Threat generation in WoW: A Paladin How To Guide
Posted on July 25th, 2009 by Lawbringer under Addons, Alliance, Build, Efficiency Tips, General Tips, Horde, Instances, Mods, Paladin, Patch, Raiding, Spec, Tanking, Warrior, World of Warcraft, WotLKEverything you need to know to FaceRoll your way to 10K threat
So far we’ve covered: The Basics, Combat Ratings and Gearing Philosophy. Today we’ll go over the hit tables and how to generate threat … and keep it!
But before we go into threat, it may be a good idea to cover just how Blizzard deals with the Hit Tables. When you read somewhere that you have an 18.54% chance to crit or that you have a 8% chance to miss how does that get factored in ?
Most people are under the impression that every one of those “rolls” is separate and sequential but that is false! In fact there is only one roll for every ability/spell/action that you do, it just gets divided up into %s. Say you have 5% chance to miss (not Hit capped), 5% chance to get Dodged, 5% chance to get parried, 5% chance to get Blocked and 15% chance to crit: the Roll would look something like this
- 01 -05 : Miss
- 06 – 10 : Parry
- 11 – 15 : Dodge
- 16 – 20 : Block
- 21 – 85 : Hit
- 86 – 100 : Crit
One /roll is done on your behalf (or the mob’s behalf) and the result is plugged into this matrix. In reality it’s much more like a /roll 10,000 to factor in the fractions 14.54% chance to crit but you are getting the picture, and the same thing goes on for the mobs.
If you have a 5% chance to be missed, 20.25% chance to Parry, 22.50% chance to Dodge, 27.9% chance to Block (because you read the previous article and built a block set before the patch) and have 540 Defense Rating, the mob’s hit table for attacking you might look something like this
- 0.01 – 5.0 : Miss
- 5.01 – 25.25 : Parry
- 25.26 – 47.75 : Dodge
- 47.76 – 75.65 : Block
- 75.66 – 100.00 : Hit (0% crit)
Now these base values are obviously modified by talent Procs and abilities: If Holy Shield is active then your chance of getting hit for the full amount go down by 30% and you block goes up by 30%. If Redoubt procs at the same time (10% chance) then your chance to block goes up by another 30% and so on and so forth.
The important thing to note here is that every one of those 3 stats has a direct impact on your chance to get hit. The more Dodge, Parry and Block you can get the less you’ll be getting hit. Obviously you can’t go below 0% chance to get hit, but you should be starting to get the picture.
Generating Threat
Now, let talk about Threat baby, let’s talk about you (the Mob) and Me (Paladin), let’s talk about all the things we love (Loot), Let’s talk about Threat! (Ok, that was a really bad Salt’n Pepa spoof, so let’s get on with the show)!
A paladin’s primary Threat generating ability is Righteous Fury(RF) and all Holy damage. All of the paladin’s abilities are Holy damage, except the “white” melee swings. As a matter of fact, a paladin can turn off RF after he’s done with his adds and just DPS the boss without pulling threat on the boss if the Main Tank(MT) has sufficient aggro. Without Righteous Fury the Prot Paladin is just another (weak) DPS in the raid.
I personally don’t do this since it’s not a bad idea to have someone take up the boss if the MT goes down. Taking the time to turn RF on may be the difference in completing the fight without any other casualties and wiping. Every paladin tank has at some point wiped the group before realizing that RF wasn’t up – it’s n00b thing to do … slap yourself and don’t do it again 
Paladin: your only means of generating threat is damage done.
You should also bear in mind that you only have 3 ways to get mana back without having to resort to the 4 stacks of mana pot you have in your bags at all times. On a side note here: if bag space is at a premium, use Mana Inector Kits to make Runic Mana Injectors:
- You get mana back by Dodging, Blocking and Parrying.
- You get mana back from getting healed ,thanks to Spiritual Attunement.
- You can get mana back from Judgment of Wisdom if it’s being used.
Key threat generating abilities to include in our rotation:
These are you biggest assets while generating threat, everything else is fluff when it comes to Threat. That’s not to say that other abilities don’t have their uses in certain situations but when it comes to threat these are your bread and butter.
Avenger’s Shield: (30 Sec CD) One of your premiere pulling moves that hits and silences up to 3 targets. It does cost quite a bit of mana however and if you’re getting low you can skip it. It does have a silence and a stun component to it which makes it great for pulling caster-types but you’ll want to get in there pretty quickly afterward since the stun component won’t let them get very far. Remember to time yourself – even if it comes up again you should save it for the next pull since it has the longest CD of any of your abilities.
Judgment of Light / Wisdom: (8 sec CD with Talents) By now I hope you’ve figured out how to use these, and if you’re running with another paladin you should each be using different judgments, since they stack. As a rule of thumb, Holy Pallys will judge Wisdom and Ret Pallys will judge Light. Just be aware and verify if you’re not sure: ” Hey _____ , you’re judging Light right?”
