Since i'm being lazy and not going into lab today, and the fucking servers are down, i'll throw out a list of tanking gear for the end game, Stonelegs helped me a ton by suggesting (telling me all my shit sucked) that I get new gear, so this is a compilation of what Stonelegs thinks is good, and a few things I threw in, let me know if I miss anything:

A note, for tanking your 3 primary stats are going to be AC (armor rating), Stamina (your HP) and Defense (all sorts of good shit)

Head:

Golem Skull Helm Good all around helm here, +18 str/stam and +11 defense. Drops off Phalanx in BRD, with everyone doing incendius and coffer runs nowdays, this should be easy to do/get

Helm of Awareness is another good helm, +17 stam, +2% chance to dodge. Some tanks prefer to avoid being hit, Stonelegs convinced me to focus on being able to take the hits instead of avoiding, so I went with the golem, but it's up to your preference. This drops off Zevrim in DM:E

Avenguard Helm This is a good helm to pick up on your way to the above 2, it's from an ST quest, has +25 stam so that's good.

Enchanted Thorium Helm Lastly, if you're rich, this is the best tanking helm you can get pre-MC. It's a crafted item, and costs a buttload to make, but it has +25 stam, the highest AC of these I listed, and +13 defense.

Helm of the Mountain: I hesitate to put this one on the list, it has great AC at 683 or so, and +10 def, but lacks any stamina whatsoever, and compared to the above helms, you're giving up at least 170 hp, which is a lot. I will put this up tentatively, but strongly suggest against it.

Neck

Medallion of Grand Marshall Morris This is the best tanking neck in the game pre-MC. +7 stam and +15 defense. however, it is not easily attainable, it's a world BoE drop, which means you'll be heading to the AH to get yours. I spent 90gold on mine, maybe you can get yours cheaper

Master Sergeants Insignia This is a good substitute with a whopping 17 stam on it. However, since alliance are faggots and wont go to AV, you might hae a problem getting the required rank.

Evil Eye Pendant This isn't a GREAT tanking necklace, but it's not bad. +15 agility (30 AC woo) and +10 defense, the lack of stamina sucks. This drops off Immol'thar in DM:W

Woven Ivy Necklace This is probably the easiest to attain, a simple quest in the hinterlands. It has +10 stam plus some strength and agility, so it's a good all around necklace.

Shoulders

Stockade Pauldrons These are by no means easy to get, and if you get them you should give them to me, but they are the best non-MC shoulders in the game. +20 stam +15 def and high AC, problem being, world BoE epic drop, saw one on the AH the other day for 300g, you decide if it's worth it to you (give to me)

Bulky Iron Spaulders 2nd best tanking shoulders, and is what most of the tanks use. +15 stam, +9 defense, and relatively easy to get. These drop off the first guard in DM:N, now...they made it harder to farm in the patch (used to be able to do with 2 ppl, you need 3 now), he's still easy to farm, and also drops a great tanking weapon (more on that later).

Slamshot Shoulders Not bad, pretty good AC, +21 stam, they drop off omakk, maybe you'llget lucky and they'll drop when you get keyed for onyxia.

Spaulders of Valor These aren't great, but they aren't horrible either. pretty good AC, +17 stam, with some strength and agility. They drop off Rend in UBRS, so you'll probably have these just by doing other stuff.

Stoneform Shoulders Great AC, +10 defense, but no stam, which...isn't so good. but not a bad substitute while you get better, they drop off kirtonsis in scholo, who you have to summon, but he also has your boots of valor so...

