Post by Primacy in my Protection Paladin Cataclysm PVP Guide thread on the official Paladin forum:
Whoa whoa whoa, are you the same Taugrim that wrote the guides I followed religiously in Warhammer (Swordmaster and Bright Wizard) and in Aion too?…Dude, you’re probably the single most helpful MMO player in the entire world for how many different people you’ve helped in so many different games.
That is what my Guides are all about: helping gamers raise their gameplay and learning from them as well š
My Guides provide in-depth, differentiated content including:
- Narrated educational videos showing illustrative footage of the class / spec in action
- Detailed explanation of specs / builds and key talents / abilities
- Breakdown of class mechanics, including offensive, defensive, CC, and counter mechanics
- Macros / addons to support effective gameplay
- Rich dialogue between players including tips, Q&A, and feedback
Current Guides
I’m actively working on the following guides and/or they are still relevant.
World of Tanks
- “Road to Unicum” Tank Reviews and Guide Videos: my in-depth series on mastering WoT, with over 100 Episodes on YouTube covering a variety of tanks on different maps
Elder Scrolls Online
- Stamina Warden PVP Build: Taugrim’s Brawler: this build for Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is a frontline brawler that provides AOE damage, tankiness, and off-healing
Recording Gameplay
- Guide to the Best OBS Settings for Recording Gameplay: OBS is very popular for streaming and for recording while playing games, so I break down the essential settings to record high-quality videos
Gaming Peripheral Reviews
- Red vs Brown Cherry MX Switches, Red vs Blue O-Rings: I discuss in detail the differences between two of the more popular MX Switch colors and how O-Rings affect the keyboard experience
- CM Storm QuickFire Rapid Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
General
- Guide to Keybinding in MMOs for PVP and PVE (280+ comments): this is a must-read guide. A player will not reach their potential skill cap unless they have a kick-ass keybinding setup that facilitates good strafing/movement, enables accurate and timely skill use, and doesn’t give you carpal tunnel
Legacy Guides
Below are guides for games that I no longer play or have been shut down.
World of Warcraft
- Guide to Cataclysm Protection Paladin PVP (1,000+ comments): a copy of this Guide was stickied on the WoW US Prot Pally forum. While most veteran Paladins believed that Prot was dead with the launch of Cataclysm, I proved it was still functional in PVP by earning my 2k rating Achievements in both the 2v2 and 3v3 brackets
Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Ryndar’s Sage / Sorcerer Healing Guide for PvP
- Guide to Powertech / Vanguard Mechanics and PVP (230+ comments)
- Understanding the Defense and Shield Mechanics for Tanks in PVP (40+ comments)
- Understanding the Resolve Mechanic (40+ comments)
- Understanding the Bolster Mechanic (40+ comments)
RIFT
- Guide to M*A*S*H Justicar/Shaman/Warden ClericĀ PVP (70+ comments)
- Guide to Riftblade Warrior PVPĀ Mechanics (310+ comments)
Warhammer Online
Lord of the Rings Online
- Guide to LOTRO Captain ClassĀ Mechanics: this Guide was originally posted on the LOTRO forums, but I created this blog after several of my Guide threads were purged to free up disk space by Turbine
- Guide to LOTRO OrcĀ Reaver
WildStar
- Guide to WildStar Keybinds (50+ comments)
- Guide to the Esper āMelee Mageā PVP Build in WildStar (100+ comments)
Guild Wars 2
- Guide to Guild Wars 2 Keybinds (120+ comments)
- Dagger/Dagger Elementalist Videos for WvW: Vol. 1 | Vol. 2
- Guide to Mesmer “Legion” Build (90+ comments)
- Guide to Warrior āHammer GunāĀ Build (100+ comments)
- Guide to Warrior āCaptain Hammerā Build (90+ comments)
- Guide to Warrior āRun and Gunā Build: WvW | sPvP (150+ comments)
- Mystic Forge PVP GearĀ Crafting
- Understanding the Revive and Finish Mechanic for Downed Players (40+ comments)
Allods Online
- Guide to Allods Onlineās Melee Healer ClassĀ Mechanics (200+ comments)
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
I saw you posted a guide for the Gunslinger. I also know you played the Trooper Vanguard in your recent live stream. Do you plan to put a guide out for the Vanguard soon? I’d love to see it, being as it is my main.
