Tank like a girl

It is time for the first edition of my shopping list for this expansion, tried and true since TBC days. As always, I will list at least 3 items per slot, in order of desirability. For those who do not have loot luck I will include at least one item per slot that you can obtain without relying on pure RNG. If you have any other suggestions, please leave a comment. I <3 comments.

I would like to note that pretty much all ilevel 346 items are VERY similar, with slight tweaks of the stats. It's hard to pinpoint which piece comes out as superior in general. Use your own stats as guideline, fill in your weaknesses, and remember you can always reforge. I generally favor parry and mastery in this expansion, for Critical Block and Hold the Line!

Head:

• Helm of the Proud – 2,200 Justice Points. A steep price for a nice helm, offering pure avoidance stats, plus the obligatory meta and normal gem socket.
• Helm of Setesh – Setesh, H Halls of Origination. Very similar to the helm below, but with more strength. If you want more oomph, nice, but it’s pretty much a sidegrade from the rep helm.
• Grinning Fang Helm/Crown of Wings – Revered with Dragonmaw/Wildhammer Clan. Nothing to sneeze at. I find the rep is easy to come by if you do the dailies, and I was just into Honored after finishing Highland quests, so it won’t be a long grind at all.

Neck:

• Elementium Guardian – Jewelcrafting BoE. This has a socket, so it will end up being the highest stamina necklace outside of raids for a while. Unfortunately, it’s not on my server’s horde AH yet, so I will have to coerce my guild’s JCers to buy this, or maybe level the jewelcrafting of my DK.
• Carrier Wave Pendant – Ascendant Lord Obsidius, H Blackrock Caverns. Parry and Mastery, my current favorite combo.
• The Lustrous Eye – 1,250 Justice Points. Mastery, want.
• Mountain’s Mouth – Honored with Guardians of Hyjal. The cheapest, nicest tanking necklace you’ll ever get. Available at level 83. If you have quested in Hyjal, you will actually end up all the way to Revered with those guys, so pick this necklace up at 83 and wear it until you replace it in heroics.

Shoulders:

• Pauldrons of Edward the Odd – BoE World Drop. These will very likely cost a pretty penny if you see them up in the AH. But they are quite sweet indeed. If you are very rich or very lucky, the way to go.
• Earthshape Pauldrons – Drahga Shadowburner, H Grim Batol. Solid stats and a precious blue gem socket.
• Sunburnt Pauldrons – 1,650 Justice Points. Not a fan of the hit, not while I am still struggling to get expertise capped, for example. But that’s what reforging is for!
• Earthshape Pauldrons – Drahga Shadowburner, Grim Batol. No gem socket, and less stat budget, but definitely the best choice before you venture into heroics.
• Pharaoh’s Burial Spaulders – Quest reward for Harrison Jones and the Temple of Uldum. For all you unlucky fellas, just complete the lengthy Uldum quest chain and choose the shoulders as reward.

Back:

• Wrap of the Great Turtle – Exalted with Guardians of Hyjal. I loved that turtle, I really did. Beautiful cloak too.
• Zom’s Electrostatic Cloak – BoE World Drop. Haven’t seen this one around yet, but it’s definitely a shiny cloak. Not quite as shiny as the turtle’s though, so I would probably save my money.
• Twilight Dragonscale Cloak – Leatherworking BoE. It comes with a socket, so it’s a very attractive gear choice if you can find a crafter for it.
• Billowing Cape – Asaad, H Vortex Pinnacle. Attractive stats, and supposedly the easiest heroic out there.
• Cloak of War – Leatherworking BoE. Some leatherworkers seem to craft this to get to 525, so you might get this a lot cheaper than the above cloak. It’s an excellent choice pre-heroic and currently mine, thanks to a donation from a guild crafter. Thanks, Tondo!

