Pally Tank question - Defense rating

[Bradven]

This aimed more at Cit and RogueD since they're the only 2 pally tanks I know, but anyone with an opionin can chime in. Just some background, I have been reading the Palyl forums and Maintankadin for theorycraft but leave sme with a few questions.

While I'm a LONG way off from worrying about this, is there an advantage to getting much higher then 490 defense rating? Once you hit 490 it remove crits from the hit table, but after that I was under the impression getting gear with +Dodge, +Block and +Parry was the way to go since, after uncritable, the next step was uncrushable with is avoidance related (102.4% avoidance with holy shield activated). Though I'm sure some of this is related to what gear you can get your hands on (+def is better then +nothing!) I jsut wasn't sure where the 'cut off' is (or if there is one).

Secondly, what spell damage is considered 'good'? To start Kara the consensus seems to be around 200 spell damage. I know spell damage is the biggest boon to our threat since it greatly modifies most of our holy damage abilities, and thus threat (SoR, AS, Conc, etc). I know one practise seems to be to grab a weapon with high spelldmg, then ench with spelldmg, and then the rest of your gear you can focus on defense, avoidance, etc. But got any other tips? Right now my spell dmg is around 150 but when I switch to a high spelldmg weapns and get it enchanted it should be in the 200's (though the rest of my gear is still crap).

ANyway, sorry for the length of this post but happy to get any feedback :)

[KermieD]

I haven't spent enough time with Rogue as a tank to know (we need to fix that, even though I'm OT now), but Cit's freaky as a tank. On a good day, I can hit 1,000 DPS on some fights (and I've done so on High King and come really close on Gruul) and I really have to make a point of trying to pull aggro off of him, unless I use the pet taunt or Distracting Shot to do so. Never tried to pull aggro from Rogue, but I'm betting it's not easy to grab aggro from him either.

I've heard that pally tanking can be very gear dependent and there are specific combinations of dungeon tier stuff and other 5-man drops that can accomplish that, but I do believe a lot of it is more rotation than gear. I could be WAAAAY the hell off on that though. :D

[citidel]

Pally tanking gear 101:

Think your a warrior. Stack +def and +stam.

NEVER EVER waste gems or Socket bounses on Parry, thats what the talent is for.

Def over 490, increases your B\P\D by like .4% for every 5 points i think... or something like that. Its not like the Hit cap, where past it its worthless.

pally 102.4% avoidance = Holy shield, only way you can achieve uncrushable as a paladin. There is a Libram that is a MUST for EVERY PALADIN TANK. its a badge vendor item so you wont be working for months for a drop. 15 badges and you got it Libram of Repentance.

Spell damage: continuum blade with the +40 spelldmg enchant is my tanking weapon of choice, still, i haven't replaced it yet. My current tanking gear gives me 273 spelldmg thats for tanking bosses... my trash tanking set has 500 or so spelldmg. Spell damage plays a big role in consecrate, judges and Avengers shield. so having none is as bad as not stacking Stamina.


So, important stats - +Def, +Stam +Spelldmg. having 160 spelldmg (aka just the C. Blade) is good. so long as the rest of your gear supports your tanking.

CC and the pally tank... CC is silly to me. honestly if its not a raid Skip the CC... more fun to AOE shit down anyway :P
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on to what kermie said, Agro gen for a pally is pie. shield toss and its off to the races. with 1-2 hunters cycling MD's on me i never loose agro, unless i preform a face-plant from a 20k blow to the face. 9\10 if a pally has time to establish agro and use consecrate the mob is theirs. Paladins are the BEST, absolute best, Multi mob tanks. Half the pulls in kara are designed for pally tanks, going to Mores anyone?

Paladins are very gear dependent in each of their roles. you will never be a good healer in tanking gear, and you will never be DPS in tanking gear (note the lack of good in there).

Unlike a warrior, who uses white dmg to increase their threat, paladins get jack from white dmg. A high DPS weapon like fireguard is ok, but you wont be tanking bosses very well with it. Spelldmg weapons that are fast is the way to go, yes they are caster weapons... guess what? a pally is a caster :P

All i got for now. hope this helps a bit