Protection paladin: feels like I'm missing something.

[Mirishka]

Okay to be clear, this is not a 'help me be better' thread, I can tank just fine on my paladin - both threat-wise and not dying.... er, wise. I'm not a boosted toon, either, as I've had this pally since BC (was my 2nd draenei following my warrior) and tanked all the way from baby levels with her.

Its about the design... the fact that procs notwithstanding, it takes 3 GCD to build up to Shield of the Righteous. Its about the fact that it takes up to five of those (again, proc notwithstanding) to build up to the maximum possible Bastion of Glory heal.

And then there's the pitiful damage of Crusader Strike, which is doubly annoying thanks to its obnoxious cooldown (I always thought it should be more like Devastate, which has no cooldown and hits much harder).

I just don't get it. Are paladins doomed to forever be the 'not very active/fun unless you have great RNG with procs!' class? Just feels like there are long stretches of 'well, nothing to do except refresh Cons... OH WAIT PROC! WOO! YEAH!' and I hate that.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by warrior tanking, which can fill practically 100% of their GCDs with something meaningful, but paladin tank design just feels... meh to me. Is there some magical combination of talents or glyphs that makes it better than this?

[Oogly]

If you are doing it right then you will definitely be hitting something on every GCD with a tankadin. It will be a faster "rotation" due to Sanctity of Battle passive allowing the GCD to be as low as 1 second if you have stacked enough haste on your gear.

As for comaprisons to the warrior its just a case of different classes, different styles. You enjoy one more than the other but that doesn't necessarily mean either is broken or weak its just your personal prefernce.

[lolreally]

I literally fill every GCD on my Prot Pally with something. I have maybe 1 empty non-tank move GCD every 2 mins and I generally just use something I don't generally use in my main rotation.

[Oekss]

Sound like you don't enjoy the prot paladin. There's nothing wrong with not liking it, but not liking it certainly doesn't mean there's something wrong. I'm moving from my blood DK to my paladin in WoD because the paladin plays so much faster. Seems like you're of the mindset that if something doesn't generate HP then it's not interesting or important.

[Mirishka]

If you are doing it right then you will definitely be hitting something on every GCD with a tankadin. It will be a faster "rotation" due to Sanctity of Battle passive allowing the GCD to be as low as 1 second if you have stacked enough haste on your gear.

As for comaprisons to the warrior its just a case of different classes, different styles. You enjoy one more than the other but that doesn't necessarily mean either is broken or weak its just your personal prefernce.

I agree with this, and fully acknowledge the 'whole picture' thing (comparing classes as a whole, not just this spell versus that spell etc). I don't know, it just feels different to me than it used to. I actually really enjoyed Paladin tanking in Cata (comparably so to my warrior), but I've left the toon alone for most of Mists.

The cloak quest, daily grinds, etc made this a less alt-tastic expansion for me - at least until recently, where I've been working on more and more toons. And I thought the 6.0 revamps would be an especially good time to pick up some classes I haven't played for a while.

So no this is not a case of 'I like warrior I hate pally' or built in preference of some kind.

Just wondered if I was missing something. There are 'good RNG' stretches where things procs and I can SoTR 2-3x in a row, or my AS refresh procs, which is great. Feels busy and active and requires reaction. But when those things don't proc, it just feels like there's almost nothing to do, or what there is to do feels extremely weak (e.g. Crusader Strike).

That's why I made this topic, I wanted thoughts from people who played their paladins through the expansion. I wasn't trying to dis the class or anything. Hence the 'feels like I'm missing something' in the topic title. I'm being the key word there. :P

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Sound like you don't enjoy the prot paladin. There's nothing wrong with not liking it, but not liking it certainly doesn't mean there's something wrong. I'm moving from my blood DK to my paladin in WoD because the paladin plays so much faster. Seems like you're of the mindset that if something doesn't generate HP then it's not interesting or important.

That's the thing, as I just said a moment ago... in Cata I very much enjoyed tanking on her. I didn't feel a constant sense of downtime or crossing my fingers for a proc.

[trystero]

Sometimes I don't have a spare GCD, and sometimes I clip Consecrate just to hit something and this cuts into using CS or something. But usually I am always hitting a button, so I'm not sure how you're experiencing the same class I am.

Warriors of course will always have a button to hit since they have Devastate as filler; prot paladins by design do not have a literal filler ability like Devastate or Tiger Palm.

[Oekss]

I don't know what to tell you in that case. My paladins ilvl is absolute shit, and every single one of my GCDs is filled before DP procs come into play. Even if it means I'm refreshing SS before the duration is up or something like that, I'm always doing something. My DK is the exact opposite. Very long stretches of time where I'm either waiting for runes to regenerate, or banking them for an upcoming damage spike.

[Deleted]

I'd define "downtime" as having no useful buttons to push, which certainly isn't the case with a tankadin.
As for CS been low dmg, I think it makes sense for our main holy power generators (Judgement, CS) to be low dmg as it allows SotR to be high dmg.

[Deleted]

If you are doing it right then you will definitely be hitting something on every GCD with a tankadin. It will be a faster "rotation" due to Sanctity of Battle passive allowing the GCD to be as low as 1 second if you have stacked enough haste on your gear.

This. Even without massive Haste stacking, you should still have something useful to press pretty much 100% of the time. Very occasionally you'll have a slight wait for a cooldown to end, but hardly ever.

Here's a good guide to it, incase you actually are missing something

[Mirishka]

I actually looked at that guide shortly after hitting 90, its got some outdated information it (such as referencing what Avenging Wrath does for protection, which no longer has AW) but thanks for linking it regardless.

[Bonfiggy]

I actually looked at that guide shortly after hitting 90, its got some outdated information it (such as referencing what Avenging Wrath does for protection, which no longer has AW) but thanks for linking it regardless.

You may need to read it over again then. It hasn't had any mention of Avenging Wrath in the rotational section since 6.0 hit.
Theck has it updated with current information.