2.4 Polar's Easy Pre-Karazhan Tank Gear List

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i'm working for the Gyro-balenced Khorium destroyer. But as it stands now i'd like to get a blue in there until then, any suggestions?

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I found a guy that crafted one for me for 150g nether fee. Took me about 12 hours playing time to farm or buy the mats. Since I herb, did most of it killing Bog Lords in Zanga and got my rep up to boot, so I could buy transmute earth to air. Total cost was right around 1000g. Worth every copper IMO.

The best thing was, skilling this thing up. Took it to Elwynn and one shotted about 200 Defias. Revenge is sweet :). The animation is awesome and it's a blast whipping it out in front of your PUG for the first time in a dungeon.

Updated with mouse-over item links.

Great list - using it to gear up atm (Armory - current progress, some rubbish in slots i know).

One omission for your list and Berg's list too I can't quite figure out is the Adamantite Breastplate. I understand it doesn't have any +def, and getting 490 is (for me) the biggest problem with pre-kara gear - but the stamina you can hit with gems (+76) puts it (well above - edit) around the same as Vindicator's Hauberk for Tankpoints for me. Does it drop off in points as other gear is improved? Also, the str bonus (for threat generation) seems helpful to me - I'm not using it right now, but keeping it for tanking instances with PuGs that need a bit of extra healing space.

I feel like stacking all this avoidance to hit 490 i'm going to lose threat and effective health. Oh well, new gear will solve all my problems I expect!

YES! I have the same question with the Adamantite Breastplate. Been using it for a while and I don't understand why it's not on the list. It's cheap, easily attainable, and customizable. A great all around piece IMO. Why no love for Adamantite?

I looked at the [item]Adamantite Breastplate[/item] for the list but discounted it because I considered the [item]Breastplate of the Warbringer[/item] to be slightly superior and fairly easy to obtain. The quest to obtain this is the three person "Forge Camp: Annihilated" quest in Netherstrom.

The Breastplate of the Warbringer has good stamina, a very good chunk of defence (which helps with hitting that 490 mark) and the added bonus of threat-generating +30 hit rating.

I recognise that the +34 strength on the Adamantite piece is nice, but I would not trade it out for the +31 defense of the warbringer piece. I know you could socket it up with Stam gems or Avoidance gems but I still don't think it would overtake the Warbringer.

Happy to hear your thoughts.

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Originally Posted by algernon

Great list - using it to gear up atm (Armory - current progress, some rubbish in slots i know).

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You are well on the way. Just a bit more defense and stamina and you will be looking great!

Try a couple of the rings with +defense on them and also the Glyph of the Defender enchant for your helm.

Updated with suggested gems for socketable items.

Thx Polar - working on it all, slowly! This gear list is getting me up towards 490 def & decent EH (I hope) - and since we haven't started Kara yet, everything is progression!

But, for instances (just starting heroics soon), aggro is still an issue since i've got almost no +hit on my "best" gear. I've collected a load of gear with +hit +crit +str etc, but if I load up on that my HP drops to <9k and I'll be laughed out of a heroic instance!

So, my question is - what do you recommend for a decent aggro set at the pre-kara stage? Or should I ignore it for now, concentrate on progression & resocket some of this stuff for +hit when it gets old?

http://www.tankspot.com/signatures/e...ight/image.jpg

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Originally Posted by algernon

So, my question is - what do you recommend for a decent aggro set at the pre-kara stage? Or should I ignore it for now, concentrate on progression & resocket some of this stuff for +hit when it gets old?

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You know, I once thought that an aggro set was the ultimate answer to lots more threat in 5-man instances and then I discovered the Threat Per Second spreadsheet : here

I plugged my values into the spreadsheet and found to my surprise that getting my threat generation rotations right gave me a far bigger increase in TPS than any gear would do.

So the moral of my tale is download the spreadsheet, put your stats in, and have a play to see what things contribute most to TPS.

You will probably find that getting the right combination of heroic strikes, shield slams, revenges and devastates will go a long way to giving you the increase you seek. If you are skilled enough to have this sorted already, consider gathering a "block value" tanking set to add DPS and threat to your shield slams. Swap into this for trash or low hurt fights and then switch back to your full tanking gear for big boss fights.

You could also consider swapping out some tanking gear for a little DPS gear to get you doing a bit more damage and also allowing you to get hit harder and build more rage.

Happy to hear from others if they have any other suggestions.

Thanks for the link!

The thing I like most about +hit is that when you click something you want to reliably work, there's a greater chance it will work. For instance if there's a caster about ready to heal something or blast something hard, you do not want your Shield Bash or Conc Blow to fail.

So +hit is not just about threat generation, it's also about reliability/consistency. That's sort of hard to measure mathematically.

Of course, I went for the 490 defense before the +hit. I'm not sure if this was the correct order to do things in or not but that's what I did. Prior to getting my +hit, I relied a lot on Improved Taunt and found that I had to use it quite a bit. Now, not so much.

