Tomorrow night I’m going to be doing my first Cataclysm raid and one of the biggest things I need to line up (in addition to enchanting some of my gear) is procuring some raiding consumables. Flasks, pots, food, the works–every little bit helps, especially when we’re going into raids with a mishmash of heroics and normal 5mans gear. Below is collected a list of various Cata-level consumables and recommendations of what to use, when.

Flasks

For survivability, go with Flask of Steelskin. The only choice for tanking.

For threat, or farm content, you can chug a Flask of Titanic Strength.

Elixirs

We have a few good options for guardian elixirs:

• Elixir of Deep Earth — A good, all-around elixir for most fights if you decide to forgo flasks
• Prismatic Elixir — Amazing for Sindragosa-style fights with a large portion of incoming damage being magical

As for battle, we have:

• Elixir of the Master — Best choice for survivability
• Elixir of the Naga — Best choice for threat
• Elixir of Impossible Accuracy — Best choice for threat if you’re expertise soft-capped

Potions

The one pot to rule them all is the Earthen Potion. Keep stacks of these handy and use them at clutch moments like a cooldown. You only get to use one per fight, so use them wisely.

If you’re looking for a boost in threat/damage, you can chug a Golemblood Potion.

Food

(Please note I’m only listing the 90-stat food. Don’t cheap out for the 60-stat kind!)

For survival food, you have a few good options:

• Blackbelly Sushi
• Lavascale Minestrone
• Mushroom Sauce Mudfish

Generally, you want to eat the Lavascale Minestrone for the mastery rating. If block capped (and that’ll not be for a while), then go for either Blackbelly Sushi or Mushroom Sauce Mudfish, depending on whichever avoidance stat is lower.

As for threat food, the standard priority order persists: expertise to soft-cap > hit to cap > expertise to hard-cap > strength. So, go with Crocolisk Au Gratin until you reach 26 expertise, then Grilled Dragon until hit capped, and then back to Crocolisk, and then (if by some miracle you are hit and expertise capped) you can have the Beer-Basted Crocolisk.

• Beer-Basted Crocolisk
• Crocolisk Au Gratin
• Grilled Dragon

Lastly, if you want to be cheap (or are working on farm content) you can go with the latest version of the fish feast:

• Seafood Magnifique Feast

But don’t use this for progression content!

Saturday I spent most of the day power leveling up Engineering. I had a generous and amazing guildmate loan me a huge chunk of ore–about half the obsidium I needed and all the (soft) elementium I needed–which was a major boost. I think proceeded to feign an attempt to farm obsidium in Hyjal on my never-played DK, failed, and then resorted to hitting the AH. When all was said and done, the damage was about 6,000 gold. Which isn’t so bad in the scheme of things.

Once at 525, I quickly cranked out the Reinforced Bio-Optic Killshades and then went about nabbing the cogwheels I needed for them. I went with the Mastery and Dodge cogwheels, for those wondering.

The Quickflip Deflection Plates were then bolted onto my gloves and macro’d to CS and HotR (/use 10 will activate them), to maximize uptime.

Lastly, I applied the Cardboard Assassin to my belt. I tweeted about this on Friday, but for those of you who avoid Twitter I’ll explain why. The Grounded Plasma Shield seems like it’d be the best option, but personally I feel like the malfunctions completely invalidate using this tinker. Pick your poison: you can be stunned, taunt everything in a 40 yard radius around you, or give yourself a 100% chance to be critically hit. You know, whatever your favorite flavor is.

I haven’t tested the Assassin extensively enough to see what the backfires are, but all I’ve been able to find using Google-Fu is one report of the taunt failing. Nonetheless, the good news is the Assassin has 77.5k health and can taunt even raid bosses. While this may seem fairly useless at first glance, think about that: if the Assassin can taunt the boss for even one hit, you’re looking at a decent bit of damage reduction. Enough to rival the value of the Grounded Plasma Shield, depending on the boss.

For tanks I would definitely recommend tinkering this onto your belt.

As for engineering as a whole, I’ve had a few folks asking if I was planning to drop the profession. Right now the answer is no, I invested a lot of time and money into it to go chasing the dragon that is the FOTM profession. Eventually the malfunction are probably going to be nerfed (my guess, based on the widespread outcry) which may or may not require a mass exodus out of the profession. We’ll see. Either way, things will run full circle and we’ll be back to where we were at the end of Wrath, with engineering a solid, dependable raiding profession. Might be a while to get back there, though, so buckle your seats and keep your feet on the ground.

While begging Anafielle for ideas on what to blog about, she mentioned the trouble she went through to hammer out a spec she was happy with. This immediately made me realize I haven’t really talked about optimal specs at level 85. I shall now rectify that.

As you all may know, I’m a sucker for dual-spec prot. Part of that is exercising the luxury of being my guild’s main tank, which means I am seldom sidelined or forced to go offspec–and by seldom, I mean never–which is a blessing and a curse. Blessing because it befits my sloth; curse because I’m so woefully out of practice with the other specs of my class that if I was asked to heal or dps something I’d probably end up accidentally wrapping the mouse cord around my neck and proceed to garrote myself into a coma.

Anyway, as such, here are three specs for you: one for maxing out survival, one for threat and AoE, and one mish-mash of the two. I’ll be using the first two for each of my specs, but any of you pushing the Sisyphean burden that is a Ret or Holy spec up the progression hill might be interested in the third.

The survival spec

0/31/10

I traded Seals of the Pure for Eternal Glory, the reasoning being that SotP is one of our lowest threat talents and is the obvious choice to skip to grab EG instead. EG is amazing for situations where you’re making frequent use of Word of Glory.

Only one point in Improved Hammer of Justice. I like HoJ a lot, but that second point is needed elsewhere.

No points in Grand Crusader. It’s a somewhat negligible threat boost (in the sense that it’s only good for replacing Holy Wrath in the single-target rotation) so it’s an obvious choice to pass over. However, the trade off is you lose from our most frequently available interrupt options, so there’s a tradeoff you might not be comfortable with.

Picked up Divine Guardian. When someone gives you overpowered lemons, you make overpowered lemonade, dammit.

Glyphed Word of Glory instead of Judgement. Judgement was the lowest threat boost of the normal triumvirate of single-target glyphs.

You can also swap out Glyph of Seal of Truth with Glyph of Insight if you’ll be primarily tanking a fight with Insight.

The threat spec

0/31/10

Keep in mind this isn’t a “max threat spec”, there’s probably more tps I could have squeezed out of this. But that would require cuts I’m not comfortable chasing down yet.

Skipped Judgements of the Just. I feel dirty about this, but I’m not using this spec on bosses.

Skipped Hallowed Ground. You might be thinking, “isn’t this an AOE spec?” Well, yes, but my thinking is that I hardly ever use consecration and the threat gain would be so minimal as to completely invalidate any justification for the glyph.

Skipped Divine Guardian. Feeling kind of dirty about this too. The point for it could come Reckoning if you’re uncomfortable with skipping it.

Nothing surprising with glyphs. I went with Hammer of the Righteous instead of Judgement in the primes. That’s the only really notable thing.

The mish-mash

0/31/10

Hrm, seeing a pattern in these numbers. Anyway, nothing really important to note here. I picked the best of both worlds, though there’s still some on the fly customization you can perform with glyphing (for example, glyphing Word of Glory).

And that’s that.

I’m curious how others are speccing/glyphing and if you have major objections to anything I’ve just laid out. One of the major benefits of the stage we’re in right now is that it’s amazing for experimentation. And so, you shouldn’t be shy to try new things before you head into raids and have to ossify into the land of the cookie-cutters, where optimal builds are (rightly) the golden standard. Have fun with your spec now, let your suboptimal freak flag fly… but don’t get your healer killed.

Here’s my gear list for prot paladins to use while gearing up for raids. Unlike my previous list which focused primarily on iLevel 333 gear and 346 stuff that came from vendors, this list is for any and all gear that does not drop in a raid. Much like the previous list, I won’t be ranking the pieces, but they are listed in descending order based on iLevel.

For stats, I looked for gear that had any combination of parry, dodge, hit, mastery, and expertise as secondary stats. Some will be better for threat, some for survivability, although granted that’s not as life-and-death as it might be in raids. Grab what you can, diversify sets where you will.

