A protscrub tanking Hyjal Trash (need advice in gear, etc).

So last week, one of my officers told me ... Ok, man, you'll get your chance now. The raid was formed already and I thought I was going to raid as holy (as I always do), but I was actually asked to respecc prot (since they know I do it a lot on my spare time, and maybe wanted to cheer me up a bit), so I hurried to my bank, grabbed my gear & respecced. I was really stressed out and all, so didn't really have time to reflect on my choice of gear, etc, and also I lacked the proper Elixirs/Oils.

Anyhow, this was the set of gear I used at that time:
http://wowdigger.com/character/view/26580#o2

I was learning how to act as the waves where comming, and we also had 2 Ferals, 1 Prot Warrior, that took care of most of the Abos/Necromancers/Banshees and such.

I mainly focused on the Ghouls, Cryptstalkers, and later on Fel Stalkers (which I thought would a a pain, but they didn't seem to mana burn me at all, they never do it on the highest person on their hate list, or what?). Also I had no issue tanking 2 Abos when I really had to. As far as bosses go I swapped to my healing gear on all except Azgalor where I convinced them that I actually could tank the Adds.

However as I was really nervous (since it was my first performance in Hyjal as Prot) and all, so I didn't really pay that much attention to my Mana Bar, etc, but I can't recall ever feeling the "desperate" need to use a mana pot, nor that I took any significant amount of dmg either...

According to Webstats I was getting average hits of 631 dmg, and the highest hit (from an Abo) was 4582 dmg, I had somewhat like 20-21k hp buffed.

Well this may or may not sound like an epeen thread, but yeah, as you can see I only had 381 spelldmg in that gear, and I didn't feel that threat was any issue, the aoe'rs loved me and we have some crazy dps going on in the guild, so they wheren't "kind" to me in any way either.

Well I'm trying to get to the point with this thread, so ehm.

I'd like some advice (yeah there are many threads like that here, I know), about some gear and stats choices.

With my already low amount of Mana/Spelldmg, would it be real suicide to actually go for more Stamina/BV over Int/Spelldmg?

I'm thinking about maybe using this set of gear next time (maybe today that is if they want me to tank again)... And all is based on my own reflections from the last time, so I need an opinion from someone who knows about this stuff.

http://wowdigger.com/character/view/26580#o5

And then making up for the loss in Spelldmg thru Wizard Oils that I didn't have last time, & Adept's Elixir, or maybe even Flasked of Distilled Wisdom?

I don't have a single T6 Prot piece (and would of course use it if I had), but sadly that's my offspecc and Conquerors NEVER drop for us, so yeah, would I lose to much in changing those two T5 Pieces I have to gain "A LOT" more Stamina, since I really dislike the other stats compared with what I could use instead. I guess using, the 2nd Darkmoon Card is an overkill, and could either use Autoblocker, Icon of the Silver Cresent or the Spelldmg Battlemaster trinket instead. As optional gear, I do have full Tier 4, as well, but would you even advice me to downgrade instead?

I bet most of you true hearted protadins tanking Hyjal Trash on a daily basis generally have close to Full T6 already, having more or less no Mana & Threat Issues. But I'm not even sure if I had any issues myself ._. . I need more practise of course.

What would you say is a minimum Mana Pool & + Spelldmg is, after you're fully raid buffed? From your OWN experience that is.

A lot of text I fear, but I must say that tanking in Hyjal was the funniest thing I ever did, and Optimizing my performance will give me the chance to do it more times, so I don't want to screw it up... Thanks in advance!

Unwavering Leggaurds vs Crystalforge Legguards:
+45 Stamina
+24 Block Value
- 27 Intellect
- 41 Spelldmg

Gauntlets of Enforcment vs Crystalforge Handguards:
+30 Stamina
+6 Block Value
- 21 Intellect
- 29 Spelldmg

Summary:

+75 Stamina
+30 Block Value (base)
- 48 Intellect
- 70 Spelldmg

Only counting the stats I do care about, since Def will still be around 490, and the Block Rating is high enough anyways.

So if using a Flask of Supreme Power, instead of a Flask of Fortfication.
The Spelldmg loss would be taken back, and in the 500 Health vs 75 Stamina scenario, is sort of obvious who wins as well. So that would be a boost in Max Hp for sure, as well as a tiny block value increase.

But I'm merely wondering how serious the loss in 48 Intellect : 780 or so Mana, unbuffed is... As I said I didn't feel that mana ever was an issue, but that's my reflection from the only time I was there.

Total Spelldmg would be
Flask of Supreme Power: +70 Spelldmg
Superior Wizard Oil: + 42 Spelldmg
311 + 70 + 42 = 423 Spelldmg

And as I said, I got a lot of other trinkets I could use as well. Actually thinking about using the Spelldmg Battlemaster one instead of Autoblocker, so that would be a loss in overall 29 Block Value, and the use effect that will be the "fake last stand" instead of the "fake shieldwall", and would then put me at a total of 470 Spelldmg instead.

Final Summary: (with Battlemaster instead of Autoblocker)
+75 Stamina (Adds up more with the 16% Stamina Increase & Blessing of Kings, etc. Can't be arsed to do the actual math myself, but it feels like A LOT)
- 500 Health (Depending on what Flasks/Elixirs you'll be using)
+ 43 Spelldmg
- 29 Block Value
- 48 Intellect
- 2 Set Bonus, 15 extra dmg on Retrubution Aura.
...

Deciding what to go with is a bitch, when you're a scrub :>
Any comments from experienced people would be really appreciated.
All sort of goes back to the common question, how much spelldmg, how much mana, would you prefer? And how much would you be willing to sacrifise to a significant boost in stamina.

I may sound very confusing, but it's what I am right now. I sure needs some rest ._.

It doesn't matter, I started tanking MH in T4.

Just get Free action potions.
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I wouldn't stress about it. I've cleared all the Hyjal trash about 4 times now, and nothing was an issue except when Abombs weren't pulled off in time. You've got way more high end gear than I do.

I would probably go for a couple more Block Value oriented items, like the 7th ring and Belt of the Guardian myself (I do Hyjal trash with about 750 bv). You will take less overall damage, but to be honest, with your gear level it really doesn't matter.
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<3 Tankadin at Heart.

Not necessarily accurate: Armory

There's also the Girdle of the Protector to consider.
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Official thread killer

Did my first try at tanking trash in MH last night just after our first Kael kill. Had about 530 BV and 400ish SD. Wasnt a problem at all until the abom's came.

Didnt have any Free Action pots either but the biggest issue for me was the necromancers nuking me down in seconds of the 7th wave lol (happened once on the first wave with necros as well). Ghouls and Crypt Fiends hits like sissies and the only problem with abom's are the knockdowns.

We also made the mistake of only bringing in the foot soldiers and mounted units in the fights. Any good positioning tricks to pull in more of the NPC's or just have a hunter kite as in the bosskillers pics?
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Just don't kite anything, you don't need NPCs if you are AoEing. Kiting mobs is waste of time IMO.

For necromancers and banshees, get used to have a warrior standing in front and popping spellreflect, and u avengershield and consecration under his feet as soon as the mob aggro him.
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For the last waves with the necromancers and banshee's , you can time your Divine shield on their first ( the worst ) 'wave' of spells , which any tank would die on. Spellreflecting warrior would be ideal, but if you don't have any , then Divineshield + /cancelaura DS macro works a charm.

edit: I also use my AOE silence bloodelf spell, which seems to help a lot ( they are not immune to it ). You can ask some paladin healers ( or other bloodelves ) to help you AOE silence them with the bloodelf racial. ( wasn't needed for us, but might be nice extra if you're low on gear ) .

Free action potions against the abominations are a blessing.
I ran both with my block value set , my MT set and to be honest I couldn't really see a big difference. Block value set SEEMS to work better , but the extra hp is very nice on the necromancers.

A hunter kiting works best for us. walking backwards takes forever , and like worldie says : you don't really need the NPC's anyway.

Some Fire resistance is nice ( but absolutely not needed ) if you tank the abyssals.

btw : about your question related to gear : I use a mix of T4 - badge gear - Zulaman gear to tank MH. I have 0 pieces of T5 and 0 pieces of T6.

-Puss
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Thanks for the replies, since I wrote the topic I've done 2 more full Hyjal runs as prot, I tried both types of gear but it didn't seem to matter much for me so in the end I went with whatever gave me more mana

As you've already stated the only issues are the Necromancers, and we have experienced Warriors that know how to spellreflect so I'm sort of lucky to not have to think much about it. There was just this ONE time I accedently got hit by it and was instagibbed

My only issue is to be "efficient" on picking up Crypt Fiends fast enough, they're hard to flirt with since they want to stand and cast poo at you and people are not patient enough to wait for em to move to me, or even give me an moment to build threat on the ghouls so I can run up to them... Well it normally works out just fine, and taunt & excorsism is my friend, but any tips how to be more efficent on it would be nice

Generally I just stand at the front, before all NPC's making sure I get aggro and then back down to aggro the NPC's them so they don't rip on my mobs from the very beginning, (I hate that you can't taunt off NPC's). I never tanked the infernals, I take care of the fel stalkers as well, and that works just fine even tho they mana burn, Judgement/Seal of Wisdom, and just spam Conc whenever I have enough mana, or even use Rank 1 Conc.

Well, Hyjal raids did go from my most hated raids to the funniest thing in WoW ever cause I was allowed to tank, I really hope there's some encounter in SW that's designed for prot Palas so I can get the chance to tank more often as well

(overslept last BT raid so I didn't get the Illidan Head >_<, but at least I got T6 head now instead.)