World-of-warcraft – How to tank as a paladin

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I've been heavily invested in the DPS role: my main character is a warlock who I've played for 5 years. But I wanted to start exploring the other two roles: tanking and healing.

I have a paladin alt that I wanted to start to use for tanking for some time: I've leveled it to 78, but 90% of that was solo, and the other 10% was basic healing. So I don't know where to start, especially post-Cataclysm. I've tossed around learning-by-doing using the Dungeon Finder, but the tank role is particularly crucial and getting chewed out over and over while I'm learning on the job doesn't sound particularly fun.

I understand the numbers: what stats are important, what to talent, what to glyph: my question is really about the actual gameplay.

How do I pick targets? What rotations or spell priorities should I use? What should I be looking out for? Are there any up-to-date tutorials that assume no knowledge?

Best Answer

My first suggestion would be to try to level some as your protadin in prot spec. See how it feels WITHOUT the other players joining in, then run an instance you already know as tank. (And gather gear first; while you don't need Defense Rating in 4.0, you don't want to be a squishy tank.)

  • Avengers Shield to pull (or exorcism and then it, if you so desire; I could never be bothered)
  • If you have full Holy Power, do a shield of the righteous or the self-heal, depending on your needs.
  • Hammer of the Righteous (for AOE) or Crusader's Strike (single target); you'll end up using this skill pretty much every other time. This also applies a debuff to your actual target, so try to tab-around with it to make sure more than one mob gets hit.
  • Judgement on cooldown. It restores your mana and, if traited properly, gives you a chance for a guaranteed crit from Shield. This also does a debuff, so again, try to hit different targets with it when applicable.
  • Holy Wrath; note that it stuns certain types of creatures so don't do it unless you have them in place.
  • Consecration: I mostly use only in crazypulls or if everything else is on cooldown and I have full mana. It's just not great any more.

My opening AOE rotation tends to be Avenger's Shield -> Hammer -> Judgement -> Hammer -> Holy Wrath -> Hammer -> Shield; I'll thrown in another Avenger's Shield if it procs again.

Some more generic tanking things:
- Your first goal is to survive. Your second goal is to keep attention off the healer(s). Your third goal is to do a lot of threat.
- A DPS meter may help; if one of the DPS is doing three times the DPS as anyone else, then that guy will pull threat from you. If he does it on a trash pull, it's his own fault so let him have them. (Ironically, I find it's the guy doing the LEAST DPS who is the most likely to pull threat).
- Keep moving, as much as possible. You don't have to worry about Rage or Runic Power depleting, and you DO have to keep an eye on your healer's mana bar; but you also tend to get better DPS if they know you're not pausing randomly.
- For the first few instances, if you're PUGging, tell the PUG that this is your first time tanking the instance. "Oh, he's new" is a much better attitude than "what a newb", and it lets the healer know how much attention he has to give.
- Use your tanking cooldowns and interrupts as necessary. DBM will help with that. - Learn who to prioritize and call targets when necessary. I have skull bound to X, so I can easily tell the group who to focus on when necessary. They generally don't listen, but that's not my fault, at least.
- It's better to hit a wandering mob with your Avenger's Shield as they get too close than to let the healer get their attention first. Being aware of everything going on around you is helpful. As healer or tank, I like to arrange it so that the tank is between potential adds and the healer, so if heals DOES get aggro, they run right through the tanks AOEs on their way.
- I mentioned it before, but keep an eye on your healer. If he's out of mana or drinking or otherwise not there, then don't pull.
- You can cleanse yourself to remove debuffs. Do so when applicable; your first goal is still to survive.

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