Magister's Terrace loot - speculation

[Dubbleutyeff]

Kaplan said that Magister's Terrace in heroic mode would drop Kara-level (iLvl 115) gear, and the final boss would drop Prince-level (iLvl 125) gear. So that got me thinking to what slot pieces would most likely drop for tanks?

First off, I think it's not as likely they'll create new heroic epics for slots they already have made gear for: Main Hand weapon (Heroic Mech), Shoulders (Heroic SH), Wrists (Heroic SV), Hands (Heroic Bot), Waist (Heroic Ramparts), and Feet (Heroic BF).

Personally, I think a new epic Chestpiece is the most likely candidate for being a Heroic drop from Magister's Terrace. Right now, the only upgrades you can get beyond Vindicator's Hauberk is Arena rewards, buy the Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian for 75 badges (which although is an upgrade, is Pally gear and Warriors get a lot of crap for wearing it), or the drops off of Nightbane/Magtheridon. Pretty much every other slot offers a viable epic upgrade outside of raiding that isn't PvP gear, aside from the Chest. Typically speaking, chestpiece drops are found in later bosses, so this could potentially even be an iLvl 125 drop off of Kael'thas.

This is all of course just speculation on my part, but just wanted to share my theory.

[Kazeyonoma]

your theory makes much sense, and having a chest drop off the last boss would be great, but i think having the chest pieces already dropping off of Zul'jin I don't think they'd want to up and kill the only reason most tanks run ZA by giving them an easier alternative for a chest of near ilvl. I am hoping you're right though, I've been using s2 chest forever as my tanking chest because there isn't any heroic alternatives, and nightbane has been stingy.

[Kazeyonoma]

true, mid quality shields are tough.

in terms of heroics, there are your badge rewards, and your exalted rep reward shields, but none that drop that I know of.

then its a long ways till nightbane's or amani punisher or gruul's

Lawlz welfare epix from arenas plx!

[Nuberino]

There aint a lot in the way of mid-quality shields. I want to first say I know nothing about paladin shield preferences, but to say there aren't many mid quality shields I think is inaccurate. :D

There are a lot of options for shields and a very clear progression path for tank shields with options at each step of progression. Of any slot, shields may be one of the few slots that prot warriors have a large number of choices.

1. Shield of the Wayward Footman - BOE
2. Platinum Shield of the Valorous - regular SL off first boss.
3. Aegis of the Sunbird - regular Botanica
4. Ogri'la Aegis - Ogri'la revered
5. Crest of the Sha'tar - Shatar exalted
6. Azure-Shield of Coldarra - 33 badges
7. Gladiator's Shield Wall - 15k honor
8. Shield of Impenetrable Darkness - Nightbane
9. Aldori Legacy Defender - Gruul
10. Merciless Gladiator's Shield Wall - 1630 arena points
11. Bulwark of the Amani Empire - Jan'alai, dragonhawk
12. Vengeful Gladiator's Shield Wall - 1875 arena points + 1850 rating

I don't see any gap in item progression there. There isn't a good "heroic" shield drop, but 2 faction shields, a badge shield and 2 pvp shields are options for any tank that puts in any effort.

I would think a prot war BP would be appropriate assuming the difficulty of the instance is on par with Karazan.

[Fame]

I would expect to see some Exp. phatz since there are so many gaps with it. Blizz tends to go overboard by flooding new instances with new stats. Take ZA for example, the place is filled with haste and AC pen. I would expect to see alot of Exp. items in the 5 aswell as the 25 man.