Straight to the point : A trend coming around with newer abilities intended to improve survivability is to grant partial resistance to damage instead of immunity, so that mass dispel cannot be used against it.
Shamanistic Rage
Pain Suppression
Focused Will
Natural Perfection
Barkskin
These abilities/effects were introduced post TBC and are engineered against mass dispel. Is PS+SR/FW/NP/BS invincibility? No, but its damn close, especially because you'll be healed up right after and realistically will not die. Being able to grant near invulnerability to OTHERS versus being able to make only yourself invincible seems like a flawed and outdated mechanic. Yes you are still vulnerable to interrupts/stuns/debuffs, but having a shorter cooldown and practically guaranteed duration makes up for a majority of the downsides. This is beyond that self immunities generally arent useful for saving teammates, a huge restriction in use. In many cases non immunity is BETTER than immunity, this should never even occur, and is only true due to mass dispel. This was originally envisioned to counter paladins, as 10.5 seconds of undisturbed action was considered OP. Note that these abilities in 1v1 are not inherently overpowered, but a combination of the two guarantees far more than Divine Shield can in most situations.
The counterclaim to mass dispel not being overpowered was it only MIGHT remove divine shield, it has a 1.5 sec casting time, and you can hammer of justice it.
None of these are true anymore, in fact, running to the priest to try to hammer of justice will result in a trinket->MD->fear, or a resist and a lol. Not to mention this is a complete waste of time better spent looking for LoS cover or healing.
Divine Shield should be updated to be in line with these changes. Mass Dispel should remove a portion of divine shield, but a lesser effect should remain. Either mass dispel makes the paladin immune to only the next X hits before fading, or it reduces their damage reduction to Y%. Why? Because in no case should a partial immunity be better than full immunity. Because paladin survivability is at an all time low, and other healing capable classes have been buffed to ridiculous levels in that regard. Because mass dispel no counter except twitch reflexes and a really good connection, and pre-conditions positioning to even consider countering. Because paladins currently have no reliable defensive measures or mitigation, while retaining a poor health pool. Because Divine Shield needs to be updated to TBC standards, instead of a second 5 minute trinket with forbearance.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Seal of Blood, again and again and again
CM's are an interesting lot. They're supposed to relay concerns, but don't tell you much about how they went about wording them.
A good example is seal of blood. This seal is balanced against command down to a few percents of damage, IF the users do not have any haste or extra attack abilities. Thus it is a "flavor" seal much like SoV(which typically does less than SoR unless used in unreliable conjunction). Now when a CM wrote regarding "Any plans to give seal of blood to alliance," he stated "None so far, not a concern." Did he present the overwhelming evidence of a 10-20% TOTAL dps difference between the seals at high levels of gear? I highly doubt it.
Devs of course are not entirely retarded, but its unlikely they remember how the mechanics of SoC were originally coded with regards to how the damage is applied. It doesnt work on instants and it was recently nerfed along with rogue ppm abilities to not scale with haste. I highly doubt any CM actually went to the trouble of laying down the REASONS that alliance want seal of blood, rather than presenting it as some sort of factional I WANT THIS whine. The math is there and it clearly shows that SoC is at a large disadvantage in fights where there is haste or windfury. Good thing death knight is coming soon.
A good example is seal of blood. This seal is balanced against command down to a few percents of damage, IF the users do not have any haste or extra attack abilities. Thus it is a "flavor" seal much like SoV(which typically does less than SoR unless used in unreliable conjunction). Now when a CM wrote regarding "Any plans to give seal of blood to alliance," he stated "None so far, not a concern." Did he present the overwhelming evidence of a 10-20% TOTAL dps difference between the seals at high levels of gear? I highly doubt it.
