Wow, I haven’t done one of these in a long, long time. To be honest, this is just filler to cap off the week. On Monday I’ll have what I hope will be a very informative post on tanking strategies for heroic ToC 10, so that will be something of substance to look forward to. As always, I’d appreciate any additions or corrections to any answers I give in the comments!

breastplate of the white knight gems

Let me list them in order: Solid Majestic Zircon, Solid Majestic Zircon, and Solid Majestic Zircon. Ignore the bonus, you’ll lose too much stamina trying to get it.

vindication, paladin, worth it?

Absolutely! Vindication is hands-down a mitigation talent and a must-have for any serious paladin tank. I’m a big fan of self-reliance, and I don’t trust any raider to keep up a debuff I can do myself.

does vindication work on raid bosses post 3.2.2

Yes.

mark of the relentless or the leviathan’s coil

I would choose the Coil for when you’re dealing with more physical damage (the armor) and the Mark when dealing with more magic heavy fights (more stamina).

shadow strike timer burrower

Every 30 seconds the adds will both pick the farthest player from them and target them for a shadow strike. Interrupt all the burrowers to prevent a one-shot of the target.

0/58/18 paladin spec

When I first saw this query my thought was, “how the hell did this person add up 76 talent points?” Then I realized that they were talking about Cataclysm when we’ll all be level 85. If I had those five extra points now, I would probably put them in Seals of the Pure for a nice threat boost. I think that’d work out to more tps than 3/3 Sanctity of Battle and another 2 points in Conviction. I can’t see anything mitigation-wise that would be a better fit for them.

2% magic reduction meta

Very, very situational. I can count on one hand how many fights that might help in, if at all. Not worth it except as a very narrow gimmick.

245 tank libram of valiance up time

According to the log I did the other day to test Quel’Serrar, 98.3%.

3.2.2 pally tanking with spell power weapon

No, no, a thousand times no. You’d get more threat out of a dps one-hander with a high dps number than a spellpower weapon. Spellpower is dead, get with the times.

anub’arak solo tank adds interrupts

I do this for 10-H and 25-N. It’s totally doable. Having a lot of block value helps significantly.

best prot pally weapon enchant 3.2.2

I’m partial to Blood Draining for the survivability aspect. If you’re hurting for threat, I would recommend Accuracy.

can a paladin interrupt hammer of justice coliseum twin

Yes, assuming the shield is down. Holy Wrath is a better choice for this, though. (Damage and interrupt in one!)

do prot paladins need alot of hit rating 3.2

I am a vocal proponent of hit rating. I strive to always run as melee hit capped (though I don’t gem or enchant for it). There is nothing better than hit to ensure a steady, consistent stream of amazing tps.

fresh 80 tankadin what libram should i get?

Libram of the Sacred Shield! You can easily nab it after 4-5 heroics.

This is a rehash of a spectacularly crappy (but very popular) flowchart I did back when Solid Sky Sapphires were the gem di tutti gems. Now +30 stamina may be the order of the day, but our priorities are basically the same: cram as much stamina in your gear as humanly possible. This gem will show you have to do that intelligently, while taking little stam hits for worthwhile avoidance trades.

Like I indicated last time around, there are two caveats:

• This is hyper-simplified and assumes that you’re not heavily depending on gems or socket bonuses (despite the jokey line) for being uncrit.
• I couldn’t find a good way to express this, but if you have two gems slots (or, hell, three) and one of them isn’t blue, unless the socket is +12 stamina, put Solids in both/all.

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. :(

As you all may know, one of my many hats is that of a Jewelcrafter. And as a JCer and a stam-whore tank, my primary concern on patch day won’t be tier 9 or Emblems of Triumph or baby raptors. Nay, my driving focus once that last bit of patch is downloaded and installed will be the relentless pursuit of epic gems to give me some delicious additional stamina. Here, my friends, is a four step guide on how to attain raw epic gems in order of least to mostly costly:

1. Buy gems with Emblems of Heroism

This is pretty straightforward and the main benefit is you don’t need a profession to get you the gem color you want. If you’re like me you have a bunch of Heroism/Valor badges saved up with nothing to spend them on. I’ll probably be able to replace all my superior gems with epics on badges alone.

2. Buy gems with Honor

Same deal as Emblems of Heroism, but 10k honor a pop. I have 20k honor saved up that I can spend, but I think I’d rather hold onto them for shoulder enchants. Although, I can always cash in my Stone Keeper Shards for honor tokens and then gems.

3. Prospect Titanium Ore

When Blizzard first announced this was one of the ways to get epic gems, the price of Titanium Ore skyrocketed across every server. I think it’s going to turn out that this method for obtaining the gems is going to have a terrible return on investment. Moreover, with RNG coming into play as to which gem you’ll get, you’re bound to be unhappy if you’re depending on a stockpile of ore to deliver the goods on patch day.

4. Transmute

This is where knowing or being an Alchemist comes in handy. The transmutation formulas we know are as follows:

• 1 Majestic Zircon = 1 Sky Sapphire + 1 Eternal Air
• 1 Ametrine = 1 Monarch Topaz + 1 Eternal Shadow
• 1 King’s Amber = 1 Autumn’s Glow + 1 Eternal Life
• 1 Eye of Zul = 3 Eternal Life
• 1 Cardinal Ruby = 1 Scarlet Ruby + 1 Eternal Fire
• 1 Dreadstone = 1 Twilight Opal + 1 Eternal Shadow

All the transmute formulas except for Ruby will be purchasable from the trainer. The Ruby formula comes from a quest that requires the Alchemist to transmute five epic gems. Everyone will probably have these on patch day, then.

There is a 20hr cooldown on transmutes in the latest build of the PTR. That unfortunately makes this the slowest method of obtaining gems.

According to the latest announcement from Blizz, epic gems will finally be making their debut in the next content patch. The raw gems themselves will be purchasable with heroic badges, honor, or prospectable from titanium ore (start hoarding now!) and the cuts will be purchasable from the designs vendor in Dalaran.

I don’t know about you but I’m about to put every self-respecting pack rat to shame with the ore, badge, and daily token hoarding I’m about to begin. My goal on patch day will be to fully deck myself out in epic gems, which means around 6 Solids, 3 new DEs (due to the JCing nerf that will kick in), and a couple of Regals/Endurings to nab bonuses.

Anyway, here are the gems we’ll be getting very familiar with in this new patch:

• Solid Majestic Zircon
• Regal Dreadstone
• Enduring Eye of Zul
• Thick King’s Amber

Ignoring the unknown buff that Dragon’s Eyes are getting, if I converted all my rare-quality gems to epic-quality today I would gain 39 stamina and 2 defense rating. A pretty nice health buff!

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).

With the addition of the Shifting Twilight Opal in 3.1, we should take a look now at whether this will be a better choice for your red sockets than the Regal Twilight Opal. (Sorry if my numbers aren’t exact to 3 decimal places, I rounded up to keep the math clean).

Regal Twilight Opal (with Kings)

8 dodge rating

• .2% dodge

13.2 stamina

• 150 hit points
• 4.4 spell power

Shifting Twilight Opal (with Kings)

8.8 agility

• .17% dodge
• 17.6 armor [.111% physical damage reduction]
• .17% melee crit [affects everything but taunts]

13.2 stamina

• 150 hit points
• 4.4 spell power

So, switching between the two, you gain 17.6 armor and .17% melee crit, but lose .03% dodge. Not a bad trade, and the avoidance losses are probably so minuscule as to make up for the damage reduction and threat gains.