We've had a lot of talk here on WoW Insider about what you can do to prepare for Wrath of the Lich King. Stocking up on consumables, clearing out your bank, stuff like that. Some people have really drastically changed their play style to prepare for the expansion which is coming in just a few days.

Me? I've actually stopped doing things on my main, more or less. I stopped farming gold, I stopped worrying about consumables and gear. Just about the only thing I do on my main is raid since we're still doing Sunwell Plateau once or twice a week hoping for some weapon drops from Kil'jaeden. What I've been doing with the rest of my time in WoW is actually power leveling a new character to 70 as quickly as I can. Why am I doing that, so close to Wrath?

Because the new Protection Warriors are completely freaking awesome. I enjoy tanking normally, I love doing it on my Protection Paladin, so it's not like it's an entirely new role for me. I made a premade Warrior when the beta realms were still up and I instantly fell in love. I used to have a Warrior at 60, but got rid of it and filled the void with my Paladin. Now I'm regretting that a little bit. Protection Warrior is just so much more fun compared to Paladin now. There are so many tools and so many buttons. It actually feels like I'm tanking, if that makes any sense at all. When I play a Protection Warrior the impact of every blow comes through in the gameplay somehow. That's extremely lacking on my Paladin. My Paladin feels a lot more like "stand there and take it" in comparison.

It might sound weird, but I think even little things like animations and sound effects contribute to that. A hammer ping-ponging through the air and making cartoon noises feels less 'tank' than smashing a guy in the face with a shield and hearing metal colliding and seeing sparks fly into the air. One feels comical, the other feels... manly. Shield of Righteousness doesn't even compare to how awesome Shield Slam feels, so I'm not sure what it could be beyond aesthetics. I do still enjoy playing a Paladin, I don't mean to say that I don't, I just wish I hadn't gotten rid of my Warrior entirely. Leveling from scratch is sort of an annoyance after you've done it so much. I'm not sure whether I'll have two tanks at level 80 eventually, or if I'll just take my Paladin down the Retribution tree and leave it at that.

So that's how my play style changed. Wrath inspired my to level a whole new alt in the little time I have left, rather than pooling my resources or buckling down to make Northrend as easy as possible. How are you guys preparing? Are you preparing at all? Has your play style seen any shifts in the last week or two?

Tags: hammer-of-the-righteous, playstyle, protection, protection-paladin, protection-warrior, retribution, shield-slam, shields, wrath

Filed under: Paladin, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King