*** Surge corpus putridum!  **** (thunder rolls in the distance) 
sorry for necro, been away since Dec last year.  I am playing a paladin with patch 9. I am not sure when 'protection' kicks in? I  see nearby player shown as covered by it, but never seen clear evidence that it does anything Also,  seems not to have a prompt under the 'reactions' menu? Perhaps it's being treated as some kind of paladin aura? 
Also - I see that smite *is* listed as a reaction, where as far as I know it is not (you simply choose to smite or not with each attack).  I don't care too much since it can be triggered to prompt, but I wonder how representative patch 9 is of the final reaction system?