Paladin Paladin Tanking

[Spitsworth]

Hi everyone,

Didn't see a paladin tank thread here.

What's the basics of Paladin tanking here in WoW 1.12?

So far as I can tell, it's:

- Get consecration
- Turn on righteous fury
- Consecrate to gain aggro

Anything else that is important to know? Specs, gear, auras, everything.

Thanks,

Spits

 

[Kamchak]

The following is a build that is working for me well for tanking Scholomance, undead part of Stratholme and also for PvP against melee classes while still being support in a group (mind that I am not very geared):
- Protection-holy paladin.

If you don't want to PvP, or if you don't plan on supporting (healing and dispelling, switching role during battle, etc.), then you might want to remove some of the healing abilities. However, that way you really should have picked a warrior.
- Protection warrior-paladin.
The rest four points I suggest to spend on reckoning, one-handed weapon specialisation or benediction. If you think you needn't anything in the holy branch, then you might want to put those points into retribution for better mana conservation and judgements.

As you get gear you should probably be useful in all non-raid dungeons as well. If you don't mind wearing items that have previously being worn by undead, you might want to try and get the deathbone guardian set from Scholomance. Otherwise, I suggest either D2 or PvP R10 or R13, if you can get those. I also strongly suggest using a spike on your shield. If you happen to be an engineer, have grenades ready, I saw those being useful.

You should also always have mana potions, because you will run out of mana a lot. I would suggest those from PvP R6: combat mana potion. Try not to waste them, but if you really need mana, don't hesitate to drink one.

I will also suggest having insignia of the Alliance at all times.

As for the raids, I don't know. I heard paladin-tanks are not welcome there, but I've never tried to get into one.

As a paladin, you will get most of threat as you get hit. Also, your initial threat matters, as it might be hard to regain it if you lose it. Therefore I suggest you have your group giving you ~3-5 seconds to cast your most useful spells before they join in. Now what are your useful spells:

1. Righteous fury - keep it on all the time.
2. Retribution aura (unless you have another paladin with improved version) - keep it on always except for when you know others won't be able to gain more threat anymore. In that case you might want to switch to devotion aura or to one of resistance aurae.
3. Blessing of sanctuary - keep it on all the time. If there are more paladins in the group, I suggest them giving you blessing of kings (if they have) or blessing of wisdom. If there are several paladins, you are advised to always have a full set of aurae, blessings and judgements.
4. Judgement of the crusader (unless you have another paladin who keeps it on all the time, in that case you might want to use judgement of light or judgement of wisdom in most cases) - keep your judgements on all the time.
5. Seal of righteousness - you should have some seal, and this one works well. If you have spare mana, you can throw a judgement occasionately. If you are running out of health or mana, you might want to switch to light or wisdom (along with the relevant judgement).
6. Consecration - use it in the beginning of the fight, when extra monsters appear or when you think you should have some extra threat.
7. Holy shield - use it often. For better effect, use it when your redoubt effect is on. If you need redoubt immediately, sit on the ground and the next shot you get will be critical, granting you the effect.
8. Hammer of justice - use it when you lose threat. It gives extra time for other activities.
9. Exorcism and holy wrath - useful against undead, if you can afford its mana cost. Along with judgement of righteousness, it can be used to try and pull back those who lose threat.
10. Blessing of protection - useful to save team-mates, especially healer. Don't forget to rebuff them later.
11. Divine intervention - if you think the group is going to die, use it on anybody who can resurrect, providing they're out of pulling range.

Another important thing is the marks. You should always be able to control the marks (especiall skull for the enemy who must die first). As a paladin it's extremelly important, because once you lose threat, it might be impossible for you to get it back. Therefore, if let's say, some enemy decides to attack your healer, you might want to switch whole group on him first right during the battle.

Always let your group know what each mark means and they should always follow those marks. Don't forget to mark patrols. If you have control classes (mages with sheep, druids with sleep, etc.), make sure they always watch their marks. It's possible that your consecration will break control effects, and your group must be ready to sheep, sleep, fear as many times as needed while you will lead the pack away from controlled ones, so that your consecration won't harm them any longer.

The last thing that comes to my mind are macro operations. I would suggest to have important commands on your screen, such as '/incoming' for patrols, '/oom', '/helpme' and '/followme' to let group know they're needed at your target, '/healme' (maybe so that support classes can switch to healing), '/flee' (can be useful before casting divine intervention). There could be more, but these came off the top of my head.

