Imey’s Prot Pala in depth
Table of Contents
Introduction
Formulas and Various Math related things
Stats & Stat weight
Talents & Glyphs
Gear & Gear comparison
Enchants
Gems
Race
Profession
Consumables
Mitigation vs Avoidance vs Stamina
2p T10 vs 4p T10
Rotation and Spell usage
Full Itemization
Introduction
Some of you might know me, some of you don't. Guild Master of Tournament winning guild Udba. Maintank of Realm first 0% buff lich king 25hc (Did anther one xd )
I consider myself a decent tank. That's why i wrote this guide. End of story
The protection paladin can be one of the strongest tanks for engame wotlk content.
On a non progressive server where overgearing is considered normal, the prot pala shines. He can make the stretch between threat, survival and utility without major problems, while other tanks dont even have the ability to follow all 3 play-styles.
There are alot of different opinions on what is the best way of tanking with the paladin, the goal of this guide is not to force my idea of prot tanking onto you but give you inside on why i chose certain setups. I will try to stay neutral and simply evaluate decisions from an objective point of view, but you can also find my personal opinions mostly marked in italic formatting.
This guide is made to give ideas,tips&tricks as well as possible itemizations vs. endgame bosses a.k.a Lich King 25hc and Halion 25hc.
This guide is rather useless for low tier raiding or dungeons
Formulas and Various Math related things
Spoiler:Show
Stats & Stat weight
- Stamina
Important Stat. For the first 20 points of stamina you get 1 hp per Stamina, after that you get 10 hp per stamina.
This means that stamina is not only scaling good, indefinitely, but also has no diminishing return. Stamina is the only defensive stat that is not
diminished in any way.- Armor
Flat mitigation is always great. Making the life of healers easier by increasing your effective health points. I recommend going atleast 36.000 Armor ( about 38k with Devotion Aura and 42.5k in fight) More about this in Mitigation vs Avoidance vs Stamina section- Defense
Generally a quite boring stat. On lower gear you are required to have at least 530 for random Heroic dungeons and 540 for lvl 83 Bosses.- Dodge
Avoidance. % chance to dodge an enemy attack. Rather weak stat which gets even worse through DR.
I wouldn't recommend getting more dodge than necessary.- Parry
2nd form of Avoidance but worse. Since patch 3.2.0 parry it is a quite bad defensive. Less Parry % per parry rating and equally fast diminishing as dodge.
Don't try to get more parry than necessary.- Block Chance
Determines the chance to Block a enemies melee attack. You start off with 5% Base block chance and additional scaling of defense & block rating.
There is barely and Block Rating gear in ICC and Ruby Sanctum so this stat is left behind.- Block Value
Block Value describes the amount of damage blocked of one melee attack. This is determined by block value ration as well as strength (2 Str = 1 block value).- Hit Rating
Prevents you from missing a spell on a target. 8% hit or 263 hit rating is optimal.- Expertise
Prevents the boss from parrying or dodging your attacks.
How it should be:
26 expertise (200 expertise rating) to soft cap ( dodge cap) and
56 expertise (431 expertise rating) to hard cap (parry cap).
Note: You only need soft cap at the moment, since bosses cant parry at all- Strength
Great stat for more threat and great to increase your block value. One of the two "hybrid" stats which allow you to go offensive stats but still get to some degree, a defensive stat boost as well.- Agility
Also a great stat for more threat, it increases the crit chance of your spells as well as bonus armor and dodge rating. this is the 2nd "hybrid" stat that you can choose from.
Stat Priority & Weight
1. Defense 2. Expertise 3. Hit Rating 4. Armor 5. Stamina 6. Agility or Strength 540 Defense 26 Expertise 8% Hit / 263 Hit Rating at least 36k Armor w/o Devotion Aura Indefinite personal Preferences
The weighting and balancing of stats is one of the most important parts of being a successful tank,
but before checking which stats you should focus on you should find out what your role in the raid is and identify what you can do to improve.
Are you mostly main-tanking bosses?
