WoW: How Rivs Got his Tanking Groove Back
Like Stella I lost my groove, as a Tank. I use to play as a Warrior alot, until I got burnt out, and switched to the mage. Whom I still love. But I wanted to try something different. Thats why the Reroll as a Pally. So it’s been years since I tanked a mob, well besides Frost Mage Tanking. Running into a group of mobs with Ice Barrier on, Arcane Blasting the whole lot doesn’t count I think.
Well a guildie asked me last night to tank as a pally in Razorfen Kraul. I use to be a warrior, the playstyle is way different. I was a little rough around the edges. But when I found my groove, it was some good fun. I miss my warrior of days of old, and being the guy to take a beating. It was some good fun, and a great learning experience
In the beginning, my hot bars were all jacked up. I didn’t have any tanking abilities on them. I was acting like a scared cat, cause it’s been literally years since I tanked. The guildie the priest was insane funny, he was pulling pigs at one point, and I would pull them off him. I was so surprised that the pally could tank 5 or 6 mobs at a time. I was like, “Hold on I need mana.”, he was like, “Judgement of Wisdom, Fool!” The priest helped me out alot to find my tanking groove.
I am only level 27, and retribution specced. So I know I don’t have all the abilities I should for a real Pally tank. I want to switch to protection spec, but I’m afraid of how is the leveling going to be. I hear protection spec is awesome from some people, but I’m not so sure.
Any tips for a leveling newb Pally?
A High Latency Life 
July 16, 2009 at 4:02 pm
That’s right, you were never in my groups back in the day when I was tanking instances. Like the one with the red orcs, I would have damn near ten of those bastards on me at once.
Leveling, I always preferred Ret. You can kill singles pretty damn quick, but can also handle things if you get a add or two. Never really liked the prot leveling.
July 16, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Yeah I just knew you as my healing biotch. Ever get that Maiden Hammer? LOL! I remember it dropped for me at least 20 times.
July 16, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I leveled my paladin holy during BC, but from 70-80, I leveled as prot, because I refused to be a retardin.
It. Was. AWESOME.
It basically goes like this: You keep up Blessing of Wisdom and Seal of Wisdom at all times, and Judge Wisdom. Therefore, you don’t fly through mana as quickly. Then you round up 4-5 mobs at once (maybe more if you have Holy Shield) and you alternate on each target, judging between Light and Wisdom, so that at any given moment you’ll be gaining back both health and mana (if you get in a bind, judge light a lot and you’ll be fine). Simply consecrate every 15 seconds (it’s an expensive spell so you don’t want to use it every CD) and keep up Holy Shield once you have it, and the mobs will effectively kill themselves trying to kill you.
Here’s a link to my build–I opted for the “696969696969” rotation, and I like it.
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=2&tal=000000000000000000000000000500513520310232133331232151130050000200000000000000
Just don’t overestimate what you can handle and you’ll be fine. Glyph of Lay on Hands is nice because you can use it when in a bind and the CD is reduced by 15 minutes. It’s just a spell, so use it when you have to. Never be afraid to bubble and heal yourself–it’s why we have it.
I think leveling as ret and prot are of comparable speeds, since Ret will likely have MUCH more downtime. Additionally, you’re much more likely to be invited to instances, as tanks always have/always will be harder to find than anything else.
July 16, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Yes, I’m going to vote ret for leveling as well. I know my roommate leveld mostly prot on hers but when she switched to ret she never looked back for leveling, prot took her forever to kill things.
July 16, 2009 at 6:49 pm
If you go prot, your advantages are that you can AoE large groups of mobs at once. Toss up a Seal of Wisdom/Light, pull a large group of melees or LOS a mixed group of melee/ranged, drop a concecrate, judge widom/light, and let your retribution aura+concecrate+shield spike kill off everything that you’re not focus-firing.
July 17, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Stay ret, under level 60 you can tank as ret as well. just keep the 1-h-weapon and the shield. try to get some tanking stuff as well and even as a retradin there should be any problem.
note: keep the aggro buff up while tanking!