Protection paladin FAQ

[Deleted]

At level 80. Ret can pick up kings while holy takes both imp might and wis. If you raid with a consistent group of people than taking something like this into account isn't uncalled for. Str will always beat out spell damage now but we aren't completely gimp in our old gear (most of it was changed anyway).

At lvl80 it's actually pretty reasonable to expect both ret and holy paladins to have Kings. It just depends on your raid composition if you have any other paladins with you. People doing PUGs or belonging to a non-hardcore raiding guild will have their composition changing quite a lot every week. I'd just say it's better not to count on having Kings but rather taking it as a big plus when you have it

[Dreamkeeper]

Ok I just dinged 70 yay me ! I got my defense to 492, now how do i calculate avoidance and what do I need for it ?

[Deleted]

Ok I just dinged 70 yay me ! I got my defense to 492, now how do i calculate avoidance and what do I need for it ?

You don't anymore need to do that. It was BEFORE the 3.0.2 patch, now the raid bosses won't anymore do crushing blows so you don't have to calculate anything. Of course, lots of avoidance helps you last longer in fights, but you don't anymore need to try to get some certain magical amount. As long as you have 490 defense or more you're good to go

[Dreamkeeper]

Thank you so much , im a little over 490 can be up to 515 with certain gear but with my gear choice im at 493 and 11997 health unbuffed. This guide has been very useful thank you again!

[lostspectre]

Not sure if its been asked but why would you take Improved Hammer of Justice over Reckoning for a pure tanking build? The extra seal procs from Reckoning would seem more useful to me.

[Deleted]

Not sure if its been asked but why would you take Improved Hammer of Justice over Reckoning for a pure tanking build? The extra seal procs from Reckoning would seem more useful to me.

No, and that's a good question. It's a complicated matter really. First of all, reckoning when it procs makes you swing your weapon twice instead of once. But either of those attacks can be parried and getting your attack parried resets the swing timer of the boss/mob. If you happen to have a streak of bad luck and the boss in question parries several of your attacks you will suddenly take several direct blows from the boss. With enough expertise this can't happen though, but stacking expertise gems instead of stamina/strength/avoidance is not optimal.

As for Hammer of Justice; in Wotlk raids/dungeons HoJ doesn't stun the bosses but it interrupts their spellcasting. It's kinda like the kick rogues have. HoJ interrupt doesn't work for TBC raids/dungeons at the moment, but I do assume it'll become pretty useful in Wotlk. You will want to be able to stop bosses from casting spells as often as possible since you have no way to reflect or mitigate spells.

EDIT: It was a good question, added to the FAQ

[Augustas]

Love the FAQ’s girlie!!

More on this threat debate with spell dam weapon of warrior tanking weapon… all spell dam weapons have a DPS of what 40.1dps or something? I was lucky enough to pick up the one hander axe off Zul’jin yesterday with a dps of 98.6 ore something… now with HoR this does 3 (or 4 soon) times your weapon damage per second on 3 targets…. So that’s 300 straight off the bat for me on 3 mobs and 120 with the spell dam weapon for that ability

Now when im tanking there is a few things im spamming holy shield and hammer of the righteous, I don’t really worry bout consecrating at the moment cos my threat is through the roof…

With kings I find my avoidance is better obviously that without it… the blessing of salvation I don’t find that useful when I am maintanking as a MT I will always be healed and 3% less damage aint that much… I got hit by the lynx boss in ZA (shared with the other tank) I think I got hit for 9600 non crit so minus 3% of that is 288… now that’s a big hit im sure you would all agree? If I put kings on me I get an extra 1200 stam (around that) plus the avoidance boost…

kings for me thanks and ta!!

[Deleted]

This thread rocks. Im sick of seeing Retarded tankadins still running around with there spell damage maces, and god awfull talent makups.. reckoning.. lol lol..

We are now warriors.

[Augustas]

Yeah absolutley.. i reckon the spell dam weapons look sh*t anyway... give me kings defender or my new shiny ZA axe... with potency of course!! /drool hoorah to green glowing weapons!!

with the new nerf patch coming in about seals damaged being reduced by 20% how do you think that will effect our threat generation? i dont see it being a big problem coz at the moment im so far in front its not funny... and that with everyone unleashing after ive pulled... oh and a tank doesnt belong at the top in damage done surely?

[Deleted]

Thing is... we cant get one of out main tank threat generation abilities yet either, Shield of Righteousness isnt until 75, which is a bit crap.

[Deleted]

with the new nerf patch coming in about seals damaged being reduced by 20% how do you think that will effect our threat generation?

Well, of course it hurts our threat generation but I doubt it hurts it so much that we'll have trouble holding aggros. I find it more of an issue that it hurts our DPS. DPS is important in PvP and whenever you are doing quests solo, such as for example daily quests.

Oh, and yes, we get Shield of Righteousness (SoR) at 75, but don't forget that almost every other class also gets new abilities at that level. From what I hear (haven't gotten a chance to try it since I don't have beta key ) SoR hits like a truck. But so do the other abilities that other classes gets...like elemental shamans can cast flame shock and then every time they throw lava burst it will automatically crit. Will be interesting to see how big threat gap we hold then.

