#0 - Dec. 20, 2008, 7:23 p.m.
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This is my attempt at a protection paladin FAQ. I have never written such and I am in no way an expert so you should take things with a grain of salt :) This is separate from the main paladin FAQ because I want to specifically dedicate this to the spec I personally happen to like a lot.
So, here goes:
Q: What does a tank do and how can I be a good tank?
A: Tanks are ones who usually pull the mobs to them, and then try to keep them attacking only themselves, never letting them attack anyone else in their group. A good tank memorizes how to fight against bosses, they will cast Hand of Protection on their group members if they seem to be in trouble, and they are generally alert to their surroundings.
If you see a group member getting attacked try to bubble them first. If your bubble is on cooldown then select the group member and cast Righteous Defense. That'll cause atleast a few of the attackers to run towards you instead, but you won't have aggros on them. They will run back to your group member if you don't deal enough threat to them, so you should also throw Avenger's Shield or Consecration at them.
Oh, and be sure to use Hammer of Justice as often as you can. As the mob is stunned (s)he can't damage you :)
Then there's one more thing you should learn; when you are looking for the next pack to pull, check if they have any mana. If they have then they are most likely casters. Casters are nasty in the sense that they'll just stand there and cast spells at you, they won't run to you unless they run out of mana. To solve this either run behind a corner so you're out of their sight, or behind a pillar or something. They'll run towards you until they see you, usually right in front of your face :) But let your group know you're pulling them behind the corner or something, I've seen way too many moronic DPSers who just charge right into those casters and get themselves killed because they can't wait 3 seconds..
Q: I hear the terms uncrittable and uncrushable. What does it mean and do I need it?
A: Yes, and no. Uncrittable usually means that any mobs 3 levels higher than you won't be able to get a single crit on you. Uncrushability works similarly but you needed 102.4% combined avoidance to avoid them. Uncrushability however shouldn't be of concern anymore since only mobs 4 levels higher than you can do that and raid/dungeon bosses are only 3 levels higher than the targeted level of the instance. Thus, if you are 70 and doing TBC heroics/raids you can't be hit by a crushing blow.
As for uncrittability..You either need 490 defense at lvl70 or 540 defense at lvl80 to be uncrittable, or 220.64 resilience. A combination is also possible. This is one attribute you REALLY should strive for. You will be a sucky tank in heroics and raids if you aren't uncrittable.
Q: What stats should I strive for? Int? Spellpower? Strength? Stamina?
A: Stamina, avoidance (dodge, parry, block) and strength gems. You won't want to go for int gems since you won't be having much if any issues with mana now, and strength benefits you a lot more than spellpower so that's also what you should be aiming for. Spellpower only increases your healing effectiveness and your spelldamage. But strength increases your AP which also increases your damage through spells. Strength also increases your melee DPS and the block value of your shield. If you get instructions to stack for spellpower then you are listening to old instructions.
Worth of note is also that stamina now gives you spellpower, so the more stamina gems you stack the more spellpower you will have. As such, my personal favorite gems are +sta +str ones.
Q: What kind of gear should I try to acquire?
A: There is now no differentiation between paladin and warrior tank gear. If you see gear with any avoidance stats and/or defense, it's plate and gives strength then it's good.
Q: What are the enchants I need?
A: Do get +defense enchants until you reach uncrittability. After that go for dodge and/or strength enchants.
Q: What is the best seal/judgement combo for tanking with a paladin? I'm just starting one and was thinking of the seal of Righteousness/ judgement of light combo.
A: No, you should use Seal of Corruption. It scales better and the ticks help you maintain a steady throughput of threat even if the mob throws you around every now and then. It also generates more threat and DPS than Righteousness. Righteousness is ok for trash, though, since it has higher initial threat.
About the judgement..well, it shouldn't matter that much. You won't be running out of mana in raids/dungeons and you shouldn't be running out of health either. That latter part is up to healers though. Note that if you have a holy paladin with you, you could ask him/her to cast Judgement of Light and you could do Judgement of Wisdom.
Q: I don't know how to put my talents! Help me!
A: Sure thing. This [url=http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin=500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000050053503310251533312321]http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin=500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000050053503310251533312321[/url] is a basic lvl70 paladin build. It includes all the most important ones and is suitable for more or less anything. After that you can start piling on the others as you see fit as you level up. Blessing of Kings for example is a good choice if your guild doesn't have any holy paladins with it or if you just want to make sure there is always atleast one who can give it around. You will have to use Blessing of Sanctuary on yourself however. It benefits you a LOT more than Kings does.
There can be many variations to this build, but this is the basic one you can use to build your own lvl80 spec on top of.
Q: What glyphs should I use?
A: It all depends, really. Glyph of Avenger's Shield (makes it only hit 1 target, not 3. But it hits 100% harder) is useful in PvP, and it is useful in some raids/dungeons. I personally however wouldn't choose it. It's so often beneficial for me to be able to cast a single spell and get lots of threat on multiple mobs at once.
Note: some people use it in order to be able to do single-target pulls, like when f.ex. they are off-tanking and they need to take agros on one of the adds when MT pulls the boss. This is not necessary for much longer, paladins are getting a single-target taunt shortly in a coming patch.
Glyph of Consecration increases both the duration and the cooldown of consecration by 2 seconds so it allows for a little bit more room to manage your rotation. But it doesn't seem likely that you will have to keep to a very strict rotation in order to keep your threat up it doesn't seem all that important.
Glyph of Righteous Defense increases the probability for your Righteous Defense to work successfully by 8%. This one I deem more or less one of the most important ones.
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance gives you 10 expertise when you have Seal of Vengeance/Corruption up. Since expertise lowers the chance for bosses and mobs to dodge/parry/block your attacks and you are using Seal of Vengeance/Corruption all the time anyway this is another one I deem very useful and important.
Glyph of Judgement increases the damage done by your judgement spells by 10% which means a bit extra threat.
There are several minor glyphs but they don't make that much of a difference. Choose as you see fit.
