Prot Paladin Log Analysis

[Vindican 2]

It's been a little while since I've personally played prot on my paladin in current content (tanked most of SoO, but went ret after that and now main a warlock), but our current prot pally has requested my assistance in helping him analyze his gameplay and offer him pointers.

 

Aside from the usual guides, etc., I'd like to be able to present to him log-based proof of things he's doing well, or needs to improve on, in order to better shape him as a tank for our raid team.

 

If any protection paladins are available for in-depth examples of log analysis, or how to use Warcraft Logs to analyze the performance of a prot pally, please help me out.

 

Latest log with plenty of fights can be seen here:  http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/3TnWmgfJMFCyYaRv

 

Our healers tend to feel he can be very spikey regarding his incoming damage, and our other tank feels he is sufficient, but has a lot of polishing to do still.

[Geoda 253]

I've had this discussion with our tanks a couple times. I'm a healer for our raid.

 

The biggest thing our tanks study is when spiked damage is incoming and using mitigation tactics to neutralize the damage as much as possible. As a protection paladin there are a few spells they can use to mitigate damage:

 

Shield of Righteousness will be used in preperation for damage while word of glory will be used on a more reactive state after damage is used. He could also use Sacred Shield for an active mitigation bubble or Eternal Flame as a rolling hot. 

 

As far as big cooldowns, he has Guardian, Divine Protection and Ardent Defender. These are his big CD's used on very high damage situations.

 

The thing about tanking and healing is that he needs to study fights and boss abilities. He should have enemy cast bars and raid timers VERY VISIBLE on his UI so he can prepare for damage spikes. 

 

Also it's worth noting that he should be in constant communication with his healers on needing a cooldown. There are many ways the healers can help with mitigating tank damage.

 

This is just high level and if you need me to discuss further I'll be more than happy to.

[Fouton 266]

He needs better gear. Every piece of gear doesn't have haste on it, and that needs to change. Haste is the best stat for a paladin, especially in keeping down how spiky he is.

 

Next, his rotation could improve greatly. When looking at his spell usage, you can see sections where he doesn't use Judgement or Crusader Strike (His two most important abilities) at all.

 

He needs to learn the Prot Paladin rotation:

CS

Judgment

Filler

CS

Filler

Judgment

CS

Filler

Filler

 

Where the fillers go in order of spell priority. The list is found in the Protection Paladin Class Guide.

 

The way he is using his current rotation, he is only getting 25%-33% uptime on Shield of the Righteous, which means it's taking him 9-12 seconds to apply the buff once. He has his 4set, which means he should (almost) never use Eternal Flame unless it won't cost Holy Power, that way his Shield of the Righteous will always being activated every 3 holy power. (The almost is in scenarios where he isn't tanking and can eternal flame a raid member)

 

He has fairly decent usage of Divine Protection, however he barely ever uses his other cooldowns. He needs to start using Guardian of Ancient Kings (50% damage reduction), Argent Defender (20% reduction) Holy Avenger (His best Offensive and Defensive CD) and Avenging Wings (on time with Holy Avenger when possible).

 

Holy Avenger should be used on CD (assuming the CD comes up while he's tanking) and timed with Avenging Wings for insane damage (Shield of the Righteous hits like a truck, so Wings with this talent makes for a huge damage gain. Using this during Heroism is even better).

 

Guardian of Ancient Kings should be used on high stacks of a tanking debuff, or when he has to tank more than he's used to tanking. You should always know when you will need this cooldown, since no boss mechanic should be a surprise. The best tank knows everything about the fight to optimize their cooldowns, boss placement, and when to use their Hand spells to save raid members.

 

He has Light's Hammer, but if his spikiness is a problem, I recommend him changing to Execution Sentence and making the macro:

#showtooltip Execution Sentence
/cast [@player] Execution Sentence

and finally, he should go with Righteous Retreat as a minor glyph so he can run for his life when it's looking grim ;)

[Cedrin 3]

Well said. What works for me is many keybinds and taking the time to know them by heart. There is maybe only a few challenging bosses to tank in regular SoO as a prot pally. I have some real crappy stats on my gear and find myself not even needing to many large CDs outside of using devine purpose , eternal flame (4set), and devine protection. One think that helps is knowing bosses and changing glyphs per boss.