ZA: Downed Boss Halazzi for a Guild First.

Took a break from Beta for the scheduled guild raid on Saturday night. We got the first 3 bosses and on the Dragonhawk boss the Bulward of the Armani Empire shield dropped again so our guild Warrior got to get it this time which was great for him. Then off to Boss Halazzi (Lynx ), we took a few shot at and didn't get him down mostly due to totems and new raid members.

Sunday night we went back to ZA before the reset and first and only try we got Boss Halazzi down all in one flawless shot and no one even died. Sometimes that's just wired when you one shot a boss and no one dies compared to before. Everyone was really on the totems. Warrior tanked the boss and I got to play with the Lynx Spirit. But we got the boss for our guild progression, so all great now being 4/6 in ZA.

We then went off to try the next Boss Hex Lord Malacrass even though no one really knew the fight or researched it as yet. We were just glad to get the Lynx Boss really. Was fun just to see a new Boss though. But boss ended up smacking us around pretty good with all that AoE damage just all learning the fight. He was even sporting my wings while he smacked us around for the first time. I'm sure to prepare with some research next time for Hex Lord.

WotLK Beta: Judgement of Wisdom

Pissed!!!!

Judgement of Wisdom (JoW) Beta nerfed into the damn ground. Literally!!!!!!!!

Only returns what seems to be 2% of total mana. Everyone of my Judgements hit only returns 100 mana having a total of 4995 mana total compared to the previous Beta build 8820.

The fact that Judgements were broken for a entire week as said was a accident. Seems like a damn conspiracy to me now looking back at it all for Paladins. It was all being reworked if you look at it.

Seals seemed to have being nerfed as well. Require lots of testing to be sure what can be uncovered.

I'm usually very very optimistic. I know its Beta, but i'm going to be honest. I don't believe this class, my Paladin class is going to get fixed where the class as a whole will be happy.

Update:
Having had some time to think it things over and play a bit and test some stuff out a bit more, hmm dosen't seem all gloom and doom like I though. Maybe gloomy and less doomy.

But I'm i'm having to drink and Divine Plea allot still mainly Soloing if i don't gimp my own ability to DPS by having BoS up constantly for mana by way of Avoidance and Blocking vs having BoM up to scale my own spell DPS since most our spell also scale on AP and Protection is not known for DPSing as it is.

WotLK Beta: Testing the New Blessing of Santuary

As of the new Patch 8885 Blessing of Sanctuary has being changed as indicated below. So I went to test it out in where I could find a ton of mobs to pull all at once and see how well our new mana system works.

Blessing of Sanctuary changed to give all members of the raid or group that share the same class with the target the Greater Blessing of Sanctuary, reducing damage taken from all sources by 3% for 30 min. In addition, when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack the target will gain 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% of maximum mana.

I seems to be working well with the 2% of maximum mana return on Dodges, Parry and Bock. And I'm find it works pretty well for getting mana back without much the time sacrificing a Protection Paladin damage Seal to having to use a low damage/threat mana seal as in BoW in a fight. I can mostly keep a damage Seal up. As long as no casters around to slowly shave off a good chunk of your health. From what I see i was getting back 100 mana each time the proc.

In a AoE mob group testing it out I had quite a bit of mana with my Avoidance causing the proc of getting mana back on Dodges, Parry and Blocking done. Enough I would say that I could at times on say a group of 10 mobs hit almost everything and consecrate and still have close to a full mana bar. I'm not sure what you call that after testing it in AoE, but I'm gonna leave it at just saying it pretty damn good at that % rate. I give it a thumbs up as of this build. As for how it will affect the other Tanks in Warriors and DK I'm not sure or if the numbers will need tweeking for those 2 classes with BoS.

I decided to try something a bit harder with BoS. So while doing a quest in Dragonblight I came across 2 Elite lvl 74's. Had some caster around some Necromancers so avoided those as much as i could. I had BoS up and just using SoC. I pulled the Elite 74 I'm at lvl 73. I also got about 10+ Ghouls also and with the Elite and the Ghouls I had I would say a bit of mana Avoiding and blocking allot of the other hits of stuff trying to beat on me. That gave me enough mana to just put it all on the Elite as focus and burning the other mobs in Consecration. Took a while but had a bit of mana.

Next I figure why not try pulling 2 Elite 74's at the same time. So did that with BoS still up using SoC and HotR on both. Works very well to. The faster the attacks seem the better it works for Dodges/Parry/Block chance other than what actually hit. The one thing that kept messing things up was a Necromancer caster showing up and messing up my test shaving off my health. So with that had to just change to using SoL and JoL/JoW to gain back health and mana. Evading some the attacks by the Elites was enough to give me mana back. Best i can say seems to be working well.


I wanted to try and pull 3 Elite 74 and see how that would go as well. But was a bit hard to do without getting a bit more Ghouls and a crazy caster in the mix with that going on. Best i can say with the change to BoS so far as of this current build well i can say I'm a bit happy with it compared to before. I'm going to have to remain optimistic on this one change in BoS being improved by Blizzard Dev's as Paladins have being and are getting the short end of a long stick in Beta as a whole.

Respecing:
Did respec and picked back up again Redoubt/Shield Specialization. Shield Specialization has being changes to "Increase your Block Value by 30%" as of what it says on tooltip. Have later found out that SS does not increase BV from Strength, still unchanged.

BoM got a nerf with the attack power bonus being reduced to 25% so with not much good choice back to 5/5 Benediction again.

In respecing I just no longer seem to have enough points to pick up BoK's in current build and at least at this level as well. Nor did i have enough points to put anything in Imp Devo Aura either. I just need all my points else where it seems and I just don't have enough points to get all that I need looking at things so far as of now.

Dunno but Blessing of Kings would be good to become a class ability or someone else Holy/Ret will have to provide in raid if things stay the way they are as of this Beta build. There are just not enough talent points to go around.

In Other News:
Was able to acquire enough Saronite Ore for my Hunter to make some Saronite Bars. Mined enough Cobalt Ore on my Hunter also. With that I had enough to find a BS in Dalaran that was able to craft me for testing the entire Saronite Plate Set/Shield as well as a Savage Cobalt Slicer for when I get to 74 to test out the gear vs wearing tBC gear. So have some gear as of next lvl to slowly change into being more WotLK gear oriented..

WotLK Beta: Server Down Today

Was able to only log on a short while early this morning and do a few quest and move that blue XP bar another notch before major server lag too place.

Server crashed while it seemed relatively empty in early morning and was down for a while. Servers came back up then later at which was able to park my toon back at a Inn. Then server went back down for maintenance today.

