Protection Paladin FAQ (For Patch 3.3)

[Ronark]

Some issues.

3) "While most of the Paladin’s abilities are Melee-oriented, some abilities (like Exorcism) are Spell-oriented" Nice example here, considering a prot paladin will NEVER use Exorcism. Hand of Reckoning, Consecrate, Avenger's Shield, Hammer of Wrath, Judgement, Holy Wrath, these are all spells, not physical / melee attacks.
7) "You could spec into this talent for some needed AoE threat" bwahahahhahahahaha /facepalm, this is about pallies. We don't have ANY "needed AoE threat." You spec into Seal of Command because it is a filler point, that's the only reason. Maybe you like seeing bigger trash numbers.
15) Hammer should be used on almost every trash fight in ICC. It's not mainly PVP by any means. Also, Hammer when talented is an interrupt on top of a stun. It WILL still interrupt casts on stun immune mobs. MOST DEFINITELY.

White Hits, HotR, Judgement, and SoR are all Melee abilities- Everything else but HoW is a Spell. HoW is a Ranged Attack.
SoC offers paladins snap-AE threat, which you dont get from any other ability besides HotR and HW.
HoJ is a standalone interrupt, even when not talented- Due to HoJ being on the Spell Hit table, is can (and will) miss.

[Ganoes]

3) Judgement and Avenger's shield still run off the melee hit table !_!
6) why? Defense is still the best avoidance stat !_!
8) Big difference - uh maybe not
10) Not quite correct depending on your block value and attackpower/weapon dps either of them might be stronger
11) If you have the mana to use it on heroic bosses why not?
12) It's a ranged ability and still has some uses for pulling stuff (like if you're tanking the caster @ blood princes and need orbs) not having it on your bars makes you a noob !_!
17) Because 1/2 Imp Might is so much better !_! 2/2 Judgements is taken for the lack of options and because it can at least sometimes be useful to pick up stuff, that is within 5-10 yards away from you.

6) you don't gem for avoidance. Gear is loaded with it. Use an agility / stam gem to meet your metagem requirements and then, for the most part, ignore socket bonuses. Agility doesn't just provide avoidance. It also provides EH (armor) and threat (crit). If I were absolutely convinced that I wanted to meet a yellow socket bonus, at the very most I would throw a +hit / +stam gem in there. I wouldn't do that though.

8) Yes, it is a big difference. AoE means area of effect, or every creature in that area will be affected by the attack. Hammer of the Righteous does not do this. It just links the attack between three or four mobs like a cleave.

10) I'm just going off what I see in Recount which is that the majority of my damage in every fight is Hammer of the Righteous and also looking at the crits, I will hit up to 9k single target with Hammer and about 6k with Shield. I do, however, have absolutely no block value on my gear so you could be correct there.

11) I don't know about you, but I go oom in every heroic boss if I use Consecrate. They simply don't hit me hard enough to give me mana from the healing received or hit me often enough that Sanc procs mana regeneration.

12) No. Never use it. There's always something better. And if you are tanking the caster boss in BPC you are doing it wrong. The caster boss should be tanked by a warlock or similar class (preferably warlock).

17) The point is that 2 / 2 Imp Judgement is not useful at all. It is a filler point, but that is the worst spot to put it because it provides no returns. Use HoR or AS to pick up stray mobs.

[Ganoes]

SoC offers paladins snap-AE threat, which you dont get from any other ability besides HotR and HW.

I find that the Corruption procs off HotR spread out over mobs stack up really quickly and if it's like a 3 / 4 mob pull depending on glyphs, I'll usually have 5 stacks ticking away pretty quickly because I tab around a lot due to my tank training being on the warrior class. On a typical trash pull in ICC 25 before Marrowgar, for instance, I'll be doing over 8k dps without SoComm so I'm really not convinced about it being that useful. I'd rather put the filler point in the crit talent (the name escapes me atm).

This brings up something missing in the OP. Glyph of Holy Wrath is absolutely wonderful for all ICC trash outside of the trash between Deathwhisper and Airship.

[Jin84]

Hmm, that is alot of nit picking. But this guide is made with the fresh 80 in mind, there is no need to cater this for the pros. As such I will not alter the guide to that extent.

As for #12, 10man Prince Keleseth is tankable by a prot specced tank, as long he knows what to do. All he has to do is pick up the orbs in time. Yes a warrior (not me). Who's to say a prot warrior can do it in 25man, although 3tanks will hurt the dps. Please never do "lolurwrong" with raid strategies here. This is a guide for protection paladins, I don't think there should be a section for every raid strat here.

