Cataclysm [Guide] 4.3 Protection PVE - The Light and How to Swing It

[Wolololol]

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Index:
ÔÇó Introduction
ÔÇó Pros and Cons
ÔÇó Race Selection
ÔÇó Talent Specs
ÔÇó Glyphs
ÔÇó Stats
ÔÇó Gems and Enchants
ÔÇó Reforging
ÔÇó Combat Table Coverage (CTC)
ÔÇó The Protection Toolkit
ÔÇó Tanking
ÔÇó Raiding Tips
ÔÇó Credits


To start off with, let me make it plainly known that I am nowhere near the best paladin tank out there. In fact, I don't even main this class. However, I find it to be the most fun tank I have played, with a good combination of survivability and utility, as well as a nice set of tricks to keep you going. I am writing this guide because when I first made my Paladin with the intention of tanking on Cataclysm on Warmane, I found almost nothing to get me started. They're easily one of the most underrated tanks in the game, so I hope to get more people interested in them with this guide. Also, if you are new to tanking, I will always recommend starting out with a paladin. They are very easy to pick up and difficult to do badly with.


Pros:
ÔÇó Large number of cooldowns that you can rotate
ÔÇó A good balance of magic and physical defensive abilities
ÔÇó Easy to pick up and learn, and difficult to get wrong
ÔÇó Always loved in a raid, because of your auras, buffs, HoP, Divine Guardian, etc.
ÔÇó Acceptable self-healing if you spec into it, very good survivability even if you don't.
ÔÇó You get the shiniest tanking skills

Cons:
ÔÇó Compared to DKs, you have very little self-healing
ÔÇó Compared to Warriors, your mobility is quite bad and you are mostly just a pillar that will not die.
ÔÇó You have a ridiculous number of skills that you can use effectively, so you need to know what to use for each occasion, which only comes with time. Paladins are not 3 button tanks.



Alliance:
Dwarf: In my opinion, this is by far the best race to tank with. Stoneform reduces ALL DAMAGE TAKEN (not just physical) by 10% for 8 seconds, and also removes all poison, disease, and bleed effects. If you combine this with a trinket such as Stay of Execution, you effectively have an added defensive cooldown. Note that the racial will only remove all the current debuffs once, and not make you immune to them.
Human: Their racial can get you out of a stun or fear that might drop on you, which is very handy for preventing wipes. Also, if you plan on PvPing a lot in another spec, this is probably the best race for you.
Draenei: Your extra racial heal is nice to have, but subpar compared to the Dwarf racial from a purely tanking perspective in current gear. However, keep in mind that with Dragon Soul level gear, your larger health pool will make this heal more viable. The 1% hit would be quite big, but I have found this to be a very minor problem on Warmane. I don't know of any tanks that actually worry about hit.

Horde:
Tauren: Increased health AND an AoE stomp stun. Also, you get to be big and beefy, and also get in built nature resist. What's to think about? This is the best pick, in my opinion.
Blood Elf: The AoE silence and resistance to arcane damage is not worth looking like a gaylord.


1. Base build:http://wowtal.com/#k=-kfFec6V.bqj.paladin.

In this build, I have included the talents that I think are compulsory for any kind of protection tanking. I will attempt to explain the logic behind making your own build by going into the talent choices you have to fix up your own personalized spec.

Protection Tree
Judgment of the Just: Note that even though I included this talent in all my specs, it does not affect bosses. I take it because switching talents around for mob packs and bosses is too much of a hassle.
Hallowed Ground: I left this at 1/2 in all three talent specs because you tend to use it mostly just to "catch" mobs in your damage as they spawn, to prevent them from running to a healer or AoEing melee right away. In all honesty, the mana reduction from this talent is what you want. Hammer of the Righteous is a much better AoE threat ability, so don't worry too much about falling short there.
Reckoning: Keeping this at 1/2 is also fine, since it will proc almost all the time even at level 1. However, if it's a choice between Hallowed Ground, Reckoning, and Improved Hammer of Justice, I'd take an extra point in Reckoning any day.
Eternal Glory & Guarded by the LightThe reason I list these two talents together is because they form the basis of the self-healing Protection Paladin. Do not take one without the other. My advice is this; if you decide to go for self-healing, go all out or nothing. Word of Glory is on a pretty long cooldown, so when you cast it, you want it to count.

