This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
The 96969 Tanking Rotation
Post Reply
Return to board index
Post by
Dunsinane
The 96969 Rotation:
Note - I make no claim to having created this. Credit goes to Psiven (I believe, as I can no longer locate the original thread) over at
Maintankadin
. I'm simply bringing it here for easy reference.
The 3.0.2 patch and the release of WotLK have provided tankadins with several new abilities for generating threat and altered the underlying cooldowns for some existing tanking abilities. In addition, the need to reseal after judging has been removed while Judgement spells have been placed onto the GCD. This results in a much busier job for Paladin tanks.
Primary tanking rotation abilities:
Holy Shield - 8 sec CD, lasts 10 secs
Judgements - 10 sec CD, can be talented to 9 or 8 secs and on the GCD
Consecration - 8 sec duration, can be glyphed to 10 secs
Hammer of the Righteous - 6 sec CD
Shield of Righteousness - 6 sec CD, available at level 75
Other abilities that may regularly enter a threat rotation:
Avenger's Shield - 30 sec CD, now an instant cast
Exorcism - 15 sec CD, affects only Undead and Demons
Holy Wrath - 30 sec CD, now instant and stuns, affects only Undead and Demons
Maximizing your threat - the basic rotation
Before taking into account the longer cooldown abilities, we begin with a rotation that allows us to use each of the shorter cooldowns when they come available or as close as possible to this ideal. This is what is referred to as the 96969, based upon the cooldowns of your most frequently used abilities:
6 sec CD: HotR and ShoR
9 sec CD: Holy Shield, Judgement, Consecration (loses 1 tick)
Example (level 80)
0.0 Holy Shield (9)
1.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
3.0 Judgement (9)
4.5 Shield of Righteousness (6)
6.0 Consecration (9)
7.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
9.0 Holy Shield (9)
10.5 Shield of Righteousness (6)
12.0 Judgement (9)
13.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
15.0 Consecration (9)
16.5 Shield of Righteousness (6)
18.0 Holy Shield (9) ... and repeat.
Note that the precise order of these abilities can be varied depending upon your situation.
Post by
Dunsinane
Before level 75
Without ShoR, there are gaps in the rotation every six seconds. This gives us two options:
We can ignore them, except to fill with AS, Exorcism, and Holy Wrath. This results in lower threat but is simpler and burns through mana much more slowly.
We can seal weave. Once a 5-stack of the Vengeance DoT has been placed upon the mob, Seal of Righteousness can be brought in for a small amount of extra threat (the added per swing bonus is reduced due to the lesser damage done by Judgements). This is also mana-intensive as it requires changing your seal every six seconds to avoid losing your Vengeance stack if you have an untimely miss.
Example (level 70)
Pre-pull, Seal of Vengeance
0.0 Holy Shield (9)
1.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
3.0 Judgement (9)
4.5 (empty)
6.0 Consecration (9)
7.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
9.0 Holy Shield (9)
10.5 Seal of Righteousness
12.0 Judgement (9)
13.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
15.0 Consecration (9)
16.5 Seal of Vengeance
18.0 Holy Shield (9)
19.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
21.0 Judgement (9)
22.5 Seal of Righteousness
24.0 Consecration (9)
25.5 Hammer of the Righteous (6)
27.0 Holy Shield (9)
28.5 Seal of Vengeance ... and so on.
Working in the optional abilities
Avenger's Shield, Exorcism, and Holy Wrath are all superior threat moves (given typical gear assumptions) to the basic rotation abilities. This is as would be expected, given the lengthy cooldowns and other limitations placed upon their use. They therefore have a high priority on their use when they are available.
How to work them in with minimum disruption:
Skip Hammer of the Righteous: While it is a high threat move, it is inferior to ShoR on a single target by the time that ability is available. It also requires no effort to adjust your rotation. In multi-mob AoE situations, you may prefer to skip ShoR.
Skip a Judgement: This is one of your lower threat abilities, and as such it can be safely skipped every other rotation while still maintaining the debuff on the target.
Skip Consecration: On single targets, Consecration is a very poor return on threat for the mana spent.
Post by
Dunsinane
What this affects
The Glyph of Consecration is a poor choice for a tank. Extending Consecration to 10 seconds interferes with the overall rotation and results in less actual uptime.
1/2 Improved Judgements is necessary for a maximum threat rotation. 0/2 results in cooldown issues. 2/2 gains no benefit while tanking with a full rotation.
Post by
ShellyBelly
Looks good. I've been waiting for this for a while.
Post by
88789
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
dslyecix
Great, looks fantastic!
Will use... only gotta get to 80 now
You can still follow it at 70. You just leave a small gap for a second where ShoR would be, or as said in the post, seal-weave.
Post by
84594
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
86296
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
114144
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Lightrain
Great work again dunsinane! A true pally fanatic!
/sticky bump
Post by
dslyecix
Not that I'm downplaying how awesome Dunsinane has been, but he
did
just copy this from Maintankadin (like he said at the top). :p
Post by
114144
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
123609
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Dunsinane
Example (level 80)
...
Note that the precise order of these abilities can be varied depending upon your situation.
The order listed is an example for a reason - the point is the 9-second and 6-second rhythm, not the mechanical repetition of specific keypresses.
In other words, you still need to think about your priorities before the pull. That's part of being a good tank.
Post by
123609
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
167771
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
114144
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
202068
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
106896
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
202068
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post Reply
You are not logged in. Please
log in
to post a reply or
register
if you don't already have an account.