Just like the Warrior and the Death Knight the Paladin in Wrath of the Lich King is able to wear any kind of armor. Naturally Plate armor offers the biggest protection against physical attacks. In the past plate wearers often took mail or leather armor for their superior stats - much to the dismay of the classes usually wearing those armors. Sometimes a Holy Paladin would even wear caster cloth gear usually designed for Priests.

Strength and stamina are the primary stats making plate armor interesting for a retribution. Especially strength has become such a great stat that leather armor is completely uninteresting as it usually has no strength on it. Protection gear for a Paladin is shared with the other plate tanking classes, so a Protection Paladin will use the same items as a Warrior. Especially shield block value, which can also achieved by gaining strength, is of high value, as it reduced the incoming damage on nearly every hit. Holy Paladins are in the comfortable position of having no other class or spec with which they share their armor: plate armor with intellect and spell power is only useful to Holy Paladins. Additionally they have the option of wearing healing gear of lower armor classes, making the Holy Paladin the class that is the easiest to equip. This is balanced by the fact that other equipment like rings, amulets and trinkets are shared with the other healers and the traditional casters like the Mage and the Warlock, who are interested in equipment with critical strike and haste rating as well. Retribution Paladins have the disadvantage that this kind of equipment rarely has strength but is rather itemized with agility and attack power.