Protection Paladin question

[Musketeer 2]

Hello paladin fellows o/

 

I'm actually here on behalf of a friend. my tank friend was asking me about questions that I really couldn't answer, and since I had a very good experience asking my own questions here on this forum I thought it's a good idea

 

the question is, he's taking so much damage when it's physical! I mean when the majority of damage in an encounter is magical he's capable of managing it so well. But when a boss or pack of adds are hitting him physically, then the troubles begin! like the spider boss in everbloom or nerzul challenge mode.

Right now his stat priority is bonus armor > mastery > versatility > crit > multistrike > haste. and below is his armory link:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/kazzak/Snakehater/

 

We're really open to any suggestions, every single comment about the subject will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance

Edited November 25, 2014 by Musketeer

[whatthebum 3]

 

the question is, he's taking so much damage when it's physical! I mean when the majority of damage in an encounter is magical he's capable of managing it so well. But when a boss or pack of adds are hitting him physically, then the troubles begin! like the spider boss in everbloom or nerzul challenge mode.

 

 

Gear wise, it looks like everything is okay. I feel like once you hit that iLvl, your gear is good enough and it's just Min/Max-ing to achieve the ideal stat priority. (Note: We got a slight nerf in Mastery today, but the priority should still stay relatively the same, except a bump in Haste and drop in Multistrike)

Next, is making sure he's always keeping some form of active mitigation up (Sacred Shield, Divine Protection, Shield of the Righteous, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Ardent Defender). On a note for DP, I saw that he isn't glyphed for Glyph of Divine Protection, which when used on CD, provides Physical Damage reduction in exchange for less Magic Damage reduction.

I've yet to practice/master the Seraphim rotation, but this is how it goes from my understanding:
- Pool 5 Holy Power at start of fight

- Seraphim for OP PallyPower for 15 seconds

- Pool 5 HoPo during Seraphim
- Shield of the Righteous x2 for 6 seconds of mitigated damage when Seraphim ends

- Divine Protection after SotR ends for 8 seconds of mitigated damage

- Pool 5 HoPo during DP
- Rinse and Repeat

 

For me, I've been okay with taking Holy Shield as it has done well for me, and it is one less spell to worry about! Additionally, I've been using Sanctified Wrath instead of Divine Purpose or Holy Avenger for added DPS and an another HoPo generator.

 

Other than that, it comes down to smart pulls with hard CC's (why fight 5 when you can fight 2 or 3!), interrupts and/or stuns on mobs during combat (I can't express how much less it hurts when an add or two are stunned!), and, of course, good heals.

 

Hope this helps, and let us know how it goes!

[Musketeer 2]

ty so much for the tips 

 

We'll definitely try hard working on those tips, I'll be around reporting the results 

[Musketeer 2]

Just back from nerzul challenge mode. He's taking 3million from auto attack and 321k from omen of death. really dunno if it's normal or not, we just feel it's too much for physical attacks... :/

[Fouton 266]

So far I'm just playing with Seraphim. I'm not doing any rotations like listed above, and I feel I'm doing fine. Then again, I'm playing Holy Avenger, so every 4th Seraphim I become pretty much invincible until the next one, and my other large CDs can fit in as well.

 

A big thing to note is that WoG isn't super strong anymore, where as Healthstones and Healing Tonics are instantly capping HP on use. They also are off CD from DPS pots so you can also throw in some armor potions for a huge physical reduction and DPS gain. Also, I have Execution Sentence macro'd to always cast directly on me, which is a pretty juicy amount of self healing, especially when used during Seraphim. I tend to tell my healer they dont need to worry about me if I've got ES or HA ready to go on a Seraphim (usually not used together).

 

Challenge Modes are still crushing me though, so I spend a large portion of the time kiting mobs, line of sighting casters, and whatever tricks I can find to keep myself alive rather than DPS.

[whatthebum 3]

Just back from nerzul challenge mode. He's taking 3million from auto attack and 321k from omen of death. really dunno if it's normal or not, we just feel it's too much for physical attacks... :/

 

Hm, 3m from auto-attacks seems quite excessive, but don't quote me on that as I haven't been looking at my damage taken after fights; so it could very well be that high! Regardless, if he's keeping up Sacred Shield and his SoTR physical damage reduction as much as possible along with using Divine Protection on CD, it should be survivable.

