WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com WoW Insider http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Skill Mastery: Blinding Light]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/23/skill-mastery-blinding-light/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/23/skill-mastery-blinding-light/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/23/skill-mastery-blinding-light/#comments Ever since Eadric the Pure first made players spin around to avoid being blinded by his Radiance -- the bane of keyboard turners everywhere -- many paladins were enamored with the idea of firing off a flash of light and similarly dazzling those around them into incoherence. And we almost had it too, in the Cataclysm beta, when Blinding Light first debuted as a player ability. However, the spell was removed early on, only (it seems) to be put on the back burner.

Now, Blinding Light returns in Mists for a second try at making it into the paladin spellbook. This time around, it looks like it is here to stay. If you're in the beta, you can try it out yourself as soon as you hit 87.

The spell itself is pretty straightforward. On a 3-minute cooldown, you can fire off a burst of light that will cause all enemies around you to wander confusedly for 6 seconds. As a tank, I can see myself getting a lot of use out of this in AoE situations, when I need a breather from a pack of enemies that are punching me in the face.

Ret and holy paladins will find similar use for it, whether out in the wilds of Pandaria or deep in PvP. Basically, any time you need to get a large number of enemies to leave you alone for a few seconds, this spell is there for you.

Admittedly, it doesn't have the same flash or zing as some other level 87 spells, but it can very much shine in the right situations.
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

Filed under: ,

Skill Mastery: Blinding Light originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 23 May 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> betablinding lightBlindingLightcrowd controlCrowdControlnew paladin spellsNewPaladinSpellspaladinsradiance (Matt Walsh) Wed, 23 May 2012 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: c paladin run]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-c-paladin-run/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-c-paladin-run/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-c-paladin-run/#comments Image Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

I still remember the unmitigated joy I felt, sitting in my crummy seat far off to the left of the main stage at BlizzCon 2011, as Blizzard began to go into the new talent system for Mists of Pandaria and a screenshot of the paladin tree was shown. Sitting at the top of the new tree was a tier of familiar names: Speed of Light, Long Arm of the Law, Pursuit of Justice -- all the names of the various speed enhancements that the class currently had. Sweet fancy Moses, it was a tier of "gap closers"!

I slap some scare quotes on the phrase gap closer because, despite that being my holy grail for the past two years, let's be honest -- the new talents aren't technically gap closers. They don't have the immediacy of a Charge or a Death Grip. But they're as close as we're going to get without some homogenized Divine Charge, and to a point, they will help us close a gap. They're acceptable substitutions, each with its own positives and negatives.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: c paladin run

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: c paladin run originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 13 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sun, 13 May 2012 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Latest beta build shakes things up for prot]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/28/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-latest-beta-build-shakes-things-u/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/28/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-latest-beta-build-shakes-things-u/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/28/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-latest-beta-build-shakes-things-u/#comments Image Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

There are good beta builds, and there are bad beta builds, and then there are bad, bad beta builds. Build 15640, which went up this week, is a textbook example of the latter -- specifically with regard to how it handles our active mitigation. Considering that active mitigation (AM) is the most important change prot paladins are receiving going into the next expansion, the quality of a build hinges on how it handles this topic.

Needless to say, the next few builds are always going to include some new iteration of Shield of the Righteous, as the class design team works out the kinks and attempts to cobble together an effective version of the ability.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Latest beta build shakes things up for prot

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Latest beta build shakes things up for prot originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandariapaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Beta's delicate balancing act]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-betas-delicate-balancing-act/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-betas-delicate-balancing-act/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-betas-delicate-balancing-act/#comments Image Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Ah, beta -- a time for people to begin jostling and shouting for their favorite specs and classes to receive buffs and improvements, for deficiencies both real and imagined. While the warriors are most assuredly off demanding a free sandwich or whatever slight they're currently obsessed with, let's talk about our biggest concerns going into the next expansion.

Most of these concerns, you can imagine, deal with our balance relative to the other tanks, as well as how some of our mechanics will scale as the expansion continues. And let's not forget that Mists will mark the introduction of active mitigation, and thus it is exceedingly critical for Blizzard to get that right.

Suffice it to say, there's a lot on the line for prot paladins during this beta.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Beta's delicate balancing act

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Beta's delicate balancing act originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandariapaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: First look at protection in Mists beta]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-first-look-at-protection-in-mists/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-first-look-at-protection-in-mists/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-first-look-at-protection-in-mists/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Last week, we talked about the first tantalizing drip, drip, drips of information that were emitted in the Mists of Pandaria press tour that occurred, as well as the various media appearances that surrounded that event. Then, suddenly -- beta. So here we are, somewhere between the ecstasy of exploring a new world of ubiquitous wind chimes and rotund, alcoholic bear-men, and the agony of the occasional and painful glance at the beta invitation status on our account page.

Nonetheless, at least we can live vicariously through the goings-on of beta players while we wistfully watch from afar. There's a lot of information coming out of beta, from datamining to the experiences of those lucky jerks already inside, and so we have lots to talk about. Let's dig in and make sense of all the changes that'll be waiting for us when the next expansion hits (thus far!). Also, please note, I'm avoiding anything that we've already learned in the past run-up -- including changes to block, the new and various talents, and previously revealed abilities like Boundless Conviction.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: First look at protection in Mists beta

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: First look at protection in Mists beta originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandariapaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A week of tantalizing Mists information]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-week-of-tantalizing-mists-infor/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-week-of-tantalizing-mists-infor/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-week-of-tantalizing-mists-infor/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

News hit Wednesday night that Mists beta was beginning to slowly open, capping a week that saw a deluge of new, juicy details from the next expansion. There wasn't much directly said about protection paladins in the press tour, though some tidbits got out that make for some interesting discussion. Moreover, with the launch of the beta client, datamining has begun; as a result, we already have a preliminary list of new glyphs -- which was also backed up during Blizzard's earlier presentation.

