Best in slot! Paladin tanking gear at a glance.

[Jayson]

I. Introduction
II. The 25man List
III. The 10man List
IV. Reserved


I. Introduction
Halandir has finally bugged me enough to get me to create this list. If you are wondering who Halandir is, you can view his Warrior BiS guide here. Basically, what this list is going to do is break down what pieces are best for the Paladin in each of several roles (i.e. several different sets). When you get a BiS piece for given set, the idea is to gem it to that strength, so rather then having every single piece with full Stam gems, the Tempered Titansteel Helm (for example) you would want a Stam Meta and a Solid gem in to complement the EH strength. Then Thane's Tainted Greathelm you would probably put the Def Meta and a Thick/Enduring gem in as it is a pure avoidance piece at the top end.

I'll be using Hal's guide as a template (because I'm too lazy to try and be creative) so it should look fairly similar to his. Also, this thread by Petrus was used as reference to find many of the pieces rather than filtering Wowhead for plate defense gear.

This guide is also hosted on MainTankadin, stickied here with the original discussion for the post in this thread.


Legend
EH = Effective Health set (Please realize that armor only helps EH, not M(agic)EH, consider building a pure-stam gear set for MEH fights)
AV = Avoidance (Miss, Dodge, Parry)
T = Threat (Strength, Hit, Block Value, Expertise, in that order. Yes... expertise sucks for Paladins. Check here to see the table of contents for Theck's great TPS/DPS research, graphs, and assumptions. [It's too hard to keep up with all of Theck's new stuff so I posted the table of contents that he maintains.])
B = Block set (BV/BR)

For the threat set, please check this post to see some discussion on the logic behind these choices (I recommend getting Hit capped even prior to really focusing on Strength).

If you are looking to build an Unhittable set as listed in the Warriors' guide, feel free to put Lavanthor's Talisman on as well as a few Block Rating pieces in your Avoidance set and call it good. Yay! for Holy Shield.

Another tag you will see on some of the pieces is a MT tag. What this means is I recommend this piece for general boss main-tanking. It perhaps has the best spread of stats or is the best "overall" survivability, just my suggestion. Also, if 2 pieces are tied for top EH and I think one is the better MT piece, I put my Stam gems/enchants on it even if it might be a great avoidance/threat piece and throw it into my MT set.

Of Note: – If you see a piece with this before it, the piece is not BiS for any one role, but may be a great back up or a piece with some of everything.


Disclaimer
This gear list was compiled "at a glance." I haven't done a lot of math or set up formulas for my "best in slot" picks, but merely compared the top pieces of gear in each slot to determine what set to put it in. If you don't like my choices, take the gearing-set principles with you and make your own decision.


II. The 25man List

I'll not be posting drop locations, click on any of the links to see where it drops (as listed by Wowhead).

Head

EH/AV/MT - Helm of the Faceless: Best avoidance, Strength, and tied at top Stamina. Great piece.
AV/B - Conqueror’s Aegis Faceguard: Good avoidance, tied for top Stam, Block Rating. Consider MTing this piece to help with set bonuses.
T - Valorous Redemption Faceguard: Really no good threat helms discovered thus far in Ulduar. Def/BV meta and gem for threat.

Neck

EH/AV/MT – Bronze Pendant of the Vanir: Best EH, best AV, a socket, and huge strength all combine to make this phenomenal piece BiS. (Note: With a 16 Str gem, these are probably the top Threat piece as well.)
B/T - Necklace of Unerring Mettle: High Str and BV make this nice for threat as well as your Block Set.
Of Note: AV/T - Shard of the Crystal Forest: Nice avoidance plus a bit of hit.

Shoulders

AV/T/MT – Shoulderplates of the Deconstructor: Good avoidance, Hit for threat, and decent Stam give these the MT designation.
B/T – Conqueror’s Aegis Shoulderguards: Block stats (wish they wouldn’t put those on tier gear…). Also the best threat piece available, especially considering the socket.
AV - Valorous Redemption Shoulderguards: Still the best avoidance in slot, switch to an AV gem.

