Paladin Tanks come in many varieties.  Here is a sample build that would good for a devoted tank.  The majority of points are spent in Protection with a few points spent in Retribution.

View this Full Prot Spec on Wowhead’s talent calculator.

First, the retribution part explained.

Deflection is crucial for raid tanks.  You need all of the avoidance you can get and this is the best bang for your buck.  For comparison, Anticipation gives you about 3.2% of avoidance (0.8% Miss, Parry, Dodge, Block) and Toughness will give you enough armor for about 2% more mitigation.  Five talent points for 5% avoidance is a steal.  Benediction is the best choice for a first tier talent, since it helps your mana efficiency.  Improved Judgement isn’t necessary, but it will slightly improve your threat generation.

Now, for the bulk of the build - the Protection tree.

In the first tier, we took both Imp. Devotion Aura and Redoubt.  Redoubt helps keep you up when tanking multiple mobs, when your Holy Shield can’t absorb all the blocks, and it also opens up Shield Spec to us.  Imp. Devotion Aura will give you a little extra mitigation.  This isn’t crucial, and you may want to swap it out for Guardian’s Favor and Improved Hammer of Justice.  However, your other tanking friends in larger raids will appreciate the extra armor.

In the second tier, we chose Precision and Toughness.  Precision will help make up for a lack of hit rating on our gear.  Toughness will add about 1000-1500 armor once you are geared up, which is an extra 2-3% damage mitigation.  Very useful for raid bosses.

In the third tier, we took every talent.  Blessing of Kings is crucial.  It adds another possible buff for the raid, and it will boost your hitpoints by 800-1000 with good gear.  Improved Righteous Fury is a no-brainer.  You can’t tank without it.  Anticipation will give you a head start on your Defense skill.  It’s points well spent, and it will help you get to uncrittable and uncrushable status much quicker.  Finally, shield spec helps add a bit of extra damage mitigation.  You will be blocking a lot of attacks, so it helps if you mitigate more damage per block.

In the fourth tier, we only took Stoicism.  You never want to be stunned, so 10% resist is better than nothing.  The Improved Hammer will see little use in raids, and you won’t find yourself grouped with spellcasters very often for the concentration aura to be useful.

In the fifth tier, we took Reckoning and Blessing of Sanctuary.  I almost never get to use Blessing of Sanctuary.  I typically have Kings, Light, and Wisdom on me.  It will be more useful when the five minute buffs become fifteen minutes.  Still, it is important because it opens up Holy Shield.  Reckoning is great for giving you some extra threat generation.  Be sure to use a quick weapon (< 2.0 speed), and you’ll reap the full benefits of it.

In the sixth tier, we took Sacred Duty.  6% extra stamina is huge.  The shortened cooldown on Divine Shield is less important, but it will be useful if you ever heal or PVP.

In the seventh tier, we took everything.  Holy Shield and Improved Holy Shield are necessary to generate threat and to help you become uncrushable.  A raiding tank cannot pass them up.  Ardent Defender is also nice.  Many times I’ve come down to 2-3% life left… without Ardent Defender, that last attack or two probably would have killed me.  It provides a bit of breathing room for your healers.

Weapon Expertise isn’t very useful and, finally, we need to take Avenger’s Shield.  It’s a great threat generator.  Also, remember that there’s no minimum range and it has a fast cast time, so you can recast it during combat.  This is less important on trash, but it will give you the necessary boost to stay ahead on long boss fights.

This build is great for raid tanking.  It maximises your survivability and boasts a few improvements to threat generation.  It forgoes DPS and healing for straight tanking effectiveness.  Some of the talents can be tweaked a bit while keeping the same theme, but any raid tanking build will look similar to this.

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