First level 70 5 man tanked. Fears averted (for now).

(note - I logged out in my AOE grinding gear not my tanking set. My tanking set while not perfect as I'm still questing through Nag is just under 470 defense - not sure on the mitigation but its just over 70% or so with holy shield up if I remember correctly - 108% when redoubt procs)

So - my first post here. I've been lurking for a while reading all I could and learning as much as I can. I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for this site. Not just the creators but all the posters as well. Without all the informative and well thought out posts I'd be lost.

Tonight (me being only 68 was quite amazed) my guild agreed to take me on a Shattered Halls run and tank it as well instead of bringing along my pew pew hunter. (I'm the first paladin tank for the guild, yay!) It went pretty good; accidentally pulled a couple double pulls but chewed through almost everything just fine. (No deaths the entire run!) I should note that we did have a ton of experienced DPS and a druid along DPSing while ready to flip into bear form in a pinch if needed.

Needless to say I was able to tank all the trash mobs up to the first boss without any problems at all. But thats where the problems began.

We got the first boss to about 30% then I lost agro and for the life of me couldn't get it back. He resisted two taunts in a row and everything I could do to try to get it back while the taunts were on their cool down - I even tried a shield toss at him. Luckily we had our fast thinking druid to jump into bear and take it over for most of the remainder of the fight.

The rest of the instance went like that. I nailed all the trash while the druid would take bear form for the bosses as they were all 3-4 levels over me.

The last boss though I was told was the smoothest fight ever.

I suggested that as the adds were only 69 I porcupine them with SoL and just work them down with my shield spike - keep the adds occupied and I wouldn't even need any heals (other than a spot heal here or there). They agreed and it was as smooth as could be.

I just wish that something dropped that I could have used.

End of story; I think I've convinced a few people that paladin tanking is viable and works extremely well while holding multiple mobs at once. The paladin healer had no problems keeping me alive and would end most trash pulls at nearly full mana.
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Shattered Halls is a nice playground for protection paladins. I remember the first time I went there with guildies, they were pretty scary about myself tanking (first time I tanked with them) and started to put as much CC as possible.
I tried to convince them they do not need that much and they were like "ok, let's wipe to show you" but that just didn't happen

Anyway, the first boss become a bit crazy at some point. I usually try to AS back to me + BoP also helps and DPS should stop for a while untill you get the aggro back.
At level 70, the other bosses are pretty easy. Last one is just, aoe + taunt the adds. Just nuke the boss.

Yeah, there's a bug which sometimes stop's Righteous Defense from working if used straight after you're CC'd (like the Death Coil). On top of that, the fact you were about 4 levels below the boss is gonna give your spells a higher resist rate.

The bug should be fixed soon and a couple more levels should lessen the resist chance.
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http://www.wulfsblood.com - Wow Blog

Why are so many paladins afraid to tank, just go do it?
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Visit my crappy blog... Nerf This...

I agree with what Barathorn said.

When I first tank an instance in a PuG, I'm a bit worried, as I'm not sure how well the group will adjust to having a Paladin tank. I've been in groups where the DPS flat out refused to let me build any concievable aggro before popping all their trinkets and going all out. Of course, when I lose aggro, it's always my fault. Since Paladin tanks are a relatively new concept for a lot of people, it takes some some getting used to by all parties involved and if something doesn't work, it's usually the Paladin's fault. (I've been yelled at for not healing myself while tanking a boss when the healer DC'ed mid-fight. )

Luckily, I've gained a reputation for being an above-average tank with a lot of people, so it's relatively easy for me to get groups now.
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Shanefalco - 70 Human Paladin - Dragonmaw US

I went prot when tBC came out and I pretty much tanked everything up to the 70's instances. When I hit my first 70 instance I was nervous because my roommate(at the time was a prot spec tauren warrior) talked about them like they were the devil. After a while it just becomes second nature. Now I get tells from some of the DPS I run with saying how much it sucks to have to tone down there DPS because the warrior they're running with can't keep everyone aggro'd.
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Yeah I can understand that, I can also understand that level 70 dungeons are a big thing for a class that can tank, but are not percieved as a viable option, perhaps more so than they are for any other class. Thats why a pat on the back and words of encouragement never go amiss. I appreciate a lot of you here had to trail blaze and go it alone when you started as prot specced paladins and I respect you for that, but you have to remember by doing that you opened the door for many more of us, who wanted to give it a go as well and who had an easier time of it because of the work you did prior to us coming on the scene.

Whichever way you look at it, 'Well done' is far more motivational than 'get on with it'. That isn't having a dig at anyone, just my view on it. As I said if it hadn't been for the likes of Vanifae and others, we wouldn't have the easier time we have now because the research has been done for us. I still think it costs nothing to say well done if someone achieves something they were worried about and it gives that person confidence so that they too can spread the word of the protadin.

Just my take on it.

Barathorn.

I think a lot of budding Tankadins who perhaps haven't had any previous tanking experience wind up with a lot of self-doubt purely to the large "Paladins can't tank" bias that we're still fighting against. Things are certainly getting better, and I think as Tankadins become more popular we'll see a lot less concern, but it's a tough path to follow currently and I can't blame anyone for being excited that they're following it well =)
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Me, LOL!

I guess I'm just a cynic then.
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