Prot Pally Looking for Constructive Criticism

[DZizzle]

Hey guys I'm a new member to the forums and was looking for some help with gear and my spec. I know my gear is pretty good as it is but what are your thoughts on improving my gear and current talent spec?

Here is my armory profile:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...rthas&n=Adisyn

Thanks!

[Larivas]

As far as gear goes, you look alright. I'd switch your weapon enchant to BC Potency (20 Str). I'd try to get a different helmet - the one off of 10 man 4 horsemen is a decent upgrade. Also, the trinket from 10 man Thad is nice, but I know you can't help what drops. I also noticed that you had at least one JC gem in a socket that was already blue, in your gloves. If you put a 24 stam gem in there instead, and move the JC gem to your belt, you'll get both socket bonuses instead of just one.

For your talents, I'd personally take the 3 points out of reckoning and the 2 out of divine guardian and get Kings. Then again we don't run with many pallies, so if you don't need kings I'd just take 2 out of reckoning and put them in judgements of the just. Reckoning (from what I've read) doesn't proc your seal on the 2nd hit, and if you're using vengeance it wouldn't matter anyway. White damage isn't a good threat increase. For the current patch, I take Seals of the Pure over Conviction - its about a 5-6% damage increase according to my WWS. Next patch however I'd go farther down in the ret tree instead of Seals of the pure.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...000000000#none

Thats my current protection spec. I don't take divine guardian because the only fight I OT on is Patch.

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?pala...0&version=9684

That will be my 3.1 spec. I'm sure someone will have criticism for me also, but hopefully you'll get something from the post.

[Plaguedog519]

Lets see. For the most part you're pretty well off. While most protection specs vary due to preference, my preference would be to spec out of Divine Guardian and Reckoning. I put 3 points in to Improved Hammer of Justice to get to the next tier, but that's just me. The remaining 2 points would either go to Judgements of the Just for mitigation, or into the ret tree for more threat, depending on what you need/want most.

As for your gear, the main thing that irks me is 41 stam gems in blue sockets. Personally I would take the parry/defense gem out (parry rating is rather blah and you can lose the defense rating and maintain uncrittable) and put the 41 stam gem there and then just a normal 24 stamina gem in the gloves. Keep both set bonuses and gain 24 stamina.

Most of your upgrades will come from doing heroic raids now, but the first thing I would aim to replace is the helm. You'll lose stamina from replacing it, but since nearly all of the item's points are spent on stamina, you'll gain a lot more avoidance and other fun stats by replacing it.

[Songblade]

This is my spec atm. I take DG and Kings both because I run with my cousin, who is also a tank, and we switch between main tanking bosses a lot.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...00000000000000

Regarding talents, a lot of people tend to forget what Judgements of the Just brings to the table. You are decreasing the attack speed of the target (boss or not) by 20%. This has 2 benefits.

1) Decreases the auto-attack damage of the boss by 20%. Specifically on bosses like Patchwerk, that's alot, and on some, that is a 20% damage mitigation, more than any other talent that we have. Quite literally, it would be better if we dropped Improved Righteous Fury.
2) Is a slow effect, helps out any mage that has Torment the Weak.

In addition, the more that I play the more I realize that I will not really have problems with threat any time soon, so I don't even put any points in any threat talents in lieu of mitigation talents.

In fact, many mages rely on tanks having a slow so that they can max their damage, so it's more important than you would think.

[b37x]

I'd switch your weapon enchant to BC Potency (20 Str).

This is the only thing I disagree with. Hold off on re-enchanting your weapon till 3.1. Blizz is adding tank enchants for weapons.

[Daelak]

Yea drop reckoning completely and one handed weapon specialization in my opinion. Although I am not sure whether the 1h weap spec buffs Hotr or not it helps free up points in the ret tree that are desireable.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-t...arush&n=Daelak

This is my current spec and I have no problems with off tanking or main tanking any boss in Wotlk. What I did was make a BV set for threat / trash and an avoidance set (currently not seen) for bosses with higher physical damage hits.


Good Luck!

[Larivas]

Thats true, I hadn't even thought of the new enchant being released.  Well BEFORE that was announced, 20 str would have been the choice.   :P

Edit: To the poster above me, 1h spec increases ALL damage done by 10%, and is one of the best threat talents for a prot pally. You shouldn't spec without it.

[Daelak]

JotJ is not really a mandatory talent due to the fact that alot of other classes *should* (specifically DPS) have attack speed slowing talents.

[Plaguedog519]

Yea drop reckoning completely and one handed weapon specialization in my opinion. Although I am not sure whether the 1h weap spec buffs Hotr or not it helps free up points in the ret tree that are desireable.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-t...arush&n=Daelak

This is my current spec and I have no problems with off tanking or main tanking any boss in Wotlk. What I did was make a BV set for threat / trash and an avoidance set (currently not seen) for bosses with higher physical damage hits.


Good Luck!

For the love of cake, get One-handed weapon specialization. It increases ALL damage when wielding a one-handed weapon.

