Thinking of the Future
Honors hit 79 last night. I'll do my normal DING post a little later. It was a fun level, but I've got something else on my mind. I'm going to be Level 80 really soon. When that happens, (I hope) my friends in Mal Katai are going to start inviting me to come with them to Heroics and Naxx. But there's a small, little, inconvenient problem. I'm not ready.
My goals to be ready for Heroics/Naxx are 20k Health, 20k Armor and 540 Defense. I'm really close on the Armor and Health, but I'm way off on the Defense. My defense is sitting at 485, which would be great for Burning Crusade Heroics, but isn't anyware near what I need for Wrath.
So what's the aspiring Tankadin to do? Well I headed myself over to Maintankadin and started searching for threads. I found a couple of threads that detailed out a set of gear that gets you to 540 without needing any drops from Dungeons, because as long time readers of the blog will note, I've had terrible luck with drops.
So here's my 'cheat sheet'. It looks like I'm going to be making some Blacksmith on Altar of Storms really happy this weekend and saying a fond and bittersweet farewell to the rest of my tBC epics. Well, they got me this far.
Italics means I already have the item in my inventory.
Head: Tempered Saronite Helm 83 / Crusader's Resolution 60 / Armored Titanium 60 / Ley-Guardian 68 (Drop)
Neck: Betrayer's Choker 17 + socket / Burning Skull Pendant (BoE) 28/ Reinforced Titanium Neckguard 26 (Quest - Icecrown) / Tiled Stone Pendant (oops, I took the Ret reward from that quest)
Shoulder: Pauldrons of Reconnaissance 46 / Tundra Pauldrons 24 / Tempered Saronite 32
Back:Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions (Need Rep) 43 / Tattered Castle Drap 29
Wrist: Tempered Saronite Bracers 48 / Bracers of Reverence 34 (Oculus Quest)
Hands: Daunting Handguards 71 / Tempered Saronite 66 / Refined Ore Gloves (BoE) 42 / Gauntlets of Vigilance 34 (SP Quest)
Ring1: Gal'Darah's Signet 38 (Drop) / Band of the Eternal Defender 30 / Solid Platinium Band 25 (Gundrak Quest) / Staunch Signet 25 (Oculus Quest)
Ring2: Dragonflight Great-Ring 38 (Drop) / Kurzel's Warband 19
Chest: Silver Plated Battlechest 74 "Junk in my Trunk" Utgarde Pinnacle / Tempered Saronite Breastplate 56 / Ivory Reinforced Chestguard 52 (Kalu'ak) / Clutch of the Storm Giant 52 (ZD Quest)
Belt: Tempered Saronite Belt 57 / Waistguard of the Risen Knight 42 (BoE)/ Girdle of Obscuring 29 (Drop)
Legs: Duanting Leggings / Special Issue 69 / Tempered Saronite 32
Feet: Tempered Saronite Boots 36 / Draonic Vigor 58 (need Rep) / Toxin Tempered 34 (need Rep)/ Slaughterhouse 34 (Drop)
Trinket1:Scarab of Displacement (thank you Hydross!) / Empyrean Tortoise (JC)
Trinket2:Adamanite Figurine (thank you Blackheart!) / Dawnstone Crab (JC)
Weapon: Hammer of Quiet Mourning
Shield: Saronite Bulwark
It looks like Wrymrest rep is what I'll need to work on first, as well as finding a friendly, and soon to be wealthy, Blacksmith.
As for Wyrmrest, I've done all their quests in Dragonblight, but I need to be sure to get over to Wyrmrest Temple every day I log in to do their daily over there.
It looks like there is another quest hub in Coldarra in Borean Tundra that has some quests that give Rep with them. I haven't done a single Borean Tundra quest on Honors, so I'll get over there and see what I can do.
Comments
It's also a nice way to practice phase 3 of the malygos fight.
croiman @hellfire EU
I had that same problem at lvl 79 and what i did was to lvl to 80 I just ran instances(HoL), which got my Wyrmrest rep up. The pieces from wyrmrest, the goggles, and the epic tank shield that I brought helped me get right into heroics as soon as I hit 80.
I did a post on SnS about the tank gear so if you want to take a look you may have missed an item or two. I doubt it tho :0
I came up with my 20k/20k/540 numbers after talking with a couple of tanks on my server. I don't think it would be any different for a Warrior or Druid or Death Knight.
Dragons Eye gems for defense from doing the daily quest (which will give you XP!) are a HUGE boost in your ability to manage the defense cap.
Paladin tank, did first heroic yesterday with 18.9k health self-king-buffed.
Nexus, and died on the last boss' enrage phase, but the party took her down, and we got some shiny extra achievement too?
Was with a group who'd cleared BT before Wrath, though.
The only thing I see as a definite must is the defense. Health is whatever you feel comfortable with, to a point. For myself, 20k HP makes me comfortable. I don't think it'll be hard to reach and it'll give my healer more time to heal me.
Def is the only thing that has a true cap. At 540 def, you're done (for all intent purposes). Health has no upper limit, so if you can keep the 540 def, my thoughts would be to stack stam.