Prot Paladin Tank Combat Ratings
Posted on July 6th, 2009 by Agorg under Alliance, Build, General Tips, Horde, PVE, Paladin, Raiding, Tanking, World of Warcraft, WotLKCombat Rating Statistics For Paladin Tanks – Part 2 – The Numbers
Last time we covered the basics and the Talent build. Now let’s go over the Combat Ratings and what they mean to you as a Paladin Tank and help you make sense of it all. I am just going to plow through all this because there’s quite a bit so bear with me or book mark this page for future reference since it covers almost every stat you’d like to know about.
Any tank worth his weight in a raid knows that you have to get Defense capped, be un-critable and have 540 Defense, wait … don’t those all mean the same thing?. Indeed they do:
Here’s how this works Every character has a base 400 defense skill at level 80 (5 def skill /level … like every other weapons skill in the game). Every enemy in the game has a 5% chance to land a critical hit on a player of equal level to them. This increases by 0.2% for every level of difference. Simply put a level 82 Heroics boss (max level for enemies in 5-man heroic dungeons) will have a 5.4% chance to get a critical hit on a player. Raid bosses are level 83, therefore they have a 5.6% chance to crit you.
Why so much importance on this one stat? Simple because it can make the difference between a one shot and a whole night of wipes that are all your fault! Raid bosses aren’t exactly sissies some can hit quite hard: 27-32,000 (Mitigated by Armor) points of damage on a fully decked out Plate-wearing tank is the standard for Patchwerk’s Hateful Strikes. You need 2 tanks (3 on 25-man) to take him, if he lands a single critical strike on any of the tanks they will die … period. Then with no one to absorb this, he’ll move down the list of threat until he’s wiped your entire group. So, being uncritable is ESSENTIAL to tanking.
4.92 Defense Rating = 1 Defense Skill
25 Defense Skill = -1% to get Crit
Therefore 25*5.6 = 140 Defense SKILL (above the 400 Base for being 80 = 540) to become completely uncritable. 140*4.92 = 689 Defense RATING.
Heroic bosses Only require 535 Defense Skill => 664 Defense Rating to be def capped .
Since “Tank Gear” items come with Defense Rating on them, when you see Flamewatch Armguards that have a 43 Defense Rating you should know that it translates to 8.74 Defense Skill.
The reason it’s called a “Defense Cap” is because that’s the point of diminishing returns (See below)
25 Defense Rating also give you +1% chance to be missed AND +1% chance to Dodge, Parry and Block (each). Simply put for every 123Defense RATING (=25 Defense SKILL) beyond your “cap” you won’t gain any more crit reduction (can’t go below “0″) but you’ll still benefit <=1% avoidance (Hit, Dodge, Parry. ( Keep reading for Block)
Dodge Rating: 39.53 Dodge Rating = +1% chance to Dodge an enemy attack. This stat is affected by Diminishing returns. It is a rather complex and complicated formula that will not be covered by this guide. Suffice it to say that the above ratio changes boyond 25% and it take quite a bit more to get to 26%.
Parry Rating: 49.18 Parry Rating = +1% chance to Parry an enemy attack. Just like Dodge this is subject to Diminishing returns but you can see that it’s not as valuable as Defense rating for adding avoidance. Parrying an attack means that your next weapon swing (white strike) will happen faster. Obviously this has more impact on slower (2-Handed) weapons but since regular melee attacks count for a smaller portion of your DPS (and Threat), it’s not as valuable as other stats.
Block Value: This is simply the amount of damage blocked by your shield when you successfully block an attack 1 Block Value = 1 Point of damage blocked
Block Rating: 16.29 Block Rating = +1% chance to block. It is important to note that this stat DOES NOT suffer from diminishing returns. Where block Value was the amount blocked, Block Rating is the % chance of actually blocking.
Now bear in mind that depending on the circumstances, it is generally better to avoid damage altogether (Avoidance) then have it reduced (Mitigation), but there will be an entire chapter dedicated to this discussion later on in the series. Suffice it to say for this chapter that Block is by far the cheapest stat to attain (per point).
On a side note to this Block Value is reportedly getting a massive increase in the next patch (3.2) but we’ll get into more detail when we cover gearing strategies and Avoidance vs. Mitigation in our next article
Hit Rating: 32.79 Hit Rating = +1% chance to Hit with Melee and ranged attacks. All DPS should be familiar with this particular stat. For Paladins (and all Melee) the hit cap is 8% (5% base +1%/level difference). 5+3 = 8%. Therefore (8*32.79) you need 263 Hit Rating to be Hit Capped, and although it is important to some degree it is far less important then Defense Rating.
