New Prot Paladin for an Experienced Player

[Blashryk]

I am a Protection Paladin, I have been playing since Vanilla but have never been a tank until now (Cataclysm). So I was wondering if there was any tips anyone could give me on either itemization, spec, gemming, etc... Also I was wondering about threat generation and tank DPS. For threat generation I have a tough time keeping up with a Protection Warrior who is the other tank in my 10 mans with threat. I have read up on elitist jerks and maintankadin and am have tried out their rotations and it just isn't cutting it. Also in regards to Tank DPS, I am in no way trying to top the meters or anything but I noticed in our last Wyrmbreaker fight, Our off tank, A prot warrior whom I have better gear than, is doing around 14k DPS, and I was around 8k. Is this just typical paladin DPS or am I just doing it wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, here is a link to my armory profile:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...shyrk/advanced

Cheers!
-Blashryk

[shieldbanger]

Prot wars are considerably better in the current patch for dps and therefore tps, the up coming patch is going to reduce the damage of heroic strike and cleave thereby reducing some tps. Really the only thing you should be worring about is having more tps than your dps that you run with.

[Mr.Winkle]

Ok after a quick look at your armrory the first thing you need to do is up your expertise. The bare minimum would be 16 (26 with the glyph) although ideally you want 45(55 with glyph). That'll certainly increase both your DPS and TPS.

Drop the haste gems, haste is our worst stat.

The armory character audit tells us where else you could improve:

3 empty glyph slots
4 unenchanted items
3 empty sockets in 3 items
Missing Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Blacksmithing: 1 missing socket

[Blashryk]

I think that you audited and looked at my character when I was in Ret Gear :/
Take a look again and tell me what you see

[Exiledknight]

Glyphs- On none AoE fights use CS instead of HoR, use ShoR instead of WoG if youa re not spamming WoG every 3 HP
Enchants-A weapon chain is better than mending, on average I saw less than 1 PPM when I had it


What is the rotation you are using? If you are not using the 3,x,3 rotation it is wrong.

While prot warrior dps is higher, it should not be that type of disparity.

[hammeer]

For threat generation I have a tough time keeping up with a Protection Warrior who is the other tank in my 10 mans with threat.

-- It's either your dps or the enrage timer you should be worried about, not tps vs another tank (friendly competition notwithstanding). Having equal or more tps as another tank doesn't contribute to your goals as a tank, ie: eating damage and keeping mobs off healers/dps. Vengeance should keep you safe for tankswapping scenarios.

A prot warrior whom I have better gear than, is doing around 14k DPS, and I was around 8k. Is this just typical paladin DPS or am I just doing it wrong?

-- 14k dps is a number that one would more expect from an actual dps player -- 8kdps(24ktps) as a tank is just fine for sustained tps, just remember you're ok as long as you're not enraging or capping your teammates. Was the warrior tanking halfus alone? He doesnt hit very hard so he may have geared for as much threat/tps as possible while still being able to tank.

I have read up on elitist jerks and maintankadin and am have tried out their rotations and it just isn't cutting it.

-- have faith in 939. A metric shitton of effort and thought has been put into the research leading to it. spend an hour (seriously, this will payoff more than an hour googling rotations) at a training dummy and get it into your muscle memory. It's fine at extremely low levels of hit/expertise (ie: 0 itempoints put towards them). the rest is judgement calls regarding wog/shotr... let omen and healer mana be your guide.

[Exiledknight]

-- It's either your dps or the enrage timer you should be worried about, not tps vs another tank (friendly competition notwithstanding). Having equal or more tps as another tank doesn't contribute to your goals as a tank, ie: eating damage and keeping mobs off healers/dps. Vengeance should keep you safe for tankswapping scenarios..

I think this needs to be said and taken with a grain of salt, if you are progressing yes that is your job, however you also need to be pushing as much dps out as possible, slacking or using a sub-optimal rotation because you have aggro is letting your entire raid down

-- 14k dps is a number that one would more expect from an actual dps player -- 8kdps(24ktps) as a tank is just fine for sustained tps, just remember you're ok as long as you're not enraging or capping your teammates. Was the warrior tanking halfus alone? .

14k should not be out of the question for a prot warrior, most fights I am able to pull 9-12k single target with under 6% hit(not sure exactly what its at) and something like 23 expertise. Prot warriors do more tps/dps than prot paladins atm so he would not necc be gearing for such. As far as tanking Halfus alone, the drakes hit harder.