Ah, Blizz, the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley, eh?

Bryntroll was proccing too much for Unholy DKs and Retribution Paladins we were told, specifically in the latter’s case because refreshing Holy Vengeance (or Blood Corruption) was making the axe proc.

So Blizz changes it so Holy Vengeance/Blood Corruption cannot proc the weapon anymore, and at the same time makes it so those two effect applications cannot proc weapon enchants anymore. This was probably unintentional, because I don’t think there was a major outcry on Ret enchant uptimes. But, the fact remains.

Sidenote: I wonder if this will reduce the uptime on Rune of the Fallen Crusader for dps Unholy DKs?

Nonetheless, unintended consequences abound. Of course as anytime something affects Ret, we are inadvertently hit as well. This change now means Mongoose and Blade Warding have significantly shorter uptimes.

Theck crunched the numbers over at Maintankadin and came up with (for hit/exp capped tanks) a drop from 61% to 42% for Mongoose and 44% to 31% for Blade Warding. The numbers are worse, of course, if you’re neither hit nor expertise capped, which you probably will not be in a survivability-minded gear set.

The aftermath

Does this change how we approach enchants at all? A little. According to Theck, if you’re enchanting for threat, Accuracy is once again far and away your best choice, with even the lowly Titanium Weapon Chain beating out Mongoose.

If you’re enchanting for survivability, Mongoose is probably still your best bet, because even with a diminished uptime, it’s still the only enchant that gives effective health. Blood Draining is more appealing and worth getting if you’d prefer the gimmicky heal over the cold comfort of occasional dodge and armor.

As for Blade Warding… this benighted enchant went from crap to super crap. Continue to avoid it.

And as for me, I have posts to edit. Sigh.

One of my aspirations in TBC was to have enough threat that I could get away with tanking using a Sun Eater enchanted with Mongoose. Unfortunately, that day didn’t come until 3.0 when my trusted Merciless Gladiator’s Gavel was retired. But the dream lived on!

Last night in heroic ToC-10 (hopefully the last time we run that as current content), I scored the heroic Ardent Guard. Such an awesome weapon. As for enchanting it, I am terribly bored with the thought of Blood Draining on yet another weapon, so I decided to take a different route: finally giving Mongoose some time in the sun.

I’ve done a bit of poking around on weapon enchants, and what really piqued my interest was this threat sim run by Theck which shows Mongoose as being our second best (practical) threat enchant, only trailing Accuracy by a tiny margin. Combined with the armor and dodge granted by the proc, it seems worthy of a trial.

Update: Some actual numbers would be nice, eh?

• It’s been calculated that thanks to the change in how SoV is handled, Mongoose’s proc time has jumped to 52% since 3.2 (why it’s good all of a sudden)
• This means that the enchant is worth ~62 “constant” agility (120 agility x .52 = 62.4)
• That’s a “constant” 124 armor and 1.04% dodge and 1.19% crit
• In reality, when it procs, you get 240 armor and 2% dodge and 2.3% crit

Not too shabby!

I probably won’t get a decent test of it until Icecrown on Tuesday (crossing fingers) so I’ll let you all know how it goes.

I originally intended to do the next part in my “Characteristics of a great tank” saga, but then last night I forgot to run over to Elwynn to take some screenshots, and dammit that article is crap without accompanying pictures. So no part two this week, unfortunately.

For newcomers to this blog, BLTNF is when I pull search terms that brought people here from my Google Analytics and answer what they were originally looking for.

vindication 3.2 work on raid bosses now?

Yes, and it’s glorious. While warriors and other classes need to expend a global cooldown to apply their attack power debuff, ours happens automatically. Vindication is a serious mitigation talent and any tank worth their salt should take it.

how to get the new paladin mount in 3.2

Buy it from the Crusader’s Quartermaster in the Crusader tent at the tourney. It costs 100 Champion’s Seals.

shard of the crystal forest good for tankadin?

