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Starbuck_Jones
03-23-2009, 11:53 PM
Protection paladin multi-box guide.

The Golden Assumption
All theory crafting is inherently flawed because you cannot create a linear guide that will work for every situation. The individuals who read these guides are living breathing human beings with a brain of their own. They have the knowledge and capacity to understand that said guide will not always work. They have the ability to adapt and overcome these predicaments on their own and do not need to be spoon fed every possible variable involved. -Aleyona

Levels 1-60. Boost and RAF. If you can't do either then this is your learn to play time. Read the rest of the guide, but there are plenty of 1-60 guides and advice on this wiki and forums.

Level 60.

Your RAF is up and this is where most multi-boxing really starts.

Here is my recomended talent spec for your paladin.
http://thottbot.com/paladin/t#/gxuxnXYQd

Q: Why did you not go with Kings? Everyone says Kings is the best.

A: Kings is nice when you have stats that are unbuffed already over 1000 points (end game). But at level 60 an extra 11 stamina is not better than the flat 3% damage reduction and mana regen provided by Blessing of Sanctuary.

Key points to note:

Holy Shield: This is your class defining spell right here. +30% to block for 10 seconds or 8 hits is what makes you the reason that everyone will want to have your babies. It also deals out quite a bit of holy damage on each block. This keeps agro.

Righteous Fury: Increases the threat of your holy damage by 90% and a flat 6% damage reduction with talents. This is your easy mode agro holder. It needs to always be on. Try tanking w/o it and see what happens.

Concecration: AOE Holy damage, combined with Righteous Fury will generaly provide enough agro to keep all mobs on you. It does eat mana but that should not be a problem with if you have your Holy Shield active with Blessing of Sanctuary even on single mob pulls.

Hammer of the Righteous: 4x holy weapon damage that hits up to 3 targets in melee range. This is one of your absolute best spells. Primary reason other than hitting really hard, each mob that it hits, acts as a normal melee swing. What this means is that any ability or spell that you have that is triggered by a weapon swing/hit has a chance to proc 3 times on this spell. For example you can get 3 heals, or mana regens from your seal of light/wisdom from a single cast of this spell. It will also apply Seal of Vengeance/Blood DOT to all 3 targets.

Aura's: Pick the one that works for you. Use Devotion if you realy need the extra armor, but I prefer to just use Retribution as things die faster and more holy damage means more agro, and they cant do damage to you if they are dead. Resist auras are good on boss fights that require them and you dont have another class that can provide a better buff. If your useing Concentration Aura then your not doing your job as a tank, and if someone else is tanking then they are not doing their job either.

Seals and Judgements: This is where you get to do the most individual tailoring for your paladin. Remeber the Golden Assumption. Seal and Judgement of light when combined can provide you with the MOST damage mitigation possable. You can get some mad healing from these two spells, If you dont need healed, then the rest of your party can be DPS'ing and kill stuff faster. When I tank out of my multibox group this is the combo I use to help the healers out. Seal and Judement of Wisdom give back mana. Judgement of wisdom when I multi-box is the only one I use. The mana regen for my entire party make this the best choice by far. Seal of Vengence/Blood (level 64). I use this quite a bit. Extra holy damage means more agro means things die faster. I will usaly run with this on till my mana gets low then switch to Seal of Wisdom for a pull to get back to 100% mana.

Spiritual Attunement: You get a percentage of mana on each point of healing you receive. Seeing how your the tank and getting beat on, you should be getting healed as well. Free mana.

Spell Rotation:

Number one rule. Holy Shield needs to be active. No exceptions. It lasts for 10 seconds and has an 8 second cool down. This means you can always have it up, unless you pulled so much that you went through all of its charges in less than 8 seconds (this isnt a bad thing either as it puts out some nice agro, damage, and means you blocked 8 attacks that did not get to do full damage).

Pull spell. You have Hand of Reckoning, Avengers Shield, and Exorcism (if target is undead) that have 30 yard range to pull mobs with. Avengers Shield will hit up to 3 targets and is by far the best to use to build up that agro. It has too long of a cool down to be useful in a rotation macro.