I'm sorry, even if you edited for some overly rude language, I still find you a tad rude.

[Aedh]

There is a difference between burst threat and sustained threat.

If you are advising a fresh 80 with maybe crafted ilvl200 epics to be gemming straight stam you might want to reevaulate who faqs are commonly written for.

You, and the majority of the regular posters are either raiders, do their own theorycraft or already know where to go to get more advanced advise.

The new guy who just dinged 80 with his first toon ever, or even a reroll, doesn't. He should be gemming to fill in the gaps his lower ilvl gear has, and up to a certain point depending on how serious of a raider you are it may or may not be a more efficient use of the itemization of the gems and socket bonuses to match gem sockets for certain bonuses.

[Ganoes]

There is a difference between burst threat and sustained threat.

If you are advising a fresh 80 with maybe crafted ilvl200 epics to be gemming straight stam you might want to reevaulate who faqs are commonly written for.

You, and the majority of the regular posters are either raiders, do their own theorycraft or already know where to go to get more advanced advise.

The new guy who just dinged 80 with his first toon ever, or even a reroll, doesn't. He should be gemming to fill in the gaps his lower ilvl gear has, and up to a certain point depending on how serious of a raider you are it may or may not be a more efficient use of the itemization of the gems and socket bonuses to match gem sockets for certain bonuses.

Maybe throw in some defense gems to be uncrittable but otherwise, straight stam. And replace the defense gems ASAP. My pally just dinged 80 in August, the gearing up portion is still fresh in my memory and I went straight stam except for a couple +def / +stam gems to meet the cap and the only reason I had to use those was the ring and sword from Heroic ToC which had no defense on them.

Goal at that point should be to replace those with stam gems though because gemming for defense is not advisable and stam is just as important, if not more so, at lower level gear levels than at higher gear levels.

[Ganoes]

Hmm, that is alot of nit picking. But this guide is made with the fresh 80 in mind, there is no need to cater this for the pros. As such I will not alter the guide to that extent.

As for #12, 10man Prince Keleseth is tankable by a prot specced tank, as long he knows what to do. All he has to do is pick up the orbs in time. Yes a warrior (not me). Who's to say a prot warrior can do it in 25man, although 3tanks will hurt the dps. Please never do "lolurwrong" with raid strategies here. This is a guide for protection paladins, I don't think there should be a section for every raid strat here.

I'm sorry, even if you edited for some overly rude language, I still find you a tad rude.

Warriors can't really do it. Not enough ranged abilities to pick up the orbs. I mean, it CAN be done but you are VERY WELL advised to have anyone do it instead. Even a mage would be dramatically, drastically superior.

[Jin84]

Warriors can't really do it. Not enough ranged abilities to pick up the orbs. I mean, it CAN be done but you are VERY WELL advised to have anyone do it instead. Even a mage would be dramatically, drastically superior.

I can assure you, a warrior did do it for 10man. I was tanking the other two princes, while the OT warrior tanked keleseth. Who's to know some other raid manage to get a rogue to tank Keleseth? Sometimes, raid strategies work in different ways, okay? Take Star's Yogg-saron +0 strat. The world called it impossible, they formed a strategy out of nowhere and downed it.

Ok enough of raid strat talk here, please. It's not relevant to the topic.

[Nillo]

Warriors can't really do it. Not enough ranged abilities to pick up the orbs. I mean, it CAN be done but you are VERY WELL advised to have anyone do it instead. Even a mage would be dramatically, drastically superior.

The huge disadvantage of having a ranged DD tank it is, that their HP pool is horrible, so as soon as some of the orbs fall off they're close to being 1 hits. And there are some other fights, where Exorcism can be helpful as well (even if it's just to hit a boss in it's air phase)

[Offhand]

6) you don't gem for avoidance. Gear is loaded with it. Use an agility / stam gem to meet your metagem requirements and then, for the most part, ignore socket bonuses.

This needs either a qualifier or should be ignored entirely. Stamina bonuses on gear can be met with agi/stam or def/stam gems for a more balanced approach to tanking. Ignoring everything but your meta and putting 30 stam gems in every slot is an option, but not the only one.

[Jin84]

This needs either a qualifier or should be ignored entirely. Stamina bonuses on gear can be met with agi/stam or def/stam gems for a more balanced approach to tanking. Ignoring everything but your meta and putting 30 stam gems in every slot is an option, but not the only one.

Hey Off, how's your guide going?