Retribution Tree
Pursuit of Justice Paladins have such horrible mobility compared to most other tanks (Bears and Warriors can charge, DKs can just grip to them), that I find this talent a must. However, note that this does not stack with the speed boost that you get from boot enchants. If you intend on getting that enchant, do not take this talent. I prefer to take it, though, since that gives me the ability to use the 50 mastery enchant on my boots. Every bit of ctc helps.

Rule of Law What else are you going to put your points in? Got spares and need a talent to dump your points in? This is it. Extra threat is always nice, although you should not be having problems in that area at all.

2. Standard Raiding Build: http://wowtal.com/#k=-kfXr8_Vb.bqj.paladin.

This is the build that I prefer to use, as I generally tank raids. I skipped the self-healing skills in favor of 2/2 Reckoning, Pursuit of Justice (so I can have the 50 mastery feet enchant), as well as Rule of Law, which is very handy when it comes to holding aggro. I kept Judgment of the Just for fights that have add spawns.

3. Self-Healing Dungeon/Raid Build: http://wowtal.com/#k=-bxiS-ee.bqj.paladin.

If you are a new tank, and would feel more comfortable with that extra self-healing, or even if you just prefer this play style, this is the spec you would use. However, to be entirely honest, I don't think that going for Word of Glory is worth it, since it requires 4 talent points and a glyph to be viable.


Prime
Glyph of Shield of Righteousness: Your #1 threat ability. Glyph it, no questions asked.
Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous: Your #1 AoE threat ability, and also part of your regular rotation. This skill makes me cry with happiness. Glyph it.
Glyph of Seal of Truth: This is the best tanking glyph in the game. It gives you straight up 10 expertise - not expertise rating - but base expertise. It's that amazing. Take it.
Glyph of Judgement: 10% extra damage is alright, if you can't get hold of one of the above 3 glyphs.
Glyph of Crusader Strike: Increases critical chance by 5%. Since it's part of your single target rotation you could consider taking this.
Glyph of Word of Glory: If you are going for the self-healing build, pick up this glyph. You can give up Hammer of the Righteous for it.
Glyph of Seal of Insight: Acceptable if you're self-healing a lot or trying to Rambo through dungeons alone.

Major
Glyph of Divine Protection: It depends on the boss fight, but in most cases I prefer to have this glyphed only because I have a reasonable amount of physical damage reduction inherently, and 40% magic reduction on a cooldown of 1 minute is godly to have. It's basically 20% reduction from all damage vs 40% from magical, and I find that it is easier to handle physical damage most of the time. Also, many boss channeled abilities are magical (dragon breath, etc) so having this ready to cast right before it hits helps mitigate a lot of it.
Glyph of Lay on Hands: This is great in dungeons, where the gap between boss fights is shorter than in raids, and having a big cooldown like LoH is good to have.
Glyph of Holy Wrath: Your AoE stun is suddenly useful in dungeons outside Deadmines! Take it if you know it will be useful in the encounter you're doing.
Glyph of Consecration: It's an alright glyph if you want it. You can replace Holy Wrath with this when you're doing dungeons where the AoE stun won't be useful. I would not recommend it, though.
Glyph of Focused Shield: In 80% cases, this is most likely going to be a bad thing to have. However, if you want that edge in a boss fight with no adds, consider taking this. You will be casting quite a few Avenger's Shields whenever you get your Grand Crusader procs, since it will give you holy power if you cast it with a proc.

Minor
Glyph of Blessing of Kings: Useful if you have to rebuff a player that got combat resurrected.
Glyph of Blessing of Might See above.


Base Stats:
Stamina This is obviously something that every tank wants in decent amounts. If you tanked WOTLK and moved to Cataclysm, keep in
mind that tanks are more focused on blocking and avoiding damage, rather than stacking the amounts of stamina that we did on WOTLK. Do not disregard this stat, however. A larger health pool is never a bad thing, as long as it does not cost us too much avoidance. Do not forget about Vengeance, which is a passive ability of ours. Each time you take damage, you gain 2% of the unmitigated damage taken as attack power for 20 sec. In this way, stamina is actually a threat increase for us.
Strength: Strength is our source of attack power for us, and it also gives us parry rating. 27% of our Strength is converted into parry rating.

