In 6/12 ICC guild, wondering where to spend frosts next

[Wilim]

I recently came back to WoW after leaving during Vanilla. Got back into the swing of things, been through all the heroic dungeons and have started raiding steadily again. My guild does ICC 25 weekly (I've been OT many fights) and we regularly get up to Putricide (but that's our sticking point) and I'm also in a guild 10 man group (as MT) that just started (literally 3 weeks ago) and we've cleared Festergut.

I currently have 92 frosts saved up and I've read the BiS guide over and over. Oh and I have a Mark to spend as well. I see that in most cases there's always something slightly better than the tier piece so I'm having trouble deciding which 2 pieces I should be going for. Everyone in my guild says don't buy the Gloves or Legs right away because I could get them from VOA25. So that leaves shoulders, helm, and chest but I already have the Broken Ram Skull Helm.

Looking at my armory, where should I go from here? Get the Chest and Shoulders? Should I even be shooting for the 4pc or just work on two?

Some extra background that might help. Since I only recently came back, I'm poor. That's why you'll see a lot of blue gems on me instead of purples. Part of that was also from being a complete noob and not realizing how easy it was to transmute the blue to the purple so as you can see I've been replacing the +24 with +30 versions. This also means I can't afford Pillars of Might or Boots of Kingly Upheaval anytime soon.

I was all ready to get the shoulders, but then in the back of my mind I keep thinking I might get the Boneguard Commander Pauldrons and then kick myself so I wound up saving past 60 and here I am.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Armory link: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Lothar&cn=Wilim

[Dekar]

For a warrior, all the frost badge tanking pieces are really, really good. You'll want to shoot for the chest, cloak, gloves and belt. I see you already have the belt and cloak so that's a good start as those are normally the first 2 items you want to get. Now you have 2 choices, either save up for the frost badge chest and gloves then get your T10 2p or get the T10 2p first. The choice is yours but i personally wouldn't wait around on vault to drop legs or gloves especially since the badge gloves and crafted legs are so much better than those tier pieces. With the buff being 30% now I honestly don't see much use for the 4p outside of heroic progression (I've had the 2p since about january, never even thought about going for the 4p). The amount of EH on the offset pieces is so much better, just use the tier helm and shoulders to get your 2p. If you go with the tier first, I'd save until you can get both pieces for the bonus right away, and I'd use the token on the helm so you're not downgrading the ilvl of your helm from the 264 you have now.

[Wilim]

Thanks for the advice. To complicate my decision even more, I won http://www.wowhead.com/item=49964 last night as well. Once I gem them, that means I'll be down to 2 pieces of T9. So now my question is. Should I make sure to purchase 2 T10 items that don't replace my T9 so I have both bonuses or do I not need to worry about keeping the T9 bonus?

[sifuedition]

The issue is this...there are the best pieces NOW, and then the best pieces later. The 277 tier with Pillars and the 277 drop legs swapped depending on the fight are probably the best you will get.

At the 264, the difference between tier and non-tier depends on your healers. With more "iffy" moments, the cd becomes pretty powerful for the four piece. For most tanks, it won't be used often enough to offset the EH advantage of the non-tier.

For the 251 tier, the offset is much better.

My recommndation? Work toward this:
Cata chest
Kraken gloves
Gargoyle spit bracers
Pillars of might
Tier helm
Tier shoulders

This will get you through just about anything. Some to work for (and some you already have):
25 man marrowgar bracers
The legs that drop in the first four bosses
Broken ramskull helm
Bone commanders pauldrons

These are nice to have even if you have the tier equivalent. The helm and shoulders can be switched out based on the fight. The legs are a nice filler until you can make the Pillars or VoA is nice to you. I would use the legs over the tier ones unless you get 264/277. Likwise, I would use the Kraken gloves unless you get 277 tier.

Honestly, if you will be getting 277 tokens to make the tier better than non-tier, you will accumulate enough frost emblems to get the non-tier now and still buy the tier when those tokens become available.