Oskoss

Lately I have been trying to work on my DPS. I can tank almost anything, but when Off Tanking, I want a higher amount of DPS. I am working on the gear part, but as far as where to put my AA points I am lost. Of course I used Hero, wrath and cure lines in EoF tree, but as far as KoS tree and TSO tree what should I do? I figure that the stance enhancement are important but what else?

Thanks for any help, Oskoss

boli

Stance enhancements are not important. an additional +5 to slashing isn't gonna break the parser :P

Jeal

why do people always think those things are important... its always the first thing i have to tell someone not to do every single time *shrugs

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Stonestrong

I only use Offensive stance ever and I have 5 points in it, which is about 64 more points into slashing. It's worth doing anything you can to get +slashing until your skill is at 520 if you are raiding.

Missing autoattacks on orange con mobs is lame and will hurt your dps. Maxing your slashing will help you from missing as much, its a pretty simple concept......

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Jeal

5 points into the offensive skill increaser is a net of 10.6 points into slashing.. not 64.. i'm assuming you meant thats what you have total from offensive stance after putting points into that..

hrm.. i sit at over 520 with a dirge in my group as is.. thus those 5 points are wasted..

now without a dirge i'm about 30 points shy.. so will that 10.6 help?.. maybe..

also.. there are a few other classes.. not as commonly known.. to give you the extra skills needed.. a templar.. boy .. never see one of those either..

anyways.. 10.6 to slashing isn't worth 5 aa points imo

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Maergoth

After 180 AAs our spec gets scatterbrained. We have to choose between stuff like +10.5 slashing, some BS chance to strike through some avoidance checks, or enhancing of our worse combat arts.

None of them are going to break the parse in your favor, and 100 more DPS has a very low chance of being anything more than cosmetically nice. Even if you're surviving just fine, you're still better off making sure you have your defensive bases covered. You're first and foremost an offtank, and you getting bullshit unlucky and dying will be more detrimental to the raid than losing 50-100 DPS.

I don't think I know any tanks who are perfectly solid on all raid content. It's worth being extra prepared.

For KoS Tree, I'd go 4 8 8 2 1 in Strength, 4 4 8 6 1 in Stamina (Can be dismantled for AGI if your guild really hates using you to tank.. on AOE fights where trample is useful, until you're really geared to hell and back.. divine aura will be very useful), and 4 4 8 in int.

TSO General.. go for the health and run speed (unmounted, it's nice for speeding instances up).

In fighter, go Battle Hardening, Rescue enhance and Sneering Assault.

Crusader, Knight's Stance, Valor in Battle, Phalanx, and Aura of the Crusader.

In Paladin, Forced Following, Blessed Warding, Stonewall, Faithful Cry.

That should land you at 180 or so. Beyond that, it really depends on your group setup and what content you're raiding. I'm sure some people will disagree, but this setup is working great for me.. I'm beating our higher-geared SK fairly often on the parse, with enough survivability to tank anything short of Zarrakon+.. which is probably my lack of pants for the crit mit.

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Stonestrong

I don't always end up with a dirge or templar. Alot of times I get put into hybrid groups to offtank and for me personally I will take anything I can get to +slashing.

If you are in a static situation where you are capped then obviously its not needed.

Good post for the most part.....

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Oskoss

Thanks man, will definitely try it when I get home. Do you think that I will loose a considerably large amount of dps by going with STA instead of AGI and trample? (Which is the way I have it now)

NANEEJE

When i became permanent off tank for my guild, I noticed I wanted the agi line for instances more then raids, I sit there on raids and think, all single content is annoying wasting all the points in trample. It is very situational, geared to certain zones, you really notice the difference when you have 4+ mobs all the time. I wanted to start running one healer on palace and guk's, so i kept divine aura in stamina. Problem for me losing agi was I used joust to port my self to a mob the tank lost, but now, with points in holy ground reduce speed and rescue enhance, they always seem to be up, so grabbing it back is easier then pie. If your an off tank in vp, I strongly suggest NOT using agi... stam will suit you just fine and put you fairly high on the parse.
I think Boli said it best.
If you have to scroll up to see your name on the parse, your doing fine
LOve that line.
Now... instances? ALL instances have 3+ mobs in them, and i absolutely love trample in those zones, but, got to keep the melee crit up instead of spell crit,
my highest parses are 4,4,8 in agi,sta, 4,4,5 int, full str, then all the goodies in shadow line mentioned above. I have 195 points, and every 5 points, it just goes up and up since i took a bunch of def. first in shadows. I tank well, I hold aggro well, I survive well in all instances with either spec. The key for young Paladins is not just gear, but just get your damn AA points, your hurting your self if your cruising level 80 with your mythical and 140 aa points. really.
Good info guys, thanks.

Maergoth

I keep Trample on my mirror. The biggest problem with it is that it's just as effective at DPSing 4 mobs as Divine Aura is at keeping you alive. Gynok is a perfect example.

Trample will significantly increase your DPS on that fight, but Divine Aura will be broken through very rarely by the 4 adds.. offering just as significant of an increase in survivability.

I tertiary tank and if I'm lucky they give me a heads up. I just run to my mirror, grab trample, and come 3rd or 4th on the parse :P

Simply, if you're going to be tanking, Divine Aura owns. If not, it's best to have just in case. 3+ mob fights with a heads up that you're strictly DPS.. you'll fall in love with it like the rest of the cool kids who always keep it with them.

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