So, yes and no. Initially in an expansion prot pally’s scale great, and quickly from secondaries, but other classes benefit more later on. Look at the diminishing value returns for the defensive aspect of mastery, and then if we start putting stats into verse, we don’t benefit as much as DH would from haste or verse. Haste benefits got nerfed in S2, like they needed to be. But, we aren’t benefiting as strong from verse.
Prot paladin’s are historically known for scaling strong initially in an expansion, then getting weaker towards the end. You can tank a 25 as prot, but think of how much more a healer needs to work compared to a bear or VDH. This is only season two. This post is really so that other fellow paladin’s don’t get disappointed later in the push season. When they could preroll a VDH or bear, or perhaps blizzard looks like this. But I actually think VDH’s and bears bring better value to keys overall, and the leaderboards are showing that.
(I should also be more specific that Ardent really doesn’t work as a reliable cheat death in high keys on fort trash, only on boss fights, where a VDH cheat death is 10X more valuable overall. You can google this on YouTube I’m sure plenty of streamers would agree with this.)
I’m not sure blizzard can potentially fix the core issues with prot paladin, because they are going to be either overturned, like S1, or undertuned going forward.
My solution to SoTR getting an armor buff but on a recharge, and consecration turned into needed 3 holy power, but becoming an aura that debuffs the damage mobs due with X yards, could help the spec. But thats a long shot.