Because Paladins are the laziest buffers in the history of the world (read: Pally Power), make sure you equip yourself with the following macro so you don’t end up running into battle with Salvation on.  I’m so glad they are getting rid of Blessing of Salvation in the expansion, you have no idea how happy that makes me.

/cast Bloodrage
/cancelaura Blessing of Salvation
/cancelaura Greater Blessing of Salvation

As an aside, I swear I’m not bitter about the last couple of raids.  I swear it.

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It appears as this topic has already been hit on by Veneretio and Kadomi, but I’ll give you my own thoughts on the subject anyway.

When the release date of Wrath of the Lich King was announced the first thing I thought was “awesome, so much new content!” and the second thing I thought was “oh crap I have so much to do”. Goals are important for all facets of life, but let me share with you my own goals that I want to get done before the expansion hits.

Major Goals

1. (DONE) Tighten up our Zul’Aman speed run group and get a War Bear. This has already been accomplished and it was an amazing feeling when we got it done.  The fact that I won the Need roll was awesome, I won’t lie, but finally completing the run was worth more than the mount.  We have about two more resets of ZA before half of our speed run group leaves for BlizzCon and we’re going to make full use of that to get another two mounts in our guild.
2. (DONE) Kill Illidan.  Kill him dead. I, along with all of the other raiders in my guild, want to see this guy laying on the ground.  We are so close and with the changes coming in 3.0 this really is a possibility for us!  We have come such a long way and I know we can do this.

Minor Goals

1. (DONE) Drop Mining and pick up Blacksmithing, then level it to 375. I have spent the good part of the last three months using my mining skill simply as way to make money.  Engineering has been maxed for nearly as long as I can remember so I’d make multiple passes of Nagrand a day for mote clouds and mining nodes.  No longer!  WIth everything I’ve seen of Blacksmithing in the expansion, this is definately a bandwagon I was to jump on.  I have a more comprehensive post on Blacksmithing coming up, stay tuned!
2. Expand the ‘blog. This has numerous sub-goals within it including: not slowing down in posting, getting my link out there to more sites, getting Polgera to post more often and keeping up with the new content.  I really hope people enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.

What are your goals for Wrath of the Lich King?

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I finally got a chance last night to jump on the Beta and check out the changes to Thunder Clap.  After grinding a couple of groups I figured I’d make it into a movie for you.  I apologize for the poor quality and lack of music, I’m new to the video-making scene.

All of the little numbers you see are Damage Shield, Thunder Clap and Shockwave. On top of being very very impressed with those three abilities, the buff to Revenge’s damage had me hitting for 900 – 1100 non-crit. This is amazing!

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There has been a lot of hubbub on the internet about the changes that were reported with the Burning Crusade raiding instances being nerfed.  The rumor stated that all trash mobs and bosses were getting their health nerfed by 30% which is, obviously, pretty substantial.  I’m here to tell you that the proposed change has been confirmed.

To coincide with the upcoming new talents and mechanic changes for classes in the next patch, we are making some adjustments in existing raid content to provide a smooth transition when the upcoming patch is released. The creatures and bosses in raid dungeons that were introduced in The Burning Crusade will have their health reduced, and most will have their standard melee damage output reduced as well, but their spell and ability damage are not being changed. These changes are being made in all raid dungeons from Karazhan to Sunwell Plateau as well as the outdoor encounters of Doom Lord Kazzak and Doomwalker. On top of this Illidan is also doing his part and will stop casting Shear on players.

On one hand, I’m happy to see this change but on the other I’m a little miffed.

Why I’m Happy

• Faster progression. I must say that since my guild really started knuckling down and getting into the raiding scene we’ve made some incredible progress in a very short time, raising from the 22nd most progressed guild (Horde-side) on our server to the 7th in the span of about three months.  This change would undoubtedly speed things up for us.
• I’ll see more content that I otherwise might not have been able to before 3.0. This is probably the number one reason that Blizzard is making this change.  Like Naxx of the old world, the developers spent thousands of man-hours making these instances that less than 10% of the playing population ever get to see, let alone go all of the way through.  This is the chance for people to see the stuff that Blizzard worked so hard on.

