Initial impressions of heroics and survivability

Cataclysm has only been out for a week, and a good portion of my guild is already waist deep in heroics. I’m sure most of you are probably in the same boat, if not already actively attempting raids. Isn’t that crazy? It’s only been a week!

Anyway, last night I went into my first Cata heroics and I must say, any anxiety I had about my own performance or gearing completely evaporated after the first few pulls. Heroics aren’t as difficult as I feverishly imagined them to be, nor are they WotLK cakewalks either. They occupy a plane between TBC and Wrath heroics, demanding attention and crowd control and quickly rewarding any group with good coordination. I’m loving them so far.

Antigen thankfully was kind enough to shepherd me through everything we ran last night, to the point where he marked most pulls for his CC and those of the other dps. Many thanks to him for softening the learning curve of how to handle each pull and which mobs needs to be dealt with in a specific way.

In total we ran heroic Lost City of the Tol’vir, heroic Stonecore, heroic Vortex Pinnacle, and heroic Halls of Origination. Stonecore was probably the one that gave us the most trouble, if you can really call it that, and Halls took the longest (if only because it has 7 bosses). We never really got mired at any point, except for the third boss in Stonecore which I kept dropping the ball on like an idiot during ground slams.

There are a few “trends” (for lack of a better word) that I want to point out from my limited heroics tanking experience. I welcome any insight from others in the comments as well, for the benefit of any tankadins getting ready to take the plunge into heroics shortly.

Word of Glory is amazing. I realize that this declaration is akin to announcing to you all that fire is hot, but bear with me for a second. Healers are dealing with a very loaded deck right now and they need all the help they can get from us. Using Word of Glory is a portion of your health bar returned that they didn’t need to spill mana over. Over the course of a longer fight, perhaps when they have to heal multiple people at once–and hell, any time for this is a good time–the more weight you can take off their already-burdened shoulders the better.

Use your cooldowns liberally! Remember: Divine Protection has a minute cooldown for a reason. If you’re not using it once a minute, you’re doing it wrong. I know I keep saying this, but it bears repeating for emphasis: healer mana is a precious commodity, and the less damage you take over the course of a fight, the better. DP is for rolling, Ardent Defender is for when you’re possibly about to die (the ultimate “oh crap!” button), and Guardian of the Ancient Kings is for big damage moments like a boss enrage that you don’t have a dispel for, or a period of lots of AoE, or the healer’s been stunned, etc.

Tank with Seal of Insight up. You don’t need the threat of Seal of Truth when dps threat is (hooray) back down to manageable levels. Use Insight to take the edge off.

Don’t forget about Holy Radiance! With mana free-flowing as it is, the cost is negligible. Pop it when you cap, especially during portions of lots of AoE to (as I keep saying) take the edge off and help the healer. A great time for the spell, I would say, is during the first boss of Vortex Pinnacle when you stack up on his hit box as the tornados collapse in.

Try to cleanse yourself. Broken record, I know: healer mana is precious, ours is more of less infinite–try to cleanse yourself when possible. But, be sure to vocalize you’re doing so, because the healer’s cleanse will go through too even if there’s no debuff there to remove.

Remember, you’re not going to get 2-shot. This is perhaps the biggest tectonic shift in psychology we have to jostle with since the debut of the expansion. In Wrath every fight was you versus the precipice. Now we can sit at the 50% health mark for a moment without being in immediate danger. Healers are currently rewiring themselves to not expend all their mana pushing everyone up to full health as soon as possible, and we need to (on the flip side) realize that we don’t need to start sweating or excreting other anxiety-triggered bodily fluids if our health dips down a bit. Keep calm and WoG yourself a bit for some breathing room, pop a cooldown, whatever. You’ll be fine, and the heals will come in due time.

Someone said this on Twitter an hour ago (but I can’t find who): if you’re taking regular, manageable increments of damage, you’re tanking something correctly. If you’re taking MASSIVE HITS TO THE FACE, you’re doing or standing in something you need to correct asap before you get yourself killed.

And like I continue to blather on about, a healer’s mana bar is like a mini-soft enrage timer for each fight. Once their ability to heal the group is exhausted, you’re in trouble. Postpone that as much as you can, for as long as you can!

As for heroics, I’m sure a lot of the difficulty of them (ie, just about all of it) will be mitigated quickly by increasing gear levels, especially once we start picking up purples from the raids. Which is kind of sad in a sense, as I’m loving the difficulty level at the moment. Heroic 5mans actually feel heroic again, take more than twenty minutes, and provide a suitable challenge. While it’s obvious they’ll get easier, I just hope they won’t get too much easier.

