Ulduar: The Return of the Block Set

I like being right. From all t5 content onwards, there were several fights where having a solid, block and block value set were very useful for progression. In fact, it was our niche, to the point where guilds would recruit a protection paladin just for the trash in Hyjal. And AoE tanking was fun. There was something pretty awesome about having 25 elites thwacking at you, futilely trying to get through your awesome shield.

Wrath brought two things. First, we weren't the only AoE tanks anymore. To be honest, that's neither here nor there. If other tanks want to AoE tank, more power to them. It doesn't affect me. Second, though, Wrath had very few AoE tank fights. There were adds on Sartharion and there was the dreary trash on Gothik, and that was it. A set was nice to have on Loatheb. However, let's face it, even if it had AoE fights, Naxx was so easy we really didn't need separate sets for anything, ever.

Not to be deterred, I picked up a hell of a block set in Naxxramas at great cost on the presumption that it might be useful again in Ulduar, and I was not disappointed. So far, Razorscale, Decontructor, Kolargarn, Freya and Thorim can make great use of a block/threat set. Deconstructor is one of those fights where I'm tanking only sometimes, so I need to max out the dps I can do and block value is great for that. The others all have swarms of waves that make my healer's job much easier if I can block the damage. I don't know the fights past this point yet, but the trash is getting hard enough that a proper trash set is proving beneficial in several spots. All in all, then, I'm quite happy that I have this set and I've even upgraded my belt and ring to new ilevel 226 block gear.

For a while in Naxx, I was scratching my head as to why there was block value on anything. Most of the fights were vanilla relics in which a boss hits a single tank real hard. It was like a whole aspect of tanking had been forgotten about. With Ulduar, this aspect is coming back, and I couldn't be happier for it.