The Protection Tree: The Talented TankFollow

This post is intended as an extension of my Pre-Raid Paladin Tank's Guide, and will thus be linked to from that thread.

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Pre-Raid Uncrushability: A Paladin Tank's Guide

Contents

~ Introduction
~ Must Haves
~ Wildcards
~ Samples

Introduction

A Protection Paladin can seem a little like a one trick pony to some. It is a fact that to compete as a tank, a Paladin must sink a very large number of his or her talent points into the Protection tree. It's a very fat tree, full of 5 point talents that are often required. The objective of this guide is to distinguish what talents ANY Paladin tank should be taking and what talents are wildcards that can add personal flavor. If a talent isn't listed as either, it's probably not worth taking.

What this guide is NOT is a breakdown of what every talent in all of our trees does. It is advice with specific comments about the talents listed. If you want to know what the talents do, please visit Blizzard's Official Talent Calculator.

Must Haves

Protection

Redoubt 5/5

Redoubt is an interesting talent. While you're levelling it's amazing, bolstering your block rate by large amounts. After you get into end-game your avoidence increases and it procs less and less (since you don't get hit). Furthermore, you reach a point where extra Block isn't needed because you have so much PURE avoidence (Dodge, Parry, Miss) that any extra Block gets disregarded. Why is Redoubt a mandatory talent then? It is required for Shiled Specialization. Furthermore, it will occasionally give you a "buffer" for between Holy Shield casts that will effectively eliminate your chance to be crushed because of server latency. Though you can't rely on that.

Toughness 5/5

It's an easy 10% armor. I don't really think there's a great deal of discussion needed here. You're already what is considered to be the "squishiest" of the tanking classes, take any armor you can get!

Blessing of Kings 1/1

You're always going to want Blessing of Kings on. The Stamina boost is staggaring. You cannot rely on another Paladin to give this to you. If there even IS another Paladin, they'll want to give you Blessing of Light if they're the healer. Don't expect any other Paladins to have even taken this talent, many will skip it. You're the Protection Paladin, just sink the point into it.

Improved Righteous Fury 3/3

If you're tanking without Improved Righteous Fury you fail. This is the talent that makes tanking work as a Paladin. You need the threat generation, and you need the 6% damage reduction. Remeber that a Warrior has a natural 10% reduction in Defensive Stance, so you will be at a disadvantage even WITH this talent maxed.

Shield Specialization 3/3

This is a required talent and the BIG reason for taking Redoubt as you advance in end-game. We may not get threat from our Block Value, but it is still a tremendous boost to our survivability and our healers will love us for that.

Anticipation 5/5

Twenty extra Defense Skill is crazy. Even if you have enough Defense to not need this talent, you can always swap gear, and 99.99% of the time you'll get more out of that than you'll get out of swapping this talent for something else.

Blessing of Sanctuary 1/1

You'll probably never use this blessing in end-game. You may use it while grinding, but you really take it because it's a prerequisite for Holy Shield.

Sacred Duty 2/2

Remember when I said we're already considered the squishiest tank class? Well yea, Sacred Duty brings you 6% more HP. This is an absolute must have talent for that alone. The added bonus to your bubble isn't bad either.

One-Handed Weapon Specialization 5/5

Don't be fooled into thinking this only increases your melee damage. It increase ALL DAMAGE done when you have a one-handed weapon equipped. This is a MAJOR talent for threat generation and grinding power, and a must have for a Paladin tank.

Holy Shield 1/1

This is a trademark ability of a Paladin tank. This is how you eliminate crushing blows, therefore it is a must have. You cannot tank a raid boss without this talent.

Improved Holy Shield 2/2

The extra charges granted by Improved Holy Shield are important. In addition to our threat generating mechanics, this is what sets us apart from Warriors. With Improved Holy Shield, we are more reliably uncrushable. In fact, in most boss fights, the only reason we should eat a crushing blow with Improved Holy Shield is server latency between recasts. Warriors will eat crushing blows if the boss has a 2.0 attack timer or faster regardless of latency, given enough time.

