Rerolling, tank choice woes

[Mosg2]

I decided to reroll and play Alliance for the first time since I started playing WoW on release day. My team (Pal/4x Sham) just hit 50 and I'm debating if I want a Paladin or a DK tank. I've got a decked out DK Horde side and I've only ever been "Meh" about them tanking Heroics. Even with the changes in 3.1 and the planned changes for 3.2 I've always felt like they were too spikey and required a dedicated healer instead of 4x DPS with intermittent 4x LHW. I'd never played a Paladin before I rerolled this team, and I dig it so far.

So, anyone with both have any comments? Anyone with an 80 Paladin that can just try and convince me? :)

Edit: Also, my experience in 5 boxing with DK+4 Shaman in Heroics at 80 makes me think that DK's require a bit too much micro-management. From what I can so you can basically spam an Aggro macro on a Paladin and focus on just maximizing DPS on the Shaman.

[Niley]

My pally :http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormreaver&n=Phean

My Dk: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormreaver&n=Lowpass


I love my paladin, the rotation is easier and mobs stick to you right away, also having aoe down all the time helps, other than dks spell damage debuff, there is nothing that dk can do better than paladin come 3.2. If paladins go unchanged into that patch they will be best tanks all around. On the ptr my dk can barely break 30k hp too, they might end up being lowest hp tanks after all.

Paladin:
-blessings
-aoe down all the time
-"raid save" if you spec into it
-lay on hands
-very good threat generation
-can heal or dps also
-crusader aura(great for dailies, shaves 8 minutes of my full run)
-easier to gear for, no need to worry about being hit capped or exp capped as much as on dk
-Auto save come 3.2

DK
-Spell damage debuff
-better saves than paladin(until 3.2)
-can dps also
-AoE has 5s cd in between, but can be used anywhere within certain range not just under the tank.
-Best tanks until 3.2

[Mosg2]

Mmm, I guess what you're trading is the magic debuff for ease of use and the ability to focus more on positioning and such. Hmmmm.

I guess I could always transfer my DK from Horde to Alliance if I really felt like I missed him and wanted him with the new team.

Thanks for the input Niley :)

Anyone else have any comments?

[DLoweinc]

paladin's give blessing of kings and an aura which is very helpful. DK's have melee haste bonuses and a few other buffs.

Paladins feel more versatile to me but DK's do more DPS while tanking...

My DK tank is lvl 65 and my paladin tank is 80, there are a lot of times where I wished my paladin did more dps, but I wouldn't sacrifice any survivability.

For me it came down to buffs... I chose the paladin.

[Niley]

paladin's give blessing of kings and an aura which is very helpful. DK's have melee haste bonuses and a few other buffs.

Paladins feel more versatile to me but DK's do more DPS while tanking...

My DK tank is lvl 65 and my paladin tank is 80, there are a lot of times where I wished my paladin did more dps, but I wouldn't sacrifice any survivability.

For me it came down to buffs... I chose the paladin.

This is wrong, look at scoreboard and wmo/wws, pally tanks do more dps than dk tanks. Just because dk has 2 hander doesn't mean it will do more dps. In ulduar I'm almost always ahead of dk tank, unless im off tanking, or when it comes to aoe, dks will d more dps on aoe because they still have UB, but that's being taken away from them in 3.2, leaving them with just dnd.

[Stealthy]

With the upcoming nerfs for DK's in the next patch, and the buffs for Pallies, it's starting to look like Pallies will become the tank of choice for boxing again.

List of changes for both classes here:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Cheers,

S.

[Mosg2]

My guess based off of tanking with my DK in Heroics is that the 13% magic damage you get from Unholy is totally offset by the fact that you can spam one aggro macro for the Paladin--And after perusing the changes in 3.2 I think the Paladin is the hands down winner. Besides, everyone has an 80 DK :)

[Simulacra]

looking at the change to JoL I'm a little confused.

Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the
attacker's maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the
spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.

Does this mean that it's 2% of my health or 2% of my targets? If it's 2% of the target then I'm going to pretty much steamroll everything I come across lol. They could have worded this better I think. A scaling passive heal seems really op so I'm probably reading this incorrectly

[Niley]

looking at the change to JoL I'm a little confused.

Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the
attacker's maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the
spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.

Does this mean that it's 2% of my health or 2% of my targets? If it's 2% of the target then I'm going to pretty much steamroll everything I come across lol. They could have worded this better I think. A scaling passive heal seems really op so I'm probably reading this incorrectly


its the hp of the attacker, so my paladins or my shamans hp.

[Simulacra]

<grabs calculator> so my pally has 30000 health so that's a 600 heal on each swing and my shammies are on 16000 so that's a 320 heal each cast :O - still bloody amazing! That'll take the pressure of healers nicely. It'll probably help with threat for the pally too as it's effectively the pally healing everyone

[stoat]

I'm not planning to reroll to paladin, but if I was starting over there's no question I'd take a paladin over dk. For heroic tanking it doesn't make much difference though.

