Paladin talent choices

[Sinomin]

The only debate remaining seems to be one of if anticipation is required or not. Its not too hard to fit in though. Take the point out of kings, take the 2 out of spell warding, and take the two out of weapon expertise and put them in anticipation. I'm still not sold on it being necessary though.

Damn Swirly you posted a lot of info here. Im too tired right now to respond to everything so I'll just throw a quick comment on your last points.

Anticipation is Defense SKILL, not Defense rating. That 5 points equates to 48 points of Defense Rating on your gear. IMO if you want to tank you will get this talent. After you reach uncrushable it will give you more room to stack Stamina, which will eventually be your weakest link as a Paladin tank. At level 70 you will have approximately 1500 less HP's than an equal level Warrior. The more Stamina you stack, the more valuable Sacred Duty becomes.

Block Rating and Defense Rating are the two cheapest ways to reach uncrushable. Plus approximately 19 Defense Rating is 1% pure avoidance. On a side note, being uncrushable isnt actually that important for 5 mans being the highest lvl mobs (bosses only) are 72. Stamina, AC and Block Value (not Block Rating) will eventually be your most important goal, after a certain level of avoidance and Defense Rating (490 for uncrittable).

Blessing of Kings will become, for most fights, your best tanking Blessing. Blessing of Sanctuary for leveling is one of the best talents you can get. But the 80 damage reduction is deducted before damage reducing items/talents/skills(IE Armor). So you arent reducing the final damage you take by a straight 80 damage. On hard hitting mobs, IE heroics 2-4k damage, BoS wont improve your survivability as much as BoK will. BoS really shines on AOE pulls, fast low damage hitters and/or elemental damage (like groups of Imps).

I do agree Spell Warding is not a necessity. But for a serious tank(MT) it is more damage mitigation and therefore falls into one of the most important aspects of being a tank.

I would suggest you experiment with different talent builds as you are leveling. A lot of this discussion wont really apply much till you are 70, geared and tanking the harder content. I know I respeced at least 2 million times while I was leveling. Even with all the theorycrafting and discussions I have read, I had to try some things on my own to determine what worked best for me.

Anyway, feel free to as me anything in game, if you want to know my experiences.

Edit: This is a basic "default" 41pt talent selection Paladin talents.

Personally I have a hard time living without Reckoning, but for more consistent damage/threat, 1hd Weapon Specialization wins out. The 2 points in Reckoning and 5 points in 1hd Spec are just fillers and could be used whereever you wanted (Max Reckoning, Precision, Spell Ward, etc.)