This post is part of the Complete idiot’s guide to Karazhan for Protection Paladins and skims through bosses, layout and lore to get your Protection Paladin started with tanking Karazhan. Be sure to read my other guides for your Tankadin on the Guides page. Interesting reads indeed!

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I don’t know about you, but when I go to and tank new content, I first try and find as much as I can about 3 main things: bosses, layout and lore. Let’s see what Karazhan has to offer, shall we?

Bosses

Karazhan is huge, scripted, and non-winged, containing twelve boss encounters, with 22 different NPCs. To get inside the instance, you need to get past the door right after the instance gate. In order to open this door, at least one person in the raid must have The Master’s Key which is obtained through an attunement process. The door is also able to be lock picked by rogues.

Getting attuned

Even though now it’s not necessary for you to get attuned to be able to enter Karazhan (this attunement was required for all raid members a while back), I strongly recommend you to do it because you will get a lot of Keepers of Time reputation in the process which will save you many BM runs for getting Revered. Getting attuned requires you to complete these steps:

1. Complete the quests Restless Activity and Arcane Disturbances given by Archmage Alturus outside Karazhan.
2. You must then visit Dalaran and talk to Archmage Cedric who will send you to Khadgar in Shattrath City.
3. Khadgar will give you a quest to retrieve the First Key Fragment from a Arcane Container in Shadow Labyrinth. It is located in the room of the last boss Murmur.
4. Next you need to retrieve two more key fragments from The Steamvault and The Arcatraz. The Steamvaults fragment is found just before the first boss in the water. The Arcatraz fragment is found in the corner of the blue room after the first boss.
5. Khadgar will now ask you to visit Medivh in The Black Morass and give him the key. You will need to complete the encounter before Medivh will talk to you.
6. Return to Khadgar in Shattrath and he will give you The Master’s Key.

As I was saying earlier, Karazhan is the home of 12 bosses (yes, twelve, yielding 22 Badges if you do a full clear). Five of them are required (Moroes, Opera Event — one of three random encounters: Wizard of Oz, Big Bad Wolf or Romulo and Julianne, The Curator, Chess Event and Prince Malchezaar), seven optional (Attumen the Huntsman & Midnight, Maiden of Virtue, Shade of Aran, Terestian Illhoof, Netherspite, Nightbane and 1 random animal boss which nobody does because he drops crap loot).

Layout

Karazhan is not very friendly to new comers. First of all, it’s very big and has at least 2 ways to get to a point. This makes it hard for new players to get around. Hell, I even know a few people that despite doing it many times before they still get lost.

Back to the layout. The best method I found to get around is to take each boss and learn the ways to get to him. Study the maps, read guides and when you first go and face the situation, it will be much easier.

Don’t get discouraged if it all seems overwhelming at first. Be patient, things will fall into place after some time. Wowwiki is a great place to read about Karazhan, so if you have the patience, please do so.

Shortcuts

• Killing the Shade of Aran makes a teleport to his room available from Berthold the Doorman.
• Karazhan has a side entrance. When climbing the tower to the right of the main entrance (across the small creek), the stairs lead to a bridge and to a door which unlocks after the Opera Event has been cleared. Some trash can be bypassed by using the side entrance right after the Opera Event.

Vendors and Repairs

• Koren <The Blacksmith>, next to Attumen the Huntsman, will repair gear for players who are Honored with Violet Eye. He also sells some epic Blacksmithing recipes (frost resistance gear). Near him is Calliard who wanders around, babbling how evil Midnight and her owner are.
• Outside of the Gamesman’s Hall (before the Chess Event) is Ythyar, a reagent and The Consortium rep reward vendor, who can repair gear (however it is worthy to note that Ythyar has no faction attached to him, so no rep discounts are available — whether this is a bug or intentional is unclear).

Lore

Nobody knows lore like wowwiki so here’s a quote straight from there:

Karazhan is located in Deadwind Pass on the sub-continent of Azeroth in the Eastern Kingdoms. Existing long before Medivh inhabited it, it is unknown who originally built Karazhan or who now resides within its walls. The land it sits on “was similar in shape to a human skull. Many had noted it over the years, though only a few had been sufficiently brave, or powerful, or tactless to mention it to the property’s owner”.^{LG 2}

Karazhan’s history begins with an explosion that carved out Deadwind Pass and weakened the fabric of reality in the region.^{LG 89} Someone then built the tower, probably to take advantage of this weakened reality and heightened magic. Medivh eventually took up residence there, but mused that the explosion and the construction only happened because he would eventually arrive.^{LG 91, 92}

During the First War, the tower was inhabited by Medivh, his steward Moroes, his cook Cook, and his then-apprentice Khadgar. Garona also resided here as an emissary in the same time of Khadgar’s apprenticeship. Sargeras allowed Medivh to freely explore Karazhan. As a result of the region’s weakened reality, many strange and disturbing visions lurked within the tower, and Moroes was known for wearing blinders to avoid seeing them. The visions were ultimately ended when most of Karazhan’s ambient magical power was absorbed by the resurrected Medivh, reducing it to “a pile of stone in the remote reaches”, its power taken to serve the Prophet.^{LG 306-308}

Much of the story from this era is presented in the novel The Last Guardian.

