Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 1: General Tanking
This is Part 1 of a series of posts that covers the changes to Protection Paladins coming in 3.0. You could make a strong case that Paladins change more so than any other class, but we are going to start with the changes coming in 3.0 that affect all tanks and tanking in General.
I'm going to assume for the moment that you have no prior knowledge of the changes.
Combined Stats
Many stats that effected spells and melee differently have been merged. Spell Hit and Melee Hit are now just Hit, and it affects both spell and melee. Crit and Haste were also combined to affect both spell and melee.
This is a major help to Protection Paladins. As one of the few classes that was part caster and part melee, it was difficult to balance our gear with both stats. This was most problematic in the area of hit. We needed Melee hit to make sure our weapon hit proc our seal and we needed Spell Hit to make sure our spell did not get resisted. Now with a combined hit, we can address both those needs through a single stat.
The other stat that is merging is Spell Damage and Healing into a new stat called Spell Power. This change turns out to be rather small for Protection Paladins. As I'll detail out in later Parts, Spell Power is less important in 3.0.
What is does mean is that you won't need a Spell Damage Shield and a Healing Shield anymore. For instance, the Spell Damage Shield and the Healing Shield from Kara have nearly the same stats in Beta. I'll keep the Spell Damage one because it has a nicer skin.
Block Value and Strength
In 3.0, 2 points of Strength will grant 1 point of Block Value, and this will be increased by Shield Specialization (which is actually folded into a new Redoubt. More on that in Part 4 of the Series). Currently it takes 15 points of Strength. This will seem like a minor change until we get to Part 6 and talk about the reitemization of existing Tank gear, and Part 3 where we will talk about the importance of Attack Power to a Protection Paladin.
Crushing Blows
Crushing Blows have been changed. Some will tell you they have been removed, but that is not entirely true. Right now, any mob that 3 or more levels above you can Crush. In 3.0, only mobs 4 or more levels above you can crush. Bosses are still treated as being 3 levels above you, ergo, Bosses no longer Crush. The only time you should see a Crushing Blow is when you are leveling up.
If you have made any gearing choices to be 'uncrushable', you can look at changing them.
What today we call Uncrushable, we should now call Unhittable. Note that Unhittable doesn't mean Invincible. Unhittable means that the mob or Boss can't land a normal hit, but they can still and a Blocked hit. You will still take damage, but you will take less damage from a Blocked hit than a normal hit.
Salvation/Tranquil Totem
In a change that will affect more than just the tanking triumvirate, the threat reducing Blessing Of Salvation and Tranquil Totem will be removed from the game.
Many DPSers are worried they will severally threat capped in 3.0. However, my experience on the PTR and Beta shows this will not be the case.
According to a few tests from Lore and Jere, it seems all classes have had their threat reduced by 30%. Paladins with RF, Warriors in Defensive Stance, and Druids in Bear Form all neglect this threat reduction.
Judgement of the Crusader has been folded into the base spells. What this means is that it will feel like Crusader is Judged on every mob you fight.
Also, the tank get new threat moves, that will help them generate more threat. I'll go over the new moves Protection Paladins get in a Part 5 of this series.
What is really cool is that Blizzard has added a new Threat Meter into the game. Currently, Threat Meters like Omen or KTM have to estimate the threat being generated. With the new Blizzard Threat Meter, and it's underlying API call available to the Mod community, we will get actual Threat values. This will be very helpful as we monitor Threat generation in 3.0.
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Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
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Syrah - Site Admin
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Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:40 am
Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 2: Seal and Judgements
You know your class is in for major changes when it's entire combat system is rewritten. Seals and Judgments are the heart of the Paladin combat system. We seal up with one of many seals and Judge that Seal for damage, then reseal. That Seal, Judge, Seal rhythm is something you first experience around level 4 and keeps right on going all the way to the level cap.
Until 3.0.
On the surface the new Seal and Judgement system is a bit confusing but after you get used to it, it makes sense.
Seal and Judgement Independence
The major change you have to understand is that Seals and Judgements are independent of each other. On live, your Judgement is tied to whatever Seal you have active. In 3.0, that is no longer the case. Your single Judgement spell is replaced by 3 new Judgement spells. What you know as Judgement now becomes Judgement of Light. You also have Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice, but only after you hit the trainer. So immediately after the patch installs you need to get to your capital city of choice and train these new spells.
No Longer Consumes the Seal
The most gameplay shifting change is that Judgement no longer consumes your Seal. Your Seal is still on you AFTER you Judge. Seals last for two minutes. That means if you Seal, Judge, Seal like you have since level 4 you are wasting precious mana. So get out of the habit. It generally doesn't take long.
The Judgement spells apply the debuff appropriate to the spell. If you need Mana, you use Judgement of Wisdom (irregardless of what you have Sealed). You can have Seal of Righteousness up and Judgement of Wisdom, putting the Judgement of Wisdom debuff up on the mob AND doing the Judgement of Righteousness damage. Pretty cool.
Judgements also do damage based on a combination of your Spell Power AND Attack Power (more on that in a future post). This damage may or may be further increased depending upon the Seal you have active. Seals like Righteousness, Command, Blood, and Vengeance all increase the damage by varying amounts.
Not Refreshed on Melee Swing
The next big change to understand is that your melee swings no longer refresh the Judgement debuff. It's falling off after 20 seconds, after which time you will have to Judge again to get the debuff up. Of course, if you are Judging on cooldown, you will have it refreshed every 8-10 seconds anyway.
Share and Share Alike
You may or may not be into the lore behind the game, but one thing that happened in the story when Sunwell was released was that M'uru, who was the Naaru that the Blood Knights had been syphoning for their Light powers was taken by Kael'thalas to the Sunwell. The leader of the Blood Knights went to Shattrah and spoke with A'dal who accepted the Blood Knights as full blown servants of the Light. Hang around A'dal long enough in Shattrah and you'll see the whole meeting go down.
It seems that in the time between Sunwell and 3.0, the Blood Knights have learned to use Seal of Vengeance (which they call Seal of Corruption) and have taught the other Paladins how to use Seal of Blood (which the Alliance calls Seal of the Martyr).
This is great news for Horde Paladins as Seal of Vengeance is buffed in 3.0. It now procs on every swing. Let that sink in for a minute. It procs on every swing. No more hoping you can get your stack up before the DPS is full bore on your target.
Seal of Blood (Martyr) is consider more of DPS seal, but the self damaging aspects make it an ideal Offtanking seal. One of the problems with offtanking is damage intake to generate mana via Spiritual Attunement. With Seal of Blood, you do damage to yourself as part of the seal creating the necessary hit point deficit.
You know your class is in for major changes when it's entire combat system is rewritten. Seals and Judgments are the heart of the Paladin combat system. We seal up with one of many seals and Judge that Seal for damage, then reseal. That Seal, Judge, Seal rhythm is something you first experience around level 4 and keeps right on going all the way to the level cap.
Until 3.0.
On the surface the new Seal and Judgement system is a bit confusing but after you get used to it, it makes sense.
Seal and Judgement Independence
The major change you have to understand is that Seals and Judgements are independent of each other. On live, your Judgement is tied to whatever Seal you have active. In 3.0, that is no longer the case. Your single Judgement spell is replaced by 3 new Judgement spells. What you know as Judgement now becomes Judgement of Light. You also have Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice, but only after you hit the trainer. So immediately after the patch installs you need to get to your capital city of choice and train these new spells.
No Longer Consumes the Seal
The most gameplay shifting change is that Judgement no longer consumes your Seal. Your Seal is still on you AFTER you Judge. Seals last for two minutes. That means if you Seal, Judge, Seal like you have since level 4 you are wasting precious mana. So get out of the habit. It generally doesn't take long.
The Judgement spells apply the debuff appropriate to the spell. If you need Mana, you use Judgement of Wisdom (irregardless of what you have Sealed). You can have Seal of Righteousness up and Judgement of Wisdom, putting the Judgement of Wisdom debuff up on the mob AND doing the Judgement of Righteousness damage. Pretty cool.
Judgements also do damage based on a combination of your Spell Power AND Attack Power (more on that in a future post). This damage may or may be further increased depending upon the Seal you have active. Seals like Righteousness, Command, Blood, and Vengeance all increase the damage by varying amounts.
