Honor's Code

Back to Guide Uncritiable For a few select fights in Burning Crusade Classic , you may need resistance gear. For a tank, your gear will need to reach two important breakpoints: 365 Resistance (of that specific resistance), and 490 Defense (uncritable). You can also use Resilience on gear to help you reach uncritable. 1% Crit Reduction = 59.25 Defense Rating = 25 Defense Skill 1% Crit Reduction = 39.1 Resilience Rating. 1% Crit Reduction = 39.1 resilience rating = 59.25 defense rating For every point of Resilience you have, you can reduce the 490 Defense cap required by 0.625 Caveats: The following list will not contain random Uncommon resistance gear. Thie BoE gear that can be used to fill in the gaps for achieving the resistance cap of 365. Note: Paladin Aura/Hunter Aura/Priest Prayer of Shadow Protection/Shaman Totems DO NOT stack. Gear with all Resistances This gear has all Resistances and can be used in any of the specific Resistance encounters. Syrannis' Mystic Sheen (Cloak - ...

Here is a general guide to MT gear progression in raids. Don't consider it definitive so by all means contest any of this. Bias is shown towards "paladin tank" gear wherever the item is viable so some "warrior" items will be omitted if they offer nothing different. Equally ranked items are about equivalent or down to personal preference and your gear makeup. One item might be very slightly better than the other but it's the sort of very minor upgrade that you'd pass over for another tank. Disclaimer: This list just a harmless bit of OCD fun that can be a useful reference and point of comparison. Please do not take all of this literally and as 'the way' without thinking what is best for you and what the encounter requires.  Color coding: Phase 5 - Isle of Quel’danas and Sunwell Plateau Phase 4 - Zul'Aman Phase 3 - Battle for Mount Hyjal and Black Temple Phase 2 - Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep Phase 1 - Karahzan, Gruul’s Lair, and Magth...

This is a list of preraid gear to get you to Uncrushable that does not rely on any drops or any reputations above revered. Using just this method, you can get your paladin to uncrushable status quickly with no luck at all. This is intended to provide a baseline for future raiding. This will not be your final gear set.  Head Felsteel Helm  (crafted) Neck Strength of the Untamed  (Cenarion Expedition revered) Shoulders Nexus-Guard's Pauldrons  (quest:  Success! ) Warchief's Mantle  (quest:  Return to Andormu ) Back Cloak of Eternity  (crafted) Chest Breastplate of the Warbringer  (quest:  Forge Camp: Annihilated ) Vindicator's Hauberk  (Aldor Revered) Wrists Shatari Wrought Armguards  (quest:  The Soul Devices ) Bracers of the Green Fortress  (crafted) Hands Felsteel Gloves  (crafted) Gauntlets of the Chosen  (Scryers revered) Belt Shatari Vindicator's Waistguard  (quest:  How to Break Into the Arcat...

Pre raid BiS Following is a breakdown of most of what we have available to us in a pre-raid situation. (Please feel free to let me know of anything you think I've missed here.) Threat versus Mitigation At the pre-raid level, and throughout Karazhan, threat can be achieved solely through your weapon. A good spelldamage weapon like ( Continuum Blade ), properly enchanted with Major Spellpower (see Enchants guide), combined with some cheap  Superior Wizard Oil , will put you at a very comfortable threat level. In any pre-raid situation, you will produce comparable (if not more, especially on Demon/Undead NPCs,) threat to a Protection Warrior/Feral Druid on single targets, and the same to up to three targets as a Feral Druid. On more targets, and through use of Salvation, there is no spec of any class that can produce more threat, (nor mitigate as much damage, usually) than you. For all 5 mans, it is much advised to wear more spelldamage, giving up some mitigation. As long as healers c...

