Expertise and you

Paladins are lucky in that, due to our threat generally being generated via spells, we don’t have to worry much about expertise. Moreover, because of Holy Shield, and the fact that we can easily (well, compared to other tanks) because block-capped, the threat of parrygibs is nonexistent.

When it comes to expertise, a Paladin if talented and glyphed correctly will have baseline 16 expertise skill. 6 skill comes from the Combat Expertise 3/3 talent, and 10 comes from the Glyph of Seal of Vengeance. That 16 skills works out to 4% reduction to your attacks being dodged or parried. A boss has a baseline 6.5% chance to dodge attacks, and a baseline 16% chance to parry attacks. So, to start, Paladins are sitting pretty.

But what are the expertise caps for Paladins, you say?

To prevent a boss from dodging attacks, you need 26 skill, or 214 expertise rating. Due to the 16 skill we already have, we really only need an additional 10 skill, or 83 rating.

To prevent a boss from parrying (which again we don’t need to worry about–seriously, don’t work towards this number), you need 64 skill, or 525 rating. With baseline you only need an additional 48 skill, or 394 rating.

A personal beef of mine is seeing Paladins go out of their way to take gear with expertise on it. 83 is very easy to come by and can be picked up here and there on our tier pieces or items that are already considered excellent for us. There’s no need to dip into the other tanking classes’ sandboxes and take toys better suited for them.

Lastly, for the love of pete, don’t gem for expertise. Ever.