Cloak

EH/T/MT - Titanskin Cloak: Highest Stamina even before the socket, lots of Hit and Expertise, tons of Defense.
AV - Cloak of the Makers: Best avoidance and a bit of Hit. Platinum Mesh all over again, higher iLvl and it would be BiS.
B - Shadow of the Ghoul: No Block cloaks yet discovered in Ulduar.

Chest

AV/MT - Conqueror’s Aegis Breastplate: Top avoidance in slot, great piece. (Note: Expect to see a couple more chest pieces discovered in the next few weeks.)
EH/B/T - Unbreakable Chestguard: Block stats, top Stam, lots of BV for threat. Really a very nice chest, Aegis wins MT tag primarily due to true avoidance and set bonuses.

Wrist

EH/AV/T/MT – Mimiron’s Inferno Couplings: Good avoidance, good EH, and hit make these very nice all around bracers.
EH/AV - Bracers of the Unholy Knight: This piece all depends on how you gem it. Solid makes it top EH, dodge gem makes it best avoidance. It wouldn’t bother me at all to see a Paladin wearing this all through Ulduar, even over Mimiron’s.

Hands

EH/AV/MT - Handguards of Revitalization: Generally BiS by a huge amount with tons more Stamina then any of the other, and best avoidance.
T - Conqueror’s Aegis Handguards: Same threat stats as the block gloves below, but with a socket as well. Also great MT gloves till you get the Revitalization.
B - Handguards of the Enclave: High Strength and BV with BR to boot.
Of Note: AV/T – Gauntlets of the Royal Watch: Good avoidance and Hit, well itemized all around.

Waist

EH/AV/MT – Indestructible Plate Girdle: Best Stamina in slot by a huge amount and strong avoidance both make this the belt to have.
AV/T – Shieldwarder Girdle: May actually be better avoidance than Indestructible depending on your stats, also a solid chunk of Hit to help with threat.
T/B – Dragonslayer’s Brace: Best threat in slot, designed for a Block set.

Legs

EH/AV/MT – Legplates of the Endless Void: Another of the “higher iLvl” BiS pieces. Best avoidance in slot, higher Stam by a long shot.
EH – Saronite Plated Legguards: I don’t know the formula for EH, but these may top the Endless Void if you are in an extreme physical EH fight.
AV – Conqueror’s Aegis Legguards: 2nd best AV while keeping a decent Stam number and helping with set bonuses.
B/T – Wyrmguard Legplates: Yet another Block piece that functions well for Paladin threat.

Feet

EH/AV/MT – Spiked Deathdealers: Almost seem over itemized for the given iLvl. Potential for tons of Stamina with great avoidance.
AV/T – Charred Saronite Greaves: Possibly better AV than the Deathdealers as well as lots of Hit.
T/B – Greaves of the Stonewarder: Strength and Block Value serves for either Block or threat set. (Note: Only a slight TPS increase over Naxx’s Inexorable Sabatons.)

Rings

You will notice there are no MT designations in this section. A good tank should switch rings often to match the situation. There are some that may “overall” be better, but the choice is still situational.

EH – The Leviathan’s Coil and Fate's Clutch are very similar in terms of EH. The Coil's Armor is slightly better than the extra 22 Stam from the Clutch in most cases.
AV – Fate's Clutch and Platinum Band of the Aesir. (Note: Sand-Worn Band and Signet of Winter are right there with the others and should be considered in your specific gear-set.)
T – Signet of the Earthshaker and The Leviathan’s Coil. (Note: Gatekeeper is still solid threat assuming you are under the Hit cap and should be weighted very similarly to The Coil.)
B – Signet of the Earthshaker and Unsmashable Heavy Band are still the only WotLK rings with BV/BR on them.

