beep

Tanking Gear – Pre MC

While the Valor set has been the goal of most warriors, it is not necessarily the best path for warriors wanting to be MT or OT for the guild. All questions about talent spec aside, the key for success as the tank-of-choice is all about holding aggro (which is primarily due to talent spec) and staying alive (which is about gear/armor choices).

This post is about gear choices for warriors and represents the path I’ve followed. This post is about tanking gear choices. I’ll do another one later about FR gear choices.

+Defense FTW

The big thing against the instance bosses is to avoid being taken out by their massive critical strikes. For a level 60 player with 300 defense against a level 60 mob (level*5 = 300 weapon skill), the mob has a 5% chance to critically hit the player. For many bosses, a critical strike is 2,000+ damage. Two in a row will take down almost anyone that isn’t at full health. Any creature 3 levels higher than you will land crushing blows. At level 60, you will take crushing blows from Molten Destroyers, Lava Reavers, and boss creatures in Molten Core.
Defense is the skill that helps you avoid damage from your opponents. The official definition from Blizzard is:

• Increases the chance of being missed by an attack.
• Increases the chance to dodge, parry, and block.
• Decreases the chance of being affected by a critical hit.
• Decreases the chance of being affected by a "crushing blow".
• Creatures that are higher level than your character can land crushing blows that deal increased melee damage. The chance of a crushing blow increases as the level difference between you and the opposing creature increases. Players never deal "crushing blows", only creatures.

In practice, equipping an item with +defense that one point of defense skill increases your chance to dodge by 0.04%, chance to block by 0.04%, and chance to parry by 0.04%. It has been stated by Blizzard that a point of defense reduces your chance to be critically hit by 0.04% - though your chance to be critically hit is relative to your opponent's weapon skill (and any +crit items they are wearing, of course).

The real benefit to defense skill is the reduction in critical hits. You can't dodge or parry every attack, but you can make it so you take virtually no critical hits in combat. It's generally spike damage - multiple critical hits and crushing blows - that kill tanks and overwhelm the ability of healers to keep you up.

How much defense is enough?

If you want to absolutely minimize your chance of being critically hit, the number is 440 defense skill - that will reduce the critical chance of any mob, boss or not, to effectively zero. At 425 defense, the chance that you will take a critical hit is less than 1% against anything you will encounter in the game right now, and will remain less than 1% even against level 64 mobs. Here’s the problem…you can't easily get 425 without going into green gear, or without having some very nice gear. At 365 defense, you have about a 3% chance of being critically hit by a level 63 mob, and 2.6% for level 60 mobs.

When is +defense worth getting?

I wouldn’t worry about it until you are at (or very near) level 60. Most +defense items are pre-MC end game. In my case, I worked on my shopping list from level 58 or so onward. I would always pick up a Valor set piece if I could, but that was an interim choice until I could get what I wanted.

Beep’s +Defense List

I will acknowledge my debt to Evergreen’s popular WoW forum post on this topic. That post has over 70,000 views to date. Here’s the list of gear I have:

• Head – [Enchanted Thorium Helm] - 526AC, 12 str, 25 sta, 9 def. Crafted Item.
• Neck – [Medallion of Grand Marshal Morris] - 7 sta, 10 def. World Drop.
• Back - [Cloak of Warding]- 214AC, 5 def (with +70 AC enchant). Crafted item.
• Shoulders – [Stockade Pauldrons] - 472AC, 20 sta, 10 spr, 10 def. World Drop.
• Legs – [Enchanted Thorium Leggings] - 575AC, 20 str, 21 sta, 8 def. Crafted item.
• Chest – [Ornate Adamantium Breastplate] - 807AC, 22 sta, 10 def. Quest reward.
• Bracers – [Vigorsteel Vambraces] - 283 AC, 7 agi, 17 sta, (No Def…) +3 Def Enchant. Drop from Darkmaster Gandling in Scholo.
• Gloves – [Stonegrip Gauntlets] - 392AC, 9 str, 14 sta, 10 def. World Drop.
• Belt – [Belt of Might] – 421AC, 21 str, 15 sta, 7 FR, 5 def. Trash Mob Drop (MC).
• Boots – [Crystal Encrusted Greaves] – 512 AC, 21 sta, 5 def. Quest Reward.
• Shield – [Draconian Deflector] - 2153AC, 7 sta, 10 def. Drop from Drakkisath (UBRS).
• Trinket – [Force of Will] – 7 defense. Drop from Emperor in BRD.

Base Defense Skill = 300
Anticipation Talent (Protection Tree Talent) = 5
Defense from items = 100
Total = 405
All these items except the Belt of Might are available BEFORE Molten Core, as quest rewards, instance drops or world drops (usually easiest to purchase at the AH). There are other choices of items that have +defense. While I don't know the specifics, Skeet/Ahaman has a similar level of +defense gear. The key is to plan and keep an eye out for what you want. Feedback from my healers (Thank you Shawn and Crim and Lunaar and Patchs and others) tells me that having all this gear helps them immensely in “predictability” of my damage and the healing needed.

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Beep


Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Phantom

That list looks pretty aweosme Beep. Right now I am at level 47, but with real-life being so busy and being pretty much the only piece around that level it is hard to level. But I hope to be getting to level 60 by sometime near the end of february.

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beep

I know what you mean. This isn't anything to be concerned about until you start nearing level 60. I posted it as a resource for up-and-coming warriors. Even more specifically, if you are aiming toward high-DPS Arms/Fury or PVP, this is not the gear selection for you. This is TANKING gear for someone who is happy with Protection Spec.

To put this in perspective, my level 34 warrior does the same DPS as my level 60 MT . BUT...my MT (when fully buffed) has over 8,300 AC.

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Beep


Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Shawner

hey Beep, you can link that junks using the tag...that I would do it for you but I don't have the power, great post.

Sacredlord

Beep,

I can make the whole enchanted Throrium set for you, according to thottbot this is the best defense set: [Enchanted Thorium Helm], [Enchanted Thorium Breastplate], [Enchanted Thorium Leggings].

Let me know if you are interested and we could start farming mats to make it

beep

Thank you for the offer. I listed what I actually have, so the chest is the only one that I'd consider. I'm content with the [Ornate Adamantium Breastplate] until something epic drops.

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Beep


Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Ctuchik

[Deathbone Chestplate]
[Medallion of Grand Marshal Morris]
[Draconian Deflector]
[Force of Will]
[Cloak of Warding]


I have several other pieces of the deathbone set, just enough to get the +3 def set bonus, and several pieces of Emerald so and so of Defense. Total defense is 404.