Threat and TAnk Classes

[bonemage]

Question for folks with paladin tanks that are doing high threats, any tips? I've run into some paladin tanks that haven't been so good at generating threat and am wondering what tips to offer them.

Really you need to get them to make the 969 rotation 2nd nature. It is excellent for threat and mitigation, and even if run less than optimally, is still very effective. It makes movement fights easier because your mind can be on other things while keeping your threat and mitigation running at top speed, as they are habit. Button mashing whatever useful tanking spell isn't on cooldown is still pretty effective, so I don't know how there can be low threat pally tanks. In short 969 is this:

The "<span style="color:#FF6600">sixes": Hammer of the Righteous and Shield of Righteousness. These have 6 sec cooldowns, and each is used every 6 secs and thus are the "sixes".

The "<span style="color:#FF6600">nines": Holy Shield, Consecrate, Judgement of choice (typically wisdom). These have 8 or 9 sec cooldowns, but each gets used every 9 seconds.

How to use: Pull with Avenger's Shield. Use a "nine", use a "six", use a "nine", use a "six", use a "nine" until the tank or the mob is dead. After your initial choices on which to use at the start, only one "six" and one "nine" will ever be off of cooldown, so you don't have to keep track of what is next, simply use what is available. On my admittedly rudimentary action bars, I have the "sixes" together, then my single target taunt, then the "nines" grouped together so it is easy to see what comes next if I must look, whether I'm after a "six" or a "nine". After some practice, my fingers now dance on habit. With more experience, the tank will know which ones to fire up first, depending on the fight. Not knowing but still sticking with the rotation, while less than optimal, is still quite effective. If you screw up, or something screws you up (like a stun), start back into the rotation using a "six".

Setup: One point should be taken in Improved Judgements. Do not use Glyph of Consecrate. Use Seal of Vengeance/Corruption, use Blessing of Sanctuary and Devotion Aura.

This is my typical tanking build. It is optimized for 10 man raids where I assume I am the only pally, so I have full Kings and improved Might. It's at least a good starting point for a new tank. There are some various ways to approach talents, but all solid tank builds generally have all talents on the prot tree tier 5 and above.

Gear: Gearing changed a lot for tankadins in 3.0. Don't let them use spell power gear. The first 15 emblems of heroism should be used to buy the Libram that Lissa linked. It is excellent for threat and mitigation.

@shoju: Theorycrafting may show a free GCD after a few rotations, but in practice, will vary quite a bit depending on the fight, client/server lag, etc., so isn't something that can be effectively planned on. With everything else going on, watching for when it to finally, truly become available is likely counterproductive.