In this guide I'll tell you what feats I like, which powers I use, and what gear I focus on. Playstyle, strategy, and rotations will be towards the bottom. Remember, this is a guide about how I play, how I make it work for me and my reasons.
DISCLAIMER 1. This is not intended to be the new OP Bible. Just how I play my OP. Also, English is not my first language. So don't expect a Shakespeare's book.
DISCLAIMER 2. Guide is work in progress
DISCLAIMER 3. Actually OP have a lot of bugs. Justice capstone not working for prot, shift sometimes dont respond, and so one. For the writing of this guide i decided ignore all the bugs. You will find below a bug section. Also, per forum rules, i will not mention any exploits affecting our class atm.
I. Race/Stats
You should pick the race you like best. No shame on that. If you are interested into min/max then my advices:
1-Dragonborn. You can choice what bonus you want (that's huge) and increase the healing taken. Great choice. Downside, you need to pay.
2-Human. +2 where you want plus 3 heroic feats. Also a great choice. Depending on your feat choices, that 3 points can amazing things like 3% more critical, more HP and so
For stats, CON always first and add your bonus here. So start with 18+2. For second attribute I choice CHA instead of WIS.
CHA give you
Combat Advantage damage
Stamina Regeneration
Action Points gain
Companion stat bonus
WIS give you
Healing bonus
Critical Chance
Control Bonus
Control Resistance
You want stamina (shift keeps you alive) and action points gain (to keep up your daily). Also, boosting your companions is boosting you (via bonding stones or with an augment companion). What is more, with the heroic feat "Force of Will" CHA will also add Critical Chance. So really the only thing that WIS add for you as a tank that you cant gain via CHA is Control Resistance (which you don't need with a good use of shift) and Healing bonus (which also you don't need).
In short, put your second +2 (if you are a Dragonborn) into CHA with your second best roll. Third best roll should go to WIS.
II. PowersMust to haveAt willsRadiant Strike ->Spammable close gaper, AOE plus 5% ArmPen. Best at Will we have.
Shielding Strike ->Fast combo with a weak shield. Good but not amazing. You can swap it with Oath Strike.
EncountersBane->The OP mark. Each application give 10% more dmg taken and 10% less dmg done and can stack 3 times. Is a boss killer.
Templar's Wrath->That is what keep you alive. It gives a good chunk of temp HP based on the damage you did with it.
Vow of Enmity->Swap it with Bane if aggro is a problem. Otherwise, use Bane.
Relentless Assault->We have 2 CC, Banish and this. Banish is a better CC but it prevents mobs to be damaged. RA is a fast charge that will push back all adds but the one you aim. It doesn't sounds good for a tank to scatter all the mobs around but it have 2 good parts. First, on T2 dungeons adds do a lot of dmg so is a great opener to avoid some dmg, to again some aggro and to buy time to your CW that is starting his CC (don't use it after or you will make your CW angry). Also, RA give a good amount of AP and do decent damage.
DailiesDivine Protector->THE daily. You redirect 100% of the damage the party would take to yourself and 80% damage taken is reduced. Yeah, is amazing as it sounds. When DP is up, you don't need to worry if any party member have aggro and your healer only need to take care of you. Only downside, your party can potentially kill you if they stop avoiding red circles.
Class FeaturesAura of Courage->DPS aura. No other aura will boost the party damage as this one will do.
Aura of Wisdom->25% recharge for you and your party. More banes to keep the stack at 3 and more TW to keep your temp HP up.
Nice to haveAt willsOath Strike-> Each 3 hits is a 3 secs hard taunt. Not bad.
EncountersBanish->Banish is a nice CC (with a long CD). Basically use on adds your party don't intend to kill, like the adds on VT or when your party could use a break on a tough situation (healer down and party low on HP)
Cleansing Touch->If you intend to PvP that's a must. It will break ANY CC. In PvE it have is uses too to generate temp HP, but in almost all cases Templar's Wrath is better choice.
Smite->Reduce the damage by 15%. No bad for bosses fight or when you don't need RA.
Circle of power->30% more dmg and 30% dmg resist for you (yes, only buffs you) is good. 2 downside, not good in mobile fights and you casting makes you stand still for a couple of secs.
DailiesDivine Judgement->Good for solo PVE and decent PVP. Is our only damaging daily so it deserve some points.
Heroism->CC immunity and 100%hp as temp HP. If DP is already up, use this.
Shield of Faith->Some people like this. With DP is an overkill in my opinion.
Class FeaturesAura of Truth and Aura of Protection are good tank auras. If survival is a concern, replace courage or wisdom.
Aura of Radiance -> For me, it was ticking for 1,5k each 3 seconds. Not impressive, but for aoe farm not that bad.
