Old Habits Die Hard

There's a couple of things you can say to a Protection Paladin, often said in complete innocence without the desire to offend. Things that can be said with genuine curiosity. Some of these things really make a Prot Pally's blood boil;



Aren't you guys worse than Warriors?

No. There is only one fight in the entire game that cannot be tanked by a Paladin, and that's the Reliquary of Souls - who absolutely must be tanked by a Warrior in phase 2. Everything else, and I mean everything else, has been progression-MT'ed by a Paladin.

But you take more damage than a Warrior! Not entirely accurate. Sure, Defensive Stance is 10% versus 6% for Righteous Fury, however this does not translate directly into 4% extra damage taken over the course of a fight. Paladins typically have very high avoidance compared to a Warrior, which reduces average damage input. Paladins can also benefit from Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap applied by DPS Warriors, and have a built-in psuedo Shield Wall for when things go badly.

But you don't have panic buttons! Yes, we lack Shield Wall, which is a significant issue. However, we do have Lay on Hands, which is spectacularly powerful in the hands of a Prot Pally, a 30% damage reduction that kicks in whenever we are badly hurt, and a bubble that is useable while tanking if you're careful and quick. I admit I'd rather have Shield Wall.

But you don't have much health! Completely false. Paladin HP actually scales faster than Warrior HP once the Paladin breaks 854 Stamina, which is easy to do in T4 level gear. Past that point, the Paladin actually has more effective itemization points to put into stats than the Warrior does, and will typically have more hitpoints.

As for the other fights, Paladins maintain uncrushability over a higher percentage of coverage than a Warrior, generate highly scaling threat with an on-demand 30% threat boost, can cause significant threat against multiple mobs at once, scaling out to as many mobs as required, are able to maintain a judgement on a target indefinitely for the raid's benefit, can cleanse themselves and others, can remove most harmful status ailments on themselves, have a 40 yard ranged multi-mob taunt, and frontload large amounts of threat which reduces fight duration.

Guilds the world over are starting to realize - Paladins are good tanks.

Don't you run OOM all the time?

Only if I outgear the fight. If I outgear the fight, I don't take enough damage, so I don't recover enough mana. However, I'm typically also in the position where I'm not in serious danger either, so can just use mana potions to prop up my mana pool, or be more sensible and swap on some threat gear next time around. Oh yeah, and mana potions are actually pretty awesome for threat generation :P

Don't forget that Warriors and Druids also suffer from rage starvation when they outgear a fight. Paladins are no different.

Why aren't you healing?

Because I chose to play a Protection Paladin, so I tank. I heal when circumstances call for it. Just like I expect a Protection Warrior to chuck on the DPS gear and make with the ginsu, everyone who's capable of doing multiple roles needs to be ready to do them. But it doesn't mean you have to do them all the time.



In my opinion, Protection is in a pretty good place now. There are now three fully viable tanking classes. Each has their own flavour, with their own strengths and weaknesses. This does not mean one is "worse" than the other.