As many people know, I no life Paladins, I personally have 4 of them that I consistently raid on and of course my main is one. I didn't play the class on retail, Warmane is actually the first place I've ever had one, but I've researched retail information and done my own research to Warmane specifics in all areas of the Protection talents. This is my comprehensive guide to the faceroll tank in both build types (Threat & Mitigation).
Table of contents
- Build Types & Benefits
- Talents & Glyphs
- Stats & Their Weights
- Enchants
- Gems
- Rotations
- Macros
- FAQ
Build Types & Benefits
As a Paladin tank we have two basic builds: Threat & Mitigation.
Both of these builds will have their own benefits and I highly recommend aiming for mitigation with a threat spec.
Threat is mostly for those tank and spank fights where DPS will be pushing as hard as they can, you'll want this build most likely as an offset. It has low damage mitigation and effective health. This also isn't completely required as Paladins are known for their threat in any gear, we have more abilities than cooldowns, which makes it very easy for anyone with raid awareness to grab an NPC and hold the aggro.
Mitigation is by far the most effective due to the amount of damage we can mitigate with passive talents and cooldowns on top of our gear. A good tank can be defined, in part, by their ability to ease the workload for healers and survive an encounter.
Talents & Their Glyphs
Talents are really customizable to your play style. After mandatory talents you have 11 points left over. Personally I use these 11 talents for threat on top of my mitigation set, threat can go single target for strictly MT or AoE for possible OT.
Note that Judgements of the Just can be applied by other classes, so the talent isn't mandatory. I use Guardian's Favor instead.
Glyphs are also highly customizable, any of the majors can be swapped out. Here's a quick idea of the sets that I would use for threat or mitigation.
Minors
- Glyph of Sense Undead (Flat 1% damage increase with all abilities)
- Glyph of Lay on Hands (Reduce cooldown of LoH, always a bonus)
- Your choice.
Threat
- Glyph of Seal of Vengeance (Allows soft Expertise cap without worrying about gems)
- Glyph of Judgement (Flat 10% damage increase with judgements)
- Glyph of Consecration (Allows you to focus more on other abilties and keep Consecration down longer)
Mitigation
- Glyph of Divine Plea (Flat 3% damage reduction, it's amazing)
- Glyph of Righteous Defense (Allows you to aim for more mitigation and worry less about hit for taunts)
- Glyph of Seal of Vengeance (Allows you to maximize mitigation gear and hit the soft Expertise cap)
Stats & Their Weights
This section will be separated into 3 segments, stat caps and weights for each build. Stat caps effect you in any build, so make sure you reach these. Remember that a good tank will never aim for a single stat, all of them are important.
Caps
Hit: 263 or 8% total.
Defense: 540.
Expertise: 26. (Note: Parry Haste) (BOSSES CAN PARRY!)
Threat
- Expertise is the best threat stat until 26. It isn't exactly an easy stat to find on tank gear but don't be afraid to throw in a couple gems or use the Seal of Vengeance glyph.
- Strength is your second best threat stat and it's on every piece of tank gear. Fully buffed it gives you AP, BR, and SP. The value does, however, drop after around 3000 BV buffed.
- BV (Block Value) is an amazing mitigation stat, but DR does hit it hard at around 3000. As far as threat goes, it scales the damage done by a few abilities.
- Hit is a surprisingly weaker threat stat, but only for threat. I still highly suggest capping it.
Mitigation
- Stamina will always be a top stat for anything but the threat build. We gain about 10 health per 1 Stamina before buffs. The reason I find this as such a great stat is because it's always there as padding for the healers when you take damage.
- Armor is my favorite stat when it comes to damage reduction, even though it only effects physical attacks, it really shines in fights like Lich King.
- Strength increases our BV (Block Value) by about 0.7 per 1 Strength. As I mentioned above, BV is an amazing mitigation stat, but like Armor it only helps against heavy melee fights like Lich King. A huge benefit to strength is the fact it increases Spell Power, which in turn increases the damage absorbed by Sacred Shield.
