Originally Posted by
davidad
This illustrates the need for spoke protectors.
Pull the cassette or freewheel, detension the spokes about three turns,replace the broken and damaged spokes and retrue the wheel.
A spoke protector should only come into play in the event of some catastrophic event that destroys the rear derailleur and derails the chain.
Short of that and in normal use the limit screws will keep the chain where its supposed to be. It does help a lot of course if they're properly adjusted. No issue with people that like spoke protectors - they're just not normally needed.