WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com WoW Insider http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogobig.gif WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2015 AOL, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. View our terms of service here: http://legal.aol.com/terms-of-service/full-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Next steps after boosting a paladin tank to 90, part 2]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/28/next-steps-after-boosting-a-paladin-tank-to-90-part-2/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/28/next-steps-after-boosting-a-paladin-tank-to-90-part-2/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/28/next-steps-after-boosting-a-paladin-tank-to-90-part-2/#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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

It's always weird coming to the end of an expansion and seeing the road before you suddenly much shorter than you remember it was the last time you gave it a serious look. Very soon things will radically change -- the gear that made us gods will be obsolete, health pools will be laid low, and the stats that we had come to loathe will be no more. As they say, all good things must come to an end. Pandaria is no different.

This is a path we've walked before, in the twilight of every expansion. As the content winds down in its own interminable fashion, and we run that end raid for the umpteenth time, we find solace in trying new experiences through the prism of alts. As I discussed in last week's post, with the advent of the boosting feature, many folks will be trying out paladin tanks for the first time -- especially since they now have the advantage of skipping the (painful) journey of leveling a tank entirely. This guide is for them.

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Next steps after boosting a paladin tank to 90, part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> boosting-paladinlevel-90-boostpaladinpaladin-enchantspaladin-gemspaladin-glyphspaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-rotationpaladin-statspaladin-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittankintanking (Matt Walsh) Fri, 28 Feb 2014 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Next steps after boosting a paladin tank to 90]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/next-steps-after-boosting-a-p/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/next-steps-after-boosting-a-p/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/next-steps-after-boosting-a-p/#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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

With the introduction of level 90 boosts on the horizon, many players are going to be trying new characters, classes, and specs they may have never tried before. I expect this means that many folks are going to give protection paladins a go for the first time, which is a very exciting prospect, because the spec makes for a very fun tank playstyle.

In order to help those new folks hit the ground running, I'm kicking off a two-part "quick start guide" that'll break down the spec in the 101-iest way possible, to give those new tankadins a barebones foundation that they can use to jump right into getting their faces pounded in. For today's post I'm going to talk about why one should choose to spend $60 or their free Warlords-given boost on a protection-specced paladin, and what they need to know to safely jump into that first dungeon.

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Next steps after boosting a paladin tank to 90 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> boosting-paladinlevel-90-boostpaladinpaladin-enchantspaladin-gemspaladin-glyphspaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-rotationpaladin-statspaladin-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittankingtanking-cooldowns (Matt Walsh) Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: The ups and downs of protection's funky aggro]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-ups-and-downs-of-protection-s/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-ups-and-downs-of-protection-s/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-ups-and-downs-of-protection-s/#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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Granted, as far as class design goes, protection paladins are sitting fairly pretty (and not just the blood elves). Our rotation is great, our stat priorities produce a fun playstyle, our talents do what they need to. We don't have any serious holes in our stable of cooldowns, and on the whole staying alive isn't really an issue for us as long as there's a healer nearby. If you had to ask me what the biggest source of frustration with my paladin is, I would quickly reply with the inconsistencies of how aggro plays out.

That's not to say that single-target, Patchwerk-like aggro is an issue. Vengeance as-is means that tanks really aren't going to lose threat if they have a lead and they're being punched in the face. Rather, where the look and feel of the system breaks down is on the periphery, and in particular when new adds appear as the clock ticks on those crucial few seconds between spawning and gnawing of the closest healer.

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The Light and How to Swing It: The ups and downs of protection's funky aggro originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 07 Feb 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> aggroEternal flameholy wrathpaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittankingthreat (Matt Walsh) Fri, 07 Feb 2014 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking tactics for bringing down the Warchief]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/21/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-tactics-for-bringing-down/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/21/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-tactics-for-bringing-down/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/21/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-tactics-for-bringing-down/#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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Finally we've reached the end of the road and, in some respects, so too has Garrosh. He started out as the most emo orc this side of Oshu'gun and after a series of misconceived alley-oops rose to become the leader of one of the two superpowers on Azeroth. Of course we've all finally gotten sick of his nonsense, and it's time he was shown the door.

Garrosh presents, as most end-of-raid bosses do, a terrific challenge. This fight is not a walk in the park. Its increasingly harried phases will try the durability of any tank's nerves, without a doubt. To topple this Warchief you'll need to bring your absolute A-game, and hopefully today I'll be able to help you do that.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking tactics for bringing down the Warchief

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The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking tactics for bringing down the Warchief originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 21 Dec 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 21 Dec 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking tactics for the penultimate five bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-tactics-for-the-penultima/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-tactics-for-the-penultima/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-tactics-for-the-penultima/#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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

A little more than a month ago I wrote the second part in this series of tips and tricks for the boss fights of the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, and now (nearly three months after the raid was released) I think I've taken my sweet time enough in closing this enterprise out. Unfortunately the excitement of BlizzCon and the holiday prevented me from coming to a timelier conclusion here, but hopefully your guild was like mine and was stuck on Thok for a couple of weeks -- wait, that's awful -- and so perhaps this may still be somewhat relevant to you.

Anyway, there are six bosses to go in this pretty well populated raid, and while most are pushovers, some can present a significant challenge for most groups. Garrosh follows the fine tradition of end-of-raid bosses being multi-phase monstrosities and as a result he's going to get a post all his own -- there's a lot going on there. For the remaining five, because I'm pressed for space and I have to cover so much ground, I'm going to present my tips in more of a lightning round-type of format. Okay, let's do this!

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking tactics for the penultimate five bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar

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The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking tactics for the penultimate five bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 07 Dec 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 07 Dec 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: BlizzCon recap for tankadins]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/11/15/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-blizzcon-recap-for-tankadins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/11/15/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-blizzcon-recap-for-tankadins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/11/15/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-blizzcon-recap-for-tankadins/#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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

BlizzCon this year was a magical time to be a tank, learning what we did about all the changes coming down the pike in Warlords of Draenor. It seems that Christmas is coming early this year, with Blue Claus having decided that (for once) we're getting just about everything on our lists. Whereas Mists was in many ways an experiment in how tanking could work going forward -- with DPS stats galore -- Warlords is going to officially set those changes in stone and even expand on them!

