Where we left off last week: just dinged level 50, rocking a 0/41/0 spec, enjoying our brand new Avenger’s Shield spell, and obtaining a new minor glyph slot. Today I’m going to show you have to jump those last thirty levels and hit level 80 specced and glyphed and ready for raiding.
Levels 51-60
51 — Redoubt (3/3) [putting last point in there]
52-54 — Touched by the Light (3/3)
55-57 — Shield of the Templar (3/3)
58-59 — Judgements of the Just (2/2)
60 — Hammer of the Righteous (1/1)
Nothing much exciting happens in this bracket, other than at 57 or 58 you can head over to Outlands. At 60 you get the Hammer of the Righteous spell which is amazing for heroics. Go ahead and drop your Consecration glyph for the HotR glyph. It’ll make dungeons that much easier!
Note that we’re skipping the Guarded by the Light talent for now, since we won’t have Divine Plea for another 10 levels.
Levels 61-70
61-65 — Deflection (5/5)
66-67 — Improved Judgements (2/2)
68-69 — Heart of the Crusader (2/3)
70 — Guarded by the Light (1/2)
We have everything we need from the Prot tree, so we can dip over to Ret and start picking out some new toys over there. Divine Plea is coming at 71 though, so the talent point you get from 70 should be spent getting ready for that.
If you’re Alliance, at level 64 you get Seal of Vengeance, which will replace Seal of Righteousness as your primary tanking seal for basically the rest of the game. If Horde, you have to wait until 66 for Seal of Corruption, our version of SoV. Crusader Aura at 64 is pretty nifty, as well.
At 70 we get a new minor glyph slot. There are really no good choices for this, you might as well dump the Glyph of Blessing of Kings in there. Alternatively, whatever Blessing you use the most.
Levels 71-80
71 — Guarded by the Light (2/2)
72 — Heart of the Crusader (3/3)
73 — Seal of Command (1/1)
74-75 — Pursuit of Justice (2/2)
76-77 — Conviction (2/5)
78-80 — Crusade (3/3)
Big milestones this bracket. At 71 your mana problems disappear forever thanks to Divine Plea (and Guarded by the Light giving it generally constant uptime). At 73 you get our old friend Seal of Command back, which will return to being your primary aoe seal (with SoV/C still better for bosses and single targets). At 75 you start moving 15% faster, which is always awesome for leveling. Moreover, at 75 we get Shield of Righteousness, out highest damage single target attack.
Now that you’ve hit 80, you should have a spec that looks like this. Well, that’s good for leveling, but now that you can run heroics and raids, it’s time to respec.
Pick up the cookie cutter 0/53/18 spec and recalibrate your glyphs to: Divine Plea, Seal of Vengeance, and Judgement. If you’re sticking to heroics, you might find Hammer of the Righteous is a better fit for that last glyph slot instead of Judgement.
I hope this guide was of benefit to you levelers out there. For more information once you hit 80, check the Guides tab above and don’t be afraid to kick me an email (rhidach at gmail dot com) if you have questions about what you’re next step is.
Happy tanking!
Nice guide! I would like to add though that your spec for raiding at 80 is a bit off, you only want one point into Improved Judgements to be able to hold an ideal 6/9 rotation. Also you should add that glyph of righteous defense is a very good alternative, if not better, to glyph of judgement. ^ ^
@Kennebec: Prot is good if you have lots of mobs, Ret is much faster if it’s one or two mobs at a time. At least in the early game, sub-60ish. You could always dualspec prot/ret if you have the cash for it.
@Ryan: Imp Judgements is good for trash, and having an 8 second Judgement won’t throw off your 969 if you’re vigilant about keeping the rotation tight. It’s really not as bad as it used to be thought, I’d recommend trying it. And I tend to run with a lot of hit (not spell capped, but a healthy ~200) so I’m less concerned about missing taunts. I’ll take the added consistent threat of Judgements doing more damage over a JIC glyph.
I have been ‘tanking’ the LFD as a ret pally, with my boa heirlooms, up to lvl 51. But after reading your blog I thinks I will have to go and respec. Lately I have ran into ‘threat holding issues’ and have been thinking about going prot for a while. My only question is this. Is prot any good outside the dungeon? For leveling and such or should I just stick to dungeon running?
@ Rhidach I actually took your advice and swapped to the glyph of judgment for tanking and I do think it is nice. Just keep in mind that having extra judgment damage helps with threat, but missing that one taunt in a raid can be game breaking. They are both good glyphs though.
Lastly I think you missed my point about the improved judgments spec, if you are using a 6/9 rotation (as you should) then having 2 points into the talent is the exact same as 1 point, you are going to get the same amount of judgments in any given encounter than someone with 1 point in it. With a 6/9 you are judging every 9 secs, with or without 2 points in the talent.
Oh yeah Ryan, I understand what you’re saying, but I like the 8 second judgements for stuff like the Big Ooze on Rotface where I can’t keep a rotation. It has situational benefits that overshadow any use of keeping that point in Benediction or wherever. You are right in regards to the rotation though.
Great guide for new paladins wanting to tank. I’d like to share my own experiences as a new tank.
I started tanking at level 30 (currently level 55) and I have always used Seal of Light. Now I know a lot of people recommend Seal of Righteousness but I never once had any threat issues. In fact I never even had a single death in any of my pugs till ZF but that’s because I listened to a dps on a pull instead of trusting my own judgment. The only problem I had was that I healed myself for so much that my healers got bored and would start dpsing.
At level 50 I was really excited to finally get Avenger’s Shield but I had to stop using it. It burned through my mana more than Consecration. I went back to my old pulling style until I get Divine Plea.
Thanks so much for this great post. I just started tanking on my Pally alt, who just dinged 65, and am really having fun with it. This is hugely helpful. Random Dungeon finder as a tank… MAJOR WIN. I can run dungeons now at will — not that you didn’t know that. Haha.
@Rob: Nothing like an instant queue, haha. Glad the guide helped.
I have been prot for over a year, I leveled up as prot, running as many dungeons as possible, I love tanking, and love my talents, which were what you have here except for the toys in ret. great guide, I agree totally (except for the toys hehe)