So recently I put together a list of all the Build Shop articles that have ever been written on WoW Insider, and I found out something surprising -- there hasn't been a Build Shop for paladins! Today, I correct that grave injustice by looking at a heavy Protection build. Without question, a Paladin is my favorite type of tank, especially for 5 mans. Who needs crowd control? Just have the Paladin consecrate everything and let the AoE attacks fly. For those of you who haven't experienced that joy yet, I highly suggest you find a good Prot paladin and let him tank your instance.
I covered Paladin tanking techniques in a past article, so I'm just going to jump right into the build. This is one that people are sure to have mixed feelings about, but then again, that usually happens on Build Shop. The most scandalous suggestion I'm making in this build is not picking up Reckoning, but I have a few reasons why -- read on to find out.
I covered Paladin tanking techniques in a past article, so I'm just going to jump right into the build. This is one that people are sure to have mixed feelings about, but then again, that usually happens on Build Shop. The most scandalous suggestion I'm making in this build is not picking up Reckoning, but I have a few reasons why -- read on to find out.
There are a few reasons I don't generally include Reckoning in my Prot builds anymore. First off, it's unpredictable. It's great when it procs, and you get some extra threat, but by the time it procs you usually don't need any more threat and at any rate, it's not good to count on procs to build threat when tanking. Second, these extra swings can be parried by your target. As all tanks should know by now, when your target parries it counterattacks without resetting its swing. While this may not be such a big deal on trash and 5 man bosses, imagine giving a raid boss that you're tanking 4 potential free attacks against you. This can spike the damage you take and kill you if you're unlucky enough, since it's unexpected and your healers likely won't be able to respond. Reckoning is great for Prot grinding, but I think that One Handed Weapon Spec is a better use of your 5 points if you're tanking in raids. So there you have it. Let me know exactly how much you agree or disagree in the comments.
Now, on with the build! I'm going with 0/46/15, which is a heavy Prot build that also incorporates talents from Retribution that will help with damage mitigation.
Protection (46 points)
- Redoubt - Melee and ranged attacks against you now have a 10% chance to increase your block chance by 30%. Aside from being required for Shield Spec, you'll be getting hit a lot as a tank and a lot of the threat you create comes from blocks. This gets better as you tank multiple enemies at once.
- Precision - Increases chance to hit with spells and melee weapons by 3%.
- Guardian's Favor - Reduces the cooldown of BoP by 2 minutes, and increases the duration of BoF by 4 seconds. Sometimes a mob gets loose and goes straight for a healer or other squishy -- this can be used to give you time to re-establish aggro without danger to the squishy (provided that they're not getting spells cast at them).
- Toughness - Increases armor from items by 10%. This one is a toss-up. Some paladins like having this and anticipation, some like one or the other. I like Toughness since my Prot Paladin is already at 490 defense, but your mileage may vary.
- Blessing of Kings - Increases target's stats by 10%. This is one of two Blessings only available to paladins with points in protection.
- Improved Righteous Fury - Reduces damage you take by 6% (while Righteous Fury is active) and increases the amount of threat caused by Righteous Fury by 50%.
- Shield Specialization - Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your block by 30%.
- Spell Warding - A nice passive talent that reduces damage from spells by 4%.
- Blessing of Sanctuary - This is the Blessing I use on my prot Paladin when tanking. Reduces damage from all sources by up to 80, and deals 46 holy damage to the attacker when you block.
- Sacred Duty - Increases stamina by 6%, reduces the cooldown of your Divine Shield by 1 minute, and reduces the attack speed penalty of Divine Shield by 100%. More stamina, reduced cooldown on your bubble, and when using your bubble you swing as normal? Pretty decent talent, I'd say. This can sometimes be used to clear status effects off yourself, but remember to cancel it immediately or whatever your tanking will go for the rest of your group!
- One Handed Weapon Specialization - Increases damage you deal while wielding a 1 handed weapon by 5%. This applies to all damage, not just damage from your weapon, so this is essentially a 5% damage increase.
- Holy Shield - Increases your chance to block by 30% for 10 seconds. Each time you block with this up, the attacker will take 185 holy damage and it will expend 1 of the 4 charges of Holy Shield. This is a great talent for generating threat and mitigating damage, and should be up at all times while tanking.
- Improved Holy Shield - Increases the damage caused by Holy shield by 20%, and also gives you 4 additional charges. With this talent, Holy Shield will have 8 total charges, making it much easier to keep it up constantly.
- Ardent Defender - Reduces the amount of damage you take by 30% when you have less than 35% health. Functions as sort of a low-grade Last Stand that's always on, but this talent can give your healers the time they need to top your health off. Anything that lets you live longer or mitigate damage as a tank is gold, so don't miss this one.
- Combat Expertise - Increases your Expertise by 5 and your total stamina by 10%. The extra stamina is great, but the Expertise lowers the chance your attacks will be dodged or (more importantly) parried by 1.25%. Costs 5 talent points, but is definitely worth it.