III. Heroic and Protection Featshttp://nwcalc.com/index.html#/op?b=1oa5:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1wn0023:1uu550v:1u0z000:1000000&h=0&p=oop
Bulwark and Light capstone just don't worth it. Holy barrier caps at 20 stacks, so that's 10% shield. Granted stacks come fast, but after 1 shield, it takes at least 10 second to start gaining them again. So basically you have a 10% HP shield each 30 secs. Now choice between that and 35% more dmg, 35% recharge and a chance to gain a charge of divine call (which really recharges slow). Justice capstone is not a tank talent, but it overshadows in every way Bulwark. Light capstone is not that bad, but half the talent points you need to used in order to take that are useless for you.
Now, about my feat choices.
Heroic
2/5 steadfast and 3/3 Force of Will -> Steadfast seems a no brainier for a tank. More HP is always good. Why use force of will? Steadfast increase only the HP from CON bonus, not your whole HP. Basically, remove all your equip and boons the difference between 2/5 and 5/5 is 1,5% more HP of that value.
0/5 Dominating Presence -> Is 10 more feets for your auras worth 5 feat points? No for me. Wanna get heals? Stay close to your healer, Wanna get buffs? Stay at 30 feets from your tank.
Justice
Tier 1->More speed for a tank is always good. 10% extra duration in your already bad CC skills no.
Tier 2->25% recharge for your party members is awesome.
Tier 3->Solo vs Team. Tanks don't exist outside group content.
Tier 4->Heals on daily vs faster recharges. My build is based on spam encounters. Spam Radiant Strike and watch your encounters recovering faster from what you ever dreamed.
Tier 5->PF is all about spamming at wills and then 1 encounter. My build is just the opposite, pick Prism. Be careful on heroic encounters. Prism generate a good amount of lag if another paladin have it.
Bulwark vs
Light
Only nice thing in Light is aura gifts, but you need to waste 10 points to reach that, so for me don't worth 15 feats points. I decided to invest into Bulwark
Bulwark
Tier 1->Control resistance (PvP) vs more stamina. Your shift should leave your immune to any CC, the choice is clear.
Tier 2->To my side will only buff allies movement, but will do nothing if they stand in your auras reach, so is pretty useless. Pick the second one.
Tier 3->Now a hard choice! Sanctity vs Martyr's Blood.
Sanctity will give you 4200 more deflect, defence, or regeneration (400 rating is 1% btw, so is a bit more than 10% boost). From that 3, only deflect and defence will help you keep yourself alive and will be only up 50% of time.
Martyr's Blood is a 10% of a 10% dmg reduction with a 8 sec duration with no CD.
I had both and i finally stick with Sanctity. True you can get regeneration that really sucks, but the other 2 boost helps you, so is 66% you get something useful. Martyr's Blood have a 90% of doing nothing.
IV. Boons
Work in Progress
V.A. Armor and Stats to chase
Offensive look for Power, Arm Pen and Critical.
Defensive is all about HP, defence and deflection.
Offensive stats will make your Templar's Wrath hit harder, which translates in more temporal HP. Far as I know, Tiamat have 60% DR so 60% ArmPen would be the "hard cap" atm. Anyway, I'm not aiming for such a big number as I will need to do a lot of sacrifices. Atm I have 7k power, 35% Crit and 30% ArmPen with a lot of room to improve (my equip is not BiS and I need to do a lot of refining yet).
With justice you don't need recovery (we already have a lot of recharge with our feats and wisdom aura), regeneration don't do too much for you and life steal requires a full invest and I doubt it will even work with an OP.
HP should be always our priority. It scales Aura of Courage dmg, a good amount of our feats and powers like heroism. Defence increase our DR and mobs at seems to have a good amount for ArmPen so is also vital to reduce the big hits.
Finally I'm still toying with deflection. Deflection is a X% chance of taking 50% less dmg. Not all hits can be deflected so is not always there. Also, apart from a boon which I seem it increase the deflection severity by 2% (so dmg will be reduced by 52%) I don't see any other way to increase that. I need more testing on deflection to see his really value.
At the end, i will go with something like that.
HP > Def > ArP/Power/Crit > Deflect V.B. Enchantments
Offensive -> Tenebrous. I have 2x4% ones plus a 2%. I fill the rest with Black Ice ones.
Defensive -> Brutals
Utility->Dragon <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, Fey Blessing, and Dark. Aim for a 10% for DH and fill the rest as you want.
Epic enchantment Weapon
For weapon there's no a best one. I'm using Plague Fire, but other like Terror, Feytouched and Vorpal are nice. Best case will be have it cordinated with rest of your party to have all covered. Maybe tank with PF, healer with terror and the dps'ers with Vorpal. Sadly, this is something that will never happens on a PuG so I took the one I liked more.
Vorpal also deserves a special mention. Crit severity affects damage and heals. So, higer serverity means more temporal HP with templar's wrath and cleansing touch.
Armor
Hands down for Soulforged for PvE. A second chance is something everybody likes. Negation is amazing good, but the main difference is that with a lesser Soulforged you are good, but lesser negation sucks. Negation really shines at Transcendent or Pure.
