Prot Warrior Gear - Heroics?

After repetitively poking through atlas and wowhead, I'm curious to know where to put my focus now. Aside from the Adamantine Figurine from SL and "maybe" a ring upgrade, it looks like I've gotten all the 5 man gear available. And, until I find an extra 4-6k gold laying around, I won't be seeing Tankatronic Goggles or Red Havoc Boots anytime soon. I will however, pick up a Gyro Balanced Khorium Destroyer very soon.

I only get to play for a couple hours a night on weekdays and until I crash out after 9pm on weekends. So, until I somehow find a guild that actually runs Kara after 9pm on weekends, I'm stuck doing whatever I can to make this meat shield a little better. So my question is; Is there anything in heroic 5 mans that I'm missing, or is it time to start farming heroic badges/obscene amounts gold to skill Blacksmithing and Enginneering?

Azmind's Armory

Somehow I missed Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard. It's on the list for tonight (assuming I can find a Botanica group)

With the Waistguard added, I would only note:

- Devilshark Cape (drop from Steamvault, is the best cape before an epic replacement)
- Elementium Band of the Sentry (drop, the last blue I replaced I think)
- whatever ring you get from some SMV questline

Devilshark is worth having, and you can farm for it on heroic and that heroic is surprisingly not that terrible. The others are fairly nice if the work you do for them is minimal, but I would not kill myself over them.

I would get into heroics ASAP. Heroic Ramps is pretty straightforward and a decent epic belt drops from there. Decent gloves drop from Heroic Bot (another not-hard heroic). Decent boots from BF (which can be hard depending on group, make sure you got a warlock and the more CC the better for the waves before 2nd boss while you're gearing up). Heroic Magister's drops some great stuff, especially the Commendation and the Shard from the 3rd boss, but it's more difficult than most other heroics. And assuming you get no drops, you'll be getting the all-important badges.

Daniel

[item]Quickening Blade of the Prince[/item] - Heroic Magister's Terrace - Kael'Thas

Much better threat weapon than [item]The Sun Eater[/item], both serve a purpose.

[item]Commendation of Kael'Thas[/item] - Heroic Magister's Terrace - Priestess Delrissa

One of the best survival trinkets in the game.

[item]Shard of Contempt[/item] - Heroic Magister's Terrace - Priestess Delrissa

One of the best threat trinkets in the game.

I believe the Sha'tari Wrought Armguards that you get from the SL quest are better than yours for tanking, because of the +def.

I would also make sure you get your Aldor rep up ASAP to get the real bang for your buck out of the SSO neck (and get the exalted shoulder inscription that gives +def!). Your other neck alternatives that would give you some +defense from this slot are Natasha's Battle Chain (BEM quest chain), Mark of the Ravenguard (Auchindoun quest chain), and Strength of the Untamed (Cenarion Expedition Rep - Revered).

You're only friendly with KOT - once you get to revered, you get the best pre-kara tanking legs in the game (Timekeeper's Leggings) and the superb Glyph of the Defender for your helm. Running BM also could give you Burnoose of Shifting ages, which is the next best cloak after Devilshark, which someone already mentioned. I'd put dodge on it, personally.

You could upgrade your shoulders to S2 now if you don't mind BG'ing.

The sooner you can get uncrittable (490 defense with 0 resilience, resilience lowers the 490 number...the math escapes me though) from gear alone, you can replace those +def gems for straight +sta and be a lot more viable in heroics.

Mongoose is definitely expensive, but if you save your heroic shards and DE greens you pick up, hopefully you can soon give your Sun Eater the enchant it deserves :)

Hope that helps, good luck!