Paladin Tanking Holy Shield
Holy Shield is also based on being attacked. But let's figure it out.
Holy Shield Threat graph
So, with 250 Spell Damage every attack blocked with Holy Shield adds 718 Threat. If the target you blocked is Judged with Crusader it adds 961 Threat.
For comparison for every Blocked, Dodged or parried attack Warriors can counter attack with Revenge. It causes 483 threat for 60 damage, or about 543 Threat every 5 seconds. Even if you only block 2 attacks with Holy Shield every 10 seconds you are still generating more threat than revenge does.
Avenger's Shield
This attack is primarily used for pulling, so no Judgement of Crusader calcs on this skill. Avenger's Shield's threat is pretty good for an opening attack. With 250 Spell Damage it will cause 1083 Threat on 3 targets. Comparing to Warriors, the first attack a Warrior usually does on an incoming mob is Shield Slam. It does ~750 threat to a single target (and must be in melee range).
Greater Blessing of Sanctuary
Sanctuary has a 0% co-efficient so it does a flat amount of holy damage. At Rank 2 it does 46 Holy damage an attack.
Each time you block you will generate 87.4 Threat. Another way to look at it is this blessing makes your Holy Shield generate 805 on a non-JoC attacker and 1048 on a JoC attacker. It def. looks better when you see it stacked with Holy Shield.
Retribution Aura
Retribution aura does 26 Holy damage everytime you are hit. This also has a 0% co-efficient as far as I know. That works out to be 49 Threat everytime you are attacked. Again - doesn't seem like much.
However, lets look at it with Consecration. Retribution is not really a Single Target threat generator - it is more for AoE pulls. Lets assume a standard attack speed of 2.0. That works out to be 197 Threat generated on each target over the lifetime of 1 Consecration. Now lets stack the two effects, over 8 seconds on non-JoC targets, your Consecration Ret Aura will generate 1530threat on every target attacking you.
Not great for single target but nothing to shun on AoE pulls.
Seal of Vengeance
Reports seem to indicate that it has a 20ppm, so about every 3 seconds it will proc.
We're going to do it 'easy mode' first and just calculate the actual threat as if it stacked to 5 instantly. (120*5)/12 = 50 per tick. 17% co-efficent at 250 spell damage is 42.5 additional damage so ~92 holy damage. That is 175 TPS.
Judgement: 120*5 = 600 Holy Damage. At 250 Spell damage and 43% co-efficent that's an extra 107 damage, making a total of 707 damage which is ~1343 Threat every 8 seconds.
Now lets do it the real way.
Now here is the interesting thing. From what I can find out about this seal every tick uses 17% of your Holy Damage. As long as you have 1 application you are getting 17% - the amount of holy damage from your co-efficent does not increase as you get more stacks. Each application will only increase the amount of holy damage by 10. That is only an extra 19TPS. This is pretty minor.
Based on that, lets just calculate the threat as if you only had 1 application up. 10 dmg from 1 application at 17% co-efficent is 52 damage a tick or 80 threat a tick. Now, every 15 seconds you can judge (based on 20ppm) meaning you can burst your threat for 1343 every 15 seconds. Over those 15 seconds the ticks alone would generate (very roughly) 1437 threat. Total that would be 2780 over 15 seconds or 185 TPS.
Now, on a non-JoC target (just like these Vengeance calcs were done) Seal of Righteousness would generate 198 TPS.
So, Seal of Righteousness is better at 250 Spell Damage. The reason is: You can only judge Seal of Vengeance every 15 seconds (20ppm is 1 proc every 3 seconds = 15seconds to get a full stack) and its co-efficient on a judgement is way too low. Stacks of SoV do stay on the target, but as it is so easy to lose the stack, this guide assumes building a fresh stack each time. Judging Righteousness every 8 seconds with a 73% co-efficient makes Righteousness better.
Conclusion
So, if you've skimmed to the bottom, you're likely looking for a summary of everything above without really digging into the nitty gritty. Here it is then, lazybones:
Get 10-12k hp at level 70
Get 490 Defense
Get 250 Spell Damage
Get your total of dodge/parry/block to 100% (with holy shield/redoubt)
Put up Retribution Aura
Cast Greater Blessing of Sanctuary on yourself
Pull with Avenger's Shield
Judge Seal of the Crusader, then keep up Seal of Righteousness
Judge Righteousness every 8 seconds
Consecrate
Holy Shield
Win big loots, have your party love you
That's it. We hope that the math behind paladin tanking is interesting and useful to you, and that by presenting this guide, paladins can rest assured that they do have the skills to succeed as a primary tank.
