Your CAPtains: Crit, Block, Hit and Expertise

As you hit level 80, you need to start thinking about gear and caps once again. As a Paladin tank there are a couple of caps you need to think about.

Uncrittable Cap

The first and most important cap you want to reach in your gear is being uncrittable, which comes from Defense. At level 70, you needed 490 defense to be uncrittable. At level 80 the bar is raised and you need 540 Defense which equals out to about 689 Defense Rating. To quote Neo, "Whoah". It's a metric ton of defense needed. It is something you will need to actively work towards in your gear, but it is completely attainable with crafted items and rep rewards.

Edit 11/21: Petrus of Gorgonnash has put together a tidy list of gear that will get you to the Crit cap without relying on a single dungeon drop. You can see his list here: http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=17158. Well done, sir!

Block Cap

After you are Uncrittable, you should start working towards the The Block Cap. This may be a new concept for Paladin tanks, but it really isn't. The Block Cap is what used to be known as Uncrushable, i.e. a combined Miss, Parry, Dodge, and Block of 102.5%. Once you reach that point, any additional Block Rating falls off the table. You are 'capped' on the amount of Block you can have. It should be noted that since Holy Shield was changed to have its duration be longer than it's cooldown, it is now safe to assume 100% uptime on Holy Shield when calculating your Block Cap, however, don't make the mistake a certain Paladin I know (who shall remain nameless) made and continue to count Holy Shield at 35% unless you plan on continuing to wear the Libram of Repentance. Holy Shield is only 30%.

Being at the Block Cap is very helpful because it means that every unavoided attack from the Boss will be a Block. Paladins are the only class now that can stay Block Capped 100% of the time. Each Block takes off damage equal to your Block Value. If the Boss hits for 9000, and you have 900 Block Value (not unreasonable), you effectively shave off 10% of the damage each and every hit. That can add up to a huge amount of damage reduction over the course of the fight.

It also provides Paladins with the most predictable damage intake, and makes Paladins the easiest tank to heal.

So you can't be Crit, and every incoming attack is a Block at the worse case, what's next?

Hit Cap

Paladins are much more like Warriors now meaning we want Hit on our tanking gear. We have many more attacks (Judgement, Hammer of the Righteous(?), Shield of Righteousness, Avenger's Shield) that can miss, plus our white damage has gone up which also adds to our threat (though it does not receive the Righteous Fury modifier). A miss also means our Seal didn't proc. That's not a good.

Hit is what is checked to see if your Taunt resists. Since we have no backup spell should Righteous Defense resist, it's critical that it does not Resist/Miss. There is a Glyph which should eliminate most RD resists, and I suggest you take it.

At level 70, to be Hit Capped so you wouldn't miss, you needed 141 Hit Rating, further reduced to 95 by the talent Precision. Well Precision went bye bye. At level 80, you need 295 Hit Rating to be Hit Capped.

You can't miss, but the boss can still Dodge and Parry you.

Enter Expertise.

Expertise Cap

Expertise is what stops the Boss from Dodging and Parrying. You can get 6 expertise from talents and 10 from a glyph (skill not rating mind you). 24 Expertise is considered a soft cap, so you won’t need that much from gear.

Humans and Dwarves can get another 3 to 5 points depending on the weapon they are using. Since it looks like all high end weapons are Swords and Axes (no maces), it looks like Dwarves will not be getting much use out of their Racial.

You need 3.94 Expertise Rating at level 70 to get 1 Expertise skill. That rises to 8.2 at level 80. So at the worst case, to make up the difference a Paladin would need 8 Expertise Skill or about 65 Expertise Rating. Humans with Axes Maces or Swords can lower that to 41 and Dwarves with a mace (in the Billiard Room, lol) can lower that to 24.6.