Shield of Righteousness: (6 sec CD) This ability will represent 25% of your DPS and is your biggest asset. It can also be used to boost threat on a lone mob that you are trying to taunt off the healers or to solidify your threat in anticipation of a DPS’ AoE burst. It should always be used in your rotation and usually right after your Judgment if you are using the Libram of Obstruction (Purchased for a modest 15 Emblems of Heroism) . It’s the ability that hits the hardest (3-7K hits and 6-14K crits : ) and builds burst aggro. It’s the one ability you want to get off on “Skull” before you start building threat on the rest of the mobs. You should also remember that this ability scales directly with Block Value.
Hammer of Righteous: (6 sec CD) This is another reason why Paladins are the premiere multi-mob tanking class. This is one of your abilities that will benefit the most from a better weapon and more Strength/AP
Holy Shield: (Lasts 10 sec with 8sec CD) This is a very situational ability but I include it in my rotation all the time to guarantee a 100% up time. If I was the OT and went back to hitting the boss after my adds are dead I would skip this to conserve mana. On multi-mob pulls however, it’s essential to keeping aggro while your casters are going all out with AoE.
Consecrate: (8sec CD) Every inch of the ground that paladins are standing on should be Consecrated. This is yet another essential ability for multi-mob tanking. It’s more free DPS … and DPS = Threat for Paladins.
Exorcism: (15 sec CD) A little free damage thrown in for good measure but this ability is receiving a significant change in patch 3.2 to where it will have a 1.5 sec cast time. Cast time makes this very undesirable since you can’t DP&B during that time and getting hit will increase your total cast time by 1sec (.5sec*2) 2.5 sec represents almost 2 entire GCDs, and your time could be better spent elsewhere. So, until 3.2 goes live include it whenever it’s up but be aware of the upcoming change.
Finally you have these two which are more situational in use:
Hammer of Wrath: (6 sec CD)This ability only becomes available once the target is below 20% health, and is a welcome addition to your rotation, again – a free, instant cast, single target DPS ability.
Hand of Reckoning: (8 sec CD) Currently only useful as a taunt, it generates initial aggro but if you don’t do some actual damage on the target before the taunt wears off you’ll lose it and it’ll go right back to smacking the healers. After 3.2 however, this ability will generate real DPS-based threat as well to any target that is not attacking you.
Our next article will feature a Rotation theory, go more in depth in the abilities you should be familiar with as well as list everything you should have on your task bars.
Now get out there and DOMINATE!
Articles in this thread:
Part 1 – The Basics
Part 2 – Combat Ratings
Part 3 – Armor: Mitigation vs. Avoidance
Part 4 – Hit Table and Threat Generation (You are here)
Part 5 – Abilities and Rotation
Part 6 – Professions and Upgrades
Part 7 – Buffs and Starter Gear
Mine is 72, and from what i’ve done, good tanking gear while leveling up is hard to find. Trying to get him to 80, but leveling is just soo boring!
Oh, and “3 Comments”… Not seeing them
My pally is 73 and I am dreading Zul Drak again and a few other areas. Just focusing on the goal of 80
If you are going to go with judgement of wisdom on a boss, you should also mention Seal of Wisdom, which gives more mana. In almost all fights, you’d want to have judgement of light up over judgement of wisdom to help the healer anyway. I agree that Seal of Vengeance is your premier tanking seal, especially with the damage buff in 3.2, but remember that specific to the fights, you may want to consider Seals of Light/Wisdom.
Also, i seriously question your first way of getting mana back, at the very least until the 3.2 launch, and then its a tossup. Until 3.2, sanctuary does not give you the 10% stamina buff. So it gives you a 3% damage reduction and a small mana regen but no extra hp. Lets assume your a baddie prot tank and have 30k hp base. Pop on you BoK for 10% extra, now you have 33k. So the amount your ardent defender procs on goes from 10500 to 11550. The difference there is 1050, and you get an extra 30% reduction on that so BoK gives you essentially 315 extra damage you can take. Sanctuary reduces damage taken by up to 3%, which is almost similar, but you dont get the extra str. for the damage on abilities that way either. Obviously both numbers go up as your abilities go up…your not going to have a scrub 30k tank in ulduar, and your not going to be taking only 4-6k like you do in heroics either. Personal opinion in a solo pally raid is BoK for me, as healers enjoy the larger ardent defender range over the 3% reduced damage for now.
