Paladin

In the comments for my introductory column the other week, I had a few folks ask me to write a 101 guide for those new to the spec and tanking in general. Considering this is only the second protection-flavored Lightsworn post, that sounds like an excellent idea!

I don’t know about you, but for me the transition from Highmaul to Blackrock Foundry has been a welcome one. Highmaul wasn’t a terrible instance, but it also wasn’t a particularly good one either. Not a single encounter stood out at me, bouncing up and down in a desperate plea for love and attention. Kargath, The Butcher, Brackenspore, and Twin Ogron were little more than stand-and-burn fights for melee classes with minor complications tacked on to make them feel not so “phoned in.” Ko’ragh was outright hostile to melee...

A dark and secret yearning in the soul of a many tanks is the want to pursue “big numbers” just as much as our DPS brethren do. Sure, we deny it, and dismiss DPS as an unwashed rabble more obsessed with chasing bigger and bigger damage numbers at the expense of basic things like not dying during a boss encounter -- but the truth is that deep in the heart of every tank lurks a green-eyed ego-monster that hungers for flashy critical strikes. (Whether tanks admit it or not.)

After the nerf to Undertaker, I started looking around for new deck ideas to tinker with and to use in my climb on the ladder.

The retribution paladin column returns! In this first edition, Lightsworn takes a current look at retribution DPS and answers a few reader questions.