Glyphs 3.0

In Cataclysm, glyphs got a major numerical boost through the addition of prime glyphs, which were just straight buffs to various skills rather than tweaks like the major glyphs. As a result, they were easily mathed out to determine the best choice for each situation, which you likely saw listed in any class guide produced during Cataclysm's life cycle. This was pretty boring, as Blizzard saw it, and as such, the whole prime glyph system was chucked out of the game.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: A week of tantalizing Mists information

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: A week of tantalizing Mists information originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandariapaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Being the main tank]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-being-the-main-tank/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-being-the-main-tank/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-being-the-main-tank/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

I've been watching an unhealthy amount of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares lately -- not the trashy Fox reality drama production, but the U.K. version, which is more focused on the food and, y'know, kitchens. Anyway, while watching the interactions between the various members of the kitchens depicted, it's interesting the parallels you see between the various degrees of chefs and how that correlates with the various degrees of tanks within a raid operation.

Without getting too, er, French, the two biggest fish in a kitchen are the chef de cuisine (or, as the rosbifs may call the job, the head chef) and the sous-chef de cuisine. This correlates directly with most tanking hierarchies you'll find, where there is a main tank and an off tank. (In some guilds, there may be a number of off tanks.) Much like how the head chef is the boss when it comes to what's being served, the main tank is in charge of handling the burden of developing the tanking strategy and executing it. And likewise, while the sous-chef is second-in-command and chief substitute, the off tank handles a similar role within their own structure.

Similar to how the head chef might not be the one always sitting there and actually preparing every single dish, the main tank isn't always the one on the boss. For both, their personal strengths might lend them better to a different, lesser role while the lieutenant gets a chance to step up and carry some of the burden. You see this in fights where one tanking class is stronger against a particular mechanic than another, like perhaps putting a highly mobile warrior on Shannox's dog Riplimb. Essentially, there is more to being a main tank than the jobs you perform. It's also the experience, the leadership, the dependability, and the prestige.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Being the main tank

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Being the main tank originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: It's the end of block as we know it]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/09/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-its-the-end-of-block-as-we-know/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/09/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-its-the-end-of-block-as-we-know/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/09/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-its-the-end-of-block-as-we-know/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Much like Commander Shepard and the Reapers, we've known for a long time that doom was coming for us block tanks, some way, some how. The stack has been on the nerf list for quite some time. We dodged the bullet in 4.2, and then in 4.3, the devs called off the dogs entirely, giving us a respite. However, with the recent publishing of Ghostcrawler's Mists stat changes Dev Watercooler, we now have an idea how our most favorite stat is going to be unceremoniously slice and diced.

The changes to block will have far-reaching consequences for our class (as well as protection warriors). Obviously, this is pre-alpha and thus a nerf only in theory, but it's obvious what the intent is here: the defenestration of block to prevent mastery from being the powerhouse stat and block from being the powerhouse mechanic that both were for much of the Cataclysm cycle. And while it's evident that something needed to be done to block in the long run, I'm not quite sure that the changes Ghostcrawler outlined were the best avenue to take.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: It's the end of block as we know it

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: It's the end of block as we know it originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> blockblock nerfBlockNerffeaturedguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandariapaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: The case against Vengeance]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-case-against-vengeance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-case-against-vengeance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-case-against-vengeance/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Do you remember what it was like to tank before Vengeance existed? It's been a year and a half since patch 4.0.1 implemented the Cataclysm. Along with the myriad changes that followed, tanking threat was forever changed with the introduction of Vengeance. What I remember about threat generation in those halcyon days was you'd grab threat early on with an elaborate combination of burst and threat transfers from rogues and hunters, and then you'd spend the rest of the fight with one eye on Omen to make sure that shadow priest didn't sneak up on you and rip threat away.

I know this is a song that you've heard me sing many a time before, but I always found that constant threat (pardon the pun) of your DPSers ripping aggro from you to be an intrinsic, exciting part of tanking. And while I've always argued that being robbed of that aspect of our gameplay was the biggest problem with Vengeance, the fact is there are more mechanics-oriented issues with the design. Fellow paladin blogger Theck (he of numbers and pounding headaches, and the graphs that bring all the boys to the raid) has written a compelling indictment against Vengeance, recently posted on his blog, which has caused me to completely reevaluate my opinion of the design -- and not toward a more positive light.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: The case against Vengeance

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: The case against Vengeance originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Resistance, the magic stat]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/24/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-resistance-the-magic-stat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/24/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-resistance-the-magic-stat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/24/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-resistance-the-magic-stat/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Perhaps the most elusive of all tanking stats are the various magic resistances. You can't get them on any of the normal gear you strap to your various extremities, only on some trinkets. Some races have magic resistances as part of their racial bonus toolkits, but these are minimal and don't stack with any other resistance buffs. And speaking of which, two raid buffs -- Mark of the Wild and our own Blessing of Kings -- will increase all magic resistances by a set amount. Lastly, you can buff your resistances by a rather large amount with an elixir.

It fits that resistances are so rare considering how very, very powerful they are. Just the combination of a Prismatic Elixir and a raid buff can be worth about 28% magical damage reduction for fire, frost, and shadow damage, for example. Combine on top of the that the clicky effect from Mirror of Broken Images -- Image of Immortality -- which is worth 40.51% damage reduction by itself, and you're talking a serious percentage of magical damage just brushed off like dust on a sleeve.

A short history of magic resistance

In the early days of WoW, a key gear check for some raid fights was the requirement that everyone in the raid had to accumulate a set of gear with resistance stats for a specific type of magical damage. Molten Core was obviously the first, requiring raiders to grind out a complete fire resistance set so they could withstand the various fiery attacks that Ragnaros' minions would dish out.

