WoW Reviews & Guides

This guide is meant to be more of a “nexus” for information, rather than a compendium of all tanking information. Most of what I’m saying has been posted on Tankspot for a while, however I realize how daunting it can be to go to a new forum where there is tons of information scattered about. A lot of people might just say “aww forget it, I’ll just make my own HALP! post because I am overwhelmed with the information here.” I know I might do that. So, the goal of this guide is to give you the basic information you are probably looking for, and to point you in the right direction for other posts that contain more information to answer your questions.

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The Pit of Saron is the second wing of the Frozen Halls instances of Icecrown Citadel, released in patch 3.3. The enormous pit in the dungeon is filled with large extracts of saronite ore and the Scourge have taken many Alliance and Horde prisoners forcing them to mine the saronite or face torture and reanimation into undeath. The players help Jaina Proudmoore or Sylvanas Windrunner rescue the prisoners and put a stop to the Scourge’s operations and defeat the brutal scourge master of the area and his lieutenants.

To become “attuned” to the Pit of Saron, players are required to complete the quest Echoes of Tortured Souls (Alliance) / (Horde) in the Forge of Souls as part of the Frozen Halls story line quest chain.

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The paladin is a hybrid class with the ability to play a variety of different roles — including healing (holy), tanking (protection), and DPS (retribution). They have auras, blessings and seals that provide useful buffs for other players while withstanding heavy physical damage with plate armor and strong defensive abilities. Paladins are also considered to be holy knights or blood knights.

A paladin that has chosen to spec retribution is able to increase his DPS by a considerable margin and fight several targets at a time with a good efficiency. Retribution damage favors slow two handed weapons and cause sudden damage spikes through both melee and spell crits. Through the 41-point retribution talent Crusader Strike and 51-point Divine Storm they can deal considerable weapon based burst damage. Additionally, retribution paladins bring a large amount of raid utility, making them valuable in endgame instances. Retribution paladins are popular for their increased damage abilities for groups, such as Heart of the Crusader, which grants all attacks against the target a 3% increased chance to crit, and Sanctified Retribution, increasing the damage of the paladin’s group by 3%.

Paladins are also excellent tanks. Spiritual Attunement provides the paladin with a percentage of mana, based on ability level, each time they receive healing. They also excel at tanking multiple mobs at the same time through use of their reactive threat abilities like Holy Shield and Consecration, an AOE effect that deals significant threat to all mobs within range. Paladin tanks have gained widespread acceptance in the community.

The paladin class has some of the most mana-efficient and low-threat healing spells in the game, allowing them to easily fill the position of a main tank healer in a party or raid situation. Their healing efficiency makes them great endurance and battle healers, though paladins lack area of effect healing abilities (healing multiple targets at once) and healing over time effects. Paladins do have a form of indirect healing from the spell Judgement of Light.

Paladins have several anti-undead and demon abilities such as Exorcism, Holy Wrath, and Turn Evil which make them very effective when fighting Demon and Undead targets (not including Forsaken players, who are considered Humanoids for balance reasons).

In PvP, the paladin’s most well-known strength is his/her ability to outlast his opponent(s). With plate armor, their ability to heal themselves and allies, and a near-complete invulnerability every few minutes, they are a hard target to take down. Paladins can also do a surprising amount of burst-damage and have good access to stun abilities. Paladins also make great supporting characters, buffing and healing team-mates while being able to survive the enemy’s attention. Paladins are particularly vulnerable to Silence and Interrupt effects, as all of a paladin’s abilities are part of a single magic school (holy). In addition, dispel effects are powerful against paladins.

Races: Human, Dwarf, Draenei, Blood Elf
Armor: Cloth, Leather, Mail, Shieds and Plate (with training)
Weapons: One- and Two-handed Maces, One- and Two-handed Swords (with training), One- and Two-handed Axes, Polearms (with training)

Protection Paladin – When you spec into Protection you are becoming a tank. Your role in the group is to get things mad at you, keep them attacking you, and taking as much of the damage as you can. One of your best tools as a tank is your Righteous Fury ability which lets you generate extra threat from all of your holy damage caused. In addition to this you have Consecration, which will cause holy damage to everything around you. Between these two things Paladins have gotten the reputation as the best AoE tank in the game.