Recently, despite Medivh’s absence and the draining of magic, a new power seems to have made its home in Karazhan. The Black Riders of Deadwind Pass, though rarely seen, have a connection to Karazhan. However, no one knows who their master is. One recent sighting is cause for concern — the Black Riders seek the Scythe of Elune, a powerful artifact with the ability to summon the vile Worgen into this world.

It is believed that all ley lines on Azeroth lead to a location under Karazhan.

Worldofwarcraft.com says the following about Karazhan:

The decrepit tower of Karazhan once housed one of the greatest powers Azeroth has ever known: the sorcerer Medivh. Since his death, a terrible curse has pervaded the tower and the surrounding lands. The spirits of nobles from nearby Darkshire reportedly walk its halls, suffering a fate worse than death for their curiosity. More dangerous spirits wait within Medivh’s study, for it was there that he summoned demonic entities to do his bidding. However, the brave and foolish are still relentlessly drawn to Karazhan, tempted by rumors of unspeakable secrets and powerful treasures. Forge a group of ten stalwart heroes, and journey to the tower in Deadwind Pass — but be warned that only those who have achieved level 70 should dare enter.

This concludes today’s part of the Complete idiot’s guide to Karazhan for Protection Paladins. Stay tuned for the next part, when we cover the spoils of war, aka the sweet loot.

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All non-believer’s, watch his please:

For full quality movie, download here.

Thanks Invisusira, you made me believe again.

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This post is part of the Complete idiot’s guide to Karazhan for Protection Paladins and covers interesting concepts of gameplay, minimum gear requirements and a few introduction words to get your Protection Paladin started with tanking Karazhan. Be sure to read my other guides for your Tankadin on the Guides page. Interesting reads indeed!

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I remember back when I started Karazhan with a few of my friends and the guild I was officer in, I didn’t find any resources to read upon what was my role in each encounter. I only found a few guides (mainly all adaptations from wowwiki) that confused me more. Why? Because none of them gave credit to the awesome power that is Paladin Tanking.

A Protection Paladin is simply the best tank to have around when raiding Karazhan.

Reasons:

• incredible AoE tanking ability which is heavily needed, both on bosses and on trash;
• most mobs are Demons or Undead, which makes a Pala Tank build aggro like no other;
• the best support tank you can have: extra blessings, capable healer if it’s really necessary, useful abilities (like Improved Judgement of the Crusader for extra crit or Blessing of Protection for that nasty Garrote);

Gearing yourself up

I’m not going to make a guide about the gear you should have simply because many others have done so before me. Just follow those great people’s advices and you’ll be fine. It’s important to keep in mind a few aspects, which I’m going to point out again:

• don’t step foot in Karazhan without 490 Defense Rating!
• it’s not important to be Uncrushable for the first bosses so focus more on Defense (but try and reach it when you’re further away in progression - Prince for example);
• get a decent amount of Spell Damage (around 200 should be enough);

How to act

A very important part of every raid are the players. This might sound silly to you, but it’s true. Most raids don’t fail because of gear, they fail because of people’s attitude. No matter what happens, keep your focus and your mind clear. Remember, it’s only a game after all.

Dos:

• Listen to suggestion and/or criticism. Everyone can improve;
• Accept wipes with a smile on your face. Progression can’t happen without wipes;
• Listen to your raid leader even if he’s wrong. If he is, he will fail and look stupid;
• Come in time and prepared for the raid. Here is a list of regents and consumables that can help a Protection Paladin to get ready for a raid;
• Read beforehand tactics for each encounter you’ll be facing;
• Keep WWS logs (and ask your friends to do so too) to keep track of performance;

Don’ts:

• Don’t openly criticize other people even if you are right. If you aren’t the raid leader, it’s not your job to keep an eye on other players. If you see someone slacking, best you can do is whisper the RL with your observations;
• Don’t slack;
• Don’t go AFK without letting the RL know. You’ll just make people in the raid angry at you;
• Don’t leave the raid before it’s time without finding a replacement, unless it’s really urgent;

It’s important to know that if you act mature and helpful it won’t go unnoticed and you will benefit in the long run.

