Gearing up your Tank at 80

I thought I might share some of the research I've done on easily available gear at 80 so that we can get all of our tanks up to heroic level as quickly as possible.

I look at three things when choosing gear: Defense Rating, Stamina, Dodge/Parry/Block and finally Strength. Hit may be import for warriors, but it should be a distant 5th attribute to look at.

Your first priority should be getting Defense to 540. This will make you uncrittable to raid boss mobs. It's best to get overlapped at first, that way you can upgrade gear and still have some wiggleroom with your defense.

Stamina x 10 = HP. Nuff said.

Dodge/Parry/Block gives you more effective HP. Work on these too.

Strength x 10 = damage blocked from a shield block. (I think this is right)

Anywho gear:

-- CRAFTED ITEMS --
Tempered Saronite Set:
http://www.wowhead.com/?search=tempered+saronite
This set is awesome. This will get you overlapped on defenses and ready to go at 80.

-- REP REWARDS --
Put on your Wyrmrest Accord tabard and don't take it off until you hit Revered. These three things are very nice:

Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44188

Breastplate of the Solemn Council
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44198
The best pre Naxx chest piece. GET IT!

Sabatons of Draconic Vigor
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44201
Defense, Hit Rating, Lots of stamina. Better than a lot of crafted purples.

After the Wyrmrest Accord, the Argent Crusade should be your next faction to gain rep with.

Special Issue Legplates
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44240
Gobs of defense, hit, stamina and a socket! And only requires honored. Easy to get.

Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44150
This is -the- tanking head enchant. Kind of a pain since you need Exalted, but you will need this down the road.

Knights of the Ebon Blade only has one piece of gear for tanks really.

Toxin-Tempered Sabatons
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44243
These are an alternative to the boots of Draconic Vigor. These have a little bit different itemization with block value. Still pretty good, but requires honored. There's a drop in Culling of Strath that is identical to these though.

-- QUESTS --
Do the quest, Wanted: Ragemane's Flipper. For the Hammer of Quiet Mourning. It's fast, has fantastic defense and dodge. The axe might have more defense, but it's too slow for tanking. Faster weapon = more rage/more seal of corruption stacks.

http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=12857

Alternately, you can do Tirion's Gambit for the Sword of the Empty Void. It's not as good as the hammer, and requires more prerequisites, while Ragemane's Flipper takes about 5 minutes. Still, it's an option:

http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=13364

Do the quest, Halls of Stone. Very easy quest that you can complete by just doing a run through on normal mode. The Pauldrons of Reconnaissance are very, very good.

http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=13207

For Prosterity requires a run through of Gun'drak. Very nice ring reward:
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=13098

Long questline in Scholanzar Basin ends with A Hero's Burden. Rewards the Blood Infused Pendant, which is awesome.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39485

-- NORMAL DUNGEON DROPS --

Halls of Lightning:

Seal of the Pantheon
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=36993

Gun'drak:

Gal'darah's Signet
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43306

The Oculus:

Dragonflight Great-Ring
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=36961

I'll append more if I find it.

First of all, I didn't believe the "Techno-Viking" thing was possible...and with your avatar, I see that it has...or I'm going senile.

I found that Ciderhelm's guides are very detailed on gear you can acquire. The main thread can be found at http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f97/41986-cider-s-easy-540-defense-gear-guide.html .

There some other links in the site that detail:
--General gear lists
--Pre-Naxx
--EH, Avoidance, Block
--Easy items
--Instance only gear

One of the guildelines for the warrior tank (should there be any other?) is the following stats:

HP: 23k
Armor: 23k
Dodge chance: 20%
Parry chance: 20%
Block chance: 20%
Miss chance: 10%
Block value: 850
Parry reduction: 3%

...but again, I am a little partial warrior tanks .

In any case, happy reading .

-GV

Quote :

One of the guildelines for the warrior tank (should there be any other?)

Ahem.

Are you in agreement too?? Sweet!!




If not, that's ok too. I'll watch you "the pally tank" get punched in the face a lot (along with any other tank class) as I smash my "Heal You" button.

This Tankspot site is fantastic btw, the HD videos on YouTube are especially useful. Thanks for pointing this out.

Thanks for the good advice guys. Im sure that will help our developing tanks! And Goodvibes.... your healz will only be beneficial to ANY tank in raids and heroics if you were ONLY LVL 80! Now stop picking on the tankadins and get your ass to work (or should I say "asshat to work")

Aw, come on...it's fun!! I doth protest of my lack of ASSHAT-iness! I just don't seem to have the time lately to log on (anyone want to help me put a chimney liner in my house this weekend?).

Even though I do have pally friends (is that an oxymoron ), I'll always be a original WoW Horde warrior, in which I detest the "pally bubble" ...especially in WSG so many years ago.

ps, I like pie