Threat Build

I was plundering a load of forums for prot paladins, and took wee snippets out for spec's, weapons etc. I ended up looking at some talent trees and questioning my own and ended up with this
Ardent Defender, well..i have never tried without it, and 30% less damage...at 35% health. Do i get 30% damage reduction from being hit at 38% health?...i dont think so

Macro Testing

1 Button JotC/JoR Macro
A 1 button macro ( with modifier ) for Judgeing Crusader, then using Seal of Righteousness.
Hold shift ( or any modifier you choose ) to seal and judge Crusader, then it will SoR
/castsequence [modifier:shift] reset=30,target/combat Seal of the Crusader, Judgement; reset=30 Seal of Righteousness, Judgement

Ok, so i was rethinking my spec. One thing that has changed in it was the losing reckoning. When i have time, i am going to test the respec talent tree below. But i took One Handed Weapon Specialization **: (Rank 5) Increases all damage you deal when a one-handed melee weapon is equipped by 5%.Sometimes people are not clear on the tooltip for this talent and tend to think that it only increases white damage. Actually, it increases ALL DAMAGE you do while you have a one handed weapon equipped… meaning spell damage AND white damage, by 5%, making it a 5% overall increase in threat. Definitely worth the points to replace reckoning.
Taking off Improved Seal of the Crusader is a bit of a gamble for me, and will have to see the difference by tesing it

Current Spec

Respec Tree

Nightbane

Now thats a fight for your graphics card huh?
Interesting fight for the paladin having the fear problem. I took notes off others who have tanked nightbane before, using macros for the shields (bubbles) to break the fear, and also using the pvp trinket. Then balancing out the CD of all three, and knowing that fear ward is going on me now and then also.
After a few attempts, we managed to down Nightbane after some shuffling of healers positions ( i heard on Vent) about being out of range when the fear happened. And by then i managed to get a grip of the position, the fear CD and knowing MD from Skoog and Punkgirl where always there to back me up on the landing phase. They all really worked well together, the guild, the raid team.

One thing thats jumped up this last fight, i am loosing aggro.
With spell damage sitting at 265 buffed, the mages, warlocks are all now in the plus 800+ and 900+ spell damage, and the mages have also tweaked their talents for more dps output.
Im still using the crystal forged sword (Blue) from BEM, that Mike gave me 6 months + ago. So im sorely needing to upgrade there, and prehaphs its best i try and get the pvp mace to get me by for now....

Paladin UI progress

I cleaned up most of my UI recently. The cooldown count is becoming a pain in the ass, as i am not sure on whether i want a graphic timer, or just the number count down on the skill buttons.

I also need a scrolling combat text to show me damage taken. Thats all im interested in really, the damage i do is not worth seeing.

I will add a raid screenie soon Link to Pala UI thread

update

Well the change has gone ok, and my gear is back up to spec, with a few extras.
I managed to get the shoulders from heroic sethekk halls. So i was finally able to switch the pvp shoulders for pve.
Still looking for a chest piece, and i am thinking about droppping engineering for somehtiing more proffitable, like herbalisim or mining. Who knows. For that to happen i would need the eternium helm from opera. I will look into the t4 helm meantime, and see if thats better or worse for aviodance and tanking overall.

I need a few things still, like the neckky from maiden, and the ring from shade. So we'll see what happens next week

Pecking Order

When I respecced back to tank spec, I looked at the past history of my guilds tanks.
We spread the loot evenly, tanks left for other guilds, and then left us in a yoyo loop of climbing back up a hill. We spent a lot of energy gearing ourselves, and sharing the chance of loot with new members of the guild. Only to end up by ourselves again after a few months of progress.
I remember passing on tank gear previously for tanks who are no longer in TDD, and question myself as to why I didn’t even roll for it. Well..hindsight! And that bugged me a lot on the night I decided to respec back to protection. "Was it going to be worth it?"
I have always tanked for TDD, im the GM of the guild, and I have no ambitions to move onto another raiding guild and catch the welfare epic train of "hold on tight this will be a quick run" mode, no thanks, why take my enjoyment of achievement out of the game? I enjoy building a team, helping run a team, and creating an environment where people enjoy working together, and seeing it. That right there is my love of the game.
Something had to change, something had to be more pointed towards those of the guild that remained after the departure of others from TDD. And to recruit new folk to repeat the same process, just puts a sickening taste in my mouth. And so came the pecking order loot system. I wouldn’t want to see loot from bosses that would help us progress a little further in ZA, pass to someone new to the guild compared to a member who has been with us for 1 year + who says "Its ok mate, we can roll for it" and lose, then see them walk out the door for a better offer from a large guild. TDD isnt a big guild and cannot afford the luxury of giving away tools to help it up the chain of raid progression.

That might be a little hard core and in your face, but the day you have to console a guild of 30 people, and encorage them repeatedly to continue on, to keep trying, and keep their hopes up, then you'll have a valid arguement or point of view to say whether it is fair or not.

The DKP system. Well that would work, or wouldnt it? Being a small casual guild that raids, most of its members having RL responsibilities would'nt be able to gain DKP at the same rate as a player who had no outside responisbilities, in a sense, the raider. On one hand you have dedicated members of your guild, and on the other hand you have dedicated raiders looking for progress. And im a little stuck on the system of choice which would be fairer for our small guild. What system would work, a Zero DKP system? im unsure.

However, this looks interesting http://code.google.com/p/epgp/

Spoiled..

Well it didnt last long. And i am back to protection spec by practical demand of the guilds progress and available tanks online. It was sweet...but short.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sVVZVhxIx0zggqt

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZVhxIx0zMgqtVbx

I decided to move my talents from the previous spec, to the above

Not sure how to broach this subject without contradicting myself.

I have added an arena chest piece to my to get list...Sacrales asked if i was interested in giving the arena a go, and tbh i had alot of fun. played 10, lost 1, but this was completely new to us. The alternative is the cheaper one at 1,630 arena points, being the Merciless Gladiator's Scaled Chestpiece

The chest piece looks like the best thing i can get pre BT, if im not including a boss i cant remember the name of that has a chest piece with more hit rating on it.

AP is up to 1900+ after i respecced to include improved might, and some additional talents in the ret tree. And so far the difference has been very noticable, both in PVP and PVE.

We have ZA tonight, and hope to see what difference is made with the changes made so far..

To improve..

Vindicator's Scaled Bracers 17850 20WSG *Done*
Vindicator's Scaled Belt 17850 40 AB

These two items alone improve the strength stats on Nad alone, bracer's being first as my currents bracers have no strength at all, other than the +12 enchant