26.23 Hit Rating = +1% chance to Hit with Spells … but for Paladins this only applies to Righteous Defense, so we won’t be spending any more time on Spell hit Rating. Just know that Casting and Melee are different and that for all intents and purposes the Protection (and Retribution) Paladin is considered a Melee class
Armor Penetration: 12.31 Armor Pen = +1% of your target’s armor is ignored. Armor Penetration basically ignores that amount of your enemy’s armor when calculating damage. Also it is one of the few stats that do not suffer from diminishing returns … the more you stack it the more you get … Because it’s %-based it has a greater impact on Melee mobs then it does on Casters (usually wearing cloth) but still counts.
Expertise: 8.2 Expertise Rating = +1 Expertise Skill (Just like Defense this can become a little confusing …) 1 point of Expertise Skill reduces the chance that your attacks will be Dodged or Parried by 0.25% each. This means that every point of expertise skill reduces the chance that your attacks will be avoided by .5%. Expertise will affect normal “White” swings and Hammer of the Righteous . Expertise will NOT affect any of the following spells: Judgments, Avenger’s Shield, Righteous Defense, Shield of Righteousness. Since these attacks cannot be Dodged or Parried (you can still miss however)
Note here that Expertise, Dodge, Parry and Armor Penetration are some of the key stats that Blizzard is using to regulate difficulty in End-Game content. This particular stat (Expertise) is more important for Melee DPS and the soft cap would only apply if you’re hitting a boss from behind. Being a tank however would make that virtually impossible. So for the Paladin tank stacking Expertise along with Hit rating is probably the best alternative since there isn’t all that much coice when it comes to gear. You can try to get a set of gear that is more focused on this stat but I would not Gem specifically for it unless I’m trying to activate a socket bonus … and even then there are other options out there (Stamina/Strength) … that we will cover in another article.
Crit Rating: 45.91 Crit Rating = +1% chance to Critically Hit. A critical hit deals double damage and although they are fun to see and look nice they are probably not as effective as Hit Rating for overall damage output and threat generation.
Haste Rating: 32.79 Haste Rating = 1% Haste. Increases auto attack speed and reduces cast time and global cool down by 1% … 1% of 150 ms … Large amounts may help a little but they are not worth gearing or gemming into especially since all of your spells/abilities are instant (Excorcism is getting a 1.5 sec cast time in Patch 3.2).
Well we covered the advanced stuff now let’s review the basics,
Strength: 1 Strength = 2 Attack Power = .14 DPS weapon damage (white swings). 2 Strength = 1 Block Value (1.3 with Talents) … and Divine Strength. Basically Strength is GOOD !
Agility: 52.08 Agility = +1% chance to Dodge and +1% chance to crit with Melee. 1Agility = 2 Armor. Not a bad stat for a tank when you look at it … Avoidance, mitigation and threat all in one, but still not nearly as efficient (Itemized) as strength.
Stamina: 1 Stamina = 10 Health. 10 Stamina = +3 Spell Power thanks to Touched by the Light talent. If you factor in Sacred Duty, Combat Expertise and Blessing of Kings that adds up to ~26% increase: 10 Stamina = 12.6 Health. You can NEVER have enough Health, it is probably the single most important stat you can get after Defense Rating. Even if you don’t hit hard or miss often, it helps you out by keeping you alive … as long as you’re alive you still stand a good chance of beating any enemy (vs instant wipe if you die…) It is the stat you should be gemming for and the higher-end gear will always have more of it. It is also cheaper as far as itemization goes: 24 Stam = 19 SP = 32 AP
Intellect: 1 Intellect = +15 Total Mana. Also 166.7 Intellect = +1% chance to Crit with Spells. The only spell that can crit is Exorcism. Every other ability uses Melee crit chance and is unaffected by Intellect… (Think Agility : )
Spirit: Increases Mana regen but is useless for a Prot paladin and negligible at best for a all paladin specs. (Although MP5 is getting a massive upgrade in Patch 3.2 it’s real effects for Prot paladin will not change)
Now that we’ve crammed all this data in your skulls and your brain cells are overheating just trying to remember it all, we’ll give you a few days to cool off before we move on to the next article in the series: The Great Debate – Avoidance vs. Mitigation.
Hopefully this gave you a better understanding of the details and the mechanics of combat so that you can get a more complete overall picture of what each of these mean to you. We’ll cover how to use them and their implications as we move along in the series. Now that we’ve laid the groundwork, get out there and DOMINATE.
Articles in this thread:
Part 1 – The Basics
Part 2 – Combat Ratings (You are Here)
Part 3 – Armor: Mitigation vs. Avoidance
Part 4 – Hit Table and Threat Generation
Part 5 – Abilities and Rotation
Part 6 – Professions and Upgrades
Part 7 – Buffs and Starter Gear
There is no Defense Cap, so those three things do not all mean the same. A cap implies that it is useless after that point, or even completely negligible. This is not the case, as 540 is actually the minimum, not the cap. Defense is not entirely a useless stat after 540 either, it does boost dodge and parry as you mentioned, although straight dodge rating is better for trying to avoid those attacks.