Head

• Reinforced Bio-Optic Killshades — Made by engineers, BoP
• Helm of Setesh (h) — Drops from Setesh in Halls of Origination heroic.
• Headcover of Fog (h) — Drops from Grand Vizier Ertan in heroic Vortex Pinnacle
• Grinning Fang Helm / Crown of Wings — Sold by Dragonmaw/Wildhammer quartermaster
• Helm of the Proud — Sold by a vendor in your capital for 2,200 Justice Points

Cloak

• Wrap of the Great Turtle — Sold by Guardians of Hyjal quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Burned Gatherings (h) — Drops from Karsh Steelbender in heroic Blackrock Caverns
• Billowing Cape (h) — Drops from Asaad in the heroic Vortex Pinnacle
• Twilight Dragonscale Cloak — Made by leatherworkers

Necks

• Carrier Wave Pendant (h) — Drops from Ascendant Lord Obsidius in heroic Blackrock Caverns
• Darkhowl Amulet (h) — Drops from Temple Guard Anhuur in heroic Halls of Origination
• Elementium Guardian — Made by jewelcrafters
• The Lustrous Eye — Sold by vendor in your capital for 1,250 JP

Shoulders

• Pauldrons of Edward the Odd — World BoE drop
• Earthshape Pauldrons (h) — Drops from Drahga Shadowburner in heroic Grim Batol
• Raz’s Pauldrons (h) — Drops from Ascendant Lord Obsidius in heroic Blackrock Caverns
• Sunburnt Pauldrons — Sold by a vendor in your capital for 1,650 JP

Chest

• Hardened Elementium Hauberk — Made by blacksmiths
• Icebone Hauberk — World BoE drop
• Beauty’s Plate (h) — Drops from Beauty in heroic Blackrock Caverns
• Chestplate of the Steadfast — Sold by vendor in your capital for 2,200 JP

Wrist

• Sandguard Bracers — Sold by Ramkahen quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Alpha Bracers (h) — Drops from Anraphet in heroic Halls of Origination
• Armguards of Unearthly Light (h) — Drops from Isiset in heroic Halls of Origination
• Shackles of Undeath (h) — Drops from Lord Godfrey in heroic Shadowfang Keep
• Terborus’s Rotating Bands — Dropped by a rare gyreworm named Terborus (in Deepholm, I assume)

Gloves

• Fingers of Light (h) — Drops from Rajh in heroic Halls of Origination
• Gloves of the Greymane Wall (h) — Drops from Baron Ashbury in heroic Shadowfang Keep
• Numbing Handguards — Sold by vendor in capital for 1,650 JP

Waist

• Hardened Elementium Girdle — Made by blacksmiths
• Iron Will Girdle (h) — Drops from Lord Walden in heroic Shadowfang Keep
• Sand Dune Belt (h) — Drops from Augh in heroic Lost City of the Tol’vir
• Girdle of the Mountains — Sold by vendor in capital for 1,650 JP

Legs

• Triton’s Legplates (h) — Drops from Neptulon’s Cache in heroic Throne of the Tides
• Greaves of Splendor — Sold by vendor in your capital for 2,200 JP

Feet

• Boots of the Sullen Rock / Gryphon Rider’s Boots — Sold by your Twilight Highlands faction quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Baron Silverlaine’s Greaves (h) — Drops from Baron Silverlaine in heroic Shadowfang Keep
• Darksky Treads (h) — Zone drop in heroic Vortex Pinnacle

Rings

• Entwined Nereis (h) — Drops from Lady Naz’jar in heroic Throne of the Tides
• Phosphorescent Ring (h) — Drops from Corborus in heroic Stonecore
• Ring of Three Lights (h) — Drops from Siamat in heroic Lost City of the Tol’vir
• Umbriss Band (h) — Drops from General Umbriss in heroic Grim Batol
• Elementium Moebius Band — Made by jewelcrafters
• Felsen’s Ring of Resolve — Sold by Therazane quartermaster (requires revered)
• Red Rock Band — Sold by Ramkahen quartermaster (requires revered)

