Dec 19 2008
Tank consumables in WotLK
Posted by Kadomi
Time for another reference guide, mostly for myself, hopefully of interest for others too. A new expansion means new consumables, from buff foods to elixirs to flasks. Let’s see what’s out there.
Potion:
- The Health pot du jour is called Runic Healing Potion this time around. Due to potion sickness, chain-chugging is a thing of the past, so time your potion use carefully.
- As alternative to using a health potion, you could try an Indestructible Potion instead. That’s a lot of armor that might help in encounters with Enrages or very heavy melee damage.
Battle Elixir:
- Guru’s Elixir raises all stats by 20, so is quite the excellent choice.
- Elixir of Expertise does exactly what the name suggests, raising expertise. Strong stat for tanks, so it’s a very good consumable to use, if you’re not using a flask.
- In a similar vein, you could also use Elixir of Accuracy for hit rating for threat.
- If you can’t get either of those battle elixirs, I would use either Elixir of Lightning Speed, Elixir of Deadly Strikes or Elixir of Armor Piercing, but I personally don’t think they’re as strong as the other two.
- You want to use something that scales with Blessing of Kings? How about Elixir of Mighty Strength for bigger Shield Slams?
- If you’re of the druidic persuasion, Elixir of Mighty Agility is probably the best option.
Guardian Elixir:
- Elixir of Mighty Fortitude is very nifty, and offers tons of extra health plus regen.
- Defense is a very strong avoidance stat nowadays and still worth stacking beyond the crit cap, so I highly endorse Elixir of Mighty Defense.
- Elixir of Protection offers extra armor, I will have to test if I get more mileage out of extra armor than any of the others.
Flasks:
- Flask of Stoneblood is the tanking flask, I suppose. It’s a shame that it’s just health now, no longer any extra defense.
- If health is no concern and you want to increase your personal DPS and threat, there’s Flask of Endless Rage.
Food:
All the new buff food brings back all the stats that show up on gear these days. You get to choose between strength, agility, expertise, hit, haste, armor penetration, crit rating plus 40 stamina. Which one you want to use is really up to you. Used an expertise battle elixir? Combine it with buff food that gives you extra strength, e.g.
- Strength: Dragonfin Filet
- Agility: Blackened Dragonfin
- Expertise: Rhinolicious Wyrmsteak
- Hit: Snapper Extreme
- Haste: Imperial Manta Steak or Very Burnt Worg
- Armor Penetration: Hearty Rhino
- Crit: Spiced Wyrm Burger or Spicy Blue Nettlefish
Lots of options. Think I missed anything? Leave a comment. 
I tend to use Guru’s Elixir (Battle).
Also, Flask of Fortification is still a valid (and cheaper) option.
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admin Reply:
December 19th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I added the Guru’s Elixir, as I forgot to add it, despite always carrying a stack of 5 around on me.
I haven’t looked at the costs of the new flask yet, but I reckon Fel Lotus and Ancient Lichen will be a bit harder to come by in the future. Is Flask of Fort really cheaper?
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Tankette Reply:
December 19th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
On my server the mats for a Flask of Fortification are much cheaper at around 20g per flask. Fel lotus sells for around 11-12g each, Ancient Lichen just under 1g each and Mana Thistle about 40sp each. I keep thinking the price will go up with less people farming in Outlands but so far the trend is these mats are getting cheaper as days go by.
Tankette´s last blog post..Raid Successes, 5 Man Frustration
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Anglachel Reply:
December 19th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Older herbs don’t seem to climb in price like old minerals do. On Feathermoon Thorium can go for 40g a stack, but i’ve never seen old world herbs at that price…
Anglachel´s last blog post..Non-enchanting Tank Enhancements
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Seems to be cheaper for me at the moment…in the future when things settle down, who knows!?
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Great guide, and one i was missing (and thinking of doing myself, but you saved me the work
)
Anglachel´s last blog post..Non-enchanting Tank Enhancements
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I’m a believer in using elixirs/pots to increase base stats, which seem to make everything else better, so str elixir over an AP elixir, because you get 2:1. or an agil inscreasing elixir over a crit elixir, mainly due to the scaling involved with BoK, str should always > AP, and agil > crit elixirs.
Also the Mighty Agility elixir is also great for a tank that needs to up his avoidance stats a little, it does give a boost to dodge which is pure avoidance, meaning if it happens you take zero damage, as opposed to blocking.
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[...] over at Tank Lke a Girl has posted a nice write up on Level 80 Tanking [...]
I wonder if they took the defence rating off the flask since its less important for some classes.
Still, I use the new one frequently to push my health over 41k, and I’m sure they’ll be more flasks in the future. Its a gap in the game, but its far from game-breaking. Some of our warriors still run with the old version.
I’ll always use 40 agi food for the best avoidance. Worth levelling fishing for that one alone.
Yeah I love the elixirs too – very strong selection. Tho the chances are that on any fight where I’d need them, we’d wipe a lot anyway – makes me reluctant to chug a couple at the start of every attempt.
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I’m tanking a LOT lately and still 76. Can’t recommend Mighty Fortitude enough for lower level tanks that are coming up a bit short on the health bar. Very cheap and effective. Being an alchemist gives a bonus to how long it stays on, too. Can get two runs of reg Nexus or several Violet Hold events out of it.
It’s great to use with our shiny new Pally healer as well, giving him a bit of extra room while he learns the ropes.
Don’t have Stoneblood, yet, but looking forward to it. We wipe a lot.
Great post and ty!
-Fri
Fridaymacfay´s last blog post..Protection for Arms Warriors
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Very useful list, thanks for that! While it’s always a good idea to use elixirs and / or buff food, these consumables are often sold at hilarious prices on the AH (unless you can produce the stuff for yourself).
I found that scrolls often sell much cheaper and can either boost health, strength, agility or armor in addition or as an alternative to elixirs and buff food. Of course, the variety of scrolls is limited, but they’re among the most cost-effective consumables out there.
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Don’t forget to carry Nightmare seed! You can make a macro to: eat nightmare seed and drink runic healing potion at the same time. 6500 health with 1 keystroke.
)
The macro can also be made to pop Shield Wall and Last Stand for a wipe saver.
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For hit, there’s also Worg Tartare. (Yes, I know I’m playing resurrectionist, but my alt is a new tank, so this is a new resource for me
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Let me first just say I’m not a girl – not even in game
But nice to see a simple list of tank consumables.
My main uses Guru’s elixir (cause it cost’s nothing as I do the daily fishing quest on this toon) and mighty fort for most encounters plus whatever bonus food I might have at the time.
For raids people expect you to use stoneblood – even though I think the 2 flasks are better in general for my toon.
Keep posting.
Wombat
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Kadomi Reply:
September 5th, 2010 at 11:12 am
2 Elixirs are always better than 1 flask. The only reason flasks are standard now is that they last through death. If a raider was willing to spend the cash or time to farm up enough elixirs for a full raid, that would be a-okay by me!
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