Oh, and now that im thinking about it, you didn’t cover the most important way to get mana back here, your divine plea and glyph. Prots glyphs right now should have divine plea, hammer of the righteous, and another of your choice. I use judgments for my 3rd major glyph. But any self respecting pally is going to throw on divine plea right at the beginning of the fight, maybe even before the pull as you have 15 sec to refresh it, and that provides a lot of extra mana. Prot pallys should not ever be having mana issues
Yeah, Divine plea is part of the next article. I had to truncate this one because it was too long. I got Blessings covered in the next article too
Paladins are so versatile that there are almost always more then 1 present in any raid, in that context, it doesn’t matter as much who judges what as long as both judgments are being judged (Light and Wisdom).
Remember James, you have probably forgotten more about tanking as a paladin then most people reading this have ever known
But I do appreciate your feedback, keeps me on my toes.
(You sure you don’t want to write an article or two for us ?)
id love to write articles, its just every time i think about something to write about, i question whether its already been done or whether my perspective is actually viable. I have one of every class and have tried most specs. As a tank, ive also had to learn what other classes can do so that i can plan out each encounter to the fullest.
For example, i am a big fan of discipline priests over holy. Mitigation>bomb/crit gambling in PVE IMO.
I enjoy the arcane spec over both fire and frost.
So there are many things i could cover class-wise that are very subjective. Even here under the prot heading we’ve discussed back and forth different methods of tanking, almost every class, and even inside of every talent tree there are very subjective choices that actually will change your play style and abilities dramatically.
I could write about many achievements considering i have a lot for what i consider casual playing. The thing with achievements is that i feel that they are pretty self descriptive, although now that i think about it, since they closed the gaps in the Glory of the Hero exploits, some of those are pretty tough.
In wow, every little thing counts. Thats why i critique articles in here, just a slightly different rotation/talent setup or anything could make a lot of difference. A friend of mine in my guild switched from BM to survival as 3.1 launched. They saw no dps improvement, even after getting help with their rotation and talking with high dps hunters about what they were doing. Turns out a few weeks later they found out they forgot to train Explosive Shot up from rank 1, now they see a nice jump in dps. Tiny things make all the difference.
This is one of the best set of articles I’ve read for tanking as a pally, with every stat and important skill covered. But I only have a druid that i am leveling to tank and heal (primarily healing, only have a lock at 80 atm). Having read the other articles here on druid healing, I think I have a strong handle on it. But reading these has made me want to tank on him as well. If there is any chance of having a similar set of articles for the druid class written, please do so!
thanks
druids are a unique bunch. Because your are defense capped with talents and can’t wield a shield, there are very specific gear your get to go for, and the tanking rotation is just a few abilities.
The hard part with druid tanks is more that they are heavy but steady damage taking tanks.
Don’t forget about Judgement of Justice. This may seem silly since it has no practical effect on bosses, but in a properly stacked raid environment, it’s what the tank should be using.
Judgement is important for a tank to keep up thanks to Judgements of the Just (20% slow on the boss). However, you must be using a different Judgement than anyone else, otherwise someone else will overwrite yours and the slowing effect will be lost until you refresh it.
Paladins of all specs use Judgement as part of their rotation. Ret pallies should be judging Light because their Light heals more than the others. Holy pallies typically judge Wisdom. That only leaves Justice.
As pointed out above, confirm this with the other pallies in your group/raid to make sure your judgement is the only one of its kind.
This is very true, but read the spell description carefully
Unleashes the energy of a Seal spell to judge an enemy for 20 sec, preventing them from fleeing and limiting their movement speed.
It only affects Movement Speed … not attack speed, so yes it could be a viable option if you are kiting a boss and need more time (Anub’Rekhan).
It can also be seen as a replacement for PoJ to a certain extent: slow down the mob instead of running faster but it does nothing for attack speed.
I read the spell as melee attack speed….
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53696
is the game not correct?
I was referring to
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53407
lol
I am a fairly new tanking pally. I got the idea to create a tank after reading one of the posts on dominate your server about how to tank effectively. I decided I wanted to try it. I created a Ret. Pally and lvled him to 60 before going Prot and Ret.
I have done several instances since hitting lvl 60 and have had both kinds of feedback on my tanking skills. I notice now that I get a lot more possitive feedback and I owe that to the posts on this site.
I do have a question. What kind of glyphs should a tanking pally be using? I don’t think I have read that in any of your posts yet. I am pretty sure I am got at least one or two of my glyphs wrong.
Thanks for all the hard work you guys do on this site.
Keep it up!!
Tazzelhoff {Burrfoot}
I’m glad that these posts are useful to you, that is after all what they were designed to do
After patch week I’ll be releasing an update to the talent build as well as an updte to the glyphs. In the mean time you can just go back to the first article in the series and open the link to “My preferred build” and if you look at the bottom right if the page you should see the glyphs as well.
Hope that helps a but while we all wait for the patch to be released,
These articles have helped me tank from level 15 to 78 so far. I’ve tanked all the instances and just idle through PvE.
Tanking can be fun but its also a lot of work in 5-mans, especially if the healers are just learning their trade.