Not Refreshed on Melee Swing
The next big change to understand is that your melee swings no longer refresh the Judgement debuff. It's falling off after 20 seconds, after which time you will have to Judge again to get the debuff up. Of course, if you are Judging on cooldown, you will have it refreshed every 8-10 seconds anyway.
Share and Share Alike
You may or may not be into the lore behind the game, but one thing that happened in the story when Sunwell was released was that M'uru, who was the Naaru that the Blood Knights had been syphoning for their Light powers was taken by Kael'thalas to the Sunwell. The leader of the Blood Knights went to Shattrah and spoke with A'dal who accepted the Blood Knights as full blown servants of the Light. Hang around A'dal long enough in Shattrah and you'll see the whole meeting go down.
It seems that in the time between Sunwell and 3.0, the Blood Knights have learned to use Seal of Vengeance (which they call Seal of Corruption) and have taught the other Paladins how to use Seal of Blood (which the Alliance calls Seal of the Martyr).
This is great news for Horde Paladins as Seal of Vengeance is buffed in 3.0. It now procs on every swing. Let that sink in for a minute. It procs on every swing. No more hoping you can get your stack up before the DPS is full bore on your target.
Seal of Blood (Martyr) is consider more of DPS seal, but the self damaging aspects make it an ideal Offtanking seal. One of the problems with offtanking is damage intake to generate mana via Spiritual Attunement. With Seal of Blood, you do damage to yourself as part of the seal creating the necessary hit point deficit.
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Syrah - Site Admin
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Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:41 am
Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 3: Changed Tools
Now I'm going to examine some of the familiar abilities that have been changed in Patch 3.0.
Give Me A Hand
Your utility Blessings: Sacrifice, Freedom, Protection, and Salvation are no longer Blessings, but a new category of spells called Hands. Hands work on the same one per Paladin rule as Blessings, but you can have a Hand buff and a Blessing buff on you at the same time.
On Azgalor, we setup a Blessing of Freedom rotation to help our Tank kite Azgalor from the Tauren Warriors to Thrall. With each Paladin giving our Tank Blessing of Freedom, it meant that he lost whatever Blessing that Paladin had previously been providing him. Now we can give someone (or even ourself) Hand of Freedom and our Blessing of Kings doesn't go away.
Hand of Salvation is a little different from Blessing of Salvation. Hand of Salvation reduces the players total threat by 2% every 1 sec. for 10 sec, or 20% over 10 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown so it can not be spammed non stop.
Have you ever had times tanking and you watched a Warlock or Rogue climbing and climbing the threat meter. That's a great time to use Hand of Salvation. Although, to be frank, threat has been a non issue in Beta, and I would assume it's been a non issue on the PTR as well.
A Little Less Defensive
The Protection talent Anticipation was changed so that it now grants 5% dodge, instead of 20 defense. You need to take a look at your Defense right now. If it's not 510, it won't be 490 come patch day. Most people have been able to correct this using a combination of gems and enchants or swapping a couple pieces of gear. It will be hardest on people sporting mostly Badge gear which carriest very little defense.
No, Not My Stamina!
Yes, the stamina scaling on Combat Expertise was reduced. Instead of 10% stamina it now only provides 6%. The Developers felt we were scaling too well as Stamina increased in Wrath gear. It appears from most reports that we are still 'close' to Warriors in general health pool at the new level cap.
For this Paladin, it meant I have about 500 less hp in the same gear.
We Now Interrupt This Broadcast
Hammer of Justice has had an added benefit of an interupt being added to it. At first glace this doesn't seem like a big deal. If a mob is stunned they ain't casting anyway, right. Well a couple of things to consider.
Number one, this works on mobs that can't be stunned. So if you are facing a Priest mob, like in the Fathom Lord encounter, you can interupt her heals. Also, you can be an emergency backup in a fight like Reliquary where a missed Kick can wipe you.
This is also great news for soloing. What's your one bane as a soloing Protection Paladin. The dang Caster mobs. Now we can interupt their cast and lock out their school for 3 seconds, even if they resist the stun. Not bad.
WALL-E
As Paladins level up, they first get a spell called Divine Protection which is like Divine Shield (the infamouse 'Bubble'), but does not permit you to attack. Divine Protection has been changed. Instead of making you Immune, it now reduces damage by 50% for the duration. Knights and Ladies of the Siver Hand, what we have here is none other than Shield Wall.
A New Sanctuary
Blessing of Sanctuary used to be a talent you took because you had to take it to get Holy Shield. Now Blessing of Sanctuary may be one of the best talents in the tree. First of all, it provides 3% addtional damage reduction. In encounters with big raid damage, that can really help out the healers. In addition, Sanctuary provides Rage or Mana everytime you Block, Parry or Dodge. This is an incredible buff for Tanks, especially on content you overgear. I know when I tanked Coren Direbrew for Brewfest I was mana starved constantly. BoSanct really helps out in those situations.
Roll 'em Up
Redoubt was another one of those talents where you would say, 'I have to take this talent I don't really like to get this other talent I do really like'. Some people loved Redoubt, but I was never a fan. Now what you were after was Shield Specialization which increases your Block Value by 30%.
Now Redoubt and Shield Specialization have been combined into a 3 point talent deeper in the tree. As an added bonus, Shield Specialization works on Block Value generated from Strength.
You, sir, have questionable parentage!
Would that really be an effect taunt on Gruul? Maybe, 'I killed all your sons and now I'm here for you big fella'! Let's talk taunt, known in the Paladin world as Righteous Defense. It's cooldown, which I always hated, has been cut nearly in half to 8 seconds.
Now what exactly DO you say to the Monsters when you taunt them?
Loose Ends
Lay On Hands had it's cooldown reduced to 20 minutes. It should be up almost every Boss attempt.
Avenger's Shield is now instant cast. If you cast anything with a cast time in combat, you can't block, parry or dodge. That's usually a Bad Thing when fighting a Boss. Avenger's Shield can now be more easily worked into your threat rotation.
Improved Devotion Aura now increaes healing done to everyone affected by the raid wide Aura by 6%, but does not stack with Tree Of Life Aura. That will be pretty cool if you don't have a Tree in the raid, or they have to drop Tree form (which appears from the Comments to be extremely unlikely).
Now I'm going to examine some of the familiar abilities that have been changed in Patch 3.0.
Give Me A Hand
Your utility Blessings: Sacrifice, Freedom, Protection, and Salvation are no longer Blessings, but a new category of spells called Hands. Hands work on the same one per Paladin rule as Blessings, but you can have a Hand buff and a Blessing buff on you at the same time.
On Azgalor, we setup a Blessing of Freedom rotation to help our Tank kite Azgalor from the Tauren Warriors to Thrall. With each Paladin giving our Tank Blessing of Freedom, it meant that he lost whatever Blessing that Paladin had previously been providing him. Now we can give someone (or even ourself) Hand of Freedom and our Blessing of Kings doesn't go away.
Hand of Salvation is a little different from Blessing of Salvation. Hand of Salvation reduces the players total threat by 2% every 1 sec. for 10 sec, or 20% over 10 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown so it can not be spammed non stop.
Have you ever had times tanking and you watched a Warlock or Rogue climbing and climbing the threat meter. That's a great time to use Hand of Salvation. Although, to be frank, threat has been a non issue in Beta, and I would assume it's been a non issue on the PTR as well.
A Little Less Defensive
The Protection talent Anticipation was changed so that it now grants 5% dodge, instead of 20 defense. You need to take a look at your Defense right now. If it's not 510, it won't be 490 come patch day. Most people have been able to correct this using a combination of gems and enchants or swapping a couple pieces of gear. It will be hardest on people sporting mostly Badge gear which carriest very little defense.
No, Not My Stamina!
Yes, the stamina scaling on Combat Expertise was reduced. Instead of 10% stamina it now only provides 6%. The Developers felt we were scaling too well as Stamina increased in Wrath gear. It appears from most reports that we are still 'close' to Warriors in general health pool at the new level cap.
For this Paladin, it meant I have about 500 less hp in the same gear.
We Now Interrupt This Broadcast
Hammer of Justice has had an added benefit of an interupt being added to it. At first glace this doesn't seem like a big deal. If a mob is stunned they ain't casting anyway, right. Well a couple of things to consider.
