A Couple of Protadin Questions

[Nalloa]

I'm kicking around the idea of switching back to pally tank for MoP from warrior (though also considering monk) and I've got a couple of best-practices questions for Shield of the Righteous and Sacred Shield:

Shield of the Righteous: Since it's off the GCD, as it stands I've got this macro'd in to CS and HotR. Basically, every time I hit either spell it tries to cast SotR (yes I suppress errors) to dump 3 charges of holy power if available then cast either CS or HotR. I realize that this isn't probably the best way to handle this since I give up some control over when it hits and my ability to store up a bit of holy power for a needed, so I'm wondering if there is a better way? If the 'better way' is simply to pull it off the macro and do it manually, I'd like to know your thoughts regarding why since it stacks. Also I can keep the uptime on it as much as possible since it's built into my rotation which I like as well.

Sacred Shield: Same here, how are you guys treating this spell? I'm not aware of the internal mechanics of spell so I don't know if casting it too early clips it or anything. I built a simple "/castsequence reset=25" macro that displays the spell when it's duration is up, but I have a feeling you guys have a better insight into its use.

Thanks!

[Ferocity]

You will always want to use SotR with 5 Holy Power, so you could use WoG/EF in case things go wrong. Many fights have "dead" phases, like Yorsahj' oozes, you'd want to save your Holy Power charges till boss is active again, etc. - so 100% uptime due to macro will hurt you here too.

Divine Shield is immunity, and you are ignored by mobs when use this ability. It is better to use only in very specific situations/fights to remove debuffs (it doesn't remove all possible debuffs), with /cancelaura macro to keep mobs/boss' attention on you.

[Nalloa]

Crap, I meant to write Sacred Shield, not Divine Shield. >.<

Regarding SotR though, even if the boss is in a holding phase, won't I still want to use it as often as possible to keep threat/damage up?

[Deleted]

As far as I know SS has a period of no shields in the first 6s and the last 6s, so presumably refreshing it at 5s left is fine. (I'm not 100% sure about this it's just what I've experienced, could be entirely wrong!)

[Fhi]

As far as I know SS has a period of no shields in the first 6s and the last 6s, so presumably refreshing it at 5s left is fine. (I'm not 100% sure about this it's just what I've experienced, could be entirely wrong!)

This is correct. At least for now (they said they are going to fix the unintended loss of one tick), you want to refresh SS -before- it falls off, otherwise you'll have 6s of dead time before the bubble goes up.

[Ferocity]

Crap, I meant to write Sacred Shield, not Divine Shield. >.<

Regarding SotR though, even if the boss is in a holding phase, won't I still want to use it as often as possible to keep threat/damage up?

SotR hits like wet noodle now, survival portion of it is more important to have at hand.

Sacred Shield - you will want some addon to track it more accurately (I'd recommend NeedToKnow and add Spell with ID 20925). It's on GCD, sometimes you have periods when all your abilities are on cd - that's good time to refresh SS. It is also better to clip it, then to let it fall off. If you refresh it shortly before it wears off, do not sacrifice CS/Judgement/AS proc gcd if it is up, better to clip earlier by using it instead of Consecration/Holy Wrath.

[Deleted]

What I do is use Weak Auras to tell me when I have 5 Holy Power (I've set it up to make an audible sonic ping), then cast ShotR unless (a) I want to delay a little in anticipation of a big hit; (b) I need to use HoPo for something else, e.g. a WoG to recover. Theckhd has posted some weak aura strings on his Sacred Duty blog that will do that. You are right that you want to cast it - almost - on cooldown, especially if you hit 5 Holy Power, as otherwise you are wasting extra Holy Power you generate. But sometimes it can pay to conserve the Holy Power for a big hit or other use.

For sacred shield, I think you can - and should - recast it if you get a spike of high vengeance. It scales with vengeance - protects for about 7k with zero vengeance but can get up to ten times that or more on Madness 25 heroic. So if you are off tanking or in a lull, but then get thrust into a period of heavy damage, casting sacred shield even if it is still up can pay off as you will benefit from a bigger shield.

[Nalloa]

As far as I know SS has a period of no shields in the first 6s and the last 6s, so presumably refreshing it at 5s left is fine. (I'm not 100% sure about this it's just what I've experienced, could be entirely wrong!)

So then given this, it's best practice to cut it as close as possible to the last 6 seconds, because if I'm refreshing it too often, I'm losing up-time due to the first six seconds, but if I'm waiting until SS falls off entirely, I'm losing the last 6 seconds of the first cast followed by the first six seconds of the second cast?

[Deleted]

So then given this, it's best practice to cut it as close as possible to the last 6 seconds, because if I'm refreshing it too often, I'm losing up-time due to the first six seconds, but if I'm waiting until SS falls off entirely, I'm losing the last 6 seconds of the first cast followed by the first six seconds of the second cast?

Seems like you got it!

[Athama]

That sounds about right Nalloa if I remember correctly

[silvertitan]

You really do not want macro SotR, you will lose too much control over SotR and Holy Power and after playing on beta it feels like we will be using it more, as far as the threat issue goes once you get beyond the pull there is little issue with threat.

[Nalloa]

Thanks all.

The lesson I'm taking away is (1) focus on keeping SS up properly and (2) I should treat SotR as a defensive ability and not a damage ability.