N00B!!!

Yes... I'm a n00b...

I mentioned that I had 487 defense on Eld? Actually, it's more like 494... Why?

I got some pants from a quest yesterday which looks like they could be a minor upgrade to my grinding/questing pants. However, when I moused over them, I realised they had tanking stats... On closer inspection, I realised that somewhere along the line, I had mixed up my tanking pants with my grinding pants, wearing my +crit pants while tanking & my +def pants while grinding... Wonderful...

After correcting that mistake, yes, it's official... Eld is uncrittable... Weeee...

(But if anyone asks in-game, I was wearing +crit for the aggro generation... I SWEAR!!!)

Sleepless

What a crazy night...

Great Idea
Heroic Mech run when the daily is for that.

Bad Idea
Heroic Mech run at 2am in the morning...

But, Great Idea > Bad Idea and I leapt at the chance to go... We were definitely not on top of our game (a few wipes here and there) but we finished the thing. So, 6 more badges for Mart and a Nether to boot... The drops were horrid but at least I got a Void Crystal out of it.

Now, if I can get a few more runs under the belt, I should be able to get my first item... :p

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer...

My toons went on a kissing spree and Eld was the first to get lucky with the sprig of Fresh Holly... So, on the way to Nagrand to run the Circle of Blood quest, Eld rode a reindeer with sparkly bits behind...



Eld has been running quests in Shadowmoon Valley and while killing some water elementals with Naraa's help, the pattern for Ragesteel Shoulders dropped. It looks like it's something worth making for my grinding set, but the urgency is not there... When I continue my blacksmith grinding, I'll make one of those. Till then, tanking gear takes priority...

I also finally got round to planning and actually training my pets properly. Zeph is now a grinding/PvE pet and Frostie is the PvP pet... It was also during this time to my horror that I have yet to learn Prowl 3... So off to STV I went, tamed a Jaguero Stalker, who also came with Cower 5 (yeah....) and quite fortunately, learnt the skill almost immediately.

Check!

After mindless farming of PvPs, Primals...

Mart's PvP wrists, with socketed gem & the +15 spell dmg enchant? Check!



Eld's Gun, with the signature tank gem, Solid Star of Elune? Check!



Mart's Engineering Mount? Check!



OK... Confession... I farmed 22 Primal Fires... I gave up after that & bought the remaining four from the AH... :p

Next on the list is to start on those quests for Eld's gear. Have to try to get in the run on Crypts and Old Hillsbrad as well...

All Your Bases Belong to Us

Had an amazing AV game last night. Horde absolutely cleaned the house, burning all four Bunkers, holding all four towers, capped both mines and EVERY graveyard. Yup, we owned everything on the map! The only blemish was the loss of Galv, but hey, that's a pretty amazing achievement still. Big props to our D in that game.

Actually, I was really annoyed when someone had capped Snowfall since that & Aid Station were their only graveyards at that time so all the Ally were ressing at Aid Station. BUT they were so inept that we still overran the Aid Station, and capped it. In the end, the Snowfall cap just meant it was even more funny...

I also managed a good run of WSG games, with it being the PvP daily, netting the 20 marks needed for my wrists. In the end, it was a 6 wins with 3 losses run. There were a few turtles, but a few good games, including one where we came back from a 2-0 deficit. One interesting coincidence was this shaman who was in the same WSG as me 6 times in a row! Will still have to run a few more AVs to get the Honor for the gem...

Will now need to monitor the AH for a reasonably priced Veiled Noble Topaz. There were a bunch in there last I checked but the price wasn't right. If not, will need to start looking for a JC in /2. Similarly, will need to start farming the mats for the Spellpower Enchant. Sigh... More Primal Fires... Between this, the gun & the mount, I'm going to need 26 of them! In terms of priority, I'll say this first, then the gun, then the mount...

Tanking Upgrades

More premature searches, but just in case I need to know... :)

This is a great list of gear to look at. It also made me re-look at some of my original choices, such as the Myrmidon's Headdress instead of Felsteel Helm.

Bought using Badges of Justice in order of Importance
Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx (Wrist - 35 Badges)
Iron-tusk Girdle (Waist - 60 Badges)
Unwavering Legguards (Legs - 75 Badges)
Slikk's Cloak of Placation (Back - 35 Badges)
Sabatons of the Righteous Defender (Feet - 60 Badges)
Bonefist Gauntlets (Hands - 60 Badges)
Faceguard of Determination (Head - 50 Badges)
Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian (Chest - 75 Badges)
Necklace of the Juggernaut (Neck - 25 Badges)
Ring of Unyielding Force (Ring - 25 Badges)
Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600 (Trinket - 41 Badges)

Heroic Drops
Spaulders of Dementia (Shoulders - Talon King Ikiss, Sethekk Halls)

One more option for neck is the Brooch of Deftness, which costs 35 badges. Expertise looks to be a nice defining stat, so it might be worth giving up the avoidance stats in Necklace of the Juggernaut.

For weapon, I'm still undecided about Sun-Eater, which drops off Pathaleon the Calculator in Mechanar. The avoidance is nice, and the 20 DPS increase over Grom'tor's Charge is good threat, probably worth the slight dip in Stamina as well as the loss of the racial Expertise with Axe. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I suppose.

