Paladinning On Patch Day

[Lore]

Here's your survival guide to today's 3.0 patch, similar to Cider's Warrior guide. I recommend reading over that guide in addition to this one, as parts of it apply to Paladins as well as Warriors, and I won't be repeating those here.

Rotation

3.0 Paladin tanks are encountering the beginning of the "969" rotation. At 80, this rotation maximizes ability uptime by alternating between our three 9-second cooldown abilities (Judgement, Holy Shield, Consecration, which are technically 8-second cooldowns but must be staggered by 1 second due to GCD) and 6-second cooldown abilities (Hammer of the Righteous, Shield of Righteousness), like so:

1. Holy Shield
2. Hammer of the Righteous
3. Judgement
4. Shield of Righteousness
5. Consecration
6. Hammer of the Righteous
7. etc.

At 70, we don't have Shield of Righteousness, so there's a gap in the rotation. That makes a great time to use abilities like Exorcism, Avenger's Shield, or Holy Wrath, or to re-buff your seal. In addition, once an enemy is below 35% health, Hammer of Wrath fits into that spot nicely.

Paladin Tanking Specs

Raid Main Tanking
I make two assumptions with this build. One is that the 3% DR on Shield of the Templar didn't make it into the build that was pushed live today (it hadn't made it to Beta yet). The other is that you won't have anyone else to cast Blessing of Kings; even if you and your fellow tanks prefer Sanctuary, others in the raid will want it. If you have a Ret Paladin, or a Holy Paladin willing to dip into Prot instead of Ret, feel free to drop those points and put them elsewhere.

5-Man/Heroic/Karazhan Tanking
This build drops Kings, Guarded by the Light, and all of the Ret tree to pick up Seals of the Pure, Shield of the Templar, Improved Hammer of Justice, and Divine Guardian. No points in Improved Judgement will screw with your threat rotation a bit, but it shouldn't be too bad. You should also be able to live without Kings in smaller group content as just about everyone is going to prefer something else. In exchange, you pick up a healthy overall damage increase, and a little bit more group flexibility through Imp. HoJ and Divine Guardian.

A Note on Judgements of the Just
Many builds will not include JotJ, and in some cases you can get away with it. However, bear in mind that Warriors have to spend rage and a GCD to put up the Thunderclap effect, and Infected Wounds (the Feral Druid equivalent of JotJ) is not a part of most Cat specs -- only full Bear or Feral PVP. Furthermore, if it comes down to a Prot Pally taking JotJ or a Bear Druid taking Infected Wounds, the Druid gains significantly more by putting those points elsewhere than the Paladin would.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs available in 3.0:
Glyph of Consecration
Glyph of Exorcism
Glyph of Flash of Light
Glyph of Hammer of Justice
Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Righteous Defense
Glyph of Spiritual Attunement

Minor Glyphs available in 3.0:
Glyph of Blessing of Kings
Glyph of Blessing of Might
Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom
Glyph of Lay On Hands
Glyph of Sense Undead
Glyph of the Wise

Remember, you've only got two Major slots and three Minor slots at 70. My recommendations for 3.0 Tankadins are:

Major
Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Righteous Defense

Minor
Glyph of Blessing of Kings
Glyph of Lay On Hands
Glyph of Sense Undead

This is for someone who is still primarily focused on raiding/tanking. The Flash of Light glyph is amazing for grinding, and most of the other glyphs can have some potential usage as well. Stay away from the Consecration glyph, as the extended duration will screw with your rotation.

Itemization

Prot Paladin gear has seen a hefty overhaul, so don't be alarmed when you log in and your Spellpower and Intellect is all gone. It's been replaced by Strength in 99% of situations, which usually translates to an increase in total threat/damage output.

Warrior-style gear was hit a little harder, with most of the Strength coming as a reduction in avoidance, particularly Defense. Uncrushable is no longer a concern, but uncrittable definitely is, so be sure to double check your Defense skill and consider gemming or enchanting for it to get back over the cap if need be.

Ability Changes

The key ability changes for Prot Paladins in 3.0 are:

• Seal and Judgement overhaul - Seals now last two minutes and aren't consumed by Judgement, which now triggers a GCD. Furthermore, the Light/Wisdom/Justice debuffs are no longer dependent on having their respective seals active, simply use the respective Judgement ability.
• Avenger's Shield, Hammer of Wrath, and Holy Wrath are all now instant cast. In addition, Holy Wrath's radius has been reduced, but it now stuns anything it hits for 2 seconds.
• Blessing of Sanctuary has been buffed significantly - it now reduces damage taken by 3% and restores 2% mana, 10 rage, or 20 runic power every time you dodge, parry, or block.
• Holy Shield cooldown is now 8 seconds. Duration is still 10 seconds.
• Seal of Vengeance has been buffed and given to the Horde as Seal of Corruption. It now always applies its DoT effect on every swing, increases Judgement damage by 10% per stack, and Judgements do not consume the DoT effect. Also, since HotR procs seals, you can effectively keep a 5-stack up on multiple mobs. This makes Vengeance the best seal for tanking in 99% of situations.
• Most attacks now scale with both Attack Power and Spellpower. The only exception at level 70 is Hammer of the Righteous, which doesn't scale with Spellpower.
• Downranking has been removed. However, the new Blessing of Sanctuary should solve any mana issues.

That should summarize anything Paladin-specific for the 3.0 transition. Remember to check Cider's guide for some of the more general changes.

