New to ICC tanking seeking any advice.

[Barricadex]

I just started tanking ICC 10 and I was just wondering if I need to change any gear / spec /glyphs or gems / enchants around to make life easier on my healers any advice would be greatly appreciated.



The World of Warcraft Armory

[Jaydn]

Hi, because im at work, it's very short:

Talents: I personally wouldn't go for Reckoning, it isnt a good TPS-Talent. Instead you should pick up 3/5 Divinity. Its 3% more heal. Ok that isnt so much but its better, then parry haste an boss and kill yourself.

Gear: Your gear is ok. Without access to 25 mans its almost the best you can get.

What Upgrades can you get? You can pick up die frostemblem-trinket Corroded Skeleton Key Corroded Skeleton Key - Item - World of Warcraft Its a 102 stamina-upgrade, over 1200 HP with talents. i think. it's the best upgrade for you. It costs only 60 emblems, so it's not so expensive, as the tier 10 main-pieces.

After that you can go for the blacksmithing-pieces Pillars of Might Pillars of Might - Item - World of Warcraft and Boots of Kingly Upheaval Boots of Kingly Upheaval - Spell - World of Warcraft or you pick up the 2 piece-bonus from tier 10.

Swap you gloves and legs (if you wont craft pillars) or helm out.

Gems: Your gems are wrong. If a socket bonus is less then 9 stamina, ignore it. If you need 1 blue and 1 not-blue gem to activate the 9-sta-bonus, go for it. 12 stamina-boni in helmets are ok, pick them up. ignore the 12 stamina-boni, in the most cases you need all 3 colors and thats not good.

take 10agi/15 stamina in red sockets, 10 def-rating/ 15 stamina in yellow sockets

Glyphs: Your glyphs are ok, but you should swap hammer of righteous with glyph of Righteous Defense.

[Mert]

I disagree on a couple of points. Divinity would largely be lost to overheal in most instances. While it's obviously better for survival than Reckoning, I think it's far too expensive a talent for too little gain. 3/5 Reckoning is fine for threat, though if you need a threat boost in ICC with a 3/3 Crusade build then you're probably doing something wrong. Perhaps pick up Divine Guardian for the boost to Sacred Shield? Really it depends if you typically have a Holy Paladin in your raid. There's no clear winner in my eyes, but 3/5 Reckoning is certainly not bad, especially since you'll have 44 Expertise with SoV up and so parryhaste isn't too much of a concern.

As for Glyph of Righteous Defense, I really wouldn't. If you are worried about taunts missing then you can always carry a stack of these in your bag but I would never put it in my MT build. I personally use Glyph of Judgement for single-target threat in my MT build but I've been known to use Salvation for an extra cooldown as well.

To illustrate my point about the RD glyph:

You have two taunts - Hand of Reckoning and Righteous Defense. Both of these work of spell hit rather than melee hit and the cap for spell hit is 17%. You currently have 7.74% spell hit, which means you have a 9.26% chance to miss with any given taunt. Therefore your chance of missing with both taunts is 0.86% (3sf). While some might suggest that even one taunt out of 100 missing is too many, I simply can't see the justification for using an entire glyph slot for that purpose.

For very taunt-sensitive fights (Gormok perhaps) you could always switch that particular glyph in for that one fight but I wouldn't suggest doing it for a typical fight or, indeed, any fight so far in ICC.

[Jaydn]

Well, i have to disagree.

His gear will chance with ICC-loot. I have atm less then 3% hit, in my ICC-Avoidance and my ICC-Armor-Set its less then 1%. He will loose a lot of hitrating, if he swaps out the necklace (marrowgar) or belt (emblems).

Hit as tank is complicated.

It a waste, if you have 1 or 2 Mutilation-Rogues or Hunters in your 10m, that supports you with Tricks of the Trade and Misdirection (or in my case up to 3 Muti-Rogues and 2 Hunter in my 25m). But then, the RD-glyph is required in a lot of fights. Thats a hard trade off.

You can skip it, but not forever. There is no "best in slot-for all situations-gear". Its no problem to change your gear, if you want 5% or even 7% hit and take Glyph of Salvation instead of RD but if you gear strict for migration and avoidance, you dont need another -20% dmg cooldown and TPS-Stats to compensate the Hand of Salvation-Loose.

And i personally dont know a situation, there you need 3 cooldowns with 2min CD and at least 20% DMG-Reduce or Auto-Guardian Spirit. (Dont answer Sarth 3d <.<)

[BlazeDale]

I personally don't like RD. While I understand it's usefulness in most situation if I can taunt once I can taunt twice and both taunts rarely miss.

And i personally dont know a situation, there you need 3 cooldowns with 2min CD and at least 20% DMG-Reduce or Auto-Guardian Spirit. (Dont answer Sarth 3d <.<)

Ardent Defender shouldn't be relied upon as a CD. Yes it can save your life and but if you are relying on it, you are asking for trouble. Granted the content is old but I use the 20% damage reduction of Salvation on General and Mimiron in Ulduar.

This is all speculation and whatever route you go, You are ready for ICC. You have the gear and it is a pally's paradise in there. The first wing of ICC 10 is a face roll raid and if you have cleared Ulduar you should have no problem in there.

[Barricadex]

Thanks I will be fine tuning the spec a little and the incorrect gemming will be fixed i just have not swapped out the pant gems because I will be upgrading to tier 9.5 pants with trophy and going 30 stam x2. Also for ICC would I be better off with mongoose or blood draining? I have read many of the guides and have found no definitive answer on the issue. I mainly tank 10s and heroics and randomly 25s. Thanks for taking the time to help out.

[Jaydn]

Take Blood Draining, it can save your life. Mongoose is good to, but its a random proc. Its nice to have, because it gives you ~260 Armor, about 1.X% Crit and Dodge but it dont save your life.

Blood Drain does only procs, when your life are under 35%. Together with ardent Defender, its really good. especially for heroic and 10m raids (lower damage).

If you need some extra TPS, you can get Accuracy or the low-price-alternate titanium weapon chain.