Secondary Stats:
Mastery
For Protection Paladins, Mastery provides block rating via Divine Bulwark. Currently for every point of Mastery the Paladin will receive 2.25% increased chance to block. Tanking gear (to date) has only had dodge/parry for secondary defensive stats. Paladins will want a lot of Mastery. Mastery is the best defensive stat for Protection Paladins for two reasons. First, up to full Combat Table Coverage (CTC) of 102.4% (sometimes referred to as ÔÇ£Block CapÔÇØ), Mastery provides more damage reduction per itemization point than any other stat. Second, in addition to reducing damage taken, Mastery also smooth-ens out the incoming damage a tank faces, making them easier for healers to heal.
Parry A successful parry will let you avoid all damage from an attack. This is one of our two avoidance stats. Our main sources of parry will be from gear as a secondary stat, and also from our strength.
Dodge: A successful dodge will let you avoid all damage from an attack. It's a nice stat to have on your equipment. Every character has a 5% chance to dodge an attack, regardless of gear.
Expertise: This is actually a wonderful threat stat for us, but it doesn't seem to be working entirely on Warmane. I have the Seal of Truth glyph, and safely disregard expertise with no ill effect. Note that Humans get +3 expertise with One or Two-Handed Swords and Maces, and Dwarves get +3 expertise with One and Two-Handed Maces.
Hit: Makes you not miss. It's less valuable than expertise for us.


Gems:
Meta Gem
Austere Shadowspirit Diamond: +81 Stamina and 2% increased armor from items (Requires 2 Yellow gems)
Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond:+81 Stamina and +1% shield block value (Requires 3 Blue gems)
Note: At 35% total avoidance and 50% block, the block meta and armor meta are roughly equal. At lower avoidance/block, the armor meta is up to 25% more effective than the block meta.

Single Stats:
Solid Ocean Sapphire: +60 Stamina (Counts as a Blue gem)
Fractured AMberjewel: +40 Mastery (Counts as a Yellow gem)

Combination with Stamina:
Puissant Dream Emerald: +20 Mastery Rating and +30 Stamina (Counts as a Yellow or Blue gem)
Defender's Demonseye: +20 Parry Rating and +30 Stamina (Counts as a Red or Blue gem)
Guardian's Demonseye:+20 Expertise Rating and +30 Stamina (Counts as a Red or Blue gem)

Enchants:
Head: Arcanum of the Earthen Ring (Currently unavailable due to bugged reputation quests. Use the PvP head enchant instead.)
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz (Currently unavailable due to bugged reputation quests. Use the PvP shoulder enchant instead.)
Back: Enchant Cloak - Protection
Chest: Enchant Chest - Greater Stamina
Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Dodge OR Enchant Bracer - Greater Expertise
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery
Finger: Enchant Ring - Greater Stamina (Enchanters Only)
Legs: Drakehide Leg Armor
Feet: Enchant Boots - Earthen Vitality (if you do not have Pursuit of Justice) OR Enchant Boots -Mastery
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Windwalk OR Enchant Weapon Mending (it's a cheaper alternative, if you don't have a good weapon yet)
Shield: Enchant Shield Blocking


Reforging will let you convert 40% of a secondary stat on your gear to another secondary stat. Hit, Crit, Haste, Parry, Dodge, etc. are examples of secondary stats that can be converted, while primary stats like Stamina are not affected by reforging. Keep in mind that even though it is a secondary stat, resilience cannot be reforged. When reforging, keep your stat priority in mind:
Mastery (to avoidance cap of 102.4%) > Parry = Dodge >> Expertise > Hit
Always try to balance your parry, dodge, and block for maximum avoidance. Never favor any single stat mindlessly.


CTC, short for Combat Table Coverage, is how close a tank is to being unhittable. The goal is to make sure that every hit is either an inherent evade dodge (every character has 5% dodge chance, regardless of class or spec), dodge (affected by dodge rating), parry (affected by parry rating), or failing that, block (amount and chance is affected by your block rating and skills) in that order. Lastly, armor is calculated. For example, I have around 40k armor, so any hit I take after applying the previous modifiers is reduced by a further 60% or so. Remember that these effects are applied multiplicatively, not additively, which is why you can never take 0 damage from a boss unless you do something crazy like bubble. After that your cooldowns come into play, such as Holy Shield (extra block value of 20%, meaning a 51% damage reduction upon a successful block), Divine Protection (basic 20% damage reduction if not glyphed) and so on. It's at this stage absorbs like Power Word: Shield etc. are also accounted for.
You see, bosses are always considered to be +3 levels above maximum level players, in end game content. So for every level above you, a boss (or other mob) has a bonus extra 0.8% chance to hit you successfully, getting past your dodge, parries and shield blocks. That results in them having an extra 2.4% (0.8 x 3) chance to hit you over and above your already 100% mitigation. That means tanks have to have 102.4% avoidance (technically not avoidance, more mitigation, but that's the common parlance) in order to remove unmitigated hits from the aforementioned Combat Table. To make it simple, this is how you would calculate your total mitigation in the ctc table:
ctc = 5 [5% inherent dodge] + (your dodge rating) + (your parry rating) + (your block rating)
With current gear available on Sargeras, it is very difficult to go above 85% ctc without buffs.

