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Tanking Priority and Cooldowns
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Tanking Priority and Cooldowns
Ability Priority
When Tanking Single Target
Avenger's Shield (with Grand Crusader)
Crusader Strike
Judgment
Avenger's Shield
Consecration
Holy Wrath
Hammer of Wrath
The basic tanking priority is as listed above, but this can change considerably based upon talent choices. Specifically, if Sacred Shield is taken (it always should be), refreshing a Sacred Shield that has less than 6 seconds remaining takes priority over a non-GC Avenger's Shield. Additionally, if using Empowered Seals, changing seals in order to refresh your buffs is higher priority than a non-GC Avenger's Shield as well, but lower than refreshing a Sacred Shield with less than 6 seconds remaining.
If using Divine Purpose, you will occasionally encounter receive repeated procs to the point that you reach 5 Holy Power and still have free SotR's. If this happens, deviate from the standard rotation and use your highest-damage skills instead of Holy Power generators until you reach the end of the Divine Purpose proc chain. It won't last long enough. They never do.
Dealing With AoE
When trying to maximize AoE damage, a Paladin should try to keep Consecration up as close to 100% uptime as possible. At times, this may require delaying a CS or Judgment. In that case, the Paladin has to use their best judgment to choose between damage output and damage reduction in the moment. Erring on the side of safety is generally preferable.
Defensive Cooldowns
Divine Protection (DP) is the first choice amongst Paladin's defensive cooldowns. By default it offers 40% damage reduction against spell damage, but when using Glyph of Divine Protection, it provides 20% damage reduction against all sources. As such, DP is usually worth glyphing, as even when using DP to counter burst spell damage, the additional damage mitigation against the surrounding autoattacks is typically superior overall damage reduction.
More importantly, the ability serves as a solid damage reduction cooldown when you start to take more damage than your healers can handle, and the uptime on it is very good if using Unbreakable Spirit, which you typically will.
Guardian of Ancient Kings
The primary Paladin defensive cooldown. Guardian of Ancient Kings provides a massive amount of damage reduction for a short 8-second window. Use it right before you are about to take a lot of damage. Planning when to use your Guardian of Ancient Kings in conjunction with your other cooldowns is a major part of becoming a better tank, and you want to be sure that it is used effectively. Overlapping defensive cooldowns is generally a mistake, as their returns diminish considerably.
Ardent Defender
Ardent Defender is another powerful defensive cooldown. It provides a small amount of damage reduction and will prevent you from dying. It is especially effective at preventing death by burst damage, such as from Gruul's Inferno Slice. Always be ready to heal yourself back up if it procs, as you will only be at 12% health (which is typically one autoattack from death).
Divine Shield
The classic Paladin skill. Confers complete damage immunity for 8 seconds, breaks all CC's when used and is often usable while CC'ed (but not always). Upon using it will immediately break threat on all mobs, but they can be taunted back. This will regain aggro for the duration of the taunt (3 seconds). Once that ends, they will again drop threat. Divine Shield causes Forbearance, which now lasts for 30 seconds, and prevents the player from being a target of Divine Shield, Hand of Protection, or Lay on Hands.
Divine Shield is seldom useful in tanking, but it can have uses in very sketchy moments. For example, Divine Shield-Taunting an enraged boss can provide several more seconds of dps time before it kills the raid (e.g., this strategy was useful on numerous The Butcher kills).
Divine Shield is also capable of removing some raid debuffs. These are few and far between, but can be incredibly powerful.
Hand of Protection
Like Divine Shield, Hand of Protection confers immunity to physical attacks for 10 seconds, and immediately breaks threat. The same Taunt trick can be used with Hand of Protection, and will function more or less identically. Moreover, Hand of Protection can be used similarly to remove occasional raid debuffs, and is substantially more useful in that regard than Divine Shield since it is castable on any friendly target. Like Divine Shield, it puts a 30 second Forbearance debuff on the target.
I highly recommend using the following macro:
/cancelaura Divine Shield
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
Hand of Sacrifice
This is an extremely powerful defensive cooldown for your co-tank, and you should be prepared to use it as necessary. Beware that unless using Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice it will transfer 30% of the target's damage intake to you. On fights in which you know you will need to use it, glyphing is highly recommended.