- As main-tank you are permanent on aggro duty with one eye on survive-ability. Being hit&expertise capped should be essential to maintain constant and solid aggro. Defensive stats are secondary goal.
Are you often finding yourself off-tanking bosses?
- As off-tank you certainly have the freedom to change the stat priority a bit around. The hit&expertise cap is less important and you could choose a few more defensive items/gems/talents/enchants or glyphs.
Talents & Glyphs
Essential must take Talents
Threat options
Utility options
Example Specs
Talent Information Talent Information Improved Judgements Essential for a flawless 868 rotation Pursuit of Justice Great utility in case you have to move at all
Some people disagree but in my opinion this is a crutail talent that helps you kite LK or even dodge Halion Meteor flames.Heart of the Crusader Okayish, filler Spiritual Attunement 1/2 allows to move further down in the Protection tree and gives an optimal amount of mana Conviction 5% more crit. great threat increase if HotR or SoR crits. Judgements of the Just Reduced HoJ cooldown to 50sec. usefull on fights like the Lich King Crusade 3% more damage& 3% more damage against undead. Really strong threat boost Improved Hammer of Justice Usefull on e.g. Lich King Seals of the Pure Great threat increase when tanking the same target a long time Divinity Useful in a high hp environment like ICC, although 5 talents points is quite a lot Reckoning Coming soon. Vindication Equivalent of a 5/5 Improved Demoralizing Roar
or Demoralizing Shout with an aroung 80% uptime.
Very underrated talent you should always get. Take 2 points out of
either Conviction or Pursuit of JusticeDivine Intellect More Intellect, bigger mana-pool, more of a filler Aura Mastery Great utility. Can be used with great variety. Super awesome with Devotion Aura Improved Lay on Hands Good offtank Utility since it ignored Forbearance and give a good Damage Reduction
Note: This are example specs I use based on preferences, raid needs and experience. If you disagree feel free to share your concerns
Classic main-tank specSpoiler:Show
More defensive main-tankSpoiler:Show
i-stun-every-valk-wave-tankSpoiler:Show
Utility specSpoiler:Show
Glyphs
Threat/Utility Glyph Information Defensive Glyph Information Glyph of Righteous Defense Paladins have no spell-hit increase whatsoever.
Almost impossible to get taunt hit capped without this glyph. Must take.Glyph of Divine Plea Flat 3% damage reduction. Great. Glyph of Seal of Vengeance Great threat increase. This glyph with Combat Expertise puts you on 16 expertise alone Glyph of Salvtation 20% damage reduction for 10 Seconds. Great for main-tank&off-tank, whether self casted or on dps&healer Glyph of Judgement Simple threat increase. Average glpyh Glyph of Consecration Better AoE threat. Not that great either Minor Glyph Information Glyph of Lay on Hands Cooldown reduction so you can use it more often Glyph of Sense Undead 1% more damage in ICC
=> In conclusion: You basically have only 1 glyph spot free to swap around since Glyph of Divine Plea and Glyph of Righteous Defense are a must take. The most common 3rd glyph is Glyph of Seal of Vengeance for an easy expertise cap, if you manage to reach expertise soft cap without the glpyh though, you should go for Glyph of Salvtation as extra defensive.
