Everything 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