Protection... Is it really this easy?

[Deleted]

I've recently started on another server with a few of my old guildies, and I decided that I was sick of waiting for a year and a day to get a dungeon group as a Rogue. I figure, I've already raided as a Healer pre-Cataclysm, so I fancy a bit of a change - Tanking.

Death Knight, Warrior, Paladin or Druid? I've played DK to the death (no pun intended), I've been scarred for life leveling Warrior through WotLK, and I didn't want to play a Worgen or Night Elf. I hope that by now you've realised, based on the location of this thread, that I started leveling a Paladin.

I beast my way to level 10, picking up a random green shield in Elwynn, and choose Prot. Avenger's Shield... Powerful much? My ActionBar hasn't changed since then. 1 = Avengers Shield, 2 = Crusader Strike, 3 = Judgement, 4 = Word of Glory. I've just hit 30, so I'll probably switch CS with HotR - but beyond that there's not alot I can really see me changing. I've tanked every instance since 15, not had a single problem, pulling 5+ mobs at a time, depending on the situation. Just bashing the same 3 buttons and occassionally smashing 4 a few times. I've not had much competition from DPS so far, I've always been top of the list on Recount by a long way - so I'm hoping that when DPS start to take off, things will get a little challenging.

Does it get harder at higher levels? And if so, how much harder? Surely this isn't the life of a Protadin. I'm enjoying dominating a random group, but 55 levels of feeling like I'm actually doing the dungeon by myself will definitely annoy me.

[Deleted]

Up until the Northrend dungeons you'll find yourself top DPS. After that, a proper DPS will outdps you.

I dinged 85 on my paladin yesterday, and my total time played is: Total time played: 5 days, 1 hour, 22 minutes, 47 seconds

I basically dinged mostly through dungeons and mostly clearing the entire place (like BRD etc). It's quite OP in my opinion, but from Northrend on I had some issues with DPS overaggroing me ( mostly because they can't seem to nuke a skull :P ), but that's about it. Tanking the normal Cata dungeons is easymode too.

[Jaitee]

all classes are pretty much one shotting things at low levels

at higher levels things will start to balance out and you wont feel that way

[Deleted]

You shouldn't have much trouble beating the DPS until around 80, after that, you'll still see yourself #1 on trashgroups until heroics. And you actually can do any dungeon up to the BC ones on yourself, thanks to WoG.
In heroics however, threat should still be not a big issue unless you have a firemage having some critluck on a group of trash, but singletarget threat is quite easy in 5-mans atm. It only gets more challenging when you encounter bosslevel mobs, due to damagedealers being hit/expertise capped (or near) and you aren't.

[MestHoop]

The main problems tanks have had for the longest while is that we don't scale as good threatwise as DPS do. Vengeance is a great change to this, however it doesn't help with initial threat.

As my guild is getting decked out in epics, I find it harder and harder to hold threat off of some of my guildies (mainly the ones that don't have a threat drop like boomkins). Especially the strings of misses/parries and dodges with CS on a pull can be DEADLY, however I have a hit and exp trinket with a str proc and on use to compensate for heroics, however you shouldn't use these straight from the start as you'll just die due to too low mitigation stats :P

[nysaa]

Yup, sounds right.

I was being a tourist on several servers a couple months ago, and thought i'd give tanking a try. It's as horrible as i imagined. You're overpowered and basically doing 3/4 of the work most of the time, and yet you still get insulted and disrespected if you don't do everything perfectly. Or just ignored by other players who are too busy taking phone calls or skinning to keep up.

Still better than being a dps, waiting 45 min for a dungeon que, then having it collapse after the tank decides to go afk for 20 minutes, or because someone calls someone else an idiot and everyone drops group.

I'll stick with healing. Short cues, you still get respect, but you don't get griefed... at least i don't.

[Gritty]

Like others stated above me, I led the pack in Damage and DPS and I could heal myself through almost every dungeon.

This starts to even out once you hit wotlk dungeons

[Ashareth]

First thing first :

- outside of bears, Tanks are MASSIVELY op till roughly lvl 75+ when they start to slowly go back in place compared to other classes.
- Tanks seems to get most of their mandatory/required tools far before other specs (probably because dungeons depends no them), meaning they got their AoE moves early (hence huge aoe damage) while others may not have one AoE till lvl 80 (hello rogues), or 75 or something (hello spriest) and still lack key talents/abilities that makes them do shit damage, while the AoE moves AND the usually hard hitting move (shield slam, shield of righteousness, revenge) do the same for single target fights/dps.
- Tanks are amongst the specs with the best sustained AoE out there, AND most of the time a good part of this AoE is built in their single-target rotation, meaning they gain huge benefits of 2+ targets, while dps often have to focus fire one target, without or with low splash damage.

Now even taking that into account, the other problem is that half the classes are butchering mobs so fast that everyone with a semblance of ramp up time is fucked up (and tanks have nearly no ramp-up), meaning it inflates the dps of the tanks due to them using hard hitting abilities often with talents giving them a huge crit chance (hellllooo revenge for exemple).
Now, try your pally in Ret now and come tell me how "hard" it is to use 2/3 buttons. Or your frost mage (5 buttons tops before lvl 70, and i'm accounting for both single targets and AoE rotation). And the same thing is true of nearly all classes/specs (maybe Kitties are the only one not in that boat and i'm pretty it's not really more anyway, even if they are soon gimped by the lack of Savaging Roar and berserk around which their damage output is balanced).
Stop doing like every people that doesn't think out there with the "lol tanking is easy on my lvl 15/20/25 i'm invulnerable and i got nothing to do for that" (hint : nobody has), and use that advantage that let you practically fuck up in every way without wiping your group to learn to position mobs to minimize group damage, to allow dps to hit from behind easily (without the mobs facing ranged either), to allow melee to attack from behind without standing in hurting shit, to interupt what you can (when you got that), etc etc.