This trend continued throughout vanilla WoW to fights like Princess Huhuran, for whom you needed melee players kitted out in nature resistance gear, to well into The Burning Crusade for fights like Hydross the Unstable. There, the encounter demanded one tank in frost resistance gear and one in nature resistance gear to correctly tank the fight. Black Temple had several fights that rewarded shadow resistance, and perhaps the grand swan song of the resistance set in The Burning Crusade was M'uru.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Resistance, the magic stat

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Resistance, the magic stat originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> guide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmagic resistanceMagicResistancepaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A look at the Mists talent calculator update for tanks]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-the-mists-talent-calcul/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-the-mists-talent-calcul/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-the-mists-talent-calcul/#comments Talent calculator Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Yesterday, Blizzard updated the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator for all the classes, tantalizing us with many new goodies. For the first time since the talent trees were first debuted at BlizzCon last year, there are actual new and exciting choices awaiting paladins in each tree -- not just reworked talents and spells that already exist in game, but actual new toys to potentially play with! Moreover, the spell list betrays a few clues of how tanking will operate for us in the next expansion.

Obviously, this is all pre-alpha and thus very much subject to change, but it's still very worthwhile to dig in and see where the expansion is headed.

The rotation keeps on rotating

For starters, as I had written was my hope last week, Crusader Strike (and Hammer of the Righteous) were changed to 4.5-second cooldowns, up from 3 seconds. And yes, they are still linked; using one will force a cooldown the other. In any case, this stretches out the heartbeat of the rotation, thankfully, and makes the act of moving through one's rotation much less blisteringly repetitive.

On top of that, Judgement's cooldown was reduced to 6 seconds, Consecration's to 9 seconds, and Avenger's Shield's to 9 seconds. And on top of that, Grand Crusader now has a 40% chance to proc a free Avenger's Shield. Considering all of that, we're talking about a very busy and very varied rotation. It gives me goosebumps just to dream about not having every other key I press be Crusader Strike.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: A look at the Mists talent calculator update for tanks

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: A look at the Mists talent calculator update for tanks originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: 2 tanking wishes for Mists]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/10/mists-of-pandaria-tanking-wishes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/10/mists-of-pandaria-tanking-wishes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/10/mists-of-pandaria-tanking-wishes/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

We're still a ways away from Mists of Pandaria and certainly months away from the beta, but nonetheless, everyone's eyes are firmly affixed on the horizon that is the next expansion. Dragon Soul will drag on into the near future, and so around the umpteenth time one has defeated Deathwing, one cannot help but daydream of a brighter future of new landscapes, new enemies, and a revamping of one's favorite spec.

Tanks in particular have much to look forward to with Mists of Pandaria and WoW 5.0. We're due for a major reconstruction of our playstyle through active mitigation. Cataclysm proved eponymous with regard to how it changed tanking during its lifespan (some would rightfully argue that it was not entirely for the better). The hope is that MoP will be equally shattering but in a much more positive way. Where Cataclysm in many ways simplified tanking and made it less interesting, hungry eyes gaze upon the next expansion in the hope that it will reverse this course.

Myself, I have three wishes for Mists of Pandaria. Each would make tanking once again more compelling and far more interesting.

A new, more interesting rotation

In the Cataclysm beta, for a time, Crusader Strike was on a 4.5-second cooldown, which has the side effect of leaving gaps in the rotation. Beta testers raged against this, complaining that the gaps made the protection paladin rotation a snore, as well as hugely frustrating when you had nothing to fill a GCD with. Rather than fixing the issue by lowering the cooldowns on various filler attacks, the devs lowered the cooldown of Crusader Strike to 3 seconds.

This eliminated the gaps but at the cost of making the rotation horribly rigid. At least in Wrath's 969 rotation -- widely accepted as the most boring tank rotation in the game -- you weren't constantly hitting the same button every other GCD. The new rotation, snarkily dubbed 939, was in some ways a step forward, in other ways a step back.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: 2 tanking wishes for Mists

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: 2 tanking wishes for Mists originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[5 common mistakes paladin tanks make]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/03/5-common-mistakes-paladin-tanks-make/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/03/5-common-mistakes-paladin-tanks-make/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/03/5-common-mistakes-paladin-tanks-make/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

I know this is not going to come as a very big surprise, but it's not very difficult to tank as a paladin. As any warrior tank would gleefully assert, even a trained monkey can operate the 939 rotation and squeeze in a Word of Glory from time to time to boot. Indeed, as the old adage goes, a paladin tank is easy to learn but difficult to master, and in many respects, that's very true. And very important. It's not good enough to just play the class -- we want to master it!

There are several common mistakes aspiring (or even veteran!) tanks make that hold them back from hitting their full potential. These range from covering threat generation to gearing to survivability. And correcting each is an important hallmark on the path to optimization.

1. Not hitting Crusader Strike enough Crusader Strike can be accurately described as the heartbeat of the protection paladin rotation. With its 3-second cooldown, resource generation, and generous contribution to one's overall damage numbers, Crusader Strike is situated in a hallowed place -- essentially, the center of gravity of our threat and damage. Not Crusader Striking enough can easily and mortally wound your damage output and thus your threat generation.

Continue reading 5 common mistakes paladin tanks make

Filed under: ,

5 common mistakes paladin tanks make originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: All Hands on deck]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/27/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-all-hands-on-deck/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/27/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-all-hands-on-deck/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/27/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-all-hands-on-deck/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

I still remember how great the news was when, in the run-up to Wrath of the Lich King, we were told that some of our Blessing spells were going to be converted to a whole new tier of temporary buffs that could be used situationally. This was something that the paladin community had been clamoring for for a very long time. There were just so many Blessings, and it didn't make sense for all the various offerings to be in the same tier.