There is a lot more to being a Paladin Tank in a group though than just keeping Righteous Fury up and casting Consecration. There is so much more that we have created a separate guide on How to be a Tankadin.

Retribution Paladin – This type of Paladin is the damage dealing melee monster. No other Paladin build can do as much damage in most situations as a Retribution Paladin. Retribution Paladins can do significant AOE damage while mixing it up in melee by using their Seal of Command, Divine Storm, and Consecration. In addition to causing damage Retribution Paladins have a stun on a short cooldown and a longer form of crowd control with the Repentance ability.

There is a lot to know if you chose to be a Retribution Paladin and smite your foes with your righteous powers. There is so much more that you will need to know that we have created a separate guide on How to Be a Retadin.

Holy Paladin - As a Holy Paladin your job in a group is probably the hardest. Your job is to keep everyone else alive. Primarily that means your efforts will be focused on the Tank in the group, however with all the DPS players that like to jump the gun, or Tanks that can not hold aggro on more than one target at a time, your life is likely to be hectic healing one person and then another. One of your most important talents as a Holy Paladin is your Beacon of Light that essentially allows you to heal two players at the same time. You also have a self preservation bubble and a bubble that can protect another player or yourself. Other than that you have single target heals, but some of the biggest, fastest and most mana efficient (with talent specialization) in the game.

Quick Facts

This new version doesn’t work with non-US localizations but I promise I’m going to re-write it to fix this as soon as I can. I plan to have EVERYTHING translated as much as I can so I’ll have to go back.

IMPORTANT! – To use the new features you must TARGET a player while they are in inspection range. This is a limitation on the API. In order to view your own information you must Target yourself.

What is GearScore?

• GearScore is an addon for World of Warcraft that allows you to quickly and easily judge a player’s level of Gear. Simply mouse-over any player in the game and their GearScore will appear in their tooltip. No need to visit the armory!
• GearScore represents the maximum potential for a player to perform. The higher your GearScore the higher your potential to heal/dps/tank. Remember however, that is is up to the player’s skill to match that potential.
• GearScoreAddon Official Website: http://www.GearScoreAddon.com
• (Get the latest news, updates, info about upcoming features and of course download the newest beta versions!)
• Use ” /GS ” to open your new UI.
• For a slimmed down version with minimal system impact check out GearScoreLite

How does GearScore Work?

• Whenever you mouseover a player in the game GearScore will scan that player’s gear and calculate a score. The scores are based on how blizzard assigns stats to an item and take in account ilevel, rarity, and equipment slot location. Scores scale smoothly as player’s level up and obtain new items.
• Everyone who uses the mod shares information about the scores they scan allowing you to search for player’s you’ve never even seen before.

What are GearScore’s features?

• Instant Score Calculation – Scores are calculated instantly whenever you mouse over any player in the game as long as they are within inspect range.
• In-Game Armory – Allows you to view any player in your database’s equipment and GearScore
• Database – Scores are remembered so that the next time you see a player you will know their score, even if they are in a completely different zone. The database feature also allows you to manually look up a player anytime you want 1000 faster then the armory.
• Communication – Whenever you scan a GearScore of a player you also share that score with everyone in your party or raid and everyone in your guild. This is very similar to how Gatherer works in sharing resource nodes.
• Average iLevel – With this feature you can also see the average item level of a player. This is perfect for such things as Ulduar vehicle assignment and upcoming changes to drakes in 3.2
• Master Loot Upgrade Mode – This mode is an excellent way to assist your raid in increasing their overall level of gear as quick as possible. Whenever you mouse over an item the tooltip will show how much of an upgrade in GearScore that item is for each person in your raid that can equip that item. Prefect for loot-council type raiding guilds and also excellent for leveling characters in helping to choose which item to pick from quest rewards.
• Reporting – GearScore also allows you to post the GearScores of player’s in your raid/party into chat. GearScore even has integration with Recount to allow you to see a graphical representation of your raid’s GearScores.

How does GearScore compare to ‘ratings’ websites?