Alternatively, you could use this macro to check your ctc.

 /run ChatFrame1:AddMessage(format("Unhittable at 102.4%% - you have %.2f%%", GetDodgeChance() + GetBlockChance() + GetParryChance() + 5 + 1/(0.0625 + 0.956/(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)/4.91850*0.04))))

Holy Power
Holy Power is our "combo point" gauge. You can have a maximum of 3 Holy Power. Using certain skills will give you holy power, while some skills require holy power to use, and some are enhanced depending on how much holy power you currently have.
The following abilities/talents relevant to Protection Paladins use Holy Power:
ÔÇó Inquisition
ÔÇó Shield of the Righteous
ÔÇó Word of Glory
The following abilities relevant to Protection Paladins generate Holy Power:
ÔÇó Crusader Strike
ÔÇó Hammer of the Righteous
ÔÇó Divine Plea (3 Holy Power if talented)
ÔÇó Avenger's Shield (If casted when Grand Crusader procs)

Seals and Utility:Seals are buffs that usually last for 30 minutes or so. You ALWAYS want to have a seal active.
Seal of Truth: What was once known as Seal of Vengeance is now known as this. It applies a stacking DoT called Censure on each hit, which stacks up to 5 times. Additional hits after 5 stacks provide a burst of additional damage. This is your main tanking seal. If you have this glyphed, it also gives you 10 expertise.
Seal of Insight: It has a chance of healing the Paladin for each swing. Usually, you will not be using this seal unless **** really hits the fan and your healers die, and it's pure survival mode.

Auras
Devotion Aura: There are very few exception when a Protection Paladin would not be using this aura while tanking. The aura confers the benefit of providing additional armor to the Paladin and all party/raid members affected by the aura.
Resistance Aura: Gives 195 additional Fire, Frost, and Shadow resistance to your entire party or raid. If there is another paladin with Devotion Aura on, you could use this to make the healer's life easier. Note that if you have a druid buff on with Resistance Aura, it does not additively stack but it overrides the resistance gained from druid buffs, and will give you 195. Similarly, it does not stack with a Shaman's totems.

Key Abilities
Righteous Fury: Increases your threat generation while active. This should always be on when you are tanking, or mobs will laugh in your face and walk away to sit on your DPSers. If you happen to notice that your threat is really weird after a wipe, right click on this buff to remove it and re-apply it. I don't know why, but it tends to mess up sometimes.
Avenging Wrath: Increases all damage and healing by 20% for 20 seconds. Wings are good if combined with Inquisition for maximizing threat on your first pull. It make stabilizing aggro when all your DPS throw out their initial burst.
Divine Plea: Grants you one holy power. If you have the protection talent Shield of the Templar, it will give you 3 holy power. This is a good skill to use to cast your first Inquisition before the first pull.
Inquisition: Consumes all your holy power to increase your holy damage by 30%. This is an amazing threat generating skill that is one of the reasons paladins are such amazing AoE tanks. If you combine this with Hammer of the Righteous, you will rarely lose aggro on a pack of adds, while other tanks will struggle to hold on to them with DPSers going crazy. If you Divine Plea and cast Inquisition right before a pull, it helps solidify initial aggro.
Cleanse: Removes one poison and one disease effect, but does not cure curses. Seriously, hotkey this. Use it on yourself. You are not a DK or a Warrior, you don't have to wait around taking extra damage from DoT ticks for no reason. Cleanse yourself.
Hand of Freedom: Grants immunity to movement impairing effects such as slows and snares, but NOT stuns or fears. Use it if you happen to walk in something bad and adds are charging at your healer at breakneck speed.
Hand of Protection: Hand of Protection allows you to target yourself or party/raid member to protect them from physical attacks only for 10 seconds. This ability will cause for Forbearance for 1 minute. It is a very useful way of getting adds off a healer or caster DPS. Keep in mind that if you HoP melee DPS or hunters, they will probably hate you because they won't be able to attack.
Hand of Sacrifice: There are some clever ways to use this - you can HoS your offtank on fights that require taunt rotations and then bubble to receive no damage, but reduce the damage your offtank takes. Keep in mind that this will cause forbearance on you.
Hand of Salvation: Reduces total threat on the target by 2% every 1 second for 10 seconds. Very useful, keep it ready to save an overzealous mage.
Crusader Strike: Single target strike that gives you one holy power. Note that shares a cooldown with Hammer of the Righteous, and seems to generate about as much threat as Hammer on Warmane. However, it does more single target damage, so if you are in a boss fight use this to generate holy power.
Hammer of the Righteous: Your AoE damage ability. It will hit your primary target hard, and anything else within 8 yards for holy damage. Unlike WOTLK, this ability no longer has a limit to how many targets it can affect. It also grants you one holy power on use. This is an amazing skill, and part of your priority queue.
Judgment: Deals holy damage, and has respectable range with Improved Judgment. If you happen to run out of taunts and your Avenger's Shield is on cooldown, throw a Judgment out.
Shield of the Righteous: Our principle single target attack. This ability is powered using Holy Power and as such will not activate unless you have at least 1 Holy Power charged on your gauge. Best used when you have 3 Holy Power.
Avenger's Shield: Your Captain America shield toss is your best opening move, esspecially on caster adds. It has an added bonus of silencing the target, so if you toss it on a caster at the back of a pack of mobs, it will be silenced and automatically start walking to you, which makes it easier to pack mobs together in a group for your DPSers to AoE down. If casted with Grand Crusader proc, it will give you 3 Holy Power.

