Paladin Tank

                     One of the roles I do the most is tanking, therefore I get asked a lot on how to tank with X class or what stats are the best for Y class. Well the sad part is I don't have all the answers, but I can provide almost all of them. I'll start with the premier tanking class in WotLK expansion which is Paladin.

Back in the days of TBC paladin used to be a spell power based tank; yes, a tank with spell power everywhere. With the homogenization of plate tank gear for the introduction of the Death Knight class, paladin had to go through the change of using the same gear as Protection Warriors. The changes end there, Blizzard didn't want to make paladin tanks the same as warriors so the threat generation and class particularities remained the same overall. Paladin tanks generate threat through holy damage, there are plenty of sources of threat generation other classes won't make use of; I'll go step by step on how to gear up your paladin tank and why you shouldn't think of it as a warrior just because both equip a shield.

Another misconception is thinking Protection Paladin is easy to play just because Retribution Paladin spec is easy to. Who hasn't heard this?

"Retri pala is a 4 button spec therefore Prot pala must be just as cheap"

This is a very ignorant assumption many make regarding paladins. You will see by yourself soon enough.

Talents

                 This is the best spec for paladin tank focused on 25 man content. Now we will go through the wats and the whys of this spec.

• 2/2 Judgements of the Just: Whilst some may argue Death Knight's(DK) Frost Fever reduces attack speed making this talent unnecessary, truth is some DK tanks skip the talent to make their fever reduce the attack speed from 14 to 20%. DK dps will go 99% of the time with improved Frost Fever, but there's no guarantee a DK will put fever on your target, for example Saurfang during Gunship event or the Oozes at Rotface encounter. I prefer having that nice 20% whenever I want.
• 0/5 Reckoning: It is indeed true your threat will be higher with points here, but the difference is just not worth dropping points from other threat generation talents into this one.
• 1/2 Spiritual Attunement: You don't need two points here, you get enough mana with all the massive damage a MT takes, also considers the four points in Benediction.
• 4/5 Benediction: You need to get to the third tier some way, skipping Heart of the Crusader and Improved Blessing of Might. The reason you skip these two is because Holy Paladins will pick them 99% of the time. You won't give Might over your precious Sanctuary buff. Another reason to skip the 3% is because it doesn't stacks with Totem of Wrath.
• 1/2 Improved Judgements: You only need 1 point due to the Paladin tank Rotation.
• 2/2 Pursuit of Justice: 15% bonus movement speed is great, and you only sacrifice 2% crit from Conviction that most paladin tanks invest on. Just try it out and you'll see how those high mobility bosses are easier to move around.
• 0/1 Seal of Command: Useful only for mobs, it really is useless for boss encounters. Your Hammer of the Righteous applies stacks of Seal of Vengeance so it's not a total loss of AoE aggro if you skip this.

If you think you're not ready for 25 mans or wish to do 10/5 mans more often you can move points from Benediction to Heart of the Crusader and maybe 1 point from Conviction to Seal of Command for 5 mans.

Generic Tanking stats

               There are some numbers you wish to reach regardless of the tank you play, here are some numbers to help you out just in case (in order of importance):

1. Defense Rating (DR): NPCs two levels higher than you (like the ones you find in 5 mans) have a 5.4% critical strike chance with melee attacks; a 535 defense rating will make you uncrittable for these encounters. NPCs three levels higher than you (like the ones you fight in raids) have a 5.6% crit chance, stomp them with 540 defense rating.
2. Hit rating (HR): If you are playing draenei or have one in your group get 7%, otherwise 8%. For 5 mans 7% is enough.
3. Expertise Rating (EPR): Maybe as important as hit, you need 6.5% (26) to hit through your foe's dodge. (82 EPR if you have glyph of Seal of Vengeance).

What stats should my Paladin focus on?

               I sometimes get asked why I don't insert Stamina gems everywhere if Defense rating gets capped and further DR is useless. Well, the answer is further DR for a paladin tank is not useless. This is where people mix up tank stats and think just because something is very good for a class it automatically makes it good for all the others. Yes indeed Stamina scales very well with buffs and the health buff you get inside Icecrown Citadel, but it also makes you a paper-tank. It doesn't matter how much spell damage high-end raids do, that damage will never surpass the damage dealt by physical attacks (or Auto attacks) on the MT. Your focus as a tank regardless of class is to soak damage, to take the least possible damage so heals are not pressured, while generating enough threat (losing aggro 1 second will mean a dead dps, then comes the QQ). We will focus on threat later but for now you must realize paladin tank is very different to the other tanking classes in the sense DR is not a waste of stat (and I don't mind explaining why).

 102.4% is the maximum avoidance to reach in order to avoid all damage taken from melee hits. Whilst other tanking classes can't add up their defensive stats to reach this number, Paladin is the only class capable of getting there thanks to the amazing 30% continuous bonus block chance in Holy Shield. So what happens when you add your chance to avoid+dodge+parry+block=102.4%? Bosses never land their hits fully on you and if they ever do you will block some of it. This is why you don't go 30 Stamina gems everywhere as Paladin.

The gem slots go like this:

• Meta: Effulgent Skyflare Diamond.
• Red: Sovereign Dreadstone prefer, or Guardian's Dreadstone if you're below the EPR cap.
• Blue: Solid Majestic Zircon always.
• Yellow: Enduring Eye of Zul.

The focus is stamina but not gemming full of it gives you a little too from socket bonus, while still going for that 102.4% avoidance. Balancing your tank stats is almost an art.