I can't remember the last time I was as stoked as I was then, sitting in those seats and reading the word "GONE" next to dodge/parry. It was like something out of a dream. You always dreamed it would happen and then finally it does... There's just no way to prepare yourself for that kind of elation. And, believe me, the other changes they announced are just as good.

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The Light and How to Swing It: BlizzCon recap for tankadins originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 15 Nov 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspaladin-warlords-of-draenorpally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itvengeancewarlords-of-draenorwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 15 Nov 2013 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tips and tricks for tanking the Gates of Retribution]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/26/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tips-and-tricks-for-tanking-the-g/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/26/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tips-and-tricks-for-tanking-the-g/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/26/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tips-and-tricks-for-tanking-the-g/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Tips and tricks for tanking the Gates of Retribution SAT 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

The other week we explored the first four bosses of the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, though funny enough it's the branch of the instance that doesn't actually take place anywhere near the orc capital. Regardless, now that that section is cleared, we move on to the sunny shores of Durotar for slightly more serious encounters. Time for some of the messiest tanking you've experienced all of Mists!

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tips and tricks for tanking the Gates of Retribution

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The Light and How to Swing It: Tips and tricks for tanking the Gates of Retribution originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 26 Oct 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 26 Oct 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking the first four bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/12/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tips-for-tanking-the-first-four-b/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/12/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tips-for-tanking-the-first-four-b/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/12/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tips-for-tanking-the-first-four-b/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Tips for tanking the first four bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Siege of Orgrimmar has been open for a month now (how time flies!) and with what I've seen over the last month I'm still not sure how I feel about the raid as a whole. The first four bosses are utterly uninspiring to tank and it seems like the raid tries to make up for it with some crazy-hectic fights in the next quad. Dark Shaman alone gave me more grey hairs than I care to admit. I get ahead of myself, though.

As they say, there's no better place to start than at the beginning, so in this post I've written up basic quick 'n dirty strats for each of the first four bosses along with glyphing and talenting recommendations to hopefully give you a far easier time toppling the Sha-corrupted forces that stand between you and the actual conflict going on across the sea in Durotar.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking the first four bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar

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The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking the first four bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 12 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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-itsiege-of-orgrimmarwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 12 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Proving yourself at the gold-level tank Proving Grounds]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/09/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-proving-yourself-at-the-gold-leve/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/09/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-proving-yourself-at-the-gold-leve/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/09/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-proving-yourself-at-the-gold-leve/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Proving yourself at the goldlevel tank Proving Grounds 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

As soon as 5.4 launched, one of my biggest goals (aside from the obvious one of getting the legendary cloak) was to go out and grab gold in the tank Proving Grounds before my co-tank could. I'm sure all of you can appreciate the impulse.

While I wouldn't say gold is hugely difficult (especially now that I've taken some furtive steps into Endless, it feels like a walk in the park in contrast), it's become obvious in hindsight that I made some errors in my first few gold attempts and made finally overcoming that particular challenge more difficult than it needed to be. Thankfully I think I've learned from my mistakes here, and now, like an Afterschool Special, I can impart some useful knowledge on how best to approach Proving Grounds and go for the gold.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Proving yourself at the gold-level tank Proving Grounds

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The Light and How to Swing It: Proving yourself at the gold-level tank Proving Grounds originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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-itproving-ground-tankproving-groundstank-proving-groundswow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sun, 22 Sep 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Everything tankadins need to know for 5.4]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/31/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-everything-tankadins-need-to-know/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/31/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-everything-tankadins-need-to-know/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/31/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-everything-tankadins-need-to-know/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Everything tankadins need to know for 54 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

With Blizzard's not-confirmed, delayed, and then for-reals confirmed release date for the Siege of Orgrimmar patch now finally looming in the very near future, this seems as good a time as any to actually sit down and compile and digest the trickle of changes that have steadily been dripping out of the PTR. In previous posts I've talked about the biggest changes as they were first revealed, and since then there have been some even bigger changes, thanks to the numbers pass and its requisite tweaks.

All in all, despite a few nerfs, protection paladins are still sitting pretty. We've got some of the best tanking mechanics in the game, we still have haste as a (powerful and viable) option for gearing, and we still have a wide and varied toolbox at our disposal. This expansion has been very good to us, and this patch does little to change that!

That said, let's dive in and take a look at the details.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Everything tankadins need to know for 5.4

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The Light and How to Swing It: Everything tankadins need to know for 5.4 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 31 Aug 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 31 Aug 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A look at the tanking gear of patch 5.4]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-the-tanking-gear-of-pat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-the-tanking-gear-of-pat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-the-tanking-gear-of-pat/#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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Is there anything more enjoyable as a patch approaches than ogling all the new gear set to drop in the next raid tier? When the most addicting psychological hook in this game is the steady increase of character power, nothing can be more intoxicating than the promise of new heights and plateaus of character strength and durability. Breathe deeply my friends -- that is the smell of loot, ripe for the picking.

Come patch 5.4, a whole new array of armor, trinkets, weapons, and shields will be preparing to find their way into your bags and the very first time you set foot within the new raid you'll want to be prepared with an idea of where the best loot will be dropping for you. Whether it's from that gaping hole in the Vale, behind the walls of Orgrimmar, or from the smoking corpse of Ordos, there's plenty of excellent new gear to choose from.

In this post I'm going to first talk briefly about what gearing priorities will look in patch 5.4 and how you will need to cope with inevitably reaching the 50% haste breakpoint, then I'll break down all the new tanking gear in 5.4 by slot. And, thanks to our love of various DPS stats, that definition of what can be tanking gear (for good or ill) casts a very wide net.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: A look at the tanking gear of patch 5.4

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The Light and How to Swing It: A look at the tanking gear of patch 5.4 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 17 Aug 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 17 Aug 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: How will protection glyph come 5.4?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/28/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-how-will-protection-glyph-come-5/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/28/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-how-will-protection-glyph-come-5/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/28/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-how-will-protection-glyph-come-5/#comments The Light and How to Swing It How many abilities is too many 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

One of the most monumental changes that protection paladins will be facing in the upcoming patch will be a simple nerf to one of our favorite glyphs. Since just about the beginning of Mists, protection paladins have uniformly equipped the Glyph of the Battle Healer to great effect and, alas, the devs have finally decided to step in and put a stop to our shenanigans.