Trinket

• Darkmoon Card: Earthquake — Made by scribes
• Lifebound Alchemist Stone — BoP, made by alchemists
• Mirror of Broken Images — Sold by Hellscream’s Reach/Baradin’s Wardens quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Earthen Guardian — BoP Jewelcrafting item
• Leaden Despair (h) — Drops from High Priestess Azil in heroic Stonecore
• Heart of Thunder (h) — Drops from Asaad in heroic Vortex Pinnacle
• Impetuous Query (h) — Zone drop in heroic Lost City of the Tol’vir
• Porcelain Crab (h) — Drops from Mindbender Ghur’sha in heroic Throne of the Tides

Relic

• Stalagmite Dragon (h) — Drops from Slabhide in heroic Stonecore
• Notched Jawbone — Made by scribes

Weapon

• Scimitar of the Sirocco — (Sorta, not really for tanking but it works.) Can be found via Archaeology.
• Sun Strike (h) — Drops from Rajh in heroic Halls of Origination
• Smite’s Reaver (h) — Drops from Admiral Ripsnarl in heroic Deadmines
• Mace of Transformed Bone (h) — Drops from Erudax in heroic Grim Batol
• Elementium Fang (h) — Drops from High Priestess Azil in heroic Stonecore
• Cookie’s Tenderizer (h) — Drops from “Captain” Cookie in heroic Deadmines
• Aze of the Eclipse (h) — Drops from Altairus in heroic Vortex Pinnacle

Shield

• Blockade’s Lost Shield — World BoE drop
• Elementium Earthguard — Made by blacksmiths (requires a Chaos Orb)
• Bulwark of the Primordial Mound — Drops from Earthrager Ptah in heroic Halls of Origination
• Shield of the Iron Maiden (h) — Drops from Rom’ogg Bonecrusher in heroic Blackrock Caverns
• Shield of the Four Grey Towers — Sold by vendor in your capital for 950 JP

I’m currently sitting at halfway through 84 and need to start thinking about gearing myself for heroics and then raids. Personally, this is one of my favorite parts of the expansion, where the upgrades come fast, plentifully, and in great numbers. To ease the gearing process for myself and my beloved readers I have listed below iLevel 333 (or above) gear that I can use to get ready for heroics. I’ll be doing a separate post in the near future with gear that drops from heroics and elsewhere that you can use to gear for raids.

For stats, I looked for gear that had any combination of parry, dodge, hit, mastery, and expertise as secondary stats. Some will be better for threat, some for survivability, although granted that’s not as life-and-death as it might be in raids. Grab what you can, diversify sets where you will. Items are listed in descending order based on iLevel, not any arcane ranking system.

Head

• Grinning Fang Helm / Crown of Wings — Sold by Dragonmaw/Wildhammer quartermaster
• Helm of the Proud — Sold by a vendor in your capital for 2,200 Justice Points
• Helm of Setesh — Drops from Setesh in Halls of Origination

Cloak

• Wrap of the Great Turtle — Sold by Guardians of Hyjal quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Twilight Dragonscale Cloak — Made by leatherworkers
• Cloak of War — Made by leatherworkers
• Shade of Death — BoE world drop
• Shroud of Dark Memories — Zone drop in Grim Batol

Necks

• Elementium Guardian — Made by jewelcrafters
• The Lustrous Eye — Sold by vendor in your capital for 1,250 JP
• Mountain’s Mouth — Sold by Guardians of Hyjal quartermaster (requires honored)

Shoulders

• Sunburnt Pauldrons — Sold by a vendor in your capital for 1,650 JP
• Earthshape Pauldrons — Dropped by Drahga Shadowburner in Grim Batol
• Pharoah’s Burial Shoulders — Quest reward in Uldum

Chest

• Chestplate of the Steadfast — Sold by vendor in your capital for 2,200 JP
• Breastplate of the Witness — Quest reward in Twilight Highlands

Wrist

• Sandguard Bracers — Sold by Ramkahen quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Terborus’s Rotating Bands — Dropped by a rare gyreworm named Terborus (in Deepholm, I assume)
• Alpha Bracers — Dropped by Anraphet in Halls of Origination
• Armguards of Unearthly Light — Dropped by Isiset in Halls of Origination