There's been an absolutely epic thread on Maintankadin arguing armor, stamina, and the 'new EH' formula that Theck of Blackrock came up with. Apparently, the thread caught the notice of some of the ElistJerks theorycrafters who came in to offer their contribution, but along with their arguments brought a whole lot of vitriol and drama. When MainTankadin posters didn't accept their arguments, and had the audacity to point out holes and the lack of supporting data, they got even more aggressive. While I would very much like to believe I have the intelligence to keep up and understand those discussions, maybe even contribute. However, I have neither the time nor the desire to delve into theorycrafting at the level of Theck and the other posters in that thread. One thing I've always admired about Theck is that he is not afraid to admit mistakes or oversights in his theorycraft and correct them. Since he has not changed his views, he must not have seen enough e...

Today, I've got a new article up on Paladin Schmaladin analyzing the changes to the Paladin Tank T10 Gloves and Chest. These changes will go Live in the next Minor Patch. Enjoy! Here's a quick summary: The net difference is this. The iLevel difference of the Emblem gear is just too much to overcome. The T10 Helm/Shoulder with Cataclysmic Chestguard /Guantlets of the Kraken/Pillars of Might is going to be the way to build your progression MT set for the 10 man Raider crowd.

I've got a new article on Paladin Schmaladin today on Protection Paladin's choice for a Weapon Enchant . It goes over some of the new theorycraft from the nerf to Proc based Weapon Enchants (Blade Ward, Mongoose) for Protection Paladins and Unholy Death Knights. Bottom line it for me (TLDR) • For threat, go with Accuracy. • Blade Ward is a bad enchant for us. Don’t get it. • ‘Goose is the only enchant that provides traditional EH (through a very small amount of armor) • Blood Draining is solid but has stacking considerations.

The Armory only provides unbuffed stats, which is a nice starting point, but I wanted to see what my Raid buffed stats are. Depending on our group composition and resultant buffs, my health runs anywhere from 40k to 45k fully buffed. When the Libram of Valiance procs, the Dodge rate goes to about 30%. Still with the natural 5% miss from Bosses and some Miss from Defense, I'm well over 50% avoidance. The Armory also doesn't give you your Block Value, and I was curious what my Raid buffed block value was. So around 2k is a good approximate for my Block Value. I don't particularly seek out or gear for Block Value, so that's 2k without really looking for it. So you might be asking what gear I'm actually wearing. 245 Dreadscale Bracers (Heroic) Clutch of Fortification Libram of Valiance 232 Endurance of the Infernal Sunreaver Defenders Pauldrons Loop of the Twin Valkyrs T9 Chest T9 Gloves T9 Legs Shiver Aegis of the Coliseum 226 Tier 8.25 Helm (Conqueror's Aegis Face...

So you've just gotten a shiny new weapon. Of course, like any good Tankadin, you want to get a weapon enchant on that bad boy. Let's take a look at your options. We'll discount cosmetic factors like the glow effect. Tanks aren't looking for style points, they want to survive. Now you can can survive, in style , but you are probably going to be a Dwarf. Accuracy - Increase crit and hit rating by 25. Blade Ward - Chance to increase parry(up to about 2%) and damage on parry as well, up to 5 stacks. I think. Blood Draining - Leech health from target and chance to give about 2000 health when below 35%. Exceptional Agility - Increase agility by 26 Mongoose - Chance to get 120 Agi (about 1.2% dodge and 1.8% crit( and increase weapon speed. One of these things is not like the other If you want your weapon enchant to enhance your threat generation, you've made your job of selecting an enchant much easier. Accuracy is hands down the best threat enchant for a Tankadin. Th...

When Wrath started Heroics and Naxx10 gave you level 200 gear. Naxx25 gave you level 213. Then Ulduar came out. Ulduar 10 gear was level 219, while Ulduar 25 gear was level 226. Now with Crusade out you have 3 different levels. Crusade 10 will give you level 232 gear. Crusade 10 Heroic and Crusade 25 give level 245 gear. Crusade 25 Heroic gives the best gear at level 258. The best gear from Heroic is available only after killing the last boss. The number of tokens you get will depend on how many 'tries' you had left. Crusade 10, Crusade 10 Heroic and Cruasde 25 gear are all obtained with Emblems of Triumph. Crusade 10 gear is obtained with just Emblems of Triumph. Crusade 10 Heroic / Crusade 25 gear requires more Emblems as well as a Trophy that drops off the Bosses in 25man and from the Tribute Chest in Heroic 10. A full clear of the 25 man will yeild 15 Emblems and 5 trophies, a full clear of Heroic 10 man will yeild 15 Emblems and 2 to 4 trophies. You can also obtain Emblems...