You can't really blame them, Battle Healer was brokenly good -- free heals that were augmented by Vengeance, and while they weren't a gamechanger by any means (thanks to overheals), it was still an advantage that paladins had over any other tanking class. It was a needed change.

Regardless, the change to Battle Healer has a ripple effect for protection paladins as it makes Battle Healer a purely situational glyph for fights where the raid needs your Seal of Insight procs more than you need them for yourself. Which means, for probably the first time in many, many months, we will have an open glyph slot. Let's take a look at what could possibly fill that empty space, both in our hearts and our glyphs tab.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: How will protection glyph come 5.4?

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The Light and How to Swing It: How will protection glyph come 5.4? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 28 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 5.4featuredglyphsguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysPaladin-Glyphspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentspatch-5.4protection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sun, 28 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Will Proving Grounds be the new litmus test for players?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/25/will-proving-grounds-be-the-new-litmus-test-for-players/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/25/will-proving-grounds-be-the-new-litmus-test-for-players/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/25/will-proving-grounds-be-the-new-litmus-test-for-players/#comments Will Proving Grounds be the new litmus test for players A few days ago there was a thread on the official forums where a player expressed concerns that the new Proving Grounds feature would be used by PUG leaders to filter invites for groups, raids, or any other group content. Because Proving Grounds essentially grades any participants, the fear is that trade chat will be flooded by folks looking only to invite players with, for example, a gold medal/completion. Bronze and silver need not apply.

It's a pattern that has repeated itself many times whenever a new way of evaluating players was added to the game. In the past we've seen PUG leaders demand armory links, gearscore/average iLevels, and even achievements proving completion of the raids that they were organizing for (which often created Catch-22 situations for many players).

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Will Proving Grounds be the new litmus test for players? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 25 Jul 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> proving-grounds (Matt Walsh) Thu, 25 Jul 2013 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Something needs to be done about avoidance]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/18/something-needs-to-be-done-about-avoidance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/18/something-needs-to-be-done-about-avoidance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/18/something-needs-to-be-done-about-avoidance/#comments Brutallus: The only fight avoidance has ever been the best stat for. I've had a bit of a chip on my shoulder lately about avoidance stats in WoW. For the duration of the expansion plate tanks of all stripes have been spurning pieces with dodge or parry -- or heavens forbid, both -- in favor of more interesting stats like hit, expertise, haste, and mastery, which all provide some sort of hook to the new active mitigation paradigm.

It's weird, but in this case, Blizzard is a victim of their own success. They've designed a fantastic new way for tanks to perform their job, which has had the unfortunate side effect of neutering two of the oldest tanking stats in the game. Yet, Blizzard seems convinced that this is a situation that needs fixing, rather than a blessing in disguise, and across the various patches of Mists they have been making tweaks here and there to make avoidance stats more attractive for each plate tank.

I believe that this is an incorrect approach; they should instead embrace this happy accident. Much as how leather tanks get to enjoy DPS stats like haste and crit as their bread and butter, so too should plate tanks be freed from the oppressive yoke of bygone, obsolete stats like dodge and parry. The game has finally left those broken stats behind and this is the opportunity to usher in a new, more-perfect system of tank gearing.

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Something needs to be done about avoidance originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 18 Jul 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> avoidancedodgeparry (Matt Walsh) Thu, 18 Jul 2013 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Danger looms on the PTR for prot]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-danger-looms-on-the-ptr-for-prot/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-danger-looms-on-the-ptr-for-prot/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/07/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-danger-looms-on-the-ptr-for-prot/#comments The Light and How to Swing It How many abilities is too many 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Well, this is it. Pack it in, we had a good run. We once were lions amongst melee, kings amongst tanks -- but no more! Thanks to the latest PTR build and the villainous Ghostcrawler, we couldn't even tank an adorable, spiked battle Corgi, let alone Garrosh!

How was that -- dramatic enough? I'm trying to capture the special spirit of despair that the official forums usually excels at. (Ok, yeah, room for improvement.)

Anyway, truthfully, these aren't particularly devastating nerfs, and on the whole won't do much to tamper our survivability. If anything it hurts our utility a bit, though there are worse spheres to be nerfed in. So, let's dig in and talk about what each change means and how it will reverberate.

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The Light and How to Swing It: Danger looms on the PTR for prot originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 13 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A look at what's in store for prot in 5.4]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/06/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-whats-in-store-for-pro/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/06/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-whats-in-store-for-pro/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/06/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-whats-in-store-for-pro/#comments The Light and How to Swing It How many abilities is too many 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

The first big 5.4 patch last week didn't have much of anything for prot, and despondently many of us found ourselves looking over what were primary pvp-oriented or retribution-focused changes. However, finally, our time has come! Wednesday night a whole slate of changes hit the PTR, with all sorts of eyebrow-raising additions for the tankadins out there. Let's dig in and talk about what's on our plates for the next patch as of the latest build.

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The Light and How to Swing It: A look at what's in store for prot in 5.4 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentspatch-5.4protection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: How many abilities is too many?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/06/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-how-many-abilities-is-too-many/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/06/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-how-many-abilities-is-too-many/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/06/07/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-how-many-abilities-is-too-many/#comments The Light and How to Swing It How many abilities is too many 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Remember Divine Intervention?

I was talking about bygone abilities with some guildmates the other day (we need a ret/holy hybrid, by the way!) and it evolved into an interesting conversation about ability bloat in WoW. Some of them thought that they had way too many abilities on their bars with far too many keybinds to manage, and were dreading finding room for anything new that could be added in the next expansion.

Personally, I don't feel like I'm in the saturation point just yet (maybe because I'm not a prolific macro-er) but I can definitely sympathize with the sentiment. Ever since TBC, Blizzard has been heaping more and more abilities into our toolbox, and if we're not yet at a saturation point, we will soon be at one in the future. Regardless, it's interesting to look not only at what our toolbox is like now, but also what it used to be like, and then if something had to be cut down the line, where the knife may well be pointed.

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The Light and How to Swing It: How many abilities is too many? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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, 07 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: The problem with tanks]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/26/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-problem-with-tanks/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/26/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-problem-with-tanks/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/26/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-the-problem-with-tanks/#comments The Light and How to Swing It The problem with tanks SAT 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Last Thursday, Ghostcrawler tweeted something which caused a bit of a stir within the tanking community. In it he revealed that the devs were looking at some strict caps for Vengeance levels (30% of health for 10s, 50% for 25s) that would prevent tanks from using Vengeance to pursue unintended things like solo tanking a two-tank raid boss or standing in fire to stack really obscene amounts of attack power.