Another way that you can do this, if you can’t find an item with defense on it but you need more to hit the minimum of 540, you can also use resilience. A resilience of 5.6%, or 459.2 rating will actually also make you uncrittable by raid bosses. You can also mix and match your gear as well, the key here is that your combined defense and resilience make up a 5.6% reduction, which will negate the raid bosses crits.
I also thought it strange that you mentioned Expertise as a useful stat for paladins. Certainly, it is not a bad stat, but it is very much like crit for us, nice to have, useless to aim for. As you mentioned, white attacks and 1 of our spells are affected by it. Unlike warriors for example who need expertise, paladins do not.
For example, this item:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40531
is a wonderful trinket for a warrior, but not very good for a paladin tank.
Keep on writing though, it is good to let people know what the general ideas are…i still see way too many trade spams looking for a tank that isnt bad.
You are certainly correct on evrrry point
(it proved that you at least read the article LOL )
The reason I did not mention Resilience is because it is generaly regarded as a PvP star for one and it does nothing for dodge, block or party so although it can complement a weak set and get you uncritable it’s value to a tank is severely reduced.
Re-reading this I just realized that I completely forgot one of the most fundamental stays of all: Armor …
I guess I’ll just build that into part 3
Resil has no effect on any PvE encounter. This was to make it so that PvP gear would not be used for PvE tanking. In BC this stat used to work for PvE, but it was changed.
Thanks for the great series, too! I am curently leveling a Paladin to 80 (70 atm), and from level 1 I knew I wanted to mainly tank. Going through the levels Ret has made me realise something. I do not enjoy playing Ret! I plan to go Holy\Prot at 80. Anyway… These articles are very helpful and I practiced a lot of the things you talked about in the first part on my Dual Spec prot talking regular instances. Thanks for the great info there!
What would help me a lot right now is a little more info about the main tanking spells and abilities, and when to use them. I sometimes loose aggro while tanking, but at the same time are very close to going oom. I need to find a balence where I use my mana efficantly and keep aggro at the same time. Thank you a lot, and I look foward to the rest of the series.
Also, a revised talent tree soon\after 3.2 would be excelent, just to make sure I dont miss anything.
“Resil has no effect on any PvE encounter.” Got mixed up I guess. They are making it totially useless for PvE in 3.2 because of how they are changing it. Resil will reduce all damage taken.
Straight from Blizzard’s current PTR 3.2 notes:
Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.
Sounds to me like it still reduces the critical chance…in fact, if anything it sounds like its a more attractive stat(not that i would purposefully stack it but could be useful/fun to try some stuff with it)
Great info, keep it comin!
For reference, critical hits do not actually hit for double damage unless you’re a DK. The standard critical hit hits for 1.5 times normal damage, though there are a lot of talents that can increase that (idk for pallies specifically, but mages and hunters both do, for example).
I could be wrong but I believe that the 1.5 multiplier you are talking about is for casters/spells. To my knowledge Melée and ranged attacks is double Dmg on crit.
it is double damage on melee crit. Be careful not to think of crushing blow which is 1.5 damage, but was eliminated in wrath raids, as enemy mobs have to be 4+ levels higher to score a crushing blow.
Expertise isn’t really worth going for as a Prot Paly. You get enough through talents (Combat Expertise) and the glyph of vengence that if you’re lacking for threat then you should really go after +hit instead (unless capped at 8% of course).
In terms of Defence, it can actually be somewhat hard to stay about 540 when you’re just starting progression in Naxx. Keep your high defence gear around (think seal of the pantheon or titansteel shieldwall) so that you can swap your gear around to stay uncritable. Eventually you’ll get a more full set of gear at that level and your defence should climb back up naturally.
I really can’t stress enough the beauty of avoidance over mitigation. With the reworking of Hand of Sanctuary so that it gives mana on dodge/block/parry (rather than just block) and the fact that we get a free +30% boost to our shield block chance from a spell that is in our rotations anyway, we should be going after dodge almost above everything else (until the deminishing returns make it less attractive than parry – then go after parry!). The Regal Twilight Opal is an excellent choice for this as it’ll give you avoidance, health, and spell power (through stam).
