Best in Slot! Warrior Tanking Gear "At a Glance"

[Shartt]

Would it be smart as MT to work on all 5 of these sets into one gear set?
I know that seems like it's a cripple, but I don't see me being able anytime soon to get multiple tanking items to be able to gem/chant them towards T vs EH or AV.

At the moment, I'm at 25 dodge/21 parry/22 block and 29k life unbuffed with 25k armor and 550 defense. With shield block up, its at 122 block so of course I'm UH providing SB is up and what I'm wondering is if I keep taking the same route I am, which is mostly picking up AV and EH if my ability to MT will still be there...

Also, should say that I'm sitting at 210 HR and 19 ER.

[Ciderhelm]

Unless I'm missing something, it does not seem possible to reach 102.4% unless you have literally every piece of wrath block rating gear as well jewelcrafting and blacksmithing. When my Armory updates you'll see I'm coming in at 101.61%. If I backpedal a couple enchants to Burning Crusade w/ Defense on bracers and Block Rating on shield, I don't think that'll quite cover the gap.

Let me know if I'm missing something. (If Armory doesn't show Jewelcrafting then it hasn't updated)

[Halandir]

it's updated, I couldn't see anything missing off the top of my head--i have the page saved so i'll look at it later when I have time.

[Brickhaus]

Invariably a noob question but Avoidance/Unhittable they seem.....similar? I can see the difference in item stats but practicality? Why would I choose unhittable gear over avoidance gear....

I'm...so...confused.....

[Ciderhelm]

I do have 102.4% now. The shield and bracer enchant finished it.

[Turelliax]

It says "will add JC trinkets soon"


When is soon? jus curious to compare

[Alent]

Invariably a noob question but Avoidance/Unhittable they seem.....similar? I can see the difference in item stats but practicality? Why would I choose unhittable gear over avoidance gear....

I'm...so...confused.....

unhittable is an awkward term created by the way the combat table works. Within the combat table, if your block chance pushes regular hit chance off the table, they call it "unhittable".

You're still very much getting hit - it's just a block. So "unhittable" gear is defense + block rating with some dodge on top.

[deimos]

JWC ring
Titanium earthguard ring is better UH as Signet of the Impregnable Fortress

[Jorar]

When i use this macro
/run ChatFrame1:AddMessage(format("Unhittable at 102.4%% - you have %.2f%%", GetDodgeChance() + GetBlockChance() + GetParryChance() + 5 + 1/(0.0625 + 0.956/(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)/4.91850*0.04))))
It shows me at around 70 percent. Is this good or bad ?

[Halandir]

updated on 3/7

- added JC trinkets
- updated UH set info, updated a few slots for the UH set

[Khardos]

Very very nice guide. The thing i was wondering about, was what the stats would be in each set. Maybe a nice thing to add, or maybe it's completly useless. If so then just ignore my post,

Khardos

[bpro]

Hey, first off, great guide. I appreciate you posting this.. I was making my own sets for a while and I was pretty much spot on with yours, with the exception of a few pieces.

My question for you about the EH set is.. how are you 540 DEF capped? I have most of those pieces with the exception of the Titansteel Helm and the T7.5 Legs (using Vital Protection/sovereignty, and without gemming for DEF i'm only at 531 DEF. Unless we're gemming for DEF, I'm confused a bit

Here's what I'm using for the EH set using your guide.

Helm - Vital Protection (austere meta, accurate monarach)
Neck - Maly neck (8exp/12 stam)
Shoulders - 7.5 (8exp/12 stam - exalted hodir enchant)
Cloak - Shadowed Sun (16 DEF)
Chest - 7.5 (275hp, 24 stam, 16 exp)
Bracers - Unholy Knight (40 stam, 8exp/12 stam gem)
Hands - 7.5 (threat/ 16exp gem)
Abltative Chitin - (2x 41stam JC gems)
Legs - Sovereingty (55stam/22agi)
Boots - Kyzocs (22 stam)
Rings - Sandworn/Gatekeeper (24 stam enchants)
Trinkets - Gossamer, Monarch Crap (ungemmed atm)
Weap - Last Laught (accuracy)
Shield - Hero's (20 def)
Gun - Engineering (41 stam)

31.9k hp with 531 def. Thoughts?

[pilipili]

Thanks for the gear list.
I have some questions... Wich set for wich situation ?
You speak of a trash set, wich one is it ?
I tank sarth3D's adds, what is your advice ? Avoidance or UH ?

[atdesigns12]

you're apparently also not including the red socket which puts it at 50 parry or 16 dodge, however you'd like to look at it.

dude the neck from 25 maly = the tank has to get the quest item from 25 man naxx before he can even try to get it

[Halandir]

dude the neck from 25 maly = the tank has to get the quest item from 25 man naxx before he can even try to get it

Klor knows where it comes from... not sure what you're getting at here.

a "best in slot" guide naturally contains some items that, though difficult to obtain, are pretty uber.

