540 The Only Way?

[doomwarder]

Getting 540 defense isn't hard. I just dinged this morning and when I get from the base of 395(lvl 79 max) to the max at level 80 (400) I will be at 542 defense. That is with a mixture of horrid trinkets, instance blues, quest blues, and some cheap AH gear. None of which are enchanted for +defense currently just +stam armor kits and what not. So it just takes some consideration as to what instances u prioritize running.

Also I does help that I only quested for quest chains that gave me gear upgrades, I leveled from 68-80 in instances mainly.

[Tohunga]

Resil = pvp; def = pve. Thats the easiest way I have to explain it. Reaching 540 defense really isn't difficult, with the tempered saronite pieces having a wealth of defense on them. You can probably reach def cap without even stepping into a heroic, and only spending 150-200g on crafted gear.

The argument on defense vs resil is only really viable for druid tanks and DK tanks imo, because they don't gain as much benefit from defense (b/c they both don't block) as warriors and pallies do. For warr tanks and pally tanks, there really isn't any reason why you shouldn't be at def cap, or at least near it.

That being said, its not impossible to tank an instance below 535 def. It's just a question of making your life easier and reducing a chance of wiping.

[Muffin Man]

The argument on defense vs resil is only really viable for druid tanks and DK tanks imo, because they don't gain as much benefit from defense (b/c they both don't block) as warriors and pallies do. For warr tanks and pally tanks, there really isn't any reason why you shouldn't be at def cap, or at least near it.

That was true for druid in TBC. Now they have a talent that reduces their chance to take a critical hit. So no more seeing Druids in a weird hodgepodge of Raid and PVP gear.

For DK's this might be true in the future. But since lvl 80 PVP gear wasn't easily obtainable at release. Most DK tanks just did it the 'right' way and stacked defense. And now that you can easily get lvl 80 pvp gear, DK's are getting that rune of +defense to weapon which hopefully will be enough that new DK tanks aren't going to be temped by the Resilience route.

My main complaint with resilience isn't that it's inferior to defense (it's only mostly worthless if you stack it past uncrittability), but that PvP gear as a whole is itemized differently than tank gear. Now, certain gimmick fights like Kael'Thas in MgT I would actually tank in full pvp gear since he almost never melee'd. NPC spells can't crit anyways and he does that DoT for half the fight.

[Dreador]

Why would you worry about crits in heroic MgT?

Nvm it's not important. The point is, yes, defense is always better. Yes, it is easy to reach 540 to an extent. Yes, if you don't quite make 540 it's perfectly ok to wear pvp gear to make up the small amount of crit chance left over. I still say there's way too much discussion on this.

I tanked all of BT up through our first 2 Illidan kills in a season 3 chestpiece, it had tons of stam, armor and hit rating, not to mention strength. I used the 18 stam/20 resil head enchant too, imagine that. And guess what? It was fine.

[Ushebti]

That was true for druid in TBC. Now they have a talent that reduces their chance to take a critical hit. So no more seeing Druids in a weird hodgepodge of Raid and PVP gear.

Atm. on the test realms they have changed "survival of the fittest" to increase the armor contribution, by a bit actually, but then again Druids wont be uncritable from talents.

So if this end up in the patch, either the damage reduction from the far more armor will equal out the DPS the boss would do if it landed a crit.

But if it doesn't equal out, defense and resillience gear might be mixed again.

[jere]

Atm. on the test realms they have changed "survival of the fittest" to increase the armor contribution, by a bit actually, but then again Druids wont be uncritable from talents.

So if this end up in the patch, either the damage reduction from the far more armor will equal out the DPS the boss would do if it landed a crit.

But if it doesn't equal out, defense and resillience gear might be mixed again.

I thought they added that armor multiplier to survival of the fittest. The crit reduction should still be on the talent.

[Muffin Man]

Why would you worry about crits in heroic MgT?

At level 70 I was worried about it. At lvl 70 without any raid or badge gear.

Maybe it was needless since npc spells can't crit and that place was all about the spell flinging.

Atm. on the test realms they have changed "survival of the fittest" to increase the armor contribution, by a bit actually, but then again Druids wont be uncritable from talents.

If they do that, it would be a mistake IMO. Druids should be able to tank without resorting to pvp. Especially since the other 3 tank classes can.

[minrog]

Ironically enough in a year you'll probably be subbing in PVP gear + PVE DPS gear so you aren't rage starved in heroic dungeons (but are still uncrittable).

I used some of the spell power pvp set on my Paladin alt to be uncrittable in TBC, never really came up as an issue. The Paladin alt had 16k unbuffed hps and I would say that your hp pool is what they look at first. I've seen a topic relating to this elsewhere. Just a guess but if your hps are low then that's probably when they start looking at your other stuff to make sure you're really a tank.