Example one button smash tanking macro. Put this on every button press for your group. DPS button, Slave heal Button etc so its always going off and not wasting any of the global cool downs.

/castsequence reset=combat Holy Shield, Hammer of the Righteous, Concecration, Judgement of XXXX, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Shield, Concecration, Hammer of the Righteous, Judgement of XXXX

There will be a few pauses when you are waiting for cooldowns on this sequence as your not high enough level yet for a proper 96969 rotation, but it will have Holy Shield active at all times and keep agro. This is not the only rotation you can use, there are several other including this popular one.

/castsequence reset=combat Holy Shield,Hammer of the Righteous,Judgement of XXXX,Consecration,Hammer of the Righteous,Holy Shield,Judgement of XXXX,Hammer of the Righteous,Consecration

In my personal testing the above macro did not do as much dps and I prefer Consecration to come sooner in the rotation for better agro when im smashing my dps button. Regardless, the goal is to have Holy Shield active at all times.


Level 64 and 66. Not much to add at these level except you pick up your Seal of Vengeance/blood at 64, and by 66 you have enough talent points to grab 5xDeflection for more avoidance and mana from Sanctuary and a point into improved judgements to make their cooldown a proper 9 seconds so you will see your macro smooth out. You dont need to put a second point into judgements as it wont help.

Level 70 you get Avenging Wrath. Its a great spell to hit when pulling for extra damage and bonus agro, but its long cool down means it doesnt get used too much. Like every 4 or 5 pulls if you have no down time. As for talents. get 3x heart of the crusader as it will be a boost to your whole group. Past here you can put the rest of your talent points where you want. I like Benidiction as cheaper spells means I dont have to switch to Seal of Wisdom as often and can keep Vengence/blood up longer.

Level 75. Here you pick up Shield of the Righteousness. Now you can build a proper 96969 macro and have your paladin doing something after every global cool down with no pauses and will be an aoe aggro foo! here is an example order you can use. One problem is the 250 character limit with the built in macro isnt long enough. So you will need to get an addon that lets you do longer macros, or get creative with /click if you want to add in your trinkets and disable the error noise.

Holy Shield, Hammer of the Righteous, Consecration, Shield of Righteousness, Judgement of XXXX, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Shield, Shield of Righteousness, Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous, Judgement of XXXX.Shield of righteousness.

Starbuck_Jones
03-23-2009, 11:54 PM
A rough draft so im sure there are all kinds of errors in it. Feel free to comment/correct.

wowphreak
03-24-2009, 03:50 AM
I would advocate picking up 5 points in ardent defender as soon as possible, its one of those abilities that has saved me from many a wipes.
Also deflection is a good one to pick up early on.
And pickup touched by light as soon as possble after 60.

devotion also helps healing for 6% which wont amount to much by itself but can add up in long boss fights.

"Seal and Judgement of light when combined can provide you with the MOST damage mitigation possable."
Dosent make much sense.

Majority of the time I end up using Seal of Wisdom due to the fact if yer outta power yer damage goes to shit the rest of the group catches up to yeh in aggro and pulls something off yeh.

And in 3.1 prot tree gonna change a lil
"Blessing of Kings is now trainable at level 20. Removed from talent trees."

Powerwar
03-24-2009, 07:48 AM
Use the improved devotion aura points somewhere else if you have shamans in your team. Their totems will give you the same extra armor and you can use retribution aura with no problems.
Also with the crazy armor values on items in TBC and WOLK you will not need to use that aura. I have invested these 3 points in the improved hammer of justice. It makes my paladin a bit more useful in BGs where some suicide charges to my group just to get stunned by the pala :)


Other than that, the build is good

merujo
03-24-2009, 08:51 AM
Bok is a great blessing to have, at least till 3.1 comes out. Not to put on u, but to put on ur group.
BoSanc is the only bless that matter for the prot pala himself.
Also, don't pick reckoning over ardent defender, as AD is a must have.

