Vexryn's Cataclysm Tanking Master Gear List & Gear Progression

[Tengenstein]

nope, you got it dead on, there's only some greens, some agi blues, and the pvp throwing weapon or the BoE drop in BoT. the Blue "Thundercall" never made it onto live servers so it doesn't exist in game.

It's been added to the loot table in 4.0.6: i got it thursday night
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ngenstein/feed

[Pupmaster56]

I have been trying to open the link to you guide and have been unsuccessful so far. Being a warrior tank, I'm eager to learn anything new that will help me become the tank I was in Wotlk. Many sites are just not as updated as they need to be, probably because of all the new content and it takes time with trial and error to find the right combination of gear, etc...especially since I've found you actually need to spec a bit different for raiding vs 5 man heroics. Thanks for all your hard work and hope to see a working link soon. My email is tully56@aol.com if you can send there since I tend to not be able to find what I'm looking for right away. Happy gaming!!

[Vexryn]

I have been trying to open the link to you guide and have been unsuccessful so far. Being a warrior tank, I'm eager to learn anything new that will help me become the tank I was in Wotlk. Many sites are just not as updated as they need to be, probably because of all the new content and it takes time with trial and error to find the right combination of gear, etc...especially since I've found you actually need to spec a bit different for raiding vs 5 man heroics. Thanks for all your hard work and hope to see a working link soon. My email is tully56@aol.com if you can send there since I tend to not be able to find what I'm looking for right away. Happy gaming!!

Pupmaster,
Sorry, I'm not sure what the difficulty is. I am still maintaining this tank gear list; the link in the first post of this thread works just fine for me.

[Vexryn]

Fully updated for ZA/ZG tank gear!

[Kazeyonoma]

siiick! you planning on updating for firelands once the gear list is released too?

[Kemanorel]

Duplicate mention: Al'akir's loot table also includes random enchant neck and cloak epics as well as chance for helm or tier tokens. It is probably worth a minor update to include the parry/mastery and such variations this makes possible as drops from Conclave of the winds, as well as the obvious alternative for (albeit in some cases less desireable) helm and shoulder tokens that don't involve the other tier-dropping traditional bosses namely Cho'gall and Nefarian. source is buried in the depths of "ask the developer's #4" but can be verified in other means, apologies at lack of direct evidence.

[Vexryn]

siiick! you planning on updating for firelands once the gear list is released too?

Absolutely.

[Vexryn]

Duplicate mention: Al'akir's loot table also includes random enchant neck and cloak epics as well as chance for helm or tier tokens. It is probably worth a minor update to include the parry/mastery and such variations this makes possible as drops from Conclave of the winds, as well as the obvious alternative for (albeit in some cases less desireable) helm and shoulder tokens that don't involve the other tier-dropping traditional bosses namely Cho'gall and Nefarian. source is buried in the depths of "ask the developer's #4" but can be verified in other means, apologies at lack of direct evidence.

Yeah I'm going to get the Al'akir updates in there too. I wanted to confirm item names and links from Wowhead but they've been slow to update this week. I should have it up soon though.

[Vexryn]

Updates for Firelands/Patch 4.2 now underway.

List has been relocated to a new site where I can control and work on it more easily/directly: Vexryn's Guides

Enjoy! Feedback welcome as always!

[Bigbad]

Looks nice, there is a 365 cloak you might want to add its from a new questline http://ptr.wowhead.com/items=4.-6?fi...rs=1;crv=40100 these are all 4 rewards.

And one little thing the links to the new stuff give me an error shows ptr://www.wowhead....... instead of http://ptr.wowhead.....

[Vexryn]

Ooh, hadn't seen those cloaks at all. Very nice.

That's part of a questline leading into Firelands content?

*And thanks for the correction on the links. Fixed now.

[Michultradk]

Vex, this has been a first class effort by you, I have recommended this to many people.

Thanks again for taking the time.

[Vexryn]

Vex, this has been a first class effort by you, I have recommended this to many people.

Thanks again for taking the time.

Thanks for the kind words.

Anything you think I'm missing that still needs to be added? Or changed for ease of use?

