Just a quick post tonight, because I’m very tired and have been extremely busy for the last week:
Although I play a holy paladin by choice, I was really happy when 2.0 (and then TBC more so) made Protection a truly viable paladin spec, and I still get rather frustrated on behalf of my tanky brethren when people dismiss the utility and usability of paladin tanks.
Zen, a protection pally from my guild, has a very informative and well-written tankadin blog, and he recently made a post dispelling some of the old myths about tankadins. No, pallies don’t take too much damage; yes, they have enough health.
Go read! It’s good stuff – and next time someone’s trotting about the tired old line about warriors being the only real tanks, you’ll have ammunition to dismiss them. The raiding community has already accepted that feral druids can do the job – now they just have to broaden their minds and accept paladins too. (I shudder to think of the drama once Death Knights hit the scene…)
That upsets me as well. My early experience was that of a Tankadin and believe me most who tanked with me were suprise how fast and efficient our runs was. When I hit Kara, I had to ‘suprise’ people there as well. Though I no longer tank, we are doing pretty good with our MT being a Pally in SSC and The Eye.
Honestly I don’t like prot Paladins. Maybe it’s just because I was a Holy Paladin for so long, and I played back in Naxxramas where any spec besides strict Holy was a ridiculously bad one. Something about them irks me an awful lot even if I know they’ll be as good as a Druid tank. I’ve even had them tank a Karazhan particularly well for me, I still just didn’t like it and it makes me nervous.
Elitists will be elitists I guess. I imagine Death Knights will be the tank of Wrath,though, and wouldn’t argue that one.
@Monique – I don’t mind elitism if it’s warranted; what annoys me is misinformation… particularly the people who preach against tankadins and trot out substantiation that’s outdated or factually wrong. (Not saying you are, just that I’ve seen it done.)
@Tenryuu – until fairly recently, tankadins have suffered thanks to some iffy itemisation, but that’s largely been corrected now, thankfully.