Now, this isn't another column about the virtues or not of Vengeance. That's a pretty mutilated horse at this point, and from the looks of it, the mechanic is not going anywhere any time soon. However, the brief rekindling of the Vengeance debate did once again shine some light on what is a continuing problem in WoW: what should tanks be allowed to do (in terms of damage output) and what can be done to keep players from parlaying excessive survivability into unintended advantages?

What do you do when one third (arguably two-thirds, a lot of this can apply to healers as well) of your players' roles revolves around the mitigation and prevention of damage, and the primary means you have of creating barriers or challenges for players is the threat of character death?

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The Light and How to Swing It: The problem with tanks originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 26 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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-ittankingtanksThreatvengeancewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sun, 26 May 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Throne of Thunder With Protection Paladins: Being awesome]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/10/throne-of-thunder-protection-paladins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/10/throne-of-thunder-protection-paladins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/05/10/throne-of-thunder-protection-paladins/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Breaking encounters in the Throne of Thunder with protection 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

It's not a new phenomenon for protection paladins to be able to use their extensive utility toolbox to mitigate or outright circumvent fight mechanics; it's something that we've been doing since Uther first picked up a blunt object. Throne of Thunder continues that lofty tradition with all sorts of mechanics that can be ducked or dodged by crafty paladins with an excellent sense of timing and the proper addons or macros. We'll also touch on whether it's a good thing that one corner of WoW's tanks can break aspects of an encounter, and the ramifications of such possibilities.

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Throne of Thunder With Protection Paladins: Being awesome originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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-itthrone-of-thunderwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: In defense of stamina]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-in-defense-of-stamina/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-in-defense-of-stamina/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-in-defense-of-stamina/#comments This looks like a 200% spike event. 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

If you have spent much time on the official forums at any point since the beginning of -- oh, say, Cataclysm -- you'd notice that there is a particularly prevalent slur that is oft flung around in tanking discussions. This slur cuts to the very core of what it means to be a tank, it is an accusation of seeking vainglory over properly gearing ourselves for survivability. Worse, it is an accusation of being behind the times on tank theorycrafting due to either apathy or incompetence. It is the Scarlet S.

Stam stacker.

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The Light and How to Swing It: In defense of stamina originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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-itstaminawow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Mastering the Troves of the Thunder King as a paladin]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-mastering-the-troves-of-the-thund/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-mastering-the-troves-of-the-thund/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/30/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-mastering-the-troves-of-the-thund/#comments The Light and How to Swing It A look at 52 tanking loot 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Fortune and glory, kid. Nothing animates like the prospect of a massive pile of treasure, especially when you're racing against the clock and greedily snatching up as much as you can. The trick, in the end, is to be prepared for any obstacles thrown at you -- that is what separates the Indiana Joneses of this world from the Satipos. And if you prefer to be the former and exit the scenario with more gold than you can carry, you'll need to do your homework before you plunge into this exciting new feature from patch 5.2.

Thankfully, paladins tend to have a lot of tricks up their sleeves and with the new talent system that is doubly true. With the right preparation, we can make the most of our toolset and claw our way to the end of the loot run with a minimum of muss or fuss.

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The Light and How to Swing It: Mastering the Troves of the Thunder King as a paladin originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentstroves-of-the-thunder-kingtroves-of-the-thunder-king-guidewow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the first three bosses of Throne of Thunder]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-the-first-three-bosses-of/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-the-first-three-bosses-of/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-tanking-the-first-three-bosses-of/#comments The Light and How to Swing It A look at 52 tanking loot 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Like jumping into a cold pool after spending too much time in the hot tub, tanking Throne of Thunder after weeks of tier 14 may be a bit of a shocking experience. (Sorry, had to.) This place is no joke -- the health and damage requirements are ratcheted up severely from the previous tier of raiding. The bosses will hit harder and the mechanics will be tighter, but on the other hand, the loot will be even shinier. Honor and glory awaits in the halls of the Thunder King.

The first quarter of the dungeon is designated as the Last Stand of the Zandalari, and you'll be seeing some old, tusked faces. Let's talk about what you'll need to do to withstand everything that the finest warriors of that dying land can throw at you.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the first three bosses of Throne of Thunder

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The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking the first three bosses of Throne of Thunder originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> council of eldersCouncilOfEldersfeaturedguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyshorridonjinrokhjinrokh the breakerJinrokhTheBreakerpaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentspatch 5.2Patch5.2protection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itthrone of thunderThroneOfThunderwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A look at 5.2 tanking loot]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-5-2-tanking-loot/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-5-2-tanking-loot/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-look-at-5-2-tanking-loot/#comments The Light and How to Swing It A look at 52 tanking loot 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Another patch, another tumbling pile of loot that we will spend the next half year greedily chasing like a kid in a candy store. Y'know, if the kid was only allowed to visit the candy store once a week, and the store owner handed him a random piece every time he visited. Still, it's pretty exciting, the possibilities of a new patch. Aside from all the interesting new stuff to do, a new patch always presents the opportunity to grow your character in power and effectiveness through ever-increasing item levels.

5.2 is unique in that, for the first time, most raid drops will have five different versions of item level value. With the introduction of Thunderforged items, we now can collect Raid Finder, Normal, Normal Thunderforged, Heroic, and Heroic Thunderforged flavors of each and every raid drop. Despite this cacophony of loot, for the purposes of my sanity and yours, I'll only be listing the normal-mode version of each item in the list ahead.

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The Light and How to Swing It: A look at 5.2 tanking loot originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A review of tier 14 from a tanking perspective]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/02/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-review-of-tier-14-from-a-tankin/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/02/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-review-of-tier-14-from-a-tankin/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/02/16/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-review-of-tier-14-from-a-tankin/#comments The Light and How to Swing It A review of tier 14 from a tanking perspective 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

With the Throne of Thunder echoing in the distance, it will not be much longer before tier 14 is a fading and pleasant memory for many raiders. I think it's a fair assessment to say that this tier has been one of the most successful in WoW's history, at least from an encounter design perspective. An unexpected follow-up from the doldrums of Dragon Soul, the raids of Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring have been interesting and (most importantly!) engaging -- especially for tanks.

