[MoP] Protection Paladin Guide

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

If all the gear you have is "traditional" tank gear you aren't at a significant disadvantage survivability-wise. It doesn't make it any less far from optimal though.

[Frostcrest]

If all the gear you have is "traditional" tank gear you aren't at a significant disadvantage survivability-wise. It doesn't make it any less far from optimal though.

That's fine. As long as I can still be a good tank for my raid, I'm happy. I'm sure I'll eventually go back to C/Haste, but I want to be sure that I won't simply be annihilated due to my gear, even if I'm playing my class well.

On another topic, I've seen a lot of talk about WeakAuras. After looking into it, it appears to mainly be for cooldown management. Is this the main usage for WA, or are there some functions I'm missing? I really don't like my laptop screen to be very hectic while raiding, and it's already pretty crowded with Recount, Healbot (for hands/emergencies), and those accursed DBM bars.

[pld]

WeakAuras can be used to track ANYTHING. Buffs, cool downs, debuffs, Vengeance....literally anything. It's a very helpful raid tool.

[Frostcrest]

WeakAuras can be used to track ANYTHING. Buffs, cool downs, debuffs, Vengeance....literally anything. It's a very helpful raid tool.

So if I have no problem tracking my buffs/debuffs with a flick of the eye to the upper right, it's not necessary? Or is there some automation/in-game suggestion that the addon does for me?

Sorry, I know this is a bit off topic, but I get easily confused when looking at technical gobbledegook on addon pages and trying to apply it to my situation specifically.

[rhandric]

So if I have no problem tracking my buffs/debuffs with a flick of the eye to the upper right, it's not necessary? Or is there some automation/in-game suggestion that the addon does for me?

Sorry, I know this is a bit off topic, but I get easily confused when looking at technical gobbledegook on addon pages and trying to apply it to my situation specifically.

It can be used to give you more information than just looking for the presence or absence of a buff can tell you, e.g., Vengeance. It can also be used to track historical information, i.e., snapshotting vengeance (or more specifically, attack power) levels used on an ability (say, SS or EF), to track whether it's useful to (re)apply buffs or whatnot.

[Frostcrest]

It can be used to give you more information than just looking for the presence or absence of a buff can tell you, e.g., Vengeance. It can also be used to track historical information, i.e., snapshotting vengeance (or more specifically, attack power) levels used on an ability (say, SS or EF), to track whether it's useful to (re)apply buffs or whatnot.

Okay, that makes it seem a lot more relevant.

Also, I realise I'm coming across as not caring about what's best, but after playing this game since release, I know how easy it can get if you simply stick to the best gearing strategy at the time. I'm just trying to keep everything challenging. I'm not gonna lie, the blazing fast style of Haste was incredibly fun, but now that it's wearing off of its novelty, I think it would be a wonderful challenge to make the switch to the seemingly more sluggish Avoidance method.

Naturally, if the spikiness of Avoidance overburdens my healers, I'll switch back to something more considerate to their problems, but I don't want to come off as wanting to be subpar for no reason.

[pld]

So if I have no problem tracking my buffs/debuffs with a flick of the eye to the upper right, it's not necessary? Or is there some automation/in-game suggestion that the addon does for me?

Sorry, I know this is a bit off topic, but I get easily confused when looking at technical gobbledegook on addon pages and trying to apply it to my situation specifically.

Yeah, WA is definitely not something that's necessary. It helps me keep track of everything without having to take my eye off the fight (sometimes buffs move around on the top corner so it can be hard to track) but if you have good intuition on stuff like that, it's not a huge deal.

I personally track Vengeance, SS and/or EF, ShoR, the meta gem proc, and my cool downs using a combination of WA and Tell Me When. None of it's absolutely necessary, but I found it helps me have better awareness of everything going on around me (and consequently when to use certain abilities).

[Deleted]

What is challenging about an avoidance build?

[Frostcrest]

What is challenging about an avoidance build?

It's challenging for me because I haven't played avoidance in quite a long while, so mastering it will be a new experience for me. I didn't mean to imply that avoidance itself was necessarily challenging, simply that learning a new playstyle is a challenge I'm eager to accept, as long as it doesn't doom my raid.

[Nillo]

It's challenging for me because I haven't played avoidance in quite a long while, so mastering it will be a new experience for me.

Yeah but avoidance is just autohit afking and hoping that avoidance will keep you alive °_°

Seriously you're much better off getting used to haste gearing.

[Frostcrest]

Yeah but avoidance is just autohit afking and hoping that avoidance will keep you alive °_°

Seriously you're much better off getting used to haste gearing.

