Paladin Tanks and AoEFollow

A few days ago I (Full Frost Mage) ran Sunken Temple for the first time with a 52 Holy Priest, 54 Paladin (Protection) and two Fire Mages at 50-51.

At first we would Sheep three, then focus fire one down. One of the Fire Mages would always take aggro from the Tank, but with at constant Frostbolt with Permafrost debuff, it would always die long before reaching the squishies.

After a while, one of the fire mages started running into the group casting Arcane Explosion. While I first thought, "Retarded idiot, it's your repair bill," after several pulls without him drawing aggro, we all started AoEing.

Since I have Shatter, one of the other Mages would Frost Nova, I would Flamestrike, then the other would FN, and I would Flamestrike again (usually multiple crits both times). They would then continue AE, while I blizzarded.

We ran through the entire instance this way, until we got to the central room (Sacrificial Chamber?) where all of the Elite Dragonkin are. The Paladin said he was going to go get as many as he could, we cleared that entire chamber and side areas in three pulls, using the same method, then wiped very badly on the Shade of Erikanus (55 Boss, I couldn't hit him, even with Elemental Precision, the other Fire Mages were even worse)

My question is, Is this a repeatable experience? Can Paladins regularly and at higher levels hold AoE threat that well? Or was this a lucky case of a higher level Paladin being able to hold aggro against a frost mage and arcane spells?

I also have a Warrior I made to learn about tanking, and with him there is no way I could possibly have held anywhere near that many off of both the nuking mages and the healer. Is Paladin AoE tanking really that good?

I'm also posting this in the Paladin Forums, hoping to hear both sides responses.

Poldaran, I expect your replies on both forums.

edit Spelling and Grammar

edit Added Paladin's spec, I saw him cast Avenger's Shield, which I now know is the 41 point protection talent.

Edited, Aug 17th 2007 4:54:06am by Akuhime

As to mana efficiency, I agree, as I generally don't have the mana pool to AoE Elites, but with extra FN procing Shatter on Flamestrike, and two other mages it was easily done, using about 60% of my mana pool, about the same on the other mages and the priest.

Can this be done in any high level instances though?

We ran through ST very quickly using AoE spells, and drinking while the paladin pulled the next group (I also demanded that everyone have Blessing of Salvation). But would this still be possible in Black Rock Depths? or taking it further, Caverns of Time? Or applied to a larger scale, Tempest Keep or Karazhan?

I have no experience in raids (other than my brothers 60 Paladin in Epics a year ago), so I don;t know the mechanics for any of the higher instances.

Is it worth seeking this kind of group again? I have a good Paladin and Warlock in my guild I run with regularly, should we get another mage and try to AoE more often?

In ST, the Dragonkin groups would start dieing about 10-15 seconds into the pull, the last would die by 25 seconds in, I found this to be much faster than Focus Fire (we were specifically pulling the largest groups we could, more efficient)

in a place like ST, where you cant poly much, aoe is the way to go. however it was more the 3 mages and not the pally that made you successful. i built my 63 frost mage to be aoe heavy, lots of stam and spell dmg. love it!

In my minor experiences with them at low levels, they're alright up until they get Holy Shield, which is when they get good.

Click off Salvation and Stunlock time go.

or the pally could BoP the healer. if he does, he has no BoP for mage tank. mage goes squish.