TheFishyOne wrote:'ey guys. Was an avid Pallytank in TBC, but never got a chance to live my Vanilla Dream on live, so I'm gonna go for it here.
In TBC, CTC was paramount to achieve preraid, and once achieved as a Pallytank, you were easily the most stable tank in the game. Is CTC even possible for a Pallytank to achieve in Vanilla with only gear/enchants + HS?
I would also like to know if Redoubt has any bearing on attaining CTC (at least, as far as eliminating CB goes). In TBC it was the epitome of garbage talents, taken only because it was required for shield spec. I figure that Blizz MUST have had a purpose in mind for it. Is there any reason to take it into account while gearing, or is it just one of those Dumb Talents I Gotta Take(©)?
Finally, in TBC the numbers to attain CTC were 490 Def, and 102.4% Avo. I imagine you need 102.4% Avo here, as well, but what about minimum Def for uncritability (assuming Redoubt is worthless here, too)?
Thanks in advance!
(Inb4 lolprot or reroll war) I am well aware that Warriors are better at tanking raid bosses with less skill required. I also couldn't care less. Pallies were given a Prot tree for a reason, and I intend to fully explore it.
Yo, I feel a kindred spirit. TBC tankadin here also, from Kara to Sunwell. Offspec as Ret, which became my main in Wrath. Always felt like I missed out on the glory of the Vanilla raids, and also came to private servers looking to experience them after I became disgusted with retail.
As far as I know, it's impossible to attain 440def in Vanilla and become crit immune until we get hold of ZG/AQ gear. The itemisation just isn't there. The Vanilla bosses were more balanced around the idea of total HP, effective health and damage reduction through armour than on mechanical aspects like crit/crush immunity, which became more prevalent in late Vanilla and evolved fully in TBC. None of these early bosses hit so hard that a crit will outright kill an appropriately geared tank - the designers factored that in because there was no way for tanks to become crit immune. As such, HP and armor (effective health) are probably the defining stats for Vanilla tanks, at least for a few more patches. There was an article on tankspot years ago about effective health theory, I can't find it anymore but I think this was the standard approach for tanking in Vanilla.
Don't forget too, that raids in Vanilla are 40-man, so you'll have several healers spamming the tank at any point. If you eat a crit (provided you have the health and armor to take it without dying), they all spam you back up - it's not like it was in TBC where bosses hit much harder and there were less heals coming in, so getting crit or crushed was much more risky.
Because you can't be crit immune, Redoubt becomes a more valuable talent - you will be taking crits on a fairly regular basis, especially if AoE tanking large packs (the one place where Paladins are far superior to Warriors in Vanilla), you'll see Redoubt popping pretty frequently and you'll be glad of the extra block %.
I haven't done a lot of tanking in Vanilla but I've played on a few private servers now and have been generally surprised at how easy the content is compared to what I got used to dealing with in TBC. Just make sure you use consumables, stack stam, read Cysthen's tankadin guide, you'll be fine. Pally aggro generation in Vanilla is OP, and our AoE makes us great dungeon tanks when a lot of the content at present is time-consuming 5-mans with tons of trash.
GLHF!