Gloves

• Numbing Handguards — Sold by vendor in capital for 1,650 JP
• Fingers of Light — Drops from Rajh in Halls of Origination
• Gloves of Gnomebliteration — Quest reward in Uldum
• Oath-Bound Gauntlets — BoE world drop

Waist

• Girdle of the Mountains — Sold by vendor in capital for 1,650 JP
• Belt of Guardianship — BoE world drop
• Sand Dune Belt — Drops from Lockmaw in Lost City of the Tol’vir

Legs

• Greaves of Splendor — Sold by vendor in your capital for 2,200 JP
• Stone-Wrapped Greavers — Sold by the Earthen Ring quartermaster (requires honored)

Feet

• Boots of the Sullen Rock / Gryphon Rider’s Boots — Sold by your Twilight Highlands faction quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Ramkahen Front Boots — Quest reward from an in-dungeon quest in Lost City of the Tol’vir

Rings

• Elementium Moebius Band — Made by jewelcrafters
• Felsen’s Ring of Resolve — Sold by Therazane quartermaster (requires revered)
• Red Rock Band — Sold by Ramkahen quartermaster (requires revered)
• Ring of Three Lights — Drops from Siamat in Lost City of the Tol’vir
• Temple Band — Zone drop in Halls of Origination
• Umbriss Band — Drops from General Umbriss in Grim Batol

Trinket

• Darkmoon Card: Earthquake — Made by scribes
• Lifebound Alchemist Stone — BoP, made by alchemists
• Mirror of Broken Images — Sold by Hellscream’s Reach/Baradin’s Wardens quartermaster (requires exalted)
• Earthen Guardian — BoP Jewelcrafting item
• Elementium Dragonling — BoE Engineering item
• Impetuous Query — Zone drop in Lost City of the Tol’vir
• Throngus’ Finger — Drops from Forgemaster Throngus in Grim Batol
• Za’brok’s Lucky Tooth — Quest reward in Twilight Highlands
• Heart of Thunder — Drops off Asaad in Vortex Pinnacle
• Leaden Despair — Drops off High Priestess Azil in the Stonecore

Relic

• Notched Jawbone — Made by Scribes. Best pre-heroics option.
• Halted Clock — BOE world drop, check your local auction house
• Blackblood Freedom Standard / Shore-Cleansing Standard — Quest reward from Twilight Highlands

Weapon

• Mace of the Gullet /Dragonscorn Mace — Quest reward in Twilight Highlands. Easy starter weapon!
• Sun Strike — Dropped by Rajh in Halls of Origination
• Mace of Transformed Bone — Dropped by Erudax in Grim Batol

Shield

• Elementium Earthguard — Made by blacksmiths (requires a Chaos Orb)
• Shield of the Four Grey Towers — Sold by vendor in your capital for 950 JP
• Twilight Mirrorshield / Truthbreaker Shield — Quest reward in Twilight Highlands
• Bulwark of the Primordial Mound — Drops randomly in Hall of Origination

Here we go, folks, oncemore over the breach. There’s a whole new world out there of zone-spanning questlines, dailies, faction grinds, new 5mans, heroics, raids, and so much more. I for one am pumped and I’m sure you are too.

I’m sure many of you are planning to pull some crazy all-nighters tonight and push as far ahead of the pack as you can, and the best of luck to you if so. For those of you hitting the ground running at midnight Pacific time, I offer the following advice:

Vashj’ir or Hyjal?

Personally, I preferred questing in Vashj’ir. I thought the quests were more engaging and a lot more fun. And I thoroughly enjoyed the whole under-the-sea mechanic. Hyjal felt a lot like “more of the same”, while Vashj’ir felt like something new. Of course, your mileage may vary, and I’m sure loregasms alone will bring people to Hyjal.

In terms of practicality, Meloree brought up a great point when I was talking to him. Vashj’ir has a lot of Earthen Ring quests, which will get you a head start on grinding their rep before you even set foot in Deepholm. This will probably help cut down the time required to acquire the helm enchant and some handy tanking pants.

Speccing

Start with the following spec: 0/31/5. It’ll maximize damage done while skipping talents otherwise mandatory for serious tanking but superfluous in soloing or group leveling.