Devs of course are not entirely retarded, but its unlikely they remember how the mechanics of SoC were originally coded with regards to how the damage is applied. It doesnt work on instants and it was recently nerfed along with rogue ppm abilities to not scale with haste. I highly doubt any CM actually went to the trouble of laying down the REASONS that alliance want seal of blood, rather than presenting it as some sort of factional I WANT THIS whine. The math is there and it clearly shows that SoC is at a large disadvantage in fights where there is haste or windfury. Good thing death knight is coming soon.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Tanking Mechanics, Revisited
Protection Paladin tanking, notably Holy Shield, is flawed in design.
Protection Paladins require the monster to be MELEEING them to generate sufficient threat.
To generate sufficient sustained threat, they must take enough damage and continue to be melee'd.
Feral Druids and Protection Warriors must TAKE DAMAGE to generate sufficient threat.
to generate sufficient sustained threat, they must continue to take damage.
This basic concept is fine until you factor that Paladins have no way to pull casters to them barring LoS, and cannot interrupt spells to force caster mobs to begin meleeing them. Sure their spells will require damage to be healed and thus feed them mana, but a very significant portion of their threat is from actually blocking attacks. Warriors can interrupt spells or reflect them, and intervene away from melee monsters to either a caster or a healer. Feral druids can also temporarily avoid melee damage while cutting out a caster by Feral Charging. All tanks have a long cooldown stun.
The problem is compounded with the fact that paladin tanking is absolutely shut down by many more things than any other tank.
Silences, Mana Burns, Fears, Knockdowns, and spellcasters all affect paladins to a greater degree than other tanks, by virtue of either base mitigation values, or ability use. Very few fight mechanisms specifically target rage(RoS), but many target mana under the idealogy that actually 10k~ mana healers/dps will be getting hit by it. An oversight, perhaps, but a very large one.
As a more minor note, Holy Shield should most definetly be taken off GCD. Paladin cooldowns overlap in an irritating manner ( 8 sec, 8-10sec, 10sec ) and as an extremely important tank mechanic, I don't think holy shield should be a holy spell, nor take up a GCD. This is not outside the realm of possibility, as Warriors already have their block ability off GCD.
Protection Paladins require the monster to be MELEEING them to generate sufficient threat.
To generate sufficient sustained threat, they must take enough damage and continue to be melee'd.
Feral Druids and Protection Warriors must TAKE DAMAGE to generate sufficient threat.
to generate sufficient sustained threat, they must continue to take damage.
This basic concept is fine until you factor that Paladins have no way to pull casters to them barring LoS, and cannot interrupt spells to force caster mobs to begin meleeing them. Sure their spells will require damage to be healed and thus feed them mana, but a very significant portion of their threat is from actually blocking attacks. Warriors can interrupt spells or reflect them, and intervene away from melee monsters to either a caster or a healer. Feral druids can also temporarily avoid melee damage while cutting out a caster by Feral Charging. All tanks have a long cooldown stun.
The problem is compounded with the fact that paladin tanking is absolutely shut down by many more things than any other tank.
Silences, Mana Burns, Fears, Knockdowns, and spellcasters all affect paladins to a greater degree than other tanks, by virtue of either base mitigation values, or ability use. Very few fight mechanisms specifically target rage(RoS), but many target mana under the idealogy that actually 10k~ mana healers/dps will be getting hit by it. An oversight, perhaps, but a very large one.
As a more minor note, Holy Shield should most definetly be taken off GCD. Paladin cooldowns overlap in an irritating manner ( 8 sec, 8-10sec, 10sec ) and as an extremely important tank mechanic, I don't think holy shield should be a holy spell, nor take up a GCD. This is not outside the realm of possibility, as Warriors already have their block ability off GCD.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Why play a paladin? Or Why not.
Q : Why play a paladin?
A : Like a buffet, a paladin can give you a perspective of every role in WoW. However, like a buffet, the quality of your experience will pale in comparison to what other "more specialized" classes can do.