Taunts:
Hand of Reckoning: It no longer does damage, and works the same as any other tank's taunt. It will force the mob to attack you for 3 seconds regardless of the threat table. This will never miss.
Righteous Defense: Use it on a party/raid member to direct up to 3 enemies to attack you instead. If you use it with the below macro, it effectively works as an extra taunt that affects 3 targets instead of one.

#showtooltip
/cast [@targettarget] Righteous Defense

Interrupts:
Rebuke: Now a baseline ability, this allows you to interrupt spell casting, and like all non-damaging interrupts it cannot miss, but does anyway on Warmane occasionally.
Hammer of Justice: A dedicated stunning ability with a 1 minute cooldown. Will not interrupt stun immune targets, like raid bosses.
Holy Wrath: An AoE stun that affects all Undead within 10 yards for 3 seconds. If glyphed, this will also affect Elementals and Dragonkin. Needless to say, it also interrupts spell casting.

Cooldowns:
These abilities help you survive situations where your risk of death is elevated. These situations range from the obvious - a special attack on a predictable
timer - to the more subtle but no less deadly, like a debuff that disables or distracts your healers. Here are a couple guidelines for using cooldowns effectively:
ÔÇó Use cooldowns before you take damage. If you use Guardian of Ancient Kings at half health, 90k HP, the cooldown is effectively adding 90k more HP before you die. If you wait until you reach 20k HP, it only adds an effective 20k HP. Waiting to use your cooldowns until youÔÇÖre at low HP is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
ÔÇó You get the most mileage out of consciously using them in dangerous situations, but the more you use them, the more value you get. ItÔÇÖs a balancing act.
ÔÇó Match the cooldown to the level of threat by planning your cooldown usage before the fight.

Ardent Defender: Activate this right before you expect a deadly hit. When activated the ability provides a 10 second buff window. During that window if a Paladin is struck by an attack that would kill them they are instead healed for 15% of max health. During the 10 second window when the ability is activated Paladins will also benefit from a fixed 20% reduction to all incoming damage. If this ability successfully saves you from a fatal hit, it will put you in Forbearance for 1 minute. If the 10 seconds wear off without a fatal hit, you won't be affected by Forbearance.
Divine Protection: This should be used to manage damage in non-emergency situations. I prefer it glyphed, which removes its ability to reduce physical damage, instead reducing magic damage by 40%.
Divine Guardian: If you pick up this talent you receive a new cooldown that reduces damage by 20% to all members of your party/raid within 20 yards for 6 seconds; you do not benefit from the damage reduction of this ability. This is still very handy to use for the benefit of your offtank, or when the raid expects a lot of sudden AoE damage.
Divine Shield: This ability is available to all Paladins but should be used carefully by tanks since it effectively removes you from combat and thus the threat table temporarily. Enemies on you will immediately go toward the next party/raid members on the threat table. This ability also
causes Forbearance. However, it removes almost all debuffs in game and can be a game changer (for example, it removes the debuff that Halfus will put on you, which makes you capable of tanking up to 40 stacks by yourself. No other tank can do this). Use the below macro to cast bubble and then immediately remove it. Don't forget to taunt the boss to keep it on you.

