Yes, how could he resist running right over to read it when you put it like that?

Yes, he could have worded it less spitefully, but the points still hold.

Paladins are now just as equal to warriors and druids in term of tanking. In fact thanks to the abundance of prot pally gear in BT and the recent extra stamina buff, prot paladins are better at tanking Illidan melee than a warrior - holy shield lasts longer than shield block (8 charges, 10s vs 2 charges 5s) for the purpose of Shear and the added fact that he's a demon allows earlier nukage from the DPS.

Dunno about Kael (probably not - no spell reflect) or vashj, but Illidan is just as easily, and probably better at being tanked by a prot paladin.

Of course, each class has its own drawbacks. Prot paladins' threat mostly comes from blocking, so off-tanking is probably hard. But you get the point.

Matthew,

There is a reason the original poster is so steamed. The problem is this article is spreading out right lies about protection paladins in a column that is supposed to be about the viability of hybrids. People who don't know everything about every class come here for information, and they are going to be reading the same misinformation that gets thrown around in trade channel. Paladins can and have main tanked every single boss in BC raids. While warriors are still preferable in certain fights it does not mean that Paladins can't get the job done.

I'd go so far as to say that Paladins are a better choice as a main tank than druids ever can be, because as was mentioned there ARE certain encounters that druids just should not be tanking. Most 25-man raids will still go for a warrior as their main tank, but they don't have to. I'd suggest that in 10-man content a paladin is not only AS good a warrior, they are preferred. There is no reason to even bring an OT to Kara if you have a prot paladin as your main tank. ZA requires a second tank, but Kara is completely viable going it alone.

The slanderous suggestion that anything a protection paladin would be preferred for is just as easily tanked by a holy paladin is more than a little outrageous. It shows the author is in a guild that has very little regard for protection paladins and is clearly only using them to tank the few encounters that so obviously favor paladins that they have no choice but to give in to the fact that Blizzard wants paladins tanking. Burning Crusade gave paladins the tools to tank, and the raids were designed to force that on the raiding community. A lot of guilds were forced to start trying out protection paladins when they hit the mount hyjal trash waves, but some of the smarter ones realized "hey, this class is actually viable now, perhaps we can use them for something else also."

As was stated above, in 2.3 the HP gap was closed with the change to Combat Expertise. So, if you are a raid leader and you haven't been running with a prot paladin, try them out because they can tank anything, and you might find that depending on your raid composition some fights will be easier with a paladin main tank. The reference above to the maintankadin forums are a good start. I also really enjoy: http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t17089-paladin_protection_you/

Regardless, both sites will help dispel some of the lies in this article.

At #2 well what the hell is the point of an article that writes about paladin tanking without including recent common knowledge? The article is wrong about paladins, and if it's wrong about paladins then what else is it wrong about?

The wording is suiting, because wowinsider is going to become absolutely useless if articles fills up with information that is both dated and wrong.

This has to be some of the most mindless, stupid drivel I have ever heard out of any member of the WoW Community.

Have you ever even used a pally tank before? Are you even playing this game since 2.3?

I am amazed that anyone writing a column is this ignorant.

Man what a jack ass. I bet you're still stuck in shattered halls trying to figure out how to get passed 5..oh alright.

So heres the funny thing about this. If you're an idiot, and you're a paladin, and you're prot spec, you think to yourself "I can do anything you can do better." The funny thing is, you really can't. I take that back, multi mob. I play Jekab on cenarion circle if you'd like to speak with me, go for it. I've been prot spec for about 5 months? And then after 2.4 I switched to ret. "Wtf ret?" see the funny thing is, I was in t4 with kara and some badge gear, making it ya know the standard quota for paladin tanking gear.

I've tanked Kara, gruul, some ssc ((Quite unsuccessfully I might add)) and Tk once. Sure, thats not t6 content, but I have to say this. We have a paladin tank in our t6 content, he handles a couple mobs quite well. Is he geared? Some what, he sure as hell knows what he's doing though. But for a fight like Reliquary of souls, hes in healing gear. Why, because a warrior has a better chance at living.

But no, a paladin tank will not be in end game main tanking, if he is grats! Thats awesome! But I'd rather beat my head against a wall. And that is what you'd be doing. I'm sorry paladin tanks but your place is in five mans, karazhan, za, and some heroics.

Oh, enjoyed the article thanks for the great read!