I guess this is it for now. I plan to develop the guide with personal insight for all the bosses and step-by-step instructions on how to approach them so stick around!

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Seems we’re getting a lot of love tonight as another question just popped out. It comes from Asara:

I am also, like Mama Druid, working on leveling up a Prot pally (Saraabi on
Malfurion). She was ret most of the way, but now that she’s hit Outland, I
decided I’d take the plunge and start tanking things.

Anyway, I was hoping you could shed some light on how exactly one goes about
AOE grinding. Is that something I can do now, or do I need to wait for my full
talent tree at 70? I’ve seen videos but they don’t really explain blow-by-blow
what they’re doing.. and when I’m questing, I’m generally lucky to be able to
hold two mobs without dying. I just started the Nesingwary questlines in
Nagrand, and it would cut a lot of time out of my grind if I could drop four or
five of the mobs at a time. Any help you have is welcome!

Sorry about me not being so prompt about your question, but I was fighting in the tournament I was telling you about earlier this week.

Referring back to your problem, I’ve looked at your character on armory. First thing I noticed is that you didn’t took Reckoning. You should. Helps out a great deal while leveling. Secondly, it really shows on your gear that you came from a Retribution build. But it’s ok, things will get better. A really big plus is the shield you have. Strap a Felsteel Shield Spike on (expensive, but invest in that because you’ll be using this shield at AoE farming even at 70) and you’re set.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to recall how many mobs I could pull while leveling. I think around 3 if they were melee and only 1 caster. So I can’t really tell why you die at only two mobs. Here are a few tips you could use:

• Holy Shield and Consecration should be always up. Always;
• Judge and fight with SoW;
• Use Retribution aura;
• Get Reckoning (lulz);
• Have guts. Don’t be afraid to bubble (and heal) or even LoH. Next time you’ll know to pull less;

I’m guessing the vids you watched are of the Paladins farming the Demon Hunters near Black Temple. For those you kinda need good-ish gear. Figurine of the Colossus and Dabiri’s Enigma are a deadly combo. I remember that first time I attempted to farm them, I had to bubble, heal myself to full and still was very close to dieing. Now I just storm in and they don’t even get me to half HP.

AoE grinding is not so present and effective at lower levels. Good news is, by the time you hit 70 and have the gear to attempt Karazhan (meaning at least 490 Defense, 10k HP, 200ish Spell Damage) you’ll be a lean-mean-farming machine. And things get only for the better while getting better and better gear.

Good luck! Hope I’ve been of some help.

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Today I got my first question via this blog. It comes from Mama Druid and sounds like this:

I hope you have some time to help me with a few questions. I’m leveling a protection paladin - she dinged 40 over the weekend.

I think I’ve done ok with my talents, but at these low levels the right kind of gear is difficult to come by. Spell damage seems only attainable via expensive enchants, and I think block rating is more of an Outlands stat. From what I understand about the basic stats, strength increases my block rating so I figured I need a good amount of strength.

Gear wise, and leveling before Outlands wise, are strength and stam stats I should be stacking… combined with any +def/br/spell dmg I can find?

It seems as though I block attacks from all attackers, not just the one I’m hitting… can you verify this to be true?

Is a faster one hand weapon preferred, for faster health regen with SoL (especially when Reckoning procs)?

Thank you for your assistance.

First of all, I want to thank you for being the first to use the Contact Form. It gives me great pleasure to know that people are actually following me and I can communicate and help them.

Regarding your question(s), let’s start from the top.

I’ve looked at your armory link (which I didn’t post, I didn’t know if it was ok or not) and you invested your talents very well until now. Keep going for Improved Holy Shield and then go for One-Handed Weapon Specialization. On the way, don’t forget to pick up Blessings of Kings.

Gear wise, unfortunately, there isn’t much love for us before Outland so we’re forced to share the same tanking loot as warriors. So yes, stack Stamina, Strength and Defense. Also, for spell damage, you can use some Wizard Oil.

About the blocks, yes, we block attacks from all attackers that are in front of us, not only those of the mob we’re hitting.

Fast one-handed weapons are the way to go. I’ve read some time ago that 1.6 attack speed would be the optimum value for that (don’t ask me where, I can’t remember). Fast attack speed = more damage when SoR is up (especially of Reckoning procs) = more threat. This should be your first priority, not to loose aggro because we know how people don’t trust Paladin Tanks (especially at low levels).

Other than that, my advice is to keep faith and don’t let yourself discouraged by the others. Have fun playing your Prot Pala!

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