If you have a good block rating of 2k and can block 50% of the time. You’ll still take 25,000-28,000 damage from some of the harder hitting bosses in the game. If you have 50% avoidance, you’ll take NO DAMAGE from half of those hits. Granted, it’s best to have 50%+ avoidance and a goodly amount of block, but avoidance is the thing that will really save you — especially if your healer is looking the other way for a second!
blessing of sanctuary has always given mana on dodge block and parry. The reworking of the blessing just also gives 10% stamina too, and that is simply so that all tanks will want that blessing instead of Blessing of Kings. Blizzard wants it so that even a DK, who wont get the mana benefit will want this because it gives 10% stamina and 3% DR.
I understand their point, i haven’t used sanctuary in almost forever unless we have 2-4 paladins in a raid/party so i can get all the buffs. Kings is much better, because it gives me more damage and it gives the extra hp, which is really what paladins want because of the argent defender range.
Funny story on the healers looking the other way…i was in a 10 man naxx run the other day just for fun, and we always do the achievement way on the Grand Widow, simply because its a little faster as long as it works. Well i was taking almost no damage during the 1 min non-enraged phase, just needing a renew/rejuv to keep me at full. Well the healers decided to focus on the raid damage and poisons, and they forgot about me after she hit enrage. We almost downed her anyway, i was just waiting for healing throwing out LoH, Divine Protection, kept Sacred shield up…and i just never see any healing numbers cross my screen. Just a funny story that we get to laugh about now, a testament to good high avoidance and timely cooldowns
thanks for the rating breakdowns, im too lazy to do the math =D. on a side note , does anyone else think warriors need a new AoE? some of the instance like HoS and HoL are really hard to tank as a warrior.
no. warriors are fine, shockwave and the like actually make them one of the premier aoe tanks atm, the only reason paladins are considered the best aoe tanks is because of nostalgia from BC. Consecration is a DoT, so we have to work on keeping aoe threat from the mages/boomkins/s priests/warlocks.
I worked as one of the two aoe tanks on the Sartharion 3d heroic encounter before 3.1 came out, and the warrior would pull the Tenebron whelps because the instant aoe threat that he could generate was much faster and better than the damage consecration would do, especially because with the amount of fire adds around too, the healing the tanks need is incredible, and consecration cannot instantly outthreat the healing.
HoS and HoL are painful instances regardless of your tank, but what i have found is that in wrath instances, if your dps is below par, you will have problems and it looks like the tank is underperforming, even though they are doing everything they can/should be doing. I know a lot of people hate them, but take a look at the overall dps meters if you have issues. A good tank should be doing 1500-2000 dps, and good dps should be over 2k. Bare minimums for heroics are 1200 for dps and 1000 for tanks. A lot of times these days i have people running their bad alts in heroics pulling 1000-1500, but i ignore it because i have a good dps or two thats over 3k. Just look at the averages.
(1) You mention that both Parry and Dodge are subject to diminishing returns, but Parry loses value MUCH faster than Dodge – to the point that a Prot. Pally should never “aim” for Parry. You will end up with a fair amount of Parry regardless of what you aim for, because it is on the gear you will be picking up anyway, but Dodge is a much preferred stat.
(2) Pallies have a much harder time generating massive health pools, unlike our brothers-in-arms Warriors, DK’s, and Druids. Despite gemming/enchanting for Stamina as much as I can, I *have* to compensate for this with avoidance and mitigation. For me, only having 5 Ulduar bosses on farm status, I just haven’t run into a lot of gear items where I am forced to choose between 2 pieces of gear of equal valuable, but one favored Avoidance and the other Mitigation. I have some (shield and legs, notably), but not a whole lot. When I find an upgrade, it is so far such a good upgrade across the board that I use it exclusively – that is, I will use an Avoidance upgrade in my Mitigation set because keeping the old Mitigation piece is a significant downgrade in overall stats. Maybe the uber-elite tanks are forced to choose between them, but I have found the best “value” to be a mix of the two, especially when taking into account diminishing returns.
Let me correct myself: I took way too long to start setting up 2 tanking sets, one for EH (Effective Health – focusing on mitigation and stamina) and one for Avoidance. Many top Pally tanks would argue for a third set (Block/threat) and even a 4th combo set (generic MT set that gives a solid combination of all stats – essentially your ‘best’ gear regardless of flavor). The newer bosses are too “one way” for a single tank set to get you through: that is, for some bosses you need to use the set that gives you massive effective health even if the gear is a lower iLevel or simply of lesser quality. Ditto for the Avoidance set. My ‘balanced’ approach works great – but only so far. Ulduar has proven me wrong. I am now wishing I had saved all the lvl 80 gear I gained but replaced….
You’re about to get conscripted into a writing position if you’re not careful there James. Send me something!
As from patch 3.2.2 Touched by the Light talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin’s strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin’s stamina
Yes!
You are absolutely correct, I believe it’s mentioned later in the series as well but thanks for bringing it up here.