Tanking as ret?

[Kaelwryn]

I was wondering if it I would be able to tank as ret in the old world/outland dungeons while in ret spec. I ask this because I know by the time I hit 40 I doubt I'll have enough gold to get dual spec (not very good at making gold ). Or would it be better that I just respec to Prot at 40 instead? Thank you, and sorry if this has been answered before/is a stupid question.

[belfpala]

I was wondering if it I would be able to tank as ret in the old world/outland dungeons while in ret spec. I ask this because I know by the time I hit 40 I doubt I'll have enough gold to get dual spec (not very good at making gold ). Or would it be better that I just respec to Prot at 40 instead? Thank you, and sorry if this has been answered before/is a stupid question.

Short answer: Yes, at least up to BRD and maybe a bit beyond.

Long answer: I recently leveled a priest healer using almost exclusively LFG. I personally had no trouble at all keeping up ret paladins who choose to queue as tanks so long as the ret was using a shield and one handed weapon to do the job. In fact, ret paladins were often better tanks than prot-specced paladins at the lower levels. This is because ret paladins have an additional AoE threat tool (Seal of Command) while prot paladins are limited to consecration (which ret paladins also have) until higher levels. Add to that, there isn't any specific "tanking" gear until the mid-50's or higher, and the stam boosts etc provided by the prot tree don't count for much with such low stam totals, ret really isn't far behind in health or armor.

[Corwin]

Actually, this is probably preferred. Seal of Command is a fantastic low level tanking seal, you will out threat, and even out dps most of your group. Just wear a shield and focus on your dps until you have enough points to go far down into the prot tree. I've been leveling a Shaman healer, and as long as the dude out front has a shield or is a bear, I've had no trouble at all keeping them up. Actually, even the fury warriors, rogues, and other melee are easy to heal if they take aggro, their only real problem is they can't keep mobs on them consistently

[Nangz]

Actually, this is probably preferred. Seal of Command is a fantastic low level tanking seal, you will out threat, and even out dps most of your group. Just wear a shield and focus on your dps until you have enough points to go far down into the prot tree. I've been leveling a Shaman healer, and as long as the dude out front has a shield or is a bear, I've had no trouble at all keeping them up. Actually, even the fury warriors, rogues, and other melee are easy to heal if they take aggro, their only real problem is they can't keep mobs on them consistently

Usually this, problem is that post 40 the mana problems that prot has go away with holy shield and sanct synergy. I'd say ret tanking pre 40 works well due to soc but after prot is much better. The 30% 100% uptime block is just too good to pass up.

[boazjuggalo]

I actually got a ret pally tank in my random a few nights ago. Was a basic dps spec wearing full gladiator gear. Buffed he still maintained about 40k health. He didn't lose agro a single time and the healer didn't have a problem keeping him up. Switched back and forth from shield/1h to 2h depending on the situation. But he was awesome.

[Kaelwryn]

Ok, thank you all for the replies. I have been making sure to keep a "tanking" set of gear (mostly the blue "of the champion" stuff from the random dungeon bags) as well as a 1h/shield. So far the only real problem I have is when I grab like 10+ mobs and the dps don't wait for me to have some aggro on most of them. :P

[MrPistachio]

I did it for a long time leveling, and got to 50~ with it before I went prot. BRD hits like a bitch and whatnot, and at that level a block is 100% damage reduction from a hit (I noticed while leveling), so just having a shield in itself is very helpful.

There's also the fun of ret tanking at 80... oh god the fun. ToGC10's got nothing on me.

[Copain]

Can you? Yes
Will it be harder in some of the longer battles? Yes


It wouldn't be terrible pre-80, but some people would get annoyed if you were a ret (Specially a fresh 80 one) who was queuing up as a tank for dungeons.

[Astray]

Whats great for tanking changes over the levels.

1-60:
As long as you wear a shield, you can tank. "of the bear" or "of the champion" items are even better.
The most important is to keep aggro an here, SoComm is best.
When it comes to mana, ret with the SoComm Glyph and later JotW is far better than prot, plus instant flashes make it possible to almost do dungeons without a healer.

60-70:
You could switch to prot here since now you have a great attack "Hammer of" and Holy Shield helps a lot in defense.

70-80:
Def items are more important. People will tell you they tanked heroics as ret in green quest dps gear while being healed by an enhancement shaman played by a dead horse, dont listen to them. Your everage healer will be able to heal you a lot better when youre using def gear. Blacksmithing items are awesome between 70 and 80. You should go prot or use a defensive ret-spec by now.(51 in ret, incl. 5%parry, rest into prot)

Conclusion:
lower levels = go ret
70 =latest point to spec defensive and get def items
80 = prot, no questions. with starting gear, ret is not an option.

[Banan]

lvl as prot 1-80 instead, goes 10x faster. you can pull 10x more mobs and don't lose a hp and more aoe spells so you kill faster. solo 5man quests easily, find grp easily. It's the best levling specc tbh.

[Copain]

lvl as prot 1-80 instead, goes 10x faster. you can pull 10x more mobs and don't lose a hp and more aoe spells so you kill faster. solo 5man quests easily, find grp easily. It's the best levling specc tbh.

At lower levels it isn't, you don't really get any good talents at the start (less damage on a mob that hits me for 100? WOOT WOOT), while ret already gets a few talents to finish fights faster.

And a lot of the lower level zones don't have mobs grouped up, so there's no real point in having the ability to pull a bunch of mobs when (Most likely) they'll be all around the place, and getting more than one will just end up costing your more HP and time than needed if you just killed it, hoped on your mount, found another, killed it, and so on.

And you can queue as a tank, regardless of your actual spec; which noone cares about at lower levels :P.

[Raptorg]

There's a reason Fanaticism says "Except when under the effects of righteous fury".
Blizzard designed normal instances with the intend that any tanking class can tank them, provided they are skilled enough and wear a shield and some tanking gear.(Or frost presence, bears still need a feral spec, though it can be cat aimed)

Just be smart, when you do the Nexus, pop divine protection when that Tree boss and Keristrasza enrage.. When they crit, they can crit up to 14k.. Unless they've been nerfed between now and one week after WotLK release(Got one shotted on my DK myself the first time I went there), pop it anyway..

[belfpala]

lvl as prot 1-80 instead, goes 10x faster. you can pull 10x more mobs and don't lose a hp and more aoe spells so you kill faster. solo 5man quests easily, find grp easily. It's the best levling specc tbh.

This is an outdated mentality. Ret is perfectly capable of doing AoE pulls, at least up to the size of groups you can realistically pull together while questing. This is especially true once Ret has AoW (instant self healing) and even more true at 60 with Divine Storm. (In fact, I did tons of AoE pulls while questing from 70 to 80 after the 3.0 changes, and it would be even easier now with the updated seal of command).