It’s not terrible, but the neck off of Kologarn-10 or the Malygos-25 neck quest are both better. Especially the latter with a Solid Majestic Zircon socketed.

what do protection paladins gem

I need to update my classic flowchart, but you can basically follow this: Use Endurings until crit capped, then gem Solids. The only time you are not gemming a Solid Majestic Zircon is if you want the socket bonus, which you should only go for if the bonus is +9 or +12 stamina. Ignore all other bonuses. Also, you’ll need one red gem for your meta (assuming you’re using Austere) which you can get from socketing a Shifting Dreadstone.

“greater inscription of the gladiator” defense cap

The Glad inscription gives you .18% crit reduction, so you need 5.42% from defense. I just wrote a lot of fractions in front of me to figure out how much defense skill that is, but I ran out of stickies and have no answers to show for it. I think it’s somewhere around 538 or so. Just refer to your character sheet to make sure your crit reductions add up to 5.6% or more.

Also (sorry, as a tank on the intertubes I am legally obligated to say this) there’s no such thing as a “defense cap”. Defense minimum!

how much defense = dodge

41 defense is 1% avoidance, or .33% dodge, parry, and miss. 123 defense rating is 1% dodge, parry, and miss (so, 3% avoidance).

2 bindings of the windseeker one clear

If this is true, I hate you. With all this Door Boss nonsense I’ve severely fallen behind in my Bindings farming. It’s kind of stressful thinking it’s going to be impossible to get Thunderfury once Cataclysm hits, so I have a very limited window (less than a year possibly) to farm these pieces. With a theoretical 52 tries remaining, each week lost to Door Boss’s cold, icy reticence is one week too far.

3.2 is hit rating important for protection paladin

Not so important you should gem or enchants for it, but it is definitely nice to have. Hit means more (consistent) threat and more successful taunts.

3.2 seal of righteousness tanking seal?

No. Maybe for quick-dying trash, but if you have enough time to apply a 5-stack of SoV, you should be using it.

are socket bonuses that good?

Depends on the socket bonus. +block rating, +hit, +expertise, +dodge, etc., are all bust. Only +9 or +12 stamina are worth going for, because if you’re gemming an Enduring or Shifting, you’re invariably losing 15 stamina. However, if the bonus reduces that then 3 or 6 stamina is a good trade for 10 agility or 10 defense rating.

On a house keeping note, I’m going to be on vacation next week. I’m trying to decide how to handle my absence, which I’ll probably either fill by making 5 posts this weekend and spacing them out with “Publish on x day” settings, or maybe with teeny tiny awkward posts on my iPod’s wordpress app (whenever I can find wifi in northern New Hampshire). I’m personally hoping I choose the former and then the patch comes out next week, while my (transparently) pre-written posts are about “How bad expertise sucks” or “If only we had a second cooldown.”

Although I could probably do a mad-libs raid recap… hrm… the possibilities.

does it matter if i don’t get my socket bonuses

Not particularly, assuming that bonus isn’t stamina. Avoidance is nice, but stamina is better. And block rating or hit/expertise aren’t worth gemming to achieve. Refer to my flowchart here for when to go for socket bonuses.

enchant weapon – blood draining does it increase with spell power?

I looked at a WWS from a recent raid to compare the heals that both I and Demogar (warrior tank) received from Blood Reserve, which is the heal the enchant gives. As you can imagine, I’m rocking about 860 spellpower (from stamina, I swear!) and Demo has a pitiful 0. Srsly, what a nub. Anyway, while just skimming through the WWS and writing down some numbers, for a one stack heal I got back around 391-466 hp, he got 405-412; two stacks I got ~894 and Demo ~900; three stacks 1215 verse 1243; four stacks 1665 versus 1650; five 1941 versus 2299.