Trinket

Same as the Ring section, there are no MT designation’s here as you should go through trinkets like a rich kid goes through toys (no offense to the rich kids out there, please keep reading : ]). I personally prefer 1 Stam trinket and 1 (usually avoidance) trinket with a strong (again, usually avoidance) “on use” ability for most situations. That’s a hold-over preference from the BC Commendation/Pocketwatch days.

EH – Heart of Iron and Royal Seal of King Lane.
AV – Repelling Charge is still the top AV trinket in my opinion with the Furnace Stone 2nd. The Furnace Stone beats out the silly General's Heart 25man trinket. With only 2 more dodge rating to try and balance a weaker, uncontrolled proc.
T – Darkmoon Card: Greatness is still the best available trinket for both threat and block value. Battlemaster’s Accuracy is a great piece (for those of you who PvP), with both a ton of hit and a very nice "on use" ability. Grim Toll also has good hit and a slightly useful threat proc. (Note: I have not yet seen great new Threat trinkets, nor have I searched them out at this point.)
B – Lavanthor’s Talisman and Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600/Coren’s Lucky Coin each have their place in a block set depending on your situation. (Note: As stated earlier, Greatness is currently the best trinket for Block Value.)

Shield

EH/AV/B/MT – Bulwark of Algalon: High EH, good AV, great Block stats, takes the MT designation no problem.
AV – Hero’s Surrender: Still the best avoidance in slot at this time.
T – Northern Barrier: Best threat in slot with the Hit and Expertise on it. (Note: See the note on The Boreal Guard.)
Of Note: AV/B – Wall of Terror: A great shield now with the Stamina change, however, not BiS in any category. Good AV and decent Stamina.
Of Note: EH/B - The Boreal Guard: Best EH in slot still, very similar to the Bulwark of Algalon, just slightly downgraded in most areas.

Weapon

The weapon section will be set as a ranking system as Paladin threat is primarily based on weapon DPS. This means that the higher Item Level weapons that generally have more avoidance on them also produce the most threat. Block stats should not be sought at the weapon slot. To see a threat comparison and summary on several Ulduar weapons, see this comparison by Theck.

1. Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers is the best threat and avoidance of the available weapons. Yay for high Item Level.
2. Titanguard is the next best overall, with better threat and more avoidance than the Shiver.
3. Shiver has the highest Stamina of the available weapons, but is only a threat side-grade to Last Laugh. (Note: Very versatile with the gem slot here, can be better than Titanguard in a couple of categories depending on this.)
4. Last Laugh our baseline weapon, BiS Naxx-era.

[Jayson]

III. The 10man List

Truth be told... I have like the 1st two paragraphs of the Ulduar10 guide and that is it. Just not gonna have the time to get it done this summer. We'll see next patch if I can get one going.

Head

AV/MT – Thane’s Tainted Greathelm: Best helm in game at the 10man level.
T/B – Heroes’ Redemption Faceguard: High BV here for a Threat set.
EH – Tempered Titansteel Helm: Huge EH potential when compared to the other 10man helms available.

Neck

MT – Drakescale Collar: Almost contradicting the theme of this guide, I am going to say that this non-specialized neckpiece is the BiS overall at the 10man level. Good avoidance, top Stam, high un-hittable contribution, all depending on the gemming.
EH – Titanium Earthguard Chain: Armor/Stam, top EH available.
AV/T – Chained Military Gorget: High avoidance, Hit Rating if you are still looking for the cap.
B/T – Medallion of the Disgraced: Decent Strength as well as BR and BV.

Shoulders

EH/AV/MT – Heroes’ Redemption Shoulderguards: Top AV in slot, tied for best EH as well, great piece.
T/AV – Abomination Shoulderblades: Hit Rating, and a gem slot make this a great threat piece with solid avoidance as well.
B – Pauldrons of the Colossus: BR, good Strength, and a gem slot make these nice for a block set.