A paladin gets to do everything in the game. They can heal, tank, and dps. Some will tell you that because you have no "forms" you can do this all at once. Very much false. Attempting to perform a role that you are not specced for is futile, and druids(the only ones who really try to push this point) need to cry more.
As a paladin you get your watered down healer with two heals. Your itemization is awful, people will claim you are OP while arena numbers show otherwise, but at least your peers will accept you for who you are. That is, until you try other specs. The biggest downside of a holy paladin is you're never sure if your friends are loyal to you or just because of what you've specced. And maybe that healing as one is a two button chore.
As a paladin you can also be a watered down tank. You have terrible tanking mechanics, strange scaling with practically no 10 man gear to assist you(spell damage tank plate?). Everyone loves you because you can run their alts through farm content easily, but when push comes to shove they'll blame your class before they'll blame healers for MT deaths(you). This is okay, because you'll need a lot of badges to supplement your poorly itemized pieces as warrior gear doesn't really help your threat. Your badge gear has lolspellhit, even after the change of taunt to melee hit(warrior change that trickled off to paladins). The advantage of prot is it shows you who your true friends are, as you aren't holy and therefore don't implicitly make their game experience more fun through healing.
You can also be a watered down dps. You can mash a button to deal damage like any other class, but have no viable way to competitively DPS without a non-retarded shaman in group. Like many other hybrid dps'ers, you have no aggro dump. This will prove frustrating when trying to pug to get gear, but divine shield will save you from the horrors of awful pug tanks. That is, assuming a pug will even take you over a green geared 6k HP mage that isnt even 70. Also, every player will tell you that you rolled a healer and are foolish to want to dps. Those players will also typically be shadow priests, balance druids, feral druids, enhancement shamans, and elemental shamans. LOLRET lrn2reroll.
So, while a paladin CAN be one or two more things than other classes, he is at the bottom of the barrel for functionality in those roles.
1 Role Classes : Mage, Hunter, Warlock, Rogue - Top of their role, game philosophy and scaling makes these classes the highest DPS. Warranted, as they can only deal damage. All these classes have aggro dumps.
2 Role Classes : Shaman, Warrior, Priest - Utility based classes, can perform well in either role and are exceptional in both. Note that the warrior is the only 2 role tank class, and thus is the prime tank.
3 Role Classes : Druid, Paladin - Mostly frowned upon due to weak offspec performance, doomed to heal barring some gimmick fights(druids on Brutallus, Paladins on felmyst/hyjal trash).
It should be fairly obvious then, why druids and paladins are practically the worst in their roles. They "can" do more but have to respec to do so. Unsupported by gear specifically tailored to them, the 3 role classes quickly fall short of their 2 role counterparts. Is this fair? I dont think so. If I am doomed to have to respec every time I want to do something different(just like any 2 role hybrid), why should my performance suffer so greatly? In a raid environment I can still only be one role. I should be able to compete(with individual class flavor), against other 2 role classes.
Some would argue that this would be fixed if priests and shamans could tank. A flawed argument, as tank classes were from the getgo advertised as paladins,warriors, and druids. Even then, tanking is just a necessary spec to include just for PvE functionality. The entire concept of aggro makes little sense, Ragnaros should not be so retarded as to tunnel vision onto a tank instead of one shotting cloth with his ranged attack. If priests want to tank, by all means try. I suspect a shadow priest could manage to run at least a few heroics with an overgeared group with CC. Rogues, shamans, and moonkins already tank, its just a matter of exploiting the hit table and gearing appropriately.
In conclusion, if paladin spec viability is really to be gimped because we can "do more when spam respeccing," then a tree should be removed. Or two trees merged so that we can do poorly in two roles but perform them at the same time.
A : Like a buffet, a paladin can give you a perspective of every role in WoW. However, like a buffet, the quality of your experience will pale in comparison to what other "more specialized" classes can do.
A paladin gets to do everything in the game. They can heal, tank, and dps. Some will tell you that because you have no "forms" you can do this all at once. Very much false. Attempting to perform a role that you are not specced for is futile, and druids(the only ones who really try to push this point) need to cry more.