Number one, this works on mobs that can't be stunned. So if you are facing a Priest mob, like in the Fathom Lord encounter, you can interupt her heals. Also, you can be an emergency backup in a fight like Reliquary where a missed Kick can wipe you.
This is also great news for soloing. What's your one bane as a soloing Protection Paladin. The dang Caster mobs. Now we can interupt their cast and lock out their school for 3 seconds, even if they resist the stun. Not bad.
WALL-E
As Paladins level up, they first get a spell called Divine Protection which is like Divine Shield (the infamouse 'Bubble'), but does not permit you to attack. Divine Protection has been changed. Instead of making you Immune, it now reduces damage by 50% for the duration. Knights and Ladies of the Siver Hand, what we have here is none other than Shield Wall.
A New Sanctuary
Blessing of Sanctuary used to be a talent you took because you had to take it to get Holy Shield. Now Blessing of Sanctuary may be one of the best talents in the tree. First of all, it provides 3% addtional damage reduction. In encounters with big raid damage, that can really help out the healers. In addition, Sanctuary provides Rage or Mana everytime you Block, Parry or Dodge. This is an incredible buff for Tanks, especially on content you overgear. I know when I tanked Coren Direbrew for Brewfest I was mana starved constantly. BoSanct really helps out in those situations.
Roll 'em Up
Redoubt was another one of those talents where you would say, 'I have to take this talent I don't really like to get this other talent I do really like'. Some people loved Redoubt, but I was never a fan. Now what you were after was Shield Specialization which increases your Block Value by 30%.
Now Redoubt and Shield Specialization have been combined into a 3 point talent deeper in the tree. As an added bonus, Shield Specialization works on Block Value generated from Strength.
You, sir, have questionable parentage!
Would that really be an effect taunt on Gruul? Maybe, 'I killed all your sons and now I'm here for you big fella'! Let's talk taunt, known in the Paladin world as Righteous Defense. It's cooldown, which I always hated, has been cut nearly in half to 8 seconds.
Now what exactly DO you say to the Monsters when you taunt them?
Loose Ends
Lay On Hands had it's cooldown reduced to 20 minutes. It should be up almost every Boss attempt.
Avenger's Shield is now instant cast. If you cast anything with a cast time in combat, you can't block, parry or dodge. That's usually a Bad Thing when fighting a Boss. Avenger's Shield can now be more easily worked into your threat rotation.
Improved Devotion Aura now increaes healing done to everyone affected by the raid wide Aura by 6%, but does not stack with Tree Of Life Aura. That will be pretty cool if you don't have a Tree in the raid, or they have to drop Tree form (which appears from the Comments to be extremely unlikely).
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Syrah - Site Admin
- Posts: 186
- Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:43 pm
Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:44 am
Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 4: New Toys
So let's look at what new goodies Blizzardclaus has under the Patch 3.0 tree.
Hammer of the Righteous - This is your new 51 point talent in the Protection tree. What this does is hit the current target and 2 additional targets for 4 times your main hand damage per second as Holy damage. This spell is on a 6 second cooldown and has a fairly low mana cost. As an added bonus, it is usable while you are silenced. The damage done is based on Weapon DPS and your Attack Power.
It is designed to allow Protection Paladins to use actual Tank weapons like King's Defender, Suneater, Mallet of the Tides, Brutalizer, and Unbreakable Will. Those weapons will do comparable TPS to a spell damage blade. We will go into more detail on this on Saturday.
This spell also increases our DPS while out soloing and works well when fighting multiple mobs. It procs your seal on each of the 3 targets it hits, so you can have 3 stacks of Vengeance cooking at one time.
Touched by the Light - This increases your spell power by an amount equal to up to 30% of your stamina and increases the amount healed by your critical heals by up to 30%.
One of the goals in Patch 3.0 and eventually in Wrath of the Lich King is to move Protection Paladins, Protection Warriors and Death Knights to all desire similar gear. This talent is a major step in that direction.
Spell Damage is rather useless to Warriors and is the stat that lets you know if a piece is meant for Paladins or not. With Touched by the Light, we won't need Spell Damage on our gear anymore and can gladly take what had heretofore been called "Warrior" Plate.
This talent is even more reason to go after Tank weapons and let the Mages and Locks stop worrying about Protection Paladins wanting to 'steal' their weapon.
Also, don't overlook the backend of this talent. Increasing out Critical heals by up to 30% helps out while soloing, and also helps out if we find ourselves in a healing position while not tanking. Holy Paladin gear tends to favor crit and this talent can help make up for some of the lack of potency a Prot Paladin normally has in his heals.
Judgment of the Just - What this does is cause the Paladin's Judgment spells to decrease the melee attack speed of the affected target by 20%. Can you think of any other spell or ability in the game that does that? Yes, Thunderclap! This is basically the Paladin version of Thunderclap which is a needed and noticeable reduction in the damage tanks take. This has caused some to call this talent ThunderJudge.
Since Thunderclap and ThunderJudge won't stack, the Thunderclap debuff can now be provided by a Protection Paladin, so there is little need for DPS Warriors to worry about it, or for Protection Warriors to spend their limited Rage on it.
Also, it has zero impact on the Paladin to provide this debuff. Since the debuff is applied as part of our Judgement, it's something that is already in our normal rotation. It's similar to when Blizzard gave Arcane shot a Dispel mechanic. Hunter's didn't even have to think about, it came naturally as part of what they were already doing.
Guarded by the Light - What this new talent does is reduce spell damage taken by 3/6% and reduces the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 15/30%. Basically Blizzard took our old Spell Warding talent and added a cherry on top of it in the form of mana reduction cost.
You will note the talent mentions Shield of Righteousness. This is technically a new spell, but it's one Paladin's don't get until Level 75. Since my scope here is 3.0, I won't go into detail on it. However, Shield of Righteousness is a very good reason to maintain your Block Value set as you level up.
Shield of the Templar - I love threat and mitigation in one talent. What this bad boy does is increase the damage dealt from your Avenger's Shield, Holy Shield and Shield of Righteousness by up to 30%. In addition, it will reduce all damage taken by up to 3%.
The 3% Damage Reduction is not currently in Beta, but it has been communicated that it is coming via Blizzard on the Beta forums. I'm not sure if it will make the patch or not.
This to me was one of the most important talents added in Patch 3.0.
We've long known that our 6% Damage Reduction (DR) from Improved Righteous Fury was far behind Defensive Stance with 10% DR. The issue was that Improved Righteous Fury was low enough in the Protection Tree for Retribution Paladins to pick up, and in fact a popular Retribution Build was 0/20/41 for just that reason.
Defensive Stance is available to all Warriors, but when that Arms Warrior drops into Defensive Stance, he loses the ability to do many of his higher DPS moves and the Stance itself causes him to do 10% less damage.
The Retribution Paladin has no such penalties for activating Righteous Fury. So for Righteous Fury to catch up to Defensive Stance, the added Damage Reduction had to be deeper in the tree.
This talent was a big step towards Tank Class Parity.
Then as an added benefit, Blizzard gave it a Threat increase component as well.
Divine Guardian - This talent represents a unique tool in the Paladin tool kit. What happens is that 30% of damage taken by party and raid members within 30 yards is redirected to the paladins instead while Divine Shield is active. The damage dealt to the paladin is absorbed by Divine Shield.
When I saw this talent I immediately thought of High Warlord Najentus. He does an attack that hits the entire raid for 8500. With Divine Guardian up, the raid members within 30 yards of the Paladin would take less than 6000.
This gives Protection Paladins a wonderful utility when offtanking. Because Divine Shield makes you immune, the Boss or Mob will turn away from you while you under the Shield, so it's probably not the best idea to use this as a Main Tank.
The talent is shallow enough in the tree that a Holy Paladin could get it as well, though most observers think Holy Paladins will be looking into the Retribution tree for the 5% Spell Crit.
Here are a couple of sample builds based on the Patch 3.0 Talent trees.
I'm Still Raid Tanking: 0/55/6
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZabVAbuMteIoGoxo
I took Deflection over Benediction and I didn't take Guarded by the light. My thinking here is that mana has not been a huge issue, and I generally don't take Spell Warding in my current spec.