Tankadin pre-raid gear list

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 Halls of Origination
• 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

The first 24 hours (and then some more) of Cataclysm

Dusk of the last day

Monday night, before the expansion officially launched, we had our final ES Games. This time the game was hide and seek and so everyone decamped to Winterspring and found a good spot to crouch in while I waited in Orgrimmar. At the start time, I ripped through space and time and landed in Everlook, ready to begin. To quickly gloss over the rules, I start as the only seeker and as new people are found they join my ranks until only one hider remains.

We went through the whole zone with a fine toothed comb multiple times and I personally found the first person at the bottom of the barrow dens just about right off the bat. I stumbled upon my second person when running up that ramp with the pink energy balls. I got struck by one of them, knocked back into a crevice, and landed right next to Ongus who was lying down, naked, under the ramp. Dumb luck!

Of course, my luck continued when suddenly the sky went red and Deathwing flew through the zone and immediately roasted half of the players.

By 10:30 we still have four people hidden, and with the zone slowly descending into PvP chaos (thanks to my seekers indiscriminately killing any 80s they came across) I declared a “lightning round” to finish up the game. All the hiders immediately left their spots and started running for safety. The half of us not currently being corpse camped by a newly arrived Alliance raid of PvPers went and rounded up the last four folks.

I then returned to Org and doled out the last six Sealed Chest/Shadowmourne items in the guild bank to the winners and we officially severed our last ties to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. All that was left was to wait for the dawn of the new day.

And… they’re off!

Unfortunately, I had ordered a CE from Amazon with their release day delivery, so I wasn’t going to be able to see expansion content until around 6pm Tuesday. Combined with a need to work productively the next day, I bid everyone good luck and logged off for the night.

Now, Ana already recounted how the actual launch left so I won’t pretend that I know anything of that.

Instead I rejoin the story the following day once I cut my way through the jungle of plastic sealant and cellophane and was finally able to install and authorize Cataclysm on my account. Once in game, the very first thing I did was buy my Flight License from (a very much alive) trainer and then did the Fishing and Cooking dailies in Org while I waited for Cendra and Ildara (my leveling buddies) to get their ducks in a row.

Once we were all settled we headed into the depths of Vashj’ir to begin the grind. Mumble was flush with everyone leveling and yakking to keep their minds off the millions of experience still ahead of them. The three of us settled on a specific goal: hit 81, run some dungeons to recharge, and get back to the grind.

The leveling went generally okay, but the quests were a pain with the legions of players competing for mobs and quest items. Not to mention on a pvp server you’re living with the ever-looming specter of an all out war grinding your leveling to a complete halt. Thankfully though, everyone behaved and we all went on our merry way of getting through the quests.

Finally, at 9:13 pm I dinged 81. About two and a half hours in.

We returned to Orgrimmar to grab our level 81 spells (Inquisition hoooo) and then sped over to the Abyssal Maw to discover the entrance to the Throne of the Tides. Summoned two more guildies and zoned in to do a quick-recharge dungeon.

Personally, I remember Throne from beta and it was no cake walk when we did it. Imagine my shock between Ana’s description of the place being a complete faceroll and then seeing it for myself as we just AOE’d down everything in our path without a second thought. It was somewhat anticlimactic. Hopefully the heroic is a bit more painful.

After Throne, one of our group suggested we try some more dungeons, so we went over to Blackrock Caverns to give that a go. By this time, Ana had come on and organized her own 5man, who then joined us in vent while they were getting everyone together. Three of her group were there in that messy BRC run that Ana described in her last post and I could hear them licking their lips at the thought of my group getting rofl-stomped by all the encounters they had previously cut their teeth on.

But, in their eye, we had no issues. The biggest hiccup we had was on the first boss when no one ran out of the Skullcracker (I plead ignorance for not knowing the mechanic) and everyone went splat except for me. With the boss at around 50%, I and Word of Glory guided him down to 0 and wrapped up the fight. I’m told that it was more epic than the time Demogar finished off the last 3% of Icehowl by himself, which is good enough for me.

After BRC we went to Vortex Pinnacle, getting there the same time as Ana’s group. We then began an informal race through the dungeon, doling out strategies as we went and trying to break through the boss fights faster than the other team. Finally on the last fight the other group stalled (perhaps due to overtiredness) and we pulled out the win.

Once that was done we had to jump through some hoops to get to Stonecore, using the other team (once they were done in VP) to help us summon half of ours, who were 81 still and thus ineligible to start the breadcrumb quest that lead to Deepholm. We then reformed our two groups and ducked into the instance.