Gear & Gear comparison
Sanctified Lightsworn Faceguard Broken Ram Skull Helm Essential item. if you dont have expertise cap you should choose Sanctified Lightsworn Legplates and
Broken Ram Skull Helm. Required to get your T10 Protection 4P BonusUse this if you are using Sanctified Lightsworn Legplates or you have expertise cap already and miss alot of hit. E.g. when using Pillars of Might. Sanctified Lightsworn Shoulderguards Boneguard Commander's Pauldrons Standard goto item to achieve your T10 Protection 4P Bonus. I have seen & been using this item alot when i didnt use T10 Protection 4P Bonus. http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50718]Royal Crimson Cloak Sentinel's Winter Cloak This is a rather close decision and comes down to the fact if you need hit or not. When using only one hit offset like Legguards of Lost Hope or Broken Ram Skull Helm you should get it to reach your 8% hit rating. Use this when you are hit capped or hare have major armor deficits. On an almost BIS setup the bonus armor marginal because of heavy armor diminishing returns. Both cloaks give rather few stats over, so it really depends on your hit rating and armor which one you choose. http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51901]...e Spit Bracers Bracers of Dark Reckoning This decision comes down to the rest of your setup and your armor value. Generally weaker than http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51901]...e Spit Bracers since most of your other gear pieces put your avoidance on a good level already. Still not too bad. http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50691]...f Broken Bones Verdigris Chain Belt Again generally weaker than the EoF Waist due to already decently good Avoidance values. Solid all around Waist. Nice stat distribution. Easy to get. http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50612]...d of Lost Hope Sanctified Lightsworn Legplates Essential for the classic 4/5 Offset. Gives alot of stats & hit. Use this if you need expertise. Gives a total of 13.8 expertise which in combination with talents sets you on 20 expertise alone. Pillars of Might Really solid item on lower gear. More or less good on BIS because it forces you to skip T10 Protection 4P Bonus in order to get hit cap. http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50622]...ally Cold Ring Signified Ring of Binding Simply best in slot ring out there. Must choose. Insane Armor but loosing quite alot of other stats for it. Cheap alternative would be the Loop. Additional the resistances are a nice touch but cause rather maginal damage reduction. Juggernaut Band Ashen Strong stamina & strenght stats. Use this if you are good on armor and hit Easy to get. Main reason to get this would be the hit rating. The armor proc is rather average. Sindragosa's Flawless Fang Satrina This Trinket is just broken OP. 2580 hp from stamina and an on use effect that gives 268 Resistance to all Spell dmg classes for 10 seconds.
In combination with Signified Ring of Binding you can have about 300 Resistance for 10 Seconds.
Reading up on Wotlk Resistances will give some more insight. 300 Resistance will give about 35% Spelldamage reduction vs level 83 bosses, while being the optimal number the propability of partial resists. SourceReally nice trinket. Great flat stamina and an additional effect that gives bonus health (This effect is not to be underestimated since the 5000 health can be way more valueble due to certain cooldowns aswell as physical&magical mitigation)
Easy Alternative:Corroded Skeleton Key is almost the same stamina value, but the effect is just a flat 6.4k Absorb
Petrified Twilight Scale This one is a tricky one. A lot of tanks use it but just from looking at it, its not really appealing.
So i have decided to break it down compared to a stamina trinket.
Spoiler:Show
=> In conclusion: After tanking with this trinket for a long time i start to dislike it more and more. After doing the calcutation ahead it was clear that for the one part the armor on the trinket isn't doing much at bis gear level and for the other part the proc does mitigate a decent amount of damage, the problem is that dropping below 35% rarely happens and is just a bad requirement which makes the proc worse. Personally i have decided to not use this trinket anymore, im currently playing with double stamina trinkets.Unidentifiable Organ Same problem as PTs regarding the armor but with a better effect. Effect discussion soon. http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50737]...ordaeron Kings Used to be a highly valued Weapon, but it has its flaws and i generally think there are better options.
Slow swing and offensive stats are nice but they dont really matter anymore. Eversince they fixed the soft expertise its crutial you get your caps and not waste stats like this weapon does.Bloodvenom Blade The better version of Havocs. Marginal less weapon damage but way better stats with the hit rating it gives you aswell as 3 bonus expertise as human Mithrios Fast weapon (discussion about Fast versus Slow following below). A few avoidance stats on it but nothing too interesting.
The main reason to pick this up is expertise. You get 5.1 expertise aswell as 3 from being human ( 5 as dwarf) which is a huge deal eversince the expertise fixes.Last Word Underrated weapon. 340 healing Spellpower for healers and 115 strength.
The procs uptime is 100% so you get alot more strength than Mithrios gives you, but instead of putting a defensive bonus into your hands, it gives the bonus into healer hands.Slow Weapon vs. Fast Weapon
http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50737]...ordaeron Kings vs. MithriosThose two weapons are part of a very long discussion that doesnt seem to end.
