I have a request for beta Paladins. Could you run this macro:

/script local _,_,_,_,tht = UnitDetailedThreatSituation("target","player"); tht = tht / 100; DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(tht)

After using one of the following abilities on a mob:

1) Hammer of the Righteous.
2) Shield of Righteousness.

Include as well how much damage the ability did please. Also include whether or not you had Righteous Fury active.

Additionally I'd be interested in the results of the same macro if you buff yourself with a Seal after body pulling a mob. Include which Seal you used as well please. Results for any other abilities are welcomed as well, if it's a damaging ability or a healing ability please remember to include the damage or healing done.

Thanks in advance to anyone that decides to help.

I was afraid that might happen. Looks like we'll have to test these things the old-fashioned way after all.

Thanks for trying in any case.

Edit: I've heard some report that my macro above should return the exact threat on a target, but only if there is another person on the target's aggro list. Even then it doesn't always update on the client instantaneously.

Stuff like this really makes me wish I had beta access, figuring out a method to get the exact threat reports the function is supposed to give would be a great resource.

I'd kinda like to see something new and different in the BoSanct slot. I think one-point talents should give you something new and different, not just a numerical boost to some current ability e.g., Aura Mastery is a terrible 11-point talent.

We seem to be pretty well covered on the "oh shit" front with the new DP and 20-minute LoH, but it would be nice to see something else cool. Like an ability to transfer Holy Shield to someone else, with threat generated by the reactive damage coming back to the paladin. Say, with a 5-minute cooldown.

All regular EJ contributors/posters should have beta access.

I mean obviously, right?

With the mana problems I am hearing, maybe BoSanct could be changed to a talent that returns some mana on blocks.

RE: BoSanc and mana return

Such a large fix to class mechanics should not be baked into a blessing, it should be fixed with a passive ability/talent. This removes the potential for "I ran out of mana, need more paladins in the raid for kings+wisdom+sanct" - an unlikely comment from a competent player perhaps, but I still feel that the trend of no longer trying to fix major class issues by packing in more talents should continue.

Edit: Clarification

I've been playing in the beta all day, trying out different gear and spells. I've only experienced downtime, in or out of a dungeon, when using... well... the kinda gear you guys are talking about as ideal. Swapped to some holy items - spellpower, int, sta, crit, mp5, haste - went back to SoRighteousness instead of Blood, and downtime just vanished. DPS in all scenarios was the same or better, though that could just be leftover TBC gear and my propensity for huge pulls talking. Divine Plea stretches further that way as well. In any case, I think I'm going to drop Divine Strength temporarily and pick up Seals of the Pure instead. Oh yes.

Are those reporting mana problems skipping Guarded by the Light and/or Shield of the Templar?

My eyes keep coming back to the crit heal bonus on Touched by the Light. I can't help but think that Blizzard is pointing us towards some alternate route for dealing with places we've overgeared.

Well I see the crit heals bonus as just a "we want Prot Paladins to wear Holy Paladin gear when healing, not Resto Shaman gear" effect. The idea I believe is still that Prot Paladins will heal on fights they are not tanking, and if you do it wearing Holy Paladin gear you'd normally have a bunch of crit that is fairly useless (since you lack Illumination). With the bonus from Guarded by the Light, all that crit is more useful. I really think that's all there is to it.

Don't sign your posts.

1) Protadins scale very well with stamina and stamina is probably the best thing to gem until late BT (and in Sunwell Kalecgos and Felmyst favour stamina while Brutallus, Twins, and M'uru favour avoidance). So ya at your level I would stack nothing but stamina gems.

2) Badge gear versus raid gear is not usually an either/or question. If raid gear drops and you can get it, do so. When you have enough badges to get gear that way, do that. I would probably make the badge pants my next purchase if I were you. I'd also replace your violet eye trinket with a commendation of Kael'thas.

Any time the boss threatens your health you will want as much true avoidance (parry/dodge) as you can get - block is of limited use against heavy hitters (apart from assuring uncrushability). Against small hitting mobs (like AoE packs) block is good, although in Hyjal the abomination stuns reduce its effectiveness (since the only time you're seriously threatened tends to be when you're stunned).

There is no "mark" for spell damage. If you are having threat issues, stack more. If you are not, do not. More is always better, but it is almost never worth sacrificing survivability for spell damage (for progression gearing; farm raids are obviously different).

3) What level of content are you talking about? 15k unbuffed is probably fine for most of t5 (might want more if you're tanking Morogrim or something).

4) Keep holy shield up and use your other abilities (judgement, exorcism, consecration) as often as possible. Assuming you don't want to be crushed the holy shield cooldown forces a 10 second cycle, so you just cast each of the three once per 10 seconds, adding in exorcism if applicable.

What do you think about this?
If you are @ 490 defense and crush immune, check your total avoidance resp. check how much mana and/or surviving-problems you have.
- If you have problems dying to fast from a lot of big hits in a row => avoid
- If you go oom too fast => Stamina

Staudamm doesn't have any pure Stamina gemming and is doing quite well.

Already answered above

Depends on content. Just test & tweak.

First put priorities. Then find your own rotation.
I currently do holy shield, seal/judgement, consecrate and so on.

Regarding mana problems, what sort of rotations do you guys use? Did you pick up Improved Judgement for an 8s cycle or are you sticking with the 10s cycle? It doesn't surprise me at all to hear of mana problems in beta when I run into mana problems in live now without all the nifty new talents/spells. Toss in Shield of Righteousness and Hammer of the Righteous and I can see mana starvation being a very real problem.

That said, with a fairly substantial boost to threat generation, it's entirely possible we'll be able to hold aggro just fine without using every single ability on every cooldown.

I'm specifically concerned about people with access to the beta realm. The main reason I asked about Improved Judgement is that in beta it allows for a "true" 8s rotation now that Holy Shield is on an 8s cooldown. Now that Judgement is going to be put on the GCD it becomes another 1.5s that we need to account for in our cycles. That, and an 8s rotation will use ~25% more mana over time compared to a 10s rotation.