Chest:

• Hardened Elementium Bulwark – Blacksmithing BoE. If only you had sockets, oh shiny hauberk. Mat costs are steep, but I shall definitely craft one of those pre-raid, once I can get my hands on Chaos Orbs.
• Beauty’s Plate – Beauty, H Blackrock Caverns. Very attractive stats plus two sockets. If you don’t want to save up for the crafted piece, a nice choice to farm instead.
• Chestplate of the Steadfast – 2,200 Justice Points. Not cheap by any means, that’s a few heroics to run.
• Breastplate of the Witness – Quest reward for Closing a Dark Chapter, Grim Batol. Best pre-heroic choice. Complete Grim Batol on normal and you’ll be the owner of the shiny new chestpiece if you remembered to pick up the quests.

Wrist:

• Sandguard Bracers – Exalted with Ramkahen. Shiny epic bracers obtainable per rep. Just what the doctor ordered. Too bad there’s only one daily for the camel people.
• Shackles of Undeath – Lord Godfrey, H Shadowfang Keep. The new final boss of SFK, I am looking forward to going there, though I hear it’s definitely not that easy. Excitement.
• Armguards of Earthly Light – Isiset, H Halls of Origination. Again, not a fan of the hit this early in content, but I would grab them if they dropped for me.
• Armguards of Earthly Light – Isiset, Halls of Origination. The non-heroic version are the best choice pre-heroic, so good luck. I love the instance, so it’s all good to me.

Hands:

• Fingers of Light – Rajh, H Halls of Origination. Excellent stats, my favorite gloves.
• Numbing Handguards – 1,650 Justice Points. Are they too tight, or why are they numbing? Replacing parry with dodge, they’re almost as good as the above, not a bad purchase at all.
• Gloves of the Greymane Wall – Baron Ashbury, H Shadowfang Keep. See my comments above. A little bit different stat budget. Weaker for lack of mastery, but not bad by any means.
• Fingers of Light – Rajh, Halls of Origination. The best pre-heroic choice.

Waist:

• Hardened Elementium Girdle – Blacksmithing BoE. Definitely crafting this one.
• Belt of the Ferocious Wolf – Exalted with Guardians of Hyjal. This belt is obviously tailored towards DPS, with crit on it, but reforging the crit to an avoidance stat might make this fairly attractive. Especially as this belt has a gem socket.
• Girdle of the Mountains – 1,650 Justice Points. All avoidance, all the time.
• Sand Dune Belt – Augh, H Lost City of the Tol’vir.
• Belt of Guardianship – World Drop. This would be the best pre-heroic choice, and it shares exactly the same stats as the non-heroic Sand Dune Belt. Which obviously drops off Augh in regular Lost City of the Tol’vir.

Legs:

• Triton Legplates – Neptulon’s Cache, H Throne of the Tides.
• Greaves of Splendor – 2,200 Justice Points
• Stone-Wrapped Greaves – Honored with Earthen Ring. Best pre-heroic pants, and you can get them at level 83. A steal. My biggest hurdle was actually finding their quartermaster, as I hadn’t quested in Vash’jr.

Feet:

• Boots of Sullen Rock/Gryphon Rider’s Boots – Exalted with Dragonmaw/Wildhammer Clan. Very strong boots, well worth the rep grind!
• Baron Silverlaine’s Greaves – Baron Silverlaine, H Shadowfang Keep
• Ramkahen Front Boots – Quest Reward for completing Lost City of the Tol’vir. Certainly the most easy to obtain, though I personally find Lost City the most challenging of the level 85 instances.

Rings:

• Elementium Moebius Band – Jewelcrafting BoE. Solid ring with a gem socket, so find yourself a Jewelcrafter!
• Ring of Three Lights – Siamat, H Lost City of the Tol’vir.
• Felsen’s Ring of Resolve – Revered with Therazane. Felsen means rock in German, and that ring will help you be a rock for your groups. One of the easier rep grinds, so Revered is easy to obtain if you have quested in Deepholm.
• Red Rock Band – Revered with Ramkahen. A ring that can be used both by DPS and prot warriors, as all can use the stats on them. If you can’t get your hands on one of the above, not a bad choice.
• Temple Band – Zone Drop BoE, Halls of Origination. I have seen this ring sold on the AH for 500 to 650 gold. Certainly an option if you don’t feel like rep grinding or running regular instances.

