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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