Designs for a Pre-Kara Tankadin Set

[Freechoice]

Hey guys, first off I want to thank you guys for creating this site, helped me a lot with my tanking(even though I'm only 63). Anyway, I got into a discussion with my friend in RL about his tankadin friend. He is one of the best geared tanks his guild has, but my friend says he tanks extremely poorly. Granted I have asked my friend for the pally's rotation, but he has yet to reply, I posted his profile on the forums and asked what he could do to improve. Naturally I got a scattered response from people I think don't even tank, alts and whatnot. So then I designed a tanking set for myself to try out and see what I could do. I had read a lot of articles about the strengths and weaknesses of Paladin tanking. This is a compilation of the things I think best balance out a tankadin. Feel free to offer as much criticism as you like, this stuff is pretty fun for me and I want to do it again.
Please note I really screwed up the Health, it is more around 11-12k I think. Fully Raid Buffed.

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... Stuff2.jpg

I stuck 7 of the Enduring Chrysopases in the sockets and forgot to put the Libram of Repentance back in after I finished touching it up.

[Aloette]

I think that's going a bit overboard for a pre-kara set.

That's an awful lot of badges to gather up without setting foot in Kara, and is a bit overkill. Slikk's and Icon shouldn't be high up on your badge list, infact, both should be quite far down.

http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2008/04/ ... order.html

Slikk's is nice, but there a number of blue capes that can tide you over allowing you to pick up the 2.4 legs, 2.3 chest, ring and obviously the libram of repetance first.

http://www.wowwiki.com/BC_tanking_equip ... 9/Karazhan

that set actually works wonders for starting Kara. Some easy upgrades are the righteous spaulders, S1 shield (easier to get IMO) and possibly the belt of the guardian, depending on vortex prices on your server. The S1 mainhand probably isn't necessary, CFS or CB enchanted will suffice for Kara since everything is undead.

Bottom line, 15.5k HP and 14k armor and that much SD is blatant overkill for a Kara entrance set. That's actually entering the area of a T5 entrance set as opposed to T4.

The biggest problem with this set is you're focusing too much on SD, and your primary tanking stats suffer. You only need around 200 base spelldamage for Kara, since you are able to use exorcism on everything. Icon should not be a primary tanking trinket. It should be one of the last things you buy with badges infact. If you want a threat trinket there are other options instead of using badges which can be spent on T5/T6 equivalent tanking gear that you can use in any situation. Your 'regular' tanking pants shouldn't have spellthread. There are better choices for a neck than the PvP neck designed for DPS. Use two defense trinkets for a Kara entrance set since there's not as much attainable on gear, and you'll be able to get rid of all those hybrid gems and socket straight +12 stamina gems.

*edit* just read you note. 12K unbuffed is really low, especially with the amount of effort required to gather all these pieces.

[Freechoice]

I figured that the spell damage was a little high, and I wanted to put as much of the best-pre kara stuff as I could find without overloading on the badges, but you probably are right on about the SD trinket. Honestly I mostly did this for my friend's tankadin, but he dropped off the face of the world and I dropped WoW because I had finals to study for. Still, if it helps anybody else, than I did something good.

[guillex]

There's actually a pre-Kara 11.5k uncrushable set that's floating around the interwebs somewhere. That'll more than get you by ...

With the badge pieces having come in now, though, gearing for Kara is TONS easier. Badge chest and 2.4 legs would probably be all you'd need, in addition to the pre-raid blues that you can pick up through questing/crafting.

[dmok]

Of course, the exalted SSO shields are pretty awesome as well. and with all the dailies available for them on most servers, it doesn't take too long to pull that off.

[Crittoris]

yeah, just get to uncrittable with at least 11k armor and start trying to offtank kara every week. TBH, at that gear level its going to be harder for you to get a lot of those pieces from heroics (especially the stuff from heroic mgt) than several badges a week from kara.

Keep running nonheroics til you've got all of your slots equipped as well as you can. Once you've done that and you've ran kara a few times, you'll gather badges a lot faster in heroics.

[Freechoice]

I redid the math and found that the set has about 12.5k health. I should just post the stats. I am pretty sure that this set is uncrush/critable. 490 Def and 102.4% Avoidance right?

Stam:958 about 12.5k hp (Full Raid Buffed)
Spell Dmg.: 689+155 with trinket use
AC: 14230.7+1205.4(Imp. Dev)
Avoidance: 102.47%
Def: Now this is scary: 687

I chose to put this much def on because the way I figure it, you get more avoidance per defense point than for B/D/P
And this is what I figured:
25 Def: 1 Dodge, Block, Parry AND if I am correct about this, the mobs chance to miss as well. This would make this set give 17.88% miss on a ??
18.92 Dodge Rating for 1 Dodge
23.65 Parry Rating for 1 Parry
7.92 Block Rating for 1 Block

This is also without the +20 Def in the tree so I put that in Imp. Dev because having anything else on other than a resist fight is pointless.

And about getting this stuff, I figure there are 2 options:
1. Finding a dedicated group that will help you get the badges.
2. Finding some cloth stuff, just start spamming FoL and since most of this is spell damage based plate, only another tankadin will want it.

Hell, none of this stuff may not need to be replaced save for Badge and Tier gear. And if I know how to play my paladin, I will never lose aggro.

I can also change to +12 stam sockets.

However, the stamina may be made up for by the ridiculously high avoidance. 3/4*3/4*4/5*1/2 is like a 21.875% to not be parried, dodged, blocked or missed.

[SmurfZG]

1 defense is not equal to 1 defense rating.
You need 2.37 defense rating per point of defense skill.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Combat_rating_system#Defense_skills

[Lookit]

You should probably check out this site:

http://www.warcrafter.net/sandbox

It lets you craft a character with any talents, gear, etc.

Much easier than doing the math yourself!


(And yikes, only 685 spell damage for kara? I'd never think of going in with less than 750.... ;D)