As you ding, pick up these talents at the following levels:

• 81, Rule of Law (1/3)
• 82, Rule of Law (2/3)
• 83, Rule of Law (3/3)
• 84, Pursuit of Justice (1/2)
• 85, Pursuit of Justice (2/2)

Rule of Law is the next best dps talent available to us, so it should be a priority to speed up leveling. If you’re looking for actual speed, you could switch and grab Pursuit of Justice first, but with flying mounts available as you level, I can’t see that being as much of a priority as it might be otherwise.

New spells

At 81, we pick up the mythical Inquisition. This is not a substitution for ShoR in single-target, you still want to shield slam away. However, feel free to go hog wild blowing your Holy Power on Inquisition and then HotRing the night away.

At 83, Holy Radiance can be learned. It’s not as game changing as the other two spells you’ll pick up on your journey to 85, but it can have its uses. Mana willing, it’ll lighten the load for anyone you’re group leveling with.

At 85, we get the big daddy–Guardian of the Ancient Kings. This’ll summon an Ancient Guardian to reduce our damage taken by 50%. Of course, by this point, you’ll be 85, so its effect on leveling will be non-existent.

Gear

I leveled 1-70 as tank back in TBC. 70-80 in Wrath, too. And I fully expect to do the grind again as prot this time around. In beta, I found that it was very helpful to collect two kinds of gear as I went. A set composed of plate dps pieces for burning down mobs as fast as possible, and a tank gear set for 5mans and tougher quests/mobs that demand a bit more survival.

Two changes make this a great idea: (1) free uncrittability which we now enjoy via talents, and (2) most gear of the same iLevel and armor class has an equal amount of stamina, regardless of function. Concerning my last point, check out this green versus this green. The only different between the two is the secondary stats. One has avoidance, one has dps stats.

Prioritize gear with expertise and hit for your “Ret set” since those will give us the most damage-dealing bang for our buck. Mastery is also pretty great too. Haste is “meh” for us. As for the baby tank set, bank any parry/dodge quest rewards for when they’re needed.

As for the t10 set bonuses, hold on to the 2pc HotR bonus as long as you can, but don’t gimp yourself to keep it.

Ultimately, you’ll probably find that most of your Wrath gear will be completely replaced by the end of Deepholm.

And they’re off!

The best of luck to anyone tonight attempting to race to 85 for realm firsts. If anyone manages to pull it off, please share a screenshot of your accomplishment (and your Feat of Strength) with me and I’ll put it up. Give those shifty Rets and Holys what-for.

Moreover, please share any other leveling tips you might think of in the comments. Anything you might have picked up from the beta or elsewhere which can make your fellow prot pallies’ lives easier during the grind!

(Updated on 3/4/11 to reflect current trends towards maximizing mastery through gemming.)

I first did a gem flowchart last year, and then revised it later when epic gems came out. Cataclysm is a bit easier to decipher when it comes to what to gem and where, if only because the socket bonuses are much better and typically worth it. This is especially true until Cata epic gems come out, when skipping bonuses might become more worthwhile to push more stats out of the gems you can feasibly socket.

Moreover, gemming holistically will give us avoidance and mastery stats from the socket bonus that should be much more desirable this expansion pack, rather than the cram-stam ethos of Wrath.

Like I said, very straightforward: mastery/stam for blue, mastery for yellow, and parry/mastery for red. The dodge/stam gems are also yellow, but we’ll be getting more value out of mastery (until block capped), so stick with Puissants before Regals.

As for the meta, the Austere is much better than the Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond. This is because the latter only gives 1% more block value and (probably) won’t be a better source of damage reduction until you are reliably blockcapped.

Jewelcrafters want to use the mastery version of their exclusive gems, Fractured Chimera’s Eyes, in yellow sockets.

Lastly, for Engineers, you want to use a Fractured Cogwheel and then either the Subtle or Flashing Cogwheel–whichever avoidance stat is lower–to ward off diminishing returns as long as possible.

I’m a little behind in getting this post out, but I guess I still have some time left before the first few tankadins start rolling over to 85 and begin the arduous journey of becoming raid geared. In any case, compiled below is a list of the best survival enchants for you prot paladin for each slot and (in some cases) who sells them or what profession they are exclusive to.