Trinkets:

• Leaden Despair – High Priestess Azil, H Stonecore. Nummy stamina, and an effect that might save your bacon when the going gets tough. Not bad at all!
• Za’brok’s Lucky Tooth – Quest reward for Four Heads are better than none, Twilight Highlands. The number 2 choice for stamina fans, and it’s a quest reward!
• Porcelain Crab – Mindbender Ghur’sha, H Throne of the Tides.
• Impetuous Query – Zone Drop BoE, Lost City of the Tol’vir. Snag it up in the AH if you see it. Not only are the stats quite nice, the on-use will also make it seem that you are Bladestorming all over the place. I love it.

Weapons:

• Elementium Fang – High Priestess Azil, H Stonecore. The most attractive pre-raid weapon is a sword. I am a disappointed orc, I tell ya. Stop catering to humans! *waves her campaigning signs around*
• Mace of Transformed Bone – Erudax, H Grim Batol.
• Axe of the Eclipse – Altairus, H Vortex Pinnacle. The lines are blurry between tank and DPS gear these days, and this axe might serve a dual-wielding DK as well as a prot warrior, especially if you reforge the hit for missing expertise or avoidance.
• Mace of the Gullet/Dragonscorn Mace – Quest reward for Fury Unbound/Narkrall, the Drake Tamer, Twilight Highlands. Best pre-heroic weapon, a very nice quest reward.

Shield:

• Blockade’s Lost Shield – World Drop BoE. Named after Blockade, a player with a collection of shields. What an honor to have a shield named after you. I think I would pee myself if there was ever a Kadomi item. Not that that’s gonna happen, but a girl can dream! Anyway, extremely excellent stats on this one, so good luck with the drop. It’s gonna be pricey on the AH.
• Elementium Earthguard – Blacksmithing BoE. That’s a fine looking shield and the mats aren’t too bad at all, requiring only one Chaos Orb.
• Shield of the Four Grey Towers – 950 Justice Points.
• Shield of the Iron Maiden – Rom’ogg Bonecrusher, H Blackrock Caverns. The two shields are nearly identical, so I would probably save the Justice Points for something else.
• Twilight Mirrorshield/Truthbreaker Shield – Quest reward for Traitor’s Bait/A Villain Unmasked, Twilight Highlands (turns in in Orgrimmar/Stormwind). Best pre-heroic option, and of course also easiest to obtain.

Ranged:

• Thundercall – Asaad, H Vortex Pinnacle. Blizzard has heard our QQ and finally added this weapon to the actual loot tables in-game. It’s been floating around all game databases for a while, and now with 4.0.6 we can finally yank it out of Asaad’s hands. Hopefully. Good luck!
• Muffled Blunderbuss/Silenced Blunderbuss – Quest reward for Dark Assassins in Twilight Highlands. The best and only option for the ranged slot for prot warriors. Where are the shiny engineering guns or anything else for that slot?

And I am done. That’s a long list. Consider this Kadomi’s Christmas present for tanks if you didn’t already sort out gear for yourself.

This is part 1 of my series of ‘How to’ for the new Cataclysm dungeons. This will be about the normal versions only. I might post an updated version once we get to Heroic, depending on different things are. I hope they will be!

Instance: Blackrock Caverns, level 80-81, average ilevel required 226.

How to get there: Breadcrumb quest from Mount Hyjal, at 43, 28. Quest giver is Finkle Einhorn, and he gets you a ride on a mole machine. Otherwise, travel to Searing Gorge or Burning Steppes, head towards the meeting stone and run downwards to discover the instance entrance.

Notable trash:
Mobs here do not hit that hard, so BRC is actually a very gentle introduction to Cataclysm pulls. Crowd Control can make pulls a lot easier, so it’s a great opportunity to actually get used to CC again. Most useful will be forms of humanoid CC, and in the latter parts of the instance a warlock’s Banish can be very useful. Most trash pulls contain casters, so make sure to utilize Heroic Throw, Spell Reflect and even line of sight pulls to cluster the mobs towards you.

Bosses:

Rom’ogg Bonecrusher – This ogre is a quite fun start towards seeing interesting boss mechanics in Cataclysm.