Back

Redoubt Cloak Best tanking cloak (i know of) in the game. +15 stam, +10 defense. drops in the tribute chest of DM:N go get it. no seriously, get it

Sergents Cloak A good substitute, +17 stam, 115 AC, and sgt rank is pretty easy to get

Bloodmoon Cloak Drops off beast, +17 stam, not bad

Cloak of Warding 214 AC, highest you'll find on a cloak, and +7 defense, problem being, no stam. It's crafted, so shouldn't be too hard to get

Chest

Ornate Adamantium Breastplate A whopping 807 AC, +22 stam +15 def, this is where it's at. Relatively easy to get (but long). it's a questline starting in EPL, tirion fordring, I solo'd everything but the very last one, and had a 54 druid help heal me a bit. not only do you get a cool bp, but it's been one of my favorite questlines, cool story and fun times

Kromkrush's Breastplate Drops off guard Kromkrush (go figure) in DM:N. +16stam/str, 777 AC and +15 def, this is good times right here

Deathbone Chestpiece +12 stam, 637 ac, and a huge +25 def. This drops off of any of the 6 mini-bosses in scholo right before gandling

Enchanted Thorium Brestplate Again, if you're rich, you can pay to have this crafted, +26 stam, +13 def, good (if you're rich)

Bracers

Fel Hardened Bracers These are great +12 stam/str, and +5 def. Problem being, they drop off the dude from the warlock epic mount quest event in DM:W, so...not the easiest to get, if you have a warlock buddy though, make him take you when he gets his epic mount

Vigorsteel Vambraces +17 stam, these drop off of Gandling in scholo and are good if you can get tehm

First Sergents Plate Bracers I use these, I like them +17 stam, +7 str good AC. again, it's just a matter of getting rank, but as you can see, there are a lot of good tanking gear to be had from getting minimal ranks in the honor system

Bracers of Valor As Beef pointed out, these are pretty solid, +14 stam, with a variety of other stats mixed in, you could do a lot worse here. Plus, they are BoE which means you can get them for free from a higher up guildie (you can have these at lvl 52), or buy off the AH cheap

Gloves

Force Imbued Gauntlets I use these, and personally feel they are better than the stonegrip. They have a high AC, +14 stam, +10 def and drop off the chick with the bear in DM:W, the first 5 times i did DM:W, she dropped these

Stonegrip Gauntlets you're losing almost 150 AC by using these over the above, but you get teh same +14 stam, but these have +9 str and +5 def. You decide. Problem here is these are a world BoE drop, so expect to pay for them in the AH, anywhere between 50-100 g

Belt

Handcrafted Master Girdle Anvilcrack is a faggot and wont' drop these for me, I hate him. But it's the best tanking blet you're gonna get pre-MC. A ridiculous 519 AC with +10 stam, as i indicated, they drop off anvilcrack in UBRS

Brigham Girdle i'm using this currently, and it's pretty good. only 369 AC, but +15 str and +16 stam, drops off drakk in UBRS

Legs

Warmaster's Legguards I use these, as do most other tanks. Proably the best drops you'll see before MC. 575 AC, +15 stam, 2%chance to dodge. Drop off Rend in UBRS

Wraithplate Leggings drop off jandice in scholo, so have fun finding a group who wants to go to her. big AC at 696, +20 stam, 1% chance to parry...hrm...actully...looking at these, i want to get them, so i need to finda group to farm jandice

Legplates of the Eternal Guardian drops from teh chest of the 7 in BRD, 742 AC, +22 def, problem = no stam

Enchanted Thorium Leggings And again, if you're rich, you can pay someone to craft these. 575 AC, +21 stam, +20 str, +12 def

Boots

Honestly, there are no *great* tanking boots, so here are your options:

Corpselight Greaves Stonelegs ahs these and says i should get them, personally i dont see how they are that much better than boots of valor. 445 AC +22 stam, drop off rattlegore in scholo

Boots of Valor I use these, 424 AC, +20 stam plus a few other minor stats, drop off kirtonsis in scholo

Master Cannoneer Boots 438 AC, +21 stam, drop off, you'll never guess, the cannon master in scarlet strat

Blood Guard Plate Boots Actually, these are probably your best bet, if you can get the rank. 452 AC, +8 str, +23 stam.

Shalehusk Boots: These drop off panzer in BRD, rare spawn so good luck. 417 AC, +5 stam, 2% chance to dodge

bottom line, none of these far surpasses the other, so whatever you get first, just stick with it

Rings

Band of Flesh Great ring, +16 stam which is pretty much the highest you'll find, drops off Ramstein in UD strat

Ring of Protection This is the other ring i use (band of flesh), +150 AC and +9 stam, good good stuff. It's a quest reward for the battle of darrowshire questline that starts in EPL in...wait for it...darrowshire. talk to the kid pamela in the house. This is another fun questline

Thrall's Resolve +4 str +7 stam +150 ac, good ring. It's a quest to save the princess in BRD, so have fun going all the fucking way to the emperor.

Band of the Ogre King +13 stam, +14 str, non-unique ring drops off king gordok in DM:N

Band of the Great Tortoise throwing this in just cuz it's super easy to get, and +120 ac, not a horrible placeholder, it's from a quset in tanaris

Trinkets

Mark of Tyranny Don't make the mistake I did and take blackhands' breadth over this, this is fucking amazing. +180 ac, increase dodge by 1% this is the onyxia keying questline

Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas This is your class trinket from DM, I ran that shit forever and never saw my book drop (Codex of Defense), so i bought it for 50g on the AH, good trinket, +200 ac

Smoking Heart of the Mountain This is my other trinket, 150 AC and +7 resist to all. downside: it's expensive, you have to have enchanting at 265, and you have to make it at the black forge

Counterattack Lodestone I think arbitus "dual wields" these for tanking, 1% chance to parry +22 atk pwr, it's in the gordok tribute for DM:N

Vigilance Charm for those of you who want to avoid attacks, this is 2% chacne to dodge, drops off immol'thar in DM:W

Frostwolf Insignia Rank 4 for those of you who get into av's and can get up to revered, rank 4 is when the trinket starts getting good (rank 5 is obviously better, and 6 is ridiculously good). but at rank 4 you get 1% chance to dodge and 3 health every 5 sec

Demon's Blood This is the reward for a super long questline starting in the blasted lands i think, it's not bad, but i believe the above ones are better, if you happen to have it though, use it!

Ranged

obviously we're not meant to do damage with a bow/gun, so what we want here are teh best stats possible

Gorewood Bow +9 stam, +2 str, this is probably your best bet. Quest reward for the crimson courier in EPL

Carapice Spine Crossboe 2nd best bet, +4 agil +9 stam, drops off the big spider dude 2nd boss in UD strat

Willey's Portable Howitzer this is the coolest name of the ranged stuff, drops off cannon master willey in scarlet strat, +9 stam and +4 spirit

Shield

Draconian Deflector This should practically be epic, by far the best tanking shield in the game pre-MC. 2153 AC, +7 stam, 40 block, +15 defense. just awesome, get this off drakk in UBRS, just dont take ruxpin with you

Husk of Nerub'a;dlfaeasd This drops off the spider 2nd boss dude in UD strat +10 stam, 2089 AC, pretty good stuff

Milli's Shield 2106 AC, +7 stam, 3 health every 5 sec. pretty good, this is a reward for the questline shards of the felvine, starts in DM:E at the end i believe, then you go to moonglade and sithilus

Barrier Shield you could probably get by with this, but i'd suggest getting one of teh above shields. 2121 armor, 2% increase block, no stam

Main Hand

Timeworn Mace This is what I use the majority of the time, +7 sr, +11 stam, 120 AC. Drops off the prince in DM:W

Hedgecutter i use this when i'm not using the timeworn. +5 str, +12 stam, 1.9 speed (dump those heroic strikes), it's easy to get, drops off the first boss in DM:N, you can farm for this at the same time you farm for your bulky iron spaulders. Murns uses this as well i believe

Bone Slicing Hatchet I have this too, it's fun, it's fast 1.7 speed, +13 agil, +5 stam. drops off maleki in UD strat

Axe of Rin'ji this is alright, +11 stam, world BoE drop, so go to the AH, i'd suggest one of the other ones