 

[Spitsworth]

Thanks!

 

[TheFishyOne]

Learn to trust your aggro and not over rely on consecrate. This is not Nost, and you will go oom every pull and hold the group up with your need to drink. Don’t even bother with consecrate on single targets unless your group is filled with trigger happy Gnomes. Keep multiple ranks on your bar; I use 1, 3, and max. Remember to use ret aura when AoE tanking, and Devo for bosses that don’t hit superfast. If you ever see Geofram online, hit him up if you want to talk finer points of Pallytanking.

 

[Orcinus]

Judgement of the crusader (unless you have another paladin who keeps it on all the time, in that case you might want to use judgement of light or judgement of wisdom in most cases) - keep your judgements on all the time.

Is it best to judge Crusader? Sure it increases your Holy damage for the rest of the fight, but I have found previously that by judging Righteousness at the beginning of the fight, it gives me a nice burst of threat early on that allows be to secure the aggro throughout the fight. By judging Crusader you'll then need to wait for a few swings before having a decent amount of threat.

 

[Psojed]

Quick, rough math. Judge Crusader = 140 spell damage, that's +14 damage/swing on 1-handed SoR (talent bonus not included), also (5*8) damage for Consecration duration, and also +70 damage per judgement. In 8 seconds (judgement CD), assuming 2.0 weapon speed, in an ideal situation, you gain total 70+(5*8)+(8/2*14)=166 damage. Judgement of Righteousness deals 170 avg. damage by itself (talent bonus not included). Conclusion = judging SotC basically spreads the initial aggro over the first ~10 seconds = If the fight doesn't last 10s, judge Righteousness.

 

[delphwind24]

Judge Crusader when you are AoE tanking 3+ mobs. I usually judge crusader, drop Concentrate, switch targets, activate Seal of Righteousness and then go about my normal rotation. The initial mob you judged Crusader on will build up a lot more threat on you because of the concentrate, then you can worry about keeping the rest of the pack on you with Seal/Judgement of Righteousness while the DPS go hog wild and refuse to pay attention to your skull mark. On pulls that are 1-2 mobs, dont bother with Crusader (unless it's a boss as Psojed said, 10+ seconds), just judge Righteousness and tab between mobs to keep aggro.

 

[Zipzo]

Paladins are fine tanks as long as they have consecration. Their lacking of a taunt makes consecration vital to multi-mob aggro consistency. Aside from that the only reason they aren’t as effective in raid content is because they don’t have the tier gear for it, and good tanking off-set pieces are not plentiful enough. Most raid bosses are immune to taunt anyway, and even then, it’s based on spell hit and often misses. Aside from that though, I would almost argue they are better than warriors for dungeons and pre-raid stuff.

 

[TheFishyOne]

If you are tanking 3 or more mobs at a time, and your group has a lot of AoE, Seal and judge Wis on your target, and spam max rank Consecrate on CD. You can use this to solo tank core hound packs in MC and have mana to spare after the fight is done.

Also, for pulls of less than 3 mobs, or bosses, use max rank Consecrate with JotC up to establish initial aggro, then rely on HS and JoR to vastly increse your staying power in long fights. Remember, HS has a 20% coefficient, as well as 20% bonus threat, so get a solid spelldmg weapon, and enchant it with the +30 spelldmg chant from MC.

 

[Hadana]

For dungeon tanking I actually advise you to go Holy first. You need to anyway for Consecration. And later on you get Holy Shock which you can use for pulling and burst thread. If you lose thread on a mob just use Holy Shock (perhaps with Divine Favor so it will be a critical hit) and Judgement of Righteousness. It will get you back on top most of the time.
Let your team mates focus down targets one by one. That way Consecration and Retribution Aura will give you a head start on thread on all the other mobs. Later on in the fight you can just use Seal/Judgement of Wisdom to regain your mana, because you are far ahead on threat anyway. Lower ranks of Consecration will do the job for you at this point most of the time. I almost never have to drink when tanking dungeons. When I am not 100% I usually just sit down as well when healers or damage dealers need a mana break. A really big part of tanking as paladin is mana management.
Compared to tanking as protection paladin I found holy way easier. Sure you take more damage but in dungeons thats rarely an issue. At least I never got any complaints so far. Try Holy, you will like it I bet. I enjoyed it more than going for protection.