Tank topping the damage charts. (Low-level)Follow

My Paladin is only level 37, but all the times I have tanked RFD, SM Cath/Lib I have done more damage then anyone else in the group. The "DPSers" are usually higher level than me and yet I generally way out damage them. I realize this is due to the AoE tanking I like so much, but my questions is: Is this level range the only time I will experience this? Or do Pally tanks still rival DPSers in later levels (pre-level 70)?

I am Ret specced 100% so far, and I think tanking an instance I do more damage than if I am in a 2-hander DPS role. Is this normal for other Paladins too?

lol, it happens even at 70.... we went back to kara last night to finish off prince and started with the room with 2 groups of four shades... being the overconfident pally tank that i am, i marked first kill and threw shield... after those 2 pulls one ot the dps whispered me to tell me he didn't think we had enough dps in the group cause i was second on the damage meters. we had one dpser under 500 dps, the rest were pretty well geared. aoe tanking ROCKS dps almost as much as much as Ret.... i do enjoy being able to challenge dps to "at least try to keep up with the tank please".... almost as much fun as "you let a ret beat you, rogue?"

Paladins are simply insane in the lower levels. I've tanked, healed and been nr 1 DPS in a Deadmines run once (with a mage, 2 hunters and a warlock iirc)

Edited, Jul 14th 2008 11:59pm by Mozared

I find (currently being a lvl 52 prot pally) that during regular trash pulls (3-4) you will out DPS most people in your group however on longer boss fights you tend to start falling way behind, mainly because consecrate+4 mobs=4x dmg done, same thing with shield spikes, ret aura etc.

true it shouldn't but last night again in heroic SL and heroic ramps i was second on the damage meter again. when a pally is aoe tankng he will pass most average dps in damage. only the better dps will be able to easily stay ahead. um, this is assuming the pally tank is decently geared and has a good amount of spell damge. when i was ret i often ran heroics with a pally tank with over 500 spell damage. he didn't use CC much so they were usually lots of aoe pulls. kept me on my toes for a while till i got better geared. he often was second. we enjoyed having the 2 pallies on top.

Yup. I can usually out DPS a PvP specced Rogue with their mighty 500 DPS -- or hold very close ground to them at least (seeing as I'd only really run in heroics with one, and I dont exactly blow everything for heroics) against a single target. Since most heroic pulls tend to be between 3 and 5 mobs at once though, I can easily pull ahead of such DPSers by large amounts.

I can't get anywhere near a PvE specced, well geared, well played DPSer though. On those same 3-5 pulls a Des/Sac Lock can leverage their advantages and put numbers in excess of 2000 DPS up on the charts easily (heroic mobs mind you, where they dont even have the time to get the real numbers up). Mages can push 1600. Usually the only DPSers that don't break 1000 are Shadow Priests, Ret Pallies, and Enhancement Shammies and they aren't there for pure unbridaled DPS anyway.. Especially SPriests, with their higher than 1:1 Threat:Damage ratio.