Cyndaen
03-24-2009, 09:06 AM
I find that Improved Devotion Aura, Ardent Defender, and Kings are all pretty integral to our multi-Box tanking needs. The only time I might think about giving up Imp Devo would be if I were positive I didn't have a Tree along, and Kings is still nice even if you have another pally in the raid. Sanc/Kings on the tank and ImpWis/Kings on the Holy is very nice. In such case, both paladins would need kings. Ardent defender is just too good to pass up in any reasonable scenario in my opinion. Just a couple thoughts from a long time Paladin.

Los
03-24-2009, 09:11 AM
Having more then 3 in reckoning is of no use (sourced, check some theorycraft sites), get bok, not just for yourself, but for your team as well. Besides it would be better to swap bok with reckoning complelty, since reckoning does not do that much extra damage where as bok can help your whole team with quite a lot.

Starbuck_Jones
03-24-2009, 02:36 PM
I agree with picking up AD in the build, and there is arguement about not takeing reckoning because the extra hits can casue parrys and reposts and reset swing timers on bosses and that means extra hits on you, but thoes extra hits also give extra procs of judgement and seal. However thats a level 60 build to get to HotR and I would rather have recogning over AD as its not a final level 80 build.

Talamarr
03-24-2009, 02:41 PM
As a boxer, one of my main goals is to reduce randomness and increase predictability. I'd take an always on BoK over a chance based skill, like Reckoning, any day. Threat is just not an issue and I don't see the extra returns from "... of Light" procs that make it worth the talent points.

BobGnarly
03-24-2009, 02:53 PM
A few comments:

- I understand that your build above is level 60, and is cramped for points. I still think kings is worth it because it is affecting ALL of your stats, not just stamina - but it's probably debatable. What I don't think is debatable, however, is having it at level 80. You should put a "final level 80" spec in that you'll respec to at 80, and it should have kings.

- I disagree with a few of your tanking macro rotations, but I think that sort of thing is really a lot of personal preference and I haven't t-crafted mine into the ground, so I'll just mention that people should consider their own team and what their needs are rather than blindly assume a given macro is always the best way.

- This isn't from the OP, but I strongly disagree with the assertion that improved devotion aura isn't worth it. First off, it's solid increase in armor (and therefore mitigation) against the by far most common type of damage in the game. Plus, the thing most people forget, is it provides a 6% boost in healing, and this applies to the entire group! So, by taking this talent, you are reducing the damage your tank takes (= easier to multibox), but also improving the healing you spend on the tank (= easier multibox) and the rest of the group for those aoe fights. I believe this talent should be very highly weighted.

Good work overall, some solid info there. Look forward to future versions

Dorffo
03-24-2009, 03:44 PM
Take imp devotion aura - agree 100% with comments above. There are better places to drop points then Reckoning for a MT. Ardent Defender will save your butt more times then you can imagine. (Especially nice when combined with Commendation trinket from MgT) Kings is good for the rest of your group, depending on the fight / dungeon I'd recommend BoSanc over Kings on the tank though. Judge Wisdom, use SoR or SoV depending on which you prefer - aggro is good.

Dorffo
03-24-2009, 05:44 PM
couldn't remember what level i got to train SoV =p

Coltimar
03-24-2009, 06:33 PM
One thing to remember when posting is that this is a 1-60 guide so Heroics don't even factor into it. I've leveled to 60 as a pally both with and w/o reckoning and there was no noticeable difference in my survivability. But I didn't do much instance leveling. Once I hit 60 I respecced and dropped Reckoning.

X-Ifist
03-24-2009, 07:40 PM
Lvled a prot pally whit 2 resto druids just for fun, and where doing 10-20 mobs each pull.
Used this spec
http://thottbot.com/paladin/t#/gNuz3r,D9

Tryed using reckoning but wasent rly anny use since i had 2 healers on me.
10% all stats isent mutch at 60 when youre using RAF so BoW is way more efficent

wowphreak
03-24-2009, 07:52 PM
Early on kings isnt all that usefull. Most caster are gonna want Blessing of Wisdom and the pali will mostly use Blessing of Sanctuary.
I'll go as far as to say it isnt needed until yeh start doing heriocs or raiding.