As a paladin you get your watered down healer with two heals. Your itemization is awful, people will claim you are OP while arena numbers show otherwise, but at least your peers will accept you for who you are. That is, until you try other specs. The biggest downside of a holy paladin is you're never sure if your friends are loyal to you or just because of what you've specced. And maybe that healing as one is a two button chore.
As a paladin you can also be a watered down tank. You have terrible tanking mechanics, strange scaling with practically no 10 man gear to assist you(spell damage tank plate?). Everyone loves you because you can run their alts through farm content easily, but when push comes to shove they'll blame your class before they'll blame healers for MT deaths(you). This is okay, because you'll need a lot of badges to supplement your poorly itemized pieces as warrior gear doesn't really help your threat. Your badge gear has lolspellhit, even after the change of taunt to melee hit(warrior change that trickled off to paladins). The advantage of prot is it shows you who your true friends are, as you aren't holy and therefore don't implicitly make their game experience more fun through healing.
You can also be a watered down dps. You can mash a button to deal damage like any other class, but have no viable way to competitively DPS without a non-retarded shaman in group. Like many other hybrid dps'ers, you have no aggro dump. This will prove frustrating when trying to pug to get gear, but divine shield will save you from the horrors of awful pug tanks. That is, assuming a pug will even take you over a green geared 6k HP mage that isnt even 70. Also, every player will tell you that you rolled a healer and are foolish to want to dps. Those players will also typically be shadow priests, balance druids, feral druids, enhancement shamans, and elemental shamans. LOLRET lrn2reroll.
So, while a paladin CAN be one or two more things than other classes, he is at the bottom of the barrel for functionality in those roles.
1 Role Classes : Mage, Hunter, Warlock, Rogue - Top of their role, game philosophy and scaling makes these classes the highest DPS. Warranted, as they can only deal damage. All these classes have aggro dumps.
2 Role Classes : Shaman, Warrior, Priest - Utility based classes, can perform well in either role and are exceptional in both. Note that the warrior is the only 2 role tank class, and thus is the prime tank.
3 Role Classes : Druid, Paladin - Mostly frowned upon due to weak offspec performance, doomed to heal barring some gimmick fights(druids on Brutallus, Paladins on felmyst/hyjal trash).
It should be fairly obvious then, why druids and paladins are practically the worst in their roles. They "can" do more but have to respec to do so. Unsupported by gear specifically tailored to them, the 3 role classes quickly fall short of their 2 role counterparts. Is this fair? I dont think so. If I am doomed to have to respec every time I want to do something different(just like any 2 role hybrid), why should my performance suffer so greatly? In a raid environment I can still only be one role. I should be able to compete(with individual class flavor), against other 2 role classes.
Some would argue that this would be fixed if priests and shamans could tank. A flawed argument, as tank classes were from the getgo advertised as paladins,warriors, and druids. Even then, tanking is just a necessary spec to include just for PvE functionality. The entire concept of aggro makes little sense, Ragnaros should not be so retarded as to tunnel vision onto a tank instead of one shotting cloth with his ranged attack. If priests want to tank, by all means try. I suspect a shadow priest could manage to run at least a few heroics with an overgeared group with CC. Rogues, shamans, and moonkins already tank, its just a matter of exploiting the hit table and gearing appropriately.
In conclusion, if paladin spec viability is really to be gimped because we can "do more when spam respeccing," then a tree should be removed. Or two trees merged so that we can do poorly in two roles but perform them at the same time.
Friday, May 2, 2008
BEASTCOIL!!!!!111!1!1
Seriously.
Hunters may get instant cast fear beast which can apply to hunter pets, druids, AND shamans.
Meanwhile paladins get a fear with a cast time, unsupported by pushback resistance beyond conc aura, that has pitiful range and shares the holy tree.
