First Time, Pally Tank.Follow

So I did it last night, earlier than I had expected.

I had planned to level to at least 78 as Ret for solo leveling and then switch over to Prot. I ended up making the switch at 77 instead.

Well, my GF was on last night and she kept wanting to do Heroic UB, for a piece of RP gear (I play on an RP server), and I figured "well, ok... I don't feel like warrior tanking today" so I took a trip back to Ironforge to respec.

At first, I sucked really bad; my tanking weapon wasn't really a tank weapon (I haven't been to Zul'Drak yet), but it was a "this'll do for Lv70 content" kind of thing. I had 70/385 mace skill, so I told them to wait a bit while I skill up, and such.

I had a mix of Tempered Saronite, DPS rings/trink/cape (the AH didn't have any Pre-78 tanking stuff), cobalt belt/gloves (I'm not 78 yet for the Saronite), a blue tank shield (something rather bulwark), etc.

I did reasonably well; I had 13k HP, and 485 Defense, and 17k armor. I figured that was close enough to what they once asked for, as far as heroics, I'd give it a try. At first I sucked bigtime, I forgot to put Righteous Fury up, and couldn't figure out why I kept losing threat, it took me awhile to master pulling with Avenger's Shield, etc etc etc, but by the time we got halfway through Heroic UB, the wipes stopped, and we started PWNing hardcore.

After that, we did Normal MgT with the plans of running the heroic later when I have better gear, and so far, all I gotta say, is "WOW!"

I'm loving this, I played a Prot Warrior back in TBC, but I'd have to say that Paladin Tanking fits my playstyle a lot more than Warrior Tanking does, I find it more enjoyable. That, and I also like being able to heal myself if something happens to the healer. During MgT, the healer almost got DC'd during the first boss, right after the pull, she said "Uh-oh.." and didn't come into the room. Too late; I already pulled. For some reason or another, the one rogue didn't come either. She was the only healer, a druid in tree form.

By dumping heals on myself and letting the boss refill my mana (I judged Wisdom to help), I proceeded to tank the boss (he even successfully charged himself on the first crystal, due to the one rogue who never did this fight before, didn't catch it quick enough) while healing myself. That spell pushback changed helped Paladin tanks immensely, from what I can see. I was regaining mana almost as fast as I was using it by dumping Holy Light on myself, and occasionally one on one of my party members.

I was tanking AND healing, and we managed to down the boss with no deaths, with only 3 peeps: Me, Lv77, a Lv72 Rogue, and a Lv71 Hunter.

A small question: Should a tanking paladin ever consider throwing heals on himself or anyone else in the party? Also, during the fight with Kael'thas, the healer was badly wounded, she had only 20% left and she was swimming away from the orbs during the gravity phase and didn't seem like she was able to stop and heal herself, she must have gotten hit (she plays on a satellite connection; lag can be a problem for her), so I stopped, seeing no orbs around me and threw a heal on her. I was surprised at how powerful my heals can be, even though I'm specced/geared to tank, not heal... 5.5-7ks from Holy Light? Hehe. She only has like 9-10k HP... that fixed her up real nice.

Also, is there ever a time where Divine Shield should be used? I know it temporarily drops all threat, but during the trash pulls right before the boss before Kael'thas (the one with all the adds), we got a bad add situation, we had about 6 mobs on us and the druid couldn't keep up, and she was getting hit from one of the warlocks. I was at 20% left, so in a panic I dropped a Divine Shield on myself, threw a Holy Light (which was a crit, lucky me!) and then immediately canceled it so the mobs could come back to attack me again. She died to the warlock a few seconds later, unfortunately...

With only 2 party members up, we managed to hold off 5 mobs long enough to kill 2 of them, with only me and the rogue still standing... I was like "Woah, my Warrior woulda died 5 times over by now". I was regaining mana faster than my Holy Light was eating it, and still had enough to throw an occasional hammer, hoping I could last long enough to down a mob or two, which we barely managed to do, before we eventually wiped...

Anyways, enough rambling here I think...

Thoughts/answers/comments/etc appreciated!

Edited, Dec 16th 2008 1:45pm by Zariamnk

God I miss my pally. I miss tanking. Have to say it truly is the best. I moved my priest over to Akama from Bolderfist to play with some friends of mine (and join their guild in raids). Healing is fun, don't get me wrong but this thread (after reading it) just makes me want to forget I ever made a priest and head back to tanking. Ahh, after I hit 80 with my priest and see some end game stuff, I'll be back.

Self heals?? Mmmm. If you have to. Solo of course, instance and raids? IMO that is the healers job. If you have to heal yourself there is something going on wrong (eg, your healer is dead or such). I sometimes will heal myself between pulls depending on where my mana is and what the next pull is to help keep the healer's down time down.

If you have Divine Guardian Divine Shield can be really useful in raids to help the healer. Paladins are Kinghts in lore and still have many aspects that run that way. I'm really not one to use DS and usually use it solo when I take on too much. I think someone else should address this besides me.

Thanks for your thread though. It really brought back many memories over the past year plus of why I love my Prot Pally so much. :-)

Good Luck.

I have 450 Herbalism, the Blue trinket from the Undercity Quest Line, plus new Northrend pots. I have had to pop all 3, plus I always try to help the healers by judging Light. It helps my threat and it adds a nice group heal for melee.

You can heal yourself, but more likely than not, if you get to the point where you need to heal - you're dead.

Don't bother healing others. Here's why:

1. They shouldn't be pulling agro. (You need to learn to tank - they need to learn to avoid agro.)
2. Your main job is to hold agro - healing them isn't your problem. (Imagine if the healer started to DPS - Not his job. Imagine if the Running Back on a football team decided to start throwing the ball... Your skill is better employed elsewhere.)
3. You have several methods of helping them that are better than healing them. (Taunt the mob off, Protect them, or drop the 10sec - threat reduction blessing on them.
*. Note - For places like VH. Keep your shield throw off cool-down. Those mobs have a tendency to try to run past you. It's helpful if you can quickly "Provoke them off, by throwing a shield at them."

If the healer is dying - you can LoH them. Don't LoH a retarded DPS who decided that he'd off-tank a group pull. (Be careful of hunters - often times they are trying to be helpful, but their traps miss. The mob jumps on them and down they go. They are one of the few DPS classes that this happens to. Mages tend to have their Sheep hit. Rogues are pre-combat CC, so they are fine...)

Unless a wipe is certain - you can always LoH yourself... That's a fair game too.