Los
03-25-2009, 07:22 AM
I'm reading the posts in this thread and seeing lots of miss-information and / or information that is getting drastically changed in 3.1.

For instance:
Reckoning - This is bad. Avoid it like the plague. I mean, for a Ret/Prot build with situational off tanking? Sure, go for it. For a Main tank / heroic tank? No way.

Imp. Devotion Aura - TAKE THIS. Prot Paladins don't need to use retribution aura anymore to help threat generation. More armor + more healing? Yes please.





Use the improved devotion aura points somewhere else if you have shamans in your team. Their totems will give you the same extra armor and you can use retribution aura with no problems.

Just like to point out that the totem armor STACKS with Imp. Devotion armor. Have a single Shaman drop strength of earth instead, or both if you have multiple shaman.You are wrong about the reckoning, three reasons,
- At his lvl 60 stuff he doesnt do any dmg except from seals, consecrate and his HotR, not from his green 1h mace which hits for nothing anyways so its not needed.
- At lvl 80, Reckoning while tanking with SoR or SoV, can indeed give extra tps while being MT, the parrygib does not exist anymore and there is no boss currently in game which melee's to hard for you not to take it. The usage or milage may vary though, it is 'said' that more then 3 points in there is wasting points.
- In heroics/instances where you get a bit of gear, reckoning can be a godsend with BoW because you otherwise do not take enough dmg to get mana back from heals, this way you get extra hits = win.

Oh and yes devo aura = win, imagine 4 shammy group, with 4 heal totems <3

edit:

Alltough dont forget, when 3.1 hits you need to redo a lot of your guide due to a lot of (jummy) prot pally changes!

Bigfish
03-25-2009, 01:30 PM
I don't think Parry Gib is enough of a concern to alter entire talent specs over. I seem to recall my set up as having reckoning being the first thing I pulled points out of for something else, if only because its a diminuitive add-on to threat, but not much else. I think Parry Gib was a bit more important when you had 2 dozen village idiots smacking something from the front during the glory days. That's just my 2 cents though. Personally, I also find the magic number you need to be uncrittable a bit silly as well, not because avoiding critical hits isn't important, just that I see only a minor functional difference between 530 and 540. The real advantage to stacking defense is the huge increase in avoidance you see from miss, dodge and parry (and block). Not that you shouldn't be stacking Defense well past 540 anyway, I just don't see it as a magic cut off point.

Bigfish
03-25-2009, 02:20 PM
Its a RNG % thing.

Its like 535 = lvl 83 mobs have a 1% chance to crit you. 540 = 0% chance to crit you... it effectively pushes the "chance to roll a crit" off the table for the boss mob.

Isn't it at 535 with a level 83, it only has a .20% chance to crit you? Not zero, but damn near close to it, to the point you've reduced incoming crits by 96.4%? Of course you want to reduce it to 0% chance to be crit, I just don't see it as a holy law that must be adhered to. Namely, the sort of crap where a PuG is looking for members and checking Armory just to reject a candidate at 530, 535, or even 539.

Nisch
03-25-2009, 03:51 PM
Just run 5 pallies at once.

5 auras, 4 blessings (so far), and heals galore.

My favorite team so far.

Starbuck_Jones
03-26-2009, 05:05 PM
I agree tat DEF is the the primary stat for tanking paladins. Even going past the 540 mark to keep pushing the dodge, block and parry till you hit block capped with Holy Shield up.

Diwa
03-27-2009, 07:59 PM
Hope you wont mind sharing.

