Poster: Krynn at 3/13/2006 2:50:23 PM PST
Subject: A Guide to Paladin Tanking |
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Introduction:
First and foremost, I am not writing this as a call for Paladins to rise up and take on the mantle of main tank. I do not believe that we are superior to Warriors and I am not an advocate for Paladins main tanking in The Molten Core or in Blackwing Lair.
That being said, I do believe that we are excellent tankers and fully capable of tanking any 5-man instance in the game. And while we shouldn't be going toe-to-toe with Ragnaros or Golemagg, we are more than able to hold the attention of one of Garr's Firesworn or keep a Flamewaker Elite busy while Domo's other adds are killed.
There are numerous Paladins out there that rolled this class because they believed what Blizzard told us from the outset, that we are meant to be in the front lines, protecting our allies from harm. I believed it and have striven towards that goal. I am here to help explain how other Paladins can make that belief a reality.
And just to give you a bit of warning about the length of this thread and to give you an inkling of what's to come, I give you the...
Table of Contents
- 1 - The Basics
Aggro - Damage Mitigation
- 2 - Stats
Stamina - Intellect - Strength - Spirit - Agility
- 3 - Talents
Protection - Retribution - Holy
- 4 - Combat
Personal Setup - Party Setup - Single Targets - Multiple Elite Targets - Multiple Non-Elite Targets - Undead Targets - Losing Aggro and Other Problems
- 5 - Gear
Helms - Shoulders - Chest Armor - Bracers - Gloves - Belts - Leggings - Boots - Weapons - Shields
- 6 - Summary
Part I - The Basics:
Tanking is about 2 things, aggro and damage mitigation. Now bear with me, I know most of you already know what both of these concepts are, but let's be thorough and explain this for the people in the back.
Aggro is simply making sure the mob or mobs you are facing are attacking you and not the Priests in the background or the Warriors swinging Obsidian Edged Blades by your side. Paladins hold aggro through our spell Righteous Fury and generating threat with a constant and steady stream of holy based damage. I'll go into greater detail about all of these later.
Damage mitigation is making sure that while you are being hit by those mobs focused on you, you are not losing health too quickly and overtaxing your healers. Without proper mitigation, you will die before the Priests can heal you or the mob will start to chase the Druids for casting too much. Our greatest asset in this realm is our trusty shield. It adds armor to cushion our bodies and blocks damage from frontal attacks. It can boost our stats and even deal damage and greatly boost our aggro while tanking. I'll also talk about this and other methods of damage mitigation later.
But keep those two concepts in mind when fashioning your Paladin, maximize your abilities in those two fields and you've taken your first step to being a great tank.
Part II - Stats:
Whether it's buying greens on the Auction House or rolling on Blues in instances, keep in mind that just like any other class, we are highly stat dependent. Not having enough of one can be a serious hindrance in our ability to tank, while not having too much of another and we can still do our job. Listed in order of importance, we have:
Stamina
Stamina increases our maximum health. Simply put, the more health we have, the more punishment we can take. To be able laugh at normal hits and not be too worried about larger crits is important to any tank and if you can't take a couple of heavy crits in a matter of few seconds and still have well over 50% of your health bar filled, you have a problem.
Every point of stamina equals 10 health. A decent Paladin tank, before equipping epics, should have around 3.8k health before buffs at level 60. Of course, the better your gear and the greater the spells cast upon you, can easily bring you up to 6k+ in health, but 3.8k is an excellent start and what you should strive for by the time you reach level 60. Unbuffed and without armor, a human Paladin has about 2,200 health, meaning you're looking for around +160 stamina on your equipment optimally.
Most magical plate armor you find will already have a boost to stamina on it, so fulfilling this base requirement isn't too difficult. However, if you find yourself tanking, but are still uncomfortable how far your health bar drops whenever you get attacked, look into stamina enchantments for your boots and bracers (or better armor).
Intellect
The fuel for our mana reserves and the energy for almost all of our tanking abilities. The more intellect you have means more options at your disposal and the greater duration of your ability to tank. Run out of mana and you won't be able to judge your Seal of Righteousness or cast Holy Shield one last time.
Every point of intellect adds 15 mana to your mana pool. Like health, an optimal amount of mana to have is around 3.8k before buffs at level 60. More mana means being able to tank longer without taking a break or being able to tank greater numbers of mobs.
Finding magical plate with intellect on it can be a bit more difficult. Typically any you find in instances that does have it will have other stats or abilities that aren't as useful to Tankadins. Still, the gear does exist and if you have problems getting hold of it, there's always those trusty enchanters.
Strength
Further down the list is strength. Needed not so much for DPS (though higher damage does generate more threat) as it is needed for blocking.
Roughly every 22 points of strength allow for one more point of damage reduction every time you block with your shield. This may not sound like much at the start, but when you hit the upper levels and find gear that can give you upwards of +100-200 strength, you'll be taking as much as 10 less damage per block. Some may scoff at this, seeing it as a paltry sum when compared to the normal infrequency of blocks, but when mixed with +%blocking gear and talents, strength can greatly increase your damage mitigation, especially when battling against groups of non-elite mobs in instances.
Like stamina, most plate found in game will have bonuses to strength. Just note that overall it is not as important as intellect when picking your gear and if you have choice between Boots of the Bear or Boots of the Eagle, go for the latter.
Spirit
At close to the bottom of the list we find spirit. This increases your health and mana regeneration rates, but only when you are out of combat for health or not casting at all for mana. As you should be typically casting nonstop while in combat, this doesn't come in very handy. The only times you might gain any benefit from spirit is while under the influence of a Druid's Innervate.
For your mana regeneration needs, rely more in +mana /5 second gear than in spirit.
Agility
As a Protection specced Paladin, the only real use for agility is a minor increase in armor. Some may believe that agility is desirable because it also increases both critical strike chance and dodge percentage. Unfortunately, critical strikes do not increase the amount of holy damage generated by your seals and, as I will discuss later, you actually want to be hit to aid in your generation of threat.
A blessing and a curse, agility should only be on your gear if it is mixed with other stats that you desire on an item in particular.[ post edited by Krynn ]
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