The art of paladin tanking

6...9...6...9...6...9...6...9...6...9...6...9...6...9...6...9...

Is that really the truth to it? Not quite. The 9696 rotation is the staple of any paladin tanking, but to think that there isn't anything else is to be severely mistaken. First off there is a constant consideration about where to start your rotation depending on what type of pull it is, and where to start it off again after say, a stun. Then there's the consideration of which parts to drop to interweave Hammer of Wrath in execute range, and while I can answer such questions when it's calm, it's another piece of gum when you're in the middle of a boss fight. Luckily the 9696 rotation fits together quite seamlessly even when you introduce another 6-second cooldown, or even when you need to start weaving in interrupts (there's three, though only two use the GCD) every now and then. It's pretty much failsafe and idiotsafe - even if you just mash everything as soon as it comes off cooldown, you'll be looking at decent survivability and threat still.

This is a reason for what irks me the most about paladin tanks. They are currently the Flavour of the Month because of their advantage in simplicity in play and greater effective health compared to other tanks (oooh, and built in Guardian Spirit). We have a slightly smaller toolbox (maybe not smaller, but a hell of a lot more situational and therefor it rarely sees use), but if you get along just fine with or without a protection warrior (who, arguably, has the bigger toolbox) then what's the problem? Sure, it may be easier to bring someone who has two two-minute cooldowns to cycle for Vezax's Surges, but 1. They nerfed him to the ground 2. External cooldowns, on-use trinkets and AD work just fine as substitutions for own on-use. Plus, you can glyph to get a 20% damage reduction cooldown as well if you want to. 3. That doesn't mean it's an insurmountable hurdle to pass by bringing something else.

Another area where paladin tanks shine is utility. We have it coming out of our ears, with Kings buffs, extra crit and the splendid Divine Sacrifice just to mention a few. The previously mentioned smaller toolbox consists mainly of our Hands, with Hand of Sanctuary most probably being the most useful one (very helpful for warlocks, who put out ridiculous amounts of DPS and only have one threat reduction cooldown), but Hand of Protection on the other tank to clear stacks of Impale after Gormokk is dead to ease the healers' load during the first bit of the Jormungar duo is not to be sneezed at.

It may well be a case of grass being greener on the other side of the fence syndrome, but I sometimes regret not going with my warrior for my tanking alt. I may well level him to 80 before Cataclysm comes (but make no effort in gearing) so that I may reach my goal of 5 level 80's by the time Cata drops (it used to be 6, then Blizzard announced that they would make troll druids a reality, which just makes me all giddy inside - trolls are after all the epitome of shapeshifting and animal worship - ZG, ZF, and ZA all attest to this together with Gundrak. Also, trolls are my favorite race of the Warcraft universe and has been since Warcraft II). For now, I will use my paladin and have fun while doing it. She may lack the mobility and lockdown capabilities of warriors, but when it comes to eating those big hits, she's just incredible.

New posts incoming

Yeah. So I kinda fucking neglected this place. I've also lately been on a huge-ass guilt trip for being an arse to a lot of people in-game lately, both random people not important to me and people I consider friends and important. Frantically grinding the daily even when you don't need any gear sort of fucks you up, apperantly. PuG:ing week in and week out also took it's toll and frankly, it wasn't beautiful in any way - I hope the person I told to "stfu and heal" will accept my apology and that the person from whom I ninja'd (yes, I bullied the raid leader into giving me stuff, that counts as ninjaing) the Anub caster shield will come around, even though the ticket didn't go through. What I'd become turned me off the game for a bit. A break was long overdue and we counted the amount of raids I'd done that lockout in /o and reached a two-figure number. While I can honestly say that doing 12 of 14 raids in a week isn't so horrible because you can easily reach eight by doing both versions of VoA, Onyxia-10 and Coliseum on two characters for a total time of maybe four or five hours, the amount of energy poured into drudging the daily heroic on two characters combined with the incredibly frustrating task of leading some 2-4 PuG's a week (I'd typically be the leader of the VoA PuG's and the guild CC-10 runs, and organised one or two 25 man Coliseum PuG's on top of that) for weeks on end will utterly and completely fuck you up. I should have seen it coming, but I didn't, and now I pay for that. It'd been worse if I'd kept it up with three characters.