Abilities:

• Quake, an AoE ability that will cause damage to everyone in the party. To avoid it, move out of the dust cloud underneath your feet immediately.
• Wounding Strike, a Mortal Strike ability that will reduce healing on the tank
• The Skullcracker, which he will cast after he has done a magnetic pull of all group members, and chained them in Chains of Woe. The chains can and must be targeted immediately and burst down before the cast finishes. Run out and live! If you don’t manage to kill the chains, it is a wipe.

When pulling him, make sure you have pulled back all of the trash groups in the front half of the room. There are a couple patrolling mobs that wander from group to group. As soon as you pull the boss, he will call for help, and any trash left alive to hear the call will add to the fight.

Notable tank loot:
Shield of the Iron Maiden – Oh yeah. Let the mastery items roll in. I like the shield model too.

Corla, Herald of Twilight – Netherspite mechanics strike back! Oh golden memories of Karazhan.

Abilities:

• Dark Command, a fear effect. If this hits someone who is standing in one of the beams, make sure that someone else blocks the beam in their turn.
• Death Grip, same thing applies as above. Apparently she pulls people randomly with it.
• Drain Essence. This is the main mechanic of this fight and involves blocking beams. I am getting pleasant Netherspite flashbacks.

Corla will cast two beams, and there will be two cultists alive who want to stand in the beam to get the Evolution debuff. After 100 stacks, the person in the beam will turn into an Evolved Twilight Zealot, a nasty drakonoid that packs quite a punch. The key to this fight is to control the evolution. As tank, pick up Corla and pull her to one of two beams. The other beam will be blocked by ranged DPS or a healer. As the stacks pile up fast, people will need to take turns. They simply need to stand in the beam. As soon as someone moves out, someone else moves in. People must make sure they do not get 100 stacks either, as that will mean they will be mind-controlled for the rest of the fight. It won’t take long until the non-blocked beam turns the cultist into a zealot, which you then immediately pick up to tank. The zealot gets killed first. After the zealot is down, head to the other beam, have it unblocked, kill the second zealot after he has evolved. Kill Corla. Win! What also works is that you block both beams and simply kill Corla without zealots, but that won’t be an option on heroic, so you can already practice the proper strategy in this normal dungeon.

Notable tank loot:
absolutely nothing to see here. Boo!

Karsh Steelbender – Here’s where you control if this is a wipe or success!

Abilities:

• Quicksilver Armor. Reduces all damage by 99%. If this stays on, this could be a loooong fight.
• Superheated Quicksilver Armor. Stacks, increasing damage on him by 5% per stack. Melee attacks on him cause fire damage.
• Cleave. Your average Cleave, do not want anyone but the tank in front of him.

First, you have to pull the two Conflagrations back to the ramp, one by one. If Quicksilver mobs add, pick them up as well. The Conflagrations are no joke and deal a lot of party damage. Once the Conflagrations are down, you can move onto the bad boy. Make sure people are aware to not stand on the circular grate ever, because everytime Karsh gets the Quicksilver Armor buff again, a Wall of Fire will go up. Now, as soon as you Charge in, you have to pull Karsh into the pillar of flame at the center of the room. Every second he stands in that pillar, he gets a stack of Superheated Quicksilver Armor and you can actually do damage to him. However, with every stack, he will cause increasing AoE fire damage to the whole group that cannot be avoided. You will not be able to stand in the pillar indefinitely. I found that 3-5 stacks are ideal, so please do not linger too long in the pillar. Pull him out, and as soon as Superheated Quicksilver Armor runs out, you pull him back in. Rinse and repeat. I will have to admit that we wiped quite a bit here the first time as I had to learn how long is too long. 3-5 seconds are not a long time at all, I tell ya.

Notable tank loot:
nothing in particular, though there are two good upgrades for plate DPS. But for tanking specifically, nada.

Beauty – Not the puppies! They are making me kill puppies!

Abilities:

• Berserker Charge. This angry dog momma will charge a random player and deal a good chunk of damage with it.
• Flamebreak. Causing fire damage to everyone within 10 yards. Means all ranged should be a good distance away. Does a knockback.
• Magmaspit. Fire debuff on a random target, with a DoT effect. Do not dispel, it’ll make them explode!
• Terrifying Roar. Your average fear effect.

Beauty is a corehound momma with four puppies. Three of them are in the front of the room, the last one is far behind her, with the name Runty. If you kill Runty, she will enrage, so we can leave one soon to be orphaned puppy alive. . The other puppies can be pulled individually to the entrance of the room. Tank them against a wall, strafe out of the magma puddles. No one but the tank should be in front of the little ones. Once the three front puppies are dead, you can pull her. As Beauty does a knockback, you will want to have your back against something solid. There’s a rock on the left side of the room that I use for that. As warrior, use Berserker Rage to break the fear, and move back to your regular position. Mostly tank and spank.

Notable tank loot:
Beauty’s Plate – A tanking chest with parry and mastery. As Spinks noticed as well, parry is very predominant on early Cataclysm tank drops. Not a bad chest!

Ascendant Lord Obsidius – a boss that requires kiting. Do people remember what that is?

Abilities:

• Stone Blow. 150% melee damage and a knockdown. I hate knockdowns.
• Thunderclap. Around 12k damage to people around him, slows movement speed. Why does my Thunderclap not hurt like that?
• Twilight Corruption. Magic debuff, a dot that does 4k per tick. Dispel!

The major mechanic of this fight are the two Shadows of Obsidius that hang about. You can compare them to the Dark Nuclei in the Blood Prince Council fight of ICC. They have no real aggro table, they will aggro on whoever hit them last. If they are in the vicinity of Obsidius, they will reduce healing on their current target. Worst case: tank pulls Obsidius, Thunderclaps, no one ever touches the Shadows, and eventually the tank dies to the healing debuff. So what should happen is that you assign one DPS, ideally a hunter, to simply tag both Shadows and lead them on a merry chase. Obsidius will randomly switch places with one of the shadows and reset aggro, so when that happens, you as tank need to be fast to pick him up, and the kiter needs to be fast to pick up the Shadow again.

Notable tank loot:
Carrier Wave Pendant – a parry/mastery tanking necklace.

Notable Quest Rewards:
Raz’s Breastplate – for the final quest of killing Ascendant Lord Obsidius. Didn’t replace my Cataclysmic Chestguard, but if you had any other WotLK chest, it just might!

Hope you enjoyed! If you have any other special strategies I forgot to share, as always please comment.

Cataclysm is here, and like millions of people I have set out to level to 85. Current progress: level 82, questing in Deepholm. I started in Mt. Hyjal on day 1, to my frustration. The masses, the camping, the named mobs beleaguered by 30+ people, it just wasn’t any fun. Day 2 was highly improved, people had moved on to other zones. I briefly want to mention that I thought Mt. Hyjal was an absolutely fantastic zone. The final event almost beat Battle of Undercity for me, it was just that awesome. I feel bad for everyone who gets ushered in when it’s almost over. Freaking win.

I have my frustrations with professions. I feel like I won’t be able to level my blacksmithing along as I go. I am in Deepholm now, and there’s only Elementium there. But I need Obsidium. This is sub-optimal. Farming the ore is full of frustration at this point. I should do that today, because the crafted gear is quite awesome. Despite having weird things like the Hardened Obsidium Shield that is worn in new and different ways. >.>

I played around with archaeology for a bit, but felt that it was just a tad bit tedious to level. I will work on it later, for sure, but right now other things are more exciting. Like throwing bear cubs at trampolines. ADORABLE. Nothing can go wrong with this plan.

I am actually leveling as fury, which is something I haven’t done since TBC. Most of the quest rewards are actually for DPS classes. There is very little to no tanking plate as quest rewards, and what is there is inferior to what I already have. The DPS gear is something else entirely though. Within five quests I had replaced both my 2H-weapons from ICC-10. At 82, I have replaced nine of my mostly 245-251 DPS epics. On the tanking front, I have replaced my shield with the above mentioned Hardened Obsidium Shield, and won a tanking necklace in Blackrock Caverns. Two pieces replaced, and my health went from 47.8k unbuffed to 62.6k. Holy crap!