Then, over time, our hard-fought victory was forgotten, as well as the whole idea of proactively lending a Hand -- sorry, there are going to be a lot of hand puns -- to your groupmates or fellow raiders. Where it used to be a common facet of paladin-ing (in any flavor) to use your then-Blessings as actively as possible, in the last few years, it's more become a characteristic of the min-maxers and the obsessive.

Your Hands aren't like Turn Evil. They actually can serve a vital purpose, even making the difference between a wipe or a kill in some cases. Indeed, I would posit that one of the dividing lines between good paladins and great paladins (regardless of spec) is how intelligently they use their Hands.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: All Hands on deck

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: All Hands on deck originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: We should never have had a block chance mastery]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/20/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-we-should-never-have-had-a-block/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/20/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-we-should-never-have-had-a-block/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/20/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-we-should-never-have-had-a-block/#comments The early block cap Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

While we're on a tear talking about what's been going wrong with tanking in Cataclysm, perhaps we should talking about the mother of all design mistakes foisted upon paladins in this expansion pack. I talk of the block cap in general and the idea of having the protection paladin mastery revolve around block chance in particular. While achieving the cap and working around it is in many ways fun, it was also a terrible move on the part of the class designers to allow such a possibility, for multiple reasons.

The mechanics of block chance

A huge part of the what makes buffing block chance a bad design flows from how WoW operates the combat table. To briefly explain: Whenever a boss attempts to hit you, a 1-to-100 die roll is made, and the outcome lands on a scale that is constantly shifting based on your stats. At the lower range are outcomes like avoidance and block, and at the higher range are outcomes like normal hit and critical hit.

As your avoidance and block chances increase, because they're at the lower end, they eventually crowd out the stuff at the higher end. With enough avoidance and block, normal and critical hits fall off the table. The roll is restricted to within that 1-to-100 range, and you just can't roll anything but what you've stacked the deck with anymore.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: We should never have had a block chance mastery

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: We should never have had a block chance mastery originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: What happened to encounters that were interesting to tank?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-what-happened-to-encounters-that/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-what-happened-to-encounters-that/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-what-happened-to-encounters-that/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Cataclysm has been a fairly, er, cataclysmic expansion when it comes to the status quo of tanking. For starters, threat was decimated with the introduction of Vengeance and nigh removed from the game with the recent buffs to threat generation. Likewise, variability in the number of tanks a fight required seemingly died along with Halfus Wyrmbreaker. And, perhaps most troubling of all, the profession of tanking has generally been made less and less interesting as far as encounter design is concerned.

What makes a fight "interesting"?

If you think back to some of the fights in previous tiers, the most interesting ones were always the most demanding ones -- the ones that required you to juggle multiple balls over the course of the encounter. These balls could be one of many mechanics. To name just a few:
  • Picking up adds that are dynamically joining the fight
  • Shepherding adds to a specific location
  • Hitting cooldowns to counter a near-death attack
  • Moving out of hazards constantly
  • Taunt swapping boss on a debuff
  • Combating the threat output of buffed DPS
And countless other tropes that I've neglected to list.

Reading any of these, you can think of a number of mechanics that Blizzard has constantly repeated that encompass them. It's a fairly limited bag of tricks, and Blizzard has done a bang-up job mixing and matching a handful of them and compiling the resulting smorgasbord into some of the fights we have known and loved.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: What happened to encounters that were interesting to tank?

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: What happened to encounters that were interesting to tank? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> challengeclass-helpcomplexitydifficultyfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentstankingworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: The importance of optimal play]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/06/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-importance-of-optimal-play/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/06/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-importance-of-optimal-play/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/06/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-importance-of-optimal-play/#comments A raid Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

My column from last week explored what has been theorycrafted to be the optimal patch 4.3 rotations and talent choices. The responses brought up an interesting point -- there's wide disagreement on what the value of optimal play is. What defines optimal play, and what does that leave for what can be considered suboptimal? The answer to these questions are important because the effect they have on the multitude of players you associate yourself with in this, a multiplayer game. Playing, gearing, speccing, and so on -- your character optimally is an act of respect for your teammates. I'll explain what I'm rambling about.

What does optimal play mean? In short, optimal play is playing your character to the absolute best that it can be played. That includes not just the actual buttons you're hitting while on the ground tanking, but also the choices you make before the fight even begins with regards to your talents, glyphs, and so on.

Optimal play can change from fight to fight, depending on the demands of the encounter. But there is always one constant: Optimal play is what leads to the boss's death. Optimal play is what keeps you alive long enough for the DPS to kill the boss. Even if it's a wipe, optimal play is staying alive as long as you can so that the entire raid or group can learn the fight. In short, optimal play is maximizing your contribution to the success of group play.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: The importance of optimal play

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: The importance of optimal play originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: An updated look at the prot paladin rotation]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-an-updated-look-at-the-prot-palad/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-an-updated-look-at-the-prot-palad/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-an-updated-look-at-the-prot-palad/#comments Casting Holy Shield Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

With some of the buffs from 4.3 (specifically the buff to Seal of Truth, when Judged) along with ever-increasing stats and item levels, our rotational priorities have changed as well. In order to keep everyone up to date on the latest theorycrafting being brought down from Mt. Sinai from Theck over at Maintankadin (as well as a refresher for the rustiest among us), this column today will look over single-target and AoE threat rotations and talk about what is the most optimal way to roll face.

First things first -- the right setup

Talenting is important when it comes to producing threat. If you're sacrificing a key DPS increaser like Reckoning for a monstrosity like Hallowed Ground, you're going to be doing yourself a disservice in the long run. No matter how cool a damage-dealing talent sounds (Eye for an Eye is case in point here), unless it brings the proper numbers to the table in the sims, it's not worth it if optimal play is your goal.

