DPS as Protection

As an off tank, sometimes I need to DPS on a boss fight. I'm looking for info on the best way to DPS as a protection spec.

I'm wondering what kind of gear I should be wearing, what kind of gemming and what kind of damage rotation.

I know the obvious answer is wear Ret gear with your sword and board, but I want to keep tanking gear on too be ready to tank during the fight if needed.

Right now I have a block value/strength set and I guess thats the way to go.

Are there any threads out there that have advice and theory on this?

Honestly, you should never use an entire raid slot just to have a tank around in case the main one dies....it's simply a waste. If you're going to DPS as Prot, put on Ret gear.
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WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Moonlight Sonata Techno Remix

No, really. If you're having a tank die, the best thing the raid can do is figure out why the tank is dying and prevent that from happening, not stick in a back up tank who will then probably die for the same reason the main tank did. If you insist on DPS'ing in Prot gear, you're probably best off using SoW to keep from going OOM and stacking BV gear, but that's simply addressing the symptom and not the underlying issue.
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WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Moonlight Sonata Techno Remix

DPSing in ret gear is a bad plan.

At least for my gear, often my prot item is better than the ret item for Prot DPS.

This is due to Str being >>> all for prot DPS, while AP is a close second for Ret DPS.

Your tanking rings and cloak and probably more DPS than your ret ones, and the same for your weapon and shield (since a 2H weapon does minimal DPS for prot spec)

A reserve tank won't cost you too much DPS. You might do 2400 in dps gear, or 2k in prot gear.

Using SoB, a slow weapon and attacking from the back will boost your DPS quite a bit!

There is another post that I put up somewhere regarding this.

Using a mix of my current gear, and using my wishlist to fill some slots:

My advice directly addressed the scenario you presented. Your situation is that you're spec'ed prot and being asked to DPS. The best solution to that situation is to put on Ret gear with a sword and board. The answer to "but I'm worried about another tank going down" is to figure out why the tank is going down and prevent that from happening, not wear prot gear yourself.
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WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Moonlight Sonata Techno Remix

Yes I am. And?
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WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Moonlight Sonata Techno Remix

This may not necessarily be appropriate, but...



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I can has moar to horde side on Muradin?

honestly,

say a fight like thaddius, where you need two tanks to start, what would the 2nd tank do on thaddius? dps

although i usually just pull aggro off the warrior tank on thaddius anyways..


there's always shit that can happen, and it's probably better if a tank can pick it up after the main tank DCs on a fight


food for though
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I am actually raiding as Off-Tank, meaning we have a good warrior that tanks the fights that only need one tank, while I join in when more than one tank is needed.

My spec that is not prot but ret, with the key defensive talents (Parry, Avoidance, Armor, RF). This misses out holy shield, redoubt & AD as well as quite some stamina, so it is definitely not a main tank spec but my avoidance is the same as a pure prot spec.


http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin=502320512033310302135001341000000000000000000000000000050053500000000000000000&glyph=120405040506

The advantage is that this spec puts out >90% of the damage a pure DPS ret spec would do, while being more than decent in all 10s and even many 25s tanking situations (tanking Satharion drake adds or eating Patchwerk hatefuls, for example).

For DPS, I simply put on my ret gear. If I need to tank, I put on my tank set and, when in fights like Thaddius my tanking job is over I equip a 2H weapon that still gives decent DPS.

Not everybody likes speccing as Off-Tank (espicially not on Maintankadin), but it is definitely very flexible if you are in an Off-Tank situation - which I am by choice.

Extermi