[Deleted]

Well on the beta ( with a pre made in part pvp gear so obviously it will differ a little) SoR hits for 2k averagely, critting for 3.4 - 4.2 K. Hammer is doing about the same, critting for 4k , same with avengers shield. But with most DPS classes doing over 2.5k DPS at 80.. I wonder if this will be enough to keep aggro. I can see blizard haveing to make righteous fury 120% threat or somthing , i really dont think 90% cuts it anymore.

[Myur]

i see a lot of people talking about 1h (if is better dps or spell power weapon), but i would like to know how about the enchant..??

And also see that more people just say that Rising Tide is the better tankadin weapon now? is not too slow 2.6 speed? Can't be an issue to keep vengeance on the target fast?


tx all

[Deleted]

i see a lot of people talking about 1h (if is better dps or spell power weapon), but i would like to know how about the enchant..??

Read the FAQ.

And also see that more people just say that Rising Tide is the better tankadin weapon now? is not too slow 2.6 speed? Can't be an issue to keep vengeance on the target fast?

Weapon speed doesn't matter at all. Even with the slowest possible 1-hander you can keep 5 stack of vengeance up for all eternity. It's the weapon DPS that counts.

[Draco cracona]

With potency that's 50 ap, not 40 btw, due to BoK and divine str :P Rising tide's one of the best, S4>Kal's>S3>rising tide for threat though. Weap speed only matters for the pretty terminally useless reckoning (well, useless these days, took one point as filler but not too much else for it imo), but the best weaps are all too slow for it. New patch will buff threat anyway imo, with the HotR buff people forget about, so please stop saying it'll nerf it heavily :P

[Deleted]

New patch will buff threat anyway imo, with the HotR buff people forget about, so please stop saying it'll nerf it heavily :P

I just went out and tried one thing; no, it doesn't buff your threat at all. It already does 4x main-hand DPS. The tooltip is just wrong. My main-hand damage per second is 185.3 and I was hitting for an average of 707 points of damage with HotR. If it was only 3x then I should be hitting 500ish.

[Advent]

So now I'm curious: Is there any good place besides Kara (Since my realm sucks and no one runs anything anymore) to find a good mace or sword to tank with? Since I have to re-itemize and change gear around to get back to my comfort zone, I don't want the added stress of having to sit for hours leveling up a 1H axe skill. No, I cannot do SSC, ZA or Kara for them. Any suggestions, ideas?

[AeQuitaS_eXe]

So I've read this whole post, and other pally FAQ posts and am still a little confused.

I'm a fresh 70 Prot pally, and pre-patch I was using great guides like "TankSSpots Paladin Tank Guide and Wowwiki 'BC tankin equipment (paladin)" which would link easy to obtain Kara entry gear w/ enchant/gem and overall stats one should have. However both, obviously, are out of date. Does anyone know of anything thats up-to-date for 3.0+ patch?!

You say " Uncrushable means the same" as uncrittable. And since mobs can no longer do this. Why is 490 def still needed?
I'm not great w/ theory-craft, but logically, avoidance makes more sense to me to reduce the hits you take (dmg done to you).
As a fresh 70, with 3.0 out, what is the Def/Avoidance, hp and armor I should focus for before starting Kara?

Also Pally tank weapons have been turned upside down, so I've been doing some research. As I said I'm a fresh 70 so I'm been trying to find the best/easiest weapon to start me off. What would your recommend?

I searched wowhead by one-hand weapon DPS<110 and ranked from highest to lowest. www.wowhead.com/?item=32052 seem to have the highest dps/stam while still being easy to obtain. Put would Sun eater/king's defender be better? Seeing as they have Tank stats but a little less DPS. Or even www.wowhead.com/?item=34672 would that be a good starter? what would you recommend?!

p.s. My toon is Holyaequitas (US). This is not my main, mains a mage in sunwell pre-3.0. But the complete revamp to paladins has confused me.

[Deleted]

So now I'm curious: Is there any good place besides Kara (Since my realm sucks and no one runs anything anymore) to find a good mace or sword to tank with? Since I have to re-itemize and change gear around to get back to my comfort zone, I don't want the added stress of having to sit for hours leveling up a 1H axe skill. No, I cannot do SSC, ZA or Kara for them. Any suggestions, ideas?

Umm. Hmm. There's an epic tanking axe available from Thrallmar, but you need exalted rep. Also Shattered Sun sells a blue tanking sword which could be a suitable replacement until you get better ones.

[Deleted]

You say " Uncrushable means the same" as uncrittable. And since mobs can no longer do this. Why is 490 def still needed?

No, uncrushable is NOT the same. You've gotten confused somewhere.

I'm not great w/ theory-craft, but logically, avoidance makes more sense to me to reduce the hits you take (dmg done to you).
As a fresh 70, with 3.0 out, what is the Def/Avoidance, hp and armor I should focus for before starting Kara?

As long as you are uncrittable you can start off-tanking Kara. You can do this with full PvP epicses since enough resilience makes you uncrittable. They also give a large amount of stamina. But once you start getting some PvE then of course switch those on, they give you avoidance stats.

EDIT: Made a bit clearer the FAQ about crushability. Crittability and crushability work similarly except that crushing blows can be dealt only by mobs 4+ levels higher than you whereas crits can be dealt by anyone.