[MoP] Protection Paladin Guide

[MerinPally]

It would be a compilation of horrendous advice and a den of misogyny when certain people found it and corrupted it.

[Deleted]

Haha. I actually live with another female ( Another as in not the one I wrote earlier ) and she hates girls. She says she never understands them, that girls are just boring, shallow and liars. Basically 99% of her friends are dudes. She got like 2 female friends.

Basically, girls don't understand girls, and guys CERTAINLY dont understand girls.

I used to try to understand them, but just gave up. The most true statement is "Girls just wanna have fun".

[MerinPally]

Basically all I've learnt in my short time at uni so far which is the first time you learn anything meaningful (dubious even then) is don't be too much of a dickhead like you would be to the lads but don't tone it down and protect from all harm, they're not looking for a white knight. Such as earlier when hacking someones Twitter we did the standard #MyLittlePony and edited everything, some weird things here and there - we originally made her follow the Al-Shabab militant group but then changed our minds as a step too far, and lo and behold so it was and it all worked out.

[Deleted]

Any paladin discussion? Got so many things I would actually love to debate, but feels like the discussion on this board has been kinda bad.
I mean, I got my own opinion on certain stuff. So I would love to hear other people who have a different opinion how they reason and what their logics are.

Like T1 talents, T5 talents, prot4p/ret4p/off set for tanking, trinkets, stamina, etc.

[DrDreads]

Let's go Firefly, discussion/reasoning time.

My own personal build values haste > everything (except hit/exp hardcaps of course), my reasoning behind this is that I don't need more stamina since I've never been in a position where I just simply couldn't survive an encounter because I didn't have enough health. I don't value strength highly either for it's dps value because it doesn't scale as well with vengeance whereas haste does.

I've only just started mucking around with LAoTL after reading your post about T1 movement choices (previously using PoJ for most fights).

Concerning gear I'm using off-pieces instead of prot or ret 4p as I don't believe that the set bonuses are worth the haste loss. For trinkets I like static haste more than proc haste so I'm using Dragonling trinket (exp, haste, mastery) and Lei Shen's.

PS. in a post recently you said you had around 30% haste is that unbuffed? if so you're uncannily close to me in terms of gear level etc.

[Deleted]

Well, I am not raiding seriously anymore, so my gear is abit behind. Only like 490 ish average. However since I am not raiding seriously I have gone for hit>haste>expertise

Reason found here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ap-exp-with-SW

If I was raiding seriously I would probably have gone for the standard but I feel like going haste or exp hard cap really doesn't matter.
Currently 31.2% haste

I have about the same feeling about stamina. I think that the stamina on the gear is enough, I never had any issues with death. So I am running with haste+armor elixir, fully haste gemmed etc. While I value strength, I value haste alot more. I am for example using the healing shield from Gara'Jal for tanking, as I rather have the haste than the strength. My personal value on parry and dodge is 0.
Basically, you got to think, what happens when I get a dodge or parry? Well, I do not lose any life, great. The thing is, my healers were already sending heals my way + dots. So the reality is that dodge and parry is very unreliable, and when it actually helps you, the healers are just going to overheal you. So it doesnt really give anything

I use LAotL just because it feels the most all-round. If I was pushing content with a serious guild, I think I would be using Speed of Light / LAotL like 50/50. As I wrote in the thread
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...nd-discussions
Which fights I think which talent is strong on.

You are using same trinkets as me. Quite frankly, I think any paladin not using Ghost Iron Dragonling is doing it wrong. It is the best trinket available.
Imo Ghost Iron Dragonling + Lei Shin = best trinkets + having stamina trinkets handy if needed.
The GID trinket is indirectly 1800 haste passive. While the trinket itself is only 600 haste, having 600 hit and 600 expertise lets you reforge those 1200 secondary stats from the hit/exp cap into haste instead. So basically you could look at the trinket as 1800 haste and not 600/600/600.

I am also going for off-set pieces however I am also going for the ret 4p, as I value SW very high as Tier 5 talent, so the set bonus is actually extremely nice if you are using SW. I feel like on most fights SW is really the strongest T5 talent. I think the Prot 4p is not worth the terrible stats on the gear

Feel like you and I are a bit in the same mind set except for maybe choice of T5 talent. So not so much to discuss actually, more just verify eachothers thoughts

Edit: Another question for you, do you also feel like the actual tanking in this tier is very simple. I do not have to put so much thought down into my CD usage as I did in Cata I feel like. It feels like the biggest challenge atm is pushing high dps numbers, not surviving a fight.

---------- Post added 2013-01-20 at 07:35 AM ----------

Would be interesting to hear someone that have a really different mind set and why they chose their paths.
Stuff like.

Using double stamina trinket in 10 man
Full stamina gemmed in 10 man
PoJ ( Someone using it because they actually think it is better, not because everyone else is )
Someone using 4p prot
Would also like to hear why people are so negative towards SW. I understand people liking HA, but SW should not be overlooked so fast.
Peoples thought on int/agi gear. Is it taboo?

I am one of those guys that can argue pretty well.
I could probably make arguments why to use stam or haste, 4p ret/prot or off set, which talents etc, I could argue for each side and probably convince alot of people I am right. However, I often argue with myself and reason and my own gearing strategy is the one I found to be superior. The thing is, take tier 1 talents.
I can make alot of argument for PoJ, even so I could make it look better than the others, however, each of those arguments, I can also counter. I can't do the same with LAotL and Speed of Light because both of them provides things that PoJ does not and is really superior.

