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Maintankadin

Help: Gearing up for Hyjal tanking

Retcon
Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:50 pm

Help: Gearing up for Hyjal tanking

Disclaimer: I wasn't sure where exactly to put this, in the Hyjal forum or the Gear forum. Apologies if this was misplaced on my part.

Background: I'm a paladin in a 3/5 Hyjal 4/9 BT guild (we made all our BT progression and the latter two MH kills this most recent week), so that ought to give you some idea as to our gearing level. The protadin that we had been grooming for the role of tanking the Hyjal trash got banned a few days ago, and the mantle of protadin has fallen to me (since my prot gear was the best, and I also have great holy gear already for BT).

Tanking the trash last night was my first experience, and considering it's Azgalor trash (arguably the hardest), I'm doing fine in my current gear. I think I require a little more healing than would be normal, but on the whole I could hold aggro and didn't get gibbed instantly.

The Armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Korgath&n=Retcon

The Question: Our guild only raids three nights a week, but are considering going back and doing some older raids to key recruits / alts / etc on our off-nights. They also want to take the opportunity to gear me as best they can for prot to make me tanking (and others healing me) easier. Given the drop tables in SSC, TK, and Gruul, what are the biggest and most substantial upgrades - or better said - assuming perfect droprates, where is our time best spent?

In case my Armoury is bugged / shows soloing or other gear:

Head: Tankatronic Goggles, Powerful Earthstorm Diamond, Enduring Talasite, Glyph of the Defender
Shoulders: Pauldrons of Stone Resolve, Solid Stars, Greater Inscription of the Knight
Neck: Barbed Choker of Discipline
Cloak: Pepe's Cloak of Pacification, Dodge Rating
Chest: Jade-Skull Breastplate, 150 Health
Wrist: The Seeker's Wristguards, Fortitude
Hands: Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden, Solid Stars, Heavy Knothide Armour Kit
Waist: Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable, Solid Stars
Legs: Timewarden's Leggings, Solid Stars, Clefthide Leg Armour
Feet: Battlescar Boots, Solid Stars, Fortitude
Ring: Shermanar Great-Ring
Ring: Violet Signet of the Protector
Trinket: Adamantine Figurine
Trinket: Violet Badge

Weapon: Gladiator's Gavel, Major Spellpower
Shield: Shield of Impenetrable Darkness, Major Stamina
Libram: Libram of Repentance

I'm several percentage points past uncrushable, something like 107% with kings-only. Italicized are the items I'd most like to replace, either because they are blues, or because I don't think they are contributing much (in the case of my second trinket).

Recommendations are invited, and thank you in advance.

PS. First post!

Edit: Ah, I knew I omitted something that I wanted to put in my OP. I know the badge legs and chest are fantastic items, but they are impractical for the time being, as I'm sitting on ~20 badges at the moment, and need 150 total for both. Those are definitely long-term upgrades for me, but we're looking for items that come from raids, as we can clear either 25-man and a Gruul in a night.
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Retcon, 70 BE Paladin, [H] Korgath-US (PVP)
"Just another plebe in an army of giants."
kalbear
Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:27 pm
Get the chestpiece from badges. That'll help a ton and be the biggest upgrade to you by a longshot.

The darkmoon card-vengeance would also be a great upgrade for you.

Do you have no T5 bonus at all? The gloves and the shoulders would be great. I don't think Gruul has anything for you at this point, but you should start getting more T5 gear. T5 is tailor-made for trash-tanking Hyjal.
Andox
Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:56 pm
I`d say that the legs are great, they give a healthy amount of stamina and block value.
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Skio
Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:31 am
Crystalforge is excellent for Hyjal trash. Shield and Jungle Stompers from Zul'Aman are nice, as well. Shouldn't be overly tough to have a Belt of the Guardian made or get a Seventh Ring to drop.

Free Action Potions are nice for Aboms, if you don't use them already, to help your healers out.
Diocaska
Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:31 am
I approve of this thread.

If you can get your hands on t5 leggings. Or even the badge reward ones would do. Also badge reward chest.

I'm also a huge fan of t5 gloves. So if you can get your hands on them. Otherwise I'd probably say stick with Maidens for the block value.

Darkmoon card: Vengence

Boots I'd say boots of protector (blacksmith only) or badge reward boots.

Also, I'm a fan of Seventh Ring from TK trash.
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ZA 6/6

Shir: ye 8 is the stop fucking resisting my taunts bastard button
Ulushnar
Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:39 am
Yeah, if you can get all of T5 except the shoulders (the ZA ones are awesome for a BV set), either the Badge Boots or Jungle Stompers, either the Seventh Ring of the Tirisfallen or the ZA chest ring, and the SoS rep ring, then you'll be rocking for BV.
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A Hero desires a Sword, and a Sword desires Truth.

Dobbelsteen
Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:51 am
Ninjapost!
Didn't want to make a new topic since it's closely related to this one.

How much %block should one be looking at to tank all of the trash? I'm at 33% myself right now, but that drops my hp tot 13,5k, is that enough?
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Pewpew BANG
Retcon
Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:46 am
First, thank you all for the many constructive replies so far (I really appreciate it!)

We decided to do Black Temple first this week; this is a very good idea. I spec holy for BT (my Armoury should already reflect this), and I have excellent holy gear, so I'm contributing 100%. But the key motivator was this: I'm the only other plate-wearing tank in the raid, other than the MT. And she's already got some of the BT gear.

Now we're looking at getting Gurtogg down before stepping into Hyjal on Thursday. Assuming he drops, that means I have access to, if they drop:

Illidari Runeshield (top priority)
Tide-Stompers Greaves (top priority)
Gauntlets of Enforcement (top priority)
Girdle of Mighty Resolve (top priority)
Myrmidon's Greaves
Praetorian's Legguards
Band of the Abyssal Lord
Girdle of Stability
Shadowmoon Insignia

Now, the Tide-stompers are already flagged as being the best in the game, as is the Girdle, and so I'm reticent to level BSing for the boots or get the belt made from vortices (as we no longer do SSC regularly). I think the current plan is to rock along in BT doing my usual holydin thing and see what drops, and then plan from there what we do over the weekend off-days (which will likely involve a KZ and ZA for badges and loot, and possibly SSC or a Gruul, as I have an infatuation with the Aldori Legacy's model, and it takes our guild like 30 min to clear him).

I do agree with the assessment of Dragonz, in that the most upgrades are in SSC. Concerning TK, the boots from Solarian are minor and are out-classed by the two BT drops I have access to, the shoulders are less important since I got the ZA timed loot ones, and the cloak from Al'ar is mitigated by the Hyjal trash cloak I got on Sunday. Kael has nice drops, both the chest and gauntlets, but I think we'll wait until we have to attune people to beat him down, as he's a pain in the ass to anyone.
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Retcon, 70 BE Paladin, [H] Korgath-US (PVP)
"Just another plebe in an army of giants."
Jensaarai
Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:41 am
I tank Hyjal trash with ~24% dodge, 16-17%? parry, and 20-21% block, 513 SBV with the Autoblocker's use bringing me up to around 775 in sticking situations. Armor is probably around 18.3-18.4k (with Ret aura) and HP around 20-21k (no flask, imp + CS). This is how I found I liked tanking Hyjal; it lets me survive any wave.
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Retcon
Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:06 am
[quote="Dragonzbane"]