- Avenger's Shield - Hurls a shield at the target, causing a bunch of holy damage and dazing the target for 6 seconds. This can also jump to 2 other targets and deal damage/daze if they're close enough. Good for pulling, and great for grabbing a bunch of threat at the beginning of a fight.
Retribution (15 points)
- Benediction - Reduces the mana cost of your Judgement and Seal spells by 15%. If mana is an issue for you, I would take this over Improved BoM, but it's up to you.
- Deflection - Increases your chance to Parry by 5%. This is a 5% mitigation boost, and great for tanking. Well worth picking this up.
- Vindication - It's up to you how to spend these last 5 points, but I like putting 3 of them in Vindication to decrease the target's stats by 15%. It may not work on bosses, but it's pretty good for trash.
- Pursuit of Justice - Again, you can choose to spend these last 5 points somewhere else, but I also like the new Pursuit of Justice talent. The speed increase is nice, but it also gives you a bit of mitigation by reducing the chance you're hit by spells by 2%.
So there it is -- the very first Paladin Build Shop on WoW Insider. Those of you that are legally able to drink may break out the champagne now, just make sure to save me some! All in all I think Protection is a strong build, and I'm glad that these types of paladins are not only accepted but also desired. I know I'm a bit biased, but I'd rather run an instance with a Paladin tanking than any other type of tank.
That wraps up this edition of Build Shop, but I'll be back again next week. What do you want to see on Build Shop? Send me an email with your questions or comments, and we'll talk shop.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
1-22-2008 @ 5:13PM
Skrilla said...
I use the last 5 points in reckoning. Some people like to put those in imp judgement and seal of crusader.
I don't buy the argument that reckoning doesn't proc once you get good gear.
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1-22-2008 @ 5:26PM
Lariqe said...
Its not so much that it doesn't proc, but the chance of it doing so drops off with the more avoidance you get. Since it requires you on taking damage, if you're always dodging and parrying (or blocking all damage or the mob just misses), then the chances of it going off drop a lot.
Granted, you'll most likely have 5 or 6 mobs on you tops (generally 3 or 4) and you're not going to be avoiding all the attacks in some form or another, so its not like it won't happen. Its the same kind of problem, though, that tanks face as they get higher up in regards to threat generation. Too much avoidance so you're not taking damage and thus you can't do what you need to do.
1-22-2008 @ 5:42PM
Aigarius said...
The problem is not that it does not proc, the problem that it does proc and the boss has a chance to parry you attack and inflict extra damage *on you*! If this happens, for example, in the second phase of Prince, then your tank can easily get 12-15k damage in 1-2 seconds.
1-22-2008 @ 9:57PM
Aticus said...
Yes, I too must agree that Reckoning isn't as great as it seems. I don't want it to proc on a boss who can parry and dish out thousands of damage. Sure, it'll gain aggro faster but R.Fury helps with that. If my healers need to drain their mana at the beginning of the fight to heal me with their HL's and GH's, then you might as well stop there.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
1-22-2008 @ 5:21PM
Rudolphe said...
I do agree with what he said about the additional swings being parried and cuasing unexpected spike damage. I would probably remove reckoning from any prot build i worked on just because of that.
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1-22-2008 @ 5:44PM
jr said...
"Redoubt - Melee and ranged attacks against you now have a 10% chance to increase your block chance by 30%. Aside from being required for Shield Spec, you'll be getting hit a lot as a tank and a lot of the threat you create comes from blocks. This gets better as you tank multiple enemies at once."
"it's not good to count on procs to build threat when tanking"
Redoubt is a must have and its a proc, but so too is reckoning, more threat is always a good thing. Also, alot of a pally's threat generation is passive so it seems to me you need every tool you can get to increase threat generation, if you don't have reckoning you are gimping yourself I think.
1-22-2008 @ 5:42PM
Adam said...
Another option for those last few points is imp judgment and imp seal of the crusader.
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1-22-2008 @ 5:43PM
Adam said...
By the way, the build would then be the following...
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZVGtI00dMgqtVfx
1-22-2008 @ 5:47PM
jr said...
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZVhtIx0zggqtVbb
by the way my preferred build.
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1-22-2008 @ 5:49PM
Lucas said...
I would take out blessing of kings, that point is better used somewhere else. Besides, in a raid atleast one pally healer will have it (God knows they always have enough extra talent points after getting the good stuff in holy)
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1-22-2008 @ 6:56PM
Lucas said...
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZVhtIx0zggqtVbb
The build Ive used. Almost purely damage reduction. It assumes that another paladin in your raid is going to have BoK and Imp devotion aura and that a balance druid will have Imp faery fire on the boss.
1-22-2008 @ 6:10PM
flatrabbit said...
Guardians Favor? Seriously? And no Anticipation? Thats free defense that you don't have to find elsewhere.
Really just drop The GF & the points from Vindication and put them in Anticipation. Other than that I can't argue with your choices. As soon as my Tankadin hits 70 I plan of dropping reckoning myself and putting those points elsewhere.
My Build should look similar to this one:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZVhtIx0dMgqtV0x0b
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1-22-2008 @ 6:22PM
Calaana said...