Yes, I’ll have a video out for Vanguard later this week, after I publish a Shadow video.
Have you work out which class you will be doing in-depth guides on?
For SWTOR?
It will be for the first 2 classes that I play. Vanguard/Powertech is one. The second is TBD.
hello. I enjoy watching vid’s of Your skilled handling of pvp. (movement/tactics).
Is it possible to get a short record of Your finger/hands movement during a pvp?
Ive watched your tutor pvp videos regarding keybindings and strafe, but I cant quite figure out how the movement of fingers/hands are done during a battle.
regards and best wishes
Hi Jan,
Other folks have asked for this.
I recently purchased a webcam to record me while playing. Right now I don’t have the funds for a 2nd webcam to record my hands. It’s something I’ll look at down the road.
Hi Taugrim,
You have a lot of great videos with loads of useful information. I came to this site from a link over at Gamebraker.tv (another great site).
My question:
I’ve been wanting to do some screen recordings of gaming that I do (mostly PVP) and I am curious what you use. All of your videos are very smooth and captured very well.
Thanks!
Jag
I record with FRAPS.
The commercial license is $37, well worth it IMO, even just for reviewing one’s gameplay.
Taugrim, your content is amazing, keep it coming. I was wondering if you could do a sort of PVP Primer/Fundamentals? You use terms like kiting, melee kiting, peeling, etc… My scrub PVP skills would thank you.
Would actually more time to make content to explain the basics than to do what I’ve been doing.
I’ll keep this request in mind, but I have a ton of content already planned for the next 3 weeks which will be my priority.
I watched you Gunn. Commando guide and was wondering what you thought of the Gunnery Commando in general for PvP vs. other classes ?
Gunnery is a lot of Grav Round spamming, but don’t self-root too much to cast GR. Move whenever you need to, before you need to.
It’s bursty and a good spec, and you still can functionally heal.
Tank you for your response, keep up the awsomeness =)
I noticed you have played both the sentinel and the gunslinger. I am wondering which you find more fun to pvp with. I originally wanted to go sentinel, but most reviews i read said they are just get in someones face and smash buttons….that and they are nearly identical to warriors in wow which is what i played. I am afraid of how buggy the cover system is and how much the gunslinger has to rely on it. So overall which was your favorite to play even out of all the classes you have played….great playing too hope to see more videos
Saying Sentinels “are just get in someones face and smash buttons” is too simplistic. It’s a dance of generating / spending Focus / Rage. Lots of debuffs for Sentinels, just gotta execute the right timing of abilities.
GS Cover works great if you understand how it works and read what I wrote in the article for the video.
ya i was looking at that bug part you pointed out, i just dont know if i can handle another warrior with MS, hamstring charge etc, but who knows i just cant wait to play. I wish gunslinger could play dps and a healer or sentinel could go something other than dps.
i havnt decided if ill regret not rolling a class that uses a light sabre or not yet hahaha
If you’re tired of Warrior, don’t roll a Sentinel. It will feel too similar for you.
If you want to play a DPS or healer in the same Advanced Class, roll a Commando, Smuggler, or Sage.
cool thanks!
and you never played a tauren warrior on blackrock did you? your name seems really familiar but none of your vids are of warrior
Nope.
In Cataclysm I was playing a Blood Elf Prot Pally on the PVP server Wildhammer.
have you played a sage at all, and is dpsing as them fun i feel like the tiny barrage of little rocks looks just really unimpressive
Sage / Sorc melts face in PVP, period.
