −15 |
 Rune of Lingering | 2840.2% · 54.1 casts | 2840.2% · 54.3 casts | +0 |
 Rune of Echoes | 1970.1% · 19.5 casts | – | −197 |
| Total | 181.6K | 159.4K | −22.2K |
A dash means the ability was never used in that mode. Damage is attributed the way SimulationCraft reports it, so a pet's damage appears under the pet.
Questions about Protection Paladin (Lightsmith)
How much DPS does Protection Paladin (Lightsmith) lose with the Single-Button Assistant?
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Protection Paladin (Lightsmith) deals 88% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 3 of 12) and 74% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 6 of 11).
Related builds
Other hero talents of Protection Paladin
DPS lost with SBA + cooldown, 4-piece set, SimulationCraft's talents (a top player's build for the hero talents SimulationCraft has no profile for). All specs · Ranking
How it's measured, and its limits
- SBA + cooldown is a best case: the simulator never misplays. It is always better to sim your own character.
- Manual play is SimulationCraft's own rotation executed perfectly, so it is an upper bound for what a person can do, not a typical player.
- Assisted Highlight assumes every suggestion is seen and pressed at once, which is generous for a player reading the highlight.
- The M+ dungeon is SimulationCraft's own DungeonSlice fight style, its approximation of Mythic+ pulls, not a specific dungeon route. Nothing hits the tank there, so SimulationCraft does not support it for tanks.
- The raid boss is SimulationCraft's Patchwerk fight with a boss that hits the tank. Only damage is compared: survival is not measured.
Full method, reliability rule and patches: Sources · Simulated with SimulationCraft 1210-01 (WoW 12.1.5.70575) 710c240 +16 patches, 10,000 iterations per figure.