Help : Solo tanking Bane Protection Paladin

[Zelda1220]

Hello,

I rarely come out on forum to get help how to play my class, but I am really rusty in tanking and it seems the weird damage on Bane 10 HC makes me feel worse about the situation I am in.

So, after I was kind of done with Favourite Nightmare, I decided to actually do some progressing and fun runs with my Korean friends/guildies.

Everyone was new at the fight, so we mostly wiped on Shadow Trap this week, but whenever we got to 2nd phase CLEAN (it happened like twice only though. Most of the times we still had 1 raging or shambling alive.), I was literally getting obliterated by Soul Reaper - auto attack combo.

Not only the auto attack is hitting for SO ****ING much (average of 35,000-), the Soul Reaper damage is absolutely abnormal that it seems it is not possible to do it with a single tank. I ran Hand of Salv (with glyph) and had Sac from one of the other paladins and was still hit by 50,000 soul reaper immediately followed by an auto attack which all happened in 0.5 seconds; leaving me dead in no time.

So, I was wondering if there could be a possible improvement without going ICC25HCs, but just by re-gemming or re-enchanting or do something about my gears or even changing my play style.

Here are some that I am aware of :

- I have low armor. (31k without devo aura)
- Buy Chest T10 ; why did I buy shoulder?
- Buy EoF back and waist for more armor.
- Get Onyxia ring for possibly more armor.
- Change weapon enchant to Blood Drain / Mongoose? (Suggestions? People say BD for faster weaps, but it takes 10 seconds to gain 1 stack of BD which seems to make it not worth it /shrug)
- Change Shield Enchant. (or just keep +18 stam?)
- Possible change of Libram to one that increases flat Block Value?
- Get Engineering

I would like to know if there are anywhere else that I could improve on. I had around 80k HP in ICC with our buffs. (Had everything honestly)

Here is the link to my bad paladin : http://armory.warmane.com/character/...ecrown/summary

Also, for those who have recently killed Bane, would it be better if we just run two tanks? I wanted to do a solo tank tactic because it simply would have better DPS output, making the fight to run faster which means people will make less mistakes.

Someone even suggested hunter taunting the boss right before soul reaper expires, which isn't a bad idea either, I believe. Would love to know what you guys think.

Thanks.

[Zelda1220]

To be noted, the raid comp was as follows;
(advice for improvement on this would also be appreciated, but we have limited resources)

- Protection Paladin

- Holy Paladin
- Restoration Shaman

- Retribution Paladin
- Fury Warrior
- Enhancement Shaman
- Assassination Rogue
- Balance Druid
- Shadow Priest
- Marksmanship Hunter

Warrior was doing commanding shout, but not improved one.
Enha shammy had imp. totems for agi,str and melee haste.

Everyone was pumping average of 1.2 million dmg done on LK by the end of 1st phase. Holy Paladin is not really an experienced one, but has good enough gears to cover up his nubie. Advice for him would also be appreciated. :/

[b_cryp]

I am personally not too experienced with solotanking, especially on paladin, but all the things you have pointed out help mitigate the auto attacks from LK, which is what is killing you, since Soul Reaper does flat damage and you need to tank additional adds like Ragings, Shamblings, Ghouls.

I would suggest, as you said, getting the T10 Chest, eof back, shield enchant to Titanium Plating (it would give you more survivability) and the Libram of Sacred Shield.

And your shaman should run Stoneskin totem instead of Strength of Earth. 178 strength and agility is nice, but without a tank you cant kill Lk.

Also I would suggest Indestructable potions, if you aren't using them. Drink one right before the pull, it will last you till transition and the one right in the begging of phase2. You would also have its cooldown done after you enter FMC.

Hope I was helpful in some way. :D
Good luck!

[mock]

i wont heal u if u 31k armor tank lkhc

[Zelda1220]

i wont heal u if u 31k armor tank lkhc

very constructive advice.

1.) I don't need your ****ty heals.

2.) Armor suffers from DR. If I am correct, with full armor setup without buffs and devotion aura, you have 36k armor at tops. That will be around 68% damage reduction. I am sitting in 31k armor which is 64% damage reduction. If you don't wanna heal cuz I am missing out 4% physical damage reduction, you should honestly find a different place to troll.

[Zelda1220]

And your shaman should run Stoneskin totem instead of Strength of Earth. 178 strength and agility is nice, but without a tank you cant kill Lk.

I am using Devotion aura so they don't need to put 'em down. Thank you for reminding me of indestructable potions. I was keep on reminding myself to get one and forgot it again.

[Mercy]

very constructive advice.

1.) I don't need your ****ty heals.

2.) Armor suffers from DR. If I am correct, with full armor setup without buffs and devotion aura, you have 36k armor at tops. That will be around 68% damage reduction. I am sitting in 31k armor which is 64% damage reduction. If you don't wanna heal cuz I am missing out 4% physical damage reduction, you should honestly find a different place to troll.

You should be aiming for 40-42k armor in general for LK. Especially if you're going to be solo-tanking Soul Reaper.
The cap is at 49,905. Keep in mind that the armor values you see in your character sheet are values against a level 80 enemy, not a level 83 boss.

As for the logic behind armor's damage reduction, it doesn't work the way you present it. Going from 70% to 71% physical damage reduction may just appear to be a 1% overall gain in mitigation. However, when unmitigated LK melees are 50k, this means you will be getting hit for 15,000 after 70% armor. After 71% armor, you will be getting hit for 14,500. Going from 15,000 to 14,500 is a reduction of approx ~3.5%. 3.5% is much more than just 1%. Now let's change this to going from 70% to 74% (since 4% physical mitigation was your number), which means you will go from taking a 15,000 hit to a 13,000 hit. This is a ~14.5% increase in mitigation to the hit you were previously taking.
Hopefully this helps you to understand the value of armor.