Serathil this is another alright one, 100 AC, 1.9 speed, but no stam

Hammer of the Vesper a little slow at 2.5, has +7 str and +12 stam. drops off any of the 6 mini-bosses before gandling in scholo


Enchantments

Johennes can do everything, so no excuses as to why you dont have enchantments. The top level ones can be expensive, so if you're low on gold, it's understandable to wait for epics. HOWEVER, the 2nd best enchants are usually extremely cheap, like 2-3g, there is *NO EXCUSE* not to have enchantments on the appropriate slots

Head: only librams, these are expensive, wait for epic unless you're rich, get +100 hp
Cloak +70 AC isn't bad, and 50AC is practically free, you could also go for +5 to all resistances
Chest: +100 hp can be had for like 10g, +50 for basically free
Bracer: +9 stam is like 15 illusion dust so maybe like 20g, +7 is 5 dream dust
Gloves: I have +7 str on mine, ideally i'd have a core leather armor kit for +5 def, but it's up to you. +7 agil or +7 str, or even a rugged armor kit for +40 ac
Legs: Librams are expensive, same as head. in the meantime, throw a rugged armor kit for +40 ac
Boots: +7 stam, dont remember mats off top of my head, but they aren't that bad, at least get +5
Shield: +7 stam, again, it's cheap, like 5g, at LEAST get +5
Weapon: I have icy on all my 1h weapons, it's a great proc, and it's useful even when you're not tanking. crusader isn't a bad choice, neither is +15 str. for cheaper enchants, i'd say weapon damage

Other Stuff:

Major Healing Pots, they go for about 1g each, but c'mon now, you need to stay alive, so get them

Heavy Runecloth Bandages, it's not hard to level FA, so get up there and make these for yourself

Admiral's Hat everyone needs a hat buddy, free 200 hp, 5g maybe for one of these, no excuse not to have one

Sharpening/Weighted Stones: get dense, that extra +8 dmg will help out

Food: there's a lot of food that will give +12 stam and spirit if you're well fed, ther'es food that will heal you 2 health every 5 sec, there's food to give you +10 stam, cooking has good stuff.

Helpful UI (thanks BEEF):

Here's a sweet UI Mod called "Tankpoints" that displays your effective health and overall damage reduction against incoming attacks on your character screen

http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=1365

It also shows you your effective health against an elemental attack when you mouse over your resistance score. There's also a menu that allows you to see your score if you added X amount of armor, stamina, defense, agi or w/e.


Ok I think that covers most everything I can think of as of now, i'm sure I missed some stuff, I'm not saying that this list is the end all of lists, i'm just throwing out some ideas to help people out, I know it helped me to hear from more experienced tanks when I went to get my gear, so I just hope this helps some people out.


EDIT: forgot to put cloak enchantments, added that
EDIT: added shalehusk boots & demon's blood
EDIT: added bracers of valor
EDIT: added helm of the mountain and beef's helpful UI suggestion

This post has been edited by Gnayr on Jul 28 2005, 02:47 PM

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=10779 (Demon's Blood) an awesome trinket you get from the giant blasted lands fallen hero of the horde quest chain, +5 defense and health regen. I would totally get blackhands breadths over mark of tyranny, because there are better tanking trinkets to get later on, but blackhand's breadth will always be the best non caster PVP trinket.

Edit: I'm no warrior, but I think the +15 agility enchant albeit expensive would be one of the better tanking weapon enchants, it adds to dodge and armor, what more could you want? (besides stamina)

edit2: admirals hat is 200hp.

This post has been edited by Hawzy on Jul 26 2005, 05:26 PM

There are better trinktes than the Mark of Tyranny? what are they? I want to get them

The Demon's Blood trinket isn't a bad one, but for the amount of work you ahve to put into it, I dont think it's worth it and I think the ones I listed are better (and easier to get)

+15 agility isn't a bad a bad choice for a weapon enchant

Shalehusk Boots from Panzor the Invincible in BRD. 4xx armor, 5 stamina, 2% dodge.

