The Light and How to Swing It: The importance of optimal play

Posted by on 01 7th, 2012

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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 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense . My column from last week explored what has been theorycrafted to be the optimal patch 4.3 rotations and talent choices. The responses brought up an interesting point — there’s wide disagreement on what the value of optimal play is. What defines optimal play, and what does that leave for what can be considered suboptimal? The answer to these questions are important because the effect they have on the multitude of players you associate yourself with in this, a multiplayer game. Playing, gearing, speccing, and so on — your character optimally is an act of respect for your teammates. I’ll explain what I’m rambling about. What does optimal play mean? In short, optimal play is playing your character to the absolute best that it can be played. That includes not just the actual buttons you’re hitting while on the ground tanking, but also the choices you make before the fight even begins with regards to your talents, glyphs, and so on. Optimal play can change from fight to fight, depending on the demands of the encounter. But there is always one constant: Optimal play is what leads to the boss’s death. Optimal play is what keeps you alive long enough for the DPS to kill the boss. Even if it’s a wipe, optimal play is staying alive as long as you can so that the entire raid or group can learn the fight. In short, optimal play is maximizing your contribution to the success of group play. Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: The importance of optimal play Filed under: Paladin , (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It The Light and How to Swing It: The importance of optimal play originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink