Not sure what to do with badges...

I've been around the forums for a while, reading, and I know the general gist of things. I've never tanked in BC (hit 70 near the end of BC on my pally) and decided to make it my new main in WotLK.

I am doing heroics daily and I think i do pretty well in them, and now I have 98 badges. I'll probably be going into a 10 man nax this weekend and possibly 25 man in the near future. I just want to know what I should upgrade.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bleeding+Hollow&n=Aethera

It may not have updated yet, but I picked up the Red Sword of Courge (potency) and Skadi's Ironbelt tonight (18 stam, 21 stam)

Right now I'm sitting at 541 defense. I have a lot of better items in terms of defence but it sacrifices a lot of other stats.

With the exception of the neck piece, I'm pretty sure everything I can get will take me below the defense cap, which is why I'm asking for advice atm.

My offset (well, i guess not offset, more like def stacking set) consists of Solid Platinum Band, Waist Guard of the Risen Knight (12 def gem) and Pauldron of Reconnaissance. I'm not sure if it's worth it to swap those in for a tier piece, or get something else entirely.

Also I have better items in terms of mitigation/stam, but I cannot use due to it taking me below the defense cap. Terrace Defense Boots and Arcane shield helm, to be specific.

But yeah, tl;dr, what do you think I should pick up to improve my gear overall?

My first suggestion was going to be the libram, but I see you have that already.

After that, I'd say you already sort of answered the first pick up in your post, the Neck. The neck gives you 8 defense rating to play with.

From there I'd say go either with the gloves or the belt. The gloves lose a bit of defense rating, but you gained some from the neck. The belt is a slight defense pick up and trade for block for dodge.

Now, most guilds don't do dkp for 10mans, so I don't see any reason to spend badges on the conq pieces. IMO, if you can get it in raid cheap, save badges for the other stuff.

In contrast to that, once you get to 25mans, if you are spending dkp(most likely) on the tokens, grab those with the emblems and you'll save dkp for other items. Although, the boots are a piece you should get from valor emblems no matter what. I got lucky and all the conq pieces dropped the first week for me pretty much.

So yeah, in short, grab the neck, belt, or gloves or any combo consisting of 2 of the 3.

That's my opinion. good luck in the 10man =)
_________________
Dork <Audacious> of Magtheridon

Thanks for the tip. Also, one more quick question.

Is it worth it to get the seal of pantheon (65 def) to replace my block trinket from heroic violet hold in order to free up some def points for my other pieces?

What's your other trinket? It may be worth it run a BR and def trinket. Using as def trinket till you get a comfortable def buffer is perfectly acceptable.
_________________
Majiben
If we wanted Ret to be a joke, we would have just left the tree as it was, and maybe kicked it a little for good measure. -GC

I'm currently using the 111 stam trinket from heroic Azjol nerub.

I would say pick up your Tier 7 chest.
_________________
Hinata of Crit Happens - 80 - Arygos

only thing I would do is get colosus shoulders. they have a yellow socket to throw a +16 hit into

and because the armory doesn't show blacksmith sockets, I am just assuming you've gemmed those up with def/sta whatever balances out your gear to the most benefit because I don't know.
_________________