Remember that in the closing days of Dragon Soul and Cataclysm, there was a general feeling of ennui in the raid tanking community. Between the nullification of threat, the introduction of Vengeance, and the seeming dumbing-down of raid mechanics throughout Cataclysm, the sentiment was that Blizzard had given up on making tanking interesting at anything but the heroic raid level. And even then, by "interesting" it meant you would have to cope with much, much more damage. Obviously, it's human nature to assume that past is prologue and as such many tanks assumed the worst was yet to come.

So imagine the surprise when the mists dispersed and the land of Pandaria revealed an unexpected renaissance for raid tanks.

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The Light and How to Swing It: A review of tier 14 from a tanking perspective originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredFeng-the-Accursedgaralonguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyslei-shimeljarakpaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittier-14will-of-the-emperorwind-lord-meljarakwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: A not-so-hasty retreat]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/02/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-not-so-hasty-retreat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/02/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-not-so-hasty-retreat/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/02/02/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-a-not-so-hasty-retreat/#comments The Light and How to Swing It 52 roundup for protection 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Ghostcrawler created panicked ripples in the tankadin community when he unexpectedly declared on the forums that he had "plans to try and lower the value of haste relative to dodge and parry." I'm sure you, as I, have read over these quotes multiple times, so I won't repeat them all in full for the sake of not wasting the humble electrons shooting through your computer.

Nonetheless, the key takeaway is that he feels the main problem is paladin tanks are prioritizing haste, which wasn't supposed to be a major tanking stat, over dodge and parry. (More on that in a bit.) He foresees that a fix might have to involve a nerf to Shield of the Righteous, the primary beneficiary of our haste; though this would be accompanied by some kind of buff to keep our survivability level.

Likewise, GC is concerned with protection paladins taking haste plate out of the mouths of those specs it was designed for -- DPS death knights and paladins among them -- and thus causing unnecessary friction in a group. And, of course, he's worried that protection paladins might turn their nose at good tanking gear with dodge and parry stats, considering them garbage. (Again, we'll revisit this.)

Thankfully, the crab recognizes that above all, having haste as a tank is fun, and he claims he wants to preserve that. Which is great. So, let's look at this whole crazy mess, and figure out where we are and where this might leave us.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: A not-so-hasty retreat

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The Light and How to Swing It: A not-so-hasty retreat originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 02 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredGhostcrawlerguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysHastepaladin-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, 02 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[5.2 round-up for protection paladins]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/19/5-2-round-up-for-protection-paladins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/19/5-2-round-up-for-protection-paladins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/19/5-2-round-up-for-protection-paladins/#comments The Light and How to Swing It 52 roundup for protection 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

I must admit, while following all the changes of path 5.2 as they trickled out, the one change that got me really, really pumped was the further loosening of transmog rules. In 5.2, a one-handed sword (as just about all our epic weapons are this expansion) can be transmogrified to an axe or a mace. In addition, many weapons from earlier expansions that were designated as mainhand weapons, have been changed one-hand weapons.

Combined, this means that in 5.2, no matter what actual weapon I have, it can look like the Gavel of Unearthed Secrets -- an iconic paladin weapon if I ever saw one. Sure, swords are great (the Crusader's Glory is particularly nice), but when I think of paladins smiting the undead and enforcing the will of the Light, I see them holding a massive hammer in their hands. So I'm excited to return to that motif.

But obviously there's a lot more going on in patch 5.2 than transmogrifying! There is a new tier set with new set bonuses worth digging into, as well as a slew of class changes that are coming down the pike.

Continue reading 5.2 round-up for protection paladins

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5.2 round-up for protection paladins originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 5.2featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentspatch-5.2protection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Level 80 paladin solos some Mogu'shan Vaults bosses, gets Vengeance hotfixed]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/09/level-80-paladin-solos-some-mogushan-vaults-bosses-gets-vengea/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/09/level-80-paladin-solos-some-mogushan-vaults-bosses-gets-vengea/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/09/level-80-paladin-solos-some-mogushan-vaults-bosses-gets-vengea/#comments
A great video is making the rounds right now of an exceptional player using some unintended consequences to solo multiple bosses in Mogu'shan Vaults -- and as a protection-specced paladin no less! He apparently downed Stone Guard, Feng, and Elegon before Blizzard caught wind of the escapade. You can see a video of the Elegon kill above.

How he pulled this off was by taking advantage of a series of design choices that Blizzard made, combining them all into a hilarious example of the law of unintended consequences in action.

To reach a decent item level, the paladin equipped various bind on equip rares that drop in Mists zones which all had a required character level of only 80. And because he was only level 80, he was avoiding the combat ratings drop-offs for levels 81 and 86 that a normal character wearing those pieces would be subjected too. This would allow him to get an insane amount of secondary stats like haste (I've seen that he had 95%!) and mastery (88%, apparently).

Continue reading Level 80 paladin solos some Mogu'shan Vaults bosses, gets Vengeance hotfixed

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Level 80 paladin solos some Mogu'shan Vaults bosses, gets Vengeance hotfixed originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingelegonFeng-the-AccursedhotfixMogushan-Vaultspaladinprotection-paladinsolosoloingstone-guardvengeancevengeance-nerf (Matt Walsh) Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Terrace of Endless Spring]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/05/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-te/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/05/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-te/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/01/05/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-te/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Terrace of Endless Spring is a weird conclusion to the joyous majesty of tier 14. We go from one large raid to another large raid, and then the tier caps with chasing a Sha back to his Breakfast Nook of Fear. I suppose, however, you do have to give Blizzard a hand for managing to efficiently cram so many bosses into such a small area. The economy of space in there is very well executed.

Nonetheless, all meta discussion aside, from a tanking perspective, Terrace of the Endless Spring is nothing to write home about compared to the rest of the tier. The fights are okay, but don't really require the same engagement that fights in Mogu'shan Vaults, or even the Heart of Fear, demanded. Regardless, it being the last raid of the tier, the damage is higher and the need to keep yourself on two feet is oh-so-pressing. There are definitely some good tricks in your toolbox that will help keep you vertical and the thus the raid from going pear-shaped. Let's explore them.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Terrace of Endless Spring

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The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Terrace of Endless Spring originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 05 Jan 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyslei-shiPaladin-Glyphspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itsha-of-fearterrace-of-endless-springtsulongwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 05 Jan 2013 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Heart of Fear]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/12/15/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-he/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/12/15/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-he/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/12/15/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-he/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

You know those awful kids in your neighborhood who, on a hot summer's day, would find an ant hill and roast the little suckers inside with their grandmother's magnifying glass, or push rocks and sticks in the hole in an attempt to starve the inhabitants? That's how raiding the Heart of Fear feels for me sometime. It's a hive of six-legged-pants-wetting terror and we're just adding onto the troubles of those poor insects. It's a little cruel, really -- kicking them when they're down.