Anyway I have to clarify gems a little, and include the accuracy enchant as well as re-clarify Exorcism. But I doubt anyone with a brain would be casting Exorcism as Prot.

[Offhand]

Hey Off, how's your guide going?

Anyway I have to clarify gems a little, and include the accuracy enchant as well as re-clarify Exorcism. But I doubt anyone with a brain would be casting Exorcism as Prot.

Not too bad, should finish things up over the weekend if I stop being lazy. Here's the gem section that I wrote.

Gems:

There are realistically only 4 kinds of gems and one meta you should consider using as a tank. At extremely low levels of gear it may be necessary to gem pure defense, or switch your meta for lack of the softcap. Dictating what socket bonus is worth meeting varies on a fight-by-fight basis and also largely plays into your tanking style. You'll normally default to this template.

Red socket, bonus worth meeting: shifting dreadstone, regal dreadstone
Yellow socket, bonus worth meeting: enduring eye of zul
Blue socket or any socket without a worthwhile bonus: solid majestic zircon
Meta: austere earthseige diamond

There is currently some debate for agi vs dodge gemming. The short version is that dodge will still provide the highest amount of avoidance for a red socket but agi will come close, as well as provide small amounts of EH via armor and a very small amount of threat via crit. Agility really starts to pay off at high levels of gear when the avoidance gain for either stat is diminished, but the secondary benefits of agility remain the same.

[Ganoes]

This needs either a qualifier or should be ignored entirely. Stamina bonuses on gear can be met with agi/stam or def/stam gems for a more balanced approach to tanking. Ignoring everything but your meta and putting 30 stam gems in every slot is an option, but not the only one.

Balanced? You mean misinformed.

[Nikoll]

So, i'm curious what you main spec prot paladins think I should go for first. My armory is or will update to my tank gear shortly. I can afford one tank piece with frost badges now, probably wont get any 258 t9 tank gear, should get the next normal juggs that drops (if it drops). http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ight&cn=Nikoll
thoughts?

edit: I know my weapon enchant blows. I was sick of my taunt missing and I'm still hoping for tribute weapon from anub, i'll be getting that next if it drops again.

[Ganoes]

Corroded Skeleton Key.

The way I look at badge upgrades is I examine my gear and see where the weakest link is. A fairly simple way to do this is to install the Gearscore mod and using Recount in conjunction with the mod, it will give you a nice short list of your gear with the score next to it. Examine the piece with the lowest score and see if it is truly your weakest link and then replace it.

You are still using a blue piece of gear. Your priority should be to replace it.

After you replace the blue, your next priority should be to replace the Brewfest trinket.

[Nikoll]

that was my thought. I've been buying the key and returning it. So if that turns out to be the consensus than i'll just continue to do that.

[Nillo]

Balanced? You mean misinformed.

Can't you just stop your pointless trolling? -.-
Nobody's going to believe your "Stamina is allmightyprocoollewtleetepixzomfg" thing as long as you're using that crappy Corpse-Tongue Coin and have 10 stats on your chest.

A fairly simple way to do this is to install the Gearscore mod and using Recount in conjunction with the mod,

Holy crap.

[Ganoes]

Can't you just stop your pointless trolling? -.-
Nobody's going to believe your "Stamina is allmightyprocoollewtleetepixzomfg" thing as long as you're using that crappy Corpse-Tongue Coin and have 10 stats on your chest.

Holy crap.

Corpse Tongue Coin isn't crappy and I have Juggernaut's Vitality in my bags. I logged off with the CTC to increase my wow-heroes score.

+10 stats is the best paladin tanking enchant for chest. You get strength, increases attack power, spell power, and block value. This is mitigation, threat, and damage. You get agility, increases dodge, crit, and armor. This is avoidance, threat, and EH. You get stamina which is EH. You get intellect which does very little but still has some negligible usage. The spirit is wasted but oh well.

And best of all, +10 stats scales with Kings. +275 health doesn't.

[Jin84]

I stopped reading when he mentioned Gearscore.

[Offhand]

Balanced? You mean misinformed.

Tell that to these guys.

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...Mill&cn=Kungen
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...e&cn=Onslaught
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...gn=Premonition
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...cn=Snyggfrilla
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...s&cn=Grafarion

Jebus, all these players in all these world-firsty type guilds, it's almost as if they were meeting any socket bonues worth 9 stam. But going by the rest of your posts, your views on tanking aren't quite up to speed.

EDIT: Hmmm, let's look at your own armory for a moment. It appears as though even you meet two socket bonuses with non +30 stam gems. Not even you appear to follow your gemming template.