Tank like a girl

Update: The most current shopping list updated for 3.3. Disregard everything below, left in the blog for historical reasons.

After my two previous posts looking at reputation rewards and craftable tanking gear, I have now looked at instance drops and quest rewards, compared all of them, and came up with my personal shopping list which I’ll use to gear up for heroics and entry-raiding. All items on the list are either available through reputation, questing or normal level instances. I am not including BoP craftables like engineering goggles or jewelcrafting trinkets.

A priority on the gear is defense. Once you hit the magic cap of 540, it will get easier to focus on gear that is more balanced than pure defense gear. This also means that in my top 3 per slot a higher def piece might be better until you hit the cap. For heroics you will need a defense of 535, for raid bosses you will need 540 defense.

On we go! As always, comments are very welcome.

 
Head:

• Tempered Titansteel Helm – Crafted by blacksmiths. Very basic stats, but big numbers when it comes to armor, stamina, defense.
• Helm of the Ley Guardian – Cache of Eregos in The Oculus. Excellent piece, with high armor, very high def, a red socket and hit rating for extra threat. Best blue helm outside of heroics for sure.
• The Crusader’s Resolution – reward from The Crusader’s Pinnacle in Icecrown. Very solid piece, but no socket.

Pet peeve number one. Why are all the helmet models the same? Lazy, Blizzard, lazy.

 
Neck:

• Titanium Earthguard Chain – Crafted by Jewelcrafters. Great stats and a socket, and the mats don’t seem too insane.
• Amulet of Deflected Blows – Skadi the Ruthless in Utgarde Pinnacle.
• Reinforced Titanium Neckguard – Icecrown quest reward for The Admiral Revealed

 
Back:

• Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions – Honored with Wyrmrest Accord. Extremely nice cloak, and Honored is not that lofty a goal.
• Flowing Cloak of Command – Salramm the Fleshcrafter in The Culling of Stratholme. Holy moly, that’s a lot of armor. Pretty nice.
• Screeching Cape – Erekem in The Violet Hold. You can get this cloak early if you’re lucky, not a bad way to go.

 
Shoulders:

• Crusader’s Square Pauldrons – BoE Trash drop in The Culling of Stratholme. Check the AH, you might get lucky and score these shoulders which are quite excellent.
• Pauldrons of Reconnaissance – quest reward for Halls of Stone. Run an instance, score this excellent reward, nice deal. And it’s not even a level 80 instance.
• Tempered Saronite Shoulders – Crafted by Blacksmiths. Hooray, non-spiky shoulders. Another lazy model issue, pet peeve number 2. These shoulders don’t have much to offer other than good chunks of basic tank stats, but they are so easy to get.

 
Chest:

• Breastplate of the Solemn Council – Revered with Wyrmrest Accord. Hands down the best pre-heroic chest, very sweet deal. Buy your tabard now and be ready to burn through Wyrmrest Accord rep.
• Reanimated Armor – Gortok Palehoof in Utgarde Pinnacle. Also not bad at all. How about grinding rep in the Pinnacle? Would work for me.
• Silver-Plated Battlechest – Quest reward for Junk in my trunk in Utgarde Pinnacle. Another argument for Pinnacle as place to be for chestpieces. Grab the quest reward or the drop until you have rep, if you’re into that.

 
Wrist:

• Svala’s Bloodied Shackles – Svala Sorrowgrave in Utgarde Pinnacle. Okay, I get it, we spend a lot of time in that place. Great bracers.
• Bracers of Reverence – Quest reward for A Wing and a Prayer in The Oculus.
• Tempered Saronite Bracers – Crafted by Blacksmiths. The cheap way for a lot of defense.

 
Hands:

• Fireproven Gauntlets – Exalted with Kirin Tor. Just about the only possible thing rep with them gains us, so that’d be the last rep for me to grind. But very sweet gloves, no doubt.
• Daunting Handguards – Crafted by Blacksmiths. Massive amounts of defense, no kidding.
• Gauntlets of Vigilance – Quest reward for The Reckoning in Storm Peaks. Color me flabbergasted, tank gear with agility on. It’s like blast from the past.

 
Waist:

• Girdle of Obscuring – Mage-Lord Urom in The Oculus
• Tempered Saronite Belt – Crafted by Blacksmiths. There are few belt options, so it won’t hurt to go with the crafted one. It’s pretty nice.

 
Legs:

• Special Issue Legplates – Honored with Argent Crusade. Sockets make my heart sing, there are so few of them these days. Great legs.
• Daunting Legplates – Crafted by Blacksmiths. If you’re really out to get tons of defense.
• Void Sentry Legplates – Zuramat the Obliterator in The Violet Hold. Another piece with one socket, and that’s why it’s listed, because it makes gear more versatile.

 
Feet:

• Tempered Titansteel Treads – Crafted by Blacksmiths
• Sabatons of Draconic Vigor – Revered with Wyrmrest Accord. Clearly you’re grinding that rep first anyway, right? Pick it up with the chestpiece, win.
• Slaughterhouse Sabatons or Toxin-Tempered Sabatons – Meathook in The Culling of Stratholme or Honored with the Knights of the Ebon Blade. These boots are absolutely identical, they just look slightly different.
• Tempered Saronite Boots – Crafted by Blacksmiths. When you can get nothing else, the Tempered set will tide you over.

 
Rings:

• Titanium Earthguard Ring – Crafted by Jewelcrafters
• Dragonflight Great-Ring – Cache of Eregos in The Oculus
• Gal’darah’s Signet – Gal’darah in Gundrak
• Solid Platinum Band – Quest reward for For Posterity in Gundrak
• Staunch Signet – Quest reward for The Struggle Persists in The Oculus

 
Trinkets:

• Seal of the Pantheon – Loken in Halls of Lightning. Welcome to the only defense trinket pre-heroic and Naxxramas. Heed the words of Veneretio over at Tankingtips.com and keep your old defense trinkets. If you’re strapped to hit the def cap, you might need them.
• Sonic Booster – Crafted by Engineers. Massive massive amounts of stamina and a great threat proc. If you don’t need defense, definitely worth a look. If you are an engineer, that is. If you read the fine-print, you need 390 engineering to use it. Boo, fine print. Thanks for catching this, Daraxxus.

 
Main Hand:

• Eternally Folded Blade – Volkhan in Halls of Lightning. The strongest tanking weapon of that item level.
• Crescent of Brooding Fury or Hammer of Quiet Mourning – Quest reward from Wanted: Ragemane’s Flipper in Zul’Drak. If you’re an orc, get the axe, and dwarves and humans should get the mace. Everyone else can just get what they like best.
• Blade of the Empty Void – Quest reward from Tirion’s Gambit in Icecrown.

 
Shield:

• Titansteel Shield Wall – Crafted by Blacksmiths. Save your pocket money for this shiny shield!
• Leeka’s Shield – Mal’ganis in The Culling of Stratholme
• Riot Shield – Xevozz in The Violet Hold
• Saronite Bulwark – Crafted by Blacksmiths

 
Ranged Weapon:

• Armor Plated Combat Shotgun – Crafted by Engineers. Nummy. Engineers will make some cash with these statsticks.
• Weighted Throwing Axe – quest chain in the Storm Peaks. Not the fastest thrown weapon, but still probably not bad on trash pulls.

And that’s it, the big shopping list. Hope some of you can use it. I have a gear plan, and I am gonna use it.

See also:

• WotLK Shopping List, Part II: heroics and emblem gear.
• WotLK Shopping List, Part III: 10-man raids