Protection Paladin Guide and FAQ for 3.3 and on.

[Eurytos]

Gearing:

This will cover the various aspect of your gear, gems, chants, glyphs, etc.

Glyph of Salv (optional): Provides a 20% reduction in damage for the target salv is up on. Can be considered an extra cooldown with a serious downside of threat loss. Have macros to quickly /cancelaura salv if you drop threat too quickly.

Offhand, a minor correction in the wording of what this glyph does. It only applies the dmg reduction when used on yourself, not when used on others.

[Offhand]

You're right, that wording is bad. I'll fix it.

I urge people to review the BiS lists which I've started. There really isn't going to be any easy way or singular set of gear to call BiS this teir. I'm contemplating as many as four separate sets of gear based on normal mode loot alone. This is only made worse by the fact that the awesome 264 badge loot and crafted gear will not have existing 277 versions creating a debacle of the better itemized 264 vs the higher budget in the 277's.

I'm thinking this complete BiS setups are deserving of a thread themselves. If people want to discuss what lists have been made so far here, please do so, but I hope to get some other stuff going in a different thread.

[balloonknot]

"Avoidance: People love to downplay the benefits of avoidance but exactly what it does is quite simple. With the advent of encounters like Gunship and Saurfang, avoidance sets are a necessary part of any good tanks gear pool."

Saurfang does not gain BP on landed hits and mark of the fallen champion can occur on attacks that are avoided or blocked, there is no reason for avoidance gear in this encounter. (perhaps this will change on heroic)

Gunship, meh, he still hits like a pansy with fairly high stack counts and you can argue that larger stacks are survivable via increased EH vs a tank with more avoidance that generates fewer stacks over time but can't survive as high of a stack.

In short there is no current fight that favor's avoidance in a way that is at all meaningful to the raid's success.

[Offhand]

How can blade ward have one proc per minute when i've seen it hit 4 stacks? it has a 10 second duration, that shouldn't even be possible?

Quoting this because it's the most relevant to what I'm about to say.

There was a blue post a short while back regarding the changes to the way PPM systems work that was implemented to give a more consistent proc rate across all classes. That being said, the only thing we can really do to increase the proc rate is stack haste as a stat, and use slow weapons. This dropped the number of procs considerably for paladins as a white swing with SoV up used to count for three swings (I'm not sure how the new system works, and I don't believe anyone else is either). Neither of these are particularly good options for a tank, but fortunately for us, there's only one place where this PPM shit effects us, weapon enchants.

Going through combat parses from when that change was announced to now, I can see blade ward got more then halved in it's usefulness. It only generates 2-4 parries per fight and that's not worth the slow enchant. For avoidance, I suggest switching to mongoose as it's proc rate still seems consistent from before.

[luthe]

Oh wow. Might have to switch to mongoose pre-getting a new weapon then. =/

[shockedandawed]

I was under the impression that Blood draining could fuck up Ardent defender ???

[Offhand]

As of 3.2, no. Ardent defender can no longer be "leapfrogged". This is, the damage reduction bit of the talent is not affected by the level of your own health. It always activates even when you drop from some number above 35% to some number below 35% (amount of damage reduced only effects the portion that put you below 35% though).

Blood draining's full effect posses no threat to you accidentally getting put into the leapfrog range, because that no longer exist. Even previously, the chances of blood draining actually killing you were fairly slim. BD still needs to be evaluated as a stand alone weapon enchant though (and it comes off as pretty weak in practice).

[shockedandawed]

Ok then thanks I will probably go back to this or should I continue to use Moongoose?

[luthe]

As an all-around jack of all trades enchant, mongoose is definitely the best. BD provides some situational "EH" in the form of a small heal and now that AD can not be leapfrogged it can't get you killed. BW remains an avoidance enchant though with the PPM balancing it looks like mongoose may pull ahead on avoidance due to uptime being longer and not being consumed by a parry.

BD vs Mongoose is pretty much entirely up to choice, BD's "EH" boost is pretty negligible and you're not going to suddenly fall over dead just because you don't have BD on the flip side, the 120 agi from mongoose equates to about 1% dodge and 3% crit or some shit (i don't remember agi conversion i think it's like 42->1%) and 240 armor, so you get a little avoidance, mitigation, and threat boost. overall they're pretty close in usefulness and depends on what you want.

[Nikoll]

i need a little help on selecting a few pieces of loot. if my armory hasnt updated with me in prot gear yet it will shortly. I have t10 gloves and want to buy the 2pc tomorrow. obviously if i get the legs from vault then i can wait on something, or possibly pick up another piece so i can get badge gloves too. anyway.

I have 2 258 tokens, t10 gloves. i want to get t10 2pc. overzealous ms raiders tend to trump my tps sometimes. And i could use the hit from the gloves, especially if i drop the pants. what t10 piece should i get and what, if any, 258 piece(s) should i get?

[Aedh]

I'd say either legs or chest for t10 and the chest for emblems. But this is off the top of my head.

[Offhand]

Your armory is back to ret as of me reading this, but my best suggestion without seeing the rest of your gear is:

Helm: T10
Shoulders: ToGC token
Chest: ToGC token
Gloves: T10
Legs: 264 crafted

No matter what level of content you're at, the t10 helm appears to be BiS in all cases. The 258 shoulders will help your expertise issue somewhat, and the legs are definitely BiS pre hardmodes.