Cloak

EH/AV/MT – Gale-Proof Cloak: BiS hands down. Top avoidance, top EH, top Stamina, and pseudo-avoidance (Expertise). Sarth +1D is very doable at the 10man gearing level also.
T/EH – Cloak of Armed Strife: Hit cloak. It’s worth mentioning that this is the 2nd highest EH cloak available.
B/T – Tattered Castle Drape: Good Strength and BV make this a decent threat cloak as well as a block cloak.

Chest

EH/T/B/MT – Heroes’ Redemption Breastplate: Best EH, high Strength, Block Rating, and Block Value bring this the MT designation.
AV – Massive Skeletal Ribcage: Best avoidance for Paladins at the 10man level.

Wrist

EH/T/B/MT – Minion Bracers: Best EH, high Strength, great piece.
AV – Bracers of the Herald: Technically a miniscule higher in the avoidance department, basically a slight downgrade from Minion in all cases.
(Note: EH/T/MT – Bracers of Dalaran’s Parapets are purchasable for those of you with gold to spare.)

Hands

EH/T/MT – Heroes’ Redemption Handguards: Top EH (assuming a Solid gem), Hit, and good avoidance. (Note: Gauntlets of the Master are basically the same item with 12 less Stamina, 1 less Hit and 5 more Dodge rating.)
AV – Fireproven Gauntlets: Top avoidance, still strong EH.
B – Refined Ore Gloves: BR here.

Waist

EH/MT – Waistguard of Living Iron: Best Stamina available, great avoidance, and good Strength. I’d recommend gemming Enduring/Solid and using this as a 10man MT belt.
AV – Ancient Aligned Girdle: Great avoidance piece.
B/T – Waistguard of the Tutor: High Strength, Block Rating, and Block Value.

Legs

EH/B/T/MT – Heroes’ Redemption Legguards: Tied for top Stamina, good blocking stats, and high Strength. (Note: Legplates of Inescapable Death are nearly identical with slightly higher Defense at the cost of some Strength. Great in-between piece if you are on the edge of your Def cap.)
AV/T – Bolstered Legplates: The high Defense makes these the best avoidance available in 10man as well as Hit for threat.

Feet

AV/MT – Plague-Impervious Boots: Very nice avoidance piece with decent Stamina to “boot”. (I know, terrible…)
EH – Tempered Titansteel Treads: Top Stam and EH in slot, nothing else.
B/T – Inexorable Sabatons: Great Threat/Block boots, BoE Naxx25 drop can be found in the AH. (Note: There are multiple rare quality boots with Block and Threat stats on them.)

Rings

You will notice there are no MT designations in this section. A good tank should switch rings often to match the situation. There are some that may “overall” be better, but the choice is still situational.

EH – Keystone Great-Ring & Titanium Earthguard Ring. In pure, physical-damage, avoidance-matters-zero situations, Nerubian Shield Ring and Band of Torture come out above the Earthguard.
AV – Titanium Earthguard Ring & Deflection Band.
T - Deflection Band & Unsmashable Heavy Band.
B - Unsmashable Heavy Band is the only current WotLK ring with BV/BR on it.

Trinkets

Same as the Ring section, there are no MT designation’s here as you should go through trinkets like a rich kid goes through toys. I personally prefer 1 Stam trinket and 1 (usually avoidance) trinket with a strong (again, usually avoidance) “on use” ability for most situations. That’s a hold-over preference from the BC Commendation/Pocket Watch days.

EH – Essence of Gossamer and Offering of Sacrifice for the average joe. Figurine - Monarch Crab, Indestructible Alchemist’s Stone, Figurine – Ruby Hare and Sonic Booster listed in order of general tanking “quality” for those of you with these professions. (Note: If you want a second Stamina trinket and have none of the appropriate professions, consider the Commendation of Kael’thas.)
AV - Repelling Charge and Valor Medal of the First War, both with very strong “use” abilities.
T – Darkmoon Card: Greatness is the best available trinket for both threat and block value. Battlemaster’s Accuracy is a great piece (for those of you who PvP), with both a ton of hit and a very nice "on use" ability. Figurine – Twilight Serpent and Sphere of Red Dragon’s Blood each have hit with a moderately useful proc/use threat ability.
B – Lavanthor’s Talisman and Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600/Coren’s Lucky Coin each have their place in a block set depending on your situation.