Short answer is no. Actually, long answer is no too, but I’m pretty sure we get an additional 30% benefit to any crit heals from Blood Reserve. And yes BR does indeed crit. For example I received 1755 hp from a two stack crit. Not too shabby!

hit cap on righteous defense

17%, or 446 rating. Please don’t try to reach this. It’s not worth it.

glyph of seal of vengence vs glyph hammer of righteous

I’m very partial to the latter which is very, very useful for snap aggro in AOE situations. For example, on Kologarn when I pick up the rumbling adds that spawn, the glyphed HotR plus a Consecrate guarantees that I pick up every add before they have a chance to make a break for a healer. The SOV glyph isn’t as good right now because expertise is kind of bleh. But, in 3.2 it’ll be much more useful because we’ll be more dependent on the 5-stack SOV proc for threat. In 3.2 you’ll want that glyph. To actually answer the question, I’d get both.

paladin stamina to health conversion

For a Paladin 1 stamina is 10 hp. With the proper talents, 1 stamina is 11.4 hp.

how often do saronite plated legguards drop

If you’re in my guild, only once.

mongoose at level 80 tankadin

I know some people are very attached to this enchant for tanking (for the avoidance) but I’m just not a fan. It’s worth 120 agility when it procs, which is 2.3% dodge. Thanks to PPM it’s basically like adding .76% dodge to your character sheet, which I guess is nice overall. Based on what I’ve read it’s the best avoidance enchant but my biggest beef with it is the fact it’s proc based. You need avoidance the most when you have low health, and there’s just no guarantee that Mongoose will up to maybe give you that extra oomph to avoid the next hit. You have just as much a chance for it to proc at 100% health as at 5%. I’d recommend getting an enchant that’ll be there when you need it most and actually provides some EH; namely, Blood Draining.

seal of righteousness verses seal of corruption for tanking

SoC/V for sure. Righteousness is good for trash when stuff will die too fast for you to build a five stack and maximize the threat potential for that seal, but on longer living trash or bosses SoC/V is far and away your best choice.

tankadin effulgent skyflare diamond

Thankfully this gem is no longer bugged. Before 3.1 it used to, laughably, increase your resistances by 2% rather than reduce spell damage. Now it’s working as it should be. Does that make it a good gem? Eh, not particularly. You’ll in the end get more mileage out of the Austere meta. This gem seems too situational.

trouble picking up kel’thuzad adds

On 10man the trick is to fall back and watch both halves of the room. When an Icecrown Guardian spawns you have a few seconds to run over and pick it up before it beelines for a healer. Then immediately run over to the opposite end and grab the one that will shortly spawn there. Use Avenger’s Shield, Exorcism, and Reckoning to get their attention. In 25man you’ll probably be on one side with a different tank on the other, so there’s less running. As a fail safe, set the healer with the highest global aggro as your focus so you can watch their health and see if a Guardian snuck over to them.

ulduar demo driving

The trick to driving a demolisher (which I always do in our raids) is use your mouse buttons to drive forward and turn/aim and use keybinds to fire boulders. Time spent keyboard turning and fumbling to target something is time lost dpsing. Demolishers are slow so your biggest priority is cutting movement corners when you can.

why wont titanguard drop

I swear this isn’t me! I feel your pain, my friend. :(

Here’s something you’re seeing more and more of recently: raiders forgoing the Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle and instead nabbing the Greater Inscription of the Gladiator for their shoulder enchants. My first thought when I saw this was “resilience in my pve gear?!” but at second look it’s not such a bad idea.

If you break down the numbers, the Pinnacle enchant gives you:

• .86% avoidance (from dodge and defense rating)
• .12% mitigation (block from def)
• .12% crit chance reduction

The Gladiator enchanter gives you:

• 342 hp
• .18% crit chance reduction

So the big question here is what’s more worthwhile having, the avoidance and mitigation of Pinnacle, or the health of Gladiator? Personally, I’m thinking that in terms of heavy hitting Ulduar bosses, I’d rather have the assurance of the extra health (and that’s before Kings) over the RNG-ariffic avoidance.

It’s only 10k honor to purchase a Gladiator enchant from the PVP vendors in Org/SW. I think I’ll switch that out tonight when I log in.