I’m probably repeating thousands of other posts….but
Are you coming back to WoW anytime soon? I want to see you in recent action with prot pvp!
Anyways, take it easy! I’ve been following your blog and the comments for a long long time now. :)
No plans to come back to WoW.
The Mists of Pandaria xpac doesn’t interest me.
Heya Taugrim.
Just wondering if you have any plans for a Sith Sorceror DPS guide?
I’ve messed around with a few specs and I’m happy with what I’ve got atm, kicking out between 250-300k solo in random Wz’s but I’d be interested to see your take on the DPS specs.
Not right now, because Sorc / Sage is overplayed and is the strongest AC in PVP overall.
I’m looking at either Sentinel or Guardian next, or possibly Gunslinger, as there is a lot more frustration among players of those ACs.
I was wondering what is a good champion gear build for a Dps PVP PT BH?
My Guide has specs for DPS PVP specs for Powertech:
https://taugrim.com/2012/01/04/guide-to-bounty-hunter-powertech-trooper-vanguard-mechanics-and-pvp/#specs
hey taugrim, love your streams and guides and the amount of info that you put into each. i was just wondering, when you get a chance, if you could look at the build i linked and see if my point allocations are right. tks in advance. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bcrrdRoRgzZbfZh.1
p.s. don’t hate me for not using darth hater, i’m currently at work and it is blocked
-3 Sharpshooter
+2 Cover Screen
+3 Burst Volley
-2 Bravado
Howdy Taugrim,
My question is tanking in nature, but is about companions and stat priorities. I currently have my Khem Val at 17700 health, 4470armor(29.27% dmg reduction), 20.18% defense,
40.29% Shield(this is with his tanking stance), 32.74% Absorption.
I have been mostly focused on stacking defense when possible, with shield chance and absorption as equal secondaries. I am a sorc healer and i enjoy soloing 4man hard modes, i intended on soloing various world bosses, but found out that companions are not allowed to fight world bosses, nor enter ops. Earlier this week I solo’d the Force Ghost (magenta crystal boss) and my GM recorded me doing it again this morning and hopefully will have a video of it out soon. My question is should i give up some defense for shield chance/absorption, and if so what levels would you suggest. Please keep in mind companions are stupid and dont move out of avoidable damage, so i have to compensate with healing. based on this i assume stacking defense is the right direction, but wanted to get the opinion of a leading authority on the subject.
It sounds like you have geared your companion tank solidly, no real feedback from me in terms of changes.
Can’t wait for a full Shadow/Assassin guide. :)
Hello Taugrim! good day!
I’ve been using your iron fist trooper build. but my guild asked me if i can reroll to a jedi shadow…i was wondering if you could put up a build/guide with proper keybindings, strat, rotations?
Hi Ed, greeting from Sweden :), Have a question regarding your mousepointer, the bluish one, how do you set that one up, think it would help me out in some chaotic situations in SWtor.
Kind Regards
Mattias.
HallƄ!
My mouse pointer in-game is yellow, but it shows up as blue for some reason when I’m streaming through XSplit to Twitch.
Thanks for your repy, oh, tobad, would love to have that ingame. But anyhow, great streams, have followed you since beta, playing vanguard myself, its a joy to watch you =).
Hey Taugrimm,
I never post on blogs but thanks for your keybind guide. I read the whole thing followed the
guidelines and wow my pvp experience went from good to excellent.
Thank you
-Jon G.
Glad to hear it Jon, and thanks for making an exception by posting to let me know :)
Have you ever considered composing a general guideline to the warzones in SWTOR? I watch your livestreams mostly to pick-up tactics, especially those my Powertech can excel at. Example: during a huttball match where you were losing, a mercenary on your team punted a ball carrier directly backwards twice instead of cutting the angle and knocking him in the pit, therefore failing to prevent scores. This is a prime example of I think myself and many others would find invaluable if composed not just by yourself, but a few other guildmates you trust.