I may be adding a separate guide specifically on Firelands tank gear... something to the effect of "So where you should focus first" kind of guide. But I'm open to suggestions!

[Vexryn]

Overall, gear should now be fully updated for Firelands and Patch 4.2 with all available information. I'll be watching for anything to be different when the patch hits live servers and adjust accordingly if necessary!

[Kazeyonoma]

sick, thanks a ton for your work Vexryn!

[Vexryn]

sick, thanks a ton for your work Vexryn!

Happy to be of service!

I just posted my first-take guide on Patch 4.2 tank gear as well. Further reading at Vexryn's Patch 4.2 Tank Gear Progression Guide.

Enjoy the light reading!

[Darkrawr]

Vex - I just started a thread over here:

http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...or-T12-content

discussing the T12 cloak options. I'd like to hear your thoughts on exactly why the 378 Durable Flamewrath Greatcloak is listed above Mantle of Patience (imo, Mantle is slightly better) and the Permafrost Cloaks off of Al'Akir (the mastery one should definitely be better, the dodge/parry one might be as well). It looks like you just went by ilvl, which was pretty straightforward on the first tier of content, but with Blizzard moving away from ideal itemization this tier, there's going to be more choices between normal Firelands gear and heroic T11 gear, and maybe even between heroic T11 and heroic T12, depending on the itemization.

Just taking a quick look at your list, without actually doing any math other places I see similar issues that might actually be wrong would be shoulders (397 dodge/hit over 391 dodge/parry), and maybe necks (391 exp/mastery over 378 parry/mastery). There's some other ones too, where a threat piece is listed as better than a mitigation piece when they're of relatively close ilvls (and sometimes, the ilvl difference may not be enough to make up for the itemization).

Any insight you can offer would be appreciated!

[Selendis]

In the same thread earlier Pyrea mentions Dreadfire Cape (http://www.wowhead.com/item=71415). After a bit of napkin math I think I'd actually prefer this over both the quest- and the rep-option. The heroic version, that is.

considering 2x mastery gems and reforging hit to dodge or parry, it looks really solid imo.

Thought I'd mention it here in case it was overlooked in the other thread

[Vexryn]

@Darkrawr - the list follows a standardized sorting process. It's sorted first by ilvl, then by mastery > dodge/parry > expertise/hit itemization amongst items with equal ilvl. The list is being used by multiple tank classes, and not all classes prioritize stats the same way (e.g., DKs care a little more about having a Death Strike not landing than a prot paladin cares about a Crusader Strike not landing), so I applied a rule that would generalize as much as possible. It won't be perfect for all classes simultaneously.

Regarding your question more directly, I'd consider a heroic Al'akir cloak with avoidance/mastery to be the BiS offering for pure survival without threat stats. Mantle of Patience is an appealing option too; superior combat table coverage to the rep cloak, albeit at a modest loss of stamina (no, it's not all about stamina anymore, but that doesn't mean it's useless, either ).

Overall, yes, I'm expecting there will be a few situations where the lower ilvl piece will at least be "of interest" - especially when comparing i372 heroic t11 gear to i378 regular t12 gear. I find the i372 trinkets from Magmaw and Valiona to be more appealing than Scales of Life; Heroic Omnotron belt to be better than the honored rep one (at least unless you're a block-capped tankadin). Similarly, I suspect we'll see comparable decisions when choosing itemization between i378 and i391, although I'd note that strictly speaking, we haven't seen much of heroic t12 bosses yet, and don't know how important the raw higher armor and stamina of i391 gear will be relative to how much the bosses pound on us.

But yes, the bottom line is that because it's used by multiple classes, my gear list is a roughly sorted list, not a definitive BiS guide, as not all classes will agree on which pieces are BiS (and either way, I view BiS as specific to a FIGHT, anyway, as different fights lend themselves to different gear requirements). Users of the guides are still expected to apply some brain cells on their behalf, too.

[Pek]

Just wanted to chirp in and say thank you for your work Vexryn. I'm a prot warrior and have found your lists to be very clean, concise and exactly what I need when deciding gear sets. I've passed your website onto other plate tanks and they too have been pleasantly surprised at how well structured your lists are. Once again, thank you and keep up the good work.