Readers ask, itankstuff.com answears (I)



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!

See More Pop­u­lar Posts:

• A Guide to Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin Glyphs
• Patch 3.1 Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin Specs and Glyphs
• Best WotLK Weapon Enchant for Pro­tec­tion Paladins
• Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin build for Wrath of the Lich King
• A ques­tion for all tanks

Sim­i­lar Posts of Interest:

• Read­ers ask, itankstuff.com answears (II)
• Inter­est­ing Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin builds
• Impor­tant for­mu­las for level 70 tanks
• Pro­tec­tion Pal­adin weapons guide with spread­sheet inside
• Com­mon mis­takes in build­ing your Pro­tec­tion Paladin

 

One Response to “Readers ask, itankstuff.com answears (I)”

1. Mama Druid says:

   02/06/2008 at 20:54

   Wow, what an awe­somely fast response! I don’t mind if you pro­vide the armory link, it might help oth­ers who have sim­i­lar ques­tions or are sim­ply research­ing pro­tec­tion paladins.

   I didn’t think about the wiz­ard oil — I have enchanters that can make it!

   Also, there’s one I for­got about. I had a pile of plate wait­ing for her in the bank, but I opted out quite a few of the pieces as they weren’t any bet­ter than some of my mail. I think I made the right deci­sion as her armor rat­ing is still quite good.

   One strange obser­va­tion about the plate — some of the same type of pieces (i.e. 3 gloves), while all level 40, had vary­ing val­ues of armor. I thought that was really weird and couldn’t think of a good rea­son for it.

   Any­how, thanks again for the speedy response and I’m priv­i­leged to be your first Q&A!

   Reply