downranking : when to do it and which skills to do it too.

so yeah, im having some serious mana conservation issues, i have about 4700 mana and i use max rank everything (so now you're thinking, "well no shit you go out of mana so fast") well and heres my other problem, i done know what to downgrade.

HS - maybe, but the difference of mana in rank one and max rank isn't really that signifigant methinks, maybe im wrong?

conc - if you cant keep up with the mages\other DPS, you don't hold aggro (maybe it's less usefull max rank on single mob vs your group tho?)

AS- its used mainly to get a jump on threat, so why down-rank it when that means less threat? and the same argument can be said for just about all of the other main rotation skills, so, i was wondering if someone could give some detailed insight of what to downrank and when, prehaps (if it is situational) you should downrank what

thanks alot

~@~bob
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Well, it depends on what your facing. I'm going to assume this is for 5-mans, because in most raid settings, you'd be taking enough damage for blue rage to come into effect.

HS is probably your best bet, once threat is established and you've got a significant lead in threat, you can drop down to rank 1, and just use it for the block bonus, and rely on your other skills to generate agro (JoR, Consecrate, etc.) Rank 1 HS costs less then half the mana of rank 4, but, before JoC/sanctity/your own SD, it still does 174 threat/block, as opposed to rank 4's 460. There is a significant drop, yes, but downgrading should only ever be used when threat isnt that big of an issue. It's just the tradeoff you make.

Also, this may sound like a silly question, but I know there are some people who do the 10/51/0 prot paladin build, but you do have benediciton to 5, right? Tis a significant mana discount.

But really, both of those are just a stopgap. For a paladin tank to be really effective and mana efficient. you need to find that sweetspot between damage taken and total mitigation, where the blue rage exists. Check with your healers to make sure they're not shielding you as you enter combat, and if they are, ask for HoTs instead. If at all possible, take on multiple mobs at once. Short of a boss, where you'll be taking enough damage anyway, a paladin working on a single mob while others are available is just a waste. Realistically, for a decently equiped, for the content, paladin, with an equally decently equiped healer, three or four elites at once should be no issue for you. If both of you know what you're doing, its more like 6 or 7. Don't be afraid to test those limits. If all else fails, take your pants off.

I only downrank consecration and, if mana is very low, holyshield.
In 25man raids, i only use AS rank1 since the other tanks were complaining that they couldn't get the mobs off me with rank3 after the pull.

Personally I use these macros for consecration and hs.
You can see the basic use, just change the spells and the rank to your needs.

one answer could also be to replace your +def stats items for stam/spell dmg items for that instance, or get a better healer. I never downrank and due to gear replacing i'm never oom, and it always helps to have more threat doesn't it ?
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I only downrank concercration if needed. My goal is to keep everything on cooldown to max out my threat. If we look at the "damage per mana value" of different ranks of concercration: Even with lilltle spelldamage, rank 1 has a higher value than rank 6!
So for our overall threat it is better to drop 2x rank 3 instead of 1x rank 6 and then wait for 8 more seconds again without having the mana to use concercration at all.

Of course this all depends on the situation. If there is plenty if time to build up aggro and all i would have to tank is hitting me like level 1 rats, i'd end up using rank 1.
But if there is an add on which i have to build a lot of threat on very fast, i use rank 6 of course.

Using: Rank 1, Rank 3 and Rank 6
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Paladins do it with... Protection!

Never messed with downranking while tanking, I would usually just use a mana injector and just use up mana pots as the boss fight went on to make sure I have enough mana to continue casting.

Another trick if you have enough spelldamage gear is to switch your judgements, and use wisdom to get your mana back, and then switch back to a damage seal.

Even in 25 mans I found that I ran low on mana even as main tank. If your using all your powers to do the fastest possible threat gen you will burn out your mana pool.

Mana pots always seemed to work for me, get expensive, but doing 25 man raids isnt exactly cheap lol.

1 3 6 consec, 1 or max hs
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In 5-mans, I tank with Seal of Wisdom and Judge of Wisdom and spamming max ranc conc. It sounds bad on paper but try it - even with only 200SD!
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Yes, I have ret gear too.

In 5 mans you will probably run out of mana. It isn't until you're in a raid with more than one healer on you that you reach that wonderful "infinite mana" situation.

If the mobs aren't too tough you can use BoW instead of BoK/BoSanc.

In 5-mans you will rarely have to use more than Rank 4 of consecrate. I used to use R3, but I switched up to R4 now that I'm doing heroics. I might switch back. Due to coefficients R6 is only about 20% more TPS than R4 I believe, but it costs 50% more mana. Not usually worth it.

With my 200ish SD and SotC up my R1 ticks for 50 for only 100 mana. If I have a threat lead I'll just keep that one up for the 100 TPS.
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No really, I'm not addicted.

http://armorylite.com/us/Silvermoon/Spectrum

Once when we were troubleshooting display issues for our warrior tank (he's on a mac, and couldn't see the consecration effect. Which is bad on Council), I put Rank 1 cons on my bar so I could spam it for him while he tinkered with his settings.

The next day we went into Hyjal.

And couldn't figure out why we were losing a warlock or mage every wave.

Then we figured it out. "Oh," someone said. "This must be what Hyjal is like without tankadins."

Because of that, I modified my consecration macro thusly:

This right here is coming from the 5 man PRO... me.

Use rank 3 concecration. max rank holy shield( most threat). use judgments on the mob that is markded skull.

if you need to use judgements on x and whatever your second/third kill target is.

As you start to get better gear/ PULL MORE!!!! then just use one or two max rank concecrates. then back to rank 3. also the more adds you have on you the ezier your threat is on them.. if you have a lock fire shield is the pwnage.... druid thorns. always use retribution aura and blessing of kings.

If you have a a holy paladin, which you shouldn't have in a 5 man unless your desperate for a healer have him bless you with wisdom if you dont need light on you.

shadowpriest are great for 5 mans. in 25 mans just dont even let the mages sheep. I just hit concecrate anyways becuase seriously people are more likely to die by me worrying about CC. Plus again the more your tanking the better.

When a mage ask what his sheep target is. Ask Whats Sheep?


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