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While responding to Mullets on Twitter, it dawned on me just how many players are DPS because of the overwhelming amount of information we have to take in before we ever step into an instance to tank.  Things like defense, mitigation, avoidance, attack tables, and gemming can all be a bit too much for the virgin tank.  If Blizzard were to ask me, and we all know they do that almost everyday right, I would point to all of these reasons contributing what is perceived as the tank shortage.  They obviously have some idea because they believe getting rid of defense as a stat will help increase the pool of players who might try and tank for the first time, but no matter what Blizzard does, and I appreciate all the help, tanking is a lot like sex.  No matter how ready you think you are, it’s always awkward the first time.

The Defense Threshold

I will refrain from calling the defense number anything but a threshold.  It is only the magical number for entry into the tanking ranks.  For a heroic, it is 535, and for raids, it is 540.  You can go over these numbers, and they will provide you with additional perks like more dodge, block, and parry, but are you likely to find better use for your stat allocation once you reach your thresholds.  Defense thresholds are the only number a starter tank should make himself crazy to obtain.

All of the other numbers should fall into place if your gear is progressing at a reasonable rate.  You will find at later gear levels, you are likely to be at or above your defense requirements, and you can choose to socket for hit as its presence starts to dwindle on T9 gear.   Remember, even though hit rating is not nearly as important as it is for a DPS class, there is no cheaper way to boost your threat than by bumping up your hit rating.

Hopping into Heroics

Though you only need about 20K to actually start tanking heroics, in the new age of the T9 standard, you are probably going to require at lease 28K for your pugging “friends” to be comfortable.  You can find some crafting pieces assuming you have the cash or badges for the orbs, or you can run regular ToC to get a few good pieces to get you started.

It is always my recommendation when you are first starting to tank that you swallow your pride and cue up for a couple regular 80 instances first.  You will discover it is much easier to find your mojo when the chance for things going to total hell are diminished.  You may even get lucky and get the Seal of the Pantheon.  The seal may be completely useless now, but as you are leveling in Cataclysm, it might serve you well if you would like to use a couple of DPS pieces to get through regular 5 mans.  As a paladin, you should learn to use avenger’s shield to its full advantage.  A few ideas might include the following.

1. In the forge room in HUK, you can hand of reckoning the closest mob and then as they all collapse on you, you can then AS and hammer of the righteous the entire group for a huge aggro jump and ensure the DPS will never get them.  NOTE: Hand of Reckoning to pull in a 5 man is an acceptable practice, but should NEVER be used in a raid setting.  Taunts are subject to diminishing returns, and you should not get in the habit of using it anywhere but in a 5 man where things die too fast for you to even use a second taunt.  If you are with a more patient group, use your exorcism cast and take your time.  You are the tank, so don’t be afraid to ask everyone to slow down.  If anyone gives you shit and does the GOGOGOGO crap, just quietly ignore them and you will never have to run with them again when the run is over.  Though not normally an advocate of jerk like moves, multiple tanks, especially those who enjoy pugging, ignoring jerk off DPS will push the bad DPS cues to longer times and allow the good guys to actually move through a cue faster.
2. Your AS will silence targets as well.  Rarely does the silence function shine the way it does as you move up the ramp in the Pit of Saron.  You should mark both casters in the packs, and tell the group you are going to shield one and attack the other.  This will silence the shielded target and force him to run to you so that you can round up the pack and work your threat magic.  This works on the platforms in Anh’Kahet as well where you have to lower the eggs to battle the blood prince.
3. AS will also help with finishing off line of sight pulls.  If you are in the room in Halls of Stone that feed you into each of the first 3 bosses, you can aggro the packs to the Maiden and then pull around the corner to LoS them.  As they come around that corner, they are likely to start casting.  When they do, throw your shield and it will silence them and allow you to round them up with little trouble.  Similar techniques can be used in the last leg of Utgarde Pinnacle in the giant room with pats, and casters just before you tackle King Ymiron.

One of the hardest things to learn when tanking is when to use your cooldowns.  Paladins only have one on-demand cooldown now since Lay on Hands also causes forbearance when cast on yourself.  Use Divine Shield liberally when you are first learning to tank, and make sure it is hotkeyed so that you can always use it.  Mastering the cooldown is pretty easy if you have played a DPS class because you should have programmed your play style to feel when 2 minutes is up based on trinkets or cool DPS abilities like Icy Veins.  Don’t be afraid to take a breather before a boss pull to make sure you have divine protection for the fight.

Gearing Up

The last thing to consider before you finally join a group and take all those mob punches in the mouth is gearing.  Like I mentioned previously, gearing up is very different than it was at the beginning of Wrath.  You should look through the 4 newest 5 mans and map out your gear choices so that you can don’t waste any emblems on gear you might not even want.

When it comes to gemming, I am somewhat of a freak.  I always gem for socket bonuses.  There is just something about potentially wasted stats on a set of gear.  I know there are many players who like to socket for raw stats, but it is just against my nature to do so.  With that said, I almost always use hybrid gems unless it’s a blue socket, and then I gem for pure stamina.

If the socket is blue, it always gets a solid majestic zircon.

If a socket is red, I always use a regal dreadstone.

If the socket is yellow, I will use an enduring eye of zul up until the defense threshold.  After that point, I almost always look to my hit and then socket for a vivid eye of zul.

I am in no way implying this is the best way to gem your sockets, and would like to stress it is only what I do.  Blame the OCD freak in me for being unable to ignore a socket bonus if you want.  The sockets also speak to an overall philosophy when it comes to gearing up though, balance.

Gearing philosophies usually include the stamina whore or the avoidance junkie.  Most tanking sites will tell you neither is better than the other and that balancing the two is almost always your best bet.  If you subscribe to the idea that stamina is always king, then feel free to use those solid blue stones in every socket.  Also keep in mind this is for the player who might feel a little overwhelmed to start tanking, and is in no way intended to be cutting edge raid information.  The rest of that can be researched and applied after you have gotten some tanking confidence.

Believe me; getting in there, taking a few hits, and actually surviving a few bad pulls is way more important in the very beginning than all of the more technical aspects of tanking end game raids.  That will come later as you start to build your confidence and those GOGOGOGO mages turn into QQing PEW PEW’ers who are asking for mana breaks because you have become an unstoppable freight train of holy righteous hell.