I use the following macro for Hand of Sacrifice:
#showtooltip
/cast [@“Co-Tank Name”] Hand of Sacrifice
Guide Provided by: PissHands
When Tanking Single Target
Avenger's Shield (with Grand Crusader)
Crusader Strike
Judgment
Avenger's Shield
Consecration
Holy Wrath
Hammer of Wrath
The basic tanking priority is as listed above, but this can change considerably based upon talent choices. Specifically, if Sacred Shield is taken (it always should be), refreshing a Sacred Shield that has less than 6 seconds remaining takes priority over a non-GC Avenger's Shield. Additionally, if using Empowered Seals, changing seals in order to refresh your buffs is higher priority than a non-GC Avenger's Shield as well, but lower than refreshing a Sacred Shield with less than 6 seconds remaining.
If using Divine Purpose, you will occasionally encounter receive repeated procs to the point that you reach 5 Holy Power and still have free SotR's. If this happens, deviate from the standard rotation and use your highest-damage skills instead of Holy Power generators until you reach the end of the Divine Purpose proc chain. It won't last long enough. They never do.
Dealing With AoE
When trying to maximize AoE damage, a Paladin should try to keep Consecration up as close to 100% uptime as possible. At times, this may require delaying a CS or Judgment. In that case, the Paladin has to use their best judgment to choose between damage output and damage reduction in the moment. Erring on the side of safety is generally preferable.
Defensive Cooldowns
Divine Protection (DP) is the first choice amongst Paladin's defensive cooldowns. By default it offers 40% damage reduction against spell damage, but when using Glyph of Divine Protection, it provides 20% damage reduction against all sources. As such, DP is usually worth glyphing, as even when using DP to counter burst spell damage, the additional damage mitigation against the surrounding autoattacks is typically superior overall damage reduction.
More importantly, the ability serves as a solid damage reduction cooldown when you start to take more damage than your healers can handle, and the uptime on it is very good if using Unbreakable Spirit, which you typically will.
Guardian of Ancient Kings
The primary Paladin defensive cooldown. Guardian of Ancient Kings provides a massive amount of damage reduction for a short 8-second window. Use it right before you are about to take a lot of damage. Planning when to use your Guardian of Ancient Kings in conjunction with your other cooldowns is a major part of becoming a better tank, and you want to be sure that it is used effectively. Overlapping defensive cooldowns is generally a mistake, as their returns diminish considerably.
Ardent Defender
Ardent Defender is another powerful defensive cooldown. It provides a small amount of damage reduction and will prevent you from dying. It is especially effective at preventing death by burst damage, such as from Gruul's Inferno Slice. Always be ready to heal yourself back up if it procs, as you will only be at 12% health (which is typically one autoattack from death).
Divine Shield
The classic Paladin skill. Confers complete damage immunity for 8 seconds, breaks all CC's when used and is often usable while CC'ed (but not always). Upon using it will immediately break threat on all mobs, but they can be taunted back. This will regain aggro for the duration of the taunt (3 seconds). Once that ends, they will again drop threat. Divine Shield causes Forbearance, which now lasts for 30 seconds, and prevents the player from being a target of Divine Shield, Hand of Protection, or Lay on Hands.
Divine Shield is seldom useful in tanking, but it can have uses in very sketchy moments. For example, Divine Shield-Taunting an enraged boss can provide several more seconds of dps time before it kills the raid (e.g., this strategy was useful on numerous The Butcher kills).
Divine Shield is also capable of removing some raid debuffs. These are few and far between, but can be incredibly powerful.
Hand of Protection
Like Divine Shield, Hand of Protection confers immunity to physical attacks for 10 seconds, and immediately breaks threat. The same Taunt trick can be used with Hand of Protection, and will function more or less identically. Moreover, Hand of Protection can be used similarly to remove occasional raid debuffs, and is substantially more useful in that regard than Divine Shield since it is castable on any friendly target. Like Divine Shield, it puts a 30 second Forbearance debuff on the target.
I highly recommend using the following macro:
/cancelaura Divine Shield
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
Hand of Sacrifice
This is an extremely powerful defensive cooldown for your co-tank, and you should be prepared to use it as necessary. Beware that unless using Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice it will transfer 30% of the target's damage intake to you. On fights in which you know you will need to use it, glyphing is highly recommended.
I use the following macro for Hand of Sacrifice:
#showtooltip
/cast [@“Co-Tank Name”] Hand of Sacrifice
Guide Provided by: PissHands
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