So not much playtime to level today, just a few quests and a bit closer to 74. Gear rewards are starting to look real good as well on quests.

Since I'm working mostly nights all week this week won't have as much time to focus and play till Friday and the weekend really. So didn't want it to seem like I'm all that slow leveling in Beta. Just not much focus time for play. A bit hard as well when Northrend server crashes often.

Overall I'm enjoying Testing Beta and Northrend. So thanks Blizz!

Tanking: Importance of Strength stat in WotLK

I'm not usually that active on the Maintankadin Forums. I usually read way way more than I usually ever comment usually and do comment when I feel like. Anyway in this thread related to someone new asking about Strength as a NEW stat for Tankadins in WotLK, I posted the response below.

So though I post it here as well for the benefit of those that don't know, don't understand, confused or just don't real allot. Made some corrections for clarity as well.

I think a lot of Tankadins need to start understanding things as well as a mind change from how things are (currently) to how things will eventually be in WotLK.

Stamina & Strength are becoming core stats for a Tankadin. Especially considering that all Plate wearing Tanks will be sharing the same gear as loot which thus include all the stats on that kind of gear. Think Tanking Warrior gear stats. It's will no longer be tBC as you know it for Tankadins when WotLK comes.

and Threat Stat for Our gear will be changing, thus as well the thinking and the talent stats to make that gear as effective to do our jobs as Tanks. Strength will be a new Mitigation and Threat stat for Tankadins with our new abilities and gear.

What Blizzard is doing IMO is giving us two stats to scale up our gear from lvl 70-80. But as you increasing level to 80, you gear will be more Stamina/ Strength and AP based vs what you used to in tBC.

Starting from 70 with so much Tankadins in hard earned Epics your spell power tanking gear will be more effective up to somewhere around lvl 75 or so depending on tier gear. Around that point Stamina/ Strength gear becomes more valuable to you because of how it affects your abilities. ( 2 Strength = 1 Block Value or BV, 1 Strength = 2 AP)

Increasing Stamina will increase your Spell Power which adds to all your spells. Increasing Strength will increase your BV for threat with the new Shield of Righteousness. Strength also converts into AP which is now good for us because it increase the power of all spell except to Holy Shield currently. So now Increasing Spell Power and AP both scale the power of our spells and abilities. That's a good thing.

Using a slow high DPS weapon is also now good, compared to a slow weapon on live the server. A slow high DPS weapon around 2.6 speed with high AP, and AP from stacking Strength increase how hard HotR hits on 3 NPC mobs dealing Holy Damage in the process. This same effect also affect Seals and Judgement among other spells.

Increasing Strength/AP makes effect of seals increase in value so they scale. More Strength/AP the more Holy damage and threat your damage seals do. The harder your Seals & Judgements hit for Holy Damage/Threat and the more mana or heals you get back as a result.

Using Seal of Wisdom or Light with high Strength/AP the more mana and heals you get on hits. Use HotR with the same seal active the more mana and heals it proc's for on three NPC mobs HotR hits. Also the more Holy Damage HotR does as well.

So as you increase you Stamina that spell power adds to your spells, increasing Strength/AP that adds to your spells as well. So you benefit from both stats increasingly.

As you start WotLK at 70 unfortunately you have very little Strength on gear as a Protection Paladin, but more Spell Power stats as well as weapon. So around lvl 75 or so seems a break point. But as you increase lvl your just shedding your tBC gear for your new gear stats of Stamina & Strength plus everything else bonus added to gear.

All just a mind set change compared to what most people are used to on live server. Start getting used to it!

Hammer of the Righteous (HotR) works off Weapons damage causing high threat Holy damage so you want a slower hard hitting high DPS weapon which does damage as Holy damage to targets up to (3). Shield of Righteousness (ShotR) does damage from 200% of BV causing very high threat to target. Having high Strength/ AP causes ALL your spells to scale in damage/threat or effect with the current exception of Holy Shield which currently only scale on Spell Power.

WotLK Beta: Quest Green Weapons

If you want a idea of what kind of green weapons you get usable as a Protection Spec in the first few zones i been in so far well this is what I have picked up from questing. As I've done every quest in Howling Fjord for the zone and currently in Dragonblight questing.

I started with the Coldstone Cutlass obtained from quest in Howling Fjord. Then in Dragonblight the next zone I was sent to quest, I picked up Gleaming Iceblade and upgrade which has a slight icy glow on it. This currently is what I use questing and grinding as it works best with HotR and scale my mana/heals return on Seals with AP. I pretty much just packed my Continuum Blade in my bag and barely looked at it since i never really got it upgraded before the Beta. I'm thinking +20 Strength might be a good enchant as well as an option.

Other 1H Weapon I picked up in Dragonblight is the Bloodsmeared Brutalizer and Stronghold Battlemace from questing relatively in same area I believe it was. That's all the 1H Weapons I have picked up just about.

So if you want to compare that to what you can maybe pick up before WotLK from your Heroics/Kara/ZA, T5+ go ahead and check or IMO fair to roll on just about loot at this point before the exp. But if you run MgT I'm sure they are a few very good high dps Epic 1H pieces there as well to use in the first 5 zones till about 74-75 at least.

But for lvl 70-75 until you get Shield of Righteousness your mostly will be relying on Spell Power gear from tBC after that its pretty much shedding gear for WotLK. As Strength gives both AP & BV for Paladins on gear where more BV powers Shield of the Righteousness. And starting at 70 we basically have very little Strength at all for Protection Paladins. But along the way you will be picking up side grades of weapons on quests/instances all along the way.

A reader had asked what talent build I've been using, its that above currently. Before Instead of Divine Strength and Imp BoM, I had Redoubt/Shield Spec in Protection and Benediction in Ret. Judgements currently are useless as well. So far its just the feel but prefer this spec better with Divine Strength and Imp BoM to hit harder with HotR. Also adds BV (low current gear) and scale seal damage and effects which more than make up for reduction in seal cost IMO.

WotLK Beta: Broken....

Played some more Beta testing over the weekend and managed to grind my way by pure grit to 73 and almost half way to 74. Used up every bit of rest bonus in the process getting to 73 as well. But it was a challenge at that for Paladins as a whole are pretty much broken as of the last patch 8820.

I think last thursday with the Patch it was pretty obvious within a few seconds of combat that Paladins Judgements were absolutely broken and not working and not doing any debuffing and damage. At best it did very little physical even less than I can swing my weapon for in white damage. This made those trying to level as Ret quite painful and leveling as Protection even more a torture. This has yet to be fixed by Blizzard to put class testing back on track. The QQ and Pew Pew on the forums were thru the roof and at times just plain funny to read.

But despite it I didn't have to change my spec much I just kept on leveling as Protection Spec as usual being creative in how I did quests buy trying to group round up every mob for pure effiency of mana to use AoE abilities to make it less painfull and juggling seals in creative ways using SoC to deal damage and still to SoW to maintain some mana. If it wasn't for the fact that Protection Spec has the new HotR which procs seals on hit whether its SoL, SoW, SoC/SoV on every hit leveling as Protection would just about be impossible and broken with the dismal low DPS that we do already.

Even leveling without Judgements its also plain obvious just how low protection DPS is and does need much improvement. With all Paladin spells including Seals, Judgements, Consecration etc scaling on AP for damage and effect, Retribution Spec now has the greatest advantage to use just about every ability. With their high AP vs a Protection Paladin having much lower since well Retribution Specs have Tons of AP usually vs a Protection Spec Paladin who does need some measure of DPS boost. Thus Rets can take much greater advantage of spells scaling with AP it seems.

However since the Beta Patch 8820 left Paladins in such a bind unable to use Judgements a core ability of the class its been tough going. If your a Blood Elf Paladin as a result of the Patch Arcane Torrent currently does not work either. So trying to mana tap for mana and release it for desperate mana is just a plain bust at the moment as well though the "Silence" effect of the spell does work.

So basically I just leveled trying to AoE everything when and always if possible to use HotR to proc my seals for mana really. Fighting single mobs like casters on just about every fight left me just about almost OOM all the time using up every ability to get rid of a casting NPC mob. Needless to say in using Divine Plea it was on constant cooldown all the time and a great help though far from perfect for a Protection Spec. Given that, I was drinking often for mana as result of this patch more so that before. But using SoW made it bearable but at times real slow if its just one or two NPC mobs.

Anyway through it all manages to just keep questing through some fun and interesting quest though its still many the quests as usual. Usually a Protection Paladin can usually Solo Elites just by being able to survive long enough to kill it slowly. But with Judgements not working either that made it almost impossible as well. So had to group up for all the elite quests I had after trying once to Solo and failing doing pure dismal damage to and Elite and barely seeing their health move or moving just really slow.

I'm starting to see more Quest rewards with defense on plate but really not much I would say. The amount of Quest Plate reward as a choice for a plate DPSer is allot on almost every quest. The amount of quest with defense plate reward is few and far in between. Often you can see lots of plate reward for a Holy Paladin though as its pretty obvious with the stats. Even when it comes to Quest Weapons reward it seems the same thing as well in my opinion. So in survey on quests I just noted all that on feedback to Blizzard.

So far as zones mainly been Howling Fjord >Dragonsblight with quests available in Grizzly Hill but haven't done any there as yet. Getting to Dalaran was great by way of Portal by a friendly Mage and it does have portal to every city there. Had a friendly Mage that was helping on a Scarlet Crusade Elite quest offered everyone after a Portal to Dalaran. You usually have to be 74 to do a quest to get there. But Mages can teleport there at 71.

Picked up a quest inside the city and completed it though to gain access to city more easily as well as picked up the FP there and hearthstone to return. Getting to Dalaran made it much easier to return to Silvermoon for respec and talent training. But Dalaran is just plain awesome pretty. I could not help think of a magical Saks Fifth Ave in the process. I saw a few people in Dalaran also that were already lvl 80, gee that's fast.

Servers we up and down all weekend like every 15-30 mins it seems but up and down often that it wears a bit and steal the focus sometime getting returned to a different prior area to where you were. But for now just trying to get to 75 so can maybe get some crafted Tempered Saronite blue gear set crafted with Shield and pick up the new Shield of Righteousness spell as well and try it all out in more fitting gear to take advantage of it. So far with the recent patch 8820 screw up that may be a bit slow going till the next patch release When its Ready I'll assume.

Screenshots: WotLK Beta, Dalaran

This City is HUGE!!!!
Shattrath aren't got nothing on Dalaran. This place is damn pretty, and yeah its HUGE. And did I mention that its really pretty.

Screenshots: WotLK Beta, Hunter Worm Pet

Exotic Pet.

In Beta usually aren't doing much on my Hunter but just mining nodes for Ore to get something crafted. Anyway So far in Beta I picked up a Crocolisk and a Worm both Tenacity Pets. Dunno never really like worms even in RL but kinda like this Worm as a pet with his armor Acid Spit debuff. He looks really cool underwater there like a serpent too. Seems to hold aggro pretty well. Having 5 Hunter Stable Slots be nice vs 4 in Beta that way you can have 2 of each class pets.

WotLK Beta: What Happened to the Cobalt Gear

Well I still have it the whole 8 piece green lvl 70 crafted Cobalt set. Its mostly just loaded with Stam/Str/Defense for stats just about most of what will eventually be on most our gear as we level up and other stats. But my tBC gear has more Stamina/Avoidance since its all enchanted and socketed as well being much better gear.

Putting on that green unenchanted and lack of socket set lost major health, gained lots of Defense, but also lost major avoidance as well. The only thing i really wanted to see was how much having Strength on gear affected our spells and stats.

Did put on a set of greens and went grinding in it for a while. Grinding in the set with lots of mobs wasn't that fun even though high in defense it lacked avoidance, lost lots of health on hits compared to my tBC Epics.

Anyway the green Cobalt gear had a lot of Strength on it which is the effect I wanted to observe. I can say having a lot of Strength for stats will gives lots of BV for Shield of Righteousness as well as converts to AP. This scale up almost all our spells, seals, judgements etc in effect and damage, exception been Holy Shield. Will be a very good stat to have lots of. As scaling spell will only serve to increase our threat from Strength as our gear scale and get more of all stats.

Just in the set when i had it on testing, i could proc SoL on 3 targets with HotR and get as much as 500 heals a tick each when HotR proc'd. That's way much more than in my tBC gear and will only scale more in better gear with the stats. Thats also without 5/5 Divine Strength and the new Improved Blessing of Might. Anyway I'm done messing around with the green gear, unless i decide to run UK with it on again. I guess at 75 when i get there a Blue Tempered Saronite set might be much better to try out then.

In other news I'm 9 vanilla wow bars from lvl 72.

In other important news A Forum Blue "Wryxian" said Protection Paladins are far from fixed in Beta as noted below from this recent Thread.

