Changing Race for Paladin Tank (Alliance)

[Etive]

Hi guys, been a while since I've been here!

So I've recently come back to WoW after about 2 years out, absolutely loving MoP.

I'm bored of my Draenei Paladin though (I have 2!, long story) and am considering changing race. I've had a little look into what race might be best for a Paladin tank based on skills such as Humans having 'Every Man For Himself' and Dwarves having 'Stoneform'.

I can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether race actually makes any difference at level 90 or if it's just all about how purrdy the spells/toons look -.-

Any suggestions or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Etive
Nordrassil (EU)

[Fetzie]

The best alliance race for tanking is currently Dwarf because of stoneskin.

[sifuedition]

Although, the times that stoneform will be the difference between a wipe and a kill are few.

It just depends on how you feel about absolute min/max. Diplomacy, for instance will also help you rep grind faster and at the start of an xpac like this may increase your gear that much faster. There are always trade offs. Personally, I love Every Man for Himself and Diplomacy. Anything to not have to grind as much rep.

[Takethecake]

Alliance get the best tanking racials =/

[Superworm]

I guess drawf is the min/max choice. If you are in a hard core guild, which may not be your case, no rep gear is mandatory, as all the gear can be obtained from raid. And you still need the valor points for purchase anyway, and Diplomacy has nothing to do with that. So chances are that your bottle-neck in purchasing the epics are how much valor points you have, not how fast you can grind the rep.

Sadly night elves can not roll a paladin. Their racial is really strong for tanks.

[Theotherone]

Dwarves rule, female dwarves even more - I'm biased, I have a Dwarf Pally, Shammy, Rogue and Hunter. All kidding aside, tanking on the Pally I do like the Stoneskin cooldown; also helpful these days as an extra cleanse.

[Etive]

Thanks for the replies guys. Tbh, I'm just being picky. After quitting for so long the spacegoat is just boring to look at. I'll just need to decide whether it's worth spending the money just because of how it looks as the racials don't really seem like they would make all that much difference.

[aresius]

The best alliance race for tanking is currently Dwarf because of stoneskin.

I cant fully agree.

While for DPS classes there are racials that are a flat DPS increase and thus better, its a bit more complicated for tanks.

If i am not mistaken the dwarven racial is pretty much the only racial that grants damage reduction. Many see this and assume it is the best tanking racial. But the 10% damage reduction for 8 seconds and on a 3 min CD is so small that its overall impact on total damage taken is near irrelivant.

This ability could indeed give a slight (but important) edge when dealing with some very hard hitting abilities/mechanics in which even a major cooldown might not suffice (HMadness Impale at no or low nerfs comes to mind), but this is the only case in which it matters, and this kind of mechanic isint present in every Boss.

Meanwhile, other racials such as the draenei healing racial would be more usefull in constant but not overwhelming damage income situations. We used it widely during Baleroc progression (since its receiver % based and even DPS could throw in significant heals), or for MV first boss (whos major damage source is the DOT). It is easy to see that mitigating a couple of dot ticks 10% is a smaller contribution to survivability then a HoT for 20% of your base health.

Even the human racial, widely regarded as " PvP" , was usefull in Hagara - I could dispell myself from my slows thus dismissing the need of healer attention for the ice fase (of course paladins have other methods for removing slows, but this falls from the point im making).

What im getting to is: If every racial shines in only one fight per Tier, its hard to say one is better then another.

Anyhow, I honestly beleive that the Expertise/Hit gains from races (or the dodge bonus for NE) are far more important then their activated racial habilities. However, since many of these are weapon type dependant and we cannot know for sure which weapons will be available, it has little impact on class decision.

In the end i play a human because i like the looks, expertise bonuses to two different weapon types (sword/mace) and I absolutely hate farming rep. I figured that, knowing myself, without that rep bonus i might find myself weeks behind on getting rep gear during progression - which would have much more impact then any racial.

All this was just to explain my line of reasoning when i state:
"For tanks, although races may be optimal on a fight for fight basis, there is no better tanking race in general" .

My advice is to just pick whatever race you want to play.