This is balanced how? I'm not against hunter's getting beastcoil and support this buff against druids and shamans. (Hint, both classes gain mobility through animal forms). I'd just like to understand how our "warlock counter" is anything more than forcing an earlier spell lock. And how its range is pitiful. And how its got a duration with no pushback resistance. As a general rule, spells that have COOLDOWNS are very powerful and tend to be instant.
Lets look at a few instant offensive spells with no cooldowns :
Ice Lance
Corruption(typically)
All Curses
SW:P
Moonfire
Insect Swarm
Faerie Fire
Few of these do anything immediately, and are of practically no consequence if spammed.
Some offensive instants with cooldowns :
Death Coil
Fire Blast
Frost Nova
Psychic Scream
SWD
BEASTCOIL!!!!
Powerful, fairly overpowered if spammed. High mana cost to boot, typically.
Offensive cast time spells with no cooldown :
Polymorph
Cyclone
Mana Burn
Fear
Mind Control
Powerful crowd control moves. Devastating but only useful when not being attacked. Many tend to be supported by pushback resistance talents. Basically force interrupts to be used.
Now, some offensive spells with cooldowns and cast times.
Turn Evil.
Hammer of Wrath.
Soul Fire.
Mind Blast.
Worst of the worst. Not useless, but not on the level of other spells of its caliber. A skill with a cooldown AND a cast time is a failed concept. Dev's learned this with pyroblast. Soulfire is on a cooldown because of the potential abuse with seduce and soulfire. Mind Blast cooldown exists to prevent shadow priests from instagibbing people at long range. Spammable mind blast would be absolutely ridiculous combined with SWD. Its high damage is balanced against its high threat, so the cooldown seems more like a pvp consideration.
As we can see from the above examples, spells with only cooldowns allow for powerful abilities that must be used situationally and saved when necessary instead of used on a whim. Spells with cast times improve the class's functionality while not being focus fired, and give them the ability to adversely affect their enemies. Putting both restrictions on a spell, a cast time, and a cooldown, implies the spell is so powerful that it should not be useable while focused and is so strong in effect that it cannot be repeatedly cast.
I dont think the paladin spells fall into these categories.
For one, Hammer of Wrath costs an enormous amount of mana. It is also restricted as a 20% health or below move. It exposes the Paladin's holy tree(if you're fast). It rarely kills a 19% target unless they have terrible gear. If it had no cast time, it would still be fine. If it had no cooldown but a cast time, it would be fairly strong but easily blocked by interrupts/silence, crowd control, and healing on the target. It would likely have to be increased to 1 sec cast time. Note that it will still take on average 3 casts to kill a 19% player. This is a large sum of mana, and requires the paladin divert his attention from healing and possibly become school-locked. Requiring that hammer of wrath 1)finish casting, 2)have the target below 20%, 3) have enough mana to cast the spell and expend the mana doing so 4) not be on cooldown is a little too much for such a mediocre spell.
Turn Evil affects one class, and even then only their pet. It exposes the holy tree. Being able to use it instantly is only detrimental to warlocks, who have the benefit of being able to by themselves completely lock out a holy paladin from play. Its only use is to cast freely during the fear, and after the first spell lock, additional fears are relatively pointless. Examples:
No cooldown - The first TE could be spell locked. A recast on TE is insignificant, spell lock is still cooling down. A TE cast AS spell lock cools down can buy a few seconds, but the warlock knows when this can occur and can position to counter it. This is where some marginal drinking benefit could come into play. However, leaving combat and 4 sec drinking would make this fairly useless unless combined with say, a banish that did not resist somehow. A 2nd TE would last 5 seconds. With the drink change it is unlikely that the paladin would get much benefit from drinking if undisturbed by any other players. Spell lock is still useable on any cast and the warlock loses very little in combat options.