I’ll skip the normal fluffy introduction to this feature, but let it be said: woo, Friday!

archaedas’ lost legplates thoughts

Not a fan at all. No defense means you need some serious defense on other pieces to make up for the gap, and expertise is such a wasted stat for us. Unless you have defense to spare I would avoid these pants.

are tankadins better with swords, axes, or maces?

Depends on your race. Blood Elves, Dwarves, and Draenei get no melee weapon bonuses, but humans get a 3 Expertise bonus to swords and maces. Expertise is of course basically crap (especially +3), so it’s not a game changer.

Correction! Muiran points out in the comments that Dwarves get a mace spec bonus of +5 expertise, as well.

does blood draining work for hunters

I hope not.

for paladin how much spell power do you get for each stamina

With Touched by the Light 3/3 you get .3 spellpower for every 1 point of stamina.

last laugh vs stoneguard

Last Laugh, hands down.

where will i find vrykul

I’m going to assume this is a question about the JCing daily, and not just in general (because they’re nearly everywhere in Northrend). Closest Vrykul to Dalaran is the area with the blight pool/blighted proto drakes in southwest Storm Peaks. Just fly over the Argent base, and you’ll be there in no time.

tankadin need hitrating

Thanks to all our many instant, high-threat attacks, hit isn’t as huge a deal for us as it is for other tanking classes. However, for consistent threat you probably want around 3-4% of it. Don’t ever gem for hit, though, you’ll get it organically from your gear. Also, it’s more than likely you’ll reach hit cap in Ulduar25 gear (I’m sitting at 7.9% right now) and that is not a bad thing. Embrace it!

Aha, so the prodigal feature returns. Actually, truth be told, I forgot to upload a bunch of screenshots last night, so you all will just have to wait to hear epic tales of how I afk’d while tanking Loatheb or other somesuch nonsense. Now now, be brave. I know you’re all troopers. We are tankadins after all. Chin up.

Patronizing goofiness aside, BLTNF is a stupid feature where I put up some random Google searches that brought people to this site and attempt to answer them, or at least elaborate more than the post that brought them here in the first place did.

armor pen tankadin

Armor penetration is terrible for Paladin tanks. Most of our damage is Holy, which bypasses armor by default. ArP only benefits one thing: auto-attack. As such, avoid this stat at all costs, and yes, pass on Gauntlets of the Iron Furnace.

best blue/purple gem paladin tank

Best blue gem is Solid Sky Sapphire. Best purple is Regal Twilight Opal (although there’s something to be said for Shifting Twilight Opal).

best cloak enchant for lvl 80 pally tank

If you’re not crit capped, go with Titanweave. I just picked up Cloak of the Makers, and I was sitting at 552 defense, so I decided to be a little bold and put Greater Agility on it. Basically, Titanweave is .39% avoidance (dodge/parry/miss) and .13% block chance, whereas Greater Agility is .42% avoidance, 44 Armor, and .42% crit. Considering I don’t need the extra defense, the loss of block, gain of avoidance, and gain of armor/crit is a good trade.

best profession combo tankadin

Jewelcrafting + Blacksmithing. Expensive, but when epic gems are out you’ll get the most stamina any profession can give.

bug freya heal herself after adds are down

She’ll continue to heal herself until all adds are killed and her stacks are reduced to 0. Also kill that tree that pops up for time to time, as that’ll heal her if it “ripens”.

cleanse failing fusion punch

I have never heard of cleanse missing. Two possibilities I can imagine: you used it during a GCD so it never applied or you used it prematurely before the dot was on and there was nothing to cleanse.

dodge vs parry gems for tankadins

Dodge. Parry point-for-point gives less avoidance than Dodge. More on that here.

does mob level effect weapon leveling?

