Note that the below is pretty much an ongoing thought process, any pointers and input are more than welcome.
As a recent SL run has shown again, combining a paladin tank’s standard pulling technique (Avenger’s Shield) with a hunter’s trapping capabilities requires a bit of work to get right. In order to frame the problem properly, let’s just review very briefly a couple of core elements on both classes.
Paladin Tanking Basics
It is important to underline that contrary to druids and especially warriors, a paladin tank thrives on having several mobs beating on him at the same time, as getting hit is one of the key ways for him to generate a lot of aggro. For classical trash pulls, the sweet spot for mine lies around 3 to 5 hitting me.
A paladin tank will rely on holy spell damage for hate generation. Consecration is used in AoE situations, it will obviously break any nearby CC.
To pull, the typical tankadin will resort to Avenger’s Shield, an ability which will hit his target at 30 yrds range, dazing it, and then jumping to two other close-by mobs. Or, sometimes, to a nearby critter and then over to another cluster of mobs, which usually results in crap hitting the fan (but I digress). Avenger’s Shield allows a paladin to frontload a large amount of threat, which in turn enables DPS to start going to town a bit earlier than with a warrior (which is actually not quite true, since the daze makes the pull take longer).
The thing is, the jumps aren’t entirely predictable on 4 and 5 mob pulls. The aggro generated by a shield is also big enough that it takes a huge effort to peel one mob off for CC - if the paladin has enough spell damage on his kit, a non-crit aimed shot alone won’t do the trick.
Last important thing to note, the paladin taunt, Righteous Defense, is ranged (but requires LoS), but has a longer cooldown than the corresponding warrior and druid abilities.
Hunter Trapping Basics
Any hunter worth his salt is one of the absolute best CCs in the game, first because his traps more or less work on any type of opponent, second because he can peel off hate in a pinch using Feign Death, third because if / when something goes wrong, he has both his own private tank and mail armour to make sure he survives until the MT gets stuff off his back.
Through a technique called Chain Trapping, an average hunter will be able to keep one mob controlled for at least 40 seconds (or two for about 20 seconds), whereas a skilled one will do it for over a minute. If he invested enough points in the survival tree, he can drag the base durations over even more time.
For this to work, the pull needs to happen at least 27 secondsafter the trap has been laid.
In order to frontload some heavy threat on the tank, a hunter can use Misdirection every 2 minutes. Traditionally, this will be used when the hunter pulls instead of a warrior or a druid, however, after a couple of recent runs, I don’t believe using this on the pull is the best solution with a tankadin. But more on this later on.
Some Cooperation Pointers
In a classical hunter / warrior or druid game, peeling of the mob to be trapped isn’t really an issue. The tank stands away from the trap and pulls, the hunter then shoots once at his assigned target, pulls it very neatly into the waiting trap, and keeps it until its time to die is here. The tank will then typicall taunt it off and take care of it so that the DPS do their thing.
With a pallie, things are more complicated. As already mentionned, Avenger’s Shield will normally pull 3 mobs with a high threat generation and only the first of the three mobs fully predictable.
If it’s a three mob pull, in a normal instance at least, no further CC should be needed, so there’s usually little point in trapping. Also, if the hunter really has to work to separate out one of the three mobs, it will become pretty hard to hand over aggro to the tank once CC is no longer needed. There’s always FD, only thing is, if the trap chain has been done long enough, there’s absolutely no guarantee that the pallie’s initial Avenger’s Shield is still #2 on the frozen mob - it could be the healer.
If CC is required on a 3-mob pull, my recommendation is that the hunter pulls his “trapme” mob from max range with concussive shot. The paladin has to stand to the side, far enough that consecration won’t break the trap, outside of range, and start casting Avenger’s shield when he has range. This manoeuver allows to separate the three mobs cleanly, but requires a bit of coordination. VoIP should help in the future.
On 4-mob pulls where AS’ path is predictable, it’s a no-brainer, work as usual, the pallie pulls first.
On 4+ mob pulls where the shield isn’t predictable, it works in reverse: Avenger’s shield will slow down the three mobs it hits, the others running ahead. It’s one of these the hunter has to separate and pull into his trap. Here again, communication is key, because if the hunter isn’t attentive the moment the pallie pulls, he may retarget too late.
Last but not least, handing over at the end of the CC chain cannot always happen through a taunt - the paladin’s 15 second cooldown lacks a lot of flexibility. Walking the mob into a consecrate, letting the pallie go pick it up with Judgement of Righteousness, or Misdirection are all valid options.
Last but not least, when Avenger’s Shield’s path isn’t predictable, it is impossible to properly mark targets. It is here that the true skill of the hunter will show.
It is entirely possible to make this all work even in a PUG, but the key is for the paladin and the hunter to understand the basics of the other’s job, and to communicate in order to maximise their synergies. And this more than anything else differenciates a good from a bad PUG.
This is just touching on the surface of things. Heroics is most probably a different beast altogether, and my gear isn’t anywhere near normal TK ready - heroics therefore are way out. Any feedback on how to improve and optimize all this is therefore welcome.
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