No cast time - A viable crowd control move against one class for ten seconds. TU can still be dispelled, and warlocks are a class that arguably has the most control against a paladin anyway. However the warlock can be assured of being able to spell lock the paladin after these 10 seconds are up.
See? Improving Turn Evil would not make paladins overpowered. In fact, it only put them in line with other abilities, but even then against only one class, and beyond that, just their pet.
Hunters may get instant cast fear beast which can apply to hunter pets, druids, AND shamans.
Meanwhile paladins get a fear with a cast time, unsupported by pushback resistance beyond conc aura, that has pitiful range and shares the holy tree.
This is balanced how? I'm not against hunter's getting beastcoil and support this buff against druids and shamans. (Hint, both classes gain mobility through animal forms). I'd just like to understand how our "warlock counter" is anything more than forcing an earlier spell lock. And how its range is pitiful. And how its got a duration with no pushback resistance. As a general rule, spells that have COOLDOWNS are very powerful and tend to be instant.
Lets look at a few instant offensive spells with no cooldowns :
Ice Lance
Corruption(typically)
All Curses
SW:P
Moonfire
Insect Swarm
Faerie Fire
Few of these do anything immediately, and are of practically no consequence if spammed.
Some offensive instants with cooldowns :
Death Coil
Fire Blast
Frost Nova
Psychic Scream
SWD
BEASTCOIL!!!!
Powerful, fairly overpowered if spammed. High mana cost to boot, typically.
Offensive cast time spells with no cooldown :
Polymorph
Cyclone
Mana Burn
Fear
Mind Control
Powerful crowd control moves. Devastating but only useful when not being attacked. Many tend to be supported by pushback resistance talents. Basically force interrupts to be used.
Now, some offensive spells with cooldowns and cast times.
Turn Evil.
Hammer of Wrath.
Soul Fire.
Mind Blast.
Worst of the worst. Not useless, but not on the level of other spells of its caliber. A skill with a cooldown AND a cast time is a failed concept. Dev's learned this with pyroblast. Soulfire is on a cooldown because of the potential abuse with seduce and soulfire. Mind Blast cooldown exists to prevent shadow priests from instagibbing people at long range. Spammable mind blast would be absolutely ridiculous combined with SWD. Its high damage is balanced against its high threat, so the cooldown seems more like a pvp consideration.
As we can see from the above examples, spells with only cooldowns allow for powerful abilities that must be used situationally and saved when necessary instead of used on a whim. Spells with cast times improve the class's functionality while not being focus fired, and give them the ability to adversely affect their enemies. Putting both restrictions on a spell, a cast time, and a cooldown, implies the spell is so powerful that it should not be useable while focused and is so strong in effect that it cannot be repeatedly cast.
I dont think the paladin spells fall into these categories.
For one, Hammer of Wrath costs an enormous amount of mana. It is also restricted as a 20% health or below move. It exposes the Paladin's holy tree(if you're fast). It rarely kills a 19% target unless they have terrible gear. If it had no cast time, it would still be fine. If it had no cooldown but a cast time, it would be fairly strong but easily blocked by interrupts/silence, crowd control, and healing on the target. It would likely have to be increased to 1 sec cast time. Note that it will still take on average 3 casts to kill a 19% player. This is a large sum of mana, and requires the paladin divert his attention from healing and possibly become school-locked. Requiring that hammer of wrath 1)finish casting, 2)have the target below 20%, 3) have enough mana to cast the spell and expend the mana doing so 4) not be on cooldown is a little too much for such a mediocre spell.
Turn Evil affects one class, and even then only their pet. It exposes the holy tree. Being able to use it instantly is only detrimental to warlocks, who have the benefit of being able to by themselves completely lock out a holy paladin from play. Its only use is to cast freely during the fear, and after the first spell lock, additional fears are relatively pointless. Examples:
No cooldown - The first TE could be spell locked. A recast on TE is insignificant, spell lock is still cooling down. A TE cast AS spell lock cools down can buy a few seconds, but the warlock knows when this can occur and can position to counter it. This is where some marginal drinking benefit could come into play. However, leaving combat and 4 sec drinking would make this fairly useless unless combined with say, a banish that did not resist somehow. A 2nd TE would last 5 seconds. With the drink change it is unlikely that the paladin would get much benefit from drinking if undisturbed by any other players. Spell lock is still useable on any cast and the warlock loses very little in combat options.