[Xav]

why must you keep bumping warrior goodness down the page little paladin

[Kazeyonoma]

sigh... silly p******ns

[Ciderhelm]

Yesss... This will be useful once Bluedot gets his second character up and can grant me like 42 levels...

[Alent]

Silly w******s. Respec ARMs and give me my blood frenzy.

[Warwench]

Yesss... This will be useful once Bluedot gets his second character up and can grant me like 42 levels...

i did that.

level 30 Pally became level 59 Pally.

No skills, no stats, no spells, no gear and no clue wtf i was doing.. lol

[Ciderhelm]

No skills, no stats, no spells, no gear and no clue wtf i was doing.. lol

No weapon skill is probably the worst part of melee classes getting levels granted.

[Alent]

3.0 = afk fun in stormwind at target dummies.

[Lore]

i did that.

level 30 Pally became level 59 Pally.

No skills, no stats, no spells, no gear and no clue wtf i was doing.. lol

I took a level 10 Shaman to level 60.

I don't even have totems.

[Ciderhelm]

3.0 = afk fun in stormwind at target dummies.

They don't grant weapon skill, do they?

[Lore]

I HATE WEAPON SkILL

[feelengyu]

I managed to take my pally from 31-60. Turns out im still a bad pally. Holy or prot. :-(

[MonkH]

im leveling last bits of weapon skill b4 patch comes cus cant usse mobs in blasted lands

[Krete]

I took a level 10 Shaman to level 60.

I don't even have totems.

Hilarious

Also, good post, thanks!

[Turkson]

Pfft, we're strong arming our Holy Paladins to pick up Kings. More points for me!

[Kraugug]

You know, I never thought much of JotJ since I saw now. I always looked at it as "Death Knights can slow enemy attacks, Bears can slow enemy attacks, warriors can slow enemy attacks, so why should I put 2 points into a talent to do the same thing, when everyone else already has them?"

Looking at it now, bears are spending 3 points to get a 12% reduction, warriors are spending 3 to get a 20% reduction, and DK's are spending 3 points to get a 20% reduction. We are spending 2 points to get a 20% reduction, to add on to an ability we use all the time. Surely that has to be worth 2 points?

Now, hopefully Blizzard's new raid buff/debuff system, abilities that over lap will still be considered on the target, so that if I use JotJ on a boss and a DK uses IT to put up Frost Fever, they won't lose their damage bonus on their skills because their effect might be trumped by mine...

This could be another instance of the tanking classes working together. If you know your other 10 man tank is a frost DK, you can put those 2 points elsewhere, but if its a bear, you can give them the choice to take IW or not.

[Hrothian]

Looking at it now, bears are spending 3 points to get a 12% reduction, warriors are spending 3 to get a 20% reduction, and DK's are spending 3 points to get a 20% reduction. We are spending 2 points to get a 20% reduction, to add on to an ability we use all the time. Surely that has to be worth 2 points?

Well put.

[MontanaTaur]

You know, I never thought much of JotJ since I saw now. I always looked at it as "Death Knights can slow enemy attacks, Bears can slow enemy attacks, warriors can slow enemy attacks, so why should I put 2 points into a talent to do the same thing, when everyone else already has them?"

The funny thing is, other classes are doing the same. I know druids who aren't bothering with IW because warriors, DKS and pallies can do it!! Have to be careful, or your 10-man will end up with 2 tanks who BOTH skipped the relevant talents

Looking at it now, bears are spending 3 points to get a 12% reduction, warriors are spending 3 to get a 20% reduction, and DK's are spending 3 points to get a 20% reduction. We are spending 2 points to get a 20% reduction, to add on to an ability we use all the time. Surely that has to be worth 2 points?

Minor correction. Bears get 20% from the 3 points. IW gives 10% reduction, but stacks twice, for a total of 20%.

It is also on an ability we use all the time (Mangle and Maul).

Question for pallies: How does your JoJ work, anyway? Does it get applied to multiple targets at once like TC, or does it need to be applied to each target individually? What sort of range?

Here's why I ask -- regardless of what my guild's other tanks do, I'm planning on taking IW at least initially. Reducing an enemy's attack speed just seems like such a basic tanking skill, I hesitate to rely on other tanks for it.

I also expect some fights/pulls will have mobs that need to be tanked away from one another, so I could easily be out of range of the other tank's TC, JoJ, IT+Pestilence, etc.

There are also the fights like Malcress where I'm the only one on a particular mob for a while as the rest of the raid deals with adds and other things. In that scenario, it seems the only ability from another tank that will help me out here would be TC...which could be unusable due to the CC nearby.

Just seems wise to have the skill most of the time.

Pfft, we're strong arming our Holy Paladins to pick up Kings. More points for me!

The holy pally I currently run with was already planning on getting this, and is thrilled she doesn't have to go so far down the tree. She likes being the designated Kings-blesser...so much simpler

[Kraugug]

Question for pallies: How does your JoJ work, anyway? Does it get applied to multiple targets at once like TC, or does it need to be applied to each target individually? What sort of range?

It only affects the target of Judgement, so it only goes on the target we cast Judgement on. And for tankadins, the range is 10 yards only.

Didn't know IW stacked twice....not a bear, but definitely a fan of any tank capable class and spec.

[Thos]

You know, the warriors have cool videos in their post. Due to server lag and all the craziness associated with it, I havent been able to get a whole group together and actually inside an instace. Anyone have a good Tankadin vid from an instance or two? BC or WotLK, I dont care. I just need something to drool over while the server is down for the millionth time.