Single Target Tanking - Which Seal and Which Spell?

[lifebinderx]

Since there is nothing else to do in WOW atm, I started to lvl up a paladin and started to gear him up in heroics and LFR. When I m tanking which seal I must use? The one which brings up a dot on the target or the one which restores my health and mana (I know they are seal of truth and seal of inside but cant remember which one doing what)

Second question is which damage spell to use? Crusader strike seems like doing more damage on single target but Hammer of Righteous crits more often. Which one should I prefer for single target ? Should I remove crusader strike from my action bar ?

[Uraga]

Seal of truth for tanking at all times
Crusader strike for single target Hammer for multi target.

[Deleted]

Since there is nothing else to do in WOW atm, I started to lvl up a paladin and started to gear him up in heroics and LFR. When I m tanking which seal I must use? The one which brings up a dot on the target or the one which restores my health and mana (I know they are seal of truth and seal of inside but cant remember which one doing what)

Second question is which damage spell to use? Crusader strike seems like doing more damage on single target but Hammer of Righteous crits more often. Which one should I prefer for single target ? Should I remove crusader strike from my action bar ?

Seal of truth, the holy damage DOT generates loads of aggro, and yes its crusader + judgement for single target and hammer for multi as far as i know.

Look at www.noxxic.com, though theres probably better sites.

[Ssateneth]

...but Hammer of Righteous crits more often...

No. No it doesn't. All talents that affect Crusader Strike as prot also affect Hammer of the Righteous; They have an equal chance to crit. The only exception is Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous, and even if it's glyphed, it still does less damage than a Crusader strike on the primary target.

Maybe it -feels- like HotR crits more because it hits twice on the primary target; once with a tiny weapon-based attack, and another with a moderate amount of holy damage, both have a chance to crit, but a non-crit Crusader Strike will always beat a HotR double non-crit, even if the physical portion crits.

[Elovan]

Seal of Truth will give you more damage and threat, and is your go to seal, however while leveling Seal of Insight can be useful during the range of levels which cause Prot Paladins to oom rather quickly (don't remember what level range this is).

[lifebinderx]

Thanx for all the replies,

Cheers

[MerinPally]

CS for 1-2 targets and HOTR for 3+. HOTR on 2 is less damage.

Also, for the love of god, spec into Wrath of the Lightbringer. The amount of paladin tanks I see skipping it is hideous and it just makes me lol because a guild on my server who recently went 8/8hc who think they're so good, has a pala tank MT/RL/GM who isn't specced into it, is hideously over CTC and has 4% more dodge than parry and 193k hp in 403ilvl gear.

It makes kittens cry tears of blood.

[tielknight]

193k hp in 403ilvl gear.

It makes kittens cry tears of blood.

My god, my pally tank has close to equal dodge/parry chance, not ctc capped though, and has 191khp with a ilvl of ~393 or so.

OT:
Righteous would be a nice seal if you could get the aoe effect that the Ret Talent adds to it. Aside from that wishful thinking, Truth is king when at max/cap'd levels.

Only thing i could see Insight being used for is leveling or if your having mana problems. Judgements should take care of that, but could happen.

[Lecan]

Only thing i could see Insight being used for is leveling or if your having mana problems. Judgements should take care of that, but could happen.

It's also nice while soloing and on fights like Jaina or Tyrande where you can't get much mana from dodge/parry.

[d3gamerdood]

Make sure that you have seal of truth up full time. Use crusader strike on cd. Also, use SHOR on cd for threat.

[Racthoh]

Seal of Truth will give you more damage and threat, and is your go to seal, however while leveling Seal of Insight can be useful during the range of levels which cause Prot Paladins to oom rather quickly (don't remember what level range this is).

It's not just the lower level range. You'll start to run oom when you're not proccing Sanctuary (+mana% on block or dodge) aka not a melee attacker in sight.

Use Truth until you run into situations where you know your healers will struggle, because you should be fine on threat. Though I'm not sure how important tank dps can be at times, you'll have to talk it over with your group if that's the case.

[niteline]

Make sure that you have seal of truth up full time. Use crusader strike on cd. Also, use SHOR on cd for threat.

You cant Judge without a seal active.. Paladins are pretty much the only thing i never forget something essential with.
As said before, glyph seal of truth and use it (righteous doesnt cleave like in ret spec)

The talent wrath of the lightbringer as stated before is a no-brainer, and when i read that some people skip it..... 100% increased dmg... how? skip? braindead?

1 or 2 targets you will only use CS. When i tank 3 or 4 mobs i generally swap to HotR.
Holy power is used for either WoG or Shield. When im not topped and not in the start of a boss i use WoG
WoG helps quite abit on healing since it also applies a shield. But there are always exceptions like zonozz/sahj (the ball one, bad with names) Where you could heal yourself in the shadow phase but seeing a insane crit is just more fun so i use Shield.
Due to the CD system paladins use, you judge/Holy wrath/consec whenever is you got no button to press with Avenger shield probbably the highest priority
When you use consec you have to make sure there isnt aoe needed right after that or that you have to move the boss in the next few seconds.

Short tips; Keep Avengers shield on CD, Keep Crus Strike/Hotr on CD, Keep Judgement on CD.
Use Divine plea pre fight and insta smack your shield in the bosses face (DP gives 3hp) for some instant threat.
3HP -> Inquis might have its uses as pala tank for example when you are on the shadow phase and you have a AS proc. Right after inq you have 1 hp in that case and your next shield slam (assuming you have the crit buff) will do insane dmg. These are actually fun advanced tactics and bring nothing to your raid except that few seconds of feeling good!
When healers are stressing DP -> WoG might give you a lil bit more air and save you from using a CD

[Maruka]

i usually just start with truth and once threat is in the bag swap over to insight to help on healing a bit

[Spotnick]

i usually just start with truth and once threat is in the bag swap over to insight to help on healing a bit

Pretty sure your healers would rather see stuff die faster so they don't run out of mana.

[palladish]

i usually just start with truth and once threat is in the bag swap over to insight to help on healing a bit

that's pretty stupid you should only really switch to insight if there's big damage phase or something