#showtooltip 
/cancelaura Divine Shield 
/cast Divine Shield

Guardian of Ancient Kings: Will reduce damage to the tanking Paladin by 50% through the Ancient Guardian ability for 12 seconds. Cooldown on this ability is 5 minutes; or 3 minutes if spec'ed into all ranks of [Shield of the Templar]. This is your best damage reduction cooldown.
Holy Shield: It is an activate-able ability which provides 10 seconds of +20% to amount blocked on a 1 minute cooldown. It is typically used nearly on cooldown during fights, though it may be delayed briefly if a period of high blockable damage is expected to come soon. Note that it inreases the amount of damage blocked, not your block rating.
Lay on Hands: Casting it will heal the target equal to the maximum health of the casting Paladin. It is off the global cooldown, cannot crit heal, is not effected by many healing boosting effects, and will cause Forbearance for 1 minute on whomever it's cast. Note that it persists through debuffs, such as Chimaeron's healing reduction in the last phase. It will ALWAYS heal you to full health, no matter how many healing reduction debuffs you are affected by.
Word of Glory: An instant Holy Power powered heal with a 20 second cooldown and no mana cost. Additionally the base spec (via Guarded by the Light) also provides the additional benefit of converting any over healing into a temporary bubble. Sometimes underestimated, it can crit and easily heal for 30+K, making it a powerful survival tool. You can glyph it for more healing, but it is not recommended unless you are going for pure self-healing.


Before you start, make sure that Righteous Fury is on, and that you have a Seal and an Aura active.

The Pull: Divine Plea -> Inquisition -> Avenging Wrath -> Avenger's Shield -> Priority Queue

Priority Queue: Crusader Strike (use to build holy power) -> Judgment -> Avenger's Shield (if Grand Crusader procs) -> Shield of the Righteous (with full Holy Power) -> Hammer of Wrath (below 20% hp)
Use Holy Shield, Divine Protection, and Word of Glory on cooldown or when required.

AoE Rotation: Consecration (Only to "catch" adds as they spawn. Do not use it actively- it is a massive mana hog and not very effective as a threat generator), Hammer of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield.
Build up 3 stacks of Holy Power and keep Inquisition active as much as possible.


Bastion of Twilight (BoT)
Halfus Wyrmbreaker
ÔÇó Use bubble and cancel it with the cancelaura macro to remove the healing debuff Halfus puts on you.
ÔÇó Interrupt Halfus' Shadow Nova ability with Rebuke
ÔÇó Cast Consecration on the floor outside the whelps before you release them, and then Hammer of the Righteous right away to keep aggro on them
Valiona and Theralion
ÔÇó If you have Engulfing Magic on you, hit escape and stop attacking the boss. You won't lose aggro instantly, but it will save the lives of your melee pile.
ÔÇó Move the boss out of Dazzling Destruction, which is the purple ground ability.
Ascendant Council
ÔÇó Interrupt Hydro Lance, it will murder clothies.
ÔÇó Run away from Feludius when he is casting Glaciate because the closer you are, the more damage you take.
ÔÇó In the third phase, make sure you don't get hit by Lava Seeds.

Blackwing Descent (BWD)
Magmaw
ÔÇó Use a cooldown whenever you get eaten. Rotate Holy Shield, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Lay on Hands, and even bubble if required.
ÔÇó Do not click on him when the time comes to chain him! This is a job for DPSers. If he isn't chained correctly, he will sometimes throw whoever is on his head down into the lava below, and it will be a sure wipe if your tank falls down.
ÔÇó Stay away from worms.
Omnotron Defense System
ÔÇó Pay attention to which machine is going to activate and be ready to taunt it.
ÔÇó Don't stand in anything bad, and move bosses out of the blue Power Generator that Arcanotron casts on the ground.
ÔÇó Hit escape and stop hitting Electron when he has Unstable Shield on.
ÔÇó Pay attention to what the bosses are casting (esspecially Electron and Arcanotron), and be ready to interrupt their cast skills with Rebuke. If you miss key interrupts, your raid members could get one shot.
Maloriak
ÔÇó Interrupt Arcane Storm
ÔÇó Face Maloriak to the raid when the red cauldron is active.
ÔÇó Make sure you are 6 yards away from everyone else during the blue cauldron phase.
ÔÇó Pay attention to when the boss is releasing aberrations if you are on add duty.
Atramedes
ÔÇó Don't get hit by too many bad things that increase your sound.
Nefarion
ÔÇó If you hit him hard enough he drops gold.