Passing The Days To Wrath Tanking 5 mans / 10 mans: 0/55/6
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZabVAbuMteIRhoVo
Swapped into Benediction and Guarded by the Light. Dropped Judgement of the Just.
In either spec, you could make a case for dropping Improved Devotion Aura and finishing up Divine Strength.
more to come...
So let's look at what new goodies Blizzardclaus has under the Patch 3.0 tree.
Hammer of the Righteous - This is your new 51 point talent in the Protection tree. What this does is hit the current target and 2 additional targets for 4 times your main hand damage per second as Holy damage. This spell is on a 6 second cooldown and has a fairly low mana cost. As an added bonus, it is usable while you are silenced. The damage done is based on Weapon DPS and your Attack Power.
It is designed to allow Protection Paladins to use actual Tank weapons like King's Defender, Suneater, Mallet of the Tides, Brutalizer, and Unbreakable Will. Those weapons will do comparable TPS to a spell damage blade. We will go into more detail on this on Saturday.
This spell also increases our DPS while out soloing and works well when fighting multiple mobs. It procs your seal on each of the 3 targets it hits, so you can have 3 stacks of Vengeance cooking at one time.
Touched by the Light - This increases your spell power by an amount equal to up to 30% of your stamina and increases the amount healed by your critical heals by up to 30%.
One of the goals in Patch 3.0 and eventually in Wrath of the Lich King is to move Protection Paladins, Protection Warriors and Death Knights to all desire similar gear. This talent is a major step in that direction.
Spell Damage is rather useless to Warriors and is the stat that lets you know if a piece is meant for Paladins or not. With Touched by the Light, we won't need Spell Damage on our gear anymore and can gladly take what had heretofore been called "Warrior" Plate.
This talent is even more reason to go after Tank weapons and let the Mages and Locks stop worrying about Protection Paladins wanting to 'steal' their weapon.
Also, don't overlook the backend of this talent. Increasing out Critical heals by up to 30% helps out while soloing, and also helps out if we find ourselves in a healing position while not tanking. Holy Paladin gear tends to favor crit and this talent can help make up for some of the lack of potency a Prot Paladin normally has in his heals.
Judgment of the Just - What this does is cause the Paladin's Judgment spells to decrease the melee attack speed of the affected target by 20%. Can you think of any other spell or ability in the game that does that? Yes, Thunderclap! This is basically the Paladin version of Thunderclap which is a needed and noticeable reduction in the damage tanks take. This has caused some to call this talent ThunderJudge.
Since Thunderclap and ThunderJudge won't stack, the Thunderclap debuff can now be provided by a Protection Paladin, so there is little need for DPS Warriors to worry about it, or for Protection Warriors to spend their limited Rage on it.
Also, it has zero impact on the Paladin to provide this debuff. Since the debuff is applied as part of our Judgement, it's something that is already in our normal rotation. It's similar to when Blizzard gave Arcane shot a Dispel mechanic. Hunter's didn't even have to think about, it came naturally as part of what they were already doing.
Guarded by the Light - What this new talent does is reduce spell damage taken by 3/6% and reduces the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 15/30%. Basically Blizzard took our old Spell Warding talent and added a cherry on top of it in the form of mana reduction cost.
You will note the talent mentions Shield of Righteousness. This is technically a new spell, but it's one Paladin's don't get until Level 75. Since my scope here is 3.0, I won't go into detail on it. However, Shield of Righteousness is a very good reason to maintain your Block Value set as you level up.
Shield of the Templar - I love threat and mitigation in one talent. What this bad boy does is increase the damage dealt from your Avenger's Shield, Holy Shield and Shield of Righteousness by up to 30%. In addition, it will reduce all damage taken by up to 3%.
The 3% Damage Reduction is not currently in Beta, but it has been communicated that it is coming via Blizzard on the Beta forums. I'm not sure if it will make the patch or not.
This to me was one of the most important talents added in Patch 3.0.
We've long known that our 6% Damage Reduction (DR) from Improved Righteous Fury was far behind Defensive Stance with 10% DR. The issue was that Improved Righteous Fury was low enough in the Protection Tree for Retribution Paladins to pick up, and in fact a popular Retribution Build was 0/20/41 for just that reason.
Defensive Stance is available to all Warriors, but when that Arms Warrior drops into Defensive Stance, he loses the ability to do many of his higher DPS moves and the Stance itself causes him to do 10% less damage.
The Retribution Paladin has no such penalties for activating Righteous Fury. So for Righteous Fury to catch up to Defensive Stance, the added Damage Reduction had to be deeper in the tree.
This talent was a big step towards Tank Class Parity.
Then as an added benefit, Blizzard gave it a Threat increase component as well.
Divine Guardian - This talent represents a unique tool in the Paladin tool kit. What happens is that 30% of damage taken by party and raid members within 30 yards is redirected to the paladins instead while Divine Shield is active. The damage dealt to the paladin is absorbed by Divine Shield.
When I saw this talent I immediately thought of High Warlord Najentus. He does an attack that hits the entire raid for 8500. With Divine Guardian up, the raid members within 30 yards of the Paladin would take less than 6000.
This gives Protection Paladins a wonderful utility when offtanking. Because Divine Shield makes you immune, the Boss or Mob will turn away from you while you under the Shield, so it's probably not the best idea to use this as a Main Tank.
The talent is shallow enough in the tree that a Holy Paladin could get it as well, though most observers think Holy Paladins will be looking into the Retribution tree for the 5% Spell Crit.
Here are a couple of sample builds based on the Patch 3.0 Talent trees.
I'm Still Raid Tanking: 0/55/6
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZabVAbuMteIoGoxo
I took Deflection over Benediction and I didn't take Guarded by the light. My thinking here is that mana has not been a huge issue, and I generally don't take Spell Warding in my current spec.
Passing The Days To Wrath Tanking 5 mans / 10 mans: 0/55/6
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZabVAbuMteIRhoVo
Swapped into Benediction and Guarded by the Light. Dropped Judgement of the Just.
In either spec, you could make a case for dropping Improved Devotion Aura and finishing up Divine Strength.
more to come...
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Syrah - Site Admin
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Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:31 am
Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 5 Threat Rotation
So how do we combine our new tools with our changed tools with our old tools to make an effecient and potent rotation.
Let me introduce the 96969 Threat Rotation. Most of what you will see here is is based on some excellent work done by Psiven of Prodigy on the Moonrunner realm, and used with permission.
The rotation comes from a recognition that most of our threat skills come with either a 6, or 9 second cooldown. Right now we only have 1 skill with a 6 second cooldown, and that is our new Hammer of Righteousness. At Level 75, we will get another 6 second cooldown with Shield of Righteousness. Anywhere you see (free) in the below rotation is a place where Shield of Righteousness will be used once you hit 75.
This means that you need to be able to treat Consecrate/Judge/HS as 9sec cooldowns. Consecrate is an 8 second cooldown. Holy Shield was changed to an 8 second cooldown. Judgement is a 10 second cooldown, but if you take Improved Judgement, it becomes either a 9 or 8 second cooldown.
So why not use 86868? We treat the 8 second cooldowns as 9 seconds to allow for some lag, and for the fact that the Global cooldown is 1.5 seconds. 6+1.5+1.5 = 9.
In order to use a 96969, you need to take 1/2 Improved Judgement, and not take the Consecration Glyph which changes it's cooldown to 10 seconds.
If you have 2/2 Imp Judgement, you can sacrifice the GCD at 10.5 to cast at 11.0. This lets you recast by 19, but you can't cast it anyway until 21.0! Those two seconds you gained are completely wasted. Similarly if you take 0/2 Imp Judgement, you can't Judge a second time at all until 13.0, but there's no open GCD until 16.5 unless you want to push back your entire rotation by a second which would cut your TPS by ~7%. Waiting until 16.5 to Judge leaves you judging as if your cooldown was 13.5sec, then 12sec, repeating so a loss of about 29% of your Judgement damage relative to the 9sec cooldown.
This rotation involves Seal twisting on some of the free Global Cooldowns. Do this only if you have the mana coming in from Spiritual Attunement to support it. Do not let your Seal of Vengeance stack fall off trying to get one more swing from Seal of Righteousness.
