The following is a short essay on how a Paladin tank works. It is intended to explain to Guild Masters, Raid Leaders, and other friends the basics of Paladin tanking mechanics, our weaknesses, and our strengths. Attached at the bottom is a list compiled by HonorsHammer of some specific 25-man raid scenarios where a Paladin is particularly helpful.
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Paladin threat is generated almost exclusively through Holy Damage. Consequently a Tankadins gear will require intellect and spell damage. Strength is very insignificant to a Paladin; rather, he will use a "caster" weapon in most situations. Three Points in Righteous Fury increases all threat from Holy damage by 90%. All of the following tanking abilities are increased by the Paladins spell damage, though coeffecients do apply.
(-) Avenger's Shield (a pulling tool) does 494 to 602 and jumps, hitting up to three targets total. It also will daze those targets.
(-) A target that has Judgement of the Crusader on it will have its Holy damage taken increased by up to 190.
(-) Seal of Righteousness adds Holy damage to each swing of the Paladin's weapon.
(-) Judgement of Righteousness does 208 to 228 Holy Damage.
(-) Holy Shield, when activated, does 155 Holy Damage per block.
(-) Consecration is a 10-yd AOE doing 512 Holy Damage per target over 8 seconds.
(-) Retribution Aura does 26 when struck and Blessing of Sanctuary does 46 upon a block.
(-) Avenging Wrath is available every 3 minutes and increases all damage done by the Tankadin by 30% for 20 seconds.
Tankadin weaknesses:
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Silence. Any long lasting silence will shut down a Paladins ability to cast causing threat to slow or even stop. Additionally, if Holy Shield falls off, the Paladin will become susceptible to crushing blows.
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Stamina. With current (2.1) itemization and base HP, most Paladins have lower HP than similarly geared Druids and Warriors.
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Fear. This is a bit more of a problem for Blood Elves as Horde currently does not have Fear Ward. However, this obstruction can be overcome. On multiple occasions Paladins can and have successfully MT'd bosses that fear. Paladins have 2 bubbles that can be used to overcome this and of course the PVP trinket. Fear is an inconvenience, not a game breaker for a prepared Paladin.
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Mana Burn. Mana Burn can seriously hurt the Paladins threat generation capacity, especially initial front-loading, as well as increase the damage they take uniquely among the tanking classes.
(credit: Joanadark)
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Mana Dependency. A Paladin without mana is a Paladin without threat and susceptible to crushing blows; however, a Paladin recieves mana back from heals recieved. Due to a change in mid '07
mana is no longer recieved from over-healing. For this reason Paladins often struggle in OT'ing roles as these often are accompanied by decreased damage taken. An over-geared Paladin could have similar mana problems but should simply downgrade his gear. Additionally, Holy Shield provides a significant part of the Paladins threat but obviously does not proc when the Paladin is not being struck.
Tankadin Strengths:
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AOE tanking. Paladins have a strong ability to AOE tank, particularly against melee heavy mob groups. Consecration, Retribution Aura, Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary produce large amounts of threat against an unlimited number of mobs.
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Crush "Immune". Properly geared Tankadins can be uncrushable before even entering Karazhan. In fact, overall they are more dependably uncrushable than Warriors as Improved Holy Shield grants 8 charges over 10 seconds.
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Fast Threat. Due to the way many of the mechanics work and the fact that Paladins start with a full mana bar, Tankadins can frontload threat very quickly. This allows DPS to open up against the target sooner. Additionally, the daze effect of Avenger's Shield will make sheep easier to place away from the Raid.
(credit: HonorsHammer)
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Long-range Taunt. While the Righteous Defense taunt is on a 15-second cooldown, it has a 40 yard range and will also taunt 3 targets off the teammate receiving Righteous Defense. As an alternative, Avenger's Shield can be used at 30 yards, easily giving over 1000 threat on up to 3 targets.
(credit: HonorsHammer)
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High Threat. When main tanking a mob or boss, particularly one which does a frequent number of melee strikes, Paladin threat will build very high over the course of the fight. This increased threat ceiling allows for DPS to push themselves more and more without fear of pulling aggro.
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CCers Protection. The many ranged threat abilities Paladins enjoy, along with the long-duration static-placement AOE spell Consecration, allow a Paladin to excell in situations where trash or boss adds are being CC'ed. The Paladin can act as protection of the vulnerable CCers by gaining initial aggro on mobs to be CC'ed from long range and providing insurance against accidental CC break or death of the player responsible for crowd control.
(credit: Joanadark)
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Group Composition. While a peripheral benefit, it is still notable that in most cases a tank group will include a Paladin for their auras, regardless of the spec of the Paladin. If a Paladin Tank is employed, they will be bestowing the same auras on the other tanks in the tank group, while freeing up an additional spot in the tank group for including another utility raid member, such as a Shaman for Windfury Totem or a Druid for their Tree of Life healing increase aura, while still having the same number of total tanks.
(credit: Joanadark)_________________
"And were I e'en to die, the cursed enemy would not tear his gaze from me for fear that I should rise back up."
And I'd like to see if others agree with your suggstion.
I'm so sad that I've become such a troll.