Fear Factor

Hello, I've been reading your post for a few months now, and I really enjoy your posts. The information has been excellent, and has helped me in my pursuit to be a Tankadin. I had an issue the other day where I was running Heroic Steam Vaults with a pally healer. The issue was in pulling the oracles on the way to the first boss, we were consistently feared. The pally starts picking apart my talents and calling me a noob for not having Unyielding Faith, or the points from the holy tree leading up to it. Basically my build has 44 points in Prot, and 17 in Ret, with benediction, parry, improved judgment, pursuit of justice, and improved Ret aura. I guess I'm pretty confident in how my prot build sits, but it is still a little unnerving having another pally tell you to L2P pally. My question is what are your thoughts on putting your points in holy vice ret? My tankadin is Aarogan on Black Dragonflight if you want to see my toon. Thanks again for keeping your blog chocked full of useful information.Very Respectfully, Aarogan

It can be a bit unnerving to have your build or spec challenged. I remember well the night I was torn apart on a Heroic Bot run by a PuG Druid healer.

"Misunderstanding the Tankadin is forgivable. In many ways we are still learning to understand ourselves." - Joanadark of Spirestone

Holy, Ret, and Prot are very different specs to play. Just because you know one Path of the Paladin does not mean you know them all.

The Paladin Protection tree is bloated. We have too many talents and they cost too many points, so each choice of a talent is really important. It also makes it hard to create some flexibility in your build.

I am of the opinion that after spending the points to get the talents you need in the Prot tree, the best use of points is over in Retribution.

Let's look at a couple of specific things from your email. The first being Unyielding Faith.

Unyielding Faith
Rank 2
Increases your chance to resist Fear and Disorient effects by an additional 10%.

First of all, it's a proc, a roll, a chance. 10% to be exact, which means that 90% of the time, it will be no different that if you didn't have it. I would contend that it is not a strong talent even for a Holy Paladin and I generally skipped it during my Holy days.

The real issue was the fear. This is an area where we are at a clear disadvantage to our stance dancing Warrior brethren. However, fear no longer causes the mobs to come off of you, so the only issue would have been if you were feared into other groups causing you to have too many mobs to deal with at once.

The way we normally handled those pulls was to kill the two guards near the hallway that leads up to the 2nd and 3rd bosses and the patrol that is in that area. Now you have the bottom of the ramp clear. This is where you pull the mobs. Remember, you choose the kill zone not the mobs. Now even if you get feared you won't be pulling any additional mobs. Oracles are also a good choice for CC if any was available. I believe they can be mind controlled by a Priest.

Also, if you haven't seen it, there is a nice little macro that gives you a fear break if you Divine Shield is not on cooldown.

#showtooltip Divine Shield

#show Divine Shield

/cast Divine Shield

/cancelaura [modifier:alt] Divine Shield

If I spam it with alt down, it casts Divine Shield then cancels. With no alt down it stays up. Divine Shield will break the fear. I use this when I'm tanking Nightbane or one of the Ogril'la dragons.

I took a moment to Armory you, man that brings me back. There was a time when my Armory looked almost exactly the same as yours (except for Wyrnns, curse you Curator!! Curse you!!!)

Your build looks solid. I might have done something different with the last 5 points (PoJ, Imp. Ret Aura), but those last 5 points are generally flavor differences. I do feel that Improved Retribution Aura doesn't really shine until you have 2 pieces of Teir 5. You might want to consider swapping those out for One Handed Weapon Specialization. It might allow you to wear a Felsteel helm over your Righteous Helm, but you are probably going for 2 peice bonus. You should be taking enough damage to keep your threat cycle going without it, but experiment a bit and find out what works for you and your team. You should be getting an Eternium Greathelm off of Opera real soon.