 

One trick I've used during the Ner'Zhul fight was to drag him to the edge of where Ritual of Bones is heading towards, and once a path opens up and he casts one Malevolence, Speed of Light/kite him back to the middle of the room to avoid a couple seconds of melee damage! Every little bit helps!

 

And he definitely shouldn't be taking that much damage, or any for that matter, from Omen of Death! Once he sees that purple+black pool nearby, that purple beam of death is coming!

 

The only other thing I can suggest without actually seeing his play, is to stack those Mastery enchants for his neck, back, and rings, and if he can afford it, the weapon. Despite the slight nerf to our Mastery yesterday, our increased block chance and increased SoTR physical damage reduction are still our main physical damage mitigation after bonus armor. Oh, and Mastery food/elixirs/pots can definitely can go a long way!

 

A big thing to note is that WoG isn't super strong anymore, where as Healthstones and Healing Tonics are instantly capping HP on use. 

 

I totally agree with you on Word of Glory. But I still think it's still a good instant heal when I don't have any available big CDs (AD/LoH/GoAK), or just don't want to burn it yet. Typically, when I do see myself drop below 40-50% health and no incoming heal, I start pooling Holy Power to 5 with 3-5 Bastion of Glory for a quick spot heal (~10-20%) on myself in case I don't see that health bar go up. I definitely don't want to rely on it, but I see it as an easy way to help my healer catch up if there's a lot of damage coming out!

 

Also, I have Execution Sentence macro'd to always cast directly on me, which is a pretty juicy amount of self healing, especially when used during Seraphim. I tend to tell my healer they dont need to worry about me if I've got ES or HA ready to go on a Seraphim (usually not used together).

 

I honestly haven't touched ES this expansion as I've found using Holy Prism and Light's Hammer more helpful during these 5-person dungeons. I use Holy Prism primarily for single-target/boss fights and the up-to-5-person heal, and Light's Hammer for those AoE pulls and/or stacked fights, again for the damage AND utility. Pairing Seraphim and Light's Hammer on 3+ mobs is an amazing feeling. /muahaha

[Fouton 266]

I haven't tried the others myself, I feel my AoE damage is already silly cuz of my 1k haste trinket I time with Seraphim (though it might be smarter if I use it on the downtimes to even out my intake). Prism sure would be good in 5mans, I can already imagine that, I might give it a shot.

[Envec 1]

 I have found tanking in WoD a little different. I'm disgusted by the nerf to our self heal while a DK can self heal to full and not lose dps. Disgusted! But I digress.

 I used to save my big cooldowns for boss fights only and or when things were starting to go badly. It worked rather well but for WoD I have had to learn a different way of tanking.

 For example: on pulls of 4-5 big Ogres in Heroics I now pop GoAK to start and work my way down the cooldown chain. Pop SS, pull, GoAK, DP, AD, DP This way I mitigate the most damage possible and by the time I get down to a glyphed DP a 2nd time there aren't enough adds to worry about if any.

 So it may just be as simple as that. My $0.02

 

Envec - Norgannon

[Bludkrawller 2]

 I have found tanking in WoD a little different. I'm disgusted by the nerf to our self heal while a DK can self heal to full and not lose dps. Disgusted! But I digress.

 I used to save my big cooldowns for boss fights only and or when things were starting to go badly. It worked rather well but for WoD I have had to learn a different way of tanking.

 For example: on pulls of 4-5 big Ogres in Heroics I now pop GoAK to start and work my way down the cooldown chain. Pop SS, pull, GoAK, DP, AD, DP This way I mitigate the most damage possible and by the time I get down to a glyphed DP a 2nd time there aren't enough adds to worry about if any.

 So it may just be as simple as that. My $0.02

 

Envec - Norgannon

 

I don't know what you are doing Envec but I haven't really changed my tanking rotation since MoP and I don't used SS or Serph, yet. As far as the "nerfing" goes if you look at the actually fixes in there notes you will see the only nerfing they did was less raid assisted heals and more personal healing improvements. I have ahad no trouble in Heroics or Raids with my healing and I am always popping good heals with my flash heal, word of glory and prot buffs. That's just my 2C's

[Fouton 266]

We're definitely not as invincible as we used to be though. Can't survive for 30 minutes without a healer, but that's because every tank had that cut back, which is understandable. Only place I notice a big cutback on selfhealinf is in MoP where the only difference from then and now is a tiny DPS increase and more HP.