This is the pretty standard setup. I included the three heaviest-hitting prime glyphs in there as well. With regard to the talents, you can also go a little deeper by swapping the second point out of Pursuit of Justice and finishing off Grand Crusader. The second point is worth about 241 DPS with 2% hit/10 expertise.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: An updated look at the prot paladin rotation

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: An updated look at the prot paladin rotation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itrotationtalenttalentstheckthreatworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Hagara and Ultraxion]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-hagara-and-ultraxion/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-hagara-and-ultraxion/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-hagara-and-ultraxion/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Three down, five to go. Or, four, if that's how you prefer to count it. The difficulty is starting to ramp up at this point, and you'll soon find that it's all uphill from here. Hagara will test the awareness and mobility of your raid team, and Ultraxion will provide the first major gear check for the raid. Both will set you up for the pursuit of Deathwing and the closing out of the raid.

Hagara

Before I get too far ahead of myself, let's start with the next boss on our hit parade: Hagara. This is a very straightforward fight for you. There's some deadly burst that can be avoided with fancy footwork and an add you'll need to pick up, making the most exciting components of tanking the fight. Thankfully, to break up the monotony, there's some calisthenics to keep the blood flowing and the raid moving.

You'll want to start by tanking Hagara off to the side, somewhere between the middle and the edge of that large, central circle of the platform. The reason for this is when an ice phase begins and Ice Waves goes out, you don't want to be standing in the center where she spawns them. If she's off to the side, she has to run to the center and then unleash the ice. So don't get you and all your melee DPS killed! (Only the DPSers' dying is acceptable.)

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Hagara and Ultraxion

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Hagara and Ultraxion originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpdragon soulDragonSoulfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyshagarapaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsultraxionworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the first 3 bosses of Dragon Soul]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/16/tanking-the-first-3-bosses-of-dragon-soul-paladin/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/16/tanking-the-first-3-bosses-of-dragon-soul-paladin/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/16/tanking-the-first-3-bosses-of-dragon-soul-paladin/#comments Dragon Soul entrance Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

In the previous weeks, we've talked about getting prepped for patch 4.3, how to hit the ground running, and what pieces of gear should be on your hit list. Now we've come to the main event: the Dragon Soul raid. Deathwing's forces are assaulting Wyrmrest Temple, and it's up to you and your allies to knock them over and finally put a stop to his perfidy. The fights ahead will test your skills and the limits of your survivability. You'll also be taunt swapping like you've never taunt swapped before (which is its own kind of exciting).

Morchok

Morchok is a fairly simple encounter (and "fairly" is being generous). Consider it the Lootreaver of Dragon Soul.

When you pull Morchok, turn him away from the raid. His Stomp attack will split damage among all targets within 25 yards, but the two closest (that is, you and your co-tank) get a double share of the damage. So unless you're trying to play Kill the DPS, face the boss away.

You and your co-tank will be swapping at around two or three stacks of the Crush Armor debuff. Each stack reduces your armor by 20 seconds, so don't allow it to stack too high. Usually I'll take the boss first, co-tank taunts at two stacks, and then taunt when my stacks fall off, and we continue to taunt when stacks drop off there on out.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the first 3 bosses of Dragon Soul

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the first 3 bosses of Dragon Soul originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpdragon-souldragon-soul-raidfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmorchokpaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guideyorsahjzonozz (Matt Walsh) Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: The new tanking gear of patch 4.3]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/09/paladin-taking-gear-patch-4-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/09/paladin-taking-gear-patch-4-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/09/paladin-taking-gear-patch-4-3/#comments Begging the valor point vendor Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Last week, we talked about what you needed to know to prepare for the dawning of the Hour of Twilight. Now let's talk about what shiny new purples you can expect to rip from the still-warm carcasses that will lie in your wake as your cut a swath through the new content.

Our itemization goals haven't changed since 4.2. Mastery is still king, and threat stats are still to be avoided. In the list below, I didn't list the gear in any particular order, so don't expect the top choice to be the best. Indeed, the best piece will depend on how much mastery you have and thus how close you are to block cap.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: The new tanking gear of patch 4.3

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: The new tanking gear of patch 4.3 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> 4.3class-helpfeaturedgearguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentspatch-4.3protection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-4.3wow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-patchwow-patch-4.3wow-patch-4.3-newswow-patch-newswow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: 3 things tankadins need to know]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/02/3-things-tankadins-need-to-know/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/02/3-things-tankadins-need-to-know/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/12/02/3-things-tankadins-need-to-know/#comments Tier 13 Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Patch 4.3 is upon us, and the Hour of Twilight has come. Once more, it falls to us rugged men and women of plate-covered action to strap on our Bulwarks of Azzinoth (because, seriously, what other shield would you transmogrify to?) and march into the fray. Deathwing's assault on Azeroth is coming to a head, and to make sure we're ready for the challenges beyond, we need to be as prepared as possible.

4.3 is a pretty tame patch when it comes to class changes -- no nerfs or buffs galore ... my kind of patch. Nonetheless, there are three key things you need to know about the patch to bring your absolute best to the table. Let's dig in.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: 3 things tankadins need to know

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: 3 things tankadins need to know originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> 4.3class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentspatch 4.3patch-4.3Patch4.3protection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-4.3wow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-patchwow-patch-4.3wow-patch-4.3-newswow-patch-newswow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: 4 trends for tanks apparent in the new MoP talent calculator]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/26/paladin-mists-of-pandaria-talents-preview/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/26/paladin-mists-of-pandaria-talents-preview/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/26/paladin-mists-of-pandaria-talents-preview/#comments New talent calculator Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

On Wednesday, Blizzard released the preview of the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator, and while other classes were gleefully ripping through it like kids under a Christmas tree, the paladins were scrutinizing and trying to figure out exactly what had changed -- looking for interesting divots in the chunk of coal, if you will.

