3.2: The Aftermath

Frequently referred to as “the wellfare patch”, 3.2 caused Emblems of Conquest to drop here, there and everywhere rather than confining them to Ulduar25. On my priest, I heard plenty of complaints about how it was cheapening gear and undermining raiders but you know what? Me and my army of alts were happy to hear of it.

Gearing to a high level is now possible to do without raiding and without relying on luck with drops. All you do is gather little piles of Emblems of Conquest, hand them over to a vendor and receive item level 226 loot. As new tanks we should be cheering about this, right?

Well, yes. But as tanks we also happen to suffer from the new system too.

It's all down to player mindsets. When my brother's prot warrior first hit eighty, roughly three weeks after Wrath's release, he had 18k health and was considered a god amongst PuGers. After all, they had no one else to go to. Gear was secondary to simply filling a party slot. Now that we're months into Wrath, this obviously isn't the case; tanks have been gathering gear for a while so there are alternatives to the new eighty in his silly saronite cap.

3.2 takes this a step further: now the tank that reached eighty a week before you is also sporting 30k health as opposed to your 19k. And it doesn't stop there: your damage dealers are sitting around in epics too, which means 21k health for your plate wearers. Anyone who has ever witnessed the choosing of the main tank in VoA will probably already know exactly what this means.

Oh yes. Respect? You're going to have to dig for it.

There are a few ways to deal with those people who can't resist the chance to complain. First is simply to make your health look as impressive as possible. Keep Commanding Shout active even when you're sitting in a city waiting for the final member. Consider buying buff food too - shelling out for the good stuff is great if you have the cash, but otherwise there's a particular sort of buff food I've grown to love: the Pickled Fangtooth. A stack of twenty fangtooth usually goes for five gold on my server for one reason: no one actually uses mp5 food so there's no demand for it. However useless to casters it may be, however, that 40 stamina is a great boost for a new tank wanting to stave off nasty remarks and help out their healer.

The other tactic, of course, is to simply ignore them. If someone wants to be an ass about your perfectly heroic-viable 20k health, fine. Mentally brand them with the idiot stick and set out to prove them wrong. What you should never do is lie: if someone asks if you're in your DPS gear when you're actually in your tank gear, tell them the truth and be confident about it. Any other reply only makes it sound as if you don't feel you're ready, whilst simultaneously leading the healer on to expect an easier run than he's going to get.

Quite simply, be aware that people are used to better gear than yours and be excited at the chance to try and overcome the difference through pure skill. If your trinkets have an on-use effect, use them on cooldown. Throw Vigilance on whichever party member has the highest threat. Use Shield Block and Shield Wall, Spell Reflect and Enraged Regeneration. Try to limit incoming damage with Concussion Blow and Disarm. Treat each pull like a boss fight in its own right, not through constant ready checking but through intelligent application of your skills. It might make you feel a tad silly for taking trash seriously but I assure you, using all your skills will help you to learn their keybinds properly... while convincing your group that you can still hold your own without all that purple.

New Eighty: Gear

Well known fact: the defence cap for raiding is 540.

Lesser known fact: the defence cap for heroics is 535.

I make mention of this because the Quest for 540 Defence seems to be a pretty common affliction for new tanks simply because 540 is thrust down our throats by every resource as "the magic number". And it is, when you get to raiding but for now? Screw it.

Alright, so. Even if you've picked up all the dungeon tanking rewards as you've been leveling up you are not going to be defence capped or, indeed, particularly close to it. When you look at the gear that made you a successful tank pre-80 and realise that you're missing a massive amount of defence it can be somewhat daunting, but never fear: Blizzard has provided for us in the form of the crafted armour Aelystriel is modelling to the left there.

These pieces are the Tempered Saronite Helm, Shoulders, Breastplate, Belt, Bracers and Boots with the Daunting Legplates and Handguards. They provide absolutely gigantic lumps of defence rating and stamina at the expense of, well, everything else. There is enough strength on them to ensure your warrior doesn't become a limp noodle, but mostly you're just going to have to accept the single-mindedness of them so that bosses don't splatter you on sight. Alternatives include The Crusader's Resolution from the Crusader's Pinnacle quest chain in Icecrown and any pieces from normal instances you might be sporting, such as the Void Sentry Legplates. I only advocate buying a replacement for a good blue piece you picked up from questing or an instance if you're still below the defence cap - although the crafted pieces listed above are great as boosters they aren't worth picking up just for the higher item level.

Other easily-obtainable upgrades include the Dream Signet, created by jewelcrafters. The correct sort (of the champion) will provide 28 defence. If your gear is anything like mine was, this will be an increase of 28 defence and very useful. Jewelcrafters themselves can create the Monarch Crab figurine which will last you a long time indeed. Tattered Castle Drape is usually on the auction house for a fair price, while the rich amongst us can always pay out for a Durable Nerubhide Cape. Good weaponry can be obtained through the Wanted: Ragemane's Flipper quest in Zul'Drak.

But I don't want to get too tied up in specifics. When I finally finished making myself heroic-ready, my gear was as shown here and if you really want an exhaustive list there's always the one set up by Kaliban. What's more important than the individual pieces, however, is how they add up: health values, defence rating. I would say that, to tank your lower level heroics like Nexus and Culling of Stratholme, you should be aiming for at least 18.5k health, meaning near to 20k with Commanding Shout active. Much less and your health pool is not going to be sufficient to survive more than a few boss swings, even when defence capped. In the harder heroics like Utgarde Pinnacle and Azjol-Nerub you want something closer to 21k. Trial of the Champion demands that much for normal mode, never mind heroic.

So, how can you quickly boost your health? Heavy Borean Armour Kits. You can stick them just about anywhere and the eighteen stamina each one provides will stack up quickly. Alternatively, there are plenty of enchanting options for you to choose from: stamina on your shield, health on your chest et cetera. It really depends on how much you're willing to spend on gear you'll be replacing as soon as possible, but consider the importance of wealth compared to the importance of making a good impression on people you group with before you go with the cheapest option. After all, if you do well and befriend a leatherworker... you have patches for life.