Gear of the Deprived Pally

[Tronden]

Just to pre-clarify, this thread is not meant to be a QQ...

I am in a situation that may or may not be unique. My hope is that it is not, so that I can gather and refine wisdom from others who toil with the same issue.

I am a guildmaster of a small but close knit guild who to this point have not had enough people to really run any sort of raid. Those who would be in raids are currently going through a blossoming process, and aren't truly ready for even heroics. There are a few more who are in their late 50's to mid 60's who can help round out a 10-man crew.

That being said - this expansion will be WONDERFUL in allowing us to progress like other larger guilds. However - I will probably be one of the first to come of level in the expansion, and really won't have much opportunity for dropped gear (which was also a bane for me in BC). This is compounded with the notion that I have been picking up on that a large amount of rep grinding will be through wearing a tabard of that faction in an instance - thus reputation based gear is probably not all too available for me.

My current plan is to drop my engineering (unfortunately losing my tankatronic goggles and my +45 stamina rocket), keep blacksmithing, and add jewelcrafting. This is to allow me to craft my gear and place sockets (where they seem to be terribly lacking) and to create some special prismatic gems that can help compensate for lack of gear level.

So the main focus I would like to have for this discussion thread is on the viability and usage of such crafted items to gear myself - particularly for the following:
* Immediate running of Karazhan (which I am currently geared to do according to wow-heroes) to bring my guild up a little for dungeons and faster leveling in Northrend
* being geared enough to prevent immediate wipes in level 80 beginner-raids.

I have been playing around with some theorycraft sites, and I *think* it should be viable. I am just not so sure that I trust a one-size-fits-all site to help me figure it out.

Thanks,

Tronden

[Snake-Aes]

Unless you're talking about getting T6 gear, don't bother getting gear from BC instances, really. T4 epics get replaced at 72~ . T5 at 75 and T6 at 80( at best)

[kurros]

I will probably be one of the first to come of level in the expansion, and really won't have much opportunity for dropped gear (which was also a bane for me in BC). This is compounded with the notion that I have been picking up on that a large amount of rep grinding will be through wearing a tabard of that faction in an instance - thus reputation based gear is probably not all too available for me.

What exactly are you saying here? Are you going to be passing on upgrades when they drop or something? Why wouldn't you be picking up gear as you level?

[crabcrouton]

* Immediate running of Karazhan (which I am currently geared to do according to wow-heroes) to bring my guild up a little for dungeons and faster leveling in Northrend

Just forget BC altogether at this point. The gear at 70 isn't worth the effort

* being geared enough to prevent immediate wipes in level 80 beginner-raids.

Blacksmithing crafted items will do a good job for this but honestly, you don't really need to have it. Most of those items are Bind on Equip, while the really good ones made from Titansteel require mats with a 20 hour cd.

There are also some great quest items that will fill in the gaps to Naxx raiding just fine. Check them out, the thread is floating around here somewhere.

[Tronden]

I will probably be one of the first to come of level in the expansion, and really won't have much opportunity for dropped gear (which was also a bane for me in BC). This is compounded with the notion that I have been picking up on that a large amount of rep grinding will be through wearing a tabard of that faction in an instance - thus reputation based gear is probably not all too available for me.

What exactly are you saying here? Are you going to be passing on upgrades when they drop or something? Why wouldn't you be picking up gear as you level?

Of course I plan on picking up gear as I level - who wouldn't? However, it seems to me that greens and the occasional blue item won't quite be enough to a tank with decent mitigation and threat. Perhaps my realm is full of snobbery, but geared like that you aren't even invitable to kara as an off-tank.

Snake - that was some of my opinion too based on my craftables with a level 73 level requirement. I appreciate your input in confirming this thought in my head.

[Sabindeus]

Of course I plan on picking up gear as I level - who wouldn't? However, it seems to me that greens and the occasional blue item won't quite be enough to a tank with decent mitigation and threat. Perhaps my realm is full of snobbery, but geared like that you aren't even invitable to kara as an off-tank.

Well, you're wrong. Don't worry about it.

Also there's a big difference between tanking Kara in BC greens and tanking a LK 5 man in LK greens.

[Tronden]

There are also some great quest items that will fill in the gaps to Naxx raiding just fine. Check them out, the thread is floating around here somewhere.

Is this the one you were referring to? It is part of what I was basing my premise of using craftables.
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintanka ... hp?t=14979

[halabar]

1) Keep engineering

2) Farm the new primals in Wrath

3) Buy the saronite gear at level 74-77

4) after Tues, start farming Kara for badges for gear in the meantime.

There's no reason to drop engineering pre-lvl80 unless you are really interested in BS as a profession. If it's just to gear up, don't do it, because the saronite gear is almost all BOE.

[Tronden]

1) Keep engineering

2) Farm the new primals in Wrath

3) Buy the saronite gear at level 74-77

4) after Tues, start farming Kara for badges for gear in the meantime.

There's no reason to drop engineering pre-lvl80 unless you are really interested in BS as a profession. If it's just to gear up, don't do it, because the saronite gear is almost all BOE.

I am already a 375 blacksmith, the new profession would have been the jewelcrafting.

Also, by some other posts in this thread - getting badge gear has been ruled out.

Thanks,

Tronden

[DarkFerret]

Why? Some of the badge gear will last you well into your leveling career, if not all the way to 80 where the instance gear replaces it. Why are you ruling it out?

[Sabindeus]

the ilvl 141 badge gear will be good for a while

the karazhan drops are useless

[roosevelt]

Your problem, as I understand it, is that no one wants to run progression kara runs. That is to say nobody wants to run it with a tank that actually needs drops from it.

This won't be the case at level 80 unless you are terribly slow to level. When people first started raiding kara quest blues and greens were pretty much all that were available.

The crafted BS BoE blues look like they will be much better for entry level tanking. They won't be worth using over t6 but most t6 tanks will probably hit 80 in a week and be running with hardcore raids. If you are the first from your guild to hit 80 I would strongly suggest running level 80 instances and trying to gear up and see content, even if you have to PuG. It will make things much easier when your guild reaches 80 and starts doing guild runs.

You will be fine to start tanking level 80 end game with gear from content that is available while leveling. You will in no way be required to have drops from level 70 end game raids to start raiding at 80.

As far as profession choices BS and JC are very solid selections, if not the best hands down IMO. I plan to drop mining for BS sometime after I have hit 80 and gotten JC maxed and saved up some ores.