I hope no one has the delusion that just because I write a blog I have everything figured out. I don't. I read alot, but still struggle with decisions all the time. My current pondering is what to do with my Emblems of Conquest. As you may know, my guild raids 10 mans only. We've gotten some Conquest through Emalon PuGs, but the Alliance having Wintergrasp is a rare occasion on my server. Then you have to hope you luck into a decent PuG that can down him, even nerfed. Most of our Emblems of Conquest come through various Hard Modes we do. But sometimes we don't get the right people on for Hard Modes and can't do them. I'm not complaining mind you. I'm just trying to explain that that for my entire raid group the Conquests badges don't come quickly. I've currently got 19 EoC, exactly enough to buy the neck piece : http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45821 . BUT I could also save up for Tier Pieces I'll likely never see like http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45632 ...

Wrath has been out about 7 or 8 months now. Some players are just now reaching level 80. Whether it’s an alt, or someone who is new to the game, it can be rough on these fresh 80s, especially if they are tanks. Tank is probably the toughest role to be under geared at, followed closely by a Healer. You can get away as an under geared DPS a little easier simply because even in a 5 man, there are other DPS players to help take up the slack. Now an over geared tank can do wonders for a under geared healer, and vice versa, an overgeared healer can do wonders for an under geared tank, but even an over geared healer isn’t going to be able to make up for a tank that gets one shot. A fresh level 80 Warrior or Paladin is going to be sporting about 18-20k unbuffed. I hate to break it to you, but there are well geared mages who can hit that. A new tank needs gear and Reputation and the fastest route to both is in Heroics. But even getting in Heroics can be difficult for a new tank. Because...

When Ulduar was released, two new ‘tank’ enchants were released with it. These were Blade Warding and Blood Draining. Both are drops from various 25 man bosses in Ulduar. While both enchants are still very new, the intial feedback from the community has been that these enchants are rather lackluster. The Developers wanted to avoid having an enchant every tank felt they must have like 50 stamina, so we get two very expensive enchants that don’t give you the bang for your buck. Blood Draining - Permanently enchants your weapon to sometimes grant Blood Reserve when striking an enemy or inflicting damage with bleed attacks. When you fall below 35% health, Blood Reserve restores 360 to 440 health. Lasts 20 sec and stacks up to 5 times. Blood Draining will work out to about a 2k heal when you health drops below 35%. This has long been thought to be a poor enchant for Tankadins because of the negative synergy with Ardent Defender. The fear was that the enchant would proc and take you just o...

Since we run a quasi loot council / random roll for loot, I decided to look over the loot tables and figure out what my upgrades in Ulduar would be. I’m disregarding 25 man loot as well as Emblems of Conquest because I don’t see my guild running that content. I’m perfectly okay with that as the 10 man environment is providing both the challenge and comradely I enjoy. I’m currently sporting the Heroes Redemption Faceguard . There are two helms out of Ulduar I could use. Ironbark Faceguard drops off of Freya and my Tier 8 Valorous Aegis Faceguard drops off of Mimiron. The two Helms are nearly identical. The T8 has a bit more strength, and a little less defense. The major difference is the Ironbark Faceguard has Expertise whereas the T8 has Block Rating. As I’m fairly sure I’m Block Capped, the Block Rating wouldn’t do anything for me, but as a Paladin Expertise is pretty low on the helpful stats list as well. I’m going to pass the first Ironbark we get to my Death Knight co-Tank. Exper...