Incidentally, you know what class that awful kid grew up to play? A warrior; it's a fact of behavioral science. (OK, probably a rogue. But I have to get my shots in.)

Anyway, when it comes to demolishing your way through piles and piles of exoskeleton-clad fanatics and extremists, sworn to protect the only female they have ever known, you'll need every tool and trick at your disposal. Much like in Mogu'shan Vaults, this expansion's iteration of talents and glyphs gives us a wide amount of latitude in how we approach a fight, and can provide some decisive advantages. Let's talk about how!

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Heart of Fear

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The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Heart of Fear originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysheart of fearHeartOfFearpaladin glyphspaladin talentspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentsPaladinGlyphsPaladinTalentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Thank the Light, encounters are interesting to tank again]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/12/01/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-thank-the-light-encounters-are-i/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/12/01/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-thank-the-light-encounters-are-i/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/12/01/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-thank-the-light-encounters-are-i/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a column bemoaning the current state of tanking in Cataclysm and specifically how terribly boring the encounters were to tank. It was a common complaint throughout Firelands that only got worse in the doldrums of Dragon Soul. The majority of fights in those two raids were soul-suckingly droll when it came to tanking them, and the most pessimistic of us saw the repetition of the boring tank encounter model in DS as a terrifying new trend in encounter design.

Combine that with the recent removal of threat and you had some serious tank ennui. I closed out the column with a similar sentiment and down-cast eyes as Mists loomed ahead. The prevailing fear was that the trend would continue and fights would get easier and more boring to tank with every successive raid tier.

However, 11 months and an expansion later, I'm happy to report that the trend that I and many others had feared was arrested in this first burst of raid content. In Mists of Pandaria, especially in Mogu'shan Vaults, the game took a huge leap forward with regards to making encounters that are not only interesting to tank, but all fun and engaging as well.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Thank the Light, encounters are interesting to tank again

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The Light and How to Swing It: Thank the Light, encounters are interesting to tank again originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 01 Dec 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredFeng-the-Accursedguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysMogushan-Vaultspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itstone-guardwill-of-the-emperorwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 01 Dec 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-mo/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-mo/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/17/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-talents-and-glyphs-for-tanking-mo/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

My brawny colleague Dan Desmond covered this topic for his two-handed cohort earlier this week, but I think it's also worth exploring for all the tankadins out there. Namely, what talents and glyphs can be utilized to make tanking the first raid of tier 14 a little easier?

Sure the new hotness is Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring (and I'll get to those!), but I expect that the vast majority of players are still actively working on clearing Mogu'shan Vaults, or are slogging through it weekly in LFR for precious, precious VP. Even if you've been doing this place ad nauseam for the last few weeks, there are always little tweaks that can be made to get the job done faster with less damage taken!

For reference, these are the base talents and glyphs I go with. So any suggestions I make will be what deviates from those. Especially with regards to Glyph of the Battle Healer, you should make sure to have that up at all times and should be actively tanking with Seal of Insight. It can make a noticeable difference in your survivability, and can pay some dividends for the survivability of your melee colleagues.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults

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The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredglyphsguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysMogushan-VaultsPaladin-Glyphspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-ittalentswow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Getting better control of your active mitigation]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/03/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-getting-better-control-of-your-ac/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/03/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-getting-better-control-of-your-ac/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/03/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-getting-better-control-of-your-ac/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Getting better control of your active mitigation 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

The other week I wrote about the control gearing strategy, though only briefly touched on one of the major cornerstones of that approach: a control-focused rotation. With such a rotation you can squeeze every drop of active mitigation survivability out of the accompanying gear design, and as a result you'll be much less squishy than if you were depending on passive mitigation to carry the day for you.

When first starting out with tanking in this expansion (be you a brand new tankadin, one returning from a long hiatus, or even just a bit rusty), a sense of how to optimally perform the rotation may seem just out of reach. It takes practice, for sure, to hammer down in your muscle memory and reflex pathways the priority of your abilities, so you know just which attack to use at any given moment.

For all the oxygen devoted to proper gearing, in the end, the single greatest boost you can give to your survivability is to perform your active mitigation properly. Let's talk about how.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Getting better control of your active mitigation

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The Light and How to Swing It: Getting better control of your active mitigation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 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) Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: "Control" and the new tank gearing paradigm]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/20/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-control-and-the-new-tank-gearin/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/20/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-control-and-the-new-tank-gearin/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/20/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-control-and-the-new-tank-gearin/#comments The Light and How to Swing It Control and the new tank gearing paradigm SAT 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

I admit, I'm a bit of a jerk to have dropped the bomb that I did in my last column, regarding the new gearing paradigm described by Theck recently. It really is a huge shift for us and how we choose to gear ourselves, and I admit it is disconcerting at first glance. However, I assure you, it's based on solid theorycrafting and will allow you to tune your damage profile to something that will not only make your job easier, but your healers' as well.

Why so much hit and expertise?

So, as I explained in the last column, your gearing priorities will be the hit and hard (yes, hard) expertise cap, then focus on either haste or mastery, depending on taste (more on that ahead). Your dump/reforge-from stats will, sadly, be avoidance.

With regards to hit and expertise, the reason you want the maximum of both is due to the workings of our active mitigation system. In order to generate holy power, we need to hit things. Crusader Strike and Judgment must all connect to allow us to stack the good stuff (Avenger's Shield procs just need to be cast to build holy power). And thus, the more steady and guaranteed our holy power generation (HPG) is, the more reliably we can hit Shield of the Righteous and get its buff up.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: "Control" and the new tank gearing paradigm

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The Light and How to Swing It: "Control" and the new tank gearing paradigm originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 20 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysHastepaladin-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, 20 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[How to defeat the mogu sorcerer rare spawns]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/16/how-to-defeat-the-mogu-sorcerer-rare-spawns/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/16/how-to-defeat-the-mogu-sorcerer-rare-spawns/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/16/how-to-defeat-the-mogu-sorcerer-rare-spawns/#comments How to defeat the mogu sorcerer rare spawns
Over the past two weeks my colleague, Dan Desmond, and I have talked about how to quickly and efficiently to dispatch champions of the various races of Pandaria. Lording over all of those "lesser races" at one time (or, in some cases, even creating them!) were the mogu. A race of imperious and vindictive creatures, the mogu featured among their ranks sorcerers of great power who could bend flesh and stone to their will.

