Seems we’re getting a lot of love tonight as another question just popped out. It comes from Asara:

I am also, like Mama Druid, working on leveling up a Prot pally (Saraabi on
Malfurion). She was ret most of the way, but now that she’s hit Outland, I
decided I’d take the plunge and start tanking things.

Anyway, I was hoping you could shed some light on how exactly one goes about
AOE grinding. Is that something I can do now, or do I need to wait for my full
talent tree at 70? I’ve seen videos but they don’t really explain blow-by-blow
what they’re doing.. and when I’m questing, I’m generally lucky to be able to
hold two mobs without dying. I just started the Nesingwary questlines in
Nagrand, and it would cut a lot of time out of my grind if I could drop four or
five of the mobs at a time. Any help you have is welcome!

Sorry about me not being so prompt about your question, but I was fighting in the tournament I was telling you about earlier this week.

Referring back to your problem, I’ve looked at your character on armory. First thing I noticed is that you didn’t took Reckoning. You should. Helps out a great deal while leveling. Secondly, it really shows on your gear that you came from a Retribution build. But it’s ok, things will get better. A really big plus is the shield you have. Strap a Felsteel Shield Spike on (expensive, but invest in that because you’ll be using this shield at AoE farming even at 70) and you’re set.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to recall how many mobs I could pull while leveling. I think around 3 if they were melee and only 1 caster. So I can’t really tell why you die at only two mobs. Here are a few tips you could use:

• Holy Shield and Consecration should be always up. Always;
• Judge and fight with SoW;
• Use Retribution aura;
• Get Reckoning (lulz);
• Have guts. Don’t be afraid to bubble (and heal) or even LoH. Next time you’ll know to pull less;

I’m guessing the vids you watched are of the Paladins farming the Demon Hunters near Black Temple. For those you kinda need good-ish gear. Figurine of the Colossus and Dabiri’s Enigma are a deadly combo. I remember that first time I attempted to farm them, I had to bubble, heal myself to full and still was very close to dieing. Now I just storm in and they don’t even get me to half HP.

AoE grinding is not so present and effective at lower levels. Good news is, by the time you hit 70 and have the gear to attempt Karazhan (meaning at least 490 Defense, 10k HP, 200ish Spell Damage) you’ll be a lean-mean-farming machine. And things get only for the better while getting better and better gear.

Good luck! Hope I’ve been of some help.

Today I got my first question via this blog. It comes from Mama Druid and sounds like this:

I hope you have some time to help me with a few questions. I’m leveling a protection paladin - she dinged 40 over the weekend.

I think I’ve done ok with my talents, but at these low levels the right kind of gear is difficult to come by. Spell damage seems only attainable via expensive enchants, and I think block rating is more of an Outlands stat. From what I understand about the basic stats, strength increases my block rating so I figured I need a good amount of strength.

Gear wise, and leveling before Outlands wise, are strength and stam stats I should be stacking… combined with any +def/br/spell dmg I can find?

It seems as though I block attacks from all attackers, not just the one I’m hitting… can you verify this to be true?

Is a faster one hand weapon preferred, for faster health regen with SoL (especially when Reckoning procs)?

Thank you for your assistance.

First of all, I want to thank you for being the first to use the Contact Form. It gives me great pleasure to know that people are actually following me and I can communicate and help them.

Regarding your question(s), let’s start from the top.

I’ve looked at your armory link (which I didn’t post, I didn’t know if it was ok or not) and you invested your talents very well until now. Keep going for Improved Holy Shield and then go for One-Handed Weapon Specialization. On the way, don’t forget to pick up Blessings of Kings.

Gear wise, unfortunately, there isn’t much love for us before Outland so we’re forced to share the same tanking loot as warriors. So yes, stack Stamina, Strength and Defense. Also, for spell damage, you can use some Wizard Oil.

About the blocks, yes, we block attacks from all attackers that are in front of us, not only those of the mob we’re hitting.

Fast one-handed weapons are the way to go. I’ve read some time ago that 1.6 attack speed would be the optimum value for that (don’t ask me where, I can’t remember). Fast attack speed = more damage when SoR is up (especially of Reckoning procs) = more threat. This should be your first priority, not to loose aggro because we know how people don’t trust Paladin Tanks (especially at low levels).

Other than that, my advice is to keep faith and don’t let yourself discouraged by the others. Have fun playing your Prot Pala!

Struggling between choices? Just rerolled and don’t know what to chose? Dinged 70 recently and confusion has taken over you? Look no further! This guide will (hopefully) answer all your question regarding the weapon of choice for Protection Paladins.

This guide is being continuously being updated. Although you might not notice changes in the actual post, the online spreadsheet displays all the new and old information you need so check that as often as you would like.

Who do I write this guide for?

