Paladin tanking in Cataclysm

Yesterday I posted a guest article on World of Raids about the Paladin tanking experience for someone, like me, returning to the class after a long absence. It included a new youtube video.

Regulars would have seen most of my written commentary already, which I’d mentioned in the blog ten days’ ago and written into this forum post.

What’s new is this video with commentary, of me tanking BRC as a Pally.

September 1st, 2010 | Leave a comment | From: Mechanics and systems beta | Tags: ,

Tanking as a Paladin, Cataclysm Beta

Back in the old days, I had a Paladin called Hammerjudge. Creative name, eh. Actually, I had two.

First one was in Australia, then when I knew I was moving to the UK, I bought an EU kit (whilst in Australia, from shatteredcrystal), then levelled a Dranei on EU. I healed for a while whilst earning a slot in my awesome guild the Dottagers, then tanked, then WotLK was announced and I was sold on a DK, who was

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August 20th, 2010 | 4 comments | From: General beta chat | Tags: , , ,

Tanking changes for Paladins, I'd like similar for DKs

Ghostcrawler has given an update, very important one at that, on maintankadin changes. They allude to a design for the damage debuff which I hope will be applied to DK tanks, too.

Here is how Prot paladins are working in our current beta build. You might not see these changes in the next beta build, but in the one after that. Things are still in a high degree of flux however.

Shield of the Righteous

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August 3rd, 2010 | 4 comments | From: Mechanics and systems beta | Tags: , ,

Why I'm jealous of maintankadins

In order:

  1. [Consecration]
  2. [Hammer of the Righteous]
  3. [Holy Shield]
  4. [Holy Wrath]

I used to be a pally tank too, so I know what I’m missing when I do Halls of Reflection: no gaps in the AOE threat and reflective AOE threat. Rhidach enjoyed himself in Plagueworks last night, with a sidenote on the AOE awesomeness that is Paladin.

Over the last week, I ran the Blood tank spec for 5-mans (includes death and decay glyph and corpse

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January 7th, 2010 | 23 comments | From: Tanking in general | Tags: , , , , , ,

The 'How do I tank' survey

There’s a game bloggers play where you pass an idea or question from one to another.

Normally, I don’t follow along because I’m stubbornly independent and don’t like being part of a crowd. These ‘memes’ can be very self-serving group-hug techniques used to brown-nose.

This one however is pretty cool because it’s all about tanking!

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November 5th, 2009 | 7 comments | From: General chat, Tanking in general | Tags: , ,

Rune strike is soooo threatening!

Oh yes, I’m absolutely grinning. I’m flushed.

PTR 3.3 notes:

Rune Strike: Threat generated by this ability increased by approximately 17%.

That’s just what we need in Icecrown to make up for the loss of threat from lower avoidance, it’s what we need to scale our threat better for progression tanks.

Calculations I did yesterday were showing 7% loss of threat in Icecrown due to lower avoidance. Rune Strike is about 40% of a DK’s total threat, so 40%

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November 4th, 2009 | 3 comments | From: News discussion | Tags: , , ,

Shield-tanks vs DKs in heroics

Jan 6th: ha ! I knew I was right. See this Blue post.

Original post follows.

I’d like to do some analysis on how a shield-tank feels less squishy in heriocs, because shield block reduces the average incoming hit by such a high proportion. Against a raid boss, the shield block diminishes in value (well argued and established on tankspot).

But in a Heroic, I know shield-tanks can feel less squishy than DKs; I believe it’s shield block. I’d like to work out exactly how much it helps though.

The problem was, looking at the data didn’t really support my hypothesis… details on that at the end.

How much is blocked?

  • An epic, well-geared paladin or warrior is blocking 1500 to 2000.
  • Comments to this post have further data points (thanks guys and gals)
  • A friend of mine (i213 warrior) is blocking for about 1200.

Some WWS data points below. Note I did not check to see if any priest or shaman damage-reduction buffs were up because what I was looking for really was some ranges of trash and boss damage, and some confirmations on block values. Those buffs could influence data.

Just for simplicity, I didn’t pull out data on druid tanks, even though they have a bear block.

Here’s a WWS of a Utgarde Keep speed run with a maintankadin, with a geared team. Here’s a screenshot of that for the WWS expires.

  • On trash, the maximum physical hit taken was 5771.
  • Average hit 1252 (that includes those he partially blocked)
  • His average block was for 1923.
  • 49.8% avoidance + mitigation, 6.4% of that was block
  • On bosses, maximum hit was 10797.
  • Average hit 2122, max 10797
  • Average block 1902 (about the same as trash, as it should be: it’s a linear stat).
See more WWS data points»

So what damage do tanks in heroics take? » continue reading

Here’s WWS of UK again with an ordinary DK tank. Screenshot.

  • On trash, maximum hit was 6626
  • Average hit 2005
  • Avoidance 53.5%
  • On bosses, maximum hit 7053, average 2548

Another WWS of UK with DK tank. Screenshot.

  • Trash: average 1829
  • max 5236, avoidance 55.2%
  • Bosses: max 9213, average 2259

Warrior tank WWS screenshot.

  • Trash: average 1702, maximum 4414, block value 1985
  • 59.9% avoidance and mitigation, 9.1% of that is block
  • Boss: average 1806, max 6027, block value 2857 (must have used talents/trinkets)
  • 54.8% avoidance and mitigation, 6.8% of that as block

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September 20th, 2009 | 21 comments | From: Heroic 5-mans | Tags: , , , ,

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