Armor and Chill of the Throne

               Armor is the best stat for a tank below 30 thousand, after that it loses some importance due to Diminishing returns. Other tank classes might take more armor than paladin but don't underestimate it either. Most items with bonus armor (with the armor amount green colored) forgo parry or dodge chance, those items are usually better for Warrior or DK. Chill of the Throne changes everything; remember when I said you should get 102.4% avoidance with Paladin? Let's say you reached that number and then went to Icecrown Citadel and got that nasty debuff making you lose 20%. Let me tell you there's no point trying to get back your max avoidance, even if you only raid Icecrown Citadel. This is where armor becomes useful, for that 20% chance of receiving a direct hit. Whether you decide to focus on using armor items (like the ones I previously mentioned with green armor amounts) or not, just try not to have more than 102.4% avoidance when you're out of Ic. Citadel. For Heroic raiding you should get high amounts of armor tho because the damage taken will be more consistent and it'll make heals better predict how to heal you, allowing them to put some more focus on boss tactics.

Glyphs

• Major: Divine Plea, Seal of Vengeance, Salvation.
• Minor: Sense Undead, Lay on hands, anything.

               You might wonder why I use Salvation instead of Righteous Defense or some other glyph you're in love with; the reason is after boss falls below 80% health the chance of a dps taking aggro from you is very little, you can safely use Hand of Salvation on yourself without the danger of getting someone killed. Remember what I said earlier, tanks are meant to soak damage while keeping aggro on themselves. 20% damage reduction is nothing to laugh about specially when used right, also your healers will love you (if you're into that kind of thing).

Rotation

                Protection Paladin doesn't have any procs like the other tank classes, it rather goes with a rotation that is carved in stone as the best rotation available for paladin: It's called 696 because it uses two spells with 6 second cooldown and will give the maximum amount of threat possible. The rotation goes as this in this order:

     Shield of the R(6)>Judgement (9)>Hammer of the R(6)>Consecration (8)>Shield of the R(6)>Holy Shield (8)>Hammer of the R(6)>Spells as they come up.

(where the (X) are the cooldowns of the abilities)

You open with Shield of the Righteous to build stacks of Dodge rating from your lvl264 Libram, afterwards a long cooldown skill (with 8 or 9 seconds) then Hammer of the Righteous, then another spell with high cooldown, and so on. It becomes something like this:

SotR>longer cd skill>HotR>longer cd skill>SotR>....

Don't use Holy Shield when you still have it up because although it has 8 sec cooldown the block lasts 10 sec. It's a little hard to get at first but once you get used to it you can just press the buttons without even watching at your bars and focus entirely on the boss fight. The rotation is flexible enough to include other abilities in it like Sacred Shield and Avenger's Shield, just continue using the same order you were using before including the foreign skill and the rotation will go back to normal after 9 seconds.

This is the reason behind the 1/2 Improved Judgements, to have our Judgement on 9 sec cooldown; this rotation can't be used properly if you have 0 or 2 points there so you can always tell the newbie paladins when they put 2 points there (or none); go ahead and inspect full heroic paladins in Dalaran and get surprised when they don't use 696, it's shameful but it clearly shows they aren't using their class to the fullest. Wonder why some tanks lose aggro so easily? Now you got an idea why. It also proves my point regarding Pve raiding: One thing is knowing the encounters and get the job done (even if barely) and another completely different thing (and harder to do) is to learn your class and get the most out of your gear.

If you want to practice it buff yourself Blessing of wisdom, Seal of wisdom, use Judgement of Wisdom and go to a dummy, you can practice for extended periods of time this way.

When to use your defensive spells

                 I often see tanks failing on this, using their defensive abilities when they shouldn't and then dying because they had their stuff in cooldown. You can be aware of this anytime a tank takes too much damage in a short period of time. When you question them about dying too fast they always say I did use them!- Yea I'm sure you did when boss wasn't even hitting you. Knowing the encounter is crucial to press the right skill: Divine Sacrifice when a high amount of AoE is about to happen, or Divine Protection when the boss gains some very dangerous damage buff. In addition you have Hand of Salvation as a cool bonus. The only skill you're not using on yourself is Lay on Hands, save this one to heal the other tank if heals are struggling.

Another situation that presents itself often is when a heal gets disabled (for example a Sindragosa Ice Tomb or Blood Queen's Swarming Shadows) and can't heal for a few seconds. Before you pressure the other heal to blow up cooldowns to heal you use one of your defensive spells to give time to the disabled healer to get back on track. The same applies if a healer dies, don't wait until you're low health. Being aware of what happens to others is a key element and will work you wonders. This is also why 696 is so good, once you're used to it you can oversee everything happening during the fight.

A few of tips

• Always have your Righteous Fury on.
• Always remind the Retri pala in your raid to turn Fury off.
• Use Seal of Vengeance if you're Main tank, or Seal of Light if you're Off tank. (Switch fast to Seal of Vengeance if you must taunt boss)
• Use Holy Shield a few seconds before pulling to have some block from the start.
• Devotion aura unless it is absolutely necessary to use another one.
• Use Judgement of Wisdom if you have a Holy Paladin in your raid.
• Have your Divine Plea up from the start.
• Use Blessing of Sanctuary on yourself always.
• Use Avenging Wrath at the start to build a decent amount of threat.
• Keep Sacred Shield on yourself at all times, or put it on the Main tank if you are Off tank.
• Use Hand of Sacrifice on the other tank if necessary to help the healers.

The end

                Tanking is fun, you don't contest as much for gear and you can always get into groups faster. Just remember, if you're doing everything right and a dps pulls aggro it will always be their own fault, so don't let those filthy dps badmouth you. If you think Prot Paladin is too complicated and not your cup d' tea there's always the three-button alternative nobody fails at: Feral tank druid. Thanks for reading.