This guide is for those brave Protection Paladins that are on the brink of their carriers, those who are only now starting Karazhan or storming through 25-man content. It doesn’t address those who tank Illidan with The Sun Eater. If you are one of those Paladins, you can safely skip this read, as you probably know much more than me.

General considerations

What to look for in a weapon for tanking Paladins? Let’s see:

1. Spell damage - the more, the merrier;
2. Stamina - obvious, isn’t it?
3. Spell hit rating - secondary stat, but nice to have;
4. Spell critical strike rating - nice to have some crits from time to time for a threat boost;
5. Intellect - Again, not that important;

All other stats are not important and should be ignored.

More specific details and nifty calculations after the jump.

Continue Reading »

I have always loved to experiment with different specs and to try them out. I’ve found 3 best-practice builds that can fit every aspect of a Protection Paladin’s role in a raid and/or outside it. They might look the same, but if you examine them carefully, you’ll see essential differences between them. Here they are. Key talents are bolded.

Grind/Quest build

0/49/12

Overview

This build is best put to practice when grinding large groups of mobs at the same time, like the Demon Hunter Supplicant’s in Shadowmoon Valley. It can be used to tank in raids like Karazhan or Gruul’s Lair, but you’re probably better off choosing another build if you want to tank higher content.

It has all the good stuff in it: Ardent Defender, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and Combat Expertise. Furthermore, I’ve also included Reckoning, the much debated talent of Protection Paladins. I don’t want to start endless discussions, but you’ll find out it’s very useful when you stick to grinding large packs of mobs because it procs very often and it really makes a difference.

The downside of this build is that it lacks even they slightest mitigation against Spell Damage. Also, you might want to be very careful how you manage your mana, because not getting healed means you don’t get mana back and we all know that a OOM Paladin is a dead Paladin.

Offtank build

0/46/15

Overview

As the name already state the obvious, this build is made for offtanking. It can be also used for main tanking, but in low end raids (Karazhan, Gruul, etc.). This is also the build I’m currently using.

This time around, Reckoning is not needed, as you’ll rarely tank more than 2-3 mobs at the same time. Also, you’ll find out that the better gear you’ll have, the proc rate will begin to drop (only natural since you need to take hits in order for it to trigger and better gear means better avoidance) so the 5 points invested here should go somewhere else. You’ll notice that I’ve included Precision (3% hit rating with melee and spells goes a long way - you don’t want your Avenger’s Shield to miss at a critical point or your Righteous Defense to be resisted - by the way, for those that didn’t know, Righteous Defense is affected by melee hit rating and not spell hit rating) and Improved Seal of the Crusader (for helping your raid DPS). Other than that, it’s almost the same with the previous build, with extra Spell Damage protection from Spell Warding.

Main tank build

0/49/12

Overview

Yes, the well known build that became a standard for all Protection Paladins. It’s like the flagship for all builds.

This build has it all. Maximum damage mitigation, maximum stamina gains, maximum Armor and Defense that can be achieved by talents.

For encounters with heavy Spell Damage, a wise thing to do is take 3 points out of One-Handed Weapon Specialization and put them in Pursuit of Justice, getting down to 0/46/15.

Ok, so there are my builds. If you could provide any feedback, it would be appreciated.

I had some spare time last week and while waiting for some BG queues I roamed around Shattrath and inspected some Paladins. I was really glad to see many Protection Paladins (apparently they are very popular on my server). To my surprise, I found some that made some big mistakes in their builds and gear. So here is a list of what I discovered along with some tips on how to correct them.

General guide in terms of gear

• You don’t need Agility, Strength and Intellect on your items. Sure, they are nice to have, but these are not your primary stats so seek to replace them. Remember Spiritual Attunement?
• What you need are Defense Rating, Stamina, Block Rating, Dodge, Block Value and Spell Damage. Stack these and you’ll do a great job;

General guide in terms of builds

• Don’t invest in Divine Intellect! Protection Paladins don’t need any Intellect in items or in talents. That’s why Spiritual Attunement exists;
• Don’t invest in Improved Devotion Aura or Improved Concentration Aura! There are simply much better places to invest your points in so going for these is just a waste;
• Don’t invest in Improved Hammer of Justice! Although stunning is useful in some situations, it’s not worth investing 3 points in it;
• Don’t invest in Stoicism! Even with the 10% stun resist chance you’ll probably still be stunned and besides, who needs dispel resistance? This is clearly a PvP talent and should not be part of any PvE build of a Protection Paladin;
• I saw some Protection Paladins with Pursuit of Justice. In my opinion, this becomes an useful talent only when you start main tanking high end content where every type of damage mitigation is very important, especially Spell Damage, where we are weaker than other tanks;

Common builds

You can check some of the builds I currently play with in this post: Interesting Protection Paladin builds. Also, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll do my best to answer.