If you are fighting a demon you will most likely see better results from using these rather than twisting: Exorcism every 18 sec, and Holy Wrath every 30 sec.
Exorcism will conflict with Avenger's Shield /Holy Wrath at times, at a guess priority should be Avenger's Shield > Exorcism > Holy Wrath
The final rotation:
Prep Seal of Vengeance (Corruption)
00.0 Holy Shield
01.5 Hammer of the Righteous
03.0 Judgement
04.5 (free) <-- Avenger's Shield *This is your 'loop' point
06.0 Consecration
07.5 Hammer of the Righteous
09.0 Holy Shield
10.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Righteousness 12.0 Judgement 13.5 Hammer of the Righteous 15.0 Consecration 16.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Vengeance 18.0 Holy Shield 19.5 Hammer of the Righteous 21.0 Judgement 22.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Righteousness 24.0 Consecration 25.5 Hammer of the Righteous 27.0 Holy Shield 28.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Vengeance 30.0 Judgement 31.5 Hammer of the Righteous 33.0 Consecration 34.5 (free) <-- Avenger's Shield *Loop
Using this rotaion, Psiven has constructed a graph showing expected TPS with various weapons.
So how do we combine our new tools with our changed tools with our old tools to make an effecient and potent rotation.
Let me introduce the 96969 Threat Rotation. Most of what you will see here is is based on some excellent work done by Psiven of Prodigy on the Moonrunner realm, and used with permission.
The rotation comes from a recognition that most of our threat skills come with either a 6, or 9 second cooldown. Right now we only have 1 skill with a 6 second cooldown, and that is our new Hammer of Righteousness. At Level 75, we will get another 6 second cooldown with Shield of Righteousness. Anywhere you see (free) in the below rotation is a place where Shield of Righteousness will be used once you hit 75.
This means that you need to be able to treat Consecrate/Judge/HS as 9sec cooldowns. Consecrate is an 8 second cooldown. Holy Shield was changed to an 8 second cooldown. Judgement is a 10 second cooldown, but if you take Improved Judgement, it becomes either a 9 or 8 second cooldown.
So why not use 86868? We treat the 8 second cooldowns as 9 seconds to allow for some lag, and for the fact that the Global cooldown is 1.5 seconds. 6+1.5+1.5 = 9.
In order to use a 96969, you need to take 1/2 Improved Judgement, and not take the Consecration Glyph which changes it's cooldown to 10 seconds.
If you have 2/2 Imp Judgement, you can sacrifice the GCD at 10.5 to cast at 11.0. This lets you recast by 19, but you can't cast it anyway until 21.0! Those two seconds you gained are completely wasted. Similarly if you take 0/2 Imp Judgement, you can't Judge a second time at all until 13.0, but there's no open GCD until 16.5 unless you want to push back your entire rotation by a second which would cut your TPS by ~7%. Waiting until 16.5 to Judge leaves you judging as if your cooldown was 13.5sec, then 12sec, repeating so a loss of about 29% of your Judgement damage relative to the 9sec cooldown.
This rotation involves Seal twisting on some of the free Global Cooldowns. Do this only if you have the mana coming in from Spiritual Attunement to support it. Do not let your Seal of Vengeance stack fall off trying to get one more swing from Seal of Righteousness.
If you are fighting a demon you will most likely see better results from using these rather than twisting: Exorcism every 18 sec, and Holy Wrath every 30 sec.
Exorcism will conflict with Avenger's Shield /Holy Wrath at times, at a guess priority should be Avenger's Shield > Exorcism > Holy Wrath
The final rotation:
Prep Seal of Vengeance (Corruption)
00.0 Holy Shield
01.5 Hammer of the Righteous
03.0 Judgement
04.5 (free) <-- Avenger's Shield *This is your 'loop' point
06.0 Consecration
07.5 Hammer of the Righteous
09.0 Holy Shield
10.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Righteousness 12.0 Judgement 13.5 Hammer of the Righteous 15.0 Consecration 16.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Vengeance 18.0 Holy Shield 19.5 Hammer of the Righteous 21.0 Judgement 22.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Righteousness 24.0 Consecration 25.5 Hammer of the Righteous 27.0 Holy Shield 28.5 (free) <-- Seal Twist: Seal of Vengeance 30.0 Judgement 31.5 Hammer of the Righteous 33.0 Consecration 34.5 (free) <-- Avenger's Shield *Loop
Using this rotaion, Psiven has constructed a graph showing expected TPS with various weapons.
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Syrah - Site Admin
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Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:32 am
Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 6 Threat Stats and Reitemized Gear
The purpose of this post is to examine the value of various stats to Paladins in Wrath and the 3.0.2 patch.
Mitigation Stats: Armor, Def, Block Rating, Parry, Dodge, Block Value, Str. We know 1 STR = 0.5 Block Value. We know that Block Value is increased by 30% by the new Redobut.
Health Stats: Stamina. We assume most Protection Paladins will have Sacred Duty and Combat Expertise, so each point of stamina equal to 1*1.06*1.06, or 1.12.
Threat: Expertise, Str, Stamina, Hit, Attack Power, Spell Power. We can assume most Protection Paladins will take Touched By The Light which makes each point of Stamina worth 0.3 spell damage. We further assume most Protection Paladins will have Kings available to them, so each point of STR becomes 1.1 points of STR. Each point of Strength equates out to 2.3 AP with the Divine Strength Talent.
Attack Power or Spell Power: This is the central question in figuring out the new Protection Paladin. I will state that I feel Attack Power is the superior stat for a Protection Paladin.
Most of the spell coefficents have 1 AP = 1 SP. Since 1 STR = 2.3 AP with Divine Strength, and is worth the same in item budgets as 1 Spellpower it's usually going to provide better results for damage. Chuck in the fact that 2 Str = 1 BV and I feel that AP is a clear winner.
So we have a set of stats that perform in only one area, either Mitigation, Health or Threat. These stats do not have any benefit from our Talents. These are Armor, Defense, Block Rating, Parry, Dodge, Hit, Attack Power, and Spell Power. These all give roughly equal value to their item value budget.
Double Duty Stats
Now we come to the bonus stats. These stats serve double duty.
Strength. Strength provides Threat and Mitigation. Strength is worth .5 Block Value which is increased by 30% to be worth 0.65 Block Value. Strength is also worth 2.5 AP with both Kings and Divine Strength. So we conclude that 1 point of Strength actually yeilds 3.15 points of item budget.
Expertise. Expertise provides threat from reduced dodges and parries as well as some mitigation from reduced parries. This is more difficult to quantify but I believe it is a safe assumption to say that due the double benefit of both mitigation and threat, it should be worth more than a single use stat.
Stamina. Stamina is a double duty stat in that it increases our health and also boosts our threat by adding Spell Damage through Touched By the Light. Stamina provide 1.12 points for health and 0.3 points worth of spell damage making each point of stamina worth 1.32 item value points.
Block Value. Note that Block Value doesn't become a Threat stat until Level 75 when Tankadins get Shield of Righteousness. Block value gets increased by Redoubt so we can conclude that each point of Block Value is worth 1.3 item value points.
So in list form, from best stat on gear to worst stat we have:
1. STR: 1 STR = 3.15 IP
2. STAM: 1 STAM = 1.32 IP
3. Block Value: 1 BV = 1.3 IP
4. Expertise: Difficult to quantify, but worth more than 1 point.
5. Everything else.
Tank Gear Reitemized
Well isn't this just hunky dory. I've shown that Strength is a GREAT stat for Tankadins in 3.0, and I've shown it's superior to Spell Damage. But what is our gear covered in? Spell Damage.
Well you are in for a little surprise come 3.0.
All the Tank gear has been reitemized. Spell Damage was removed and Strength was added. In the case of the 'Warrior' gear, either Defense or Dodge or some other stat was reduced to make room for Strength.