Head

• Arcanum of the Earthen Ring, from Earthen Ring revered.

Cloak

• Enchant Cloak – Protection
• Flexweave Underlay if engineer. (Stacks with the enchant.)

Shoulders

• Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz is the superior shoulder enchant from Therazane when exalted.
• Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz is the lesser shoulder enchant from Therazane when honored.
• Inscription of the Earth Prince is the best choice, if you’re a scribe.

Chest

• Enchant Chest – Greater Stamina

Waist

• Ebonsteel Belt Buckle is the baseline choice for everyone, regardless of professions.
• Grounded Plasma Shield is the clear choice for engineering belt tinkers. Keep in mind that if the belt backfires, it will taunt all mobs within 40 yards to you.

Wrist

• Enchant Bracers – Dodge is probably the best overall survival enchant. There’s also Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina, but in terms of ROI dodge is probably better, especially with any avoidance that pushes you towards block capping being so powerful.
• Draconic Embossment – Stamina if you’re a leatherworker. This is the clear winner.
• Socket Bracer if you’re a blacksmith.

Hands

• Enchant Gloves – Mastery is the best choice for survivability. The Glove Reinforcements from TBC are nice too, but Mastery gives a much larger benefit than what the amount of armor brings to the table.
• Socket Gloves for blacksmiths.
• Quickflip Deflection Plates for engineers. Macro this (/use 10) to Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous so you just use it off cooldown for a rolling average of damage reduction of the course of a fight.

Legs

• Charscale Leg Armor
• Charscale Leg Reinforcements if you’re a leatherworker. Same as the other one, but cheaper to make.

Feet

• Enchant Boots – Mastery if you are specced into Pursuit of Justice.
• Enchant Boots – Lavawalker if not.

Weapon

• Enchant Weapon – Windwalk. Sidenote: the proc‘s speed increase currently stacks with Pursuit of Justice (or so I hear).

Shield

• Enchant Shield – Block is a weird enchant. I’m not sure exactly what block percent the 40 rating turns into [correction: Thanks to a link tweeted to me by Shathus, the 40 rating is worth about .45% block], and with block capping is as desirable as it is, anything that gets us towards that goal is very, very welcome. The alternative is Enchant Shield – Protection when over the block cap.

Coming next week are more posts on gear and gearing for the new end game that will be launch starting Tuesday. Stay tuned for posts on the best pre-heroics tanking gear, the best pre-raid tanking gear, and a new gemming flowchart for Cata gems.

Some of you may have already done this. Others are surely considering it. Still others might be too busy combing their hair to even consider such a travesty. I suppose I’m firmly in the third camp (I can’t stand the Tauren model, personally) but there’s nothing wrong with folks considering the jump. Lore squabbles aside, of course. To help the process I figured I’d weigh the numerical pros and cons of each Horde race that can be a paladin, and hopefully help remove any doubt preventing you from committing one way or another.

Blood Elves

Arcane Resistance provides 85 resistance to Arcane damage at level 85. Which is nice, but it doesn’t stack with Blessing of Kings or Mark of the Wild. And since we will definitely have either up at all times outside of soloing quests with Might up, the resistance is kind of superfluous.

Arcane Torrent can be used to return 6% of your mana, or about 334 mana total, when cast. That’s nice, but it’s real value is as our only feasible off-GCD interrupt. Works on bosses and well as any run-of-the-mill mob, and provided it’s either you interrupt or eat a 50k frostbolt to the face, AT can be an indirect damage reducing talent. Not to mention you can use it to position a group of casters. Perhaps the single biggest mechanical reason to stay Blood Elf, until we get a pseudo-Rebuke.

Tauren

Nature Resistance has the same deal as Arcane Resistance above. It’s handy on its face, but Kings covers the Resistance already, and there’s no stacking, which makes the racial generally useless.

War Stomp is kind of like Arcane Torrent’s less-handy cousin. An AOE stun that can hit up to 5 targets, but it has a .5 second cast time. Which means it can (and will) suffer pushback while AOE tanking, and in that cast time you leave yourself unable to avoidance. Cast time and being stuck to the GCD also makes it less than ideal for usage as an interrupt.