V.C. ArtifactsArtifact Equipment
WIP
Artifacts
HP+Defence ones, Good choices are Sigil of Oathbound Paladin, Wheel of Elements, Symbol of Earth, White Dragon Heart or Sigil of GWF.
For active, Sigil of Devoted Cleric helps a lot keeping Divine Protection up.
VI. Companions
My team:
Blacksmith
Rust Monster
Angel of Protection
Leprechaun
Black Dragon Ion Stone
There are other useful tank companions (like the pig, wisp, sylph, and others). So is just up to your personal preference. The most important thing to do is upgrade them to legendary for the 15% status boost applied to you. Angel is there for when I solo hard things or need need an extra protection (5% dmg reduced and he will intercept some dmg). The Ion when a summoned companion will cause troubles. Why the black dragon one? Cause I find myself at 50% of lower after taking a big hit, and 10% more critical helps to get a bigger Templar's Wrath. The other companions are there just for the active bonus.
VII. Playstyle
Comments
2015/05/05 Justice capstone don't work. It only give the extra divine energy point, and none of the rest. This is only true for Prot.
2015/05/05 When pressing shift sometimes sanctuary doesn't show or it shows but do nothing.
I used to run the exact mix of Steadfast and Force of Will you suggest, but now I run 5/5 Steadfast (Humans at 5/5 and 3/3 of course). More HP is more than just more health for an OP. More HP means Aura of Courage does more damage for the whole party. More HP means everything we have that looks at HP works better, including all those Tenebrous enchants you are using. After making the change I was not only living longer I was just generally more effective.
Also on Dominating Presence I am on the fence about it. I really need to run a lot of dungeons with and without it with the same team to see what works out better, but I am getting more confident you are correct. That extra 10' is not helping as much as some of the other options would.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
hey, thanks for your well though input.
When i was testing the capstone, after pressing tab with 20 stacks i got a 10% hp shield that got erased after 1 hit (similar as absolution, but my absolution absorb about 30k hp). Are you suggesting the shield does not disappear? If it could stack to 200 i chould see the use for a huge shield, but 10% just don't worth.
2/5 SF vs 5/5 is a hard choice. True is hp scale a lot of things for the OP, but 3/3 FoW is giving me 10% critical chance. That's huge. My gaming pc brorke 3 days ago and while im assembling a new one i cannot enter game but when im back i will do a screenshoot showing how much HP you gain for each SF feat point.
Under dailies, you mention Shield of Faith. However, are you sure it even works? And I don't mean the healing bonus, as that one is overkill at best, but the Damage Reduction. I'm not seeing any difference in numbers while it's active. Even when another OBP casts it on me. As far as dailies go, Shield of Faith would be the daily to rule all dailies for a healer OP. Sadly, I'm nearly completely convinced it just doesn't work.
Indeed!
Did you saw that behaivor as Devotion or Protection? All my testing comes as prot. My normal loadout for solo is DJ+DP and Heroism+DP for dungeons.
Is true i never tested SoF without overlaping with DP so i could missed that. Anyone else noticed if SoF is broken? If that so i will add it to the bug section.
I'll try and give it some more tests, hopefully with an ACT log to back it up.
That will be ace! With all the bugs on mod6 a lot of tests need to be made.
with CON 29 and 5/5 i got 7500 more hp than with 2/5.
Yeah that matches my observations on Steadfast.
As to SoF it seems to work for me, and I'm not stacking it with anything.
Heroism - when I tested this power it seemed pointless, its a few seconds of CC immune and a lot of temp HP for the same time. If the critical incident doesn't happen in that time it does nothing. How are you making it "work"?
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Yes, so for me SF is all about 7500 hp vs 10% Crit (actually a bit more cause im using grand lathender belt atm).
Same, SoF always worked as expected. Maybe is just bugged for devotion. I hope jaegernl come back with more info.
You are right, heroism is NOT that nice, but you really don't too many other options.
You can load DJ for dps, but the dmg in dungeons is not that great (but good for solo).
You can load SoF but is an overkill with DP.
You can load LoH, but tbh, if healing is a concern i will just go with Cleansing Touch.
And finally you have Heroism. On dungeons, im using Heroism to save other party members. Maybe someone's body that ended inside the molten gold in LoL or his body is in the middle of a big AOE that will push me back (making pointless trying to revive him) or hes surrended by lot of mobs and i know i will take a beating standing there reviving.
So yeah, Heroism is just my preference. I guess i would go with SoF if DJ was not an option.
I'm working on my build.. there are a few things I'm still tinkering with in the feats to settle on a final option, and obviously some powers that need consideration as well. Which is why I haven't posted it.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
While I was testing I considered the possibility that Shield of Faith might take 50% of my DR and add that on top of the original, but no dice. Having Shield of Faith active created no lowering of damage taken whatsoever. This test was done on my Devotion spec Paladin. I'll report back to you with results from my Protector.
I will report it asap. Please, do the same with the log if you still have them.
Yeah i found the same. i will add to the bug part.
remember to report it!