An amusing fact to note: if you never go below 35% HP, you've got 35% more HP than you need....yet I haven't heard anyone complain that CE is useless because "they never go below 1000-1200 HP anyway"
I just did a ZA run. We were on the first boss. I had a resisted taunt on the FIRST switch to bear phase (I was tanking the bear), my feral offtank went down, which of course finally gives me agro. I tank the boss from 90% to 0% solo.
The mod shows that I would have died if I didn't have it, which would have put an unfortunate end to the timed run.
This talent is now a keeper. _________________ Official tankadin of <The Core> Tichondrius
Since many paladins consider it like a bad passive oh-shit button due the leapfrogging, I don't see it in this aspect.
I've learned the real utility of this talent is not for against bursted hits, it's for the damage over time. I mean any kind of: AoE pack, Bleed, Magic dots.
Especially Bleed and DoTs, high armor and avoidance does nothing and here we have a real advantage over warrior and druid.
I understand the old paladin HP pool was a bit weak to allow this talent to shining, but now it's a bit different and the paladin can focus a lot more on its HP.
ps: yesterday, tanking the Bear boss I loved AD, and I quote me too
I see my health bouncing sometimes between ~30%-10%, and without a doubt its saving my butt on those hard times.
Ideally, the healers would be keeping me topped off all the time, but that just isn't so. _________________ [url=http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Uther&n=Brute]
I still maintain this is one of the best talents in the tree. Yeah, stuff that hits for 10k might leapfrog it now and then, but for everything else, it's great and will save your life now and then. For AoE tanking, it borders on being ridiculously overpowered. I'd sooner give up CE than AD. _________________
I agree. This talent is more useful than you think. A 10k hit when you are at 35% or less is reduced to 7k (edited cause i fail at math). That's a huge damage reduction, even if it can be leapfrogged, and you are much more likely to benefit from it than have it leapfrogged.
I would love to see a mod that kept track of the amount of damage ardent defender reduces in a single raid night. _________________ <3 Bram
The enemy outnumber us a paltry three to one, good odds for any Paladin!
In a shitty SH pug the other night and in a painful but better played heroic sv the next night AD saved my bacon over and over again. This talent is going nowhere. _________________