First there are a few things you have to take into consideration:
- Mithrios average weapon damage is lower compared to Havoc (423.5 // 688)
- Mithrios swingtimer is 1.6 while Havoc's is 2.6 or 2.55 with the haste rating on the weapon itself( with Icy talons it is 1.33 and 2.13)
- Mithrios gives more strength, but less crit
With these facts you can draw the following conclusions:
- Mithrios swing is 60.1% faster than Havoc
- Havoc melee 64.7% stronger
- Havoc Seal of Vengeance 62.8% stronger
=> This means that Havoc does 4.6% more melee damage and 2.7% more Seal of Vengeance damage
At this point we have to discuss Seal of Vengeance a bit more.
With each melee hit you apply 1 debuff stack of Seal of Vengeance aswell as Hammer of the Righteous applying one additional stack. At 5 debuff stacks you "unlock" the 2nd part of the Spell which is bonus holy damage with each melee hit. Unlike the Seal of Vengeance DoT the bonus damage from melee hits scales with weapon damage. De facto: Mithrios should apply Seal of Vengeance debuff stacks faster but does less damage compared to Havoc's when meleeing with 5 stacks, but Havoc takes longer to reach 5 debuff stacks. But to be exact lets see the time each weapon needs to get 5 stacks of SoV.
Mithrios:
1 HotR + 4 Melees = 5.32 seconds for full stacks
Havoc:
1 HotR + 3 Melees = 6.39 seconds for 4 stacks
but since HotR cooldown is 6 seconds you can reuse the spell, meaning depending on your gcd in a best case/worst case scenario you can use HotR
between second 6.01 and 7.50 to get your 5th stack (avrg.would be 6.94 seconds)
=> In conclusion Mithrios reaches 5 debuff stacks on average 1.64 seconds faster but does almost 3% less damage.
Additionally: The cleave effect of Hammer of the Righteous can be ignored, since both weapons apply the debuff stacks in the same ammount of time due to 6 seconds HotR cooldown restriction, but also since the bonus melee hit damage unlocked at 5 debuff stacks only counts for your main target and doesnt apply on with HotR cleaved targets.
When it comes to Hammer of the Righteous damage done, both weapons actually deal almost the same damage due to the fact that you give up strength for haste and crit on Havoc's. Havoc's still has the advantage since you technically dont do more raw damage, but you increase your crit chance which means you are more likely to crit Hammer of the Righteous with Havoc's while the actual damage remains the same.
You should always go with either Mithrios or Bloodvenom Blade. The only difference really relevant difference here is the hit compared to expertise and the fact that Mithrios give you alot of aggro rather fast but Bloodvenom outaggros in the long run. Choose the weapon depended on the stats you need from it.
Additionally you can switch to Last Word or Crusaders in later stages of an encounter to get more defensive stats since aggro wont matter anymore. Will cost you 1 GCD.
My opinion is the following:
Spoiler:Show
Libram of Valiance Libram of the Sacred Shield Libram of the Eternal Tower One of the best choices. almost 100% uptime,
200 str from the first second of the fight as well as 100 block valueGreat defensive Libram. 450 block value with 100% uptime. Extraordinary good in solo-tank scenarios. Rather situational. The fact that you need 18sec. to gain full stacks is horrible. 219 Dodge Rating (4.8% Dodgre pre-DR
isnt that great either.
Enchants
Gems
Meta Socket Information Austere Earthsiege Diamond 2% more armor value is just OP. Blue Socket Information Solid Majestic Zircon Flat 300 hp, unquestionable. Red Socket Information Guardian's Dreadstone One of these gems is equal to 1.3 expertise. Use these
if you can skip an additional expertise item
and need a bit more expertise(use max 4-5 of these).Shifting Dreadstone 10 agility gives 20 armor and 0.56% crit.
Only use these to get +9 Socket Boni, otherwise
go back to Solid Majestic ZirconSovereign Dreadstone 10 strength gives 20 attack power and 5 block value. This is another option for Shifting Dreadstone
Only use these to get +9 Socket Boni, otherwise
go back to Solid Majestic ZirconYellow Socket Information Vivid Eye of Zul Use these to comeplete hit caps. E.g. when using http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50718]Royal Crimson Cloak,http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50612]...d of Lost Hope and
Bloodvenom Blade you will miss 13 hit rating to reach the cap of 263,
in such a case you can use 1 or 2 of this gems. Never use more than 3.
