hxxp://paladin-guide.blogspot.com/2006/01/aggro-mechanics-and-tanking.html?m=1> Paladin tanking
In this chapter we examine how paladin tanking works. I will show how tanking was the old manner (up to 1.8 patch) and then how it works on current live servers (from 1.9 patch).
1.8
In 1.8 patch paladins have seal of fury and judgement of fury. These 2 abilities work (like every other seal and judgement) on single target. They don’t have any physical damage effect but simply influence aggro.Seal of fury + 90 threat points added every time you hit a mob with weapon. Judgement of fury + 337 (!!) threat point added every time you deal holy damage to the mob with the judgement on it.If you used seal of fury with a fast one hand weapon, every time you hit you get 90 extra threat point in addition to your damage indipendently how much the damage was. Your threat points could easily double your real damage. But judgement was incredibly better. Every time you dealt holy damage you get 337 extra threat points indipendently how much the damage was. Let’s make a pratical example: start with retribution aura on and seal of fury and then when entering in combat immediately judge it (30 sec judgement of fury starting) and cast seal of righteousness. Then spam consecration. Now let’s do some math.
In the first 30 seconds of combat you get as threat points:
your weapon damage your seal of righteousness damage plus 337 every time it procs (in 1.8 SoR don't proc every time but very often). 337 damage every tick of consecration. In 30 sec you can easily spam it 3 times so 24 ticks * 337 = 8088 threat points. 20+337 threat points every time the mob hits you from retribution aura paladin with shield equipped and holy shield talent get damage plus 337 every holy shield charge proc.As you can see was easy get huge amount of threat in a short time interval. Paladin tanking was effective. However it had a weak point. Worked only on single target. Paladin had no tools for multiple target tanking except the damage from consecration.
So paladin tanking was broken and going into AQ and Naxx would have put them at the top with the increased debuff limit. Infinite mana and awesome self healing. Weapon procs galore. AoE threat with thunderfury would still be fantastic. I mean the only thing not to love is the lack of itemized gear but hey, no need to worry about mana and spell damage anymore.