[PapaNasty]

Talent Spec:

imo there are 2x Talent specs which are best to use:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...00000000000000 - This is what I use, it's got pursuit of justice and imo is the best spec for a prot paladin

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...00000000000000 - Essentially the textbook prot paladin spec soto speak, with 4 talent points spare to use depending on your raid composition to use for imo BoM /
Heart of the Crusader / Divine Guardian (Or Kings if you steal 1 point from somewhere else)

As said above, reckoning is meh, also %crit is meh, and you only want 1 point in imp judgements so that you can do a 969 rotation. If you want a bit of a more comprehensive justification for why these two specs are generally regarded as "the best" options, just post and myself or someone else can give you a wall of text lolz



Enchants wise, these mostly ok, although imo +str to weapon enchant or even a weapon chain, mongoose isn't that great for paladins. Gloves there are a few options aswell which you can look at, imo 2% threat is a bit of a waste considering the excessive threat gen which we have available at present. Perhaps +hit +18 stam or +str. Also get +40 bv to your shield instead of +def

Gems wise, being a JC you should be able to get just about every single socket bonus if you gem your prismatic gems carefully. If you do however run out of prismatics and need to gem for a socket bonus imo go:

Blue - +24 stam
Red - +8 str +12 stam
Yellow - +8 def +12 stam

Gear wise, I'm a big fan of blockvalue, but that's personal preference. Little point however in listing every upgrade you can aim for etc :-P Likewise I'm a fan of not having to rely on a +def trinket to maintain def cap, again however that's personal preference

[rikken]

More concerning your stats =p

your health looks great, your def capped,

use this macro with holy shield up to calculate your avoidance rating, if u are above 102.4 than you are golden, means you can never be hit with a full melee swing, if its not dodged/parried it will always at least be blocked.

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(string.format("Need 102.4 avoidance. Currently: %s",((GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance()+5+(GetCombatRatingBonus(CR_DEFENS E_SKILL)+UnitDefense("Player")-5*UnitLevel("Player"))*0.04)*100)/100))
END


I am not sure bout your block value, cant read it, but looking at your gear you might be a lil low on that, i like to try and sit around 1250-1400 without the libram.

Your hit is a little low, 120 will still allow for some misses, hit cap is around 290 i think but not 100% sure. I dont mind the mongoose enchant but i roll with accuracy for the extra hit. I would say not to worry about expertise.
as long as you are using the 6-9-6-9 rotation to your threat should be more than enough.

but ya you look fine =p

[DZizzle]

Really appreciate the feedback guys!

My weapon enchant seems to be a common topic for discussion here so I just wanna add that I have 2 Slayer of the Lifeless and one has Mongoose and the other has the Weapon Chain

[Omgitschris]

I'm going to pop in here as a Holy Paladin.

Since I'm going to dual spec into prot in 3.1 I thought I'd make a spec for myself, so far I've come up with this:

http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=sZV0tAcqfsIufzxf0x0h

It's probably not that great, but I tried fitting in what really is needed.

As for your gear the first two things I'd replace is your trinkets. The JC Trinket might be much harder to replace obviously so you might want some gear upgrades before taking that one away. But the seal of the pantheon could be replaced with Essence of Gossamer once you get more defense. That would up your HP over 31k which definitely would be nice. Or if you wanted you could get some of the tank trinkets from Naxx and the ones coming up from Ulduar whichever those may be.

Here's a couple from naxx:

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39292
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40372
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40257

All up to you how you eventually take the trinket road, but as you stand now, as Rikken said, if you're above 102.4 according to that script then you are "A-OK" lol

[Pilto]

I'm going to give some guidance since some people are missing some important key points about protection paladins.

First off, on gear gemming. Never gem for Parry, EVER. The parry gem on your chest, either drop it for +8hit and +12 stamina, or a +8defense and +12stamina gem. +8hit will give you more TPS since your attacks will miss less often. +8 defense is for avoidance stats since you're Defense capped.

Now, gear you're basically fine. Enchants are my only concern at this point. For shoulders continue to work on your Sons of Hodir dailies to become exalted. Next, from what others have been giving advise on. Don't enchant your weapon with +20 strength. I can't think of a good prot paladin that enchants there weapon this way. The strength isn't going to help increase your TPS if you're not hit capped and 10 BV isn't so superior with the conversion from STR to BV. Enchant your weapon with Titansteel Weapon Chain or Accuracy, I prefer the weapon chain because it's cheaper than the Accuracy enchant. The rest of your enchants look fine, no further improvements there.

Your spec needs some improvements though. As previous people have stated, drop Divine Guardian and Reckoning. If you don't want Kings, then grab Improved HoJ. Grab Judgements of the Just deep in the Prot Tree also. It's not necessary, but reducing the melee attack speed of your target for 20% is excellent way to decrease damage taken. On the Retribution tree, don't put 2 points into Improved Judgements. 2 points is a waste of a point because you only need 1 point to fully utilize the 6-9-6-9-6 rotation. Put the point in Benediction instead to get you down further into the Ret Tree.