Again, that's fine If I find it boring or super easy, I know I'll get bored and switch back to haste. I already did a haste gearing strategy for early ToT, so I'm used to it. I do want to try a pure haste build, ignoring caps and just powering haste, and perhaps running ToT just to feel what it's like to tank at breakneck speeds.

[Monolith of Mazes]

If I pop AD and then take a fatal amount of damage, will the AD proc be consumed or will the legendary cloak proc be consumed?

Edit: tested, AD consumed first

[Zol]

I'm currently 542 item level, 37% haste....but currently at 707k base health. Is that too low or just "the norm" for Prot Paladins as we are gearing up?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...d/Zol/advanced

if it matters, raid on a 25 man team.

[Deleted]

I'm currently 542 item level, 37% haste....but currently at 707k base health. Is that too low or just "the norm" for Prot Paladins as we are gearing up?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...d/Zol/advanced

if it matters, raid on a 25 man team.

at 542 37% haste seems a little bit on the low side. (my 510 pally has 30% and my 548 pally has 49-52% (depending on cloak)) Your health value seems about right. We don't need a gazilion health since we can cover almost all big nukes with 40%+ dmg reduction + absorbs/heals.

[sleepy67]

I'm currently 542 item level, 37% haste....but currently at 707k base health. Is that too low or just "the norm" for Prot Paladins as we are gearing up?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...d/Zol/advanced

if it matters, raid on a 25 man team.

My 535 palli has more haste than you BUT I run 10 mans and throughout ToT 10 and 25 man tanks have differed slightly e.g. you have more health than me.

[Deleted]

The last bosses in SoO Normal are kinda... intense.

Garrosh melees me for 450-550k, more than half of my life. >_> And this is on 10man. I do wonder how much they can boost this for 25m..
And the Veng scaling is kind of screwed up at the adds. We wanted to split up the adds and the boss to the two tanks, but it is hard when one has 250k Veng (boss tank), and the other has ~100k. I ended up glyphing Focused Wrath and Focused Shield, and droping Cons was still a dangerous move from my part... But meh, we will kill it hopefully tomorrow.

[Deleted]

The last bosses in SoO Normal are kinda... intense.

Garrosh melees me for 450-550k, more than half of my life. >_> And this is on 10man. I do wonder how much they can boost this for 25m..
And the Veng scaling is kind of screwed up at the adds. We wanted to split up the adds and the boss to the two tanks, but it is hard when one has 250k Veng (boss tank), and the other has ~100k. I ended up glyphing Focused Wrath and Focused Shield, and droping Cons was still a dangerous move from my part... But meh, we will kill it hopefully tomorrow.

Didn't bother trying to split them. Just let our guardian take them with me trying to pick them up so they didn't go nuts on the raid. I did taunt garrosh off him shortly at one point to get some vengeance but as you said he hammers the tank and the guardian unlike me has 900k+ hp so figured it be better for him. Only really phase 1 I felt his tank dmg was anything to worry about.

[Nillo]

What I thought might work would be to taunt Garrosh after the adds are gathered to avoid having him + 6 enraged adds at the same time.

And yeah getting hit by a 450k melee hit right after the whirlwind kind of forced me to either just stand there and take his ww or use a cd each time /:

[Riemu2k3]

Garrosh hit's like a fucking truck. I don't dare think about heroic lol. Sitting at 250k Vengeance (only boss) on 10 man normal is kinda though.

We haven't killed him yet (got a few <10% whipes last night, one at 4% lol). I died more than I thought i would lol, even with the cape. Mostly in P3 though, where damage is just brutal.

Does anybody have problems with using EF on this boss, without 4p? I got stomped so hard on sometimes, especially in P3. Those lost SoTR really hurt. I was about 45-50% Uptime on this Boss. What are you're numbers?

On the other hand, I'm on par with our other 2 healers on this boss. EF heals for quite alot (about 200k ticks every 1.8s) on this fight. So it's definitaly worth it I guess.

I think I'm going 4pt15 (dropped it in favor of more haste because I didn't need it the first 13 bosses lol), glyphed DP and probably HA - especially for that last phase.

What you guys thinking?

---

As for Adds and P1 - Our Monk tank takes all the adds. I wouldn't have a chance holding them anyways. I tank the Boss most of the times. We vengeance-swap (thanks PD!) alot in P1 so that we're both at about 200k vengeance most of the time. Without it, our monk hardly climbs above 100k while only tanking the adds (even while they are empowered - that 1/n really sucks balls).

He makes sure to have cooldowns running while he tanks boss + adds for a few seconds. Works out great.

[Deleted]

Taunting the boss after the other tank got aggro all of the adds seems a good solution. Then I would get the next wave of adds, and he could taunt it back, etc.

I will go with HA (maybe SW?) and DP-glyph seems to be a must-have.
I hope tonights raid will go well. >_<