Tanking spell damage heavy instances/heroicsFollow

NOTE: With my sincerest apologies, I am reposting this here as I had inadvertently posted in the general WoW forum >.<

I thought I'd come to you all, but specifically people familiar with Paladin tanking, and pose a question.

I'm just getting into tanking WotLK Heroics, and having a grand time doing it, except for one issue, and that is tanking stuff where spell damage is being thrown around.

By way of background, I'm at 544 defense, 25.2k HP. Armory link: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Proudmoore&n=Christhina

The group I run with is pretty static most of the time, consisting of myself, a rogue, a mage, a druid in kitty form, and priest doing the heals. These people I've known for quite a while, and they do know their class, so it's not a case of an uninformed or bad player not knowing how to play, etc.

So far, the heroics we've run haven't seen any usable gear for me, but I don't think the gear I've got is terribad or anything (I'm not new to Prot, as may be deduced from the Libram in the link above).

The same healer has healed a different Paladin tank through at least one of the encounters that we haven't been able to make. So, maybe that is luck, but it also indicates to me that it may be an issue with my gear or technique, hence I am here to ask for advice and help. I have found that tanking anything with melee damage isn't a problem, mostly. But, here are examples of the "issues" I've come across, and am looking for thoughts or advice that you may have to impart :-)

(1) Lizard boss in H-Drak Tha'ron Keep - he flogs the absolute crap out of me to the point where the healer simply cannot keep me up. Holy Shield is up all the time, and we do have 2 adds - all the strategies I've heard say "ignore the adds". Given the gear I have, I'm surprised by the end result of this encounter (GY FTL).

(2) Spell damage seems to again flog the crap out of me, with pretty much the same result - healer, despite being pretty well geared, and knowledgeable of healing and their class, can't keep up. An example of this is the third encounter in heroic Halls of Stone, where the dwarf is working on the machine. My tactic here is to establish a killing zone in the doorway, keeping a consecration up to grab to mobs as they approach. This works very well, whilst the damage is melee related, but falls to pieces when it comes to incoming spell damage.

Given this hurdle in tanking content, I'm a little stumped, and given that the same healer, same gear, same technique can keep a similarly geared tank up (at least on the Lizard Boss, though I believe it was 3rd attempt they succeeded on, so it obviously wasn't a cakewalk).

Any thoughts, or advice that you all can share will be well appreciated to say the least!

PS: I do plan on dropping Divine Guardian from my spec. In answer to anticipated questions, no I did not use Divine Shield during the encounters I am referring to above.

That Halls of Stone encounter can be a tough one. From my experience tanking it through success and failure (many times!) really has come down to the dps more than anything. We spent one run with 7 straight wipes before nearly calling it. Instead we replaced one dps (a rogue) with a friend(mage) who just signed on and never even broke a sweat. If the adds aren't falling fast enough they just get too numerous to hold threat and/or take the beating from no matter how geared the tank and healer.

I absolutely HATE that lizard boss, Slad'ran. Still have yet to get my achievement for that ... Anyway, regardless or what strats say, I don't see any reason your Mage friend shouldn't be using Blizzard/Flamestrike/Arcane Explosion on those adds. You should be doing just fine with threat, and that extra AOE will help a lot. That does seem to be one of the bosses that most people will have trouble with until they've done it a few times.

For spell damage, I just second what has been said before: almost every time you'll want to focus the casters first. Stun them often, both you and your Rogue friend. CS from the Mage, Maim from the Druid. Remember that there are some mobs who are immune to stuns, but can still be interrupted with your Hammer of Justice, so if you have Hammer ready and something is going to cast on you, go ahead and use it on them.

CC shouldn't be looked down on if that will help you in dealing with some of the packs with caster types.

As for that encounter in HoS ... That thing scares the hell outta me, lol. I have been there once with a pro group, and we actually got the achievement there (for the Brann escort), no wipes. I was so stressed most of the time, I don't really know what was going on, lol. I did the same thing as you though, try to make a "killing zone" in the doorway, and mostly use my taunt to pick up any adds that happen to get through. In this encounter it may be of benefit to have your Druid go bear form to help out if things are getting out of hand. Hardest part for me was keeping track of adds while avoiding those beams near the end of the event. Nothing you can do there though except make sure you're always looking out for and moving away from the beams. I try to run back to my "kill zone" to drop Consecrates though, and that seemed to help a bit so new adds were always running through Consecration, even if I was forced to tank away from that spot.

Edited, Jan 12th 2009 8:30pm by Maulgak

I've noticed this too.

I only have 22k base, 544 Def, plus any buffs I might add or get from the group. I've noticed wierd things like I'm able to get healed through the final boss in UK without running from the Slam, but I'll get spikey damage on the dragons.

Doesn't make sense to me - The dragons have killed me, but Igor or whatever his name is (Last boss H. UK) I can tank through a 14k hit with no problems...

I've also noted that DPS are a major issue in WotLK. I've run way too many pugs where I'm 2nd or 3rd in DPS. Tends to be one good guy, One buy who's just beating me, Me, then a DPS War or Rog. Hunters are doing good, Mages fine, Locks fine, Cats seem ok. DK and Paly DPS are great. Seems like most of my slower DPS are Rogues or Wars.

Healing also has been a spikey issue. I love seeing a HoT healer, but if I see a PUG paly healer - I know I'm going to die once or twice. I usually /w another plate wearing class and tell them that they are going to be the backup.

If you're referring to the dragons with their handlers in that one room, it's critical to note that the handlers apply a very heavy bleed that bypasses mitigation. (~3k/tick and it ticks for while).