• I started working on GearScore before I even knew of WoW-heroes or IMBA. I’m not sure how IMBA calculates its scores but WoW-Heroes scores are always about 1/2 of GearScore’s scores. Many people ask me to simply use the same formula these websites do. There are a few problems with that. The first is I don’t wish to steal a formula from a website and brand it as inline with their scores. Those sites make $$ from advertisers and if I steal their work I’m also stealing their money. Another problem with this is that the armory gives these websites more information then my mod, therefore they are able to take into account additional factors when calculating scores.

ZOMFG!!! GEAR DOESN’T EQUAL SKILL!!?

• I agree completely. However many players like to PUG. When you pug your forced to invite people you don’t know. A really sucky player with high GearScore will do more dps then a really sucky player with low GearScore. PUGs dont have time for guild-type interviews each time they invite a player to their raid. PUGs usually have no idea of the skill a player has. So PUGs are forced to use the only factor they know, your quality of Gear. If you don’t like this style of gaming I recommend joining a guild where nobody cares what your GearScore is.
• That being said, GearScore 3.x has new features that allow players to make smarter choices instead of simply dismissing you if your not at a bare minimum. The color chart for instances is colored from red to green to represent the difficulty a player might have in a particular instance. The in-game-armory function lets you see if a person’s GearScore is low because perhaps they are in PvP gear or wearing a Lance and overall helps you make a more informed decision.

Install Instructions:

GearScore3.1.16 download it. Click on a file link to start the zip file download. You would “open” the downloaded file or you can double click zip files to open them on Windows.

You unzip the downloaded zip file to the Game’s Interface\Addons folder and you are done.

Look at the shortcut (right click the Warcraft icon and select properties) you use to start Warcraft to get the path to where the game is installed.

Typical locations for the AddOns folder:

Windows XP: “C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Windows Vista: “C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Mac: “Machintosh HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns”

Warcraft only finds addons when it starts. Close Warcraft before you install an addon.

CarboniteItems - A data addon that contains information on over 25000 game items. It loads when you use the “Items >>” section of the Guide. Mouse over the item icons to see a Carbonite generated tooltip of information on the item. Search items for specific stats or where it came from. Sort by level, name or search line. Browse bosses for loot.

Map - The Carbonite map gives you all the information you need in one easy to use and flexible Google like map. Move, size or zoom it the way you like.

Carbonite supports the Blizzard maps added for WotLK instances. Right click an instance location on the map and “Toggle Instance Map” or enter the instance for it to be drawn on the Carbonite map. You will need to zoom in, since they are drawn at a small size. You can see your location and create favorites in the instance.

Quest - Blaze through quests at lightning speed and level faster than you ever thought possible. Our extensive quest database lists the location of quest givers, objectives and turn-ins. Simply click any objective from your quest list and Carbonite will show you where to go. No more wasted time bouncing back and forth between a web browser and the game.

Guide/Hud – The guide is your in-game GPS – it contains the location of every mailbox, trainer, flight master, repair vendor, instance, battle master, etc… if it’s in the game it’s in the guide. Just click the icon and the HUD navigation arrow will show you the direction, distance and ETA to your target. You can also use it to locate your friends or guild members in a battleground.

Warehouse - Browse the equipment, bag and bank slots of every one of your characters at one time! Check their professions, money, experience, honor, arena points and more. You don’t have to spend your time switching between characters, use the search filter to find the characters that have just what your looking for.

Battlegrounds - Dominate your opponents with our enhanced battleground map. See the combat status, heath, target and target health of all your teammates. See objective timers right on the map and issue orders with a click of the mouse – call for reinforcements to attack a vulnerable enemy target or simply announce the status of an objective.

Events - A time stamped list of experience and honor gained, enemies killed and other information. What was the name of that guy who ganked you 10 minutes ago? How much honor did you get from the last 3 kills? Did you land the killing blow? Look and see.

Gather - All mining and herb picking is tracked and can be shown on map.

UI - Windows can be moved, sized and locked. Values are saved for each character. Coexists well with most UI addons.

Privacy - Not in a social mood? Just turn off communication with guild, friend or zone and other Carbonite users won’t see what you’re up to.

Install Instructions:

Carbonite-3.340 download it. Click on a file link to start the zip file download. You would “open” the downloaded file or you can double click zip files to open them on Windows.

