While you’re leveling you’re always hunting for the best gear, and IMHO good Tank gear is not as common as other stuff. As you get to 70 that gear continues to improve well past the pre-70 items.
But I’ve noticed that as a Paladin Tank you need to swap gear out if you’re doing a lower level instance (downranking gear rather than spells). This is so that you’re not as tough as you are normally.
You’ll actually take damage, so you can get healed; and continue to load threat where you need to.
Q. How rare are pre-70 Paladin tanks, and what can we expect?
A. Its a bit complex, and overall Paladin Tanks seems far more rare pre-70 than they do at 70, and far rarer than Druid and Warriors; which makes sense I suppose. Of the three types of paladins I think you see the least Holy, but Prot is still rare. Pre-70 you can expect the gear to be pretty average, and until the Paladins get some of the funky abilities post-61, they’ll be keeping a conservative edge. Which is not a bad thing.
The good ones will have done some research, perhaps at WoW’s forums, MainTankadin, or many other places. With Prot being so popular in Instances now the high 68s and 70s are there, and folks really are now open to Paladins as good options.
Q. So what scores and stats should you aim for when down-ranking, whats the approx average out there?
A. Here is a quick score summary of the Protection spec Paladins who I inspected over the past few days. Where there were a few, I’ve tried to take a sensible average, and also mix in some health and defense values from Druids and Warriors too. It never hurts to know what the other guys have.
L58-59 – Health 4600, Mana 3000, Def 310, SpDam 40
L61 – Health 4930, Mana 3470, Def 359, SpDam 36
L62 – Health 6000, Mana 3000, Def 330, SpDam 16
L63 – Health 5500, Mana 3800, Def 366, SpDam 58
L64 – Health 7230/4025, Mana 3840/2143, Def 340/336, SpDam 104/?
L65 – Health 8082, Mana 3102, Def 405, SpDam 218
L66 – Health 6600/8277, Mana 6050/5606, Def 352/381, SpDam 181/255
L68 – Health 7581/6800, Mana 6570/6300, Def 386/372, SpDam 259/279
What surprised me about this was the total mishmash of scores in these stats. There seemed to be no consistency, and while that might back-up my comment about gear, it does seem odd.
Outcomes
So I guess this means that as long as you gear down far enough to get hurt, you’ll be ok. Stay above 8k health, and concentrate on mana or getting hurt to keep your spells flowing. I saw a tip that sitting down would automatically get you crit, so that’s worth remembering too.
You should also keep in mind that there are a few good things you can do if you’re seriously over geared for an instance. If the group can handle it I enjoy pulling x2 sets of pulls at a time, and then chain pulling to speed things along. With the wrong group this can hurt; but if your healers are on the ball, and the DPS watch their threat (yup I know), then you can speed run Instances.
This might be better than down gearing, as you can hold a stack of mobs as a over geared prot pally, and that also means the healers only really need to stress about you, not the other dps folks. I’l give this a try soon.
TyphoonAndrew's - Eye of the Storm 
One of the most fun instance runs I have ever done was Heroic Shattered Halls with our pally tank. His threat generation was so good I was able to totally unleash with the DPS. Good time, good times 🙂
I’ve considered building up a second set of blue/T4 level gear for tanking 5-mans in, but ultimately, my bags are full enough as it is–why make things even worse? If I’m having too many mana problems (usually the case in heroic BM, or while trying to speed-run an instance before dailies reset), I just downrank my skills. It only takes a few seconds to drag rank 3 Consecration, rank 1 Avenger’s Shield, and rank 1 Holy Shield onto my bars, and doing so generally lets me get through an instance with only a couple of mana breaks. DPS has to be a little more careful at the start of pulls, but overall, it makes for a much faster run.
I find having offset items really handy, particularly trinkets.
Chained Essence of Eranikus, and the Figurine of the Colossus make for seriously fast runs.
Also meant to say that the gear I swap over to is gear from the other sets. The +spelldam on an offset healing item can generate more threat than some gear focused on Defense, so I switch. Also there are those items that offer a slight bump up in my DPS set that are good to switch into when lowbie tanking.
They are quite rare but I find that they are mostly more skilled than the lower level warriors and droods.
samownall – Wow Blogger
The rarity of a Pally Tank could be due to teh speed at which you level outside Instances. The Prot spec is slow for leveling. I’d recommend anyone playing a Paladin to level quickly through to at least 65-66, then think about when they will switch. There is nothing wrong with getting to the later levels faster, and that does not mean you can’t grab the quest rewards to assist with Tanking.
I’ve also heard say that Pally Tanking is easier than Warrior and Druid tanking, as the group threat generation simple, based upon Consecrate. Grumble.
While I think it is a touch easier, as you don’t have to switch targets as much, I’d offer that all three classes have strengths that the others lack. Calling it easier implies that it takes less skill to do, but doing it is not the issue. Its doing it well that counts.
eg. Druid Tanks have a bucket load of HP and Armour, and can Swipe for multi-target aggro. I’ve been playing around with a Druid in Bear form for a week or so, and can see pulls where you have only a few targets being faster with a Bear or Warrior, as they don’t have to rest for mana.
That said, if I know a player is new to a role, I’d rather them play within their limits and let the group know they’re inexperienced. The group might be able to compensate, and the player can learn.
First post – been reading your blog for a while and I enjoy it, so I guess it’s time I start chiming in.
When running lower instances, I generally use seal/judgement of wisdom, and keep the seal active to keep the mana flow going. The only thing I downrank is Consecrate because it’s so mana consuming. I keep rank 6, 3, and 1 ready, watch my threat meter, and use accordingly. I keep two pieces of the Dungeon 3 set (Righteous Armor) for the set bonus (15% less mana used on consecrate) and keep trucking along. I also use Libram of Eternal Rest for more Consecrate damage (higher threat). I also use Blessing of Sanctuary because I end up blocking a ton. Between that, I don’t have to drink but maybe once or twice throughout the whole instance, and still no problems with threat.
As for lower level prot pallies, I see a lot of them as of late due to the ability to AOE grind.
Hey – Anon, good to meet you.
I like what you suggested about the Righteous set bonus, I’ll have to look into that. I use the +Consecr libram too as there is nothing better imho. At times I’ll pop on Kings instead of Sanct too, as getting hit helps my mana (not sure it helps the repair bill though).
Having tanked as a pally, druid and warrior to 70 and in heroics and such I can say that druid tanking is by far the easiest. Correct pally tanking requires timing, positioning and good judgement. With no spammable aggro abilities a poor choice at any point in a fight can spell doom for eager dps or the healer. Admittedly the paladin taunt is the best evar!
Warriors have the hardest time, what with button mashing (though also the most challenging and fun) at least when considering tanking multiple targets.
Any feral druid can merely spam lacerate, swipe and mangle every 6 seconds. Even a poor druid tank can do well enough on threat, and even gear is far less important than other tanks.
Just my 2c
It’s a good libram in my opinion too, at least until you get 15 badges for Libram of Repentance. I wouldn’t waste my time farming it, but I’d definitely use it if it happened to drop.
As for the Righteous set, it doesn’t hurt to have 4 for the Righteous Defense cooldown, but I wouldn’t waste time farming it either. Although, the two piece set bonus is well worth the time spent.
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