I guess Blinding Shield is confirmed as our level 87 spell (though we've been there before, yes?), and Speed of Light is even more obviously the best first-tier talent choice. There are some minor things here and there, however, that tend to point toward larger trends that will hold sway over our beloved spec in the next expansion. In today's column, I'll dissect those trends along with all the evidence that points toward them and forms the foundations of what we can expect.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: 4 trends for tanks apparent in the new MoP talent calculator

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: 4 trends for tanks apparent in the new MoP talent calculator originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: The storied history of the paladin tank, part 2]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/18/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-storied-history-of-the-paladi/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/18/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-storied-history-of-the-paladi/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/18/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-storied-history-of-the-paladi/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Last week, we talked about the beginnings of the protection paladin spec and the stirrings of the infancy of the "tankadin conscience," as it were. To briefly recap: In vanilla, we were presented with a series of hurdles ranging from terrible gear choices, to poor threat potential thanks to limited mana (after the Righteous Fury change), to terrible talent trees that didn't offer the tools needed to tank effectively.

Then The Burning Crusade launched, and the game changed completely. Suddenly we had real tanking tools -- a taunt, for example -- and were finally primed to explode upon the tanking world with all the sound and righteous fury we could muster. That's where our story begins today, with the prot paladins of yesteryear preparing to make a name for themselves and their spec in earnest.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: The storied history of the paladin tank, part 2

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: The storied history of the paladin tank, part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: The storied history of the paladin tank (part 1)]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/11/history-of-paladin-tanking-part-1/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/11/history-of-paladin-tanking-part-1/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/11/history-of-paladin-tanking-part-1/#comments History of paladins Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

I've been playing this class for an awful long time, since the beginnings of The Burning Crusade. Prior to that, I played the special class known as the huntar (this is a distinct entity from the common hunter, I assure you). Since then, I've been firmly strapped into this roller-coaster ride that we all lovingly call the paladin class, experiencing all the terrifying lows, dizzying highs, and creamy middles.

It's been a wild experience and one I'm very interested in sharing with those who might be new to our beloved spec. To be a prot paladin is to be like that famous picture of human evolution, starting with the hunched-over monkey with Seal of Fury applied, all the way to the present-day man with Divine Protection, Ardent Defender, and Guardian of Ancient Kings all up at that same time -- just because he can, something that that the monkey could only hope to dream of.

Let's take a trip back in time, shall we?

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: The storied history of the paladin tank (part 1)

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: The storied history of the paladin tank (part 1) originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-historypaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the three intro heroic Firelands bosses]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/04/paladin-tanking-heroic-alysrazor-shannox-staghelm/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/04/paladin-tanking-heroic-alysrazor-shannox-staghelm/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/04/paladin-tanking-heroic-alysrazor-shannox-staghelm/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

So you've slain the minions and lieutenants of the Firelord and cast down Ragnaros himself, as well. The heroic versions of all seven bosses are now open to you, each with varying degrees of difficulty, starting with the walk-in-the-park Shannox to the much more dangerous remnants. These fights require you to step up your tanking game to a whole new level to survive everything the fights throw at you.

In this column I'm going to start with the first three easiest heroic fights: Shannox, Majordomo Staghelm, and Alysrazor. I'll give you tips and tricks on proper cooldown usage, glyph load-outs, and trinket choices to maximize your performance against each so that you can stand up long enough for the raid to topple each.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the three intro heroic Firelands bosses

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the three intro heroic Firelands bosses originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> alysrazorclass-helpfeaturedfirelandsfirelands-raid-bossesguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysheroic-firelandsmajordomo-staghelmpaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itshannoxtalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: First look at Mists of Pandaria's talents for tankadins]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/28/protection-paladin-talents-mists-of-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/28/protection-paladin-talents-mists-of-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/28/protection-paladin-talents-mists-of-pandaria/#comments New paladin talent tree Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

At BlizzCon 2011, we received our first preview of what the new stable of talents would be for protection paladins. The name of the game, as the devs insisted, was to break the cookie-cutter mindset and allow for more diverse styles of play between two players of the same spec and class. It remains to be seen if the former comes to pass, but the latter seems to be a safe bet.

Each talent choice is (ostensibly) going to be designed to be as balanced as possible, or so Blizzard promises. At the moment, I think there is a clear cookie-cutter spec to be had, with possibilities for switching depending on any conditions produced by a specific encounter. As such, I'm going to dig through each of the 18 talents available to us and explain why I think the "winner" in each tier is the best choice in a vacuum.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: First look at Mists of Pandaria's talents for tankadins

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: First look at Mists of Pandaria's talents for tankadins originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandaria-talentspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A career guide for tanks]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-career-guide-for-tanks/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-career-guide-for-tanks/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-career-guide-for-tanks/#comments Rhidach mixing up something with alchemy Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

This column is, if anything, the result of my recent switch from engineering to alchemy on my paladin. One of the biggest drivers for my decision (other than the maddening smackdown that engineering suffered after Wrath of the Lich King) was the desire to once again have a profession that bestowed some kind of meaningful bonus for raiding. Just about every facet of engineering that had some appreciable effect for tanking was neutered (as you'll see ahead), leaving the profession a dried husk and a sad remnant of previous greatness.

I don't have to tell you that profession bonuses are easily one of the best ways to get stat boosts, and using certain professions can be a powerful tool in the min-maxer's arsenal, in order to squeeze every last stat point out of their characters. Some are excellent; some are even so excellent they are overpowered; some are middle of the road; and others are just horribly lackluster. Let's take a look.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: A career guide for tanks

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: A career guide for tanks originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> alchemyclass-helpengineeringfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprofessionsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentstank-professionsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Keybinding to streamline your tanking]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/14/protection-paladin-keybinding-guide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/14/protection-paladin-keybinding-guide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/14/protection-paladin-keybinding-guide/#comments Rhidach being agile Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Last week, I touched on how to evaluate your tanking performance via logs. One of the major points of that column was to check out your efficiency with Crusader Strike, also known as the heartbeat of the protection paladin rotation. One of the best ways to improve yourself in that aspect of tanking (along with a host of other aspects) is through the generous use of keybinding.