Sorry for the language, but I can't think of anything else than "fucked up" to describe my current WoW-situation. Instead, I've been catching up on some reading (re-read some Pratchett stuff. Not constructive and it kept me from reading school stuff, but it's a 'not WoW' activity), getting back onto the university volleyball practises and generally trying to find my normal social life. I missed the first 'almost guild only' Onyxia 25 kill ('almost guild only' enough to make the guild front page) and I don't regret it one second - not only because I'd already downed the broodmother several times, but because I took a very good friend to the student's pub, where I had a burger and we had a few beers and caught up on stuff.

I went to the Coliseum ten man run yesterday, if only to keep in touch a bit and fill a spot. I got a new caster dagger for my mage, which makes me able to relax even more as that was one of few upgrades I have left. Overall gear stress really went away - this is what made me into a bully about the shield - the prospect of not having to care about gear for a bit was more interesting than the shield itself. I got on today (technically yesterday) to fill a spot in an Ulduar ten man run continuation. Background: We decided to give some new folks (hi Tam! Hi Iust!) a classic Absolution welcome introduction by dragging them through a horrible horrible scary raid, where they were sure to shit their pants and die, while the rest of us cruised through and were liek "lol we just totally sixteen manned XT". We've done this so many times, I think we should start using it in our advertisements.

Absolution! We throw you in at the Deep End™. Bring clean underpants.

Anyway, as a token of friendship we made an Ulduar ten for those people a couple days after the 25 man shock, where they could enjoy the more social atmosphere of Absolution and relax and learn the fights. Sure, ten-man is more individual responsibility, but it's so much easier to teach and learn in that environment, and wipe-recovery is faster, and with some rocket DPS, the bosses go down real quick and easy as well.

My trail of thought is fucked up. I was supposed to fill a spot in an Ulduar ten man today, remember? Well, said raid didn't happen. I got on a short while a couple of hours after giving up on that endeavour cause I had some auctions that expired (that totally sold, woop woop) and then went off again. I don't intend to get on until the raid wednesday, if even that. I know I have my cloth cooldowns coming off tuesday that I may or may not log in to craft. I'm at 60+ Ebonweave, 20+ Moonshroud (after handing 12 to a guildie) and 20+ Spellweave and don't need neither cash nor materials for any crafted stuff, so I don't see why I keep doing it, and as part of my 'reform' I intend to not hunt that cooldown. Not cause I in any way was obligated to do it before, just to prove to myself that I didn't keep doing them cause I had to, only because there was no good reason to not do it. I know I am not addicted in any way, but sometimes you may have to prove it to yourself and others - said others are probably the thing I am addicted to, if any - not game mechanics.

I was just gonna get on and tell you guys that eventually are reading that there will be posts, stemming from my extra time and energy, and the fact that I have tanked all bosses the game has to offer (except heroic Coliseum beyond Beasts plus Vezax and Yogg) on my incredibly pimped paladin tank (her gear, and Vorla's, came at a terrible price, as mentioned), so there's plenty of experience to pour from. Instead, here I sit pouring my heart out. Maybe I needed this more than I thought. More subjects include the noob (we brought him to Ulduar 25 man as his first raid as well, much sadistic fun was had), my thoughts on the gear system and the 'new' raid bosses in the Coliseum[sic!] and their fun and replayability in game design values, and maybe some thoughts about what has been known about Icecrown. Icecrown feels so much smaller now that Blizzard has already announced Cataclysm (which contains the most retarded shit I've ever heard of - they are truly destroying their intellectual property not only in the metaphorical sense but also in the literal).

With reassurance,

Vorla, Audacity and Togtok