WotLK Beta: Seal of Corruption/Vengeance

Just a quick note. I really liking Seal of Corruption/ Vengeance so far and whenever I use it. However if Blizz add any more base damage or ticks on the seal I consider it a plus all things considered for Protection Paladins. Anyway starting just grinding or questing anything up to three NPC I find I always open and use SoC.

It stacks fairly quick on attacks and given say three targets it proc'd on the two other target with Hammer of the Righteous. In most time I have seen by the time I have 5 stacks on prime target the next two targets attacking me usually have 2-3 stacks of Corruption proc'd on them and ticking. Hammer of the Righteous will always refresh the stack when it proc's to each target from the main target so the effect remain on the secondary and third target the entire time.

What I've done questing is given same three NPC build 5 stacks on target and judge whatever judgement then quickly tab target to next mob and add the remaining stacks of Corruption up to 5 to each target then judge whichever and just hammer it with Hammer of Righteous mobs die fast. The other option remains to weave or seal twist in in SoR at any time to do more damage while Corruption still remains on target and twist it back to SoC if needed to refresh all stacks. But that can be mana intensive in quest instance to keep seal twisting like that. Anyway this is just questing and not in raid or instance situation.

Just wanted to say testing it possible to maintain a full stack of Corruption/ Vengeance on three targets building threat or doing damage to each target as the effect ticks away and does damage being refreshed everytime by Hammer of Righteous proc's when spammed. I don't Crit often but it shows up regularly. When Judge and Crit Corruption stacked 5 times it hits for about 1800 or so Holy Damage, kinds nice. Usually questing I never really have to use SoR except situationally. Any most the time as well barely use Consecration on just three targets questing conserving mana. Any mobs over 3 i use low damage and threat seal using Seal of Wisdom for pure effiency and get what seems like full bar of mana as long as not taking much damage. But this is just questing. Instancing this all changes having a to build threat with threat seals and a healer for mana return on heals.

WotLK Beta: Retribution Nerf Incomming

Yeah if you seen Retribution in Beta you sooner or later knew be a matter of time before they get nerfed. I haven't played Ret myself but i been up close seen and heard of the damage and Critts they do. I hate to see my class get the nerf bat from Blizz but really its just kinda expected from how things are in Beta. I hope Rets don't end up getting disappointed when it comes.

Via MMO-Champion.

Good times just don't seem to last long and may be short lived for Rets in Beta. I may not play Ret but its still part of my entire class. So I can only hope Blizzard do Balance Retribution Spec right and not in the process of balancing Retribution end up nerfing Protection and Holy when we aren't got nothing to do with DPS gone wild. Hell Protection still need work.

WotLK Beta: Which Trinket to Get?

All 3 are quest reward from a Quest. I haven't turned the quest in as yet as kinda hard to decide which trinket to get given that i'm in tBC based gear when my gear is going to Stam/Str and AP based gear as I level up. I'm seeing allot of Haste rating on stuff not sure what that indicates either.

Either way trying to figure out which trinket to get?

WotLK Beta: Hammer of the Righteous

Think Coriel over at Blessing of Kings had asked on the Beta Forum in a thread she started if HotR Critted so went looking through every screenshot i took capturing my combat logs testing stuff. I can confirm that HotR does Crit as it did here when i was testing out Seal of Blood most recently when I was grinding on Rune Golems. Was using the green Quest dps weapon here and wearing the green Cobalt Set.

It did here back earlier on when I was questing earlier in zone in a screenshot, looking at that I was probably using my spell damage blade since it uses Weapons Damage. That's the only two times I've captured a screenshot with a HotR crit. As far as i can tell don't seem to Crit any more often than any of our other attacks.

Updated:
I was just retesting HotR to see if can see again in its bugged state. I was hitting a Frosthorn Ram and I noticed not only in the current form HotR can be Deflected/Blocked partially but I noticed I the hit was also Dodged so made sure I screened it for proof.

Retribution Aura:
Figure i put this here vs making another post. However tool tip at 71 say Retribution Aura does 62 damage to anyone that strikes. Combat log shows with my Enchanted Continuum Blade (161 Spell Power) that Retribution Aura does 112-113 damage consistently. When I equipt my quest green Coldstone Cutlass it does 101 damage consistently whenever it goes off. I changed Blessing from Might to Wisdom and it does not in any way seem modified by AP. Just Spell Power as with my spell blade.

WotLK Beta: Channeling Divine Plea

Channeling Divine Plea. No tank I can think of wants to do that being mana starved on a long Boss fight where he needs mana. In between pulls use full as I did find it helpful after some fights vs having to drink. This spell benefits Holy and Rets more than Protection spec in a Jam where we would normally need it. It seems to tick two times per 3 sec for the spell as per combat log.

It had a somewhat cool animation when it starts to channel and sounds like your summoning the class mount. You get this at lvl 71 from trainer.

WotLK Beta: Protection Paladin Grinding

A fun ride to a Quest I picked up to find some Pirates and recover a item. I'm lvl 71 but took these yesterday when I was 70.

I finished retrieving the item just off shore. So getting back to shore I saw some mobs they look physical. Loots like a good little bunch. Hmm maybe I can test out some more grinding, I'm good at that. Especially since groups of mobs are really hard to find all in one area right now. I'm in just my normal Tanking gear in normal usual build. I have no strength bonus to gear just BC gear. I'm also just using a Quest green 1H weapon here a Coldstone Cutlass from a quest.

So went and round up as much mobs as I could. Not as easy as some mobs run back to their spawn point. Will make do with what i can get. About 5 or so.

For grinding and questing AoEing works best every time. Most efficient. Anyway this is how I have being grinding in Beta. For ONE mob I find Seal of Corruption (Horde), Seal of Vengeance for Alliance works very well or SoR when your one just one Mob or down to one or two mob from several or can also twist the seal weaving in SoR with SoC stacked. But I like Seal of Corruption as if you use in such cases. Seal of Corruption stacks quickly also when used.

Now for multiple Mobs this is what I have being testing. Have Blessing of Might up as it increases damage by Seals, Judgements, Consecration most spells at that. It only does not affect Holy Shield as HS does not scale with AP. Anyway for seals I always use Seal of Wisdom on multiple mobs. HotR will proc Seal of Wisdom. You get lots of yummy mana to burn on each proc mob. More AP the more mana you get back with Seal of Wisdom.


Blessing of Might expired in this shot. Anyway you usually get 3 Wisdom Seal procs and the proc from Judgements of Wisdom with HotR. I find that amount of mana sustains my grind even when burning Consecration to some degree.