But yeah, the biggest improvement to threat generation that is free, is always using your highest aggro generating talents.

490 defense is absolute priority, a dead Tank is worth nothing.

Polar - thx for the link - I've put off looking at this because it's a complicated sheet & I don't entirely understand it! Also, it seems more geared towards unlimited rage raid bosses than the trash mob situations i'm mostly talking about atm. I'm putting my stats in now & will see what I get.

Brain - For particular & maybe all raid bosses, where a tank can be 1-2 shotted by crits, then zeroing that chance by getting 490 def is an absolute I agree.

At least for running through trash mobs in regular or heroic instances, a crit is not nearly so likely to cause a wipe (with exceptions I know, but i'm talking in most cases). For those parts of an instance run dropping some def seems acceptable to me if it gives a significant benefit elsewhere. That said, those trash mobs are also unlikely to cause the group significant problems if you do miss an interrupt or shield slam.

in heroics, trash kills clothies.

a crit will kill a tank most of the time as well since reactive healing still is the method in heroics.

i get regular hit for 4k sometimes by heroic trash, crit would be 8k. if that doesn't cause wipes, then you must be an uber tank, or tauren.

Sadly I'm neither - point taken. I'll be holding on to my 490 def as recommended!

In heroics you don't need 490 def. Remember that there is no lvl 73 mobs in heroics so their crit chance is still above 5&#37; but slight lower than bosses.

Hello,

I think that Jade-Skull Breastplate should be add. Its drop from Nethermancer Sepethrea in Mechanar (15&#37;-24% drop rate) and in my opinion its better then Breastplate of the Warbringer, but of course its only suggestion :)

I know that you exclude boss drop - but I think some of them should be include, why ? Its easy - almost everybody is doing instances like Botanica (here is nice shield Aegis of the Sunbird) and Mechanar (a special that one of your items needs to make quest in both of that instances) and truly there is not so many items from boss drop in normal instances for tank. And all instances can be done even with decent eq. And sometime (depends on server) its easier to find party for instance then find ppl to make quest (for example Zuluhed the Whacked) or chain quests (like attune to Ogrilla).

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Originally Posted by Gottrek

Hello,

I think that Jade-Skull Breastplate should be add. Its drop from Nethermancer Sepethrea in Mechanar (15%-24% drop rate) and in my opinion its better then Breastplate of the Warbringer, but of course its only suggestion :)

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Hi Gottrek,

The point of the guide is to show some a list of gear that does not require repetitive 5-man runs to obtain.

I openly admit that there is some better gear in the 5 man runs and that most tanks will be picking some of their gear up in the course of getting keyed for heroics.

The Jade Skull Breastplate is a nice piece, but it has around a 1 in 6 chance of dropping. On average, you will need to run Mechanar 6 times before you will see it. I ran it 10 or so times and never saw it!

And that is the point of the list. If you want to be geared up for Kara quickly then go for the items on the list. If you happen to get some better drops along the way then good for you. Even if you see no drops from 5 mans, the items on the list will give you sufficient stats to get started in Karazhan.

Regards,
Polar


PS - if you are looking for the ultimate gear list then check out http://www.tankspot.com/forums/gear-...w-2-2-2-a.html

Hi all.
Finaly got my Sha'tar shield last night, but just wanted to get a confirmation from some old and wise heads about my gear, my question is, am I ready for Kara.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...amar&n=Bamster

I think there is one trinket left for me to get, Dabiri's Enigma. Ignore my spec, I tank with 11/5/45. Am I ready for Kara w/o putting strain on the healers?.

EDIT: My shield is so new I havn't got Solid Stars yet, and I have the crossbow with stamina + defence.
I do have 4/5 Bold Set, missing the leggings. That was going to be one of my other questions, the Bold set seems to have far less defence, but seems more balanced, with Str and Agi, whereas the Felsteel simply has Stamina, how good is the Bold set?

Cheers!.

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Originally Posted by Polar

The point of the guide is to show some a list of gear that does not require repetitive 5-man runs to obtain.

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And that is the point of the list. If you want to be geared up for Kara quickly then go for the items on the list. If you happen to get some better drops along the way then good for you. Even if you see no drops from 5 mans, the items on the list will give you sufficient stats to get started in Karazhan.

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Getting the pre-requisite quests, doing the group quests and repeating dailies to get the [item]Ogri'la Aegis[/item] still takes time, though, if we're talking about getting items that doesn't require repeating things to obtain. ^_^;

Great guide!

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Originally Posted by Tanky_steve

Hi all.
Finaly got my Sha'tar shield last night, but just wanted to get a confirmation from some old and wise heads about my gear, my question is, am I ready for Kara.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...amar&n=Bamster

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You are certainly ready for Kara! You have ample health and armor and your dodge+parry is up around 33%. Go get 'em.