Here are a couple of examples:
* Chestplate of Stoicism +34 STR -17 Defense
* Shattrath Protectorate's Breastplate +51 STR, -60 Spell Damage
* Blue's Greaves of the Righteous Guardian +34 STR, -11 Block Rating, -1 Hit Rating, -26 Spell Damage
* Bonefist Gauntlets +30 STR, -9 Parry, -21 Hit
* Sabatons of the Righteous Defender +20 STR, -23 Spell Damage
* Inscribed Legplates of the Aldor +32 STR, -37 Spell Damage
* Sunguard Legplates +29 STR, -8 DEF, -8 Dodge
* Iron-tusk Girdle +22 STR, -11 Dodge
* Girdle of the Protector +20 STR, -23 Spell Damage
* Girdle of the Fearless +23 STR, -23 Hit Rating
* Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx +22 STR, -9 DEF, -7 Expertise
This is a spreadsheet I made based on the new Itemization stats. I took a stab at ranking them based on the analysis I did here.
[url]
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... KY-8OzuQRQ[/url]
The purpose of this post is to examine the value of various stats to Paladins in Wrath and the 3.0.2 patch.
Mitigation Stats: Armor, Def, Block Rating, Parry, Dodge, Block Value, Str. We know 1 STR = 0.5 Block Value. We know that Block Value is increased by 30% by the new Redobut.
Health Stats: Stamina. We assume most Protection Paladins will have Sacred Duty and Combat Expertise, so each point of stamina equal to 1*1.06*1.06, or 1.12.
Threat: Expertise, Str, Stamina, Hit, Attack Power, Spell Power. We can assume most Protection Paladins will take Touched By The Light which makes each point of Stamina worth 0.3 spell damage. We further assume most Protection Paladins will have Kings available to them, so each point of STR becomes 1.1 points of STR. Each point of Strength equates out to 2.3 AP with the Divine Strength Talent.
Attack Power or Spell Power: This is the central question in figuring out the new Protection Paladin. I will state that I feel Attack Power is the superior stat for a Protection Paladin.
Most of the spell coefficents have 1 AP = 1 SP. Since 1 STR = 2.3 AP with Divine Strength, and is worth the same in item budgets as 1 Spellpower it's usually going to provide better results for damage. Chuck in the fact that 2 Str = 1 BV and I feel that AP is a clear winner.
So we have a set of stats that perform in only one area, either Mitigation, Health or Threat. These stats do not have any benefit from our Talents. These are Armor, Defense, Block Rating, Parry, Dodge, Hit, Attack Power, and Spell Power. These all give roughly equal value to their item value budget.
Double Duty Stats
Now we come to the bonus stats. These stats serve double duty.
Strength. Strength provides Threat and Mitigation. Strength is worth .5 Block Value which is increased by 30% to be worth 0.65 Block Value. Strength is also worth 2.5 AP with both Kings and Divine Strength. So we conclude that 1 point of Strength actually yeilds 3.15 points of item budget.
Expertise. Expertise provides threat from reduced dodges and parries as well as some mitigation from reduced parries. This is more difficult to quantify but I believe it is a safe assumption to say that due the double benefit of both mitigation and threat, it should be worth more than a single use stat.
Stamina. Stamina is a double duty stat in that it increases our health and also boosts our threat by adding Spell Damage through Touched By the Light. Stamina provide 1.12 points for health and 0.3 points worth of spell damage making each point of stamina worth 1.32 item value points.
Block Value. Note that Block Value doesn't become a Threat stat until Level 75 when Tankadins get Shield of Righteousness. Block value gets increased by Redoubt so we can conclude that each point of Block Value is worth 1.3 item value points.
So in list form, from best stat on gear to worst stat we have:
1. STR: 1 STR = 3.15 IP
2. STAM: 1 STAM = 1.32 IP
3. Block Value: 1 BV = 1.3 IP
4. Expertise: Difficult to quantify, but worth more than 1 point.
5. Everything else.
Tank Gear Reitemized
Well isn't this just hunky dory. I've shown that Strength is a GREAT stat for Tankadins in 3.0, and I've shown it's superior to Spell Damage. But what is our gear covered in? Spell Damage.
Well you are in for a little surprise come 3.0.
All the Tank gear has been reitemized. Spell Damage was removed and Strength was added. In the case of the 'Warrior' gear, either Defense or Dodge or some other stat was reduced to make room for Strength.
Here are a couple of examples:
* Chestplate of Stoicism +34 STR -17 Defense
* Shattrath Protectorate's Breastplate +51 STR, -60 Spell Damage
* Blue's Greaves of the Righteous Guardian +34 STR, -11 Block Rating, -1 Hit Rating, -26 Spell Damage
* Bonefist Gauntlets +30 STR, -9 Parry, -21 Hit
* Sabatons of the Righteous Defender +20 STR, -23 Spell Damage
* Inscribed Legplates of the Aldor +32 STR, -37 Spell Damage
* Sunguard Legplates +29 STR, -8 DEF, -8 Dodge
* Iron-tusk Girdle +22 STR, -11 Dodge
* Girdle of the Protector +20 STR, -23 Spell Damage
* Girdle of the Fearless +23 STR, -23 Hit Rating
* Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx +22 STR, -9 DEF, -7 Expertise
This is a spreadsheet I made based on the new Itemization stats. I took a stab at ranking them based on the analysis I did here.
[url]
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... KY-8OzuQRQ[/url]
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Syrah - Site Admin
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- Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:43 pm
Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:33 am
Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 7 Inscription/Glyphs
With the release of Patch 3.0, Blizzard is opening up the new Profession of Inscription, and one of the items produced by Inscription are Glyphs.
Glyphs are added to your spell book and change certain aspects of your spells.
You can have 3 Major and 3 Minor Glyphs.
I want to examine the currently available Glyphs for Paladins and give some tentative recommendations. Blizzard has recently announced they are going to reevaluate Glyphs so we could see some changes, but I think it's safe to assume that what we have no is what we will get in Patch 3.0.
Glyphs seem incredibly situational. I could see wanting to change Glyphs often depending on my role and the particular encounter I'm fighting.
Right now, I'd say my Glyphs would be
Major:Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, Glyph of Avenger's Shield, Glyph of Judgement
Minor: Glyph of Sense Undead, Glyph of Lay On Hands. Glyph of Blessing of Kings
I'd actually love to get Glyph of Righteous Defense as well. What I might do is get Righteous Defense, then once I'm hit capped change it to Seal of Vengeance.
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Avenger's Shield
Use: Your Avenger's Shield hits 2 fewer targets, but for 100% more damage.
This looks like a Main Tank Glyph for someone who is doing more single target tanking rather than multi-target. However, it should be noted that with Hammer of the Righteous, Paladins don't need a 3 target range pull. You can pull with a single target Avenger's Shield and use Hammer of the Righteous to help build threat on the other mobs. It might make for cleaner pulls with an offtank or CC.
Glyph of Avenging Wrath
Use: Reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Wrath spell by 50% while Avenging Wrath is active.
This looks like it's meant for Ret Paladins who are trying to burst someone down in PVP or trying finish off that last couple of percent of a Boss.
Glyph of Cleansing
Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse and Purify spells by 20%.
I'm going to call this one a Holy Glyph since your main Cleanser is usually going to be a Holy Paladin.
Glyph of Consecration Use: Increases the duration and cooldown of Consecration by 2 sec.
It does not increase the damage. It does the same damage but over more time. This will mess up your nice 96969 rotation. I could see this having appeal to Ret Paladins assuming they have enough mana for it.
Glyph of Crusader Strike Use: Your Crusader strike deals 20% more damage when your target is incapacitated or stunned.
This is for our Retribution brothers, and has a distinct PVP flavor to it.
Glyph of Divinity Use: Your Lay on Hands also grants you as much mana as it grants your target.
I don't know about you, but generally I'm using Lay On Hands on myself so I am the target. But for a Holy Paladin this could be a nice bump to the mana pool.
Glyph of Exorcism Use: Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.
This has possibilities. If I had this now on the Banshee waves in Hyjal, I'd be a happy dwarf. Some people have suggested it works on mobs/players that you can use Exorcism on. That is not true. It only works on Undead/Daemon.
Glyph of Flash of Light Use: Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140% of its initial effect over 12 sec.
This seems more aimed at Holy, and I'm not sure if the HoT is worth the lesser heal up front. Siha of Banashoulders says "The HoT component needs to be bigger and much faster."
Glyph of Hammer of Justice
Use: Increases your Hammer of Justice duration by 1 sec.
This looks like a PVP Glyph for Ret. They do extra damage agaisnt stuned targets so 1 second might be long enough for one more attack.
Glyph of Hammer of Wrath
Use: Increases the range on Hammer of Wrath by 5 yards.