I usually on 3 mobs don't have to burn a consecration more than once. But to speed it up with more if you want to.
I find I can hit all the normal Judgements, Holy Shield, HotR, Consecration and still be just about topped off on mana. As I get down to just two mobs or so I stop consecrating and just hammer the mob off so they die.


All in all just about every time i finish a fight I have full mana almost and rarely ever have to drink. My health is usually fine as i block or avoid most the damage. But that's minor. Point is I don't have to drink when grinding often. As long as their is no caster mob you fine or kill the caster first.

Anyway in short I find having Blessing of Wisdom up is a waste get more mana back with Blessing of Might up since it affects Seals and Judgement damage and mana effect. In my opinion i find this looks very viable. Just hope the Devs don't nerf the proc effect from HotR.

However If i did the same grind all over again using my Continuum Blade my spell damage sword I with Blessing of Might up get more mana back around 20 more. Holy Shield and Consecration does about 20 points or so more damage per tick and charge using my Spell damage blade. Remember Holy Shield is not affected by AP but by Spell Power stats also, why that one is the exception by Devs not sure in not scaling. Anyway with the Spell blade in use HotR does reverse lot less damage which should be yellow and white damage as well. The 2 min Seal is nice, often can forget to refresh it and it expires.

I would imagine as level up and gear become less reliant on Spell Power stat this all changes allot with everything as things seem to lean more on Strength & Stamina. Getting Block Value and AP from Strength and Spell Power from Stamina. While no one knows, things don't seem to indicate in any way we will no longer be having Spell Power for stats like in BC on Defensive plate since gear being unified with Warrior gear for stats.

Currently HotR is currently bugged doing physical damage vs Holy Damage as in combat log some hits from it are blocked or deflected by the mob. That should be fixed hopefully. Anyway just though i throw all that up with the numerous screenshots i collect. Yeah stuff still die a little show, just more button mashing. Wish we could get more DPS though. In short Blessing of Might works best to have up grinding mobs, Seal of Wisdom Judgement of Wisdom is go to for multiples, fights end on full mana, no drinking really required. Killing stuff is slow still not that much change from BC i would say.

WotLK Beta: A Few Thoughs on Protection Paladin

Just hit lvl 71 and at the trainer so get to pick up Divine Plea and new rank of Blessing of Wisdom. Maybe will respec and try something else. As for Divine Plea I can't see that being useful Tanking when you may need mana being starved for it, inbetween quick pulls maybe though.

So far looking at our talent tree and new talents we have gotten as a Protection Paladin I think to myself, nothing deep in our new Talent Tree add much to the art of real Tanking/Mitigation or Avoidance especially to spells. That's just my take.

We get a few Talents like Touched by Light to increase our spell power 30% based off of Stamina which we eventually will have allot of and adds to our Holy threat, ok great. Three talent points. Judgement of the Just to reduce Melee attack speed by max 20% for another 2 points. A Thunderclap it is. But thinking of it I never had problems mobs hitting me fast and eating Holy Shield charges for threat either.

Then we have Shield of the Templar for increase damage (how much %?) and reduce mana cost of our shields. We have all those three same shields already deep in our talent tree. I mean, why not just buff the existing shield spells we already have? Its not like a Protection Paladin all of a sudden going to go out and pawn someone or in PvP either just buffing their shields for damage. I mean any dps class will just laugh at us for trying. Why create another talent just for buffing damage to 3 talents we already have.

Why not something entirely new that adds to Tanking or some other needed defensive tanking stats. Then next to that we have another 2 point talent again to reduce mana cost of or Consecration, Holy Wrath and Avengers Shield. Most those situational spells except consecration maybe. But that's 2 different talents DEEP in our core talent tree just to reduce mana cost of spells alone without really adding much in talents to being in front of a nasty Boss.

Last we have Hammer of the Righteous. A nice talent it is and probably the only real talent I'm really excited about for tanking at least. Be nice it did hit 3 additional targets instead of currently 2. Nice for holding and building threat on multiple mobs vs just having to drop or spam consecration all the time eating our precious mana away. Retribution gets deep in their tree as a 51 point talent Divine Storm which Instant hits 4 targets for Holy damage with a healing component. That is awesome talent. Hmm, kinda wish we had something like that but different. Currently though there are more spell avoidance talents in the Ret tree than in the Protection tree as well that just not right. We get nothing new for that either.

If you just about take away the fact that Rets don't have a Shield but a big 2H weapon. Just about looks like a Rets brings more to a Instance group than a Protec Paladin at this point. Seems like may be competition to a 10 man raid if deciding between a Warrior or a Paladin Tank with a Retribution spec in party which I'm all glad they are their.

Protection Tree just seem BLOATED. Allot of our talents just needs to be consolidated and folded into other talents and some just needs to be redesigned. Why not like fold like for example fold and buff Reckoning into One-Handed Specialization free up 5 Talent points and give us a useful talent to do our job which is Tanking. Blessing of Sanctuary is the poster child of a talent tied to Holy Shield that desperately needs to be designed to use fullness for Protection. To me seems the Devs know Protection spec have mana issues. Multiple talents as bandages just for addressing spell mana costs if its a issue.

Consolidate or rewrite some our talents. If you look in the Retribution tree many their new talents actually do what they like to do, deal massive damage and some of them even heal their group. A Protection Spec Paladin can't even do that. Needless to say we have nothing like that for even in a 5 man or Heroic either. I just don't see much deep in our talent tree that adds much to real tanking or added tanking abilities.

I still enjoy my class and spec for what it is and I will level all the way to the lvl cap as I've always done by way of the my hardened Shield and cold steel blade. Do you expect any less of me to do otherwise! Yes our damage ability sucks like a Interstellar Black Hole. We are still slow to kill anything except by mean of AoEing it all in groups for efficiency. And yes in Northrend just about every Paladin that (I see) running around have a Massive 2H strapped to their back at the moment, you don't have to ask me why. Hope the Holy Light touch the Devs and enlightening us a bit. Anyway just my thoughts.

WotLK Beta: Quick Observations

Just quick stuff you notice in Beta, well at least that I observe.

1. Death Knights are everywhere, like a million of them many at +70.

2. Ever Paladin I see seems to be RET or Holy Spec. I rarely see a Protection spec Paladin anywhere.

3. Talk of RETs been OP and their high Crit kills dominate zone chat. Will RETs get themselves needed?

4. Almost ever Instance group seems to be in LFG looking for a Tank and Healer in zone chat. Uhhh but there are a million DK's in Northrend I thought DK suppose to be the new Tanks.