It's an age-old debate -- clickers vs. keybinders -- but in the end, keybinding is probably the most momentous step you can take to bring your A-game to a boss fight. Adopting this tecnique will pay major dividends to your rotational efficiency, survivability, and response times.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Keybinding to streamline your tanking

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Keybinding to streamline your tanking originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyskeybindingspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprot-paladinprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: How to evaluate your tanking with World of Logs]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/07/tanking-paladin-log-guide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/07/tanking-paladin-log-guide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/07/tanking-paladin-log-guide/#comments World of Logs graph Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

While checking logs may seem to be the province of DPS and healers more than tanks, there's still value to be gained by diving into the numbers and checking out the numerical ins and outs of your tanking performances. There's much to learn and review when it comes to checking over the fine points of your threat rotation and survivability responses.

In this column, I'll go over three specific ways you can use a World of Logs parse to evaluate your efficiency casting Crusader Strike and how you handled damage spikes, determine what killed you, and discover how you could have prevented that premature demise.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: How to evaluate your tanking with World of Logs

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: How to evaluate your tanking with World of Logs originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld of logsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideWorldOfLogswow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:30:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[About the Bloggers: Matt Walsh]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/05/about-the-bloggers-matt-walsh/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/05/about-the-bloggers-matt-walsh/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/05/about-the-bloggers-matt-walsh/#comments Rhidach About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I write the tanking slice of WoW Insider's The Light and How to Swing It column for paladin's pie. I also head the site's Department of Tortured Metaphors and Analogies.

What's your main?

Rhidach, a Blood Elf paladin on the Lightninghoof server. I've been playing Rhidach since I started playing WoW for the second time at the beginning of The Burning Crusade. He and I have been through a lot together, from simple beginnings in Eversong to the first raids in the Outland, to the top of Icecrown Glacier and now the plane of Fire. It's been a wild ride, and I can barely bring myself to play any other character. I'll definitely never have a different main.

Continue reading About the Bloggers: Matt Walsh

Filed under:

About the Bloggers: Matt Walsh originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> about-the-bloggersmatt-walshmeet-the-bloggers (Matt Walsh) Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Patch 4.3 news and paladin T13 bonuses]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-patch-4-3-news-and-paladin-t13-bo/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-patch-4-3-news-and-paladin-t13-bo/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-patch-4-3-news-and-paladin-t13-bo/#comments Paladin tier 13 Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

The ball has begun rolling on patch 4.3, with the player test realm officially going up Tuesday night for public consumption. There isn't terribly much of interest just yet -- only the first iteration of the patch, so obviously much more is in store for us. Still, there are some interesting changes (and some glaringly absent ones) that demand discussion. Let's dig in.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Patch 4.3 news and paladin T13 bonuses

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Patch 4.3 news and paladin T13 bonuses originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> 4.3class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspaladin-tier-13pally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Overthrowing the Fire Lord]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-overthrowing-the-fire-lord/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-overthrowing-the-fire-lord/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/23/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-overthrowing-the-fire-lord/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Ragnaros, the Fire Lord, returns from vanilla WoW with a flaming vengeance as the last boss of the Firelands. Thanks to the recent hotfix nerfs or the culmination of weeks of hard work chipping away at the raid, many groups will be running up against Ragnaros for the first time and throwing their bodies at his waves upon waves of fiery doom.

As a whole, the fight isn't particularly intensive to tank -- there's no real equivalent to Nefarian's add phase here for tanks -- but it's still going to be a challenge. This encounter is the ultimate "don't stand in bad" and will require your utmost attention to avoid being burnt to a crisp in an unfortunate moment of tunnel-visioning. Strap on those attention goggles, zip up that flame-retardant suit, and glyph that Divine Protection. We've got an elemental lord to cast down.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Overthrowing the Fire Lord

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Overthrowing the Fire Lord originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedfirelandsfirelands-raid-bossesguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itragnarostalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: How to roll a new paladin tank]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/16/protection-paladin-tanking-for-newbies/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/16/protection-paladin-tanking-for-newbies/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/16/protection-paladin-tanking-for-newbies/#comments Blood Elf child Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Perhaps you're a player new to WoW, attracted by the new free-to-play-ish 20 levels of the game, or just someone bored with your main and stable of alts looking to take the One True Tank (I kid, I kid -- I swear, I kid) out for a spin. Either way, you're going to be getting on at the ground floor of a very fun class and a very fun role.

The game needs more tanks, so I'll do my best in this column to get you off to a proper start. I'll go over the benefits of leveling as a tank, what race you should choose, what heirlooms you can arm yourself with if you have a main bankrolling the whole enterprise, what stats will be important for your new tank when gear drops, and the talenting and glyphing choices you should make on your way to the top.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: How to roll a new paladin tank

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: How to roll a new paladin tank originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: So you hit the block cap -- now what?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/09/protection-prot-paladin-hitting-block-cap/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/09/protection-prot-paladin-hitting-block-cap/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/09/protection-prot-paladin-hitting-block-cap/#comments Stamina gems on tank gear Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Here we are, finally at the block cap. It's been a rough few months, but the dream first conceived when the paladin mastery was announced has finally been realized. All that Firelands gear has left us fat with mastery and finally reducing all melee hits taken by 30%. And it feels so good.

Some of you might now be asking yourselves -- where do I go from here? (Ditto the folks who are within striking distance of this lofty perch.) Once you've hit the block cap and are overflowing with combat table coverage, you'll need to get proactive when it comes to managing your stats. Every point of mastery rating that carries you past 102.4% CTC is a point wasted, just cast right out into the Twisting Nether. We'll need to prevent all this horrible waste with efficient reforging and regemming and with an unhealthy amount of gear juggling.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: So you hit the block cap -- now what?