Onyxia blood pendant is better :/ But Personally i think class trinket + vigilance charm (and blackhands breadth of course) are good enough to justify not getting mark of tyranny.

personal opinion i suppose, i'd rather have the mark of tyranny over any of the ones you mentioned except the onyxia blood talisman

EDIT: becuase:
--it's only 20 less AC than class trinket, but 1% chance to parry
- it's 1% chance to parry opposed to 2% chance to dodge, but also has 180 AC and resist
- blackhands breadth is not a tanking trinket, if you want to go arms/fury then take the breadth, if you want to tank, get the tyranny. basically comparing blackhands breadth to the mark of tyranny is comparing apples and oranges.

This post has been edited by Gnayr on Jul 26 2005, 06:00 PM

I have Corpselight Greaves and Boots of Avoidance, and I find I use the Boots of Avoidance more often. Sure, Corpselight have more Stamina, but Avoidance has 2% dodge, that's pretty kickin' rad right there.

Only hangup is that it's an epic (only lvl 40 however), but I logged in early one morning and someone was advertising it in the trade channel saying he was about to DE them because nobody would buy them. Offered him 25g and I got 'em.

This post has been edited by king_darius on Jul 26 2005, 06:38 PM

Awesome stuff Gnayr, here is my contribution:

Regardless of which equipment you choose, you want to hit a baseline of the following:

Health: 5000 unbuffed minimum, try and get 5300-5500, anything above that is gravy

AC: 7000 unbuffed (this means WITHOUT TALENTS as well), you really want to get close to 7500, however it IS ok to sacrifice some AC for defense if it is a sizeable trade

Defense: as close to or above 400 as you can get. For purposes of determining your Defense, you can calculate 1% muffin of block/dodge/parry as approximately 8 muffins of defense. Be aware however that these muffins do not have the secondary benefit of reducing chance of crit. I can't remember right off hand, but I believe a line of 400 defense reduces MC mob's chance to crit to about 1%, and 425 makes it close to impossible to get critted.

As far as weapons go, damage means nothing. You want stats, and the only other item you want to look at beyond stats is the speed of the weapon. A higher speed weapon will allow you to apply heroic strike quickly and efficiently.

Thanks for this, I'm only in my mid thirties now but I've been curious about the sort of gear I'd be shooting for at the endgame and what stats I should be focusing on.

I would like to reiterate that no matter what your build is, you should still aim to get the above gear as you will be asked to tank in Molten Core if you attend. I repeat, even if you are a gay ass shitty fucking dual wielding fury warrior (who would do that shit? seriously...) you will still want to obtain the gear listed above. While it is not as crucial, I would still rather see warriors in tanking gear above warriors in awesome arms/fury gear when tanking.

Seriously, it is not hard to get most of it.

Nice list. Really comprehensive.

Only thing I'd add is bracers of valor are pretty solid and are BoE so you can get them for some bucks.

Well, actually they suck, but so do most bracers comparitively to other gear, so in that light, they are decent.

For the price you can generally get them at, they are worth it from the AH (I have seen as low as 10g, I would not pay over 35 to 40).

If you want a very easy way of farming them, you can just kill the first set of guards in BRS over and over and over. Those first 5 guys (you can kill 2 at a time), have dropped a BoE blue for me almost 100% of the time.

Can we get some listings like this for FR gear? I know most of it is dark iron stuff, and alot of other FR stuff is farmable but It would be nice to have a list.

I currently wear the Woven Ivy Necklace at level 58 but I just got the Medallion of Grand Marshall Morris off an owlbear (:cool:). Should I wear it now or wait until I do major tanking at level 60 to equip the Medallion?

I also acquired the Stonegrip Gauntlets. Should I wear them now or would I be better off selling them and getting a drop somewhere?

Wear them, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't.

Fire resist gear for a warrior is an absolute nightmare to get, and in most cases just simply does not exist. This puts the warrior deeply in debt to the raid group in receiving Dark Iron gear. Thanks Blizzard. But I will list a few pieces that you should be able to pick up to get you started.