[Stealthy]

<grabs calculator> so my pally has 30000 health so that's a 600 heal on each swing and my shammies are on 16000 so that's a 320 heal each cast :O - still bloody amazing! That'll take the pressure of healers nicely. It'll probably help with threat for the pally too as it's effectively the pally healing everyone

JoL doesn't have 100% to proc though...so the heals from JoL tend to be spikey. :) Also heals from JoL don't generate any extra threat anymore (changed in 3.08 ), which is one of the reasons its the judgement of choice for Ret pallies.

[Multibocks]

If the faction transfer doesnt happen in 3.2 then I will need to level a tank. I'm waffling back and forth on paladin or druid. I have done DK and Paladin horde side and I like them both, just want to try something different or stick with an easy tank (paladin). I think about trying warrior and then go.. god do they still require stance dancing.. ugh. Ya fack that.

[Tdog]

If the faction transfer doesnt happen in 3.2 then I will need to level a tank. I'm waffling back and forth on paladin or druid. I have done DK and Paladin horde side and I like them both, just want to try something different or stick with an easy tank (paladin). I think about trying warrior and then go.. god do they still require stance dancing.. ugh. Ya fack that./shrug I never leave defensive stance on my prot warrior and I've done just fine.

[Multibocks]

What I like about paladins is there really isnt much to macro. Warriors I can think of a ton of things you need to have ready (granted you could do without and be a mediocre tank). Intervene, stuns, silences, and I'm sure they can be condensed down to nice macros. I guess Im just too lazy at this point, lol.

[Niley]

I think what really got me to use my pally is being able to use her as prot when Im doing instances, and at any other point I use her as ret which makes dailies amazingly fast, all that under one macro.
Ret requires macro much longer than 255 characters to use, Im using an addon for that, but when I tested it in naxx few days ago my ret was doing over 5k dps in not so good gear, much better than just castrandom spam.

[Ualaa]

I feel the Paladin synergizes with the Shammies better then the other tanks.
They are spell casters and mana users.
The benefit from Totem of Wrath, Mana Spring Totem etc.
Your shammies are also casters.

On the other hand, AoE silence really hurts Paladin/Death Knight tanks.
Warriors and Druids are less disabled, or not at all.

A Paladin seems a lot easier to reduce to a castrandom or 6969 castsequence.
They're closer to optimal when macro'd then the other tanks.

In the end its preference, but I'm personally happiest with the Paladin.
I played a Feral tank for a good chunk of Burning Crusade raiding.
I've never played a Warrior beyond 40th, so cannot comment on them.
Haven't played a Death Knight outside of Beta (when they were very much OP), so cannot comment too much on them either.

[wowphreak]

I dont know with an all caster group that 13% increase to spell damage is just to sexy to pass up.

In an all caster group I will always have either a moonkin for earth and moon or warlock for Curse of the Elements or a dk for ebon plaque bringer that's 13% increase to everyones damage
that's really hard to beat.

[Dorffo]

Ret requires macro much longer than 255 characters to use, Im using an addon for that, but when I tested it in naxx few days ago my ret was doing over 5k dps in not so good gear, much better than just castrandom spam. completely offtopic (sorry!) - Niley could you PM me that ret macro? :)

[Niley]

Ret requires macro much longer than 255 characters to use, Im using an addon for that, but when I tested it in naxx few days ago my ret was doing over 5k dps in not so good gear, much better than just castrandom spam. completely offtopic (sorry!) - Niley could you PM me that ret macro? :)


/castsequence reset=7 Crusader Strike,Judgement of Wisdom,Divine storm,Consecration,exorcism,Crusader Strike,Judgement of Wisdom,Divine storm,Crusader Strike,Consecration,Judgement of Wisdom,Crusader Strike,exorcism,Divine storm,Judgement of Wisdom,Crusader Strike,Consecration,

tada, You will need super duper macro to go over 255 limit.

[Dorffo]

thank you sir :)

[Los]

I am a long time Pally tanker. Recently I've been leveling up my Warrior to play for fun.. 77 atm.

With all the "fun" stuff the Warrior has, I am having 10x the amount of fun playing my Warrior over my Paladin. I miss the blessings and the ability to remove magic debuffs - but other than that, screw it. (I have an up and coming Boomkin - 74 - so the +13% spell dmg is covered).

I don't know if I'll keep the Paladin up front, or bring the Warrior in the end. Right now the Paladin is getting more attention because I MT for my guild - and we need a geared tank. lolSame thing here, been rolling my paladin for a long time as tank, but atm the tanking 'style' of the warrior I lvled is much much more fun then the paladin, and way more cool buttons to press.

Allthough when you played prot pala, tanking trash on a warrior aint funny, aint funny at all.

[Mosg2]

My reroll team is 65 now and all I can say is "Wow." The Paladin is ridiculously easier than my Warrior or my DK to tank with. One button does all my work and I have basically infinite mana. This is so awesome.

[Multibocks]

strange delete post didnt work....

[rekkless]

I like druid for my tank (have also tried DK) because I can duel spec it to boomkin for raiding (boomkin, 3x mage, ele shama in raid/feral druid, 3x mage, resto sham otherwise). Also has a few good emergency buttons, mark of the wild and spammable aoe threat. Shadowmeld can save a wipe if something gets away and kills your healer. Druids suck for pvp though.