Got to get them runners. I want a mob to bring me back some friends. I'm a Protection Paladin. The more the merrier, right? I could see this being useful for PVP as you are trying to kill a low health healer before he can line of sight of or stop a flag runner who is just out of range.
Glyph of Holy Light
Use: Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 10 yds of the initial target.
Wow, just Wow. This is probably the best Holy Paladin Glyph out so far. I'm really happy for them. This makes Holy Light almost as effective as Chain Heal. (Typo on the tooltip says 100 yards, it's 10).
Glyph of Judgement
Use: Your Judgements deal 10% more damage.
10% more damage is 10% more threat. Very strong Glyph, and it appeals to multiple specs. Prot and Ret want it obviously, but some of the changes made to Holy were to encourage them to Judge more often so they can add a little DPS as well.
Glyph of Righteous Defense
Use: Increases the chance for your Righteous Defense ability to work successfully by 8% on each target.
This Glyph is made for a Nalorakk type boss where a Taunt resist can cause major trouble for the encounter. I could see using this until you are Hit capped in your gear and then replacing it.
Glyph of Seal of Blood
Use: Your Seal of Blood or Seal of the Martyr increases the mana received from Spiritual Attunement by 10% while active.
I want mana and I want it now! Blood is considered more of PVE DPS Seal, so it's most often used by Ret, but it's also a strong offtank Seal. In that situation, I could see the Glyph really helping out.
Glyph of Seal of Command
Use: Increases the chance of dealing Seal of Command damage by 20%.
This makes my inner Ret Paladin smile.
Glyph of Seal of Light
Use: While Seal of Light is active, the effect of your healing spells is increased by 5%.
This makes Holy want to have a Seal active while they are healing.
Glyph of Seal of Righteousness
Use: Reduces the cost of your Judgement spells by 10% while Seal of Righteousness is active.
Will mana be a major issue? Will we be using Righteousness over Vengeance for tanking? Many questions, but the initial answers point to this Glyph being more to help a Holy Paladin in solo content.
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Use: Your Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption also grants 10 expertise while active.
You got your Vengeance stack rocking. You are hit capped by the Boss can still Dodge, and Parry you. The Expertise, especially if it's true Expertise and not Expertise rating would be quite tasty.
Glyph of Seal of Wisdom
Use: While Seal of Wisdom is active, the cost of your healing spells is reduced by 5%.
I could see a Holy Paladin with both Seal of Wisdom and Seal of Light Glyph. You start off the fight with Seal of Light then when you low on mana, switch to Seal of Wisdom.
Glyph of Spiritual Attunement
Use: Increases the amount of mana gained from your Spiritual Attunement spell by an additional 2%.
12% mana back from Spiritual Attunement. That is very nice, but the question remains of how much an issue mana will be to a tanking Paladin.
Glyph of Turn Evil
Use: Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%.
This could allow Ret some additional Crowd Control, and give Warlocks fits in PVP.
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Blessing of Kings
Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Kings and Greater Blessing of Kings spells by 50%. Meh. I drink Mage water after I buff. I really don't care what it costs.
Glyph of Blessing of Might
Use: Increases the duration of your Blessing of Might spell by 20 min when cast on yourself.
This seems like it would apply to leveling or it's Blizzard's way of making the Greater Blessing not cost a reagent but only when used on yourself.
Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom
Use: Increases the duration of your Blessing of Wisdom spell by 20 min when cast on yourself.
See Glyph of Blessing of Might.
Glyph of Lay on Hands
Use: Increases the mana restored by your Lay on Hands spell by 20%.
This could be interesting. Again, I think Holy would really like the extra mana.
Glyph of the Wise
Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.
Combined with the Seal of Wisdom Major Glyph, that could really help out Holy in a mana intensive fight. Keep Seal of Wisdom active so your heals cost less and this Glyph makes resealing cost less.
Glyph of Sense Undead
Use: Damage against Undead increased by 1% while your Sense Undead ability is active.
There are a ton of undead in Northrend, and that 1% more threat. This is a very useful Minor Glyph.
With the release of Patch 3.0, Blizzard is opening up the new Profession of Inscription, and one of the items produced by Inscription are Glyphs.
Glyphs are added to your spell book and change certain aspects of your spells.
You can have 3 Major and 3 Minor Glyphs.
I want to examine the currently available Glyphs for Paladins and give some tentative recommendations. Blizzard has recently announced they are going to reevaluate Glyphs so we could see some changes, but I think it's safe to assume that what we have no is what we will get in Patch 3.0.
Glyphs seem incredibly situational. I could see wanting to change Glyphs often depending on my role and the particular encounter I'm fighting.
Right now, I'd say my Glyphs would be
Major:Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, Glyph of Avenger's Shield, Glyph of Judgement
Minor: Glyph of Sense Undead, Glyph of Lay On Hands. Glyph of Blessing of Kings
I'd actually love to get Glyph of Righteous Defense as well. What I might do is get Righteous Defense, then once I'm hit capped change it to Seal of Vengeance.
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Avenger's Shield
Use: Your Avenger's Shield hits 2 fewer targets, but for 100% more damage.
This looks like a Main Tank Glyph for someone who is doing more single target tanking rather than multi-target. However, it should be noted that with Hammer of the Righteous, Paladins don't need a 3 target range pull. You can pull with a single target Avenger's Shield and use Hammer of the Righteous to help build threat on the other mobs. It might make for cleaner pulls with an offtank or CC.
Glyph of Avenging Wrath
Use: Reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Wrath spell by 50% while Avenging Wrath is active.
This looks like it's meant for Ret Paladins who are trying to burst someone down in PVP or trying finish off that last couple of percent of a Boss.
Glyph of Cleansing
Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse and Purify spells by 20%.
I'm going to call this one a Holy Glyph since your main Cleanser is usually going to be a Holy Paladin.
Glyph of Consecration Use: Increases the duration and cooldown of Consecration by 2 sec.
It does not increase the damage. It does the same damage but over more time. This will mess up your nice 96969 rotation. I could see this having appeal to Ret Paladins assuming they have enough mana for it.
Glyph of Crusader Strike Use: Your Crusader strike deals 20% more damage when your target is incapacitated or stunned.
This is for our Retribution brothers, and has a distinct PVP flavor to it.
Glyph of Divinity Use: Your Lay on Hands also grants you as much mana as it grants your target.
I don't know about you, but generally I'm using Lay On Hands on myself so I am the target. But for a Holy Paladin this could be a nice bump to the mana pool.
Glyph of Exorcism Use: Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.
This has possibilities. If I had this now on the Banshee waves in Hyjal, I'd be a happy dwarf. Some people have suggested it works on mobs/players that you can use Exorcism on. That is not true. It only works on Undead/Daemon.
Glyph of Flash of Light Use: Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140% of its initial effect over 12 sec.
This seems more aimed at Holy, and I'm not sure if the HoT is worth the lesser heal up front. Siha of Banashoulders says "The HoT component needs to be bigger and much faster."
Glyph of Hammer of Justice
Use: Increases your Hammer of Justice duration by 1 sec.
This looks like a PVP Glyph for Ret. They do extra damage agaisnt stuned targets so 1 second might be long enough for one more attack.
Glyph of Hammer of Wrath
Use: Increases the range on Hammer of Wrath by 5 yards.
Got to get them runners. I want a mob to bring me back some friends. I'm a Protection Paladin. The more the merrier, right? I could see this being useful for PVP as you are trying to kill a low health healer before he can line of sight of or stop a flag runner who is just out of range.
Glyph of Holy Light
Use: Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 10 yds of the initial target.
Wow, just Wow. This is probably the best Holy Paladin Glyph out so far. I'm really happy for them. This makes Holy Light almost as effective as Chain Heal. (Typo on the tooltip says 100 yards, it's 10).
Glyph of Judgement
Use: Your Judgements deal 10% more damage.
10% more damage is 10% more threat. Very strong Glyph, and it appeals to multiple specs. Prot and Ret want it obviously, but some of the changes made to Holy were to encourage them to Judge more often so they can add a little DPS as well.
Glyph of Righteous Defense
Use: Increases the chance for your Righteous Defense ability to work successfully by 8% on each target.
This Glyph is made for a Nalorakk type boss where a Taunt resist can cause major trouble for the encounter. I could see using this until you are Hit capped in your gear and then replacing it.
Glyph of Seal of Blood
Use: Your Seal of Blood or Seal of the Martyr increases the mana received from Spiritual Attunement by 10% while active.
I want mana and I want it now! Blood is considered more of PVE DPS Seal, so it's most often used by Ret, but it's also a strong offtank Seal. In that situation, I could see the Glyph really helping out.
Glyph of Seal of Command
Use: Increases the chance of dealing Seal of Command damage by 20%.
This makes my inner Ret Paladin smile.
Glyph of Seal of Light
Use: While Seal of Light is active, the effect of your healing spells is increased by 5%.
This makes Holy want to have a Seal active while they are healing.
Glyph of Seal of Righteousness
Use: Reduces the cost of your Judgement spells by 10% while Seal of Righteousness is active.
Will mana be a major issue? Will we be using Righteousness over Vengeance for tanking? Many questions, but the initial answers point to this Glyph being more to help a Holy Paladin in solo content.
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Use: Your Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption also grants 10 expertise while active.
You got your Vengeance stack rocking. You are hit capped by the Boss can still Dodge, and Parry you. The Expertise, especially if it's true Expertise and not Expertise rating would be quite tasty.
Glyph of Seal of Wisdom
Use: While Seal of Wisdom is active, the cost of your healing spells is reduced by 5%.
I could see a Holy Paladin with both Seal of Wisdom and Seal of Light Glyph. You start off the fight with Seal of Light then when you low on mana, switch to Seal of Wisdom.
Glyph of Spiritual Attunement
Use: Increases the amount of mana gained from your Spiritual Attunement spell by an additional 2%.
12% mana back from Spiritual Attunement. That is very nice, but the question remains of how much an issue mana will be to a tanking Paladin.
Glyph of Turn Evil
Use: Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%.
This could allow Ret some additional Crowd Control, and give Warlocks fits in PVP.
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Blessing of Kings
Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Kings and Greater Blessing of Kings spells by 50%. Meh. I drink Mage water after I buff. I really don't care what it costs.
Glyph of Blessing of Might
Use: Increases the duration of your Blessing of Might spell by 20 min when cast on yourself.
This seems like it would apply to leveling or it's Blizzard's way of making the Greater Blessing not cost a reagent but only when used on yourself.
Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom
Use: Increases the duration of your Blessing of Wisdom spell by 20 min when cast on yourself.
See Glyph of Blessing of Might.
Glyph of Lay on Hands
Use: Increases the mana restored by your Lay on Hands spell by 20%.
This could be interesting. Again, I think Holy would really like the extra mana.
Glyph of the Wise
Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.
Combined with the Seal of Wisdom Major Glyph, that could really help out Holy in a mana intensive fight. Keep Seal of Wisdom active so your heals cost less and this Glyph makes resealing cost less.
Glyph of Sense Undead
Use: Damage against Undead increased by 1% while your Sense Undead ability is active.
There are a ton of undead in Northrend, and that 1% more threat. This is a very useful Minor Glyph.
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Syrah - Site Admin
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Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:34 am
Preparing Your Tankadin for Patch 3.0: Part 8 Where Do We Stand
As I've gone through the Beta and watched the Tankadin develop, I've felt the full gambit of emotions. There have been highs and lows, moments when I felt like giving up and moments when I felt like we were better than ever before.
As the Paladin community communicated our concerns to Blizzard one of the posters came up with this imaginary scenario.
Your 25 man Raid Guild approaches RandomBoss Encounter X. In the Raid, you have a Druid, a Death Knight, a Paladin, and a Warrior. All have been with the guild a while and have established themselves as capable players. All of them have adequate gear.
"Which one of you should tank?" the Raid Leader asks.
The first to speak up is the Druid. "Well, not much misses my big bear butt, but hey, it don't hurt much when it connects. And dayum, my health pool is huge."
Then the Death Knight responds: "OK, so my health pool is small, but I have huge avoidance, and more tricks than you can poke a stick at. I'm really good at tanking casters too."
The Warrior steps into the discussion: "My health pool is in-between the Druid and the DKs - so's my avoidance. I have a pretty decent pile of tricks. I can do pretty much everything. I'm a great tank."
Then Mr. Paladin gives his two copper: "Well, my health pool and avoidance are basically the same as the warriors. I'm flat out a great tank when the boss doesn't do anything weird. If it's stand there and get punched in the face, I'm an easy tank to heal, taking the small, predictable damage each hit and low damage overall. I'm also really good at tanking a boss + sidekick or two."
The Raid Leader is a little befuddled. Each Tank seems like a good choice.
The Raid Leader finally responds, "So if someone were to ask why you should tank Boss X, The basic answer is 'Because I'm a tank and I'm good at at.' That's a little less technical but should get the job done. "
OK, time for actual numbers.
Melee:
Warrior: 10% + 3% = 12.7%
Paladin: 6%+3%+3%=11.5%
"naked" warrior: 10%
SpellDamage:
Warrior:12.7%+6%=17.9%
Paladin: 11.5%+6%=16.8%
"naked" warrior: 15.4%
Very, Very close!
Not bad, imho.
If there are 2 warriors, they can "cross-vigilance" for the 3% and some threat swapping (good for making trash go to the other tank if a tank dies)
If you have a warrior and a paladin, both get BoSanc for the 3%.
Without a pally or warrior you then rely on a disc priest, and I'm not sure how common they will be.
As I've gone through the Beta and watched the Tankadin develop, I've felt the full gambit of emotions. There have been highs and lows, moments when I felt like giving up and moments when I felt like we were better than ever before.
As the Paladin community communicated our concerns to Blizzard one of the posters came up with this imaginary scenario.
Your 25 man Raid Guild approaches RandomBoss Encounter X. In the Raid, you have a Druid, a Death Knight, a Paladin, and a Warrior. All have been with the guild a while and have established themselves as capable players. All of them have adequate gear.
"Which one of you should tank?" the Raid Leader asks.
The first to speak up is the Druid. "Well, not much misses my big bear butt, but hey, it don't hurt much when it connects. And dayum, my health pool is huge."
Then the Death Knight responds: "OK, so my health pool is small, but I have huge avoidance, and more tricks than you can poke a stick at. I'm really good at tanking casters too."
The Warrior steps into the discussion: "My health pool is in-between the Druid and the DKs - so's my avoidance. I have a pretty decent pile of tricks. I can do pretty much everything. I'm a great tank."
Then Mr. Paladin gives his two copper: "Well, my health pool and avoidance are basically the same as the warriors. I'm flat out a great tank when the boss doesn't do anything weird. If it's stand there and get punched in the face, I'm an easy tank to heal, taking the small, predictable damage each hit and low damage overall. I'm also really good at tanking a boss + sidekick or two."
The Raid Leader is a little befuddled. Each Tank seems like a good choice.
The Raid Leader finally responds, "So if someone were to ask why you should tank Boss X, The basic answer is 'Because I'm a tank and I'm good at at.' That's a little less technical but should get the job done. "
OK, time for actual numbers.
Melee:
Warrior: 10% + 3% = 12.7%
Paladin: 6%+3%+3%=11.5%
"naked" warrior: 10%
SpellDamage:
Warrior:12.7%+6%=17.9%
Paladin: 11.5%+6%=16.8%
"naked" warrior: 15.4%
Very, Very close!
Not bad, imho.
If there are 2 warriors, they can "cross-vigilance" for the 3% and some threat swapping (good for making trash go to the other tank if a tank dies)
If you have a warrior and a paladin, both get BoSanc for the 3%.
Without a pally or warrior you then rely on a disc priest, and I'm not sure how common they will be.
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Syrah - Site Admin
- Posts: 186
- Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:43 pm
Re: Paladin Tanking 102 for patch 3.02
by Syrah » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:36 am
This is the best info I found on the new dynamic paladin tanking. I put some of it to the test last night and it performed with flying colors!
Info was gathered from: http://honorscode.blogspot.com/. Props go to him for gathering the data. Wootsauce!
Info was gathered from: http://honorscode.blogspot.com/. Props go to him for gathering the data. Wootsauce!
-
Syrah - Site Admin
- Posts: 186
- Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:43 pm
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