Templar’s Bulwark gives Protection Paladins a full-health shield, at the cost of Forbearance

Blizzard says Protection Paladins needed a survival cooldown like the ones other tanks have. Its Paladin class deep dive, published on 15 October, adds one, and ties it to the Paladin’s most familiar limitation.

The ability

Templar’s Bulwark is a new 21-point gold medal talent in the Protection tree. It is instant, with a 5-minute cooldown. Using it gives you an absorption shield equal to 100% of your maximum health for 8 seconds. It also applies Forbearance, and it cannot be used while Forbearance is active.

Blizzard’s design note says the ability fills the missing survival cooldown, and also makes an interesting choice within the Forbearance system.

Why the Forbearance cost matters

Because Bulwark both applies Forbearance and is blocked by it, it competes with anything else in your kit that uses Forbearance. Using it closes that door for a while; using something else first may leave Bulwark unavailable when you want it. That is the decision Blizzard is pointing at. The guide does not restate which other abilities apply Forbearance in Forever, so check your tooltips before building a plan around it.

Be precise about what the shield is. It absorbs damage. It does not make you immune and it does not heal you, and once it has absorbed its full amount it is gone, which may be well before the 8 seconds are up. Because it is sized to your maximum health, it grows as your health pool does.

Two connected talents

Holy Shield now requires Templar’s Bulwark, so a Protection build that wants Holy Shield picks up Bulwark on the way. Sacred Duty, a new row 3 talent, increases total Stamina by up to 4% and reduces the cooldowns of Divine Shield, Divine Protection and Templar’s Bulwark by up to 1 minute. Fully talented, that brings Bulwark’s wait down from five minutes to four.