I've been loving my build since I started Multiboxing. It took me several resets but finally been using this for a month now.
Hybrid Talent ('http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/paladin/talents.html?tal=503521510001300501305000001403253 510310201000000000000000000000000000000000000')

Blessed of life - 10% chance half Damage on all attacks.
Holy Shock - Instant Heal and High Damage. With this skill you can bring 4 DPS with you and drag as many mobs as you can. Just make sure to Strafe so that you're blocking while pulling.
Holy Shield - Love this especially when dragging demon and undead mobs
Blessing Of Sanctuary - Full mana in 1 sec. Though I'm considering Judgements of the Wise on my next experiment for my slaves mana regen.
Sacred Shield - I spam this nearly every second while pulling. It gives you extra 500hp per cast, Flash of light Crit Chance. and save some repairs. When doing low level runs from Strat to SFK I only wear Shield, Weapon, Amulet, Rings and Cloak to save from repairs and this skill helps a lot in pulling. SM cath too, you can finish the entire instance in 5min with this skill, just bubble when opening the door, hit the boss and run back to the entrance where your low level alts is located.

With this build I also use it in Naxx and Heroic runs. I just switch gears. Sometimes I wear Holy spec equipments when tanking non Heroic instances.

this helps a lot too
Libram of Obstruction ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40707')

BobGnarly
04-07-2009, 04:01 PM
Isn't it at 535 with a level 83, it only has a .20% chance to crit you? Not zero, but damn near close to it, to the point you've reduced incoming crits by 96.4%? Of course you want to reduce it to 0% chance to be crit, I just don't see it as a holy law that must be adhered to. Namely, the sort of crap where a PuG is looking for members and checking Armory just to reject a candidate at 530, 535, or even 539.Maybe a little off topic, but:

- You need 540 defense to be uncrittable against boss (skull) mobs.
- You only need 535 defense to uncrittable in heroics (level 82, or +2 mobs). IOW, if you don't plan to tank raid mobs, you only need 535 for your tank.
- I think the logic that 530 is "close enough" is fine as long as you realize that there is always that chance that the boss/trash will cleave crit you right on top of a normal attack and basically one shot you. This is OK as an interim solution, but I don't recommend it long term. It really sucks to be trucking along and just die.

blast3r
04-07-2009, 08:38 PM
Just run 5 pallies at once.

5 auras, 4 blessings (so far), and heals galore.

My favorite team so far.

I was glad to come across this thread. I'm getting really anxious to get my pally team started. Going to do another raf setup i suppose. I couldn't bare leveling regular.

wolpak
04-07-2009, 09:28 PM
Hope you wont mind sharing.

I've been loving my build since I started Multiboxing. It took me several resets but finally been using this for a month now.
Hybrid Talent ('http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/paladin/talents.html?tal=503521510001300501305000001403253 510310201000000000000000000000000000000000000')

Blessed of life - 10% chance half Damage on all attacks.
Holy Shock - Instant Heal and High Damage. With this skill you can bring 4 DPS with you and drag as many mobs as you can. Just make sure to Strafe so that you're blocking while pulling.
Holy Shield - Love this especially when dragging demon and undead mobs
Blessing Of Sanctuary - Full mana in 1 sec. Though I'm considering Judgements of the Wise on my next experiment for my slaves mana regen.
Sacred Shield - I spam this nearly every second while pulling. It gives you extra 500hp per cast, Flash of light Crit Chance. and save some repairs. When doing low level runs from Strat to SFK I only wear Shield, Weapon, Amulet, Rings and Cloak to save from repairs and this skill helps a lot in pulling. SM cath too, you can finish the entire instance in 5min with this skill, just bubble when opening the door, hit the boss and run back to the entrance where your low level alts is located.

With this build I also use it in Naxx and Heroic runs. I just switch gears. Sometimes I wear Holy spec equipments when tanking non Heroic instances.

this helps a lot too
Libram of Obstruction ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40707')

I like this build. Not giving up too much for an instant heal.

wolpak
04-08-2009, 12:48 PM
Hope you wont mind sharing.