Edit: Another question, Which tank do you prefer to be paired with?

[DrDreads]

Jesus, that SW build bumps haste up abit, I'm sitting at 31.07% haste unbuffed at 499 ilvl with hit/exp harcaps. I run haste/armour elixir as well, I also use the +200 haste food (cheap raid food, gogo tangy yogurt)

I tried your exp softcap with SW build awhile ago, not sure it's to my playstyle or I'm just not used to it, i could never remember that the rotation turned into the ret burst prio style and forgot to weave my judge properly. Might give it another test for farm content and see how i feel, although reforging to the exp softcap only nets me about 400 haste, but a giant increase to mastery. (although i suppose i could change a few gems around to pure haste again)

Q: for GID trinket, do you still find that the 600 hit is usefull? I'm close to full BiS offset be it normal or heroic pieces and find that most times i have too much hit, it's why i've replaced the hit socket for a mastery one.

I agree with your reasoning for ret 4p coupled with SW, it is a strong CD and a nice dps boost, i just don't feel that the 2-4% haste loss is worth it. Still might end up giving it a go for variety.

I might have to explore my T5 talent choices a bit, I do like the burst AW + HA and it's has nice coverage for melee fights (gara'jal, will, wind lord, empress, sha)

Yes i feel like the tanking in this tier is quite simple, the only fights I've ever had to worry about CD usage was our first week of H will and H wind lord, H will was just weaving a CD after every dance and H wind lord just made me use my CD's smartly as solo tanking all 6 adds + wind lord can get you globalled at times. I've been more focused on pushing numbers all tier, apart from the fact that i find the haste playstyle incredibly fun to play (we're like an omnipotent tank/dps/healer for high vengeance fights), i also felt the need to push more numbers as i found dps in my raid group lacking, specially while pushing heroic content.

[Deleted]

Well my haste values was without food and elixir. Also, its not like I am aiming for soft cap. All expertise I can get, I take. I just take haste > exp. Not like I go to the soft cap then avoid it.

GID: Well depends on your gear ofc, but reforging, that is what it is for. In my gear though, if I reforged everything AWAY from hit, I would reach 4.5% hit, so still got some play room. If you take in a 600 socket, there is probably somewhere you can change that hit into either exp and haste ( and in turn change that exp into haste ).


And yeah, I am myself using the off-set, though probably gonna get the ret 4p for the variety.

[Deleted]

MerinPally, I am crying at that post.

[MerinPally]

Noone answered my question about how much chocolate.

[Deleted]

Noone answered my question about how much chocolate.

Good amount of Thorntons chocolate does the trick. I'm sure you can get a big box from Co-Op for £3.50-£5.00.

Thank me later.

[MerinPally]

I can get 2 bottles of wine for £4.50 and get destroyed and dance in my underwear instead. That's cheaper and more entertaining for all involved and whatever passer by notices. £5 is breaking the bank.

[Xothic]

Finally got my Heroic will of the Emp, DAMN that fight is fun to tank. Very high intensity, screwing up any step of the dance has the possibility to kill you if you dont have a good cooldown for the next melee phase, and having to use a cooldown every time a boss is meleeing you is very intense. I got so tied up in waltzing with Qin-xi that I didn't even realise the boss was at sub 20% hp till someone yelled out CC ADDS BURN BOSS GOGOGO.

Had about an hour left in raid night, so we started H wind lord, looks very easy. At the end of one attempt I was doing 850k dps, with my recount showing a 6M avengers shield crit. I lold. HPS isnt as crazy as it used to be after the SoI/HoTR change, but is still at a solid 80k hps.

I can get 2 bottles of wine for £4.50 and get destroyed and dance in my underwear instead. That's cheaper and more entertaining for all involved and whatever passer by notices. £5 is breaking the bank.

Hahaha, ever since I discovered JUST how cheap bottles of wine were, I haven't pre-drunk anything else. I used to buy a shitty bottle of 20$ vodka, but that was damn hard to keep down after a while.

[Deleted]

I can get 2 bottles of wine for £4.50 and get destroyed and dance in my underwear instead. That's cheaper and more entertaining for all involved and whatever passer by notices. £5 is breaking the bank.

Cheap wine is the grimmest thing ever.
Try Tesco Value Vodka, that shit will get you drunk considering it's pretty much 100% ethanol.

[Deleted]

So much gold in this thread.

[MerinPally]

I'm gona enjoy myself tonight. Last night was only tipsy, Friday night was maniacal. Tonight will be the middle ground. Will log off MMOC before I commence so I can't post shite at 2am

[Deleted]

Please don't

[MerinPally]

You would have been bored recently if I always did that D:

[Deleted]

Thou shall post a drunken status update tonight. This thread is your facebook.

[MerinPally]

I don't post statuses (stati?) on facebook, I'm too cool for that. What I am going to do though is be an idiot, people will take pics and upload

Will also listen to one of my mates on soundcloud, he's studying music with me here at uni.

https://soundcloud.com/liamwade

Careless is great. He gets embarrassed by it, the vid on youtube for it is good too. He's making another vid for another song too.