Hit A Wall?

[Jakkii]

I feel like I've hit a wall as far as Heroics gear goes, and Triumph gear goes. Can anyone give me some recommendations on what instances to focus on / farm, if there are any useful badge pieces I can get (Conquest/Triumph) and what I should be doing in terms of raiding?

Here's my Armory:

The World of Warcraft Armory

Thanks guys... =)

PS: I should mention that I've got 63 Triumph emblems, but plan on spending them on Crusader Orbs to get Saronite Swordbreakers. I have 4 titansteel right now just need to farm more gold to buy the other 4. I also have the saronite bars.

[Spazlord]

Your gear is great, it's about as good as you can get before raiding. You could jump in at about ToC25 level quite easily and ICC10 wouldn't be too far away.

Also there is some nice bits for Frost Emblems but you won't accumulate them too quickly just yet.

[Fledern]

You're pretty much done with gearing through heroics yes. It really is raiding time. However, your hp will be put into question whenever you apply anywhere, even pugs, so i suggest tweaking things around a bit and trying to tank for healers from raiding guilds - especially on the new 3 icc heroics. A healer is the best person to comment on your tanking skills & damage intake and can speak on your behalf when your hp is on the lowish side. Icecrown 10man is much more forgiving on health than ToC is (even though with the current gear available ToC is also a walk in the park) so i'd say that's a good raid level to aim for.




Just a few suggestions:

1) Change your metagem. You want the stam+armor meta. And the 12stam socket bonus on the helm is too great to pass up, gem for the socket bonus there.

2) Chest: I strongly suggest the crafted chest (Breastplate of the white knight i think it was called. Expensive but really good. If you plan to stick with your current chest, the +9 stam bonus is too good to pass up, gem accordingly and use an epic gem

3) Legs: Same thing with the socket bonus. Those are good legs, well worth putting in epic gems & try to grab the socket bonus.

4) Level up your blacksmithing. Extra sockets on your bracers & hands are really nice.

5) With the upgrades suggested, you should be able to hit the def cap without having to enchant def on your shield. When you get to that point switch to the +18 stam enchant (it's a TBC enchant)

6) If you're saving up frost badges, invest first in the badge belt. It'll be a HUGE improvement.

7) Max out your mining Extra 30 stam ftw

[Cainne]

I highly suggest getting the 4pc bonus for t9, it is a really strong bonus, and probably makes up for the 13 ilvl drop from your shoulders or helm.

Also, switch your blue quality gems for epics, switch your cape enchant to 16 defense, and then switch your shield to 18 stam, you'll still be over crit cap if you do, and of course, get that mining and BSing up, thats 120 stam that is just tasty.

Also, if you get the swordbreakers crafted, dont worry about switching your cape enchant to defense, the amount on them is enough to keep you over cap while switching your shield enchant to 18 stamina.

[Jakkii]

Thanks for the advice, going to digest it -- make some changes, and then post back.

[Aggathon]

I highly suggest getting the 4pc bonus for t9, it is a really strong bonus, and probably makes up for the 13 ilvl drop from your shoulders or helm.

The 4PC T9 warrior bonus is fairly bad and generally considered not worth it. There are much better offset pieces you can pick up, especially with emblems of frost gear now available.

What Feld said is 100% accurate and very good advice to follow. I'd also suggest taking a look at the guide linked in my signature, it has links to several different gearing guides that some very good tankspot authors have made, and it should help you with those questions. It also has a lot of other information in it that you may find useful.

[Jakkii]

What Yellow gem's should I be using?

[Aggathon]

I typically don't use yellow gems. If there is a juicy +12 stam socket bonus I'd hit a yellow socket bonus with a +10defense/+15stam gem, but other than that I'd probably ignore it.

[Jakkii]

The World of Warcraft Armory

Newest gear. Any more advice? Haven't been able to ditch some gems / enchants yet.

[Xianth]

You're pretty much done with gearing through heroics yes. It really is raiding time. However, your hp will be put into question whenever you apply anywhere, even pugs, so i suggest tweaking things around a bit and trying to tank for healers from raiding guilds - especially on the new 3 icc heroics. A healer is the best person to comment on your tanking skills & damage intake and can speak on your behalf when your hp is on the lowish side. Icecrown 10man is much more forgiving on health than ToC is (even though with the current gear available ToC is also a walk in the park) so i'd say that's a good raid level to aim for.




Just a few suggestions:

1) Change your metagem. You want the stam+armor meta. And the 12stam socket bonus on the helm is too great to pass up, gem for the socket bonus there.

2) Chest: I strongly suggest the crafted chest (Breastplate of the white knight i think it was called. Expensive but really good. If you plan to stick with your current chest, the +9 stam bonus is too good to pass up, gem accordingly and use an epic gem

3) Legs: Same thing with the socket bonus. Those are good legs, well worth putting in epic gems & try to grab the socket bonus.

4) Level up your blacksmithing. Extra sockets on your bracers & hands are really nice.

5) With the upgrades suggested, you should be able to hit the def cap without having to enchant def on your shield. When you get to that point switch to the +18 stam enchant (it's a TBC enchant)

6) If you're saving up frost badges, invest first in the badge belt. It'll be a HUGE improvement.

7) Max out your mining Extra 30 stam ftw

All good advice that i can only reiterate the value of, especially having max professions.

You could already do ICC10 pretty easily though, my pala alt has a little bit worse gear than you and managed it with ease.

[Jakkii]

So far I've got 425BS and 450 Mining, upgraded my bracers and gloves w/ new sockets, threw in some new gems, and enchanted some gear. Now I need to work on enchant for weapon and get gem issues sorted out. I was going to switch to the new prismatic gem but it requires a red gem and I can't really rationalize getting a red gem, I just don't think I need that bonus. I don't know why I'd drop out a +30sta gem for a yellow gem to get a +9sta socket bonus, why would I do that?

[Daxwax]

With new prismatic gem I assume you mean the Austere Earthsiege metagem.
Two percent more armor might not seem like much, but its helps just a little bit. So you definitely should go for it.
A red gem really isn't such a bad color to fill. Either put a 10dodge/15stam or 10expertise/15stam in your legs and you got yourself a whopping 9 stamina free.
The reason why people choose to gem for 9stam/12stam socket bonuses is that it might be a small downgrade in pure stamina, but it gives more back to your overall damage reduction or threat generation.

I don't agree that it's an obvious choice no matter what gearlevel you're at.
At lower gearlevels in relation to the content you're working with, it might make more sense to go for a stamina heavy build to give the healers a bit more slack on heavy damage spikes.
Trial of crusader has its fair share of bursty boss encounters (Northrend beasts primarily, twins to some degree with twin spike debuff).

Food for thought: There's some abilities in totc that stuns the tank, rendering avoidance useless. In icecrown however, there will be fewer of these abilities due to chill of the throne.

[Eisen]

You lucky sonna...you have my mace. Go get Blood Draining on it.

Everyone else here gave fantastic advice...I'd suggest farming ToC10 for the boots and shield, and farming frost badges for either the cloak or belt (belt's probably the better up at this point). You're probably OK to offtank ICC runs, at least trash clears for rep...go get your Ashen ring to replace Relentless. And get more epic gems in if you can afford it.

Ony 25 wouldn't be a bad idea either, a nice neck drops there.

[Jakkii]

The World of Warcraft Armory

Bump with new updates! Gems fixed, new enchants, etc.