Bloated Prot tree (paladin), and how to fix it

[briany]

First of all, I have to say that I understand the first 4 tiers of talents are shared among specs. The problem we see is how much talents needed for us to tank effectively, and it's something we all want to address. There are definitely ways to fix it and I've some ideas I would like to share.

redoubt and reckoning:
we all know that as our gear improves, the 10 points we put in them are useless. The concept behind these two talents is that paladins should be reactive tanking. But reactive doesn't necessarily mean you react after someone gives you a knockout punch.

fix: change their proc from chance of taking dmg to chance of dodge/parry/block to proc these 2 talents.

The fix will continue to maintain paladin's AE tanking capability, because pally tank will dodge/parry/block more often as more mobs are tanked.


Imp RF + spell warding .
This talent should be renamed to something else. Remove the dependance of physical dmg reduction with RF. Talents should be changed and merged with spell warding.
fix: 3 points: the paladin gains 2/4/6% damage mitigation + 1/3/5% spell dmg mitigation

Guarded by the Light + Judgement of the Just:
these two talents should merge into this:

fix: Judgement of the Just:
Your judgement spells also reduces the melee attack speed by 10/20%, and each time you judge, you gain a physical buff that reduces mana cost of consecration, holy wrath, exorcism and Hammer of the Righteous spell by 15/30%. The buff lasts 30 sec.


Avenger's shield:
merge the guarded by the light (AS mana reduction) into the base cost of the spell. It's a spell that's used mainly for pulling. With a 30 sec CD, the pally won't be relying on this spell for threat. With Hammer of the Righteous, pallies will be spamming this spell more than anything. (pallies actually shouldn't use this for threat either, because with such a long CD, if you used it before aggro wipe, you will not have a taunt + aggro combo into play).


I would actually like to see a swap between benediction and divine strength. Not just because it will benefit the rets, but will also benefit the prots, and holy's PvP SoL build, and also BoL (holy+prot build) + range judgement sniping.

benefits:
Prot:
with divine strength in Benediction's current position, all prot will be able to get divine strength to buff their block value and still able to progress further to get deflection.

Ret:
most rets (99% of them) will not lose anything. In fact, they will get a DPS boost right off the bat. It allows them to consider playing the holy/ret style with some decent PvP healing support in it, and for those who like ret/prot, you lose nothing.

holy:
SoL build:
very obvious. you gain more strength, so your heals land harder.

BoL + sniper judgement build:
also very obvious. (you are likely to gain than lose)if you go prot, your judgement hits less, but more efficient + you gain more utilities. If you go ret, you can either choose to have your judgements hit harder with divine strength, or raid buffs like imp BoM + conviction. you will still have 5 points left to get benediction if you really like it that much.

[Maenetus]

redoubt isn't broken.
While you're AOE tanking it provides plenty of mitigation.

reckoning.... isn't as bad as most people think. 3/5 is worth fitting into MTing specs
The biggest issue with reckoning currently is weapon speed. It stinks with fast weapons. It's notable that all the WotLK caster maces are slow. Though it's yet to be determined what kind of weapons we'll use.