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Last week we got withing one minute of winning ourselves our first bear, it was that close. We took the same group back today, tightened things up a bit and downed all four bosses for our first Amani War Bear! We’ve worked so hard for this for so long I was so happy that we just got it done before patch 3.0 when you will no longer be able to get it.

Everyone but the people who didn’t want the mount rolled Need and guess who won? Me! I’m so stoked!

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Off-tanking during the Jan’alai fight in Zul’Aman can be a source of major frustration for Protection-specced Warriors.  In an attempt to lower the collective blood pressure of all tanking warriors who are running into a brick wall with their faces here, let me share with you what has worked for me and my group countless times now.  Fights like this make you want patch 3.0 to hurry up, doesn’t it?

The Gear

You’ll want to put on your threat gear, making sure you focus on hit rating, shield block rating and shield block value.  This is a perfect time to pull out that Petrified Lichen Guard I talk about this this post, and make sure you have a Felsteel Shield Spike on it.  The idea is you want the adds to smash their faces into your shield and get hit by the Shield Spike and the poison proc as much as possible while laying down copious amounts of Cleaves and Thunder Claps.

Fire resistance gear is not necessary assuming you have a priest or a paladin in your group dispelling the Flame Buffet debuff.  I don’t know from experience if Blessing of Protection will drop the debuffs from you but I wouldn’t count on it since your paladins will probably be dropping the BOP on one of your AOEers when they inevitably pull aggro from you.

The Group

First and foremost: you’re going to want a patient group who don’t mind resetting the boss fight numerous times while you fall into your groove and who will work with you.  Bring a Shaman for Earthbind Totem or a Hunter for Frost Trap.  I suppose a Fury Warrior with Piercing Howl would work too; what you need is a class that can slow down a large group of mobs at one time.

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The Petrified Lichen Guard is one of those fantastic anomalies in the game; a low-level item with a proc so good that you should still have it in your bag even at T6-level content.

The reason for this is simple: it makes your life a lot easier as a Warrior when you’re trying to AOE tank. Since the fantastic changes such as Damage Shield and and removal of the target limitations to Thunder Clap aren’t yet in the game, this shield still has it’s place especially when you throw a Felsteel Shield Spike on it.

Places to use this shield:

• Magister’s Terrace. In the room with all of the mana worms if you slap on this baby and tell your group to wait until you’re at half health before doing anything you can watch and giggle mischievously as those Mages and Warlocks go crazy and can’t pull aggro off of you.  Glorious!
• Zul’Aman. The Dragonhawks adds on Jan’alai can be frustrating as a warrior tank, no doubt about it.  Use this shield along with a well-place Earthbind Totem or Frost Trap and it becomes much more manageable.
• Ata’mal Terrace. Nothing like some relaxing AOE grinding to keep you feeling refreshed.  Equip this sucker when fighting the hordes of Demon Hunter Initiates and just stand there as they kill themselves.  Loot and profit.
• Shattered Halls. There are some grossly exaggerated stories of how hard Shattered Halls is to tank, especially if you have a patient group and this baby on.  Seriously try this out and you’ll see Shattered Halls in an entirely new light.
• Auchenai Crypts. This shield is especially useful on the large groups of mobs right before the last boss.  Have your DPS burn down the big guy while you get some passive threat on the skeletons.

I’m sure I’m missing a ton of other places where you can use this shield but that’s a pretty good list and should show you the versatility of carrying the Lichen Guard around.  To top off everything I’ve already said, this shield only requires Honored with Sporregar, 15 Glowcaps and level 62 to acquire!  For the amount of use you’ll get out of this thing it’s basically free.  Hell, the mats for the Felsteel Shield Spike will cost you more gold and time than the shield itself.

Here’s to hoping Blizzard has another shield like this one in the expansion!

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