- Defense Rating is never a bad stat, even after the 540 cap. It comes on a large amount of gear and I still find myself gemming for it. It provides the largest amount of mitigation with Parry/Dodge/Block/Miss combined.
- Dodge Rating is 2nd after Defense Rating just because DR doesn't effect it nearly as bad.
- Parry is 3rd due to us having such a small amount of auto attacks and, like I said above, DR hits it pretty hard.
- Agility provides a decent amount of Armor, Dodge and Crit and makes it worth gemming for if you can get a 6+ Stamina bonus.
- BV (Block Value) somehow lands at the bottom of this list every time, unfortunately. If you plan on tanking Lich King often then use Libram of the Sacred Shield to increase your BV by 450 for 20 seconds each time you use Holy Shield. BV only effects melee damage so switch the libram out for any encounter with large amounts of magic or range damage.
Enchants
Enchants are almost never swapped out, only if you absolutely need another stat.
- Head: Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector
- Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle OR Fortitude of the Scourge
- Back: Mighty Armor
- Chest: Greater Defense
- Wrists: Major Stamina
- Hands: Glove Reinforcements
- Legs: Frosthide Leg Armor
- Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality
- Weapon: Mongoose
- Shield: Titanium Plating
Gems
Gems are almost as easy as this class. There's only a few basic rules to it.
Your Meta should always be Austere Earthsiege Diamond.
If the socket is blue, use a Stamina gem, otherwise follow the flowchart.
Here's my beautiful mspaint creation:
Rotations
We have a vast amount of abilities but only two goals, keep Holy Shield and Sacred Shield up 100% of the time. With those up we can keep our other top threat generating abilities on cooldown: Shield of Righteousness, Hammer of the Righteous, Judgment, and Consecration. Once these are all on cooldown, we have a few fillers to use: Avengers Shield, and Holy Wrath (Against Undead). That's the 69 rotation, well actually it's supposed to be 96.
Macros
The entire rotation can easily be made into 2 macros + 3 buttons, or 1 if you really want to but I find it harder to keep Holy Shield up 100% of the time.
Be sure to change the Judgement of Light to Wisdom if you have a Holy Paladin.
FAQ's
Q: Which libram should I use?
You should always have 2 or 3 different librams as a tank: Libram of Valiance, Libram of the Sacred Shield, and optionally Libram of the Eternal Tower. In any fight where you will be taking mostly physical damage you should use Libram of the Sacred Shield, otherwise use Libram of Valiance for added threat and a larger Sacred Shield. If by some chance you're in a fight where physical damage is the only type you'll take and no threat is needed, grab Libram of the Eternal Tower
Q: What items should I replace when switching between fights like Lady Deathwhisperer and Lich King?
LDW does mostly magic damage to the tank, so use Stamina trinkets and rings. You should gain around 5k health from that alone, if you'd like more then switch out more offset items for Stamina. Lich King, on the other hand, does mostly physical damage to tanks so you'll want as much Armor and Block as possible. I highly recommend Armor trinkets and rings + the Block libram.
Q: Set Bonuses. 4pc vs 2pc, which is better?
Both set bonuses have their benefits. Personally I prefer itemization using 2pc (Hands and Chest for armor). It allows me to reach stat caps easily by utilizing non t10 set pieces.
Q: Havocs Call vs Mithrios. Which should I use for threat?
This is probably the most common question I get, and unfortunately most people get this wrong. Havocs Call does not have more DPS than Mithrios, the only thing you will gain from it is Crit and Haste. If you rely on Mithrios for Expertise then you will be losing your biggest threat stat, that alone makes Havocs a bad replacement, as well as the loss of Strength.
Q: What about Stamina stacking?
It's bad. You're losing a ton of mitigation for a large amount of health, which is useless as padding for healers when you take too much damage. Remember that you're a Paladin and your stat weights are not the same as other classes.
Open for suggestions.