[MoP] Protection Paladin Guide

[Deleted]

Because t15 tanking trinkets are utter shit for us.

^ This, and most STR trinkets in T15 had a fair bit of usefull secondary stats for us. (exp/hit/haste) Their proc, while it is STR, has a good synergy with SS, and STR has a good parry conversion ratio. (1STR ~ 0.9 parry rating)

[Vasilisa]

I've got two more questions (after my gear is sorted):

In 5.4 should I still stick to SS even with 30% nerf?

What set of glyphs I should be using in 5.4?

[xebtria]

I'm currently wondering one thing:

how many bosses do use a tank switch ability which could be bubbled off effectively throughout the fight and thus enabling once more a one-tank-strategy if you have a paladin tank? (speaking of siege of orgrimmar bosses)

are there any? or are the debuffs too hard so the time is too short to bubble them off? or can they simply not be bubbled off?

does anyone have any reliable information for this?

[Deleted]

I'm currently wondering one thing:

how many bosses do use a tank switch ability which could be bubbled off effectively throughout the fight and thus enabling once more a one-tank-strategy if you have a paladin tank? (speaking of siege of orgrimmar bosses)

are there any? or are the debuffs too hard so the time is too short to bubble them off? or can they simply not be bubbled off?

does anyone have any reliable information for this?

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-fights-in-SoO

TL;DR: Nope, there aren't.

[Nobleshield]

I've got two more questions (after my gear is sorted):

In 5.4 should I still stick to SS even with 30% nerf?

What set of glyphs I should be using in 5.4?

Theck had a recent post on his site where he basically said that EF is always better than SS now (not even taking into consideration 4pc T16) but SS might edge in on fights with predictable damage spikes (think Talon Rake or Decapitate) where an absorb is more useful beforehand than a HoT is afterwards.

I'm probably dropping SS entirely, but we shall see how things pan out for real tomorrow.

For glyphs, more than likely Alabaster Shield, Final Wrath and then switch the third to either DP for physical damage fights or Focused Shield.

[Deleted]

I think final wrath is gonna be our only 100% glyph.

WoG, Focused Shield, Alabaster Shield, Double Jeopardy and Divine Protection will be the likely glyphs to be rotated in the other 2 slots.

[Vasilisa]

Thanks for the suggestions

I was thinking about wrath one as well.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Yeah, Final Wrath will be quite useful, especially given the plethora of bosses with an execute-range soft enrage.

[Deleted]

Stupid question of the day. Does Bastion of Glory buff Eternal flame? and if so, in 5.4 will it be better than sacred shield? thanks lads

[Vasilisa]

I'm wondering - as you can see I currently have my 502 chest gemmed with 3x haste. I just got 516 chest from scenario which sadly has mastery and crit (982 both) but sadly no sockets. Due lack of haste it will be a downgrade, right?

[Nobleshield]

Stupid question of the day. Does Bastion of Glory buff Eternal flame? and if so, in 5.4 will it be better than sacred shield? thanks lads

I believe BoG does buff EF (maybe just the initial part and not the HoT) and while it's still debatable all signs are pointing to EF being better than SS. Theck has an in-depth writeup on his blog (sacredduty.net) with the theory but pretty much EF is better than SS in almost every conceivable situation, which is kind of funny because they nerfed SS to make it not so much of a "mandatory" talent, but with buffing EF, EF becomes the new "mandatory" talent.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm wondering - as you can see I currently have my 502 chest gemmed with 3x haste. I just got 516 chest from scenario which sadly has mastery and crit (982 both) but sadly no sockets. Due lack of haste it will be a downgrade, right?

Pretty sure that it would be, since the 516 chest has no sockets or anything. It would be arguable I think if the 516 had like Haste/Mastery on it, but I think in your case the 502 would be better overall.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

BoG buffs all of EF. Unless something has changed.

[Vasilisa]

Then I guess I'll leave this chest for dps

[pld]

I'm wondering - as you can see I currently have my 502 chest gemmed with 3x haste. I just got 516 chest from scenario which sadly has mastery and crit (982 both) but sadly no sockets. Due lack of haste it will be a downgrade, right?

I think losing ~1000 haste would be reason enough to hold onto the 502. As a side-note, the ret chest is actually much better itemized than the prot version. It comes with haste + exp.

[Deleted]

I believe BoG does buff EF (maybe just the initial part and not the HoT) and while it's still debatable all signs are pointing to EF being better than SS. Theck has an in-depth writeup on his blog (sacredduty.net) with the theory but pretty much EF is better than SS in almost every conceivable situation, which is kind of funny because they nerfed SS to make it not so much of a "mandatory" talent, but with buffing EF, EF becomes the new "mandatory" talent.

Any concievable situation?

SS is still better on fights with spells/abilities that do very high bursts with low damage in between (think horridon or similar)
Fights with MS debuffs may also favor SS.
Fights where you have very fluctuating vengeance and/or need the mitigation from the start (think Dark Animus). Recasting EF several times because you get a vengeance burst is a lot more awkward than recasting SS, especially since in those situations when your vengeance get a huge burst, you probably take a lot of damage. This issue is not as great with the 4p though.
EF is also a dps less over SS.
One some fights EF can also be kinda awkward on fights that have a realy high physical damage throughput if you dont have the 4p, without the 4p you get quite a big window between SotRs when applying EFs.

and probably more that I cant remember.

I am not saying SS>EF, but there are several occations where you probably should use SS. EF will probably be best on a vast majority of the fights, especially with 4p, but it is far from a mandatory talent.

Pretty much everything was covered in this thread
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...Flame-5-4-PROT

[Nobleshield]

Perhaps, I'm just going by what Theck had posted that suggested something like outside of potential one-shot mechanics where you want an absorb to cushion the blow, in the sims EF > SS every time even without 4pc.

[Deleted]

I didn't think EF induced a gcd?

[Deleted]

I didn't think EF induced a gcd?

It does not.

[Vasilisa]

I think losing ~1000 haste would be reason enough to hold onto the 502. As a side-note, the ret chest is actually much better itemized than the prot version. It comes with haste + exp.

I know that. Sadly I didn't think about that looong time ago.

[pld]

I didn't think EF induced a gcd?

It does not, but without the 4P, you're still losing HP to EF that could have been used on SoTR (hence the reduced AM time and the dps loss).

I haven't read through Theck's latest posts regarding EF vs SS, but I assume he means EF will have the greatest throughput in all situations. While more throughput is helpful, it's usefulness gets reduced drastically when a lot of it goes into overhealing which is a very real possibility considering the very high SoTR uptimes most paladins will have. As FF said, I don't think EF > SS will always be the case (esp. before 4P) and will vary depending on fight.

I think it was [insert Nairobi/Firefly/etc] who said it, but Theck's theorycrafting shouldn't be used as gospel but as a tool depending on your play style, raid, progression, etc.