Firelands (FL)
Beth'tilac
ÔÇó Do not face Drones towards your raid.
ÔÇó Taunt Spinners down so they stop hitting your DPS and healers.
ÔÇó If you see Spiderlings coming towards the Drone you are tanking, kite it away from them while making sure to not face them to the raid.
ÔÇó In the last phase, stand at least 6 yards away from the other tank to prevent taking unnecessary damage.
ÔÇó Taunt Beth'tilac off your other tank when he/she has 2 stacks of Killing Kiss. Focus target your OT to make sure you know when to taunt.
ÔÇó She hits harder the longer the fight progresses, so be sure to use your cooldowns wisely.
Lord Rhyolith
ÔÇó Pick up adds as they spawn, esspecially the Sparks of Rhyolith, and make sure they are not in range of any raid members. Once it is safely away from the raid, stun and use glyphed divine protection to reduce the damage you take.
ÔÇó Don't forget to help out using Divine Guardian before a particularly bad concussive stomp
ÔÇó Once you get to the last phase, Rhyolith hits about as hard as Beth'tilac, so don't forget to use your cooldowns.
Shannox
ÔÇó If you are tanking the boss, face him away from the raid to prevent getting cleaved.
ÔÇó Save your cooldowns for when the dogs die.
ÔÇó If you are tanking the dog, make sure to keep an eye out for crystal traps and try and trap the dog as often as possible.
ÔÇó Don't stand in fire, it's really bad for you.
Alysrazor
ÔÇó Make sure you are the only person standing next to your egg before the hatchlings spawn. They are not tauntable, and if you don't do this the person they imprint on will have to either alt+f4 or die or kill them to get rid of them.
ÔÇó Focus on DPSing the Hatchling down, and run them over worms as soon as possible. The worms do a LOT of AoE damage, so run straight through as fast as possible. Pop glyphed Divine Protection to soften the blow.
ÔÇó NEVER point Alysrazor towards the raid. She does a massive cleave that will oneshot any non tank. Even the other tank shouldn't be standing around to take it.
ÔÇó Rotate cooldowns and keep switching at around 15 stacks, or whatever is comfortable for you. Watch your hp and see how much you can take.
Baleroc
ÔÇó You can either two tank, or single tank this boss on Warmane. Single tanking is by far easier if you can handle it. Just stand and take damage, and pop a cooldown before Decimation Blade if your healers can't keep up.
ÔÇó Make sure you are not taking damage from the crystal, that is the fastest way to the graveyard.
ÔÇó If you are two tanking, the offtank needs to start the fight and gain enough stacks so that his health pool is at least over 250k. 350k is safer. Then the main tank will take the boss and stack up the fire debuff. Whenever the boss casts Decimation Blade (his shadow ability), the OT needs to taunt and soak up this damage, and the MT has to taunt off again right after.
Majordomo Staghelm
ÔÇó In Scorpion form, point the boss towards your raid. You must be stacked for this fight to share raid damage. If your healers are good and the dps can push it, you can kill the boss by staying in this phase entirely. (rotate tranquility, spirit link totem, bloodlust, etc)
ÔÇó If you must spread, then be sure to taunt the cats that spawn and try and dps them down if you have steady boss aggro. They have almost no health and tend to jump around on your DPS. Don't forget to keep taunting them.
ÔÇó If you happen to be standing in a pool of fire, move.

A note on the Pre-Majordomo Staghelm adds:
These wiped us more cleanly than any other boss in the instance the first time we encountered them, and they can still pose a challenge in our 6th-7th run of the week where healers are not very geared. The DPS has to be VERY careful about their debuff on this fight. The more you attack, the more stacks of a fire dot you get on you. This does massive damage and is unhealable above 3 stacks, so don't push it over 1 if your health is low.
Also, kill the humanoid add first, since he does the "sunfire" AoE. Once he is dead, it makes things much easier.
The cats will also jump and AoE stun anyone in the area that they land, so having a priest with glyph of mass dispel or anyone that can do the job is very handy.
Kite these adds, do not tank them in one place. Even auto attacks will build stacks.
Ragnaros
ÔÇó Set focus on the other tank, and make sure to taunt switch at 4 stacks of the debuff.
ÔÇó In the transition phases use your stuns- you will have nothing to do in the first one so stun and dps as many Sons of Flame as you possibly can. Make sure you have Holy Wrath glyphed for this fight.
ÔÇó In the second transition phase, if you are not tanking the boss then make sure you pick up the Scions that spawn a second or two before the Sons of Flame do, and drag them away from the raid but not too far, not out of range of your healers.
ÔÇó When you're stacking in the Warmane seeds phase, make sure you get a hit or two with your hammer of the righteous and drop a consecration, because people underestimate the damage 20 of those adds can do to one squishy hunter, and you don't want their death to be on your conscience.



