Remove Head From Sand

Yes, this is about Wrath, and it might contain a bit of spoiler, but I assume many of my readers are Paladins, and Prot Paladins at that. You (and our Warrior friends) need to be aware of these changes.


I know Wrath of the Lich King is still in Beta. I know a million things could change between the way the Beta is today and the way it will ultimately ship and be playable on the Live realms

One of the reasons I haven't blogged much about Tankadins in Wrath is because the situation if very fluid. What I post today will in all likelyhood be totally changed by the time we actually zone into Northrend. I don't see much to be gained by analyzing what will come.

(Okay, the REAL reason I haven't blogged about Wrath much is I haven't gotten a Beta invite).

HOWEVER, there have been two rather significant changes on the Beta server that even those not interested in keeping up on every twist and turn of Beta needs to get up to speed on.

First one is that Anticipation no longer provides Defense, instead it gives Dodge. What you need to do is see what your Defense is in your gear WITHOUT Anticipation. Since I had been Ret for the weekend, I put on my tanking gear to see what my Defense would be.

Not 490.If you don't want to go to the trouble of respecing, just subtract 20 from whatever your Defense is right now .

The other major change is all tanking gear has been reitemized. That is, the current gear you and I have on our toons right now. Whenever 3.0 hits, we will have different stats as soon as we log in the first time.

This is relevant for what you are doing right now. The change will effect Tier 6 Paladins who may have passed over 'Warrior' items in favor of 'Paladin' items. Now those items must be compared again. It also means I need to revisit my Badge Pick Order post. Items that may have been less appealing may now be more appealing.

Here is my current Chest:

When 3.0 hits, it will look like this (I'm not in Beta, this is a screen shot from MainTankadin):

Basically a straight swap of Spell Damage for Strength.

Not everything was a simple. Some pieces lost Defense, and Avoidance to add Strength.

So what should you be doing today in Live to prepare.

Check your Defense, and have materials ready for Steelweave for your chest and back.

Next grab some uncut gems and be ready to have some Defense/Stam gems cut. Good thing that Talasites are dirt cheap.

Lastly look to get a melee type weapon. Slow speed would be nice. One option open to you at any Tier is the Merciless Gladiator's Slicer. If you can handle Heroic Magister's Terrace, Kael drops Breaching Comet. In Tier 5, Morogrim holds the Talon of Azshara, and A'lar drops Netherbane. At Tier 6, you have Syphon of the Nazerium off Supermus, and Najentus drops Rising Tide.

Comments

Argent said…
Actually you still probably want a spell-damage weapon assuming that the changes currently in beta continue; the boost to Consecration and your Seals/Judgements is probably bigger than the threat generated by additional white damage. But, it's probably not a bad idea to pick up a physical-tanking weapon if you get a chance.

The weapons you linked are melee-dps weapons, suited to sword rogues, enhancement shamans and possibly warriors. For tanking, you'd want something like The Sun Eater from heroic Mechanar, King's Defender from Chess, or Mallet of the Tides from The Lurker Below. In a pinch, the dps items might be handy, but overall you'll find that the damage from Seal of Vengeance and Consecration is higher than that from Hammer of the Righteous. (even though it's awesome)

At level 70, Shield Block Value will still be somewhat of a "wasted" item stat for Paladins vs. Warriors, because our SBV-based threat move (Shield of Righteousness) isn't available until level 75. But all our spells will scale on AP, so the switch to strength on our gear will help with that.

This will also mean that Sunguard Legplates may be more valuable than Inscribed Legplates of the Aldor. Time to start saving those badges.

Interestingly, Shattrath Protectorate's Breastplate comes out as a big threat piece, while Chestplate of Stoicism is much more defense-oriented.
Honors Code said…
All the weapons you listed are too fast. As I (not in Beta) understand things as they stand now, you get bigger Hammer of the Righteous hits from a slower weapon.

The AP and SP coeffecients were just reworked on Beta. I wonder if that effects the Spell Damage weapon verus melee weapon dynamic.

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