Matt Walsh

Blizzard makes it sound like Legion is going to feature a real push at redesigning the specs to make them more fun and to better capture the class fantasy of each. This is a very excellent thing, and very long overdue. While Protection Paladins are in an ok place, they could be so much better. Our spell effects could be better looking and more impactful, our abilities could have more of a “pow” to them, and our rotation could be tweaked to make it more fun to execute. It’s time for the traditional pre-expansion wishlist – let’s plunk ourselves down on Great-father Winter’s lap and see what we can dream up.

At this year's DragonCon, Jonathan LeCraft answered a question about class overhauls and revealed that “most” specs will have changes to better align with the “fantasy” of the spec.

Like hiking a serious mountain, we’ve now breached the alpine zone and have the peak in sight. And much like how the air thins out at this point in the climb, so does the quantity of Orcs we have to suffer. Archimonde awaits just over the crest, but first we must throw down his vanguard: Zakuun, the torturer of Grommash Hellscream; Xhul’horac, a malevolent being from the void; and the reanimated vengeance of Mannoroth, who is essentially the Washington Generals of the Burning Legion.

Perhaps the reveal that resonated most with me was the kitchen sink attitude that Blizzard was suddenly taking towards class lore. Since Wrath of the Lich King I have been starving for more Paladin-flavored lore in this game and it was so exhilarating to see the new push that the game is taking to focus on the different classes and the stories that make them distinct and special. I’d like to talk a bit in this post about Protection Paladins in the next expansion and what we have in store for us with regards to the new class lore. I especially want to brainstorm a bit on what our artifact may be and what options are potentially available.

This is something that tanks don’t often admit -- except when staring at their bruised face the next morning in a foggy bathroom mirror after a long raid night -- but we love doing damage. Sure, some of us may have our Skada addons defaulted to the threat tab, but the rest of us are watching DPS. We’re making sure that we’re doing more DPS than the other tank and we’re sure as hell waiting for that moment when one damage dealer in the raid or dungeon drops below us on that meter. It’s a great feeling when you are contributing more DPS to a raid than one of the actual, legitimate damage dealers. (Up until when you wipe from hitting the enrage timer.)

In the Bastion of Shadows we begin to run up against some of the strongest forces that the Legion has brought to bear upon Draenor. Each of the encounters here features someone who has betrayed their home -- or adopted home -- world and thrown their lot in with the Legion’s roadshow. These bosses also feature very important roles for the tanks that dare to stand against them; these are not simple tank-and-spank encounters!

This post is going to go through the first six bosses of the raid, giving tips and details to cover exactly what you need to successfully tank these encounters. This isn’t a general fight strategy, but rather a focus on exactly what you need to know, as the tank, to do your job.

Blackrock Foundry, all in all, was a decent raid. That probably the best adjective I can really apply to it. Adequate would also work. There were some very creative boss fights, both in terms of general encounter mechanics and specific tank mechanics – and there were some very forgettable encounters. In this post I’m going to take a look at some of the more stand-out encounters in BRF and what made them so great (or so painfully terrible) to tank.

Tanking requires a lot from a player, especially when the group is all-too-happy to hoist responsibility for the success of the group right onto your potentially uncertain shoulders. It's a tough job, but we'll help you get started.

Let’s talk today about some of the key tips and tricks that can assist with tanking success. What separates the serious tanks from the DPS that check the little box under the shield for a shorter queue time is the same thing that separates the successful from the also-rans in many aspects of life: preparation.