~19K HP. "Is that your tanking gear?"

Hey all. I've been trying desperately to gear up for heroics without a proper guild; myself and a few friends are forming a new one right now. Unfortunately that means I'm doing a LOT of pugging.

Armory:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Maelstrom&n=Stevadin

I looked around and there are only a very small handful of remaining upgrades to my gear at this point without entering heroics. I'm at 541 defense.

I've had healers drop as soon as they found out I was tank. And frankly, I'm not certain I'd blame them; I have only a couple thousand more than many of the DPS. I grouped (for a quest) with a Feral tank the other day who had 25k, and he seemed to be around my gear level. I kept aggro off him though ^_^.

I've taken up a habit of dropping a feast every instance. I figure it'll make me some friends. Also I buff myself with Kings long before we enter the instance so they think it's my baseline HP; it puts me just over 20K. >_> (One of our guild taglines is, "Our tank is also our cook!" lol)

Are there any pieces of pre-heroic gear I can get to bump up my stamina? My final pieces are Wyrmrest boots and chest, Occulus belt, UP necklace. Any advice for convincing PUGs I'm a good tank without them seeing me run? As a note money is tight right now; I only got my epic flier earlier this week.

If not I'll just keep working on my tradeskills. Once my BS and JC get over 300 it'll be smooth sailing. A Monarch Crab would be a sick upgrade. Shame that they feel like my only decent option at this point.

As a clarification, this is not a complaint about my effectiveness. I ran normal Halls of Stone a couple days ago and the healer (shammy) said, "I'm not even healing." Granted, it's not even an 80 instance, but still.

/sigh. Sorry if this sounds like bitching. You all are the single most helpful resource for WoW I've found on the internet.
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Stevadin, Level 80 BE Paladin, Maelstrom. BS/JC.

LFG Zul! The one with the trolls!

You're in the wrong forum first of all. Second you are lazy at enchanting.
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I reserve the right to refuse service to those that do not read the stickies.

not able to check armory (at work)

if you're still not over 300 BS/JC - have you been leveling them long?

if you're not a gatherer... and you had the gold for epic flyer... I think it might have made more sense to level profs with that gold if you need them for gear for heroics...
Not to say that you are necessarily wrong for buying epic flyer... but if what you want is to run heroics... that should be a priority - good example... when I hit 70 on my resto shammy in pre-TBC - I had just under 7k gold... enough to go buy both reg and epic flying... but I was dead set on raiding... so I spent the gold for reg flying, and sunk the rest into gear and such to ensure that I would be able to make it into the raids I wanted into...
It's all about priorities

what use is it flying to somewhere faster if you don't have the gear to run stuff?

IMO - gear > mount... just about always...

only time I would change this is when you have a gathering prof - as then epic flying will increase your gold making insanely...

I would suggest if you want to run things... put the money into gear... if you are missing enchants - get them

if you need to level tradeskills... spend all your time doing that...

granted - once you get into heroics... the gear will start coming much easier... as there are a lot of good tank drops between just drops and emblems... but you gotta get there first...

having been in all 3 roles on quite a few different classes... I would have to say that I would probably not run with a group with a tank that has less than 20k HP... crit capped or not...

it's possible to do with enough CC/time... but honestly - it's not worth the extra time/hassle to most people...

you should be easily able to hit at the least 21-22l HP with 540 def... with only a few epics (think my only ones were emblem belt and CoT Heroic shield), if any...

if you're a JC - take the time to get the old epic defense trinket (empyrean tortise) it's a good amount of Def for the slot... with a decent use effect until you get to higher trinkets...

if you have slots where the crafted gear is available - check it out - the crafted saronite gear is actually pretty good for starting heroics... it is loaded with mostly stam/def if I remember right...
also - not sure what shield you're using... but take the time to get yourself a titansteel shield wall (if you're not using one right now) - it's got a ton of defense on it - and putting on a def enchant will definitely help you out there as well...
it's a good place to start...

Hope this helps some - I'll take a look at gear when I get home to see if I have any suggestions - but it would seem those who are able to see your armory will probably post some suggestions

if you have questions I'm available to answer PMs - hit me up I'll try to help as much as I can
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"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so" -Douglas Adams

• Crafted epics.
• Get JC & BS to 400+
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This isn't the "Offtankadin" forum.
Knaughty of the Nightfall.
Tanking 101 and Advanced tanking

Get your gear enchanted and gemmed.
Get rid of the Regal Protectorate and put a stam trinket in its place. The most accessible might be the JC trinket, which can give 130ish stam if you decide to socket it that way.
As mentioned, there's a lot of crafted gear from Blacksmiths you can pick up. Hopefully you have a mining alt to help get the mats for that, especially since both of your professions rely on mining, which you need to work on yourself.
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Look on the AH and buy a belt for 10g which will be about 5x better than what you've got now.
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Your missing enchants are a limiting factor. Shoulder arcanum, Def to chest, cloak, shield, and optionally wrists will put you well over 540, and then you can get stamina on your other gear, particularly by replacing your Regal Protectorate and swapping your def gem.

Upgrade your leg and boot enchants to the better version (Frosthide on legs, 22 stam on boots). Enchant your helm, Revered with Argent Crusade is very easy to obtain through quests.

And get a belt, a level 69 "of Defense" is just terrible. Tempered Saronite should be very easy to get, with strength, stam, armor, and more defense than your current piece.

You could be around 20k already in the same gear if you had your enchants done; doing the other things would put you even higher.
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Probably the best thing to do is consult a list like this one http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=17179 and you'll find a lot of upgrades you can make. We've all been where you are right now, but it won't take too much effort to get to 21-22k and then you'll be fine for heroics.

And as others have said, level your JC! That profession is helping tanks reach some pretty ungodly numbers in terms of health with trinkets and +41 stam gems.

Good luck!

The above poster has some nice advice but I'll temper it with some of my own. You should get far more than 540 defense for the additional avoidance.

So get +22 defense to chest and +20 defense to shield over 18 stam when you get the cash. +18 stam armor kits really cost a lot and getting the proper enchant is often cheaper and better.
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I reserve the right to refuse service to those that do not read the stickies.

The only good spot to put an 18 stam kit is your gloves, the other slots should be enchanted.
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Gladiator Psiven, 80 Tankadin
Bloodsail Admiral Psivenia, 70 Warrior
70 Belfadin, 62 Druid, 60 Priest, 60 Warlock
Longtime addict of Space - Glory Through Conquest

Others have covered this mostly but I'll chip in too:

Get the titansteel boots and shield like NOW. Just solo questing dailies for cash and rep can get you the cash to get those made in around a week.

Enchant and gem your gear. I don't care what your stats are if you join my group and I see un-enchanted gear and empty gem slots there's no excuse for that.