I have only run one instance so far, Blackrock Caverns, and totally loved the hell out of it. I thought the bosses were all using very interesting mechanics. They will be kickass on heroic, I hope they make us weep and wipe us over and over. Only with challenge can I get satisfaction. Please, don’t let them nerf stuff! We used CC, mostly Polymorph on a caster, and later an additional Banish on fire elementals. I felt very good about my threat. It was a guild run, everyone was very good about holding DPS until I had gotten some threat moves in. It was great fun. I haven’t had fun like this in an instance for a long time. All my threat doubts, they are gone. For now.

Watch for my little Blackrock Caverns guide and gear list soon. I will write short guides once I have run an instance, for the latecomers.

What have your impressions been? Have I been the only one who loved the hell out of Hyjal? Most of my guild went to Vash’jr instead. Would love to hear how Cataclysm’s been treating everyone.

Cataclysm’s almost here now, mere hours away, and a lot of you are probably itching to be on their way to 85. But even if you are not a power leveler and want to take your time, you might like some info about Cataclysm factions, and their rewards. I checked out which factions might be the most interesting ones for us at 85, so that you know what rep to focus on, if you want to get your gear in order quickly.

Some basic information: Cataclysm rep epics have item level 359, and the rare gear has 346. I am assuming that to get into heroics, you will need at least full 346 gear. The rep vendors also have lower item level gear (333, level 83), so I will mention them as well for completion’s sake.

Neutral factions:

Earthen Ring:

• Arcanum of the Earthen Ring – our tanky head enchant. Requires Revered.
• Stone-Wrapped Greaves – Level 83 legs, which look quite lovely for leveling.

Guardians of Hyjal:

• Wrap of the Great Turtle – Very nice tank cloak. Oodles of stamina, dodge, mastery, armor. What’s not to love? Available at Exalted
• Mountain’s Mouth – A level 83 tanking necklace available at Honored

Ramkahen:

Cat people in Uldum, whee. Can I just say that I am so freaking excited about Uldum and hope it matches the awesomeness of all other things Titan-related?

• Sandguard Bracers – Hooray, bracers you can get for rep. Bracers got no love in WotLK, so seeing those makes me happy. Available at Exalted.
• Red Rock Band – not necessarily a tank item, as the stats will also be nice for DPS. If you are pressed for expertise, worth a look! Available at Revered.

Therazane:

As lovely as Princess Theradras in Maraudon, we get to deal with the mother matriarch of Earth in Deepholm. Of course it’s understandable why we all start reputation with that faction at Hated, after all we have killed one of her relatives time and again. Therazane is comparable to Sons of Hodir, you need to unlock the reputation by doing a quest chain, and they reward you with shoulder enchants, and rings.

• Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz – at Exalted
• Felsen’s Ring of Resolve – at Revered
• Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz – at Honored

Faction-specific:

There are two faction-specific groups on each side. They have identical rewards, just renamed, so nothing new here. I will list horde and alliance items both.

Dragonmaw Clan/Wildhammer Clan

• Boots of Sullen Rock/Gryphon Rider’s Boots – available at Exalted.
• Grinning Fang Helm/Crown of Wings – available at Revered. Meta socket, dodge and expertise, a pretty nice looking helmet.

Hellscream’s Reach/Baradin’s Wardens

• Mirror of Broken Images/Mirror of Broken Images – These two Tol Barad factions have five different trinkets at Exalted. Four of them provide you with 321 mastery as equip bonus, and an on-use. The trinket I listed offers resistance against magic schools, which might be necessary for magic-heavy fights.
• Unsolvable Riddle/Unsolvable Riddle – alternatively we could hype up our agility, along with the 321 mastery. Like Mongoose on crack, I suppose.

So there ya go, your list of gear you can obtain through reputation. My personal order of reputation grinding: Therazane quests as early as possible, Earthen Ring for the head enchant and the legs while leveling, Guardians of Hyjal for the leveling necklace, and then all the others, in the order of what gear I need to replace the most. Your mileage may vary. Hellscream’s Reach probably last. I don’t PvP, and the trinkets don’t knock me off my socks.

Also, I really really badly want a camel mount from the Ramkahen. CAMEL!