World of Warcraft: Why a Paladin Should Be Your Main Tank

Paladins have risen from being only used in raids as healers to being premiere dps and tanks as well. But why should a paladin be used as a guild's main tank? Here are the top 5 reasons your guild should consider using the holy warriors to stand toe to toe with the biggest foes Wrath of the Lich King has to offer.

5. Ardent defender: This 5 point talent reduces all damage taken by 30% when the paladin is below 35% life. This doesn't sound impressive, since who wants a tank to be at such low life? No one does, but it is a huge help IF it happens. And it will. Unlike shield wall or last stand, it is used automatically when the paladin is at the right life percentage. The more health you have the more hp 35% actually is. This is a fantastic talent when taking on Maexina during the web spray phase and Gluth when he used decimate.

4. Tanking buffs: Paladins bring arguably the best tanking buff when specced protection. First on the list is blessing of sanctuary, which lowers all damage taken by 3% also giving back mana, rage, or runic power every time the target dodges, parries, or blocks. This makes the tank take less damage and keep their resources open so they can use more abilities. Also they bring the second best buff for every class in blessing of kings, which raises all stats by 10%. These two greatly help the raid and are brought to the table by every single protection paladin.

3. Mana bars: Paladins use mana instead of rage or runic power, and they start boss battles with a full mana bar. This means they can use any of their abilities without having to wait for rage or rune power from the start. This gives immediate threat production and through the whole fight they will be delivering their maximum dps. Since many raid bosses in Wrath hinge on dps races this is a huge benefit to have.

2. Lay on hands: The "oh no" button supreme. For the price of a 20 minute cool down, the paladin fills up target's life equal to the paladin's hp. Lay on hands can make the paladin go from 25 hp to full bar when there's a small hitch. Warriors have something similar called last stand it increases their health by 30% for 20 seconds. So they get a super potion. Paladins get all their life and most of their mana back. To top it all off, lay on hands can be used on others! Someone essential to the raid is near death (like your healer who's too focused on the tank's hp to notice their own) now they are up and running at full health. There is no better healing ability in the game as far as pure power goes, and a skilled paladin tank will know when to use it to save the whole raid.

1.Unhittable: Paladins are the easiest to reach and sustain unhittable status. This means that every attack that comes at the paladin will result in a miss, parry, dodge, or block. The result is that the tank takes less damage over all, each attack against them is either zero damage or a glancing blow with reduced damage relieving stress from the healers greatly. Warriors do reach this point first, but it is for only two attacks while paladins with the benefit of holy shield can take eight attacks in a ten second stretch meaning dealing with any boss it will never go away.