Number Three: Warrior
Why a warrior? They are not mana dependant. That pretty much sums it up. Okay, it is a little deeper than that. I truly think that Warriors tend to have a little better understanding of their skills than Paladins. I also think it is important to have a more diversified group that is not completely dependant upon the use of mana. This really only leaves me to choose between a death knight and a warrior. I go with the warriors here because the majority of the warrior community that tanks understands their agro rotations, whereas death knights seem to charge in with little thought for the rest of the group, which I understand it is really their nature, but for me I need more organization than that. Another thing I have noticed is that warriors, for whatever reason, seem to spend more time marking a run. I don't know if it has to with the mechanics of the class or if it is because a lot of warriors may have been playing the game longer at their specific class.
Healing for my tanks is really straight forward, I use Flash of Light for the majority of the time, only wasting valuable time to cast Holy Light if the situation grows dire. It is a pretty straight forward tactic that does not change with time. Sure we add in our new fangled Sacred Shield and other such spells, but for straight on heals, FoL is still tops in this paladins arsenal. As far as the buffing goes, I will usually ask the tank what they want. I currently can use both GBoM and GBoK (although this may change in the near future). Auras are never a concern to me, I always go with my Concentration Aura for the ability to continue casting while taking damage. I trust my warriors to be able to break any agro off of me and if all else fails I have stuns and a bubble.
I know a lot of people, may disagree perhaps on these selections so far, but I feel with a warrior tank you get solid tanking ability and a few more skills for drawing agro and then we add in the CC of the hunter and mage and this is looking like a fine group. Sure there a lot of combinations and any number of them are viable, but I have found that this combination seems to work best. Tomorrow I will unviel my final group member and then we will focus on the remaining classes in the following days and discuss more the reasons I did not pick them.
This post was originally published on January 11, 2009, on the original Holy Shock blog site.