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.