I've been loving my build since I started Multiboxing. It took me several resets but finally been using this for a month now.
Hybrid Talent ('http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/paladin/talents.html?tal=503521510001300501305000001403253 510310201000000000000000000000000000000000000')

Blessed of life - 10% chance half Damage on all attacks.
Holy Shock - Instant Heal and High Damage. With this skill you can bring 4 DPS with you and drag as many mobs as you can. Just make sure to Strafe so that you're blocking while pulling.
Holy Shield - Love this especially when dragging demon and undead mobs
Blessing Of Sanctuary - Full mana in 1 sec. Though I'm considering Judgements of the Wise on my next experiment for my slaves mana regen.
Sacred Shield - I spam this nearly every second while pulling. It gives you extra 500hp per cast, Flash of light Crit Chance. and save some repairs. When doing low level runs from Strat to SFK I only wear Shield, Weapon, Amulet, Rings and Cloak to save from repairs and this skill helps a lot in pulling. SM cath too, you can finish the entire instance in 5min with this skill, just bubble when opening the door, hit the boss and run back to the entrance where your low level alts is located.

With this build I also use it in Naxx and Heroic runs. I just switch gears. Sometimes I wear Holy spec equipments when tanking non Heroic instances.

this helps a lot too
Libram of Obstruction ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40707')

I like this build. Not giving up too much for an instant heal.

Looking at this just abit more, it looks like you sacrificed redoubt for Holy Guidance. For a tank, is there a good reason for this?

Diwa
04-08-2009, 07:22 PM
I like this build. Not giving up too much for an instant heal.Looking at this just abit more, it looks like you sacrificed redoubt for Holy Guidance. For a tank, is there a good reason for this?Thanks for that. Redoubt is also a good substitute to Holy Guidance.

I sacrificed Redoubt for Holy Guidance because:

- I didn't like the 5 blocks limit especially in pulling large mobs and it makes your shield to wear off really fast.
- Libram of Obstruction ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40707') + Blessed of life + Holy Shield + Sacred Shield + Blessing Of Sanctuary are enough to handle Redoubt absence.
- The 10% increase block will only be activated by chance
- Can't block spells
- Holy Guidance has a good increase in spellpower and it greatly affects your Holy Shock damage and healing. Ideally it would have been better if the talent points are enough for Touched by the Light.
- Holy Shock guarantees you instant heal and threat due to large damage. Flash of Light and Holy Light can be interrupted.
- Holy Shock crits a lot and give huge amount of heal in a very minimal CD especially with Divine Favor + Avenging Wrath .

wolpak
04-09-2009, 01:09 AM
Are you having any problems tanking? I am debating making a party of paladins all as some sort of shockadins just to have holy shock.

Starbuck_Jones
04-09-2009, 05:15 PM
How do you mean 'any trouble tanking'?

If I had 5x paladin group, the one that I wanted to be the tank I would keep Righteous Fury up on and not the rest.

Diwa
04-09-2009, 08:19 PM
If you're worried about threat handling then yes you're tank should only be the one to have Righteous Fury. You're shockadins should focus on Holy and Ret Tree to have more damage.

In terms of Boosting low level, the build itself can run you're low level toons wearing Shield, Weapon, Back, Trinkets, Rings and Necklace only. This will save you a lot of repair bills. I run SFK, SM Cath, Ulda on 1 pull and Strat Ghouls Area on 2 pulls since there's a gate in between them

In terms of Heroics, for 5 paladin team, if your tank will be using Holy Shock both offensive and defensive often then you'll have a problem with Mana since you're wearing tank equips and you'll only be pulling 1-4 mobs at a time. The Mana that you're getting from Blessing of Sanctuary are not enough to sustain you from spamming Holy Shock, Consecretion and other offensive skills. In heroics, most of the time Holy Shock and Lay Of Hands are like my OHSHIT button for my tank if the healer can't keep up healing or to my Slaves if the mob jump into them and healing them which also generate threat back to your tank.

With 5 Paladin setup I would have 2 Paladins with Beacon of Light since paladin's are not that good in AOE healing.