You unzip the downloaded zip file to the Game’s Interface\Addons folder and you are done.

Look at the shortcut (right click the Warcraft icon and select properties) you use to start Warcraft to get the path to where the game is installed.

Typical locations for the AddOns folder:

Windows XP: “C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Windows Vista: “C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns”
Mac: “Machintosh HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns”

Warcraft only finds addons when it starts. Close Warcraft before you install an addon.

Supports Game Version: 3.3.0

Titan Panel is an interface AddOns which creates a horizontal bar where additional plugin modules can be deployed displaying all sorts of useful, at-a-glance, game data. Its growing in popularity because of its good looks, simplicity, and ease of creating plugins to be displayed within the panel.

Version 4 supports a variety of different bar locations. They are:

* 1 bar at the top
* 1 bar at the bottom
* 1 bar at the top and 1 bar at the bottom
* 2 bars at the top
* 2 bars at the bottom
* 2 bars at the top and 1 bar at the bottom

Download TitanPanel-4.3.2.30300

List of Titan Plugins

• TitanAmmo: Show ammo counts

• TitanBag: Show room left in bags

• TitanClock: Clock with offsets for your true timezone

• TitanCoords: Displays location, plus coordinates. Won’t work inside instances

• TitanGoldTracker: Displays money count

• TitanXP: Displays XP and tooltip with more information

• TitanVolume: Volume slider for the main volume

• TitanLootType: Displays party loot settings

• TitanPerformance: Shows the Performance data of WoW. Memory usage by UI, garbage collection time, fps, latency

• TitanUIScale: Slider for scaling the Titan Panel and the overall UI elements

• ItemBonuses: Shows the total bonus given by items for each stat

• Regen: Show the amount of HP and Mana regenerated per tick

• Repair: Shows the current/max durability of each item you are currently wearing and the money needed to repair them

In the upcoming content patch there are many new additions and improvements. One of the largest changes is the introduction of the new Dungeon Finder. This new system will be available for all five-player dungeons. A Dungeon Finder button will replace the Looking For Group feature currently available in-game, and provides additional benefits to those who use it.

Join as a Group or Solo
Much like the current Looking For Group system, players will be able to join the Dungeon Finder and choose the role they would like to fill within groups: Healing, Damage, or Tank. In addition, once roles have been identified, they will be applied to all dungeons chosen. Players will now be able to choose multiple dungeons and will no longer be limited to three. The system has also improved group creation and matchmaking capabilities and will create more balanced groups when assessing the selected roles of players.

The LFG channel has been disconnected from the Dungeon Finder and can be used by anyone in a major city, much like the trade channel currently available.

Cross Realm Instances
When joining the Dungeon Finder as a solo player or with a partial group, additional random players can be found within the same Battlegroup via cross-realm instancing.

While the new system offers the ability to group with player from other realms within your Battlegroup, you won’t be able to use this to manually invite specific players to groups.

Instance Teleporting
When you use the Dungeon Finder to find a dungeon, you’ll get ported to the inside of the dungeon, much like the current Battleground system. When you leave the instance, you will be returned to your previous location. If you need to leave temporarily, such as for repairs or to purchase reagents, you can teleport back to the dungeon again. This feature can be used both by groups looking for other players and by premade groups of five who use the Dungeon Finder.

Smarter Group Matching
The new system will now work to match at least one experienced player for the assigned dungeon with less experienced players in the group. It will more carefully match class types, and will more consistently match players of equal levels for the dungeon chosen. The interface will also allow players to see how many players are looking for groups as well as the average wait time of groups that the tool has formed.

Daily Random Dungeons
Players or groups can choose specific dungeons or they can instead take their chances with a random Heroic or random normal dungeon. Picking randomly conveys some additional benefits. If you defeat the final boss in a dungeon, you receive 2 Emblems of Frost for Heroic dungeons and 2 Emblems of Triumph for normal dungeons. In addition, after players have received 2 Emblems of Frost for the first Heroic dungeon they do in a day, they will earn 2 Emblems of Triumph for each additional random Heroic dungeons in that day. These random rewards replace the current daily dungeon and daily Heroic dungeon quests. The current NPCs who offer those quests will offer weekly repeatable raid quests instead. You can also earn level-appropriate rewards for running random pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons while you are leveling up.