Boots

This is about the only slot you can get decent FR from, but it is a terribly shitty item.

Lavawalker Greaves - Drops from Malleki The Pallid in Baron side Strath, and they are rare. Also, they have no other stats, and are a stupid piece of gear. However they get your FR up. Basically, it is better to wait for purple FR pieces or simply fill out your other slots.

Rings

While there are several decent rings with low amounts of fire resist, there is really only one ring worth wearing above a 20+ ring of fire resist.

Ocean's Breeze - Get it from turning in the hand's quest for MC.

Trinkets

The best trinket is Hyper-radiant Flame Protector but it is 290 engineering only. I have two of these, and they comprise a good portion of my FR. Another option is Blazing Emblem, and also Onyxia Blood Talisman.

Neck

Not hard... One guess.

Back

This is a good time to wear your Onyxia Scale Cloak with a FR enchant.

Bracers

Farm Incendius in BRD and take whatever drops that you like (remember this is FR gear so it does not HAVE to be plate... just work it out with your group).

As for your other slots, just use miscellaneous items until you get Dark Iron. However, you will have a very hard time breaking 150 without it, and I doubt it is possible to get past 200 without wearing cloth. However, this is not necessary. Dark Iron should be high on the crafter's priority list for at least 2 tanks before thinking about other people if they ever plan to have a chance at Ragnaros.

Ya, we've already got stonelegs up to a very high FR, so we prolly need to pick a few tanks to start outfitting with this stuff. Johen last night was still trying to figure out how most of the stuff is going to work out, but I think we'll all have it taken care of before next weeks MC rolls around.

may consider adding
http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=19645
to the list

ridiculously high ac (683) for a helm and +10 def

it's also easier to get than the other ones, drops off landslide in mauradon, easy 2 man.

Please to be discussing the usefulness of a +3 Defense enchant on your bracers versus 9 stamina on them.

there's a discussion to be had about that? I would think it's fairly cut and dry.

+9 stam is 90hp, that's a lot. If you spend a little time getting the above gear, you should be hitting near 400 def pretty easily, so to answer your question, +3 def is easier to get and not as useful as 90hp

Here's a sweet UI Mod called "Tankpoints" that displays your effective health and overall damage reduction against incoming attacks on your character screen

http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=1365

It also shows you your effective health against an elemental attack when you mouse over your resistance score. There's also a menu that allows you to see your score if you added X amount of armor, stamina, defense, agi or w/e.

I always thought one of the most interesting enchant decisions was the shield slot - Stamina vs Block % vs Thorium Spike (damage = aggro).

you can get like 99% to block with a few might pieces so block sucks and 2250 sunder is all the aggro you need DEBATE OVER

I go for +stam myself, you'll get a high block % from getting better gear, and the trivial damage you'll get from a shield spike won't generate enough aggro to hold a mob on it's own when rogues are criting backstab and warlocks are throwing down 3k shadowbolts. If you need a shield spike to maintain aggro, you're doing somehting wrong

so short summation: i'd rather take the 70hp over a slight % to block or a slight dmg increase

Thanks for this guide. I've been lvl 60 for a long time but never had the dedication to get all the good blue gear so I could get all the good purple gear but this really made figuring out what to get easy.

What about Intricately Runed Shield? Seems like a decent choice if you can't (yet) get Draconian Deflector, at the very least.

And Stonegrip Gauntlets have +15 defense, which makes them better than the Force Imbued Gauntlets in my estimation. It dropped for me so saved me the 250g-ish going price on KT Alliance-side AH (assuming one can even find it on).

This post has been edited by arioch on Aug 2 2005, 01:09 AM

Does anyone have any suggestions for 1hd swords for tanking? There are axes and maces up there but no swords for us sword spec people

Mirah's Song

liek i said, personal preference. would you rather have +5 def or +150 AC? I chose the AC (which is also much easier to get), neither set of glvoes is bad

yeah, that shield is fine i'd say