Cleric Tanking WeaponFollow

The Cleric tanking soul is the Justicar. The majority of the damage mitigation talents within the tree revolve around blocking which requires a shield. Justicars are essentially exactly like Prot Pallies were in WoW just after they introduced Holy Power but before they revamped Holy Shield (meaning you had to activate it manually rather than it activating automatically after using Shield of Righteous)

Clerics can also only use staves and maces (and daggers, but those are Rogue/ Mage weapons, so no tanking daggers...well no CLERIC tanking daggers anyway...moving on) which warriors can also use (the mace not the staff), however we as Clerics want to focus on the Maces that have caster stats on them (Wisdom, Intelligence, etc..) because Justicars get a zero point passive that turns spell crit, spell power and spell hit into the corresponding physical stat

TL;DR= Cleric tanks gear like casters, but use mace and board, with a focus on Endurance and Durability (WoW Defense equivalent found at later levels)

Alright. I assumed as much but I've also read otherwise. Just wanted to confirm.

To answer your question, Yes, if you would like to be a tank at lvl 18+ as a cleric pick up a shield and a one hand.

I would also say a good leveling weapon(usually 2h) is in order (when you are not tanking an instance) but if you want to tank as a cleric you need a shield. Too many justicar abilities favor a shield.

I've tanked with pretty "old" 1h weapons (since my main build is solo DPS with a 2h) and I've done just fine thus far at lv38. I can't vouch for any expert-level dungeons, but it seems that your abilities generate sufficient threat regardless of your base weapon damage (to a point, of course).

Any time you are running that build with a 2H weapon, there are a total of 14 points being used for absolutely nothing. I don't get it. Tanks soak damage; why are you hellbent on offering additional DPS instead?

14 Points:
1 in Precept of Refuge
3 in Stalwart Citadel
5 in Safe Haven
5 in Commitment

Also... why avoid Armor of Devotion? IMHO, it beats the crap out of Armor of Treachery. I suppose it's crit vs. overall damage output, but again--you are the tank. You are not there to burn through mobs. The additional Endurance could only help for soaking more damage.

Edited, Apr 1st 2011 11:24am by haliphax

Edited, Apr 1st 2011 11:26am by haliphax

Ok. So first post on this board. Leveled a cleric as a tank/healer in dungeons and dps outside. Currently I'm level 50 and tanking t2 dungeons. As far as the trash mobs being able to be cleared with a 2 hander tank, that stopped with expert dungeons. There is no room to be missing out on the damage mitigation from a shield when you are getting pummeled by 5 mobs hitting for 700-1k per swing. Currently rolling sham/just/puri with a 33/33/0 setup, 115 toughness 9500 armor and 8200 health. This give me a charge from shaman which is nice when all your taunt cds are burned and something just agroed into the group, as well as a wisdom buff which helps my spellpower. This stacks with other wisdom buffs from both clerics and bards. So instead of say 52 from a bard song or 40 from a healing cleric I'm getting 80 - 92. Nice bump to my damage and mitigation. I also gain maelstrom. An additional air attack that hits 7 enemies helping maintain aggro in larger aoe pulls. not to mention some decent mana returns from crits. If your healer has decent gear I.e. dungeon blues or better survivability should be a simple matter of maintaining aggro and shouldn't require going deep justicar. So what I'm getting at is sword(mace in this case) and board tanking is the only viable end game setup for a cleric. Your welcome to attempt to 2 hander tank if you'd like.... and be sure to let me know how it goes. Cause I always like hearing how many wipes it takes to convince someone its a bad idea.

1 hander tanking clerics have an ability that increses block by up to 15%, my cleric has a 12% innate block plus the ability that increses block for 8 seconds. I don't seem to have an issue blocking although I do tend to parry more often than block.