The Last Hurdle To Embracing Nontraditional Tank Stats

You know, I was actually going to make a post about how the introduction of nontraditional tanking stats (haste for paladins, and to a lesser extent crit for warriors) does have one major flaw, which is that we won't get the loot we actually want with the automated loot system.

Well, consider that point moot, because at least for Protection Paladins, we will now be eligible to receive gear with haste on it in LFR, Flex, world bosses, and any bonus rolls.

Paladins have gone through a weird kind of metamorphosis during Mists. At the beginning of the expansion, Mastery remained the king stat (though block-capping was no longer achievable as it was in Cataclysm - but we were compensated for this with additional effects from mastery, namely boosting the power of our Shield of the Righteous and Bastion of Glory stacks.)

However, as iLevels increased, the appeal of haste became apparent. I think the original intention for Active Mitigation was to have us react to the boss, saving our defensive abilities for big hits. In fairness, if a fight calls for it, you can still do this. But what Haste-tanking has allowed Paladins to do is to instead focus on maintaining maximum uptime on the Shield of the Righteous buff. Instead of making that one massive attack do 40% of its usual damage, you now basically make almost every enemy attack do 60% damage (numbers are made up, of course, and totally depend on gear.)

I still think that the developers need to address the unattractiveness of avoidance stats, either by getting rid of them, buffing them, or consolidating them into a single stat.

Given that Blizzard has officially endorsed the use of haste on Protadin gear (look at the tier 16 set,) I'm really only surprised that it took them this long after the patch hit to make this change.

One thing I will say is that if they go the route of making dodge and parry a thing of the past, they should give critical strike rating a beneficial effect for plate tanks as well. It may be overpowered, but I could imagine doing something like crits granting additional Holy Power, or Scent of Blood Stacks. Warriors already benefit from crit, but they should gain something from haste as well.

Alternatively, if they decide that they don't want plate tanks sharing gear with dps, they should do something to make defensive stats buff offense. The current implementation of Grand Crusader is a decent example.

Still, I think it's more likely that they will get rid of or consolidate avoidance stats in the next expansion, as active tanking seems to be quite popular. Plus, it's worked out well for Druids for years, and seems to be fine for Monks.

Anyway, I'm mainly happy that this means I'll be able to get appropriate gear without having to switch my loot spec to Ret and risk getting a crit piece.