Getting back into WoW after a super long hiatus

Hey all,

Haven't posted on this site since I was in a top 100 guild back in the Ulduar/ToC days. Pally tanking has completely changed hasn't it. I'll go ahead and post my gear link http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/m ... s/advanced

Two major things. One, i'm fairly certain my itemization is about as good as it gets for the gear that I have. A friend wanted me to jump into his raid group right away, so I geared up to this point in about two weeks and have been running a 10 man group since, so I'm working with what I've got. They now want me tanking their heroic 10 man group in 508 gear, which is kind of insane. Any tips would be appreciated.

Also, im a bit confused about rotation. I understand how haste interacts with holy power generation and works to increase both threat and survivability, but I can't seem to find a solid rotation, or even priority list, to go by, especially in heroics. I did my first heroic jin'rokh last night, and was actually only the problem once on the lightning ball phase (I did a stint in SWTOR and my Soa practice came in use). Other than that, I simply was having to have the main monk tank back off his threat so I could hold when I needed to, and was taking more damage, but we assume its mostly because of gear.

In normal modes, i've never had any problems tanking anything, but this has led to probably a sloppy rotation. I've started playing much like playing a series of notes on a keyboard. Excluding cooldowns on consc/light's/ss/etc, i'm using the lack of a GCD on wog to my advantage. I have avengers set in 1 (a habit from LoL of using mostly my ring through pointer fingers for everything), WoG on 2, Holy Wrath on 3, CS/ HotR on 4 depending, and Judgement on 5. My rotation ends up looking like 1 - 2/4 - 2/5 - 2/4 - 3 - 2/4 - 2/5 - 2/4 - 1 - etc. Basically, i'm rotating in my longer cds while using wog every time I have the holy power to do so. I only build up SotR while not taking direct damage for a burst heal when i taunt off (something like jin'rokh) or when i'm taking damage in bursts with long waits in between (also happens on jin, a few other bosses depending on what is going on). When rapid damage is going on, or I feel like heals are slacking, i'm hitting judge or cs and wog at the same time like a piano cord to get rapid self healing.

I can't really decide what is the optimal mix of bastion stacks and amount of holy power (1-3) poured into WoG to maximize my tanking. I want to be as efficient as possible because I'm really being overstretched in heroics right now and don't want to slow anything down. I've done a lot of looking on post-5.2 stuff trying to figure out if anyones come up with a reliable mix, but nothing yet. My GM commented that I need to be making more of a dent in the healing charts, and I don't know if its gear or if I need to be investing more holy power into WoG or if I need to start stacking bastion.

Thanks - Cpt

First, if you feel you are undergeared for the situation, use 2 stamina trinkets, stamina enchant on cloak and gloves (LW patch), and stamina gems (perhaps Stamina/Expertise and Stamina/Haste to fill up set bonuses). Haste is not our best survivability stat. It's a good survivability stat that also gives tons of DPS. Your primary concern is survivability. Also, ask them for haunted spirits to craft the 522 Haste/Mastery helmet and boots. Those are really nice and should help you catch up.

Second, try focusing on SotR, rather than WoG. Like WoG, SotR is off the GCD, but it actually prevents damage, rather than heal it back up. WoG has it's uses, but keep it as an emergency heal.

As for spending HoPo, try to always stack to 5 HoPo before pushing SotR, and then if possible, wait for a HoPo generator to become available soon (CS/HotR, Judge, AS with GC). By spending it at 5 HoPo, and then using a HoPo generator after, you're back on 3 HoPo, and can react to a sudden situation with SotR or WoG.

As for the rotation, we have a priority list:

Above 20% enemy life: CS/HotR, Judgment, AS, HW, Consecration, L90 talent.
Below 20% enemy life: CS/HotR, Judgment, AS, L90 talent, HW, HoW, Consecration.

Basically, that comes down to the following rotation:
CS/HotR - Judgment - X - CS/HotR - X - Judgment - CS/HotR - X - X - (repeat)

Where we fill X with AS if it's up, or any of the other abilities when AS is not up.