@Thread overall;
Soul Reaper is a problem because it is a mechanic that is intended to force taunting between tanks. In case you don't already know, Soul Reaper hits with an up-front value (50k I believe). Whether or not that value can be mitigated, I do not know. It is a debuff healers need to keep track of and be ready to nuke heal you the moment that debuff expires. When the Soul Reaper debuff expires, the Lich King gets an attack speed boost for a few seconds (I believe it's a 40-50% increase to his melee haste).
This means you will need to be able to deal with the nuke magic damage from the initial part of Soul Reaper, and then be prepared for the incoming physical damage afterward (which is the real killer here).

@Enchants
Tank weapon enchants are overall pretty awful. Whatever your choice is, it will make little difference. Personally, I prefer to use Mongoose because it provides a variety of benefits.
I also prefer the block value shield enchant, but you should only use it if you can keep Holy Shield active 100% of the time. If you're having trouble with the Lich King's melees, then you definitely should use this enchant.

@Libram, yes, definitely. Either that one, or Valiance (200str).

@80k HP, please note that HP isn't everything. You need to balance your HP with your armor, and with your avoidance as well to a degree.

@Question about asking if it would be better to 2 tank Bane; yes, it would be. It's meant to be. If you want to insist on solo tanking it, then yes, a Hunter taunting it could be useful. But also keep in mind that the melee in the group would need to chase the boss, and thus could be a potential DPS loss, which can be an issue since your comp is a bit melee heavy (4 melee, 3 ranged).

@Holydin advice; Naturally he should beacon you. He should use Seal of Wisdom and use Judgment on CD (only if he doesn't need to heal at that moment) to help maintain his mana. He should be using Holy Light on the melee whenever he doesn't need to heal a ranged for the splash healing from Glyph of Holy Light. It would be ok to let the Shaman handle heals on the ranged, especially since it is a melee heavy comp. Also, him and the Shaman should both be keeping an eye on the Soul Reaper debuff. They both either need to have an instant ready, or pre-cast a nuke heal to land on you a fraction of a second after the debuff expires, and to continue nuke healing you for the next ~5-8 seconds.

@Your armory (gear/talents), you definitely need to get an armor trinket. You also need to get more 'bonus armor' pieces for your gear set.
Neck: Bile Encrusted Medallion, Legionnaire's Gorget
Cloak: You already mentioned
Bracers: Gargoyle Spit Bracers
Belt: You already mentioned
Legs: Pillars of Might
Ring: You already mentioned
Trinkets: Petrified Twilight Scale, Unidentifiable Organ, Corpse Tongue Coin (can be great for Soul Reaper; armor proc), Glyph of Indomitability, Furnace Stone
I don't recommend the Black Heart trinket, as the armor is RNG. It may not be up when you need it for Soul Reaper.
These are all options. I'll leave it up to you to weigh how many of them you should use, but I would personally go for as much armor as possible.

It's important to note that a tank does not have a set-in-stone BIS list. A tank's BIS list will change with each encounter, and depending on what you have available in your raid composition. This ranges from resistance gear, armor gear, threat gear, unhittable (avoidance) gear, etc.
As for Lich King in particular, you're going to want to stack the hell out of armor along WITH stamina, all the while trying to cram in as much avoidance as you can without sacrificing armor or stamina. I wouldn't be too concerned about threat if your group's Hunter and Rogue are good with threat redirection, which I will assume that they are.

I am using Devotion aura so they don't need to put 'em down. Thank you for reminding me of indestructable potions. I was keep on reminding myself to get one and forgot it again.

Make sure you pre-pot these like b_cryp mentioned. However, for the second pot, I would suggest saving the 2nd pot for the first Soul Reaper that you do not have a defensive CD for.

[Demmye]

I'm pretty sure that Stoneskin Totem and Devotion Aura stack.

[Mercy]

I'm pretty sure that Stoneskin Totem and Devotion Aura stack.

It should. If it doesn't, then it's bugged.

http://wow.gamepedia.com/Stoneskin_Totem
>Cataclysm Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): No longer stacks with [Devotion Aura], no longer has ranks.

[Bensten]

Solo-Tanking Bane is something we can do because of so many people on Warmane overgearing this fight. Trying this with an unexperienced group that is lacking gear on crucial positions is a rather masochistic approach.

[harthoran]

If not executed right during phase 1 and 1.5, you could end up with an overall damage loss due to poorly managed Raging Spirits/Necrotic Plague, negating the benefit of a single tank. You're much better off 2-tanking bane until you over-gear the encounter and are more comfortable with it.

[unterhaching]

FYI: Melee values are not correct at the moment, 10hc LK hitting about 5-15k too much and 25hc (recently) hit for 10-15k too low, this happened when they tried to adjust the 10hc values which were a bit too high eversince the melee buffs a few months ago.

Just dont solotank atm, unless you got your stats fixed. did it yday with 44k armor DK and LK hit me insanely hard, Will of the Necropolis ftw tho :D

[Zelda1220]

It should. If it doesn't, then it's bugged.

http://wow.gamepedia.com/Stoneskin_Totem
>Cataclysm Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): No longer stacks with [Devotion Aura], no longer has ranks.

Thanks. Didn't know.

Thanks for the advice above also.

[Zelda1220]

Solo-Tanking Bane is something we can do because of so many people on Warmane overgearing this fight. Trying this with an unexperienced group that is lacking gear on crucial positions is a rather masochistic approach.

You do know I am masochistic tho.

*WINK*

[Bensten]

You do know I am masochistic tho.

*WINK*

I guess it's time for another raiding diary.