First timeFollow

A little background:
Never have i played a tanking class before, i have 3 70's all DPS classes

I leveled my pally to 60 as Ret. last night i needed a Ramps run, not a single guild tank was on. I respec, grab a group and head in. What a reality check that was, I must say tanking for the fist time was a lot more chaos then i thought. We have 2 pally tanks in the guild and dam do they make it look easy. We managed not to wipe and i only lost 1 party member during the run. I must say from a hardcore DPS'er i think this is what i needed. I was getting tried of the same old thing, and the difference in play and tactics renewed my interest in the game as a whole. I was rading/arena on my rogue, now i am gonna move him to arena only and do all my PvE on my new tankintraining. I guess i just wanted to say to all thoes tanks that i have stood next to for over 2 years, now i understand and thanks!


http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Gnomeregan&n=Faylis

Continuum Blade has a bit more stam, and I don't personally think 9 SD is going to make all THAT much of a difference. If you're still 60, and you managed to pull off a doable run in ramps, then I wouldn't bother wasting your money. Just wait for instance drops and quest rewards.

Also, if you're not already, when you're low on mana judge SoW on the mobs and keep SoR up on you for threat. :) Hope I helped just a little even, goodluck!

on trash the only thing i judge is righteousness. on bosses, i judge one righteousness then judge a wisdom, then back to righteousness. SotC is only useful to judge really if you have the improved talent in the ret tree.

If you find you are running low on mana on trash pulls and your healer is doing ok (like never having to drink), you can try not using holy shield or tank one mob behind you so that you take some more damage, and therfore get more MP back.

Grats on the new experience.

Personally I think more DPSers should take a turn at tanking at least once. Just so they, you know, KNOW.

Like I said, alot of info i was reading said to use it, but all should be taken with a grain of salt I guess. I think i got so use to using it as Ret. I never gave much thought to how useful it would be as Prot. I will be switching up my tactics tonight and will keep you all posted, Thanks again for all of the great input.



/agree

I just wanted to make a comment about your sword choice @ 70

the greatsword of horrid dreams is nice for the spell dmg., and the continuum blade being a little bit lower on +sdmg is also good. But in my research the crystalforged sword http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32660 is the best pally tanking weapon @ 70 until you get into T6 content. Most of the time you can find it on the AH for 150-200g not too bad of a cost of a weapon to last you up to T6.

Just my 2 cents and feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Don't expect your mana pool to be the thing that keeps your mana going. Healing is what does it...

If you're going OOM fast but still taking a reasonable amount of damage, re-evaluate your casting order.. there's lots to learn. When you know what you're doing it can "look" like all you do is Holy Shield and watch a movie, but there's more to it. If you just aren't taking enough damage (unlikely at your gear point) you can downgrade gear or sit down.

As for the seal discussion. I wouldn't Judge a boss with Wisdom like.. ever. Seal of the Crusader for them. I'll judge the Elite Rift Keepers in BM with Wisdom but not much else. Really, if a boss hits hard enough that 4-5 direct hits = death, you'll be getting all the healing you need to keep up a full rotation.

http://www.jinx.com/world_of_warcraft/men/tanks_youre_welcome.html?catid=40#bigdesign

:D

Few points where I'll add my experience here:

1) Continuum or Crystalforged at 70, no substitute unless you farmed honor for the PvP mace. Just because you should use a weapon for the majority of your spell damage doesn't mean it is above the need for balance. There's a BoE epic sword with MUCH higher spell damage, but no stamina (I forget it's name). This is not optimal. The GoHD also I believe is less than optimal as it is losing you 15 stamina (plus any from talents) for only 9 more spell damage. Take the stam.

2) I haven't used JotC for threat for a long time. If I had the Improved talent I'd use it to help out my party's DPS, but as it stands if I'm needing a Judgement on the target, it's most often Wisdom. If you're needing more threat (Crusader) and running out of mana (need for Widsom) then you need to either reevaluate your tactics or make a compromise somewhere.

3) /sign what Pold said about weapons. Crystalforged Sword -> Fang of the Leviathan or Amani Punisher -> then to the Tier 6 Tempest of Chaos (unless you do Arenas then you can put those weapons in the mix ... blah, PvP ...).

4) Also /sign to Celcio. Every DPS player should roll/respec/find a friend who has a tank and a healer and get a feel for what it is like to do those 2 things as well. I get the feeling as I level yet another toon (44 Druid atm) that all the DPSers care about is, "lawl, I does gooder big numberz than u! I'm so uber!" They have no idea what a chore it is for the tank to keep things under control when they're out competing with each other running a muck, or what a chore it is for the healer to try and keep everyone alive when they go do their own thing.

Kudos to you sleepy!

EDIT: for number 3 the new Cudgel of Consecration from Magister's Terrace would be a pretty nice upgrade from Crystalforged Sword as well. You lose 3 stam (with a Solid Star of Elune) and 11 Block Rating, but you gain 12 intellect and 84 spell damage (with socket bonus). I'm going to be working toward that in between ZA and SSC attempts :)

Edited, Mar 27th 2008 9:03am by Maulgak