Making transition from regulars to heroics

[Libast]

Hey all, first post here-

I have heeded the call of the meatshield, and am anxious to get goin and see the rest of the world before the patch comes out.

Problem is, I keep getting myself booted from heroic groups, or not getting invited because my gear is just not "awesome" enough.

I need some/any/all advice on what I can improve, cause I am out of ideas.

The World of Warcraft Armory <<< my profile

Thanks in advance, I really wanna get in on the heroic runs with my guildies.

[Gwyndolin]

Your gear is fine for heroics or OT in Kara. Especially the easier Heroics like slave pens. I'm not a pally but I *think* you're still crushable, but that doesnt matter in heroics anyway.

People like well geared tanks to make life easier, until you have a steady supply of badges and can get all the badge gear its just something you'll have to deal with. The pallies around might be able to offer advice on some easier to get gear, but you're definitely capable in what you're wearing. On the bright side once Wrath hits you'll have some wiggle room as gear will be equalized a bit.

Helpful suggestion: Put Defense enchants on your cloak and bracers. You'll get 24 def out of it, which if you replace 24 points of Def gems with stam, will net you 36 stam. (Though you're at 488 def not 490, so keep a bit of def and be uncrittable.)

[xenogriff]

hi libast,

ur gear seems fine as a starting point to get into heroics. a couple of suggestions i would make:

i would recommend getting the 15 badge libram as soon as you can: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29388

that really helps towards making urself uncrushable and the extra consecration dmg that ur current libram provides might seem great but since the subsequent mobs marked to die will be stewing in consecration anyway, u will have a decent amount of threat built on them by the time the previous mob is dead. as for the initial mob...well ur hitting it anyway so threat should be generated on that mob =P

i would recommend getting http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27529 - can be obtained off the last boss in SH regular. this helps ur block rating and since u will be aoe tanking (although it helps when tanking individual mobs that tend to hit harder too), it will definitely lighten the load on the healer as well as keep u alive a little longer. besides, i still get a big happy when pulling large amounts of mobs, watching my hp dip then activating that puppy....

also, as gwyndolin says, ur fine to OT in kara so if ur in a raiding guild, u might want to speak to you Raid Leaders to see if they're willing to slot u in. The 22 badges plus kara drops will really help.

another thing would be to speak to your guildies, i was lucky enough to have guildies that stuck by me and were willing to live through multiple deaths until i managed to gear up enough to make heroics bearable. PUGs can be a bit more demanding, i've been in the same situation ur at now, where dps has refused to run coz they think my gear sucks or healers that will say that u lose too much life too easily. its kinda a catch 22 for tanks and pally tanks in particular (i'm biased =P) - ur trying to gear up by running heroics but ppl will only want to take geared tanks just so the run is easy >.>. the reason why i feel pally tanks have it a little more difficult is that their base HP is a little lower compared to a warrior and also we will need to be a little more picky about our gear considering we do need spell dmg as well in order to generate a decent amount of tps.

gear wise, i found that most of a pally tanks gear will have to come from badge rewards as a lot of drops are meant for warriors ie: stats for def and sta but no spell dmg component and to a lesser degree int.

there are only 2 items that drop in heroics that were meant specifically for a pally tank:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29254 - heroic SH and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29252 - heroic arc

another item that u might want to look at is http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30034 - its crafted by a BS and if u can afford the mats/finished product, it would be a great upgrade as well

i would recommend trying the "lower level" heroics before attempting to jump into the harder ones. Ones i would recommend at ur gear level would be SP and UB. Ramps and BF would be ok too although i found the mobs there tended to hit harder. There will be a few scares and deaths in the beginning but if ur willing to work for it, u'll get there =)

ps: u might want to put the spell dmg enchant on ur weapon as 188 spell dmg is a little low to be attempting to hold threat against dps that are decently geared for heroics. recommended is about 350 to 400 spell dmg.

[Libast]

upgraded my helm/hands/neck in one run tonight of steamvaults, now i just need money to socket and enchant and thank you for the advice, guess I'll just have to keep on truckin'!

[orcstar]

ps: u might want to put the spell dmg enchant on ur weapon as 188 spell dmg is a little low to be attempting to hold threat against dps that are decently geared for heroics. recommended is about 350 to 400 spell dmg.

You can also try to go for the merciless spelldamage mace. It's got nice stamina resilience and all the spelldamage you need for heroics. This way you don't have to rely on palatank gear and can just take warrior pieces.