How to Tank As a Paladin in World of Warcraft
Be sure to have the right talents and gear., Learn the basics about tanking., Use the right attacks at the right time., Use your Hand of Reckoning (taunt) and Righteous Defence to help teammates in peril., Don't think you are invincible...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Be sure to have the right talents and gear.
Get yourself pieces of Plate armor, jewelry, trinkets, a cape and a relic that gives you stats like Dodge, Parry, Hit (if not capped), Expertise (if not capped) and Mastery to gain extra survivability and a bigger chance to hit your enemies.
Ignore gear with Haste, Critical Hit and Attack Power stats on them, as they are designed for the DPS spec.
You must of course choose the Protection tree if you want to tank properly, as it have a lot of useful spells and abilities to raise your health, treasure gained, avoidance and group support.
If you are not good at building talent trees, check. -
Step 2: Learn the basics about tanking.
Basically, as a tank you will try to make all enemies attacking your group members attack you instead by generating Threat towards them.
As a Paladin tank, you generate threat by having your Righteous Fury ability activated and using attacks and spells on the enemies.
If you run low on mana, cast a Judgement spell or use Divine Plea to regain some of your precious magic. , When fighting a boss enemy or a single target, use a mix of damage over time spells like Consecration and your trusty Crusader Strike, as well as Shield of the Righteous when you have 3 charges of Holy Power from attacking with Crusader Strike, to gain his aggro and deal damage.
When fighting several enemies though, attacks like Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Wrath and of course Consecration is very useful to help gain aggro (treath) to more than one mob at a time. , Your Hand of Reckoning spell, often referred to as the taunt ability, instantly makes the target enemy attack you instead of the person it is currently attacking, so use it if a powerful mob have escaped your Consecration or simply is out of your melee range and/or attacking a teammate.
Righteous Defence is on the other hand is casted on teammates to make up to 3 enemies attack him/her attack you instead.
To see who have the aggro in the group, check if they have a red ring around their player portrait.
If they do, you should bring some Righteous Defence to them. , Even though you might manage to gain over 200k health these days, you are still very much mortal, and your healer don't have an unending mana pool to heal you from.
Be sure in the end level dungeons to have your DPS Crowd Control some mobs if they come in a large pack to make your healers burden easier to carry and your job to grab aggro easier.
Just be sure to not tank the mobs who are not crowd controlled close to those who are, or you might release the controlled ones from their shackles or sheep form. , Even if you have the aggro of all mobs/the boss, this doesn't necessary mean your groups is safe.
Several mobs and bosses have AoE spells that hurt the whole group or someone else than the one with his aggro.
To help out your friends in ugly situations like this, use Divine Guardian to reduce the damage taken by group members for a little while, or Hand of Sacrifice on a member taking extra damage to transfer some of his pain to you instead. , Grouping with guild members and close friends while training up to be a good tank is probably a good idea, as they usually are more forgiving if you do errors than your average PUGer. , -
Step 3: Use the right attacks at the right time.
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Step 4: Use your Hand of Reckoning (taunt) and Righteous Defence to help teammates in peril.
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Step 5: Don't think you are invincible.
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Step 6: "Sacrifice" yourself for the group.
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Step 7: Practice
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Step 8: practice
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Step 9: practice.
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Step 10: Good luck with being a living bait and guardian angel!
Detailed Guide
Get yourself pieces of Plate armor, jewelry, trinkets, a cape and a relic that gives you stats like Dodge, Parry, Hit (if not capped), Expertise (if not capped) and Mastery to gain extra survivability and a bigger chance to hit your enemies.
Ignore gear with Haste, Critical Hit and Attack Power stats on them, as they are designed for the DPS spec.
You must of course choose the Protection tree if you want to tank properly, as it have a lot of useful spells and abilities to raise your health, treasure gained, avoidance and group support.
If you are not good at building talent trees, check.
Basically, as a tank you will try to make all enemies attacking your group members attack you instead by generating Threat towards them.
As a Paladin tank, you generate threat by having your Righteous Fury ability activated and using attacks and spells on the enemies.
If you run low on mana, cast a Judgement spell or use Divine Plea to regain some of your precious magic. , When fighting a boss enemy or a single target, use a mix of damage over time spells like Consecration and your trusty Crusader Strike, as well as Shield of the Righteous when you have 3 charges of Holy Power from attacking with Crusader Strike, to gain his aggro and deal damage.
When fighting several enemies though, attacks like Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Wrath and of course Consecration is very useful to help gain aggro (treath) to more than one mob at a time. , Your Hand of Reckoning spell, often referred to as the taunt ability, instantly makes the target enemy attack you instead of the person it is currently attacking, so use it if a powerful mob have escaped your Consecration or simply is out of your melee range and/or attacking a teammate.
Righteous Defence is on the other hand is casted on teammates to make up to 3 enemies attack him/her attack you instead.
To see who have the aggro in the group, check if they have a red ring around their player portrait.
If they do, you should bring some Righteous Defence to them. , Even though you might manage to gain over 200k health these days, you are still very much mortal, and your healer don't have an unending mana pool to heal you from.
Be sure in the end level dungeons to have your DPS Crowd Control some mobs if they come in a large pack to make your healers burden easier to carry and your job to grab aggro easier.
Just be sure to not tank the mobs who are not crowd controlled close to those who are, or you might release the controlled ones from their shackles or sheep form. , Even if you have the aggro of all mobs/the boss, this doesn't necessary mean your groups is safe.
Several mobs and bosses have AoE spells that hurt the whole group or someone else than the one with his aggro.
To help out your friends in ugly situations like this, use Divine Guardian to reduce the damage taken by group members for a little while, or Hand of Sacrifice on a member taking extra damage to transfer some of his pain to you instead. , Grouping with guild members and close friends while training up to be a good tank is probably a good idea, as they usually are more forgiving if you do errors than your average PUGer. ,
About the Author
Marie Fox
Committed to making practical skills accessible and understandable for everyone.
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