Tanking with the Blessing of Kings - The TankSpot Guide to the Protection Paladin

[ddeluca30]

I could use a little help i am currently using the haste mastery build and find that i sometimes spike as i would with an avoidance build i understand that it is most likely my reaction time and nothing to do with the build, however self buffed with might i hit 19% mastery which give my SoTR 50% damage reduction and with SoI i hit just over 25% spell haste. Also i am hit and expertise capped, So i was wondering if someone could take a look at my armory and see if maybe i need to change some gems or enchants or something to help me on top of my having to get my timing down. Thanks in advance for the look
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Pason/advanced

[Valaras]

Either go for FULL haste of FULL mastery, your mixture of both is not gonna work at all. Get rid of the hybrid gems, and put 320 haste gems everywhere (assuming you are 10 man, I dunno exactly how 25 man gemming works and I hear it's different).

At the moment, there are very few fights that require you to actually time your SotR with an ability on normal to survive, so going full haste and just putting SotR up on 3 orbs for starters will do. When you get a bit more comfortable with it, you can actually start timing it with the boss' swing timer to the best of your ability. But really, even on Heroic, on most fights I just spam SotR as much as I can. Only exceptions are Horridon, Tortos (if you are tanking the boss and not adds), Ji-Kun and if you wanna stretch it to heroic, Ra-Den.

Here's my armory as a reference.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...cando/advanced

[ddeluca30]

Thanks for the help i am in a 10 man and the only reason i went with haste and mastery is i was informed that you wanted to get your mastery to 19% with your might buff so that your SoTR has the 50% damage reduction although it seems the more i look around the more i don't see other tanks doing it. So i am gonna change out some gems get the haste enchant for my gloves and see where that gets me. again thanks for the help.

[Valaras]

Glad to have helped.

[Fetzie]

Thanks for the help i am in a 10 man and the only reason i went with haste and mastery is i was informed that you wanted to get your mastery to 19% with your might buff so that your SoTR has the 50% damage reduction although it seems the more i look around the more i don't see other tanks doing it. So i am gonna change out some gems get the haste enchant for my gloves and see where that gets me. again thanks for the help.

Yeah, go full haste

If you want to get some stamina for whatever reason, do that via trinket slots. Trinkets get more primary stat budget than armor items do.

Otherwise, work on the ShoR timing (make sure it is ready for boss specials like Triple Puncture, Talon Rake and Hard Stare), don't forget to keep Sacred Shield rolling (the absorbs are insane, last night I had it absorbing over 350k damage every 4 seconds) and use ShoR wisely (if you are not taking damage or not tanking save up 5 holy power just before the tank swap so that you have 6 seconds of ~50% less damage taken while the healers realize you are now taking damage).

[ddeluca30]

Thanks again for all the advice after going straight haste and working on a few things my guild healers said i was much easier to heal this week so things are looking up lol. i have one last question as far as food and flask i am using stam stuff, i don't really see any other flask that would be useful but what about haste food instead of stam just curious. again thanks for all the help!!

[Valaras]

You can also use elixir of the rapids (gives 750 haste) + mantid elixir (2.250) armor. Or you can use a strength flask. You won't find much of a difference. I personally just use whatever I got available, though lately I almost always use elixirs. Stamina flask is preferred for the fights with heavy magic damage.

[Theotherone]

So this is my pally; I've been mainly healing (sort of got myself stuck as a healer in Cata and it's stayed with me), but like to mess a bit with tanking so I keep a tank set together with whatever odds and sods I can lay my hands on. You all think I should not have the stam gems? If those go, my stam is awful low, especially compared with my DK. Any input would be useful.

Thanks

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ckstraw/simple

[Tengenstein]

Yeah i think they should be haste/stam hybrids. Actually as you're below the expertise cap, as few of your haste/exp gems should probably be pure expertise gems. You can probably find most of it by re-evaluationg your reforges. I wouldn't worry about stam comparisons, DKs get a straight 9% more stam per rating than paladins do.

[Theotherone]

Yeah i think they should be haste/stam hybrids. Actually as you're below the expertise cap, as few of your haste/exp gems should probably be pure expertise gems. You can probably find most of it by re-evaluationg your reforges. I wouldn't worry about stam comparisons, DKs get a straight 9% more stam per rating than paladins do.

Thanks Teng. I knew I was off by about 1.8% so I changed some gems and got to the exp cap. I also realized my shield wasn't enchanted and I changed my bracers to mastery. I'll have a 502 weapon this week so I'll change out the weapon enchant then. This is where I am now.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ckstraw/simple

[Fetzie]

Personally, I value the 50 mastery enchant higher than the 170 parry one.

You only really need more stamina if you are dying to spike damage; if you aren't dying then you don't need more stamina and can stack more haste.

Get hold of a Ghost Iron Dragonling trinket, put in hit/expertise/haste cogwheels and replace the Stuff of Nightmares.

[Theotherone]

Thanks Fetzie.

[Fetzie]

Updated for Patch 5.3

[Theotherone]

Fetzie, have you changed your opinon on Hand of Purity since it received the 10% damage reduction in addition to the 70% DoT damage reduction. For healing I use it all the time, the damage reduction would seem to make it the best overall choice in that tier.

[Fetzie]

Depends on the fight. It is damn near game-breaking if you are on heroic magaera (especially if solo-tanking on 10H), it is useful on Durumu too.