Sprinkled throughout Pandaria you can find some rare examples of these domineering magi. They're not terribly difficult, compared especially to other rare spawn types, but they can certainly hold their own. It's never a bad idea to go into battle with one knowing what will surely be thrown at you.
  • Dark Bolt: This is what the mogu will be spamming at you. With no cooldown and a second-and-a-half cast time, expect lots of these to be thrown your way. They don't hit for much, so they should be easy to shrug off.
  • Shadowbolt: Offering a much larger beating than Dark Bolt, this spell has a 1.8 second cast time and a five-second cooldown. Considering it hits for significantly more, you'll want to do your best to interrupt it whenever you can, if you can. If only to make things easier for yourself.
  • Voidcloud: Pretty straightforward -- the sorcerer spawns a cloud, and if you stand in it, you'll die in short order. Avoid the clouds, which will not be hard at all.
Unlike the pandaren rare spawns, for instance, there are no special mechanics forcing you to cope with the mogu's attacks. It's a very by-the-book mob to fight: don't stand in the bad, interrupt the most painful spell, and drop the enemy.

Here is a list of each mogu sorcerer, their location, and what special item they can drop: Good luck clawing your place at the very top of the Pandaria food chain!
Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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How to defeat the mogu sorcerer rare spawns originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> mists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-raresmogumogu-sorcererrare-spawns (Matt Walsh) Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[How to defeat the hozen rare spawns]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/11/how-to-defeat-the-hozen-rare-spawns/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/11/how-to-defeat-the-hozen-rare-spawns/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/11/how-to-defeat-the-hozen-rare-spawns/#comments
How to defeat the hozen rare spawns
There's just something about the hozen that makes me so happy. It's probably their bizarre dialect where nearly every word is some variation of ook or grook or dook, or perhaps their propensity for scatological haikus. Either way, you can imagine my apprehension whenever I came across one of these pinnacles of hozenhood. Clearly it had to die -- if only for a shot at the plentiful gold, experience, and perhaps a rare item that it might be holding -- but boy did it hurt to ook that grookin' hozen in the dooker.

Like the pandaren, jinyu, yaungol, and other rare spawns, no matter how slight one of these adversaries may look, you still want to approach them with caution. The hozen rare spawns possess several punishing abilities that make it a threat to anyone with lead feet. Likewise, this is not a boss you want to fight in close confines. These abilities are:
  • Bananarang: The hozen throws a banana, which spins out in a line away from him, and then returns. If it connects, the target takes 45% of their maximum health as physical damage. Yee-ouch.
  • Going Bananas: Flipping his lid, the hozen bounces around and does physical damage to anyone he lands on. No much you can do other than run around and attempt to evade any landings. Though, admittedly, this will be pretty easy if there's enough room for you move around.
  • Toss Filth: Puts a debuff on the target, increasing damage taken by 11%. Can stack, and each stack lasts 30 seconds. Basically makes the fight a race against the clock.
Basically, the best way to approach these is to constantly be on the move. Get your licks in, don't get hit by the banana when it goes out, and try to avoid getting stomped on. Not much you can do about Toss Filth, so just focus on getting the hozen down before it stacks too high, or kite if that's possible with your class. Cooldowns are a must as the fight draws on, if you have too many stacks of the debuff.

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How to defeat the hozen rare spawns originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> hozenhozen-peace-pipehozen-raresmists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-raresrare-spawns (Matt Walsh) Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[WoW Insider's Guide to the Anglers]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/09/wow-insiders-guide-to-the-anglers/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/09/wow-insiders-guide-to-the-anglers/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/09/wow-insiders-guide-to-the-anglers/#comments Guide to the Anglers The entire continent of Pandaria seems to ravaged by war, doubt, and uncertainty, but you wouldn't know it by visiting the Angler's Wharf. There you'll find a crew of light-hearted folks that are too busy sitting on a dock by Krasarang Bay with a fishing line tied to their toe. The humble fishers there have a variety of dailies and rewards that make it a breeze to level fishing -- and worthwhile to boot. If you're like me and actually enjoy the quiet solitude of casting a line in some far-off corner of WoW then this faction is just icing on the cake.

A soggy introduction

Before you hit level 90 and begin the interminable grind that is the Pandaria daily shuffle, your first introduction to the Anglers will be in Soggy's Gamble, in the southeastern corner of the Dread Wastes. All of the quests in that hub reward reputation with the Anglers, and in total should be enough to put you in striking distance of Friendly before you ever do a single daily. Make sure you complete these for an early boost to the rep.

Now, let's dig into what the Anglers have to offer, exactly.

Continue reading WoW Insider's Guide to the Anglers

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WoW Insider's Guide to the Anglers originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> anglersanglers-wharfdailiesfishingfishing-dailiesguide-to-anglerskrasarang-wildsmists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-reputationnatnat-paglereputationreputation-guide (Matt Walsh) Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Warlord's Ashes, hidden daily of the Dread Wastes]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/08/the-warlords-ashes-hidden-daily-of-the-dread-wastes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/08/the-warlords-ashes-hidden-daily-of-the-dread-wastes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/08/the-warlords-ashes-hidden-daily-of-the-dread-wastes/#comments
The Warlord's Ashes, hidden daily of the Dread Wastes
One of the more interesting dailies in all of Pandaria is one that won't even be assigned to you by a quest giver. When questing through the Dread Wastes, or later while doing dailies in that zone, you may have spotted a curious tablet propped up at the base of an urn. According to the tablet,
Warlord Gurthan, master of beasts and conqueror of men, waits here.
He waits for the Earth to LAY before him as beasts once did.
He waits for the Sun to KNEEL before him as men once did.
Reminds me a bit of the clue to a puzzle in a Resident Evil game or something. Essentially, you (and another warm body) need to arrange yourself so one is lying down in the green circle, and the other is kneeling in the red circle. Doing so will send colored beams directly to the urn, and release the spirit of Warlord Gurthan.