5. People at the current cap of LvL 77 are already Bored. Imagine that.

6. Almost everyone seem to wear Epics and you see lots of T5 and T6 at 70.

7. Almost all Hunters seem to have a Devilsaur for a Pet.

8. Server crashes is a constant occurance.

9. Massive Paladin Stanina gives lots of Spellpower for Tanks.

10. Protec Paladin grinding is still slow, just more button mashing vs going afk in a fight.

WotLK Beta: Picked up some Crafted Green Cobalt Gear.

Questing in my BC gear has being relatively easy in Howling Fjord. One thing I notice for the new zones is a almost absence of any kind or real Tanking gear. So I decided to log on my Hunter Krovon since he is a miner to mine me some of all that Blue Cobalt I keep seeing around on my Paladin exploring the zone.

So far quests green rewards seem to be for a Holy Paladin in stats or Plate with lots of Haste, Crits or Ignore Armor on Plate. Having quested a bit in my own normal gear and trying new spell currently, wanted a idea what it felt like being in what will soon be our new gear stats of Strength and Stamina. So how about trying that 8 piece Cobalt set green that BS can craft?

Went mining for a while, yeah it was a while as currently nodes are not so many in Beta. But after running all over mining Cobalt nodes managed to get 80 pieces of Ore which got me 40 Cobalt Bars. That was enough to ask in /1 for a BS that could craft the green set pieces. So one friendly guy a 77 DK said he could and happily crafted me the entire set as I provided the mats. I asked what he charge for crafting me the set? He said just provide him some Cobalt Ore as fair trade of service. Fair enough.

So went back out mining, for a while! For Cobalt Ore. I managed to mine enough Cobalt to mail the DK who crafted the set 25 Bars of Cobalt. More than fair enough return of service. It always help to never be a ass about getting good service. I have a good pocket BS to craft me things in this one guy even in Beta. I may need that same guy to craft me a "Saronite" Plate set at 74. It helps to always be fair with a good crafter that can craft you stuff, even if the service is free on live or Beta. One piece of green Plate in the AH was 250g a piece. I saw a Blue 74 Plate at 2500g absolutely nuts in Beta at prices like that. All that running aroung gave me a Zone full explored achievement and around 412 mining.

Anyway I swapped out all my Epic Pieces for the equivalent green piece for testing stuff and talents. It was really late at this point and didn't have time to do much. Will do details later, but has a bit less stamina, armor and avoidance in set was noticable. Currently in Beta with talent change I was around 473 defense with change to Anticipation from defense to avoidance. In the cobalt green set I had over 506 or so defense. Overall had lower normal gear avoidance stats. But WotLK Tanking gear packs lots of Stamina/ Strength and a whole lot of raw defense rating. However the greens are also non enchanted as compared to my Epic pieces for Tanking.

I had picked up a Green 1H Cutlas on a quest, so equipped that. In my normal Tank gear Strength gave me a total of 51 Block Value. In just the unchanted 8 piece green Cobalt set was up to around 168 Block Value. Also can't remember what my AP was gor sure. Went off to quickly try out a few human NPC's. Without changing my talents I could see a noticable difference in spell scaling. Had up Blessing of Might vs usual Blessing of Wisdom for more AP to scale spells. I think I was around 1200 or so AP with Might up.

With a higher damage base weapon Hammer of Righteousness scales up allot and quite noticable on 1-3 mobs. I did notice the spell in combat log can be partially blocked and at times deflected not sure I get that one. But on 3 targets HoR hits much harder than in my Epic gear by at least x2 at least. Almost every spell was scaled higher in damage/threat or yellow damage. However consecration scaled up a fair bit in the cobalt set. I didn't have time to use SoR, SoC or threat seals to check things. I was just grinding with SoW on mob. And so I very much noticed that Seal of Wisdom also scales up quite a bit in my Cobalt gear.

One strike of Seal of Wisdom before was doing if I remember was getting me around 138 mana in my Epic gear. I will have to recheck later. But with SoW active in just the Cobalt set I was doing around 205 mana back. Big difference as when I just used SoW mana was no real issue at least here in this instance. Judgements of Wisdom also returned increased mana as well. What also been uncovered by others is that Hammer of Righteousness also proc Seal of Wisdom for even more mana when HoR goes off. It's unsure at this point if this is intended by the Devs in Beta but via last Beta notes does say other effects if I can remember can now proc SoW. Their is a Thread in the Beta forum about this asking the Devs if this is intended effect with HoR on SoW procing the Seal.

Either way I really didn't have long to play around on three mobs as it was really late. But that's what I had time to test quickly just donning 8 pieces of green crafted Cobalt gear that's unenchanted. Don't pick up Shield of Righteousness till 75 I think so can't test that till then for the shield slam on increased block value. Which at that point would be good to have Devine Strength talented as well for the 15% increase in strength. So far just playing around with things.

With the recent XP change implemented right before I started on Thursday which increased XP by 80% I'm only like 80% to 71. So trying to level as well.

WotLK Beta: The Nexus

The Nexus is a lvl 71-73 Instance. The whole area outside and inside is visually stunning in design.

Instance is a bit long. Longer than Utgarde Keep with lots of hallways to navigate. You can just about get lost navigating some the halls. But their are different wings in the instance and it changes to reflect the area or wing of the instance. Lots of various mobs here mix of casters, physical, plants, rifts and some Shade looking mobs like in Kara you like to hate.


All the Bosses here are interesting and fun and of which they are 4 and will leave it at that. A group in Green/Blues will find the Instance challenging I would think. A few the fights were challenging for our group with most wearing mostly Epics with exception to the 70 Death Knight we had. We had a group of: 70 Warlock, 70 Rogue, 70 Death Knight, 77 Holy Paladin (T5) and myself as Tank. Only person being here before was the Holy Paladin.

This Instance have quite a mix of mobs and a bit of casters. We didn't wipe on any the bosses but almost did one with thanks to Devine Shield for a wipe save to get healed. Its a really fun instance and really nice looking. One the most annoying part of this instance is a few of the mobs that currently will stun the tank silience "back to back to back" which seem like eternity being spell locked silienced on some hounds.

It was damn annoying first time causing aggro loss but managed it and recovered, 2nd time it happened again and caused a wipe with a already pulled group. Others have reported being annoyed by this mechanic as well. Hopefully the devs fix that as its not fun at all.

Had aggo problems at times but was always to the Warlock. Again no threat meter and no Salavation either. Used Hand of Salvation once on the Warlock since had Taunt on cooldown, but felt real ackward using it when had to. Time will tell how threat plays out with aggro.

With as much server crashes Northrend server has being having was amazing we didn't crash in the instance when we were there. Overall a fun Instance and shaping up to look really nice all things otherwise.