Blacksmithing & Jewelcrafting seem to be the best possible combination for a Paladin tank (or for that matter, any tank), however- Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, Inscription, Leatherworking and Enchanting are very similar in the stat bonuses you gain. If you absolutely must get a gathering profession, then take Mining. Mining+Jewelcrafting is a good alternative, since you can pre-mine the mats and then abandon it for Blacksmithing.

Blacksmithing: You gain two additional gemming slots. When epic gems come out, the stat value will be around 100, vs the 80ish you gain from other professions.
Jewelcrafting: Apart from being a useful profession to have (which only gets better with time), it's going to provide around 81 stat points with the jewelcrafter only gems.
Enchanting: Provides +60 stamina to each ring, for a total of 120 stamina.
Inscription: Provides a shoulder enchant which provides the same bonus as enchanting. This is an alternative to the Therazane rep reward, but not optimal.
Leatherworking: Draconic Embossment for bracers give you 195 stamina, which is a huge improvement over the alternative, which is the 50 dodge enchant.
Alchemy: The crafted trinket (Lifebound Alchemist Stone) is quite good early on, and it gives you Mixology which increases the duration of your flasks to 2 hours instead of 1.
Engineering: This is mostly a utility profession, which should only be considered for the helm and cogwheel enchants, which are currently not very attractive.
Mining: 80 stamina and the ability to mine, this is by far the best gathering profession for us.
Herbalism: A small self heal and a haste boost. The haste buff is okay for Retribution, but terrible for tanks. Unless you plan to heavily use your offspec, this is a bad idea.
Skinning: It gives you critical strike rating, which us basically useless for a paladin tank.
Tailoring: None of the enchants are optimal for tanks.


Most consumables are optional, but I recommend always having a stamina scroll on, and a flask for difficult instances (such as Firelands). Scrolls are really cheap, and even easier to get if you ask a scribe friend to make you a big batch.

Flasks:
Flask of Steelskin +450 Stamina for 1 hour.

Scrolls:
Scroll of Stamina IX +150 Stamina (Guardian Elixir)
Runescroll of Fortitude II +468 Stamina to the whole raid, stacks with Priest's fortitude buff.

Food:
Seafood Magnifique Feast: +90 Dodge and +90 Stamina
Lavascale Minestrone: +90 Mastery rating and +90 Stamina
Mushroom Sauce Mudfish: +90 Dodge rating and +90 Stamina
Blackbelly Sushi: +90 Parry rating and +90 Stamina

Potions:
Earthen Potion: +4800 armor for 25 seconds

Elixirs:
Elixir of Deep Earth: +900 Armor (Guardian Elixir)
Prismatic Elixir: +90 to all Resistances (Guardian Elixir)
Elixir of the Master: +225 Mastery rating (Battle Elixir)


My guild Care for being awesome and providing a great learning environment where everyone strives to be better.
Noobert: For looking over it in its earliest stages and helping me proof read and improve it.
Schakall: A tank supremist that looked over this guide and gave me some very useful tips.
Chea: Another guildie, for mentioning a few things I missed out and providing the ctc macro.
Epic: For managing to be more picky than I am about the little details, and help fix a lot of minor issues.
Lynea: Random forum fairy that did the links in the glyph section for me!

Resources:
http://www.wowpedia.org
http://elitistjerks.com/

Changelog:
Monday, July 08 2013 - Added a few improvements to the section about Consecration, and also added links to the glyphs.
Tuesday, July 09 2013 - Fixed the section about Glyph of Divine Protection. It's on a 60 second cooldown, not 30. Also added information about racial passive expertise gain.
Monday, July 29 2013 - Updated to include sections on professions and consumables, and also included boss tips for Alysrazor, Baleroc, and Majordomo Staghelm.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - Added a video to go with the guide.
Monday, September 16, 2013: A long overdue section on handling Ragnaros as a paladin tank has been added.