Fortis: Fortis Paladin Specs

Fortis Paladins please post your current spec here along with any commentary on why you chose what you did. There should be only one post per druid with their spec and no posts debating anything. Create new threads for extended discussions or debates of various choices.

These threads were originally utilized to keep track of what roles we were each playing, and make an excellent reference for what does and doesn't work for each individual.

OK, so here is my ideal Prot spec as my gear level increases and we get into more 25man content.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZ0xiAcuMtcIRGoE00x0h

Simple idea behind most talents is for damage reduction, stamina, and threat. Taking Guardians Favor over Stoicism was an easy choice since I forsee a greater use for Hand of Protection over a 1sec stun reduction. This also allowed me to pick up an extra point in the Ret tree so I could spec out of Imp Judgement and grab a 3/3 in Sanctified Seals.

The reasoning behind so much of the crit talents in Ret is that they apply to all melee and spells, whether its damage or healing. I know with the upcoming inrtoduction of dual-specs there will be an easier way to switch between tanking and healing, but as it stands now, the more crit i am able to stack, the bigger my heals will be if I'm in Holy gear.

Other than that, everything else is pretty much straight forward on the talents.

Here is what I think is the ideal spec for holy pallies in our current content.

Paladin #1 with Kings - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gMzhVuMxRtaZVcbx
Paladin #2 with additional 3% crit - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxAzgMzhVuRxRtZVcbx0h

There is two different specs that would require two different paladins. Considering there is at least two paladins in the raid at a time it doesn't make much sense for both of them to waste 5 talent points on Blessing of Kings. While Improved Concentration Aura can be useful in some boss fights, I think that it is more of a PvP talent and that Improved Lay on Hands and Improved Blessing of Wisdom are better. Aura Mastery is a good Idea but I cant find a way to work it into the #1 Paladin's spec with kings while still getting everything else out of holy, considering fights like Sapphiron with Frost aura being a must have. While Spec #1 may not have Aura Mastery, Spec #2 does.

One of the biggest talents in my opinion for prot pallies is Aredent Defender. If you have the addon "Tankadin" you would realize how many times it would prevent you from a death. While the spec you chose may put our more threat. I would rather have Ardent Defender.
I also would get Heart of the Crusader and Imp Judgement over Benediction. The reason for this is because from what I've heard Divine Plea has gotten rid of most prot pallies mana problems in 10/25 mans. May also depend on gear level.

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

I went with this spec, no point in getting imp wisdom when Dark has it and I get kings even though Ama has it cause I like to pvp. Though when s5 starts I'll prob go like 51/20 or w.e. a newish pvp spec is. haha

That is of course if they take for ever to release the dual spec stuff.

My current build is still the #1 - 51/5/15 holy build. Would love to do the #2 build with the additional crit that Dark mentioned above but...hate giving up Kings (always had it). Was wondering how bad it would be to do something like 51/2/18. This would really gimp my Kings, but would a regular Blessing of Kings, better than none at all? I've been trying to decide for a long time now. No closer to changing the build atm either.

Holy
In my opinion at the moment, http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sxAzg0osVu0tgdxGzubh:bwdcVz is the best spec a holy paladin can have atm. Being able to give the raid a buff that reduces damage taken by 40% (Up to a maximum of 150% of the Paladin's health, which does not apply when bubbled) is pretty overpowered. On Deconstructor this ability helped a TON during tantrum when lots of aoe healing was needed.

There is however another spec that some holy paladins are going into which is http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sxAzg0osVu0tgdxZVcbx:bwdcVz. While this is the best spec on paper and HPS wise, it does not have the utility that the first spec has.

These are the ONLY two specs that a paladin should be specing, any other spec out there is NOT correct. Specing into Improved blessing of wisdom is useless now due Mana Spring and Blessing of wisdom not stacking. Every resto shaman spec includes improved mana spring, therefore making improved blessing of wisdom useless.

Protection
I still think going into ret to get the 5% crit is still the best spec to go http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sZE0xA0uMGsIufdts0x:pGkcmz.
The reason there is only 1 point in improved judgements is because you want to have a rotation that has a 9 sec CD, followed by a 6 sec CD. Having an 8 sec cd isn't any different then a 9 sec cd on judgements due to you only using it every 9 secs. A rotation example would be 96969, Judgement, Shield of the Righteousness, Holy Shield, Hammer of the Righteousness. Now you can do a few things at this point in the roation, you could lay a Consecrate, Divine Plea, Holy Wrath, Hammer of Wrath, Exorcism etc. You then would follow up with a Shield of the Righteousness, Judgement, Holy Shield, Hammer of the righteousness, Shield of the Righteousness, Another spot where you can consecrate or w/e, Holy Shield, Hammer of the rightouesness...
Yeah its a mouthful but then you just keep repeating this every 14 secs. (FUCK YOU VIBEZ)

Retribution
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sZE0zubZVfbxbIuhdIfsu:oa0cm0 Would be the ideal retribution spec, since in reality there is only 59 talent points worth getting that are dps increasing, you might as well spend those into prot for a raid utility such as Divine Guardian


Well thats about it

And he obviously has this mastered.

I was thinking some like http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sxAzg0osVu0tgdbZVf0x0h:bwdcVz
Might be good for pve too. Not sure what the numbers are for 3% crit and 2% healing are vs. 5% healing.

Elitistjerks has said and proven that 5/5 in Divinity increases your HPS by more. This is also confirmed by the program Rawr

Wouldn't it be different on an individual basis though? Because 5% increased healing is a different amount for everyone, unless it is only on the base heal of spells. It seems like it would be different for every different possible gear set with the 5% healing probably scaling a lot better.

I was just throwing it out. But my guess would be that the differences between the two are minute at best.

You could make the same argument about 3% crit being different for different gear levels. I think it's safe to say that the "difference" is going to stay pretty linear (with 5% healing coming out on top) until you get to some ridiculous level (200% crit or 50,000 spellpower or whatever).

Well I was pretty much just assuming everyone that is at our paladin's gear level in this guild, the 5% is generally better

Hm. I guess I should make mine.

I often to use a number of specs over the raids.

Naxx was all about Optimizing threat and output for dps race fights like Patchwerk and Four Horsemen. I stuck to the 5/54/17 for Seals of the Pure, Imp Judgements and Deflection.

Ulduar's release opened the Mitigation/TTL spec. 0/53/18, instead of reckoning and Divinity. Paladins would spec into Divine Sacrifice as a source of Mitigation. Most reasons why - It provided better damage mitigation than a Holy Paladin, unless the Holy paladin focused on MT healing and specced into DS as well.

3.2, they released the Reckoning Spec, which is the one I use now. The idea for using Reckoning is for MT's who have room to live. It's a good TTL/threat spec, instead of Mitigation of SS, relying on Holy Paladins to do their jobs on that. A paladin would spec into Reckoning for boost threat, and still have imp judgements, vindication, and Crusade. Although since we have Breeann, Hayde, Keo, Freedomx, I do not bother getting Vindication. As all of them should have an AP reduction. Especially an Arms warrior into imp demo. Since I also got rid of my TTL/SURVIVAL spec, I am maintaining the 0/53/18 with 3/5 Reckoning. My avoidance gets increased by 10% during raids, and have no reason for mitigation matters. If any of the holy paladins do not think they can SS me at all times, I will probably switch back to my TTL/SURVIVAL spec. Though it is not recommended for Heroic Trial.