Prot Warrior ToC & Ulduar Hardmode Gear List

I need a solid opinions on whether to wait for a trophy and get 9.5 warrior shoulders or buy the shoulderplates of enduring order. I keep seeing people say the 2pc tanking bonus is good but really is 5% extra devastate damage worth it? It seems like such a pathetic, miniscule bonus and the taunt cooldown reduction useless as well. We got some quick attempts at hard mode and the bosses hit like monster trucks. I would think maximizing avoidance is the way to go, no? I would have 45 expertise with the shoulderplates of enduring order and 50 with the t9.5.

I tend to think the difference would be fairly minimal one way or the other. A wowhead comparison shows:

T9.5
14 Defense
22 Dodge
43 Expertise
Blue Socket

vs

Enduring Order
24 Str
53 Parry
Red Socket

Sort of a personal preference choice whether you want higher expertise and dodge or more straight up parry. I plan on going with tier shoulders/hands for the 2pc bonus and non-set pieces for the rest

Great list, but I think you underestimate the value of armor on items by a significant margin when comparing them to items with expertise.

Saronite Plated Legguards - Item - World of Warcraft Should be added to the list as these legs still have a significant bump in armor over even the ilvl 258 legs.

i like the list just don't understand why gear is being pushed down for not having expertise.

First of all thank you for this list, it is extremely helpful. I only noticed one problem so far, but I'm not sure if it is because of the nature of your list (ToC and Uld Hard only) or because you just missed it.

For weapons you have The Ardent Guard listed above Shiver, and Titanguard is completely absent from the list. IF I had Shiver, why would I choose The Ardent Guard? I would loose a bunch of stam from Shiver's socket, and the hard to come by 23 hit. There is also a dodge/parry switch, which I have not done the math on, but I am guessing 33 parry is better than 19 dodge, especially since most tanks have lots of dodge. Basically the same argument applies for Titanguard.

I bring this up because I came across this problem tonight. I was using Titanguard and Ardent Guard dropped. When I checked the comparison of stats, I was really disappointed. It could be just me, but I felt a little mislead on the weapon part of the list. Thanks again though, like I said, this list did most of my work for me. Cheers

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Originally Posted by Thad

i like the list just don't understand why gear is being pushed down for not having expertise.

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I have not ordered anything yet as mentioned in the original post. Once everything is out and confirmed I will adjust the post to sort gear into categories of eh, t, av, block. In its current state this list just lets people know what is out there to help people make their own decisions.

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Originally Posted by Torebore

First of all thank you for this list, it is extremely helpful. I only noticed one problem so far, but I'm not sure if it is because of the nature of your list (ToC and Uld Hard only) or because you just missed it.

For weapons you have The Ardent Guard listed above Shiver, and Titanguard is completely absent from the list.

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I was targeting this list toward Ulduar hard and ToC however I included a couple pieces such as Iron Heart trink so I will update the list to include Titanguard as I agree it should be on there since our weapon selection in the Coliseum is VERY limited. Thx

First, thanks for the list.
As of 3.2 what is considered progression regarding those sample builds? I wonder, should i use one of those or the DW builds.

That really depends on your current gear, current content and priority. DW is for improved threat/damage output whereas more progression oriented specs give up DW in favor of things like imp demo shout, etc.

For the new content (especially working into the heroic versions) I tend to favor the 5/10/56 build Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft simply because I rarely have any threat issues of any kind and its always good to have as much survivability as possible in progression.

I'm having a lot of issues deciding between Indestructible Plate Girdle (which I have gemmed with +30 stam x2 and +10 exp +15 stam) and the girdle I just got from 10m Jaraxxus.

Indestructible Plate Girdle

Girdle of the Nether Champion

Stat gain/losses

with Jaraxxus belt:
+5 str
+11 armor
+11 defense
+12 dodge

with crafted belt:
+23 stamina
+7 parry

I prefer the crafted belt personally. The EH is superior and while the avoidance is lower I find parry harder to come by than dodge so it's really not much of a choice imo.

Stoneskin Chestplate - Item - World of Warcraft

Heroic Anub 10man Stoneskin chest piece

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rukrow

Stoneskin Chestplate - Item - World of Warcraft
Heroic Anub 10man Stoneskin chest piece

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That is the equivalent of Chestguard of the Warden - Item - World of Warcraft which is already listed. Different versions for Alliance vs Horde and I wasn't sure which is which (currently my list is horde sided).

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Originally Posted by Kazeyonoma

woo just picked up that girdle today (the ToC one) and because I was overcapped on hit due to ulduar gearing.... I still have 8.4% hit chance =P Now how to get my exp back in line...

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Kaz that hit will disappear so fast in a few more pieces. I have missed taunts and now am eating the +hit food in current gear. I am adding one hit gem and possibly changing an enchant too. Relish it while you can. :D

Squirrel,
Thank you for the list. I wanted to add this Loot link list for your attention as well. New Ony 2.0 items should be on this and may help you update later. Your list is better prioritized I think than the loot link filter.

Yeah my hit is taking a bit dip already =( boo.

I believe I'm sitting around 85 hit now, even while using a couple +10 hit +15 stam gems in yellow slots.

It hasn't been too bad though, as long as you use the taunt glyph.

Updated original post with Onyxia loot as well as replacing various links with the wowhead version so that popup links are working for everything except the crazy ilvl cloak which they haven't added yet

Squirrel, thanks for putting this together! Any chance we can get this moved to the "Guides" section? There is a BiS post there, but it was last updated with Ulduar gear..... (I know because I was looking for this!)

:)

Thanks again!

It is stickied in this 'Gear & Enchanting Discussion' section in the BiS Compilation thread however it is true the 'guide' section probably has 10x as many views.

We generally keep the Guide forum free of Gear Lists because they there are so many (ciders, polars, dps, paladins, dks, druids, warriors, threat, survival, avoidance, etc)

Just a suggestion for the Rings section of your guide. In my opinion, Band of the Twin Val'kyr (heroic version) is better than Clutch of Fortification. The difference is that Band of the Twin Val'kyr has 5 less defense, 1 less dodge, and 36 more stam (assuming you will use a 30 stam gem in the socket).
I think 36 stam is better than 1 dodge and 5 defense.
Again, thanks for the guide, and for keeping it updated.