So this expansion I mained Hunter for the entire time (Warlock dalliances notwithstanding). However, with the alpha of Shadowlands now in play, my mind has been made up as to what class and spec I will be playing come November 2020 when Shadowlands is released…
Bound in Light…
I mained a Protection Paladin for about 6/7 years. The exact timing is kinda hazy, but I played it from 2009 right through to the end of Warlords of Draenor. Legion came out in 2016, so I’m reckoning about 7 years as a Protadin.
Back then of course I was a dyed-in-the-wool Horde player, with the Alliance given nary a consideration. But that has obviously all changed since then, and now of course my Paladin has switched from Blood Elf to Human (still female).
Back in the day…
Now having seen the major changes to Prot Paladin in Shadowlands, I’m busting a gut to get maining her again.
The primary change that has been the impetus for this? A simple one: Prot Paladins once again are using Holy Power as their main resource!
This means no shortfall on Shield of the Righteous, and therefore no holes in our Active Mitigation where we can be spiked down, as is currently the case in BfA. SotR downtime is one of the main reasons Prot Paladins in BfA are considered one of the weaker tanks in very high end gameplay (IE late Mythic Nya’lotha and over +15 in Mythic+ dungeons).
I’ve already been shaking the 4 year build-up of rust off, and tanked the vast majority (11/12) of Heroic Nya’lotha during a couple of alt runs over the past few weeks. I’ve currently got my Paladin to within a handful of item levels of my 5/12 Mythic Hunter: my Paladin is 463, whereas my Hunter is 470.
463 is pretty decent, and if she ends the expansion in the mid 460s I’d be happy enough, but given we now have a fairly clear indication that Shadowlands will launch in November of this year, that leaves another 6 months of BfA to go, which gives plenty of opportunity to keep levelling my neck (level 88) and Cloak (rank 14), as well as doing more HC Nya and maybe even a few Mythic bosses down the line.
Also the Kyrian Covenant ability for Prot Paladins is just so damn cool! On a 1-minute CD you can fire off 5 simultaneous Avengers’ Shields at enemies in range – and it looks fun as hell 😀
I’ve been getting the itch to tank again for a while now. Over the past few months I’d tried my DK in lower level content, and I’d taken my Druid into Heroic Nya for a run, but eventually the road led back to the Light, and my beloved Paladin.
Currently I’m finding it a LOT of fun, and have been gently dipping my toes into the waters of tanking mythic plus runs. So far I’ve only got up to +5, but that’s mainly due to a lack of knowledge of routes and pulls. And then also when over the +10 mark which shadow-route shortcuts to take in each dungeon.
But I’m aiming to get the +10 title for doing each dungeon at that level, and if I get the +15 mount out of it as well then all the better!
As per usual with me, it’s more a case of finding the right time and group to run with, but with November still another 6 months away, there’s still plenty of time to go yet…