Endurance is the single best mechanical reason to go Tauren. First, let me dispel a point of confusion I see repeated a lot with regards to this racial. It’s not worth 5% more HP, or 5% more stamina. It’s 5% more Base Health, which is a finite number and does not scale. The racial is worth about 2.2k hitpoints, giving a naked Tauren Paladin 47.1k hp at 85, as opposed to a naked Belf’s 44.9k.

So, where’s the beef?

If you’re looking for pure effective health, Tauren I suppose is the way to go. But, considering we’ll be pushing well past 100k hitpoints in Cata, 2.2k is equivalent to a mosquito sneeze. Likewise, Blood Elves only have an off-GCD interrupt to speak for them, which will be obsolete in a patch or two, supposedly. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, as the racial differences are so minor that they really don’t weigh in at all in the final analysis.

Personally, I’m going to stay Blood Elf. That 2200 health isn’t worth having to deal with a massive model that is illusorily a plodding laggard, nor giving up the emotional connection I’ve made to my character as is. But that might not be true for others, and more power to you, if so.

The prodigal tank returns! This is actually a topic that someone on Twitter suggested to Anafielle, who then proceeded to dither with writing it, allowing me to steal the idea in the dead of night. Or the middle of the day.

In any case, this is a topic near and dear to my heart, because I love the way the major glyphs work. I am elated whenever situational forethought is rewarded, and the ability to adapt to specific circumstances with specific glyphs is very rewarding. Below I’ve listed instances where each major glyph has a particular use at 80. I’ll have to do this post again in a month or two for 85, but for now, this should be fairly comprehensive.

Glyph of Consecration — Great choice for an AOE tanking build, and especially useful for fights with lots of adds like Dreamwalker (rot worms!), Gunship defense, or OTing ghouls/shamblers during LK. And, of course, can award some nice threat for trash tanking. Not that dps will wait long enough for Consecrate to tick before they attempt to roll their faces all over the dps meters.

Glyph of Dazing Shield — I still swap this in for the Lich King, for an additional slowing effect on the Valks. Just in case. Because I’m paranoid. Usually best not paired with Glyph of Focused Shield, because the value is multiplied in cleaving that slowing effect. Moreover, this is a good choice for pvp I would assume.

Glyph of Divine Protection — This glyph is killer for high magic damage fights (read: Sindragosa). With the short cooldown it’s ideal to hit as many of her Frost Breaths as you can, and thus take the edge off one of the biggest attacks that she brings to the table. Other fights in ICC have a much higher proportion of physical damage taken over the course of the fight, so it makes more sense to keep the ability unglyphed and roll Divine Protection off-cooldown as a damage-taken-over-time reduction.

Glyph of Focused Shield — An absolute must have for any single target spec. Also: a must have+1 for fights like Saurfang, where there’ll be adds you do not want to hit and possibly yank from the dps. Maintanking Lich King is a similar circumstance, because you don’t want to build threat on his ghouls and make the OT’s life harder.

Glyph of Holy Wrath — Ruby Sanctum. We’re not in the expansion pack full of dragons and elementals just yet, but nonetheless, you can take this glyph for a spin in the only majority-Dragonkin raid we have currently. Great for rolling on the massive packs once the commander is separated and slept out of range of your HW.

Glyph of Salvation — When tanking Festergut, I like to (on the tank switch) self-cast Hand of Salvation, cancel Righteous Fury, and then go to town on Fester with a full stack of Gastric Bloat. Combine the temporary threat drop with the removal of my threat buff, and I don’t have to worry about catching Anafielle for the rest of the fight.

Glyph of Turn Evil — Fun toy for ICC trash if you’re so inclined. No real practical use in any boss fight, unfortunately.

Glyph of the Ascetic Crusader — Mana isn’t really much of a concern at all in single target, provided you avoid Consecration and judge when necessary, so this is really just a budgeting glyph. Probably our most boring choice. I most often use it on bosses for lack of a better choice.

Glyph of the Long Word — I’ve got nothin’. Maybe in Cata?

If you’re not carrying a stack or two of Vanishing Powder at all times, you’re not doing it right. Major glyphs are a tool–a valuable one–and one that should be exploited whenever there is a gain to be had, no matter how minute it may seem.