I'm assuming this is a build pushed towards the raiding aspect, since you took reckoning out, which causes laughable spike damage in five mans, so I have to wonder why you didn't take Anticipation to help get to the 490 defense cap, max out parry for the same effect, or imp judgement for all that extra threat, and took vindication which any boss worth the title is immune to. I'd rather use something closer to http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZVrtIx0zMgqtVbxz which does include the uncrushable talents.
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1-22-2008 @ 11:31PM
Chris Jahosky said...
@ Calaana
From my notes on Toughness: "I like Toughness since my Prot Paladin is already at 490 defense, but your mileage may vary."
Also, I did max Parry over in the Ret tree, so I'm not sure what you meant there.
Imp Judgement is a fine alternative, but I find myself doing more off-tanking than main tanking in raids (which mostly means trash) and I find Vindication useful.
@Alex
I'm not sure where you think I said that Parry resets the swing timer. The only place I think I mentioned it was: "As all tanks should know by now, when your target parries it counterattacks without resetting its swing."
WithOUT resetting its swing. Next time perhaps you should read what was written instead of rushing off to try and correct someone.
Past 490 Defense, Anticipation is not required. Having said that, it still is very useful (as someone pointed out elsewhere in the comments, it amounts to 2.5% avoidance) but not absolutely necessary. 2.5% avoidance can be made up rather easily with gear, and it is a big investment of points for relatively little return (compare with Deflection, which is twice as effective for the same number of points).
I suggest you drop the elitist attitude and instead contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.
1-22-2008 @ 6:24PM
Kal said...
Anticipation is, among other things, 2.5% pure avoidance. It's also 47 points of defensive rating that you don't have to find on gear. It's worth it unless you're just dripping in defense.
The main reason not to get reckoning is simply that there are just too many talents in the tree that you need to get. Parry gib doesn't happen as often for paladins as it does warriors and it's not as critical when it does happen thanks to the extra charges on holy shield. Reckoning won't proc super often, but it will do enough to be a decent source of threat against a single target. No, really - what it comes down to is just not being able to put more talents in threat boosts and having to go more protection.
Guardian's favor is, IMO, a very poor choice. So is vindication for serious raid tanking. If you're planning on doing mostly 5-mans, reckoning is a better source of threat than vindication is. If you're doing raiding, improved SotC is better unless you have a ret paladin.
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1-23-2008 @ 1:27PM
Gorehorn said...
Actually, isn't 20 Defense skill equivalent to 3,2% avoidance past the crit-cap (0,04*20*4 for Miss/Dodge/Parry/Block)?
1-22-2008 @ 6:32PM
Alex said...
You *really* need to refresh your game mechanics. Parry DOES NOT RESET SWING TIMER. The effect on players is a reduction of, I believe, 20% off the next autoattack, stacking to a maximum of 40% (from memory, numbers might be wrong). Now, due to server/lag issues, NO ONE has viable data on what the exact "parry thrash" effect is on a boss, and indeed there is some experimental data that suggests it is not exactly the same as the mechanic when a player parries. You would know this if you spent 15 seconds researching your article on warrior / paladin forums.
Not taking anticipation is crap. Your build shows you have about 0 understanding of mathematics and game mechanics. Believe it or not, defense is worthwhile after the "magic" number of 490.
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1-22-2008 @ 6:37PM
Talys said...
@10: I totally agree about dropping Guardian's Favor and Vindication from the build. Both of those are, in my mind, PvP/grinding talents... not tanking talents. Too each their own, though.
I also would agree that it would be wise of up-and-coming prot pallies to have 5/5 Anticipation. However, as gear improves, I don't doubt that at some point the amount of defense they get from gear alone would suffice their needs, and then points in Anticipation could be re-allocated to other talents for either more avoidance or increased threat generation.
The one decision I'm have trouble making with my prot pally right now is whether or not to spend 2 points in Spell Warding or 2 points in Imp. Judgement. He's only level 68 at the moment, so it's kind of a toss up at this point. More spell damage mitigation or more threat generation from faster judgement cooldown?
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1-22-2008 @ 6:44PM
Kal said...
Imp judgment isn't as great a threat provider as some other skills are (reckoning is better point for point, for instance). Mostly because of the way the cooldowns work. With judgment on a 10-second cycle you can get into a standard holy shield/consecrate/judgment/seal cycle every ten seconds. With judgment on 8 seconds, you have weird cases where you'll miss resealing since you need to cast holy shield and consecrate. Turns out that hurts the threat a bit.
In any case, it's up to you, really. Neither will make or break a prot paladin. If you're up and coming, I'd recommend going with spell warding, as less damage makes your life and the healer's life easier. Reckoning or imp judgment are both better for solo grinding though.
1-22-2008 @ 6:39PM
Thomas Wilde said...
The point should be made, I think, that Reckoning's real value isn't in increasing the number of landed attacks, but in increasing the number of times your current seal can proc. The extra bump from an extra couple of Seals of Righteousness is worth the five points in my book. I just wish it was higher in the tree so it could be fit into Retribution builds.
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