Shield

EH/AV/MT – Barricade of Eternity: Top EH in slot and best avoidance, highest iLvl piece from 10mans. (Note: In a perfect world, with no DRs, Crygil’s Discarded Plate Panel has .02% more avoidance than the Barricade.)
T – Skull of Ruin has highest total threat potential, Crygil’s Discarded Plate Panel and the Royal Crest of Lordaeron each have Hit Rating in equal amounts.
B - Skull of Ruin: Highest BR and BV in slot.

Weapon

I left weapons for last because I am going to change the format here to a ranking system. The Slayer of the Lifeless currently stands tall above the other weapons for Paladins in two of the three categories: EH, AV, and T (you don't want to look to a weapon for Block stats generally).

1. Slayer of the Lifeless has the best avoidance, best threat, and is only one point behind the Red Sword of Courage in total Stamina.
2. Red Sword of Courage falls behind the Slayer with lower Strength, same DPS, and lower avoidance.
3. Infantry Assault Blade & Cloudstrider’s Waraxe are both viable options for the starting Protection Paladin.

[Jayson]

Reserved

[Kazeyonoma]

Is there that much of a difference in priority that paladins and warriors have different BiS pieces?

[knockcha]

wtb bracers of unholy and last lol but yea id say you understand what youre talkin about

[Jayson]

Is there that much of a difference in priority that paladins and warriors have different BiS pieces?

There are some significant differences. Expertise is a huge threat stat for warriors, you can see in Hal's guide that basically an Expertise piece in any slot takes the cake. For Paladins it is a pretty poor stat. The tier pieces are also a huge difference. The warrior T7.5 tends to have more true avoidance while Paladin gear has Block Rating.

The primary reason I created this thread was in reply to 2 people in game who asked me to create one as well as several threads both here on Tankspot and on Maintankadin that had questions that would be answered by it. Thanks for the drop-in Kaz!

[Jayson]

wtb bracers of unholy and last lol but yea id say you understand what youre talkin about

I totally agree with you on the Bracers >_< Seen them once and I was savin for a weapon drop.

And thanks for the vote of confidence. Hopefully it is a help to the Paladins out there.

[Selyndia]

Is there that much of a difference in priority that paladins and warriors have different BiS pieces?

While there are a lot of similarities, there are some notable differences between paladins and warriors for gearing purposes. Many of the items are similar, but there are enough differences that it isn't a bad idea to have a seperate ranking system, especially since Paladin Tier is itemized so differently than Warrior Tier.

Expertise is not very useful for Prot Paladins at all, and thus affects a lot of the weightings. Glyph of Seal of Vengeance gives 10 Expertise Skill, while talents provide an additional 6. Add in that the only abilities that Protection Paladins have that can be Dodged/Parried are White Attacks and Hammer of the Righteous, and additional Expertise isn't really that helpful.

Also, for tiered gear, most of the Paladin gear is targeted towards Block Value and Rating (Helm, Chest, Legs), while the shoulders are solid Avoidance pieces, and the gloves are fairly balanced (Hit, Dodge, Defense).

At later gear levels, against melee bosses for Prot Paladins, Block Value increases in Value, while Block Rating decreases, due to the fact that Paladins can hit 102.4 without sacrificing much, and then it adds the Block Value as EH on any melee hit from a boss. Similarly once at 102.4 additional Block Rating is mostly dead weight for itemization and is better off swapped for something that is effective when Redoubt/Holy Shield Charges are up (Most times).

Finally, Broken Promise is a very solid Paladin tanking weapon, only being beaten out by Last Laugh, as Paladins have no "Mana to Threat" dump (Heroic Strike) and the white damage only exists to continue to reapply Seal of Vengeance stacks. Where for a Warrior, it is inferior to both Red Sword and Slayer due to Heroic Strike mechanics.

