The Light and How to Swing It: Talents and glyphs for tanking Mogu'shan Vaults

Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense.

My brawny colleague Dan Desmond covered this topic for his two-handed cohort earlier this week, but I think it's also worth exploring for all the tankadins out there. Namely, what talents and glyphs can be utilized to make tanking the first raid of tier 14 a little easier?

Sure the new hotness is Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring (and I'll get to those!), but I expect that the vast majority of players are still actively working on clearing Mogu'shan Vaults, or are slogging through it weekly in LFR for precious, precious VP. Even if you've been doing this place ad nauseam for the last few weeks, there are always little tweaks that can be made to get the job done faster with less damage taken!

For reference, these are the base talents and glyphs I go with. So any suggestions I make will be what deviates from those. Especially with regards to Glyph of the Battle Healer, you should make sure to have that up at all times and should be actively tanking with Seal of Insight. It can make a noticeable difference in your survivability, and can pay some dividends for the survivability of your melee colleagues.

The Stone Guard

For the Stone Guard, you're looking at what will be a high damage fight for your guild or group that first time you encounter it (and for a few times after that). Healers are going to need help with all the damage going out from the DoT, the (comparably pittance) melees, and of course all the environmental effects that DPS will invariably be tumbling through.

You should absolutely be speccing into Hand of Purity, which you'll then use as much as possible to mitigate Rend Flesh. It can make a huge difference in saving the healers some much needed mana.

Likewise, pick up Light's Hammer and throw it so that it covers both you and some melee. Holy Prism can also work as well, and will sometimes be the better option if you're moving the boss a lot.

Feng the Accursed

Feng the Accursed is another fight with a lot of AoE damage, and especially magic damage. As such, you'll want to be extra careful to leave Divine Protection unglyphed so you get that 40% magic damage reduction for moments like when Feng is radiating fire damage post-Draw Flame in phase 2. Also be sure to grab Light's Hammer and use that in phase 3 when everyone is stacked up for Arcane Velocity.

Gara'jal the Spiritbinder

On Gara'jal the Spiritbinder, my co-tank and I tend to use the encounter as an e-peen measuring contest with our DPS. The tank that is lucky enough to hold Gara'jal during his Frenzy period will easily put out 6-digit DPS as their Vengeance skyrockets from all the incoming damage. If you're a sick as we are, you might be inclined to glyph and talent for maximum DPS.

(You can tell how dangerous this fight is for tanks considering this is how we approach the fight.)

For starters, glyph for Focused Shield, to give your Avenger's Shield (one of our hardest hitting abilities) a nice boost, and do the same with Glyph of Harsh Words. Considering how our DPS can crater when you're off-tanking, using Harsh Words to make Word of Glory an attack will help you stay on the map when stuck at just half Vengeance. Be sure you also have Glyph of the Alabaster Shield active, though it should be by default.

With talents, you'll want to spec into both Execution Sentence and Holy Avenger. The former because it's the only real DPS choice of its tier, and the latter because it'll be up just about every time you take the boss (and big bonus if you can pair it with Avenging Wrath).

This isn't really a talent or glyph suggestion, but nonetheless, if you want some extra DPS don't neglect to taunt on cooldown. The boss will fixate on his current tank, so you can't pull him off, and every taunt gives you 50% of the active tank's Vengeance. This'll make a huge difference in your DPS during off-tanking periods.

The Spirit Kings

Spirit Kings is a really straightforward tanking fight after the last few, so there's not much talents and glyphing will do here for you that'll be a game changer. You might like Speed of Light for quickly zipping away from a Flanking Orders or something, but that's the only real suggestion I can think of.

Elegon

With Elegon you will absolutely need to spec into Long Arm of the Law. This is a heavy movement fight, at least outside of LFR, because of how you need to get the Celestial Protector add to the edge of the rings. Long Arm of the Law, combined with enough haste, should give you a pretty reliable and often available speed boost. With my raid-buffed ~20% haste, I can get my Judgment cooldown down to decimal points over 5 seconds.

Moreover, you'll definitely want to glyph Holy Wrath for the adds that emerge after every pillar phase. Stunning them during the period when the raid burns them down can be a huge boon to everyone's survivability!

Will of the Emperor

Will of the Emperor is another fight that doesn't require much movement from the tanks, outside from one of the best boss mechanics ever: the dance of the Devastating Combo. You'll absolutely want a speed boost to make it easier for you to weave around the constructs' attacks. Personally, I prefer Long Arm of the Law (for the reasons I described just above), but you might find just as much value in Pursuit of Justice, if you don't run much haste. Just as long as you have the speed to avoid the boss' attacks, you're good to go.

Remember to taunt your co-tank with how many Opportunistic Strikes you got off! This part is critical.

The Light and How to Swing It shows paladin tanks how to combat the Sha in the strange new land of Pandaria. Try out the new control gearing strategy, learn how to make the most of the new active mitigation system on your tankadin, and check out how to deck out your fresh 90 tank to get ready for any raids!