No cast time - A viable crowd control move against one class for ten seconds. TU can still be dispelled, and warlocks are a class that arguably has the most control against a paladin anyway. However the warlock can be assured of being able to spell lock the paladin after these 10 seconds are up.
See? Improving Turn Evil would not make paladins overpowered. In fact, it only put them in line with other abilities, but even then against only one class, and beyond that, just their pet.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Uncrushability
This is probably the most annoying mechanic about paladin tanking. Low end paladin tanks have awful mitigation(55-58%) while druids can easily approach 70% from armor. This is in addition to paladins having to gem avoidance or gear for shield block rating to reach uncrushability. Even with nearly full badge/ZA gear my tank is still edging on crushability. If I decided to use an arena shield I would fall into crushability. Should this really even occur? I have SBR on my shoulders,ring,and gloves, and shield. I should not have to sacrifice so many itemization points just to become uncrushable. I already hybridize my gemming to obtain socket bonuses while including avoidance, but I'd much rather just be gemming stamina. Not only are Stars of Elune dirt cheap right now, they're the most effective gems when your healers are competent/geared.
Redoubt should really add 5% passive block, even 10% would not be overpowered. Paladin gearing is far too complicated for being a watered down warrior tank. If we are to be "specialized" as AoE tanks but "capable" of raid tanking, then additional passive block does not seem out of the question. Being presented with a clear upgrade but being unable to use it because of becoming crushable is absolutely ridiculous. A gem option to add SBR would be fine too, but would just be smothering the problem instead of fixing it.
Some people argue that crushing blows are not the end of the world and that uncrushability doesn't matter until post/late kara. While this can be true, crushing blows still :
1)Increase the overall damage you take, costing extra healer mana.
2)Drastically improve monster capacity to RNG gib you. Back to back crushings can drop you faster than progression geared healers can heal you for.
Tank gearing is about smoothing incoming damage and being able to sustain as much damage as you can before dying. Dodge, parry, block, and miss change serve to reduce mana consumption by healers.
As a paladin, you have the lowest baseline mitigation (6%) against physical damage, which comprises most of the damage a tank expects to take. You also have poor hitpoints until your gear starts to reach T5-ish level. These two factors make crushes extremely dangerous for paladins, moreso than even druids that cannot avoid crushings.
Redoubt should really add 5% passive block, even 10% would not be overpowered. Paladin gearing is far too complicated for being a watered down warrior tank. If we are to be "specialized" as AoE tanks but "capable" of raid tanking, then additional passive block does not seem out of the question. Being presented with a clear upgrade but being unable to use it because of becoming crushable is absolutely ridiculous. A gem option to add SBR would be fine too, but would just be smothering the problem instead of fixing it.
Some people argue that crushing blows are not the end of the world and that uncrushability doesn't matter until post/late kara. While this can be true, crushing blows still :
1)Increase the overall damage you take, costing extra healer mana.
2)Drastically improve monster capacity to RNG gib you. Back to back crushings can drop you faster than progression geared healers can heal you for.
Tank gearing is about smoothing incoming damage and being able to sustain as much damage as you can before dying. Dodge, parry, block, and miss change serve to reduce mana consumption by healers.
As a paladin, you have the lowest baseline mitigation (6%) against physical damage, which comprises most of the damage a tank expects to take. You also have poor hitpoints until your gear starts to reach T5-ish level. These two factors make crushes extremely dangerous for paladins, moreso than even druids that cannot avoid crushings.
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