Smurfette, Powertech
I probably won’t do this at this point for the existing 3 SWTOR warzones, but I will keep it in mind for future games and for future warzones.
Hey! Would love to see more Allods guides from you, specifically a more PvE-centric take on your melee healer guide. It’s hard to find good up to date guides on Allods, and yours is the most competent guide I’ve found so far, despite only covering one playstyle of one class. I really think the Allods community needs someone like you!
Unfortunately, I have no plans to return to Allods Online.
Taugrim! I love your stream and love watching you on Gamebreaker.tv! I do have a question/concern though that I’m hoping you can answer: I’m a Vanguard but I run with an Assault spec. I’m in full Champion gear, but lately I’ve been having trouble with Scoundrels/Operators coming out of stealth and taking half my health bar away before I can get up and do significant damage to them. I thought this was addressed in a patch not too long ago, but I haven’t seen (read: felt) the changes. Was I wrong in thinking there was a patch that fixed this? Or am I just going about it all wrong? Help, bro!
Everyone has this issue. Their burst out of stealth is very high.
I just started making videos, I’m curious.. how do you render your videos? or better couldnt you make a guide about it. I’m sure alot would appreciate it! thanks in advance.
ps. I made a comment on your tanky tank daily video, sorry if it came out aggressive. but hey! I’m a warrior after all \m/
I used to use Windows Movie Maker 2.6 or 6.0, but now I use Adobe Premier Elements 10.
Any chance of updating this for 4.3?
I follow you for my powertech and really enjoy that, but I am also playing wow and wanted to do a prot pally for BGs/ fun. No arena.
There seem to have been a lot of changes since you last updated this guide and no one else has really taken up the mantle.
I’ve considered playing WoW again, but there are multiple new games coming out soon (GW2, TERA). TBD.
Ok, i found out via the public test servers that Power Screen works like this : each time Ion Pulse and Energy Blast hits, it procs and buffs for 2% absorption increase. It can stack up to 4 times and the buff lasts 15 seconds. (this is the stats with 2 points invested into the talent) Besides that i also learned that Ceramic Plating nerf is a meager 2%, instead of 6% absorb when 2 points are invested, its 4%. So, considering Energy blast is going to be more appealing in 1.2 since no more long animations and off GCD, and energy blast is always useful , you can stack up to 8% extra absorb pretty easily and makes up for that meager 2% loss on ceramic plating. Let me know your opinion on this Taugrim :) Thanks
Hey Taugrim been following you and using your guides with very much success on my BH. Do you know of a person that writes great guides like yours for the Jedi Guardian/Sith Warrior classes? Most of the garbage i’m digging through online is from beta. Thanks.
Great page but it is slow to load, and actually locks up safari on the iphone.
Dunno what you got happening in the background.
Great guides Taug! Thanks to you I no longer back-pedal and move with arrow keys. My game when up remarkably and I now consider myself an expert melee strafer. So far I have mastered my Vangaurd and am now looking to really excell with my Jedi Knight. Can you please suggest and sites or suggestions on good defensive pvp builds / rotations etc.
~Thankyou,
Demetrias Trueborn
Jedi Knight, Illysium
Great Guides helped my Sage heals out big time. Can you post a guide for Sage DPS @ lvl 50?
Xepher
Really miss your Vanguard videos and tips, Taugrim. I know 1.3 has hit PvP hard in SWTOR, but are you still playing?
I updated my Guide for 1.3.
Is there information you feel is missing for 1.3?
Ed, I think I have to disagree with something I’ve heard you say on the republic and then I saw it again here in your responses… Essentially, you’re stating that this is Bioware’s first mmo. And I can see how you arrive at that but for a long time even in their careers section and in the company title it was bioware/mythic. Mythic created one of the greatest openworld pvp games of all time in DAoC, and then turned around and had what I would call a learning experience with Warhammer. Warhammer has become a lot better than what it was at release but I was very disappointed with it. I’ve even seen some of the big names from warhammer mentioned over at bioware. My point is this, if you are putting all this money on something wouldn’t you use every resource at your disposal to make the game better? Either by choice or by chance Bioware did not pay attn to the lessions that were learned at Mythic and made the same huge mistakes.
