[uglybbtoo]

Yeah woke up and logged in all wide eyed on patch day.

Love the new spec tree, love the style play ... hate the gear conversions.

Given that the gear will be outdated with WOTLK I thought they could have been more generous with +def on converted gear.

I am left with a massive +def gap much more than I thought and to be honest I just can't be stuffed trying to regear. It was bad enuf having to re-gem and re-enchant and find a new primary weapon I really thought they would be more generous with +def for our old gear which face it has a life expecancy of 1-2 months.

So option 2 for me retiring until WOTLK and will quest and re-gear then.

[Analasolar]

Yeah I've went to my hunter though heard people are loving the ret pally tree. But a spell casting arms warrior just isn't my thing. So guess we wait and as Lich comes out and we get geared lets see what we can do on figuring out our new tree and find our new tanking sets and stats needed at 80. Have fun everyone.

[Blooddawkin]

.

[Breadmunch]

gear itemization.... went from mediocre to "share with the warriors" I frankly miss my +int stats on my tank gear, i typically OTed and blew thru mana like i never had any to begin with.

between shockwave and the everybody target swipe, pallies are getting a run for the money on the AOE tanking circuit. I love the new blessing of sanctuary, but when around demons and undead, i find myself needing to run SoW and JoW together just to have enough mana to keep a taunt ready. Anyone else having this issue?

[Analasolar]

That's always been the case with us. Until you get into our tier gear and other purps we have to deal with using warrior gear for tanking. Its annoying as hell cause we have tanking gear that doesn't help us do shit outside of tank. Can't even attempt to quest with it cause in like 3 casts our mana is gone and we have to drink again. I wish Blizz would hurry with those dual specs or for a change make some pally taking gear that doesn't require raiding or cost an arm and a flippin leg.

[Hal]

As of the patch for preparation to LK and all throughout LK anticipation no longer exists. Thus making Def rating that much harder to acquire. Yay BLizz geniuses.

[Hal]

Seeing as how your post is really informative, I must give props on it. Just wish I had found it sooner!

The problem is that now, since LK, alot of your info is either obsolete (removal of talent) or useless in the new xpac. I am finding however, that alot of it still applies. I have tanked almost all of the instances in LK and done quite well. The biggest issue I'm having atm is the seemingly ridiculously low drop rate for tanking items in Heroics.

I must admit that I am still learning the tanking side of the class and how to make it better, But on most boss fights I am averaging b/w 5 and 7k tps ... gotta love it. Less chance of a mage under boomkin crit aura to pull away from us.

My only real request is that you may want to make a revised posting of this nature for the xpac. This would be greatly helpful.

[Goodmann]

Will this guide be updated for WOTLK tanking, and if so could you add into it some tips for the Loladins (aoe tank) since Spell damage seems not as important now as stacking strength and stamina, after reading this guid pre WOTLK i had a good idea what i was aiming for my pala tank but now hes still a leveling toon so i need pointers for the next faze of leveling...
Thank you for a well writen and good guide!

[CKaz]

Quick 'to WotLK' summation for Pally tanks -
Int, Spell Power isn't a big deal anymore.

-> skills revamped to use AP just as much
STR pushes out AP, STA pushes out SP [with talents]
-> key threat makers include
HotR which uses the DPS of the weapon (even speed doesnt matter)
SoR which uses Block Value, which also comes from Strength

Even consecration uses equally as much AP, so although you might say 'but I can get more than twice as much SP on a weapon then STR' (STR = 2 AP) Strength is increased by [typical] Prot talents, by Kings, adds to BV which is key, etc.

Might you still want to say, just swap the weapon for SP for BIG AoE? Maybe. Though HotR, SoR, and others might take a bit of a hit, Consecration, HS, and Retribution Aura might eek out enough more for you to suggest such a move.

But generally single-midsize it's all about the regular avoidance/mitigation drill, and STR and STA are your stat leaders. More quick hits - no more Crush, you remove Crit first [defense 540], get miss+parry+dodge+block to 102.4% next (includes 30% HS).

Goal is no crit, and everything after that is avoided or blocked [outside spells]

Maybe this will help a little till the makeover :}

[Blacklac]

To be honest you will have to be extremely geared to reach the old uncrushable cap of 102.4% avoidance. I'm rolling 2 T7 pieces, 1 T7.5 piece (and my T7 Helm last night WOOOT), badge neck and most of my other gear is epic, including a feral ring for the +49 dodge. With that I am still under 100% with HS up. So it is quite unlikely that you will be able to reach such a high % of avoidance anytime soon. Crushing blows were not "removed" per se, they were just increased to 5 lvls higher instead of 3. So chances are unless youre a lvl 75 tanking CoT CoS, you're probably not going to be crushed. That said avoidance is still HUGE for any tank, obviously. With the new changes, you can throw the guide that started this thread right out the window, and something that has always bugged me about it is redoubt. Every balks at vindication for being a proc talent. I believe one post was "Hits the stuff you don't care about, never procs on the stuff you need it to." Same way with redoubt, its always been a garbage talent IMO.

[jere]

Actually 4 levels higher for crushes, not 5. And the reason vindication is balked at is that it doesn't work on bosses (save for Nefarian in BWL...don't ask me why lol). That produced an expression similar to "Doesn't work on the things you want it to, and works on the things you don't care about"

[Blacklac]

Bah semantics! 4 levels 5 levels...either way you wont be getting hit by a raid boss more than 3 levels higher than you. Good point about vindication tho, I actually dropped it from my solo spec because I became annoyed with seeing "Immune" every 2 seconds when I did raid.

[sirnine]

Source: Blacklac To be honest you will have to be extremely geared to reach the old uncrushable cap of 102.4% avoidance. I'm rolling 2 T7 pieces, 1 T7.5 piece (and my T7 Helm last night WOOOT), badge neck and most of my other gear is epic, including a feral ring for the +49 dodge. With that I am still under 100% with HS up. So it is quite unlikely that you will be able to reach such a high % of avoidance anytime soon. Crushing blows were not "removed" per se, they were just increased to 5 lvls higher instead of 3. So chances are unless youre a lvl 75 tanking CoT CoS, you're probably not going to be crushed. That said avoidance is still HUGE for any tank, obviously. With the new changes, you can throw the guide that started this thread right out the window, and something that has always bugged me about it is redoubt. Every balks at vindication for being a proc talent. I believe one post was "Hits the stuff you don't care about, never procs on the stuff you need it to." Same way with redoubt, its always been a garbage talent IMO.

Maybe I am missing something but 102.4% avoidance is still huge. With HS and 72.4% avoidance you are guaranteed to dodge,parry,or block every single melee hit. At this point in the game, you should have upwards of 1k BV thereby reducing your damage at the very least by 1000 every melee hit (hey look that garbage talent redoubt is useful). That is a signature feature of paladin tanking, as we are the only class as far as i know that are realistically able to do that.

[El_Rodeo]

Hi,
I just tried out tanking as a paladin today (retribution) but went very well. Had a couple mobs peel off and do their own thing.

Anyway, I was wondering:

-What aura should I be using? I heard Retribution for it's +holy damage but Devotion aura has the +armour.

- What should my spell rotation be?

- Should I tab and hit all the mobs with a judgement or should I keep on just the one?

- Any good techniques for keeping my mana up?

Keep in mind that I am retribution and won't be respeccing until 70+ (so no avengers shield for me). All replies are much appreciated.