[Nikoll]

I know the crafted legs are via, but I really have zero intention if making them. I only tank 10 mans so I'll save my gold. Thanks for the input. (I also don't recal loging back in and going ret).

[Offhand]

If you have no intention of crafting the pants, the tier are an acceptable substitute. I would still pick up the helm first though.

[Kaelmis]

Great guide.

It appears the BiS list you made includes many high armor pieces. I was considering making a set stacking armor very similar, if not, identical to the non-tier 25 man set. I have many 25 man ICC items already so adjusting my set to stack armor would require a lot of badges, and gold for the crafted legs, but I am not sure how big of a benefit I will notice from swapping my gear to the BiS list.

This is my armory link:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...s&cn=Paladimus

I got a mark last night to upgrade my tier helm to 264, which I plan to upgrade soon.

Any advice is appreciated

[Nikoll]

If you have no intention of crafting the pants, the tier are an acceptable substitute. I would still pick up the helm first though.

alright. thanks for the input on that. unfotunatly i'll probably have to wait for tokens before getting the helm. i have 264 in head/shoulders (non tier). and i don't really want to take the stam hit just to get 2pc. i think i might just upgrade my t9 245 both to 258 (hands legs) and call it good for now.

[Offhand]

It appears the BiS list you made includes many high armor pieces. I was considering making a set stacking armor very similar, if not, identical to the non-tier 25 man set. I have many 25 man ICC items already so adjusting my set to stack armor would require a lot of badges, and gold for the crafted legs, but I am not sure how big of a benefit I will notice from swapping my gear to the BiS list.

High armor is certainly the way to go for heavy physical damage fights, of which there are several in ICC. I wouldn't get rid of stuff like Taldararm's plated fists, though, it's worth holding onto those for fights where armor has less value.

This is my armory link:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...s&cn=Paladimus

I got a mark last night to upgrade my tier helm to 264, which I plan to upgrade soon.

Any advice is appreciated

Your own armory is pretty solid. I'd suggest replacing those few dodge/stam gems with agility ones, meet the socket bonus on the shoulders. Enchants look good. Neck needs replacing, try for the Marrowgar 10 one. Also, look into finding a second stam trinket.

[Kaelmis]

High armor is certainly the way to go for heavy physical damage fights, of which there are several in ICC. I wouldn't get rid of stuff like Taldararm's plated fists, though, it's worth holding onto those for fights where armor has less value.


Your own armory is pretty solid. I'd suggest replacing those few dodge/stam gems with agility ones, meet the socket bonus on the shoulders. Enchants look good. Neck needs replacing, try for the Marrowgar 10 one. Also, look into finding a second stam trinket.

I really do need to replace the neck. The main problem is I haven't seen it drop once since the release of ICC. I will get it eventually... :-\

Thanks again for the tips. I think I will try making an armor set now but still keep my avoidance items like you said.

Also, is a 2nd stam trinket necessary or can Unidentifiable Organ be another good option?

[Evilution]

I really do need to replace the neck. The main problem is I haven't seen it drop once since the release of ICC. I will get it eventually... :-\

Thanks again for the tips. I think I will try making an armor set now but still keep my avoidance items like you said.

Also, is a 2nd stam trinket necessary or can Unidentifiable Organ be another good option?

I use my Unidentifiable Organ for most of the fights in ICC atm, just switching it for
2xpure stamina ones on Sindragosa and when kiting Big Oozes at Rotface.
Unidentifiable Organ shines on Lich King when you pickup some of the adds too, just about
guaranteed 240 (270 for heroic) stamina + 1890 (2128 for heroic) armor from one trinket-slot... it´s yummy.

[Offhand]

Also, is a 2nd stam trinket necessary or can Unidentifiable Organ be another good option?

The unidentifiable organ is not really worth using for anything other then the armor right now. The stam proc has an 80% uptime on a normal tank and spank fight, and normal tank and spank fights don't exist in ICC.

Let's look at it fight by fight:
Marrowgar: Could be pretty good here, may fall off during bonestorm.
Deathwhisper: Will fall off after every wave of adds, after every taunt trade.
Gunship: Will fall off during adds, boarding tank isn't there long enough for it to do much beyond stack up, you should be using avoidance trinkets here anyway.
Saurfang: Taunt switches every 20 seconds or so, trinket spends most of it's time building then falls off
Festergut: This is one of maybe three fights where the trinket could be pretty good. There is a taunt switch, but it's in the range of 2 minutes, allowing most of the organ's benefit to be active.
Rotface: Likely falls off every ooze explode and/or slime spray. Meaning the trinket gets worse as the fight progresses.
Putricide: Could be decent for the MT. But there's so much kiting and the boss stops attacking for each unstable experiment.
Blood Princes: Could be good but the princes swing really slowly, meaning we would need to recalculate the 8-% uptime figure (to be lower).
Blood Queen: This is one of the best fights for it. There's no taunt switching and the air phase is sufficiently spread out. Organ will be at near max uptime here.
Dreamwalker: The other really good fight for Organ. The entire fight is adds tanking, even if you see it fall off between mob packs, it will stack faster here then on any other fight.
Sindragosa: Air phases ftl. Could be good for final phase though.
Lich King: A lot going on here. Not bad if you're on LK himself, however there's a ton in the way of phase changes and kiting and target switches, hard to model.

In review, it's good for a few fights, but I'd much rather have something like Sindragosa's Flawless Fang.