[Kraul]

Hello,
This may be too much of a Noob question and not worth anyone's time. But I was wondering if anyone could develop a similar list taking into account the idea that someone will only every make it into 10 man raiding (or do so few 25 mans that it wouldn't help).

The list is incredible and very well layed out, but in most of the slots, it's just all 25 man gear. Maybe even if you just added one pieve to each list that is the best 10 man gear available it could help folks like myself.

Thanks!
Kraul

[Jayson]

I am gonna answer some of these questions for Hal as he seems to be AFK.

My question for you about the EH set is.. how are you 540 DEF capped?

First off, if you are following Hal's guide to the T you may be using the Stam/Resil shoulder enchant? The goal of the "Defense cap" is to not be crit (5.6% crit chance assuming a lvl 83 mob). Resilience provides a huge amount of crit reduction, and the 15 Resil on that enchant might just be enough to get you there (I'm not sure of the Resil - Crit % conversion currently).

But a thought here is this, you might not be able to put on every single one of these pieces in any given "set". Hal is trying to guide you to create different gear-sets for different situations. Not necessarily give you a word for word guide on what pieces you MUST wear to be a good tank (correct me if I am wrong here Halandir). What I personally do for my EH set, is I use the Repelling charge. This allows me to put the Gossamer on in Trink#2 slot and wear full Stam gear and still stay capped. This may be the solution for you, Repelling Charge + Double "Solid" Dragon's Eye gems (that would also give you the colors needed for your Meta and the Def socket bonus on that trink) in your JC trink.

Source: Pilipili
I have some questions... Wich set for wich situation ?
You speak of a trash set, wich one is it ?
I tank sarth3D's adds, what is your advice ? Avoidance or UH ?

I'll talk about Sarth first so that your Trash set question can be used to kind of get this post back on track. I tank them regularly and I would recommend a semi-avoidance set. I normally put my normal-MT tanking set on (EH/AV) but switch my Stam trink out for the Dodge trinket while leaving the Repelling charge in. This allows me to jump on Drakes/Sarth with a fairly decent tank set, should the regular drake tank go down or if the Sarth tank is punted out of position. With that in mind... you should be able to do the adds with a BV or AV set... assuming you (and others) stay out of the walls, the add-damage to a tank is minimal.

To the what set question, you are gonna have to decide in the moment (many threads on this site are designed to teach you decide when EH/AV is more valuable). For trash, you want to get solid Hit/Expertise numbers and follow that by loading up on the BV pieces, Hal will have to give you exact numbers for hit and exp (8%ish hit and 6%ish exp?) that you want as a warrior. But the idea is to have enough Hit/Exp to have you attacks/TC actually land, and then your BV is gonna take over from there with Damage Shield threat (as well as saving your healers some mana).

[Halandir]

Hello,
This may be too much of a Noob question and not worth anyone's time. But I was wondering if anyone could develop a similar list taking into account the idea that someone will only every make it into 10 man raiding (or do so few 25 mans that it wouldn't help).

The list is incredible and very well layed out, but in most of the slots, it's just all 25 man gear. Maybe even if you just added one pieve to each list that is the best 10 man gear available it could help folks like myself.

Thanks!
Kraul

I sympathize with you, as my guild began WotLK as a strictly 10man raiding guild as well--only in the last month or so have we begun running 25mans with a sister guild until we can recruit enough people to run our own 25mans in Ulduar.

I don't want to do the 10-man list on this guide, for a number of reasons. I think what i'll do is add to my "to do list" a guide of best in slot 10-man items and put a link to it on the main guide for those who know they will only be running 10mans.

[Halandir]

I am gonna answer some of these questions for Hal as he seems to be AFK.

thanks Jay, you're right--I wasn't on here much over the weekend.

to answer a couple of questions in this thread:

I need to state this a little more clearly up front, but my purpose with this guide is not to describe necessarily what your stats should be with each type of set, or prescribe when to use which set--I merely wanted to create a concise list of the best possible items for each slot for each type of set.

I'm contemplating another post that describes each set in more detail, and gives a general overview of what stats you should be shooting for with each set. If I put that together I'll probably put it where the "Enchants" section is now and combine the Enchants section with the Gems section.

[Rime]

Excellent and very thorough post, kudos. I also appreciate you stressing that this is a comparison tool and not a "get this" list.

Would it be helpful to create a pally version of this list? I can certainly throw one together (or a deathknight set, <3 the simplicity of dk gearing) if there's any sort of desire there. Differences would actually be fairly common due to the value of pally tier pieces.

For my personal taste I would rather rename the avoidance set to "damage reduction" and include pieces which are oriented around both avoidance and armor - this is the actual contrast to EH gearing, not pure avoidance. But for the sake of consistency maybe it's best to stick to the same terms.

I could work out a feral druid set as the mechanics are also quite simple but that would probably be better left in the hands of someone who actually raids on a bear