Strike the Warlord down, and collect the ashes. This item will begin a quest, which you can turn in at Kil'ruk the Wind-Reaver, which rewards the standard 5 valor points, 2 Lesser Charms of Good Fortune, and a smattering of gold coins.

Unfortunately, this isn't available every day. Only on days in which the Klaxxi dailies involve the Terrace of Gurthan, fittingly enough. Nonetheless, it's a great little quest that rewards those willing to explore a little.

Considering how there is absolutely no indication from NPCs that this quest exists, I wonder how many more of these hidden gems are just waiting to be found out there. And if there aren't any, there should be, because this is the kind of thing that makes it fun and rewarding to get out and poke around every nook and cranny in Pandaria.
Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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The Warlord's Ashes, hidden daily of the Dread Wastes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> daily-questsdread-wastesklaxximists-of-pandariawarlord-gurthan (Matt Walsh) Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Pre-raid gearing for tankadins]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/06/the-light-and-how-to-swing-pre-raid-gearing-for-tankadins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/06/the-light-and-how-to-swing-pre-raid-gearing-for-tankadins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/06/the-light-and-how-to-swing-pre-raid-gearing-for-tankadins/#comments The Light and How to Swing Preraid gearing for tankadins 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

It was a fairly painless five levels that brought you to the top of the food chain in Pandaria, and, as the expression goes, now you can play the game. If you're officially leaping on the gear treadmill and getting ready for raiding, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Thankfully there is a lot to do, and easily available sources of gearing, so the task isn't particularly onerous. Before you know it, you'll be geared and ready to tank anything the sha toss at you.

Briefly, what kind of gear do you want?

I don't want to delve too deeply into this, because it's a whole 'nother column's worth of exposition, but when it comes to gearing I strongly recommend grabbing pieces that will emphasize a control style of tanking. That is, anything that boosts our active mitigation by making our holy power generator abilities hit, hit more often, and our active mitigation more powerful.

Specifically we're talking about first gearing to cap hit and hard cap expertise (yes, hard cap). Then go for haste and mastery in equal amounts. Reforge out of any avoidance you have to achieve these goals. As such, you'll want to go for gear which has hit, expertise, haste, and mastery -- and if you're lucky, avoid anything with dodge or parry (or worse, dodge and parry).

For the gritty details behind the "control" strategy, I strongly recommend this blog post by Theck. Now, that said, let's get down to brass tacks!

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Pre-raid gearing for tankadins

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The Light and How to Swing It: Pre-raid gearing for tankadins originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandariaPaladin-Gear-Guidepaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentsPre-Raidpre-raid-gear-guidepre-raid-paladin-guideprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Could We Find More Like That? Defeating the jinyu rare elites]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/05/could-we-find-more-like-that-defeating-the-jinyu-rare-elites/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/05/could-we-find-more-like-that-defeating-the-jinyu-rare-elites/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/05/could-we-find-more-like-that-defeating-the-jinyu-rare-elites/#comments Could We Find More Like That Defeating the Jinyu rare elite While leveling through Pandaria on opening night, Dan Desmond and I made a point of tracking down and killing any rare elites that haplessly wandered into our path, eventually earning us the Could We Find More Like That? achievement by the time we hit the level cap. A key part of our setup was the addon NPCScan, which would alert us to any rare elite within targeting range, and of course the plucky gumption that only a retribution and a protection paladin can bring.

While the rare elites aren't nearly as difficult as their denomination may imply, they're also not to be taken lightly. Each type of champion has a skill set of three abilities which can prove to be very deadly if the proper precautions are not taken.

The rare elites that hail from the jinyu have the following weapons in their arsenal:
  • Water Bolt This is an ability with a cast which, despite the temptation, should not be interrupted. You'll need that 15 second cooldown for the next ability which is far deadlier. This is the ability that the jinyu will be throwing at you the most.
  • Torrent This channeled attack does 28% of the target's maximum HP as damage every second. It must be interrupted immediately, or you'll be dead in no time.
  • Rain Dance The jinyu will channel this spell (it cannot be interrupted) and toss balls of water into the air, which will then come crashing down around you. Don't stand in one place, to avoid getting hit. Each ball of water will deal 65% of the target's maximum HP as damage.
So, essentially, the way to defeat the jinyu elite is to keep moving during Rain Dance and be sure to interrupt Torrent ASAP. The key to fighting one is more awareness than anything else.

Continue reading Could We Find More Like That? Defeating the jinyu rare elites

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Could We Find More Like That? Defeating the jinyu rare elites originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> could-we-find-more-like-thatjinyumists-of-pandarianpcscanrarerare-elite (Matt Walsh) Fri, 05 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Light and How to Swing It: Leveling from 85-90 as a tank]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/09/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-leveling-from-85-90-as-a-tank/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/09/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-leveling-from-85-90-as-a-tank/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/09/22/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-leveling-from-85-90-as-a-tank/#comments The Light and How to Swing It The prot paladin 504 survival guide SAT 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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

With the change to Vengeance in Mists of Pandaria, a tank's solo damage has just about cratered compared to previous expansions. Gone is the heyday of Wrath when we could kill things on our own, one on one, without our six o'clock shadows coming in. Here again are the unhappy days of The Burning Crusade, where there was plenty of time for a bathroom break between the engagement of an enemy and its much-subsequent demise.

I expect many tanks will be switching to their retribution offspecs to speed up the onerous process of leveling. Yet, for those brave few who refuse to take the easy way out and enjoy the long, possibly rewarding slog that is wading shin-deep in molasses -- excuse me, I mean leveling as a tank -- I sing your praises (in a "Here's to you, Mr. Leveling as Prot for old time's sake when it's taking three times as long" kind of way). It might not be the fastest or most efficient path, but for those who choose to take it, let's talk about how to make the process as painless as possible.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Leveling from 85-90 as a tank

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The Light and How to Swing It: Leveling from 85-90 as a tank originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallysmists-of-pandariapaladin levelingpaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-protection-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itpaladin-talentsPaladinLevelingpally-guidepally-infopally-talentsprotection-paladin-the-light-and-how-to-swing-itwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-info (Matt Walsh) Sat, 22 Sep 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider