#0 - Nov. 6, 2008, 4:17 p.m.
This guide is aimed at the average Protection Paladin, and not the specialist raid tank. In addition to this information you should read up yourself on talents and make your own decisions.
Talents: follow the link to see the actual tree I've chosen for level 80.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/Lucifark/ProtectionTree31.jpg
Note: Below I have based information on my understanding of the Talents which reflects the talents I have chosen, there are of course other possibilities dependant on specific tanking needs.
Talent Points, How to Spend them and Why:
Holy Tree:
Nothing in Holy tree in needed!
Protection Tree:
Divinity 0/5 - Increases all healing done by and all healing effects on you by 1% per talent. With the huge amounts of overheal that occur on us what is the real point of boosting this overheal further. Skip it
Divine strength 5/5 - Protections Paladins now need Attack Power. we gain 2 Attack Power per Strength point and also some block value. So this increases your threat and mitigation. Take it
Stoichism 0/3 - Sure reduction to stuns and reduction of spells being dispelled is nice but its far less effective for tanks than other talents, it's widely thought of as a PvP talent, so this one gets missed.
Guardian's favor 0/2 - Cool down on bubbles for other players is shortened, yeah I guess it'd be nice, but again not the most valuable talent so is skipped.
Anticipation 5/5 - 5% Added Dodge. Pure and Simple Mitigation. Take it
Divine Sacrifice 1/1 - Redirects 30% of all raid Damage to the Paladin upto a max of 150% of their HP. Its a raid DPS saver for those moments when a lot of raid healing needed. It can also be used with Divine Protection to mean you actually only take 15% but save the raid from the full 30%. It's optional but nice to take.
Improved Righteous fury 3/3 - All Dmg is reduced by 6%. Again Straight Forward Damage Mitigation. (Righteous fury is always needed as Prot). Take it.
Toughness 5/5 - Increased armor, therefore damage reduction. It's nice mitigation, Take it.
Divine Guardian 0/2 - Improves the effectiveness of your Divine Sacrifice spell by an additional 5% and increases the duration of your Sacred Shield by 50% and the amount absorbed by 10%. In theory it's better to be able to absorb more in reality this means that you'd need even more healing to not die. The points in reality can be better spent elsewhere. Skip it!
Improved hammer of Justice 2/2 - It reduces the cooldown on your stuns and interupts. A very useful tool to have while tanking especially if tanking a healing Boss, we always used to skip this since we had a 1minute cooldown, which made it useless. Since the Cooldown is now down to 20secs fully talented this now becomes a very useful tool. Optional, but I strongly suggest taking it
Improved devotion Aura 3/3 - Since all Auras now apply to everyone in the raid a Holy paladin or retri can provide you with Retribution Aura. You'll be giving devotion for Extra Armor to the entire raid as well as Increased Healing. Take it.
Blessing of sanctuary 1/1 - You'll be using Sanctuary always, every time you block you regain 1% of your mana. Its a great for tanking fullstop and also for AoE tanking and soloing. It's nice mitigation for other tanks too, even though they no longer get the rage/runic power. Take it
Reckoning 0/5 - 10% Chance on hit or block you gain an extra weapon swing for the next 4 swings. With the weapon changes this talent has become better for threat than before (it was terrible pre 3.0). I will skip this talent as it has some disadvantages as well as advantages. Weapon Speeds over 2.0 seem to provide the best threat increase from this talent. Since it procs for 8secs you should check weapon speed to see how many swings fit in to gain best from this talent after the proc occurs. Still only 0.56% threat increase fully talented, which is very poor compared to any other threat talent.
Sacred duty 2/2 - Increases your total Stamina by 8%, reduces the cooldown of your Divine Shield and Divine Protection spells by 60 sec.. Stamina gives HP and spell dmg!. Take it
One-handed weapon specialization 3/3 - Simple, all dmg you do is increased by 10% whilst you have a 1h weapon equipped. Take it
Spiritual Attunement 1/2 - The Paladin regenerates mana equal to 5% per talent when healed by other friendly targets' spells. Well I know almost all protection paladins would love to take 2/2 in this talent since the mana regen is often needed especially in heroics / lower gear content. But due to necessities further down the tree we can only afford to spend 1/2 in order to get the best mitigation and threat spec. take 1/2.
Holy-shield 1/1 - 30% Extra Shield Block can be almost permanently kept active. You're dead/Useless without it! Take it
Ardent defender 3/3 - Below 35% HP you take 30% less dmg, again it buys time for healer when you get hit hard n fast. Argent Defenders Reduces the damage of many attacks that otherwise would have killed you.Take it
Redoubt 3/3 - 30 Block Value for Free and 30% Chance to block on a proc.... Oh.... Redoubt Procs a lot! Take it
Combat expertise 3/3 - So 6 expertise, 6% crit and 6% Stamina - No Brainer! Take it
Touched by the light 3/3 - Returns 30% of your Sta as Spell Dmg. New Tank gear has stacks of Sta but no spell dmg and it adds some nice threat, as Paladin tank spells tend to be based Spell Dmg and AP. Take it
Avenger's Shield 1/1 - It's your Pulling tool, that simple! take it
Guarded by the light 2/2 - Reduces spell damage taken by 6% and gives a 100% chance to refresh the duration of your Divine Plea when you hit an enemy. In addition, your Divine Plea spell is 100% less likely to be dispelled. Permanent Divine Plea and less dmg from glyphing. Take it.
Shield of the templar 3/3 - Reduces all damage taken by 3% and grants your Avenger's Shield a 100% chance to silence your targets for 3 sec. Pure and simple mitigation, It's a no-brainer. take it.
Judgements of the just 2/2 - Reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 20 sec, increases the duration of your Seal of Justice effect by 1 sec and your Judgement spells also reduce the melee attack speed of the target by 20%.. Judgements are used every cooldown so this adds mitigation as he'll attack you 20% less. All boss fights are balanced around the boss having a 20% reduced attack speed, It keeps the fight balanced for us too. Take it!
Hammer of the righteous 1/1 - It's the paladins Cleave. Basically while using Seal of Corruption (Vengeance for Alliance) not only do you cleave 3 targets but you refresh / apply more charges of corruption to those 3 targets too, great for AoE tanking threat. And is your primary threat spell along with. SotR at level 75.
Retribution Tree:
Deflection 5/5 - Increases your parry chance by 5%. Its Mitigation pure and simple.
Benediction 0/5 - reduces the mana cost of all instant cast spells by 2% per point. Reduces your mana cost on a lot of spells so means less likely to have any mana issues. Not the best choice of a talent and is only for those that really need it. look at it as a last choice filler if for some reason you need one (I doubt you will)
Improved Judgements 1/2 - Reduces the cooldown of judgements by 1seconds per point. Judgements have decent beneficial effects and do ok damage, therefore are a staple to produce threat. All calculations show that tankadin rotations work better on a 9sec (1/2 points) cooldown as part of the 96969 rotation rather than 10sec (standard) or 8sec (2/2 Points). Judgements have been nerfed but taking 1/2 is a must for any level 80 Protection spec for our 96969 Rotation. Can even take 2/2 but is not needed
Improved Blessing of Might 1/2 - Improves the Attack Power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 12.5% per point. It's a filler talent, but we need 1 filler in order to get to Crusade and Conviction. Can take or miss this one, cna instead take 2/2 Improved Judgements or 1/5 Benediction none of them give any serious benefit.
Heart of the crusader 3/3 - your Judgements also increase the critical srtike chance of all attack against the target by 1% per point. It's an extra 3% crit for the entire raid. Very nice talent, We need to take points in retribution to get our max threat potential. This is a good use of points and great in 5man when no retribution paladin is present.
Pursuit of justice 0/2 - Reduces duration of disarm effect by 25% and increases movement speed (incl mounted speed) by 7.5% (rounded to highest whole %) per point. This could be a very useful talent to take, the movement is an added bonus but being disarmed for 50% less is the real deal here. Well disarms don't affect us too badly and the speed can be made by enchanting Tuskarr's vitality instead for a loss of 7 Sta. Hit or miss talent, upto personal choice either take 5/5 Conviction or 3/5 Conviction + Pursuit of Justice 2/2.
Conviction 5/5 - Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks per point. So potential 5%crit rating, Very nice for extra threat. We now have the disposable talents to be able to take this and it's on our way to Crusade which point for point is the best threat talent.
Crusade 3/3 - Increases all damage caused by 3% and all damage caused against Humanoids, Demons, Undead and Elementals by an additional 3%. It's awesome for threat. take it.
Credits to Apollya of <Combustion> @ Argent Dawn