[Kazeyonoma]

Okie doke, I wasn't trying to take away from your thread, I don't play a paladin but from what little understanding I know of them, I know we share a ton of similarities especially in gearing but I can see the validity of this thread. I'm just trying to figure out a way to cut back on the # of stickies we have here, there's just way too many, but I don't want good guides like this one to drop off.

[Jayson]

Okie doke, I wasn't trying to take away from your thread, I don't play a paladin but from what little understanding I know of them, I know we share a ton of similarities especially in gearing but I can see the validity of this thread. I'm just trying to figure out a way to cut back on the # of stickies we have here, there's just way too many, but I don't want good guides like this one to drop off.

Hey, not a problem man. I totally understand the sticky thing. I saw you mention how many stickies there were when you were posting on the Warrior BiS guide. That's also the reason I was worried for my guide ; ]

I'd like to think that going into Ulduar there will be many more gear choices and these BiS guides are going to gain value.

Source: Selyndia

Thanks for the re-iteration there.

[solocommand]

Thanks for this, interesting to see how my tanking set compares with the best in slots

[Kazeyonoma]

There we go, I've consolidated some of the guides into a link guide rather than stick all of them up there. That should help clear things up while still providing visibility.

Now how to group the rest of them up..

[Akeber]

Add in that the only abilities that Protection Paladins have that can be Dodged/Parried are White Attacks and Hammer of the Righteous, and additional Expertise isn't really that helpful.

I was unde the impression that HotR was a modified ranged attack and not parriable. Can anyone confirm?

[Selyndia]

You won't see a "Parry" but you'll get a "Deflection" (At least thats what my Combat Text reads), there were a lot of reports of this back when it was first added (Patch 3.0), and I myself had seen it as well. To that extent, I believe it is still exists, but I am looking over some old WWS now to see if I can confirm it.

[morelore]

You won't see a "Parry" but you'll get a "Deflection" (At least thats what my Combat Text reads), there were a lot of reports of this back when it was first added (Patch 3.0), and I myself had seen it as well. To that extent, I believe it is still exists, but I am looking over some old WWS now to see if I can confirm it.

My last wws has 9 dodges and 17 "other" for hammer, which sounds about right.

[Halandir]

hey as far as p******ns go, you know your stuff.

nice work, took you long enough you know you're lazy

[Jayson]

You won't see a "Parry" but you'll get a "Deflection" (At least thats what my Combat Text reads), there were a lot of reports of this back when it was first added (Patch 3.0), and I myself had seen it as well. To that extent, I believe it is still exists, but I am looking over some old WWS now to see if I can confirm it.

It is parriable, Sely is correct in that it will show in the floating combat text as a "Deflected".

Shield of the Righteous and Judgements either Hit or Miss, no dodge or parry. Holy Shield and Consecrate of course cannot be dodged or parried either as they work under spell mechanics (i.e. Hit/Miss/Resist[which is also affected by hit rating]). That is 4 of the 5 abilities in our basic rotation and they do not benefit from Expertise. Of course, our Auto-Attacks can be dodged/parried but white damage only increases our DPS and does not assist our threat in a significant manner.

Other abilities you might use are: Holy Wrath (Hit/Miss/Resist), Exorcism (Hit/Miss/Resist), Hammer of Wrath (Hit/Miss, not 100% sure on this as I don't use it often myself).

So Expertise fails for threat with Paladins.

[Jayson]

hey as far as p******ns go, you know your stuff.

nice work, took you long enough you know you're lazy

Hahahah, thanks man. You appear to know Warriors well to ; ].

Thanks for the drop-in Hal. Good man.

(P.S. I am lazy... very much so... lol.)

Oh, and Hal? I'm still trolling your thread heheh.

[solocommand]

Us pallies are so cool they invented a new word for a ranged parry.

[Halandir]

hey thanks for the link, I did the same for you with my guide.