Protection Paladin
Templar
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Protection Paladin (Templar) deals 85% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 5 of 12) and 67% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (not ranked there).
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 | 139,605 | 84.8%−15.24% | 65.6%−34.42% | 89.6%−10.39% | 5 of 12 |
| Raid boss * | 154,976 | 66.5%−33.46% | 51.6%−48.43% | 69.5%−30.53% | Not ranked ⓘ |
* Raid boss, not ranked: The assistant never uses an ability that matters for this spec in the raid, for a reason we have not traced to Blizzard's list, so the figures may be a simulator problem. Shown for reference only, left out of the ranking.
What the assistant costs
M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · data as of 2026-10-23 12:52 UTC
- Manual139.6Kreference
- SBA + cooldown118.3K85% of manual
- SBA alone91.5K66% of manual
- Assisted Highlight125.1K90% 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 337 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.
CIEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAsNzYWmZMzYmxyyALzCDDAwAAAAAAg0MDzYmZMzs1GAGYGYGsNAAwMTbzMLzAEYzyGGAGmhxAAsNDwMAjNIn 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 | 26.7K19.1% · 128.1 casts | 13.9K11.7% · 64.8 casts | −12.8K |
 Hammer of Wrath | 13.1K9.4% · 37.5 casts | 11.2K9.4% · 32.2 casts | −1,940 |
 Judgment | 12.9K9.2% · 74.4 casts | 12.8K10.8% · 71.2 casts | −68 |
 Consecration (Tick) | 9,3896.7% | 8,6767.3% | −713 |
 Refining Fire | 8,0965.8% | 8,4617.1% | +365 |
 Perfected Guillotine | 7,7965.6% · 26.6 casts | 7,7856.6% · 26.5 casts | −11 |
| Melee | 6,8784.9% · 215.2 casts | 7,0255.9% · 214.9 casts | +147 |
 Avenger's Shield | 4,8093.4% · 35.4 casts | 5,0144.2% · 36.3 casts | +205 |
 Blaze of Glory | 4,9473.5% · 29.7 casts | 2,9422.5% · 16.2 casts | −2,005 |
 Unrelenting Edict | 4,4163.2% · 37.2 casts | 3,7553.2% · 32 casts | −661 |
| Unrelenting Edict | 4,1242.9% · 73.9 casts | 4,0883.4% · 70.8 casts | −36 |
 Blessed Hammer (Tick) | 4,0582.9% | 3,3972.9% | −661 |
 Glory of the Vanguard (As) | 3,6382.6% · 23.6 casts | 3,4532.9% · 22.1 casts | −185 |
 Empyrean Hammer | 3,4252.4% · 145.5 casts | 1,4151.2% · 64.8 casts | −2,010 |
 Divine Hammer | 3,0152.2% · 29.4 casts | 3,1742.7% · 30 casts | +159 |
| Avenger's Shield | 2,5391.8% · 15.4 casts | 2,6122.2% · 16 casts | +73 |
 Empyrean Hammer (Wd) | 2,1581.5% · 39.1 casts | 8660.7% · 16.6 casts | −1,292 |
| Avenger's Shield | 2,1341.5% · 13.1 casts | 2,1081.8% · 13.2 casts | −26 |
| Glory of the Vanguard (As AoE) | 1,8791.3% · 23.6 casts | 1,8251.5% · 22.1 casts | −54 |
| Glory of the Vanguard (As Dt AoE) | 1,8601.3% · 12.9 casts | 1,8151.5% · 12.4 casts | −45 |
 Venomfang Burst | 1,7481.2% · 78.3 casts | 1,7381.5% · 77.8 casts | −10 |
| Glory of the Vanguard (As Dt) | 1,6781.2% · 12.9 casts | 1,6041.4% · 12.4 casts | −74 |
 Devour Morsel | 1,0590.8% · 29.4 casts | 1,5181.3% · 43.7 casts | +459 |
| Unrelenting Edict | 1,3240.9% · 495.1 casts | 1,1030.9% · 395.3 casts | −221 |
| Venomfang | 1,3190.9% · 82.6 casts | 1,3151.1% · 82.3 casts | −4 |
 Tyr's Enforcer | 1,2100.9% · 64.6 casts | 1,2991.1% · 66.4 casts | +89 |
| Tyr's Enforcer | 8270.6% · 30.5 casts | 8020.7% · 30.6 casts | −25 |
| Tyr's Enforcer | 6770.5% · 28.3 casts | 7320.6% · 29.1 casts | +55 |
| Consecration | 6650.5% | 6580.6% | −7 |
 Rune of Unleashed Fire | 4710.3% · 54.5 casts | 4690.4% · 54.1 casts | −2 |
| Consecration | 3900.3% | 4000.3% | +10 |
| Consecration | 3490.2% | 3320.3% | −17 |
 Rune of Lingering | 2750.2% · 54.5 casts | 2740.2% · 54.1 casts | −1 |
 Rune of Echoes | 1910.1% · 19.7 casts | – | −191 |
| Total | 140.0K | 118.5K | −21.5K |
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 (Templar)
How much DPS does Protection Paladin (Templar) lose with the Single-Button Assistant?
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Protection Paladin (Templar) deals 85% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 5 of 12) and 67% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (not ranked there).
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.