Wow, I'm a believer now (paladin tank)

[Hachoo]

Ok so up until now I've been MBing 5 shamans. I've cleared Ramps using the trick on the last boss to take out the dragon first, I've cleared BF about 30 times to the first boss only, I've cleared SP to the first boss, etc etc etc...

So, back when I got my 5 shamans to 60 I boosted a paladin from 24-60.99 also - I leveled the Paladin to 61.5 solo but then got rather bored (probably mostly because I was geared in 24 greens and could hardly kill anything without drinking after every fight).

So, my 4 clone shamans were about 5 bars of xp behind my main (not sure how). Anyway, I decided to log my paladin in under my main account and set up macros and try to get her multibox ready. After setting everything up (and respeccing my paladin to prot) I logged my 4 shamans in and ran around HFP finishing all the quests I had left, trying to get some decent gear on my paladin. At 62, I decided to try to run ramps. I figured by now it should be no problem (my shamans leveled to 65 before I went in and they're pretty overgeared for there now), but I wanted to get my paladin some gear.

Well I had a couple bad/unexpected pulls that I managed to quite easily pull through that would have wiped my shaman team in seconds. The first was where the first boss patrols. There are 2 pulls you have to do before he patrols back your way, and I was just finishing off one of them which I think was a destroyer and 2 mages, and right at that moment the boss comes by with his 2 healers, AND that little patrolling hammer guy walked up at the same time, which triggered the hammer guy, the boss and his 2 healers, and the pull right behind the hammer guy which I believe was 2 dogs and a reaver or whatever.

I started to panic - for a second I thought I should just stand still and let them kill me and get it over with quick, but then I said what the hell, hit consecration, hit holy shield, hit avengers shield, spammed my 4x lesser healing wave macro on focus once, and then started systematically taking down everything while I occasionally healed my paladin. First the mage, then the dogs, then the reaver and hammer guy, then both healers, then I ran out of mana....but, with water shield and greater blessing of wisdom i was able to keep my paladin healed up and throw an occasional LB until the boss went down hard, all 5 guys alive, all with max health, all with almost 0 mana. Still...I NEVER would have thought I could do that.

Not only that but when I got to the last boss I was thinking about trying him the "cheap" way by dropping grounding totems and moving towards him, then killing him before aggroing the rider... But then I figured "hey I might as well just kill the rider first giving me plenty of time to kill the dragon, right?" Too bad I didn't know that when the rider gets low on HP the dragon lands. So right as the dragon lands the rider goes down, and I realize "oh crap, the dragon is at 100% and now hes on the ground". I had no fire protection pots, nor did I have a key bound for my fire resist totems...so, I turned on fire resistance aura, hit consecration and holy shield, swung the dragon around a 180, waited a sec healing my paladin while she needed it, then activated the trinket + blood fury + em on my shamans and started going full bore into the dragon, rotating 90 degrees every time he breathed, and putting a 4x lesser healing wave into the mix after every 2nd LB...downed the dragon with full health on all toons and probably 1/2 mana left on all as well.

I was quite proud and now I have no doubts I can go all the way through BF with no issues, and SP too (the crackler should be a LOT easier with a real tank).

So now I have to plan to do extra collection quests on my main shaman just to make sure she stays ahead of the 4 clones otherwise they'll outlevel her when they run instances/quests with the paladin :D

[moji]

tanks across the board are getting boosted, to make them more "fun"

I haven't been paying attention to Feral, but Pally and Warrior tanks will be insanely sweet. If the current build goes through, you'll see warriors tanking like paladins and vice versa. Paladins hitting for 13k, Warrior Shield slams hitting for 14k. (both on sundered lower mobs, but still, think like 6k on at level bosses.)
The vids I've seen with unlinking Warrior's 30 min CDs, now 5 min, and shockwave, OMFG.

Demon hunter farming with a solo prot warrior? impossible? not at all. can you say Recklessness and Shockwave criting the whole pack for 2k?

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/tankspot-news/39567-prot-warrior-aoe-grinding-video-updated.html

Will warriors ever replace paladins as MB kings? heck no. but if you have a prot main, like me, you'll at least be able to take him for badge runs now without 3 mages.

[d0z3rr]

Wait till 3.0. ;)

Paladins (Prot especially) are getting turbo boosted.

Awesome, cuz my pally got raped in Ramps @60.

[Razman]

After tanking single box with a warrior I recently got my pally heading 4 shamans. A pally tank for multiple mobs is awesome. I waited until 62 to go to ramps got some gear from Hellfire and Zang and was fine. I would gear up with quests and go back at 62. It will be a whole lot easier.

[Hachoo]

I'd like to add in that I just ran BF all the way through last night with pally + 4x shamans. Pally was 63 shamans were all 65 - gauntlet was total cake. I hardly even had to heal my paladin while I was tearing through the enraged orcs. Also I'm not sure if this changed but I read that the first pull is 1 elite + 3 non elites, then 2 + 2, then 3 + 1, then 4 elites, but for me the first pull was 3 elites + 1 non elite, and then the rest of the pulls were either 3+1 or 4 elites...still took it down no problem.

The last boss I lost 1 shaman but I didn't really know how the fight was going to work so I was unprepared. If I had known the mages were just going to cast shadow bolts then run at me I would have just DPSed everything down really fast instead of trying to tank them. Once I started on the boss himself I could have avoided losing a shaman by establishing better aggro on my pally before going all out DPSing, as the boss himself killed one of my shamans with melee attacks (I think) LOL. I have a Righteous Defense macro that casts it on the target=targettarget to try to target the boss's target. It casts but never seems to pull aggro so I'm not sure why.

Anyway, if I ran BF again I'm sure I could steamroll it now that I'm familiar with all the encounters, but honestly I'm so sick of that place now I never want to go back (ran it to the first boss on my 5 shamans like 30 times to try to get maces and belts).

[Gadaí]

A nice trick for the last boss in BF is to simply run the palatank in at the first of the channelling mobs and then Divine Shield. The other channellers immediately run into melee range instead of staying at range. Drop a consecrate while you wait for the bubble to expire and start healing/dps with the rest of the members of the team just after the bubble comes down ;)

[Hachoo]

Hah I didn't think of that, thats a great idea! And then my chain lightnings would hit more than 1 mob anyway, and they're really squishy so they'd go down quick.

[TheBigBB]

I have my prot pally now to almost 68, and I love her a lot, she just can't hold aggro yet over my epic fire mage, even with a 15 second headstart she will probably lose aggro to him within a few casts. The thing is, the itemization for prot pallies from 60-70 is horrible. You either have warrior tanking plate or ret DPS plate for the most part. I hope that from 70-80 they actually offer rewards aimed at prot pallies.

[TheBigBB]

The thing is, the itemization for prot pallies from 60-70 is horrible. You either have warrior tanking plate or ret DPS plate for the most part. I hope that from 70-80 they actually offer rewards aimed at prot pallies.

They are totally changing how Prot. Paladins "use" gear stats.

Warrior Gear = Paladin gear now. (and Death Knights I'd assume).

Stamina = Spell Power (30% conversion rate)
Strength = Block Value (not sure on the math, but its very noticeable)

You no longer *need* Paladin specific gear, as deep Prot. talents will fix that for you. (and for Retadin's as well, with slightly different mechanics)EXCELLENT!!!!!!