There is a lot to learn to do, and using the time where you are practically a one man army will allow you to pick up the rest later more easily (but that's just me, if you don't want to don't do it).


Finally, the game isn't even close to be even roughly balanced before lvl 80, and even at 85 isn't that balanced, but trying to judge what something is (or isn't) before AT LEAST lvl 70/75 is totally silly.
Most people are lacking class/spec defining abilities, tanks are mostly in dps gear and it doesn't pose the slightest problem of survavibility and so on.
The dps gear is one of the reason you do well too, because you don't have to sacrifice your dps in the name of survivability.

Using as much dps gear you could to still be able to survive but get the needed upfront threat was something quite some tanks did in 5 man hc at the end of WotLK for exemple, and it's what made them topping charts in 5 mans most of the time to, that doesn't mean "it's easy" and it's all there is about it.

[Deleted]

At least now you can't tank everything up to around level 70 using purely seal of command and consecration. ie. one ability and autoattack.

Also as people have said if you are doing more damage than anyone else it doesn't take a genius to figure out that tanking is going to be very very easy.

[Deleted]

Its the same for Protection warriors.


Just apply rend, then spam thunderclap, cleave and revenge on cd and you will top dps in dungeons up until 80ish.

[Asmodejjj]

All tanks right now out-dps the DPS in dungeons due to Vengeance mechanics. However, starting at around 70, the numbers start to balance out.......so enjoy being #1 while you can. ;P

[Ragedaug]

A good DPS player can beat you at any level. Not every pull but from time or time, or most pulls. That being said, it is a bit simpler to top DPS as a tank with AOE pulling in leveling dungeons so you will normally be tops. Agreed that it's going to be closer to 80 when you will be challenged or bested on the meters by all 3 DPS players.

[Deleted]

Well, tanking never been so hard, the real difficulty in tanking are retards and remember that they are everywhere: the dumb healer jumping around and aggroing all the freaking room, the fancy hunter that spread violence and pain on all mobs with multishot (even the cced mobs) or the mage that randomly tab and pull even the boss. If this happens in low lvl dungeon (and happens) you won't even notice, another story with higher lvl dungeon.
Enjoy your time now that dumb members are harmless, it won't last long.

[Dathadr]

Tanking isn't hard, but being a good tank isn't any easier than being a good dps/healer.

Things will get tougher, your doing instances that were made in previous expansions and are tuned for that level. Heroics (when you first go into them) at 85 will be tough. But you will gear up and they will become easy to the point where you can chain pull most instances without much difficulty with a good healer.

Endgame content is tuned, everything up to that point is just tee-ball.

[Fokaz]

Game is balanced at 85, not 30 or 80.

[Charge me Doctor]

your DPSer are slackers. Lvled a combat rogue with a warrior tank and holy paladin guildmates through instances. I did roughly 40% party damage, very close to me - tank, and rest - other DDs. I think mages, warriors, DKs can stil beat you

[Tritton]

Its very easy at low levels.. and yes you will out DPS almost everyone. I just finished leveling my Prot Paladin through 85 and was pretty consistenly the highest DPS until 75-80 in dungeons.

[Vancha]

Yup, you'll be laughably overpowering everything until 80. You can solo every group quest prior to cata content as a prot pally (not including dungeons, maybe).

I hated doing the classic dungeons though. Stopping moving was pointless, because things were dead by the time you'd run to the next mob to pull.

[Begrudge]

The main problems tanks have had for the longest while is that we don't scale as good threatwise as DPS do. Vengeance is a great change to this, however it doesn't help with initial threat.

As my guild is getting decked out in epics, I find it harder and harder to hold threat off of some of my guildies (mainly the ones that don't have a threat drop like boomkins). Especially the strings of misses/parries and dodges with CS on a pull can be DEADLY, however I have a hit and exp trinket with a str proc and on use to compensate for heroics, however you shouldn't use these straight from the start as you'll just die due to too low mitigation stats :P

man they have no problem with initial threat how about trying this........wait to attack until tank has aggroed all mobs and focus fire down one mob at a time..... every tank will have aggro problems if someone starts pulling 20k dps at the start of a pull, do ppl not get this? apparently not, and i have 6% hit on my pally and almost never miss in prot, maybe u should pull it up just a bit more, you shouldnt have strings of misses dodges and parrys thats just ridiculous get some hit lol, low mitigation? are you stacking mastery like ur suppose to? you should read the prot pally guide on elitist jerks u should not even come close to dieing, even 12.93% dodge and parry and stacked like a mofo on mastery you should be gtg

[nilnar]

man they have no problem with initial threat how about trying this........wait to attack until tank has aggroed all mobs and focus fire down one mob at a time..... every tank will have aggro problems if someone starts pulling 20k dps at the start of a pull, do ppl not get this? apparently not, and i have 6% hit on my pally and almost never miss in prot, maybe u should pull it up just a bit more, you shouldnt have strings of misses dodges and parrys thats just ridiculous get some hit lol, low mitigation? are you stacking mastery like ur suppose to? you should read the prot pally guide on elitist jerks u should not even come close to dieing, even 12.93% dodge and parry and stacked like a mofo on mastery you should be gtg

What a strange response. He clearly said he has hit/exp gear for heroics. In raids, the priority is staying alive. Your numbers at which point you "should not even come close to dieing [sic]" are entirely situational for the content that you're doing.