Protadin QuestionFollow

Well first off welcome to being an awesome pally tank, tons of fun. Since you know that there is a gear list for pre-raid gear, I'm guessing that you haven't fully read it since it covers all stats needed, gem choices and all that other fun stuff. As far as intellect vs. agility, personaly I'd stick with intellect since being able to toss off a few spells or a quick heal is always nice

As far as I knew, spell cost is a percentage of base mana, not total mana. So more int does allow for more spells. Which is exactly why Healadin run around with huge mana pools.
But still, Int is not an important stat for a tank.

At the same time though, a Paladin tank is constantly regaining mana (if they are doing things right :P), so there is no need to increase our mana pool at all. While leveling up, it's no big deal, and you may find having some extra intellect to be worthwhile when soloing. But, having intellect on your gear while in any type of group setting is completely irrelevant.

Same with agility to a certain degree. If you get gear that happens to have agility on it, as long as its other stats make it an upgrade, then cool. But, don't actively seek out agility. Other stats are far more important.

I disagree somewhat on what arthoriuss said in regard to stats. Defense is your first priority: 540 minimum. Then it's situational which stats will give the best results, not a cut and dry stamina > avoidance. Some fights your avoidance will help you very little, so a high health pool is the better way to go. Others, avoiding as much as you can will help you live longer than a very high health pool. Some situations block with a high block value means a lot, others it means very little. 2 ways you can prepare for this:

1) keep a few spare pieces of gear to change depending on the mechanics of a fight. I have my normal tanking set up, then I have a "block kit" mostly for trash or add tanking, and I have an "avoidance kit" for bosses like Patchwerk.

2) if you don't want all that gear, just try to keep a good balance of stamina and avoidance at all times. Reach for the 102.4% block cap while getting as much stamina as you can.

Don't go for one so much that you ignore the other, but balance the 2.

I also would say strength > block value. Strength adds BV and AP, so with strength you are not only upping your mitigation through blocking and threat from Shield of Righteousness, but increasing threat from melee and everything else that scales with your AP. Thankfully though you won't have to worry about choosing one over the other much of the time.

Gems: I use Solid Sky Sapphire for blue sockets, Enduring Forest Emerald for yellow sockets, and Regal Twilight Opal for red sockets, or like my gear is now when I have no red sockets but need a red to activate a meta. You should also consider Thick Autumn's Glow for trying to get to defense cap.

For meta I go with Austere Earthsiege Diamond, though you could argue that the Eternal one is better, particularly if you are not yet at the defense cap, or having trouble staying there.

No the answer is agility.

Agility (agi)

* 52.08 agility = +1% dodge chance. This is somewhat less efficient than Dodge Rating at increasing your dodge chance (39.35 dodge rating = +1% dodge chance), but with Blessing of Kings the number decreases to 47.35 agility, which makes it about 80% as efficient as agility.
* 52.08 agility = +1% melee crit chance.
* 1 agility = 2 armor.
* Agility is often overlooked as a tanking stat, but it's actually an efficient way to get avoidance, mitigation, and threat from one stat.

Intellect (int)

* 1 intellect = +15 total mana. This increases the size of your starting mana pool and the maximum amount of mana you can store at any point. It also increases the rate of mana regeneration from effects that restore a fraction of your mana pool, such as Replenishment, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Divine Plea. This is a nice effect, but it doesn't make intellect worthwhile as a stat for tanking gear.
* 166.67 Intellect = +1% chance to crit with spells, but all Prot paladin offensive abilities except Exorcism use the melee crit rate.




When you hit 80, stat progression generally looks like this: Def to 540->Avoidance including block until 102.4%-> Stam-> +Hit(best threat stat we have until capped at 8%)->Pure Avoidance(dodge/parry/agi)->Str/AP/Block Value/Crit(basic threat modifiers)->Expertise(reason for this being last is we get 16 for free-6 from talents+10 glyphed, and its very difficult not to find any on gear as its a prime warr threat stat).

That is to say, you'll 1st need to be crit immune(540 def), then you'll need to strive for hit immune(102.4% total avoidance), then you'll want to increase your Effective Health(stam and armor are best ways to do this). Once you've attained gear required for the the 1st 2, start balancing out your gear with more threat/pure avoidance pieces while maintaining crit and hit immune. And as always tanking is situational, keep any gear you acquire at 80 as you never know when you'll need that +def or +dodge trinket or extremely high passive block set.

If you're looking for enchants your best bet would be to buy some knothide or heavy knothide armor kits from the AH. These are usually pretty cheap on most servers and will boost your stamina which translates into higher HP and higher spellpower (spellpower = damage/threat).

If you're looking at quest armor pieces and have to choose between a piece with agility or intellect, you're better off going with the piece with agility (as long as you're not sacrificing strength/stamina to do it). The agility will slightly increase your dodge, armor, and crit.

HOWEVER, this is only in a worst case scenario. Ideally you won't be ever touching agility.


Keep in mind he's 65 and leveling. He doesn't need raid level efficiency.

Brain fart on the int->mana pool spell cost. My apologies. I probably should have said that the stats priority that I listed was meant for as the OP upgrades from level 65. It was not intended for when he hits 80. For that I would agree with what Maulgak, Mahlerite and AureliusSir have said 100%.

I think that agility, intellect and spirit are all poor stats for a Prot pally. Apart from the Frosthide Leg Armor there will always be something better to enchant or gem for. IMO agility's 'tank buffs' are designed with Feral Druid tanks in mind not Protection Paladins.

If you take it from a leveling perspective - it's definately INT. Leveling Prot is all about your mana. If you have mana - you'll live/win. No mana = Death.

When you get into end game. If you are saying everything else is equal - and simply asking if you take AGI over INT - you take agility. Agility = some more avoidance. INT = more mana. As a tank - you don't need more mana, you need healing to replenish mana - Not a larger mana pool.


As a side note - Running regular instances does not require good tanking gear/stats. Yes - Agility will help you at 70 tank a 70 instance, but as most of your time is spent leveling, you'd be wise to just get the INT. That being said - if you intend to tank instances on your way to 80 - Focus on Stamina, Defense, Armor, and STR. If they are available - Get other stuff...

Edit:
When you get to 80 you focus on getting your def to 535 (Heroics) and 540 (Raids). After hitting 535/540 you focus on stacking stamina until you are 25k to 27k+. (Raid buffed that will carry you well into the 31k+ range). After that point you focus on getting your total avoidance up to like 103% to be what is called "Block Capped". After you are block capped you reroll a new toon.

Edited, Apr 13th 2009 4:36pm by Borsuk