If hit capped use Solid Majestic Zircon no matter the Socket bonus
Race
Alliance Boni Horde Boni Human Sword Specialization: 3 expertise when wearing BvB
Mace Specialization: 3 expertise when wearing Mithrios or Last word
Every man for Himself: sometimes helpful in PvEBlood Elf Magic: Decent bonus, but RNG-factor makes it sub-optimal Dwarf Stoneform: +10% armor for 8 seconds
Mace Specialization: 5 expertise when wearing Mithrios or Last word
Frost: Beneficial especially in ICC.Draenei Heroic Presence: 1% more hit
Gift of the Naaru: Small self-heal
Shadow: Somewhat helpful for Bloodprince Keleseth and Halion inside tanking
Professions
Profession Boni Engineering Reticulated Armor Webbing gives alot mitigation
Nitro Boosts is super good utility and can save livesJewelcrafting
Solid Dragon's Eye
gives a total of 63 bonus staminaBlacksmithing Socket Bracer
and Socket Gloves
gives a total of 60 bonus staminaMining Toughness
gives a total of 60 bonus staminaEnchanting Enchant Ring - Stamina
gives a total of 60 bonus staminaLeatherworking Stam
gives a total of 62 bonus stamina or 70 Resistance for Magic Damage heavy encounters like Halion and SindragosaAlchemy Resist
gives 90 Resistance against heavy spell damage encounters
Best profession combination is Engineering with any of the stamina giving profession.
Consumables
Flask Information Flask of Stoneblood Simply best flask there is. Elixir of Protection and Elixir of Accuracy or
Elixir of Expertise is a second option but in my opinion not as powerfull as the Stoneblood FlaskPotion Information Indestructible Potion Super strong potion. Make sure to pre-pot this so you can use 2 per fight Food Information Fish Feast Classic Blackened Dragonfin 40 agility giving 80 armor and some crit and dodge Rhinolicious Wormsteak
Snapper Extremeuse either of these to boost your hit / expertise rating Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops Questchain reward. This is very expensive but stacks with common bufffood.
Note: It’s not a bug, it stacked with food even on retail
Mitigation vs Avoidance vs Stamina
Mitigation is flat percentage damage reduction
- A 100k hit with 50% Mitigation will hit for 50k, every time
Avoidance is a percentage to possible full damage reduction
- A 100k hit with 50% Avoidance will sometimes hit for 100k and sometimes for 0, but in a theoretical endless fight the average damage taken will be 50k
Stamina reduces total damage taken by a percentage
- A 100k hit against a 200k target will do 50% of the target health as Damage, but a hit against a 1 million target will only do 10% of the targets health as Damage
With this demonstration one can see that Mitigation is certainly the strongest of the 3 possible defensive stats.
Avoidance is, when it comes down to bottom line damage taken, not worse, but from a healer perspective its easier to heal a player with Mitigation than avoidance simply because of the computability of incoming damage.
And Stamina look like a bad and hard to heal stat, since it technically doesn't reduce damage taken.
Before we draw a early conclusion you have to take diminishing returns of mitigation and avoidance into consideration. DR basically prevents you from going only one defensive stat like armor or dodge by giving you less the more you have. This and the fact that stamina is not diminished in any way makes stamina a viable defensive stat.
Therefore, in my opinion the best way to itemize is getting a healthy balance between all 3 stats. And yes, mitigation is technically still superior to the other stats, even with diminishing return, but only in a perfect world. Having a wider spectrum of defensive gives more options in the bigger picture. In uncommon situations, like soul reaper without defensives left, a dead heal pala or anything not standard, those stats are your life saver (and argent defender ofc). Mitigation makes you take less damage, but it requires constant healer attention and relentless healing, while avoidance and stamina gives some buffer.