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: So you hit the block cap -- now what? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> blockcappingclass-helpCTCfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Holy Shield and the future of active mitigation]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/02/holy-shield-and-the-future-of-act/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/02/holy-shield-and-the-future-of-act/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/02/holy-shield-and-the-future-of-act/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

It's been a little more than two months now since patch 4.2 brought us the redesigned Holy Shield. Since then, we've had ample time to see its true power, to see what an amazing addition to our toolbox it is. And that's only the beginning.

Blizzard is gearing up in either patch 4.3 (or, more likely, 5.0) to introduce a new facet of tanking for all classes -- what it's deemed "active mitigation". Coupled with the (in my opinion, misguided) neutering of threat, the profession of tanking is going to change dramatically. In this column, I'm going to talk about the ramifications of the Holy Shield change in regards to active mitigation -- specifically, what it's meant for paladin tanking in the Firelands and how it points the way to a future of more control over our survivability.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Holy Shield and the future of active mitigation

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Holy Shield and the future of active mitigation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> active mitigationActiveMitigationclass-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysholy shieldHolyShieldpaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking Majordomo Staghelm]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/26/protection-paladin-guide-staghelm-strat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/26/protection-paladin-guide-staghelm-strat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/26/protection-paladin-guide-staghelm-strat/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Here we are at Majordomo Staghelm, the last boss before Ragnaros himself. The final obstacle. As a member of the Horde, I don't really know much of Fandral Staghelm and can't enjoy the animosity he inspires in our leonine rivals. However, I imagine they're feeling the same satisfaction with this kill that I'll likely be feeling in the imminent future when Garrosh finally "goes crazy" and becomes a raid boss.

That said, Majordomo Staghelm is not a particularly difficult fight to tank. At certain points, the damage is going to be coming hard and fast for the entire raid, and your healers are going to need any breathing room you can offer them. Like previous fights in the Firelands, the key is to break out your toolbox, dump all those cooldowns on the table, and toss them out at the proper times. You'll also be able to engage in some gratuitous strutting, thanks to the raid cooldown you bring to the table.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking Majordomo Staghelm

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking Majordomo Staghelm originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> class-helpfeaturedfirelandsfirelands-raid-bossesguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmajordomo-staghelmpaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Guide to tanking Alysrazor for protection paladins]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/19/paladin-tanking-alysrazor-guide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/19/paladin-tanking-alysrazor-guide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/19/paladin-tanking-alysrazor-guide/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Just kidding. We're actually going to kill it. As tragic as the idea is of murdering a newborn creature that has Imprinted itself on to you -- it thinks you're its mother; chew on that! -- you'll need to do the dirty deed to eventually pluck the real from the skies.

Alysrazor is one of those rare fights that is a blast to tank. Maybe it's just me, but the most fun I've had in Firelands thus far has been pushing myself to the upper limits of my damage dealing potential while not making myself any harder to heal. It's a crazy balancing act, one that requires an acrobat's precision and a daredevil's bravery -- but it can be done. And it is so rewarding!

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Guide to tanking Alysrazor for protection paladins

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Guide to tanking Alysrazor for protection paladins originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> alysrazorclass-helpfeaturedfirelandsfirelands-raid-bossesguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Beth'tilac and Rhyolith]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/05/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-bethtilac-and-rhyolith/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/05/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-bethtilac-and-rhyolith/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/05/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-bethtilac-and-rhyolith/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

In previous columns, I've talked about how to tank Shannox and Baleroc, two of the early bosses of Firelands. Three bosses remain before you can cross the bridge to the Sulfuron Keep: Beth'tilac, Rhyolith, and Alysrazor.

That latter of the three demands a column of her own, considering the nuances of that fight and the special requirements and responsibilities one assumes when tanking it. But the first two -- a walk in the park, comparatively speaking. Despite the general breeziness when tanking them, they still have their own slate of nuances. Allow me to offer a raft of tips to make your tanking duties as breezy as they should be.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Beth'tilac and Rhyolith

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Beth'tilac and Rhyolith originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> bethtilacclass-helpfeaturedfirelandsfirelands-boss-guidefirelands-raid-bossesguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itRhyolithtalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Baleroc (and somehow surviving to the end)]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/07/29/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-baleroc-and-somehow-surv/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/07/29/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-baleroc-and-somehow-surv/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/07/29/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-baleroc-and-somehow-surv/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Perhaps it's just me, but I find Baleroc to be one of the most intense fights to tank that I've thus far encountered in Firelands. You have three phases featuring varying degrees of speed at which you'll be mashed into a fine gruel, all performed by a dual-wielding boss with a swing speed that barely lets you catch you breath from the one-punch before the subsequent two-punch comes screaming in across your sweat-drenched brow and knocks whatever remaining molars you've managed to hold onto right out of your bloody maw and into the general direction of the profanity-uttering feral druid beside you. Or at least, that's how my active imagination likes to picture it while I'm laying on the ground waiting for my battle rez.

It doesn't have to be that way, though. Despite his bag of tricks, Baleroc still comes up short in comparison to the raiding paladin, if only because our bag of tricks is actually a massive steel tool cabinet, and each drawer is packed with amazing tools that can cut right through whatever the boss might throw at us. We're like the iPhones of tanking -- there's a cooldown for that. Continue on, and I'll detail how to use each of your abilities to their optimum effect and thus achieve that hallowed nirvana of the boss fight: not having to get rezzed at the end.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Baleroc (and somehow surviving to the end)

Filed under: ,

The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Baleroc (and somehow surviving to the end) originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]> balerocclass-helpfeaturedfirelandsfirelands-raidfirelands-raid-bossesguideguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-talent-guide (Matt Walsh) Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider