Do Paladin Tanks get picked up often?Follow

After some discussion on forums, with guild, etc. I have decided to make my next character a Tank. I have also decided on Dranei as my race. My main is a Human Lock who basically solo'd the whole time and this time around I would like the experience of grouping more. I see that Tanks are often needed so I figured that would give me a good chance of being picked up as long as I can learn how to be a good tank.

Now with all that said, I still haven't decided on Warrior or Paladin. I hear that Warriors make better Tanks,although Paladins can hold their own, and that Paladins are probably easier to solo with when you feel like grinding. Are both of those points true? And if I decide to make a Paladin Tank will I be passed over in favor of a Warrior or will I still get picked up often?

Thanks in advance.

While leveling up my paladin I found that pre-60 I was mored desired than warrior of comparable level. I don't know if it was just because I was extremely lucky in getting good PUG's or if it was the fact that I could pull about 2-4 groups of mobs and AoE them all down, making the runs go somewhat faster. However, I haven't played him for about 3 weeks, got him to 60, so I don't know anything about Outland instances. But there are plenty of other, far more knowledgeable, people around here that can tell you about them.

Hope it helps. :)

This:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9lmHZyKqBCE

=EDIT=
To explain further than an amazing video such as that(=P), AoE tanking is Area of Effect Tanking. Paladin tanks work entirely on reactive-damage. When you get struck, your enemy takes damage. So, where Warriors and Druids have single-target aggro(for the most part); we are able to hold aggro on seemingly unlimited amount of mobs. Melee proffered as that's how our reactive-dmg works.

The main abilities we get to help with this are:
Holy Shield
Blessing of Sanctuary
Retribution Aura
Consecrate(though very high in mana cost)

A mob hits you, you(without using any weapon) do damage back. It's great fun killing things without having to touch them at all. I've killed idiotic Rogues, Warriors and Feral Druids in PvP doing just that... Time to make another video me thinks...

As far as PvE goes, like CapJack said 5mans are cake, heroics included. One example being BM where I tank every trash mob the whole instance even during boss fights, and also pulling all the beasts at the beginning in one big pull(record so far is 63!) rather than wasting time there. As you begin to raid I find guilds always looking for Pallies to tank trash, not so much bosses. I lead Kara in my previous guild and MT on every boss that required a tank except Maiden(it's possible, but let your OT do it, the silence spams waste time). But I don't 25man, I'm just going by what I've heard/read.

Anything further can and will probably be explained by CapJack /salute =)

Edited, Dec 19th 2007 8:51pm by TacticalRage

I agree, if by "us" you mean GOOD pally tanks. I've met maybe 6 total Pally tanks on my server and only 1 of them was competent. Maybe they were having off days or maybe I'm too critical, but just like with any class you know who's ebayed and who hasn't.

Do the research, practice, take suggestions/criticism. You'll be one of "us". =D

haha, when there's 3-5 groups in the qeue all with healer and 3 dps and all looking for a tank.... yeah, they're not waiting for a warrior tank trust me. who wants to wait for the almost non-existent tanking warrior when that only means a slower run.
trust me, learn frm the cap, read his FAQ and the defense and mitigation sticky and make a pally tank. you will be not only accepted, but if you learn well and play well you will be greatly desired.

i would take the pally tank over the warrior/druid tank any day. my holy pally loves the synergy of holy and prot (also i never pull healing aggro from a prot tank - i do from warriors). very few warriors can keep aggro off my ret, but a prot with 10 more holy damage from my ret's sanctity aura has no trouble since most of his damage and threat from holy damage....

aoe dpsers love tankadins cause they can usually unleash their dps.

Of course. Taught by the Captian! More rum!!
I also had the help of a long time friend and 3 year player. Walked me through some great tips about working with other class and stuff like, crowd control and saping and now he has a hunter so i'm learing about having them in a group. I mark my own runs. It's been a great learing experience. Between him and the Captian, Prot pallys can tank, and be great at it.

Would love to see a holy pally in a group with me. 10% more damage would be great, espically since try 97% easy! I hit for about 70dps, but the holy damage with Ret aura, Sant Blessing, Holy Shield, Conceration and Avg Shield on the pull... yeah, I pull out all the stops baby, but nothing gets by me. Had a shadow priest in my last Slave Pens run and learned all about what to do with the Mind Control gig (love that taunt pull that a warrior will never have! Yeah, i forgot the name as i just use THE macro). Ok, so my pally is my first toon and with total luck, I love playing her. Glad I didn't have to re-roll to find something else enjoy the game with.

PS Priest's rock too.

Back to the rum!!!

Tanks, in general are picked up by whomever. When you get a tank, and they are good, then they are added to 'friends' lists. Then, you get bugged every time you log in, but that's not a bad thing, really. I'm going to be our guild's main tank eventually, so I practice in instances as often as possible these days.

My thanks to all in these forums who keep answering questions!

One thing that I love about a pally tank is that I can stop a wipe by DI'ing the healer, Lay on hands to myself (if I was about to die)... Having the ability to heal and buff folks around you is just awesome.

I get random tells for ZF and Mara all the time too as well. I feel like I'm being stalked :P

well since your talking to your guildies about makeing the tank are any of them lvling with you??if so i would suggest 1 holy pally 3 mages and you prot pally as a group. if your makeing a warrior i would sugest 1-2priest druid or shammy to heal everyone. second healer dont have to be healing spec just ready to help out if your running two, 1 rogue 1 mage 1 dps maybe hunter to help off tank.

if there aint a mage in one of my groups i get pretty sad. not many will aoe like a mage. hunters beh they just try to solo mobs. locks dont know what it is but they're aoes get them hurt or something. shammy who likes chainlightning on a pull? mages are where it's at tell them to give you 2-3 sec after you aoe and start slow by second aoe just go all out. if that long to go all out.

besides haveing fun tanking lots of mobs in instances you get to kill alot of mobs at once soloing so it's win win with pally.

No problem in gloating at all ;) By all means, show Dilbrt and the other Holys (and Rets) how much action you are getting!

A little experience I had a few days ago: was looking for a Heroic run and I got into this group of 4 that run together quite frequently (almost every morning to get the daily Heroic down). They had a tank they ran with each day, but for some reason he could not longer make it with them for their daily runs in the morning. By the time the first boss was down (H-SP), they were practically begging me to be their new tank for their daily Heroic runs. Feels good when groups so tight nit want you to come back over and over again :)

Also have some people that out of the blue will still ask me to come tank things for them even though I haven't talked to them in a while. If you're a good tank, people will remember you and seek you out when there is a need, and word will get around you are good making people more likely to join you when you have a need to fill.

It's hard to pick up something that weighs 15000 lbs.

(Joke referring to RPZip's equation of 1 armor = 1 lbs, thus enabling us to take hits from really big monsters without flying across the room.)

before expansion, we were generally ridiculed and scoffed at.
after expansion, even though all we gained was a taunt(and it comes at early level) and minor talent tweeks,
very much so.

of course pre and post expansion tank methods did not change one bit, except having an emergency taunt and instead of pulling with judgement of righteousness, we can use avenger's shield. paladin tanks still mainly use holy shield, imp. righteous fury and consecration and retribution aura to tank.