Lovin’ the PUG
Players who take part in groups with one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon Finder will receive extra rewards, including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players you group with, the faster you could get your new pet!

Vote Kick
Players who use the system to find additional random members for their party will be afforded a couple of extra conveniences to help them perform well. The loot option is fixed to the updated Need Before Greed option (and unalterable by any member) and players can vote to remove another party member from the group. It will take four votes in order to remove someone, however, so consider this newfound power carefully.

Looking for Raid
There will be a new option available to players that can be accessed via the raid information screen in the interface or by typing /lfr. Players will also be able to take part in raid-specific weekly quests and will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group.

Need Before Greed Updated
Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spellpower items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (for example, plate for paladins). All items will still be available via greed rolls should no member be able to use the item as well as the new disenchant option will be available for all parties.

Group Disenchanting
Players in a group with an enchanter will now have the option to automatically disenchant any items that are not claimed by a player from within the loot window. Players will have this option available to them in both premade groups and in randomly matched groups. This option is available in any loot system, even if players don’t use the new Dungeon Finder.

The Forge of Souls is the first wing of the Frozen Halls instances in Icecrown Citadel, released in patch 3.3. The Forge is a massive production facility that builds Soul Grinders, the latest foul construct in the Lich King’s arsenal.

Serving as the first wing in this expansive dungeon, the Forge of Souls will quickly put players to the test of carving through the Scourge stronghold into deeper, more treacherous locations. Jaina will command Alliance forces, and Sylvanas will direct Horde forces. The goal is to ruin the twisted engines known as soul grinders found in this portion of the citadel, and then players can advance — that is, if the Horde and Alliance forces can overcome the foes who confront them.

Bosses

Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls
An instrument of reckoning, Bronjahm watches over the engines in the Forge of Souls. He must be killed if the soul grinders are to be destroyed.

The Devourer of Souls
As the chief operator of the engines found in this wing, the Devourer stands guard over the souls stolen by the Lich King.

The Frozen Halls is a three-winged dungeon released in Patch 3.3.0. This dungeon is likely to be the last one released in the Wrath of the Lich King era.

The entry chamber to the Frozen Halls instances has been designated a sanctuary and can be found on the northwest side of the citadel on the upper parapet. A meeting stone can be found inside the halls near the three instance lines.

Every loot item which drops in both Normal and Heroic modes for those instances is of epic quality. The loot for Normal mode equals or surpasses 10-man Ulduar drops in some slots. The loot for Heroic mode equals or surpasses 10-man Onyxia’s Lair and 10-man Trial of the Crusader normal mode drops in some slots. However, its difficulty should not be underestimated though. And just like Trial of the Champion, it is by no means a “get epics quick” scheme for under-geared players!

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls will feature 3 wings and 7 bosses where the players accompany Jaina Proudmoore (for Alliance players) or Sylvanas Windrunner (for Horde players). Only the Forge of Souls is available at the start; players must complete each wing in sequence to unlock access to the others.

The Forge of Souls
The first wing in the instance will have the players destroy Soul Grinders under watch of Bronjahm and the Devourer of Souls, wicked machines that serve some dark purpose of the Lich King. When this is complete the players can advance into the next wing.

Pit of Saron
The second wing of the instance involves entering a saronite mining pit and freeing captured champions of the Alliance and the Horde, put to slave labor by the Scourge under watch of Forgemaster Garfrost, Krick and Ick, and Scourgelord Tyrannus.

Halls of Reflection
The last wing of the instance will have players and their guides attacking the private chambers of the Lich King along with his two Scourge commanders, Falric and Marwyn.

The Halls of Reflection is the third and last wing of the Frozen Halls instances of Icecrown Citadel, released in patch 3.3. These are the private chambers of the Lich King, the only place where he lets his guard down. Judging by the loading screen and map, it appears to be a dark, twisted replica of Lordaeron’s imperial chamber.

To become “attuned” to the Halls of Reflection, players are required to complete the quest Deliverance from the Pit (Alliance) / (Horde) in the Pit of Saron as part of the Frozen Halls story line quest chain. Pit of Saron has its own “attunement” prerequisite quest that must be completed in the Forge of Souls.