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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