Honestly, I can’t find any proof of this, but I think it does. I think you have a much better chance of levelling skill against a mob that you would get experience from (or theoretically would, if not level capped). Just spend a night in Naxx or Uld and if you enter at 399, by the time you leave you should hit 400.

improved blessing of might vs conviction 3.1 prot build

Conviction is much better for tanks. Hopefully there’s a ret pally in your run and 9 times out of 10 they’ll have Imp BoM in their build.

shoulderguards of the solemn watch or t7.5 shoulders

T7.5. More avoidance and gem slots are for teh win.

why don’t paladins stack parry?

See the dodge vs parry question above.

why is my tankadin oom?

I hope that “m” stands for mayonnaise. A paladin tank should never run out of mana as long as you have at least 1 point in Spiritual Attunement, and make sure to keep Divine Plea up as much as possible. Blessing of Sanctuary isn’t as critical as it was before 3.1, but it definitely still helps (especially if you way overgear an instance).

As anyone who frequents Maintankadin would know, Theck is an inimitable mathematical genius who usually plies his trade at crunching numbers to better our understanding of our class. In this post he applies his numerical accumen to Enchant Weapon – Blood Draining, which some Paladins questioned would (due to its mechanics) have the nasty tendency of killing us.

Basically, because BD procs at the same point that Ardent Defender would kick into effect, it could feasibly push you over the AD threshold, back into that scary territory where extra 30% damage reduction does not roam… and allow a boss to leapfrog AD and finish you off. Not good.

Well Theck ran a detailed analysis of Blood Draining and posted his results in this thread. In essence, BD on average is not more likely to get you killed, but it’s also not on average going to save you.

QED:

Despite the fact that blood draining won’t reduce your survivability, it also doesn’t do anything to increase it for very large boss hits. Unfortunately, very large boss hits are often what kills a tank, making this an expensive enchant that works best in the cases we don’t need it, and worst in the cases we do.

I haven’t had a chance to try out Blade Warding yet, but at least I know to avoid this enchant now.

Update: As Honorshammer points out in the comments below and on his blog, Theck amended his data to simulate raid healing and BD comes out much better. I think I’m still not a fan, but it’s definitely not as bad seeming as it first was.

So like I mentioned in my previous post, I picked up the best-in-slot tanking weapon, Last Laugh, last night. The situation in which I picked it up was a little tense (something I’ll go into further detail with in my next raid recap post), but what I really wanted to focus on was the little crisis this axe inflicted upon me: how to enchant it.

Right now it is tankadin gospel (see: Letter of St. Uther to the Demon Hunter Supplicants 10:2-4) that you put Enchant Weapon – Potency on your tanking weapon, dammit. No other enchants need apply.

And, generally, rightfully so! The +20 strength from Potency works out to 23 strength and 15 block value, with the right talents, which is gravy for shield slams and damage reduction. Far and away it is an excellent choice.

But this… this is Last Laugh! I ripped this axe myself from the icy claws of the Archlich himself, the Lord of the Dread Citadel Naxxramas! Surely, there was a, er, more recent enchant that would better fit this god amongst T7 tank weapons.

I’ve had my eye on Enchant Weapon – Accuracy for some time now. To say the mats make it a bit cost-prohibitive would be an understatement (6 abyss crystals among others, natch). But does the math justify such an exorbitant enchantment?

I did some research and I found in a thread at Maintankadin an amazing breakdown of TPS mechanics. The jewel in this thread was this particular table that I was searching for: numbers crunched showing the DPS/TPS difference between Potency and Accuracy. In short, Potency is 21.6 DPS and 55.9 TPS, and Accuracy is 25 DPS and 65 TPS.

The main caveat is Accuracy is only more threat as long as you are not soft hit capped, as the soft cap affects most of our attacks: auto-attack, shield of righteousness, hammer of the righteous, avenger’s shield, judgements, and hammer of wrath. Once you hit that soft cap then Potency is better for threat generation. Considering how little hit a tank should be stacking, that should never be an issue.

So, yes, for the moment, Accuracy is the superior tankadin enchant. A bit of a luxury, but superior nonetheless.