Ardent Defender 5/5

There is an argument to be made that when you're fighting mobs that hit for several thousand, you're dead if you get hit when you're below 35% health anyway. Ardent Defender WILL save you from wiping on numerous occasions. You won't notice it, nor will the rest of your group/raid or your healers. If there's truly an unsung hero out there, it's Ardent Defender, and any REAL tanking spec takes it.

Combat Expertise 5/5

Prior to patch 2.3 we had less armor, less HP, and less natural damage reduction than a Warrior. We got our magic buff though in Combat Expertise. This talent adds 10% HP. That's like having Blessing of Kings cast on you! And guess what? You can STILL Kings yourself after taking this, and not only that, the two will build off of eachother. This is an amazing talent and an absolute must. The added expertise is a valuable threat stat as well, even for a Paladin.

Avenger's Shield 1/1

Avenger's Shield is not just a ranged pull. It allows you to front-load a large amount of threat on up to three targets. Furthermore, its slowing effect lets you set up for the fight properly, or intercept a mob that goes after your healer before it reaches them. Rage Winterchill casts death and decay? Back off and throw your shield at him, and you can continue to build threat.

Retribution

Benediction 5/5

You need five points in a first tier Retribution talent in order to get to Deflection. Benediction is far superior to Improved Blessing of Might as it will save you mana every time you seal up or judge. You'll be doing this constantly, and mana control can be a cruicial issue for a Paladin tank.

Deflection 5/5

This is the reason you go into the Retribution tree. The extra parry is crucial and a valued addition to any tanking build. Not only is it a form of pure avoidence, it will also increase the number of attacks that you make as your attack timer is shortened after every parried attack. This may however cause a boss (Prince for example) to parry more of your attacks. Still, it's a crucial talent.

Wildcards

Protection

Precision 3/3

This is probably the strongest of the candidates for a Wildcard slot. Some of your most crucial abilities are governed by your melee hit rating, including Avenger's Shield and Righteous Defense. Not to mention, if you can't hit something you'll never get Seal of Righteousness to proc on it.

Stoicism 2/2

This is a weaker candidate for a Wildcard. You don't have to worry about spells being dispelled, the real benefit is the chance to resist stuns. When you're stunned, you can't Block, Dodge, or Parry... so you are left crushable for a period of time. You can't rely on a 10% increased chance to resist though. If you can't survive a stun, you shouldn't be tanking it, nuff said.

Spell Warding 2/2

Spell Warding is probably the second strongest candidate for a Wildcard. Spell Damage is the bane of your existence. Warriors have anti-caster abilities and Druids have the benefit of a huge health pool to soak up those spells that your armor does nothing to. You have Spell Warding. 4% less damage is just that, 4% less damage.

Reckoning

Reckoning is a funny talent. It's amazing while levelling, but its use dies off as you enter end-game. It procs on the same system as Redoubt, so as your avoidence increases, Reckoning will proc less. Eventually you reach the point where it's rarely up. Even when it is, it will not contribute greatly to your threat, and the extra attacks can be parried by a boss with horrible results. It's probably best to spend your points elsewhere.

Retribution

Improved Judgement

Most tanking builds will take Improved Judgement. Being able to judge two seconds faster adds a noticable chunk to your potential threat output, and helps while grinding.

Pursuit of Justice

Likely the single weakest candidate for a Wildcard slot, Pursuit of Justice still has a place in a Paladin tank's build. Not mine, but some Paladin tank out there. If you really need the speed, stick Boar's Speed on your boots. 3% greater chance to be missed by a spell can help yes, but remember the golden rule. Never rely on chance. This may save your life, it may not make a difference for a long string of hits. Spell Warding is guaranteed to reduce damage on ANY and ALL spell hits you take however, including AoEs and Auras.

Samples

Standard Raid Tank

This build takes all of the bread-and-butter abilities. It includes Spell Warding, Precision, and Improved Judgement as wild-cards.

Reckoning Build

This particular build takes Reckoning. Since a Paladin with this build will be swinging their weapon more, it only makes sense that they would want a higher chance to score melee hits, therefore Precision was also taken.

Thanks for reading, and remember that this thread can sink to the bottom of the forum. Please direct your replies to:

Pre-Raid Uncrushability: A Paladin Tank's Guide

Edited, Aug 15th 2008 3:07pm by Losie