Stonecore was a breeze as well and in a short amount of time we had finished up the dungeon. With that complete, the group split up and Dara, Cendra, and I went back to questing in Vashj’ir, hopefully to finish as much questing there as possible before Ildara had to crash for work tomorrow.

Just after 2 am I hit 82, and shortly Ildara and Cendra followed suit. Having reached that milestone, Dara logged off for the night and Cendra and I headed over to Deepholm to keep the party rolling.

Deepholm was exactly as I remembered it in beta, and went pretty quickly since I could remember just about everything about the quests we were doing. Within no time the hours began to tick away. At this point Ana joined Cen and I in our quest grind.

Sidenote on guild experience gains: they suck. The rate is way too low. I understand the need to “balance” levels between zerg guilds and tiny RP guilds, but it feels like there was absolutely no attempt to find a happy middle and instead the cap is capriciously low and exceedingly punitive to a guild with more than 10 active members. The daily cap unlocked at 4:00 am (local time) that morning for us and so we could begin racking up points for ES.

At 4:25 am the guild dinged level 2, which was great and exciting and immediately kicked a 5% boost in our shorts.

And then at 4:42 am we hit the daily cap again. It’s obviously going to be a while.

At around 5:00 I was starting to hit the wall. The endless quests were taking their toll and I was getting ready to throw in the towel at any moment, but then I hit my second wind. Determined to hit level 83, I dragged Ana and Cendra with me through another swath of quests. Eventually Ana rebelled and logged off for the night, but Cen and I persisted. We kept going until I finally dinged 83 at just after 6 am.

My goal complete, I deserved a little cat nap. So Cen and I parted ways and agreed to meet again in the morning.

Three blissful hours of sleep later…

I woke up at around 9:00 am and logged on to run a few dailies while I waited for Cendra to get up. When he logged on an hour later or so, we grabbed a third, Gandy the rogue, and headed down to Uldum to start the grind anew down south.

Uldum definitely took questing a step up from the previous zones and the whole place was immensely fun.

I could have done without the 400 cutscenes though, they really nuked the fridge on those. But then again, it was definitely an inventive way to tell the story behind Uldum. If I was reading any of the quest text and not just bulldozing through all the yellow exclamation points I could get my greedy hands on, I’m sure I would have appreciated them a lot more.

Later that day, at just shy of 5 pm I hit level 84. Gandy and I still had a chunk of quests to complete in Uldum, so we continued to bat away at them. Eventually we wrapped up the last major quest chain and were free to head over to the Twilight Highlands to hit the home stretch.

There’s not much to say about Twilight Highlands other than I’m loving it so far. It’s the first zone so far that doesn’t cram Alliance and Horde together at every single questing hub, which is a nice breather from the last few zones. Similarly, there’s some fun Horde-centric lore to be had with the Dragonmaw Clan and helping them overthrow their fel orc masters and formally join the Horde.

Wednesday night I capped out my evening by doing the Crucible of Carnage chain with a few guildmates and a pugged healer. It was… interesting. The area was swarming with Alliance, and the whole place stank of a powder keg just waiting to blow. If the Alliance could have killed every Horde there to finish their quests faster I’m sure they would of. And we’d likely have done the same.

As we were waiting to finish the last two of our quests, the people going before us bugged out the last fight, leaving the arena covered in magma for just about everyone. Not cool.

Somehow we managed to finish, and with a huge chunk of experience points to boot. The chain pushed me just over the halfway mark and I was able to log for the night with the endgame firmly in sight.

Last night I didn’t get to play much, just enough time to run some dailies and do a batch of quests in Twilight Highlands. When I logged after a few hours I somehow managed to be three blocks of experience away from level 85. The finish line!

Tonight I will ding the level cap once more, and that is tremendously exciting.

Hopefully everyone else is feeling similarly productive!

Your pre-heroics shopping list

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

Taking your tankadin to 85

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!

How to gem your tankadin at 85

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: stam for blue, mastery/stam for yellow, and parry/stam 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 is currently bugged to only give 1% more block value.

Jewelcrafters want to continue using the stam version of their exclusive gems, Solid Chimera’s Eyes, in blue 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.

Enchanting your head, shoulders, knees, and toes at 85

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.

Inspired to greater heights

My emotional response to the rocket boots change has run the gamut from denial, to anger, and finally, last night, to acceptance. After admonishing that Ana not use her rocket boots on bosses in case they backfire, I went on to use them during the pull of Rotface. Usually I use the boots to quickly close the gap and keep Rotface from moving out of the dead middle of the room.

So anyway, I hit shift-R to activate the boosts absent-mindedly. Total muscle memory run amok at that point. And then imagine my horror as suddenly I shoot up into the air and clip the ceiling. I yelled obscenities into Mumble as Ana shouted “I’m picking up Rotface!” and everyone else began laughing uncontrollably.

