Prot warr - What to buy next?

Hello everyone!
I've wondered what to buy next for my prot warr.
The t10 pieces doesnt really seem as a big upgrade and i dont know if the set bonus is worth trying to get if the items arent ilvl 264 (If you see any wrong gemmed or enchanted items please tell me)

Link: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonblight&cn=Whitedemon

PS: Soz for my bad english :b

I would say the Badge Chest.

Also you are correct, until you have 4 tokens to upgrade x4 items to ilvl 264 tier, the badge items are superior, even without a bonus. They might even be superior until the ilvl 277 Tier.

Okay (:
Thx.

This is not a gear list or a "get these items" list. This post is geared more towards tanks that are submerged in Ice Crown Citadel raiding and facing the choices between Gear drops, Vendor Gear and Tier Gear.

I will explain the choices I made and I will explain why aswell.

Personally, I view tanks as the keystone to any raid. That may sound a little egotistical but I assure it's not. While every player in a raid is intergral to it's success, if the tank isn't up to par, the raid just isn't going to be successful. Period.

That being said, tanks need to try to stay ahead of the pack as far as gearing goes. If the tank is undergeared, the healers will be forced to focus more heals on him, neglecting raid heals aswell as causing mana inefficiency. If majority of the dps are excessively geared past the tank, the tank most likely will experience threat control issues (which is a horrible scenario) causing a domino effect to the rest of the raid (healers scrambling to keep threat-stealing dps alive while the tank regains aggro repeatedly, healers burning more mana then needed, ect.)

At the Ice Crown Citadel raiding level, more so than other classes, a tank will be faced with a tough decision: " Do I spend my Frost Emblems on lvl264 Bagde gear or lvl 251 Tier Gear?"

Seems like a tough call, and it is. The set bonuses of the tier gear for protection warriors are incredible and definitely very desirable. And with Marks of Santictification from 25 man ICC the Tier gear can be upgraded to incredible lvl 264 pieces.

But consider this. Both the lvl 264 emblem gear and the lvl 251 Tier gear have signifigantly different stats (for the most part). The Tier pieces seem to be more well-rounded tank pieces stat-wise, but the emblem gear is more Armor Rating and Stamina-heavy.

For two simple reasons, which I will explain, I recommend getting the lvl 264 emblem gear first.

Reason 1: These items provide far more of the stats that you will really want for ICC raids. Ice Crown Citadel was intended to require the purest of survivability stats more than any; Health Points and Armor Rating. This fact is very apparent if you look at a few things. 1: The Chill of the Frozen Throne Debuff, which reduces your chance to dodge by 20% AFTER diminishing returns, which is a HUGE shot in the avoidance gutt if your a plate-wearing tank. And 2. You may have noticed that Shield Rating and Shield Block Value seems to have quitely dissappeared in the higher level gear... And with Parry not being a strong enough stat to stack in place of these deficits, it only really leaves 2 stats left as options. Health Points and Armor Rating.

Reason 2: While the lvl 251 Tier gear is convertable to lvl 264 Tier pieces that mostly exceed the lvl 264 Emblem pieces and have great set bonuses, the only source for these Marks of Sanctifications to upgrade those lvl 251 pieces are from ICC 25man raids. Meaning, your not the only one after those Marks of Sanctification. Say if you have 2 tier peices, it could take quite some time to get your hands on 2 Marks. And if you have 4 pieces... I'm sure you get the picture.

My advice would be to do your Random Dailys for the 2 Frost Emblems, do your Weekly Raid quests for the 5 Frost Emblems, do your ICC10 man and ICC25man runs and try to get the weekly raids within the instance done on both runs aswell. You will be very surprised just how quickly you can stockpile those Frost Emblems that way.

Use them to get your Emblem Vendor gear first, and try for the tank drops out of ICC25. Even consider the lvl 264 craftables if you can afford them. And of course don't forget to run VoA25 and VoA10 for a chance at some free Tier Gear from Torvalon. Once you have all this gear you can save your Frost Emblems for your Tier pieces and sleep easy at night knowing your not going to be held back in advancing your gear just because you didn't win the roll on that Mark of Sanctification.

Personally, I just view the Tier pieces as a road block for advancing your gear simply because of the needed Mark of Sanctifications and the competition for them.

But as always and more importantly, this is only an opinion and the choice is always yours to make.

~Jodatee