You can feel like they made these mistakes because they don’t have experience, but personally I think they are one of the poorest managed teams I’ve ever seen. Firing the community lead but keeping the pvp guy? Hate to say it but the wrong heads are rolling. Just my 2cents.
I love your informative and insightful video was wondering if you could throw some love to the Elementalist and Mesmer classes in GW2. I am one of the older players in the game and can use all the help i can get :) . When you get over 60 playing these game my reflexes are not as fast as you young ones :) Any little tidbits that can help the old guy would appreciated.
Hey i just saw you YouTube side and i think it was pretty awesome. (I am gonna play GW2 so i really liked your clips) So i was just wondering if you could make a video about the thief ?? That would be great.
Hey dude, I’ve been watching your stuff since I found and applied your Iron Fist build to my powertech in TOR. By far the most fun I had in pvp, so thanks for that. Looking forward to more GW2 guides, keep up the good work!
I would really like your views on how the 1.4 update will effect the Powertech / Vanguard DPS.
Ok, shot in the dark…
If you ever decide to explore Ranger in GW2 I’d love to see if you can do better than the sad state that we all bemoan as the weakest character in GW2 (as per usual for any MMO so far…)
Hello, I just wanted to say, thank you for all the guides and tips you have put out over these few years. I have followed your informative guides in Warhammer, SWTOR, and GW2, and I found all of them to be enlightening.
Your keybindings I’ve found, are much superior to the default configuration and less tiring; at times I thought about moving it around and customising it even more, but I always go back to the “WER” movement configuration because the D key can be used for lightning fast dodges and interrupts, and I have many more keys to work with and need to use less modifiers compared to “WASD”. Furthermore, the peripheral keys and 1-5 are just where I want them (after a lot of GW2 PvP) and I just couldn’t play any other way now.
In particular a tip about watching procs left a big impression on me. It was a SWTOR video about Vanguard/Powertech proc resets and how to watch them, and using the linear GCD “line” to watch for a proc reset was so applicable to SWTOR proc mechanics in general due to the how CDs are displayed, as a lowering “wall” graphic. I played a Sin tank, and before watching your guide I would have to react to the buff displayed in a random position on my buff bar and the delay usually cost me a GCD on activating another ability (since it is illogical to wait and confirm that the 30% proc pops).
How do you think of these tips that simplify gameplay in such ingenious ways? Or maybe I’m just not cut out for critical thinking.
I forgot to say, Happy New Year Taugrim! May we see you in 2014.
Hey Taugrim, thx for all the great guides! I just started playing gw2 and was looking into your run and gun build for when I finally get to wvw. some things included didn’t really make sense to me but I am new to the system. I did come up with this…
http://www.intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s70F-0-VKkN0_47L-60;9;5TJ-J;132718;223-L-F18;1TsW6TsW65BS
which is heavily based on your build, I was wondering if you or someone who knows what their doing could take a look and tell me what I did wrong thx :)
Hello Taugrim, amazing job done so far.
I am you fan since SWTOR, and i’ve been following your guides since then.
From my perspective – a 40 y/o gen X hard working guy, your guides are perfect for my “old-style” more mature and relaxed style of gaming, also not that hyper-super reaction times anymore ;-(.
So Thank You for all your effort so far.
I have one question – is there a chance that you will post some guides for World of Warships anytime soon?
Kind regards,
Derry
I’m a Gen X guy too.
Glad my guides have resonated with you.
Not sure.
I watched a couple videos on WoT and was very interested in trying it out. Watched WoW videos, didn’t have the same reaction.
Love the warden Brawler guide for eso. Seriously great job! Been messing around with that for 3-4 months! Hope to see other ESO guides should you choose to make one! TY