[Wellbred]

Here's the Armory link: The World of Warcraft Armory

This was my main for all of TBC, and I spent time here and on WoW forums. I tanked Kara/GL/Maggy/SSC/TK, then switched to Arms for SSC/TK/MH/BT and parts of SWP. But at the onset of Wrath, I switched to a hunter and progression-raided up through ToC-25, and have recently switched to a priest to fill a need.

But I wanted to come back to this character and level it as protection, primarily instances and pvp, with some questing. I've read several posts here and the stickies on WoW, although not to the detail I would have in the past. I'm clear on the skills priority/rotation, and I plan on to speccing Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft. The problem is my gear.

My tank gear is mostly T4/5, with some offset pieces from MH/BT. I'm currently wearing my "best" prot gear, trying to focus on BV when pieces are close. I have 144 BoJs so I'm going to finally grab my Autoblocker and maybe another plate piece.

Here are the major questions:

1) Strength and stamina are always on plate, but I'm wondering if I should just use my T6-level gear with no defensive stats in place of the mediocre T4 stuff I'm wearing.

2) Unbreakable Will is really fast at 1.6, and fast was the way to go in TBC. Is fast 1H still the preferred? I have a fist weapon 2.6 that I could use as well, again lacking defensive points.

3) A lot of the plate quest rewards in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, and Dragonblight lack any sort of defensive stats. Am I just not supposed to care about defense?

4) Any other comments on how to fill in gear gaps is appreciated.

Thx in advance.

[Griff]

1. I didn't start to replace my t6 tanking gear until lvl 78-79 with very few exceptions so I would suspect that your dps gear would carry you through pretty well. You might want to grab a shield. Leveling prot was pretty decent - nothing kills you unless you're really dumb about it.

2. Fast is still good for tanking. heroic strike spam hasn't gone away.

3. You should level for the first 3-4 levels so fast that I wouldn't worry about your gear too much..

4. Kill Doom Walker and Doom Lord Kazak for free lvl70 boe epics, including some decent tank gear - you can 3-man it with a decent tank, healer and dps at lvl 80. There is also a decent bit of crafted stuff you can have your friendly neighborhood blacksmith make for very little expense. You can also get some stat upgrades with blue quality WotLK gems in place of those BC era gems you've got on now.

Check out the sunwell era badge chest too.