WotLK Beta: Tanking Utgarde Keep

Finally got to take a run through Utgarde Keep after hearing someone in zone chat looking for a Tank. Had to find it first and eventually did.

The Keep looks really huge like a fortress. Anyway was a group of a Warlock, Hunter, S.Priest, Resto Druid and me Tanking. Think in the group only two had been through before on a previous run. Anyway at the instance entrance you get a quest to kill the last boss to turn in at Vengeance Landing the Horde camp in Howling Fjord.

As far as I know there is no threat meter to gauge threat so just had to gauge things a bit in the way I normally tank. Basically all the pulls are a series of three, four or five group pulls all the way through the instance and eventually going upwards via stairs. At most maybe one or two casters but easy to deal with.

Really easy instance nothing difficult and the entire instance is easy tankable by a Protection Paladin. With my gear its a bit overgeared as well. But Instance make well for a Protection Paladin to blaze through their in good gear or in Heroic version when its live eventually just pulling most the groups. Bosses were all pretty easy as well.

I'm not sure what gear the rest of group had compared to my own. I never really looked at anyone's gear either. Mobs died fast and that's about it. As for aggro have no idea how well my aggro was with all the talent changes. But since never lost a mob that was marked when I marked it I can only guess it held. So no issue on aggro as I can tell so far just tanking the way I normally do BC wise. Currently spec 0/51/10.

Mana wasn't too much a issue in the instance but I'm still unsure of how that plays out in higher level instances. Hammer of Righteous is pretty Awesome for nailing mob being tanked plus 2. With that didn't find a great need to keep Consecrating but maybe once or twice at most unless I can clearly see mana is not a issue as mobs seem to die fast as well. Again no threat meter to see otherwise.

But I like the new Hammer of Righteous it rocks ( It also Crits)! However with more strength base gear for more blockvalue for the AoE Shield Slam that should only scale better in more strength base gear of which I'm wearing absolutely none. The new Judgements are fun and lot better overall. At most its forgetting to reseal a seal with the 2 min change vs refresh seal of Judgements.

Touched by Light really gives a huge boost to spellpower based off of Stamina. That alone just about doubled my spellpower for threat. But with no threat meter its hard to say how that all compared to the dps or any dps in a group given their change as well.

Had some nice Blue drops but barely paid attention to those as well. Overall a fun, not too exciting instance that will be very fast for a Protection Paladin chain pulling.

Finally Logged Into Beta

Well finally got logged into WotLK Beta. Got all the patches downloaded last night/character copied and all the remaining patches but could not log in. Had to wait for hours for the new patch build to get loaded upon the Beta servers. So finally got logged in today with the new patch loaded.

I played around for 15 mins or so creating a Death Knight (DK) character and just doing one easy quest to get a runeblade in Ebron Hold. So really didn't play long with the DK. But at least I created a placeholder character with a name for a DK. Really does have a Epic look and feel to the character.

Then was off to check out my Paladin and get a feel for things with the new talent and Northrend. Its Vanilla WoW and so its a bit hard getting used to the generic UI. But you start untalented. So I'm going to level what I can as Protection of course.

Right now trying out the various talents and build to get a feel of how they play. So far the Beta Client has being buggy and unstable during the time I've being playing with "World Server Down" quite frequently and having to relog back in quite allot.

Busy!

Just being really busy this week and tired from the Job and having some deadlines stuff to get done before Friday this week.

Missed Monday night guild ZA raid, got confused on the scheduling since haven't logged in since past weekend. I was passed out tired from working all weekend at nights and having to do a hard switch from working at nights all weekend to back working days the very next day all this week on the Job which are 12 hour work days, plus a 3 hour commute each day.

Anyway, finally started to download the WotLK Beta Client last night. Its been downloading all night. I just checked it and its still downloading all the various patches.

In other news, I now have a Beta for Warhammer Online - WAR too. Imagine that.

Off to Work.

I Just Got Me A Beta Invite!

I was reading all over the place on WotLK Beta stuff on my IPhone at work and happened to check my email. Seems I have a Beta Invite that's been sitting in secondary WoW account email for the last 6 hours.

I almost fell off my rocker when I saw the invite to Beta. I read it a few times and it looks REAL from Blizz. But I'm still gona have to check Blizzards forums just to make sure.

Either way it's nice to get a invite to WotLK Beta, I hope. If it's for real not sure what I do with the Beta Key as yet.

Update: Email WotLK Beta Invite checks out as real. Woot!

Starting Out - Why Do I Tank?

That's always a very good question! Why do people do what they do or rather why do you play the class you play. So its interesting to know why do I play the class role I play in the way that I play it. So Galo, why do you main as a Tank and why do you still play one?

You know there really is not a short or quick answer to that, their are many perspective to that. In my opinion and just my opinion only I just believe what or how a person plays their class says allot about their innate character, their inner self. I like being the great protector!

I guess if you cast WoW aside I've always love the idea of being the humble solitary Knight or a Warrior in heavy armor willing to go to the ends of the earth on a quest. Always like the seeing or reading about a character with a finely gloss hardened shield and a fine blade of sharp cold steel going toe to toe with a foe. Other time its charging into battle leading his army or comrades. I like being a Leader.

I guess I've watched too many movies growing up and wishing I lived in some far away land or mystic realm and being that brave lone Knight. Brave enough to face fear itself and still charge bravely into battle facing the unknown. Its hard at times to say exactly what it is that drive some men. I'm a Knight that just won't quit.

But I've always liked Epic movies of noble and valiant Knights going into epic battles or brave skilled Warriors on legendary tales of adventure. Too many Conan movies or Clash of the Titans movies and films like those I guess growing up.

Uhh What's a Tank?
When I first started playing WoW, I had never really heard of WoW. What the hell was WoW? A friend had told me a little about the game and knew I like games like Final Fantasy for and games like that. So when I decided to play WoW after glancing over the classes I was looking for a melee defensive player that wielded cold steel and shield. Playing high damage casting classes just did not appeal to me much.

My very first character was a NE Warrior I played on the 10 day trial right as BC was launching that I leveled to lvl 18. I enjoyed hearing the sound of raw flesh pounding and slamming into a shield and being toe to toe on a mob and seeing the white of its eyes while I sliced and diced it to pieces. Its was fun. I had no idea what a Tank was in WoW. I was learning the game as I went along on the 10 day trial and found it fun.

Choosing My Class/Spec
So after a while during BC launch the trial period was expired. Later I finally did sign up for a paying WoW account. After glancing over the classes again it was a choice between playing a Paladin or a Warrior. I liked the ideals of the Paladin class description more. It fit my idea of being a Knight or a Holy Knight or Crusader and a class I innately identified with that had high survivability and was a great melee fighter that carried a shield and sword. He wore heavy armor and could survive devastating enemy attacks.

But really in the end what make me choose, was something in the class description about the Paladins being the ultimate in survivability and highly defensively melee fighter. The real key word there for me was defensive melee fighter. The other reason I considered the class was that it had support abilities in a group if needed with ability to heal or self heal.

Those things appealed to me more than being a Warrior as in mindset I was also a solo player. I wanted a class that could level completely alone, was hard to kill, had good survivability with group abilities if I needed to. I choose my Paladin for everything defensive and protective about the class character. Having the ability to self heal as a Paladin was a plus. What greatly appealed to me was the ability to solo with high survivability and or support my group as a heavy defensive character.

So Galo you rolled a Tank then. What the hell is a Tank? Back then, I had no idea what a Tank was. It did not say a Tank that in the Blizzard class description of the class that I can remember. What I rolled was a defensive character. Only later in late lvl teens did I find out what a tank was.

I didn't care much for being an Alliance. Playing the Evil side sounded more fun. It sounded fun to be a Magic Energy addicted Blood Elf for a race addicted to Magic Energies. Since Horde Blood Elf's were Paladins that was just the obvious choice.

Protection Paladin Who?
I've only ever leveled my character entirely as a Protection Paladin. That was just obvious to me. After all I rolled the class to play melee defensive. I've never ever spec Holy nor Ret ever. I play my class specialize in role. And though many gave advice in the early days what was the fastest spec to level right when BC was starting I stayed and leveled entirely Protection. Back then it was just about unheard of to be a Protection Paladin at very start of Burning Crusade few days after the new expansion. Everyone I saw was either Holy or Ret.

I barely knew anyone on my server that was spec as a Protection Paladin, AKA Tank spec. But hell I had no idea what a tank was or what a Tank did. I just knew I like being in the mob face and having the mob beat itself to death on my shield while I whacked at it and laughed and grin the whole way. Like said I played WoW solo and wasn't till almost level 20 I knew what a Tank was or what one eventually did. And when I did I knew I was playing the right character to do so.

That Shinny Guy
The first Protection Paladin I ever saw was a lvl 70 who had already hit the lvl cap standing around in Org looking all shinny. So I looked at his armor and admired all the defensive stats on his armor and wondered how he got all that gear. I though to my self WoW this guy must be real tough to kill by mobs and such or in a dungeon. He probably raided and sure he did. But I had no notion of what a raid was.

What's a Instance
The first time I heard of RFC I was already lvl 20, what's RFC? The first time I heard of Shadowfang Keep I had no idea what it was or why I needed to go there. I was a noob I guess. I was just enjoying questing and playing solo. Yet another reason I had no idea what a Tank was either. I was just playing and learning the game as I went along. First time in Shadowfang Keep we had 2 tanks as well.

Hey, Get some Skill!
It wasn't until I met that first shinny Paladin with defensive stats on his armor did I ask him how to be a good Protection Paladin did he take the time to give me some advice for my spec and told me to get good fast 1H and good Shield. Learn to Instance, be good in groups and and learn to AoE in a few levels. Umm, "Hey Sir, whats A.O.E?" He gave a brief idea of control fighting lots of NPC's or mobs all at once. I was still confused what he meant. So he told me to "google" it. And I did.

You know the fact that I followed that advice and did a google search is the one reason your reading this blog. Because If I never did I probably wouldn't have found the very few WoW blogs their was back then. So only a handful of Paladin Blogs back then if that. So I searched everywhere on how to AoE tank. Reading blogs along the way found our more about my class and learned how to be better at my class. In time I started my own blog to capture My Life and Times.

I'M Not that Slow.
So I leveled what many called slow but it didn't seem that way to me. I took the time leveling and became damn good at AoEing everything. It was fun. Watching everything die was fun. I was enjoying my Spec, and my class. I enjoyed hearing mobs slam into my shield.

I enjoyed outlasting mobs in a fight running into camps. I found being hard to kill on physical mobs, all fun. I made a game out of killing mobs and seeing who would out last who with elites or many groups for fun. I did a few instances leveling but not many. But I practiced at it tanking on being a skilled in my spec and roll.

King of the Grind
Much did I grinded learning how to do my seal rotations or handling groups of mobs. I found that fun. I once slaughtered raptor grinding almost 2 levels in Un'Goro on raptors all in the name of just having fun. All that was my training. I wasn't worrying about speeding my way to lvl 70 to get to some unknown appointment.

I was just having fun playing my Protection Paladin and beating the heck out of anything that crossed my path. It was always fun killing stuff in masses while other people passes by to stop and watch thinking your in need of help. That was before AoEing was really popular. I enjoyed being like a porcupine fish, will kill you for messing with it due to its defensive mechanism.

Building that Resume of Experience
Along the way approaching lvl 70 it was time to re-gear for instancing and beyond and build up more group experience. So I ran PuG Instances until the ends of the earth for everything. I was good at it. I enjoy being the guy up front talking trash to the mob or the boss. I enjoyed the idea of protecting my comrades with my shield while they kill the mob. I enjoy being that line in the sand between the mob and my group.

Tanking for me is FUN. In more ways I enjoy it for being tactical in role playing tactics and strategy with the mob or bosses. I like figuring out which mob I'm going to take out first, how or why to make it easier on my group. I find that all fun vs just doing damage to it as a dps.

The Tactician
Tanking for me is All Tactical game play. I could care less about high yellow or while numbers because for me its not about seeing high numbers. Its about beating on the mob and making it hurt. Its about breaking the knee caps and putting a hurt on the mob. For me that's the fun. But overall I enjoy protecting my group or my comrades.

Its like being the great protector protecting my group of friends. Its why I can enjoy playing my class. Its why I can do it day in day out while trying to progress and not get bored of it. Its why I can sometime fail, get up, reanalyze things and try again another tactic. There is something about being all alone up front. All alone with the mob fighting with sharp cold steel and hardened shield in hand seeing just who will fall first.

Breaking Knees
The thrill for me is seeing the other guy, mob, NPC fall over first while your left standing with a smirk on your face knowing I went the distance and I broke your knee caps. Going toe to toe at arms distance and in the end your left standing as that line between the mob and your comrades. Playing defensive offense I guess is why I love to tank in no simple words. Maybe I should say its a big reason why I'm a Dedicated Tank.