Need adviceFollow

K have been playing wow for quite awhile but it has always been the dps classes. In the BC expansion I played the paladin as Holy spec, however in this expansion I have enjoyed playing the paladin as protection spec. I have started into some heroics (only DTK and UK) and have done fine so far. Some groups that I am in think that my HP is too low, others are fine with it (hence the 2 heroics I have tanked). So I have came here to see what the opinion is here since I have trusted the advice of the fellow paladins here for quite awhile. Here is the armory link http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Arathor&n=Landestus. If my HP is too low what else do I need to do to get the HP up, if it is fine then I will continue on and ignore the remarks. Just want to make sure I am on the right path.

Thank you very much for the advice

/sign on getting Seal of the Pantheon to replace your Dabiri's Enigma.

I don't think that your health is all that low for the point you are at. I think it's just a case of people's gear being so good now that they can't remember what their stats were like when they first started Heroics themselves. You could do very well, as arthoriuss said, cleaning up some things, not just your talent spec.

Talent spec: a few things I noticed. You have Reckoning. It's really not all that great and those points would do you a lot more good elsewhere. Same with Unyielding Faith, it's ok, but really those points will do you more good someplace else. You really should have at least 1 point in Improved Judgements (I always take both points personally) so that Judgement fits better into your rotation. Also Heart of the Crusader is a very nice boost to your group. In raids you may have someone else who can bring this debuff (almost guaranteed in 25 mans), but in 5 mans it's a good bet you won't.

Here's a couple builds that I'd suggest you take, depending on your preference I guess:

5/54/12
0/57/14

I left out Glyph of Divine Plea because I thought that you'd need the threat Glyphs more for the content you're asking about (just so people don't crucify me for that =P).

Gear: as soon as you can spare the defense, change your meta to Austere Earthsiege Diamond. You've got DPS bracers on, so get those swapped out for some tanking ones and slap a +40 stam on it. You'd do well with either a Heavy Borean Armor Kit or Armsman on your gloves. For your boots change the enchant to Greater Fort or Tuskarr's Vitality, depending on whether you take Pursuit of Justice or not (since they don't stack). Change the gem in your belt buckle for a Solid gem.

You really shouldn't gem/enchant for hit rating and if you find that you are needing to taunt a lot (and missing those taunts), change a Glyph to this. Otherwise just get hit rating on your gear. And if I looked at your gems correctly by changing the one in your belt you should still have the requirements for your meta, but you'll have more health.

Edited, Sep 8th 2009 9:22pm by Maulgak

Pallies are very borderbased. Let me explain.

I have a competent pally tank. I was stuck at around 25K give or take a few K for a VERY long time. I'd get an upgrade here and there that would bring the HP up a teensie bit.

I concentrated elsewhere. I'm an old BC pally tank, so I knew a thing or two about avoidance. I even have a macro still that shows my total avoidance when I use holy shield (outputs it to the chat window so that only I can see it).
I set myself two goals: 27K HP and 102.4% avoidance. At first, I was using the old BC tanking Libram (Holy Shield gives xx% block rating). After a while, just picking up a gear piece or two, I had not only met my goals, but exceeded them to the point where I could start removing avoidance gems and defense gems and putting raw stam gems.

Your first priority is to hit up ToC heroic (You can NOT tank it yet, not comfortably) or UP heroic (you should do fine there) for the weapons there. Red Sword of Courage used to be THE pre raid tanking sword. The one from ToC blows it out of the water with higher DPS (threat) higher stam, and a gem slot (don't remember if I took an avoidance hit switching to it, sorry).

Daunting Handguards are going to curse you for ages. I didn't get rid of them until I bought the BoC gloves.
Go ahead and buy the Tempered Titansteel Boots. Overall they're a huge upgrade, I used them until I got some boots in Uld.
Spend 25 badges on the old Valour tanking cloak. You gain a TON of defense rating (yours has none and is really tailored more toward Druids), and if I remember right, some stamina as well. You'll end up at around 20 DR over the floor, so you'll be able to regem accordingly, and not have to worry about it as you get new gear upgrades (which brings up another point: You want a real comfortable defense cushion as a lot of raiding gear has less than the blues you have on).
Your chest piece is another curse, you'll have it until you get tier.
Patchwerk on 25 man has a brilliant set of shoulders for you. If you can get into a 25 man group and convince them to let you be one of the Hateful tanks, you should be able to take it if the healer's on its toes.
Trinkets have been covered. Heroic AN has one HP trinket for you, ToC normal has another. I'd do AN first, and if it doesn't drop, farm ToC as your time permits. Do this as another 'daily quest' and add in HoL normal.
Alternatively, you could just get the trinket from AN heroic AND ToC normal since the new cloak will put you well over the defense floor.

Do you have any spare BC badges? If so, go spend them on the Tanking Libram. It's better than nothing and will help you hit that avoidance cap (102.4: Add up block, dodge, and parry with Holy Shield active). Otherwise, I think the LK tanking libram adds to block VALUE (the amount of damage absorbed by a block, and the amount of damage Shield of Righteousness does).

As for spec, the only thing I see that's a big no-no is Reckoning. You don't want that, at all, because more swings = more chance for the boss to parry. A boss parrying makes his next attack speed up significantly, so you really don't want that happening. It could use an eensy bit of cleaning up all around, but nothing else major.

Also, don't forget that Blessing of Sanctuary now gives you 10% stam, so there's no reason to not be running it when you're grouped (on yourself).

Get used to when to use your cooldowns. Divine plea should always be active, that's a 3% reduction in damage. Your low level bubble can be used without dropping threat, I believe it's 50% damage reduction for the duration (or something close to that). If your healer isn't a pally, it's advisable to throw a... um... mini bubble, forget what it's called, has a yellow and black icon. Throw it on yourself whenever it rolls off, that's more damage absorbed.
In the early stages of Pally tanking, before you hit the 30K mark for unbuffed HP, it's rough, I won't lie to you. You start climbing up to that goal VERY fast though.

Also, one little not that irks me about new tanks. You don't have a defense CAP. You have a defense FLOOR.

Thank you, I can never remember the names of the different bubbles.

Yes this is one of the changes on the PTR atm.

Not the best thread to bring back for a ret DPS help post, but whatever.

First, your gems are a mess. Shouldn't be going for haste, crit, stam, or armor pen. Change your Meta gem to the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond, put 20 strength gems in everything except for one spot for a Nightmare Tear.

You're missing an enchant on your weapon, chest, and cloak, and your shoulder enchant is for PvP.

Your expertise is low, so get the Glyph of Seal of Vengeance instead of GoSoCommand. Then use Seal of Vengeance on most targets except low health trash packs. Also get the Libram of Valiance for its 200 strength when using SoV.

I don't like your talent spec (or your tanking one), but changing it won't increase your DPS. Anyway, try to drop Eye for an Eye and pick up Pursuit of Justice.

Edited, Dec 11th 2009 3:12pm by Ehcks