4 piece T10 vs 2 piece T10
T10 Protection 4P Bonus
Average damage reduction in a theoretical enviroment with my paladin's stats:
37720*(1-0.12)=33193 // 37720-33193=4527
Divine Plea reduced a Lich King 25hc melee hit by an average of 4527 dmg for 12 Seconds.
To set this into relation, T10 Protection 4P Bonus is a better version of Petrified Twilight Scale active proc. More damage reduction, 2 seconds longer duration, activate-able ability not required to drop below 35% Hp.
Additionally having another activate-able defensive is an exceptional benefit on e.g soul reaper.
So lets see what benefits come from skippingT10 Protection 4P Bonus:
First of all quick raw stat comparison
Broken Ram Skull Helm and Boneguard Commander's Pauldrons instead of
Sanctified Lightsworn Faceguard and Sanctified Lightsworn Shoulderguards
- - 44 strength ( 88 attackpower&22 block value)
- - 16 stamina from Stats
- - 96 parry rating (1.79% parry pre-dr)
- +26 dodge rating (0.66% dodge pre-dr)
- +26 defense rating (5.3 defense)
- +30 stamina from 1 extra Gem Socket
- +85 hit rating
While most of these defensive stat trading is rather irelevant, gaining 85 hit rating is the main factor to use those items.
85 hit rating is equivalent to 2 offsets with hit rating e.g. http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50718]Royal Crimson Cloak,Ashen Band of Endless Courage or Bloodvenom Blade. Replacing those hit-offsets with their more defensive orientated counterparts is the place where the benefits of skipping T10 Protection 4P Bonus are noticeable.
In conclusion, skipping T10 Protection 4P Bonus is a question of playstyle. Having T10 Protection 4P Bonus means a decent additional defensive cooldown while skipping the bonus means additional mitigation.
My pesonal opinion on this topic is equivalent to my opinion on the Mitigation vs Avoidance vs Stamina topic, meaning im not skipping T10 Protection 4P Bonus since i want to keep a healthy stat balance and i have a good mitigation value already.
Rotation & Spell usage
The so called 868 rotation is a common maintank rotation used to genereate the most threat possible while being gcd efficent.
The 868 is a rotatory use of the paladins 8 second cooldown spells which are Holy Shield,
Consecration and Judgement of Wisdom,
aswell as his 6 second cooldown spells which are Hammer of the Righteous and
Shield of Righteousness.
A full rotation would look like this
Spoiler:Show
This Rotation is recommended for maintanking purposes since it is very efficient regarding threat. The problems that can occur are when movement aswell as other utility spell-usage is required, because using gcds for other spells outside the rotation will disrupt it and can cause problems if handled wrong.
In that case you intuitively switch into a priority rotation, which can be either a threat priority or survival priority.
Breaking out of your classic 868 into a threat priority rotation would occur in situations like target switches, where fast and high aggro is required.
De facto that would mean prioritizing HotR or SoR over HS or SS in order to maintain aggro.
Breaking out of your 868 into a survival priority happens quite regularly due e.g. to having established good threat already or the need to have a 100% uptime of HS or SS.
De facto this means, if you are good on threat and delayed on your 868 rotation due to moving or other spell usage, its often the best choice to skip a threat spell in order to maintain your defensive HS and SS up.
Spell Usage SS Should have a 100% Uptime. When using only 1 paladin tank, make sure the heal paladin uses his significantly stronger Sacred on the non paladin tank, when using 2 heal paladins, make sure you prioritize the healers more powerful shields. HS Unless you are in a threat focused rotation, this should have a 100% uptime. Sac As main tank not very usefull, dont use it while you are tanking a boss. Use it when somebody else tanks the boss or in combination with a cooldown like divine protection Hand of Salvation When Glpyhed, save it to use it defensively on yourself.
When not glyphed use it on DPS with too high threat (Preferably DPS that cant reset aggro like warrior, feral).
Full Itemization
My Current Setup
Spoiler:Show
Mitigation Setup
Spoiler:Show
Expertise Setup
Spoiler:Show
My 0% Buff setup
Spoiler:Show
