Firelands 378 Tank Gear List

[Sur-Pseudo]

This list really is only designed as a 1-month thing.. As I said, I only made it because I needed a list of items to look at and none of the other lists were ready. When those lists are all updated this will probably go away.

This is just a gear list (not a BiS list) for people so they know what to expect going into Firelands for the first 6 bosses + all side options/reputation/etc. since there was no consolidated list (as in, filtering out non-tank items) of the items anywhere. Adding in Rag or hard modes makes the list a bit more complicated and takes away from the goal of this list -- The lead up to him.

If your guild can clean up to and including rag the first week, great... you're probably also able to do your own research. If you're in a more casual guild and will need a month to get to and down rag.. then this list will probably help you pick your gearing choices.

[Marilee]

No need to defend being helpful, man. I appreciate it.

[Sur-Pseudo]

No need to defend being helpful, man. I appreciate it.

[yappo]

The only prerequisite for the dailies and such in 4.2 is that players have completed the quest 'Aessina's Miracle' in Hyjal, where the goddess Aessina regrows the part of the map where the questgivers are. If memory serves correctly this is just over halfway through the zone.

Good. That means that all three items are available to new tanks at stage 1, i.e. within an hour of them dinging 85. This establishes a new baseline and (most importantly) lets me drop some of the lower-level junk for those slots from the guide.

We'll need to keep some lower value gear for those slots anyway. Guides should be useful for players respeccing tank after having done the quests (as, for example, dps).

[lythac]

The only prerequisite for the dailies and such in 4.2 is that players have completed the quest 'Aessina's Miracle' in Hyjal, where the goddess Aessina regrows the part of the map where the questgivers are. If memory serves correctly this is just over halfway through the zone.

Good. That means that all three items are available to new tanks at stage 1, i.e. within an hour of them dinging 85. This establishes a new baseline and (most importantly) lets me drop some of the lower-level junk for those slots from the guide.

We'll need to keep some lower value gear for those slots anyway. Guides should be useful for players respeccing tank after having done the quests (as, for example, dps).

Those particular items are vendor bought (gold?) once the quest has been completed. There might be some quest rewards that do follow your point of a respeccing player.

Keeping lower value gear could be useful for those returning to the game who already have the lower gear and want to see how it ranks.

[yappo]

Those particular items are vendor bought (gold?) once the quest has been completed. There might be some quest rewards that do follow your point of a respeccing player.

Keeping lower value gear could be useful for those returning to the game who already have the lower gear and want to see how it ranks.

Ah, soz, I thought all the items behaved like the cloak, which is a quest reward from http://ptr.wowhead.com/quest=29331

[econ21]

This list really is only designed as a 1-month thing..

I fear it may last more than 1-month. Maybe I did my sums wrong, but I calculated it would take me about 3 months of being weekly VP capped to get all the failsafe tank gear you list. It will depend on how quickly people gear up by raid drops, but I have not raided much in Cata, so ended up wearing only one drop (a helm). The failsafe stuff was just better or at least equal to the non-heroic drops. My casual impression of the new failsafe gear was that most of it was very well itemised for us - i.e. mastery + avoidance - so this may remain true.

I wonder if there is a case for including salient 365 "failsafe" items? For example, the crafted tank sword, unbreakable guardian. I guess Yappo will cover that niche in due course, though.

[Digren]

Keeping lower value gear could be useful for those returning to the game who already have the lower gear and want to see how it ranks.

I specifically don't bother keeping lower value gear just for this purpose. That's way too much work for me with little benefit to others. It's a lot harder to read a guide when the item list for a given slot is so long that the recommendations and the whole list can't appear on the screen at the same time, and it makes the posts longer, making it harder to navigate while editing, and running up against the post length limit more often.

Instead, I archive the ranking each patch. You can go back through my thread and find where I copied the 4.0 and 4.1 rankings. With those you can see how your hold gear lines up, without cluttering up the latest list.

I DO have all 4.2 gear on my local spreadsheet. What I don't have yet though are sources for a few pieces, which has kept me from posting them live quite yet. Exactly how does one update T12 gear to T12.5? Where do the T12 shoulders drop? I'm also missing the stats and options for the random drop Flickering Handguards.

I'll get these things in the next few days and be able to post the rest of the list.

[yappo]

I wonder if there is a case for including salient 365 "failsafe" items? For example, the crafted tank sword, unbreakable guardian. I guess Yappo will cover that niche in due course, though.

I will, but first I'll see 4.2 hit live.

Don't want to run into a "but you promised it would look like this" -situation.

As I've written of the failsafe thread I'll need to split the failsafe guide into two parts. One for the 'green' tank and one for those doing early end-game but feel the hatred of RNG.

After all, everything you can buy for VP is failsafe. It just takes brutally long to get it.

[yappo]

Keeping lower value gear could be useful for those returning to the game who already have the lower gear and want to see how it ranks.

I specifically don't bother keeping lower value gear just for this purpose. That's way too much work for me with little benefit to others. It's a lot harder to read a guide when the item list for a given slot is so long that the recommendations and the whole list can't appear on the screen at the same time, and it makes the posts longer, making it harder to navigate while editing, and running up against the post length limit more often.

Fair enough.

I'll run a few of them in the failsafe guide instead. That way players can separate tank-level gear and "I'll murder someone if that slot doesn't drop soon" -gear. So, for example, I'll keep the Hyjal rep-cloak for those who chose dps/heal cloak from the quest and later respecced tank.

[Digren]

Take a look at what I kept for necks. Anyone who's bothered to do a little bit of Hyjal while leveling can pick up the new vendor neck. If you didn't bother, though, a few lower options are still on the list, including a BoE jewelcrafting one. Not that I'd recommend anyone waste money on that...

[Digren]

Those particular items are vendor bought (gold?) once the quest has been completed. There might be some quest rewards that do follow your point of a respeccing player.

Keeping lower value gear could be useful for those returning to the game who already have the lower gear and want to see how it ranks.

Ah, soz, I thought all the items behaved like the cloak, which is a quest reward from http://ptr.wowhead.com/quest=29331

Even with the cloak, though, if you are changing spec and can't run the quest, just walk over to your Hyjal rep vendor and buy a Wrap of the Great Turtle. Either way you can pretty-much instantly pick up the third-best or fifth-best cloak. (If you change spec after doing the quest but before becoming exalted with Hyjal? Okay then, spend some money on a Twilight Dragonscale Cloak and have a near-identical fifth-best cloak.)

There's simply no reason to maintain significantly lower pieces on any guide. They're just going to confuse someone.

I've patched in my cloak recommendations. I went down as low as I did specifically so I could include the Icebound Cloak. No one - no one - should be using it in a tank spec, whether primary or secondary. After the summer fest I'll edit the list to end with the Floating Web, showing how the former valor cloaks are no bargain with justice points.

[yappo]

Even with the cloak, though, if you are changing spec and can't run the quest, just walk over to your Hyjal rep vendor and buy a Wrap of the Great Turtle. Either way you can pretty-much instantly pick up the third-best or fifth-best cloak. (If you change spec after doing the quest but before becoming exalted with Hyjal? Okay then, spend some money on a Twilight Dragonscale Cloak and have a near-identical fifth-best cloak.)

Unless there's a very good reason I doubt if I'll dip below 346, if even that.

As for the cloak, I'll have to include the Hyjal rep reward because of the quest, but I really don't see a reason to dip below 359 in that slot. Possibly, but only possibly, if there's a valid reason to keep a list of quick and dirty failsafes to get started with heroics. That would, however, force me to run three levels of failsafe gear.