Combat Expertise in the Protection Tree. I don’t remember what it was before the change, but it definitely didn’t have 10% Stamina attached to it originally. With at least this much in terms of talent changes, Paladins went from lagging behind Warriors on EH scaling to being well ahead of them.
Warriors get:
- 10% damage reduction to all types from Defensive Stance
- 6% damage reduction to magic types from Improved Defensive Stance
- 5% extra Stamina from Vitality
Paladins get:
- 6% damage reduction to all types from Improved Righteous Fury
- 4% damage reduction to magic types from Spell Warding
- 16% extra Stamina from Sacred Duty and Combat Expertise
Both Tanks get the same 10% Armor bonus from Toughness and base Armor is the same whether you’re wearing Paladin tier, Warrior tier, or an off-piece, so long as it is the same ilvl. There may be some random Plate pieces that have inflated Armor values, but I don’t know of any off the top of my head.
That only leaves Stamina differences, and Paladin gear is either equal to, or only slightly less, BASE Stamina compared to Warrior. I highlight “base” because often both pieces have the same number of sockets, so if you wanted to slam down a few Stamina-only gems, the Paladin simply gets more.
All-in-all the Paladin, if properly geared, should be able to handily keep pace with a Warrior’s EH without using as much of the gearing budget to do so. Since we know Warriors can Tank all content in TBC, if a Paladin can meet/exceed Warrior EH, the Paladin can survive any burst TBC content can dish out.
I can’t speak explicitly about TPS/DPS comparisons. I know there are formulas and old spreadsheets floating around, but I honestly just don’t trust numbers like those until I can confirm them myself. If I had to guess, Paladins probably cannot exceed a Rage-filled Warrior on TPS/DPS for single targets, but I’m not sure that’s actually a liability either. Threat never felt hard to control back in TBC, but I was also a Druid and single target threat was a joke for us. So really what we need to find out is if Paladins can deal decent DPS in single target fights (I suspect they’re low) and can a Paladin maintain that long enough for the fight to finish since Mana is a concern.
Paladins are absolutely kings/queens of AoE Tanking, there is no doubt there. But you also have to remember that Warriors also get mostly Block-centric talent improvements in TBC, if they’re not getting generic stuff.
Warriors are reliant on good Shield Block usage, and most of their Protection talents improve their Rage efficiencies or grant direct TPS skills like Shield Slam and Devastate. Warriors have to go 25pts deep to get the same 30% increased Block Value talent that Paladins get 10pts deep, get the same 10% Armor from Toughness, the same 20 Defense Skill from Anticipation, and have the same option for 5% extra Parry from Deflection in another tree.
Paladins at this stage (TBC) are truly just Warriors+Holy Magic, with mostly the same base stats but with different methods of acquiring and holding aggro. Paladins will use Seals, Judgment, Holy Shield, and Consecrate to hold, whereas Warriors will use Heroic Strike, Revenge, Shield Slam, Devastate, and Thunder Clap to hold.