The Holy tree contains talents focused on healing and caster-related buffs. A Holy Paladin may go into the protection tree for Divinity, Guardian's Favor, Divine Guardian, and/or Improved Devotion Aura. A Holy Paladin could alternatively go into the Retribution tree for Benediction, Heart of the Crusader, Conviction and/or Sanctity of Battle. If your raid makeup does not have a regular dps warrior with improved battle shout putting points into Improved Blessing of Might may be a viable option to assist the raid.

One talent to be aware of in PvE is Pure of Heart It was found during the Grobbulus encounter in Naxxramas the reduced time of the disease made it harder for paladins to get to a safe distance before the debuff wore off. Similar situations have been seen when fighting Rotface in Icecrown Citadel.

The Protection tree contains talents focused on defense, damage mitigation, damage return and one-handed weapons.

Paladins receive Avenger's Shield as soon as they choose protection spec. It is the only ranged ability that a protection paladin has to pull with other than via items or via proximity/judgements or other close range abilities, it bounces and tags a total of 3 targets and applies a 6 second snare to its targets. With 3.0 and inscription, this ability can be modified with a Glyph to increase its damage by 100% while reducing the number of targets hit by 2, making it ideal for tanking hard hitting mobs or bosses that you want to have individual tanks upon. Since patch 2.3, there are more useful talents than the points we can spend, so we see a lot of tanking builds with some minor variation here and there. However, as long as it contains the following core talents, it should be viable: Redoubt (Now with Shield Specialization built into it), Toughness, Improved Righteous Fury, Anticipation, Blessing of Sanctuary, Sacred Duty, One-Handed Weapon Specialization, Holy Shield, Ardent Defender, Combat Expertise, Avenger's Shield, Hammer of the Righteous.

Other talents worth noting for paladin tanks include: Guarded by the Light, which provide some protection against spell damage and reduces mana costs of Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield and Shield of Righteousness; Blessing of Kings, and Touched by the Light, which eliminates the need for gear that adds spell power.

Reckoning is a very good skill when AOE leveling/farming. With more than four to five mobs keep hitting you, reckoning will be up most of the time. This is a very significant improvement in dps, health regen or mana regen when combined with Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Light, or Seal of Wisdom respectively. Nevertheless, its usefulness in end-game instance tanking is not much, so most tankadins would put the points to some where else at level 70.

Concerning PvP, paladin's protection tree is not as designed as the warrior's against enemy spellcasters, since your damage output comes from blocking and being hit by melee damage, and your improved armor and defense will not lower spell damage at all. With Reckoning however, at close proximity to casters, higher damage output may be dealt. Improved Hammer of Justice is excellent if they're trying to cast, so not only do you interrupt them, but you can also get in heals more frequently. Also, with Sacred Duty, you can use Divine Shield while still pummeling spellcasters without slowing or stunning effecting you, and like before, more time for healing as well. Improved Concentration Aura is also useful, especially if you have caster groupmates. Stoicism provides some protection against stun and dispel.

The Retribution tree contains talents focused on damage output, two-handed weapons, holy damage, and damage avoidance.

DPS Retribution Paladins: Gone from being the underestimated Paladin spec to becoming a formidable holy melee fighter, the Retribution Paladin brings buffs and debuffs, offhealing, cleansing and excellent damage when properly geared. The Retribution tree has both raid and arena viability and can be of interest to any Paladin who would rather deal damage than take or heal it.

For those interested in being a melee damage Paladin, 51 talent points should be invested in the Retribution tree. It is strongly advised that any serious Retribution spec for Divine Storm and Crusader Strike. It is also highly recommended that the Paladin puts 3 points into Heart of the Crusader, as it gives a 3% critical bonus to melee, ranged and spells for everyone who attacks the judged target.

The most common Retribution builds have at least 51 points in the Retribution tree. Several variations of Retribution build exist, such as 0/5/56 or 0/10/51.

As for PvP builds, there are a few variations. A common PvP build tends to be 0/16/45, being specced for increased survivability Divine Purpose and for shorter cooldown on your primary stun Improved Hammer of Justice this build is very potent for high end arena play, as your stun when combined with the Gladiator PvP set bonus and the Improved Hammer of Justice talent has its cooldown lowered to 35 seconds, making it quite semi effective as Crowd Control.

Eye for an Eye is a great talent for PvP, as it returns damage from all criticals against you. This ends up being a noticeable damage increase in PvP, and even while soloing. Vindication is an excellent choice as the 20% reduction of all stats can be very useful in many situations. Note, that most bosses are immune to Vindication, but it still serves a purpose when fighting trash mobs, solo'ing, and of course PvP'ing.

Holy Paladins can put points in Benediction for the reduced mana cost of Holy Shock, seals, judgements, and instant Flash of Lights. They may also want to put points into Heart of the Crusader, Conviction, and Sanctity of Battle.

Paladin Tanks usually max Deflection and have one point into Improved Judgement (for smoother spell rotation) here. Other retribution tree talents that may be useful for tankadins include Heart of the Crusader, Conviction and Pursuit of Justice. While Retribution Aura is useful for additional threat generation occasionally, it is too far in the Retribution tree to get Sanctified Retribution. Devotion Aura (with Improved Devotion Aura) is usually a better aura for tanking.