Buffs you need and gear you want to have before you hit 80 or as soon as you do.

Cooking is good, Fishing is better:

Paladins are the only class that truly double dip when it comes to food: they benefit from both Attack Power AND Spell Power simultaneously (DKs get spellpower from their Str and AP mostly and not from gear). If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m talking about every Raider’s favorite: Fish Feast. Alternately when questing and getting up to 80 or if you’re feeling selfish and want to save your feasts (or can’t make them yet) you can go for the Dalaran Clam Chowder.

Seriously however, you really should consider leveling Fishing and Cooking. You will often be asked to lead groups and if you want your group to perform at its best, how can you ask them that if you’re too cheap to do it yourself? At the very least Clam Chowder for a regular buff food. The best place to “fish up a feast” is, of course, WintersGrasp. Where asides from risking a ganking at all times the three ingredients you need for fish feast are the only thing that you get out of there along with Giant Clams that contain Succulent Clam Meat for the Chowder.  In no other fishing spot will you get the chance to fish up all 3: Glacial Salmon, Muscleback Sculpin and Nettlefish. Anywhere else in Northrend, you can only find 2 out of 3 of those at the same place at best. There is both a Cooking and Fishing guide of you look through the DYS.com archives, you have no excuses.

Flasks:

There are really only 2 flasks for the Tank: depending on the situation: Flask of StooneBlood and Flask of Endless Rage. The first (Stone Blood) is THE tanking flask since you can never have enough health. I only mention the second one because that’s what I use when I’m bored in a 5-man (and have gold to burn) and want to show off my 2500DPS … as a Tank.

I wouldn’t recommend using those for 5-mans since they can be a little pricey but in a raid the Stone Blood is not really an option.

Starter gear: Crafted/purchasable items:

If money isn’t an issue for you because you’ve Mastered the AH, it should make gearing up significantly easier. There are 3 crafted (from Black Smithing) items that are perfect to start you on the road to tanking:

The real Starter set can be found here (Tempered Saronite set) All level 78 Crafted gear. When it comes to Epic items however, you’ll want:

Again if money isn’t an issue for you I highly recommend getting a Darkmoon Card: Greatness (Strength) It can be considered a DPS trinket but I still use it in Ulduar and ToC just because of the 99+330 Strength (Augmented by BoK and/or BoS), especially now (since 3.2) that your Spell Power is directly tied to that stat (60%): 66+220 SP is really not negligible thanks to Talents.

Later on, or right now if you are inclined and have even more money to spend on your Tanking set, there are a few BoE items from Naxx, Ulduar and ToC that may be of particular interest to you if they are available on the AH and if the price is right:

Should you want to splurge even more there are the new Craftable items that require Runed Orbs and or Crusader Orbs:

For a more complete overview: check out the Quick Gearing Guide for the want-to-be Raider.

Gemming and Enchanting:

You really should check out WoW-Heroes.com to get a complete overview of your character (must be 70) and see what’s missing. This site generates a gear score that most people will be referring to, it allows you to see at a glance someone’s gear and although gear doesn’t tell the whole story (Experience and Ability) seeing a Tank with a lower gear score and all of his gems slots socketed and all his gear enchanted tells me that he at least knows enough to gear up, and that more then most want-to-be tanks will bother with.

You gemming priorities should be:

  • Blue: Stamina
  • Red: Strength or combine with Blue or Yellow to activate Socket Bonus
  • Yellow: Defense > Hit rating (after Def cap) > Crit Rating but only after both Def and Hit are maxed.
  • Feel free to mix the above stats if you want to activate the socket bonus of your gear or ignore it if you have a specific goal in mind (540 Def ?)

Enchanting has already been covered in a previous article.

Gearing up to Raid:

We just published a Quick Gearing guide for the want-to-be Raider. All the information in there applies as much to Paladins as it does to any other class. This is the fastest (as of 3.2) way to gear up for Raiding. If you want more information then this guide provides we encourage you to head over to:

Both of those sites are a Fantastic source of information from Videos to every boss encounter in Azeroth to Theory Crafting like you’ve never seen it. Tank Spot has Cider’s Easy 540 Defense Gear Guide

Champion’s seals

There will eventualy be a whole article on champion’s seals, but for the purpose of Tanking as a Paladin the only item that is of value here is Axe of the Sen’Jin Protector (for the Horde) and the Teldrasill Protector (for you Alliance folks) if you are having a hard time getting the Bread Cutter (look at the animation) or the Red Sword of Courage from Utgarde Pinnacle.

Any of those 3 weapons will do but only the * Protector weapon can be purchased, where as the others depend on Blizzard’s Random Number Generator.

That prety much rounds out this section of the Paladin Guide to tanking. I’m sure that there are things I missed but this is meant as a “starter” guide for those new to Paladins or Tanking or even being 80 and less for the experienced hard core raider who already knows all this. Of course comments and feed back is greatly appreciated.

Also you can check us out in-game if you’re curious or have questions: DominateYourServer.com Guild info

Part 1 – The Basics

Part 2 – Combat Ratings

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 (you are Here)

Part 1 – The Basics

Part 2 – Combat Ratings

Part 3 – Armor: Mitigation vs. Avoidance

Part 4 – Hit Table and Threat Generation

Part 5  – Abilities and Rotation

Part 6 – Professions and Upgrades (you are Here)

Part 7 -