I hit my parachute at the zenith, but took the full duration to come back down to earth. The chute cut out right before the end of my descent, and I had to eat some fall damage from the last bit of the drop.

We had a rogue, Gandy, that used his boosts during the trash before Blood Princes. Of course, his boosts malfunctioned, and up he went. Clipped through the ceiling and was killed by the trash up above.

As he described it to me later, “I felt like that Far Side cartoon of D. B. Cooper parachuting down with his briefcase into a dog pen. They all just watched me and the slaughtering began when I landed.”

And then on Sindragosa, Ichioso the boomkin used his boosts to help run back to the spider room as Sindy came down post-Rimefang’s death. However, instead of launching himself forward, he shot up into the air. All we could hear coming from behind us as we fled to safety was “she’s going to eat me! … Ok, she ate me.”

So, yeah, rocket boots. Bad idea in raids now! Sadly, and hilariously.

Should you race change to Tauren?

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.

Weekend leftovers

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (except for the nation of Canada, who had a head start on all that) and got to spend the weekend hiding from family and exploring the post-Shattering world with alt and main alike. And pie. I hope you all ate lots of pie.

My precious rocket boots, neutered

My outrage du jour. Scratch what I said about rocket boots theoretically being still useful in Cataclysm raiding. They’re dead.

Two changes finished off our old friend: (1) rocket boots are now boosts and attach to the belt, and (2) they can backfire in raids. The first means that we have to choose between a damage absorption shield and buggy boots, of which the answer is painfully obvious for a tank. Even a tank that needs to enjoy a brisk jog before he or she can reach a mob. The latter means that it’s a poor choice, to the point of being negligence, to chance a backfire in the middle of a pull.

And not only can you shoot yourself up in the air, but hey, you can also roast yourself alive. Debuff can last for 8 seconds, meaning up to 120% of your health can be burnt off. The upside (if there is one) is resilience apparently reduces the damage of the debuff, so I suspect our tanking damage reduction effects will as well. So the debuff won’t likely kill you, but I’m sure healers will be thrilled at the prospect of competing with a major DoT as you’re picking up the boss.

Here’s my question about all this: why? Not so much why do we have to choose between boosts and a absorption shield–tinkers stacking with enchants can sort of explain that–but why suddenly do tinkers have to backfire in raids? What changed there to prompt such a change? And why such an asinine backfire that you can be nigh roasted alive? Any other profession bonuses that can murder you, that I’m missing? (Seriously, being fired up into the air is a non-issue, relatively speaking, that’s what parachutes are for. Justify the DoT to me if you can.)

Perhaps I’m taking this harder than I should. For months now I’ve been using the Nitro Boosts as a crutch for my quixotic desire for a gap closer. And then they rob me of even that. It’s enough to make me want to RP walk to bosses in protest. Or something.

A second wind for the druid

I hate Taurens. There, I said it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind other Taurens. (For example, Linedan is a stand-up bovine.) I just can’t bring myself to play them. I rolled a druid a while back and was having a good time with it, but couldn’t bring myself to truly enjoy the character. Something was off.

Then I realized it was the character’s race: it’s slow, lumbering, beefy mortal shell. It didn’t appeal to me at all, and my interest in the druid slowly fizzled until it dropped off completely at level 70. Cataclysm brought it back when they announced Troll Druids and since that trailer’s debut I spent a goodly amount of time counting the down to the moment Bhruin the Druid would get his second wind.

First thing I did last Tuesday when I got home was fork over the $25 to race change Bhruin from a gross hunk of sirloin to a lean, mean, nature machine. And it was the best $25 I ever spent.

I look forward to having Bhruin at max level as my “main alt” in Cataclysm.

Years behind, but we’re close!

The guild’s been hitting up Uld25 the last few weeks on Sunday nights, farming hardmodes and Val’anyr shards. We finished up in Ulduar last year with poor Dara only having something like 19 shards, nor a single Yogg25 kill to our names. With the advent of the guild perks system on the horizon, we’re trying to shore up any corners that will give us a boost in the system. Legendaries are an obvious easy target.

Thanks to a healthy addiction to off-night old-content raids, we’re only one off hand glaive and one Val’anyr away from having the full deck of Legendaries in guild. Which is pretty cool.

Also cool: picking up achievements I didn’t have before, and regaining my footing on my way to 9000 achievement points.

In any case, it probably will be another few weeks, but pretty soon we’ll right the lingering wrongs of our majestic failures in Ulduar, score a legendary, and put down an Old God in his 25man incarnation.