The rest would probably need not be replaced. BUT, that's a heck of a lot of badges...

On the off-chance I go to Karazhan, the following are some stuff to look out for. They'll replace the Badge items.

Head: Warbringer Greathelm (Prince Malchezaar)
Neck: Barbed Choker of Discipline (Maiden of Virtue)
Shoulder: Mantle of Abrahmis (Netherspite)
Hands: Warbringer Handguards (The Curator) *Note that these are only better if the 2-piece bonus comes into play
Feet: Boots of Elusion (Thrash Mobs)
Ring: Violet Signet of the Great Protector (Rep Reward: Violet Eye - Exalted)
Ring: Shermanar Great-Ring (Shade of Aran)
Trinket: Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch (Moroes)

Tanking Enchantments

Over the weekend, bought the Felsteel Helm and Felsteel Gloves from the AH as planned. They were going for cheap, less than 50g each. The mats alone would have costed more.

So, it's time to start considering on enchantments. After digging around, the following looks like a good set of enchantments for a warrior tank.

Head: Glyph of the Defender [+16 Defense Rating, +17 Dodge Rating] (Requires Keepers of Time - Revered)
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Warding [+15 Dodge Rating, +10 Defense Rating] (Requires Aldor - Exalted)
Back: Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility [+12 Agi]
Chest: Enchant Chest - Exceptional Health [+150 Health]
Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Fortitude [+12 Sta]
Hand: Heavy Knothide Armor Kit [+10 Sta] (Crafted)
Legs: Clefthide Leather Armor [+30 Sta, +10 Agi] (Crafted)
Feet: Enchant Boots - Fortitude [+12 Sta]

Main Hand: Enchant Weapon - Potency [+20 Str]
Shield: Enchant Shield - Major Stamina [+18 Sta]

I've gone with Potency over Greater Agility for the Weapon Enchant because I think I'm not really at the stage where I've got that much avoidance to make it worth stacking. The extra Str will contribute with some Shield Block and more AP for more threat.

I've also stacked the Stamina enchants for more survivability. When my gear improves, I'll start replacing with Agility enchants.

Prot Spec here I com...

OK, with the decision made, some adjustments will need to be made...

With Devastate requiring a 1-handed weapon, Lunar Crescent is of course out of the picture now. I've been toying with the idea of making The Planar Edge anyway for farming purposes (& to get that 1 Blacksmithing point) but the mats for that are something ridiculous... Granted, it's a really good one-handed weapon, but still...

I'll be re-channeling the gathered mats for Lunar Crescent into making the Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer, luckily, still have the Primal Nether in the bank. Will also need to make a start on the quest for the rewards that I need. I've starting grinding the PvP for the Honour needed for the shield.

For the rest of the gear, I think I'll need to identify some interim pieces for those that require drops. Sometimes, you just ain't lucky...

Shoulders:
Warchief's Mantle (Quest Reward: Return to Andormu, Caverns of Time)
Nexus-Guard's Pauldrons (Quest Reward: Success, Netherstorm)

Back:
Cloak of Eternity (Crafted - Tailoring)
Cloak of the Valiant Defender (Quest Reward: Ar'kelos the Guardian, Netherstorm)

Ring:
Protector's Mark of Redemption (Quest Reward: Dissension Among the Ranks, Shadowmoon Valley)
Ring of the Stonebark (Quest Reward: Exorcising the Trees, Blade's Edge Mountains)

Trinket:
Dabiri's Enigma (Quest Reward: Dimensius the All-Devouring, Netherstorm)

Rather than farm for the pattern, I'll probably buy the Felsteel Helm and Felsteel Gloves off the AH.

The final question is the timing of the respec. Staying as Arms makes the PvP easier, so I think I'll try to stay as Arms for as long as possible. However, when there are more calls for instance runs, then I'll respec.

New PvP Gear

Well, most of the focus has been on the new Arena Season 1 gear being available for honour and I've already looked into that. I sort of missed the new honour gear being made available as well until I read some discussion on it in the forum.

So......

Warlock:
Vindicator's Dreadweave Cuffs (11,794 Honour Points, 20 WSG Marks)
(to be gemmed with Veiled Noble Topaz)

Hunter:
Vindicator's Chain Bracers (11,794 Honour Points, 20 WSG Marks)
(to be gemmed with Delicate Living Ruby, slot bonus is not worth it)
Vindicator's Chain Girdle (17,850 Honour Points, 40 AB Marks)
Vindicator's Chain Sabatons (17,850 Honour Points, 40 EotS Marks)
Vindicator's Pendant of Triumph (15,300 Honour Point, 10 EotS Marks)
Sergeant's Heavy Cloak (7,548 Honour Points, 20 AB Marks)

Nothing for the tanking warrior...

The question remains if I should buy these now, since it seems like they will be upgraded as the seasons progress. Nonetheless, the lock cuffs look good enough to buy for now anyway...

Looks like there'll be a lot of PvP happening from now on...

Eld's Gear

I posted in the warrior forum looking for advise on Prot spec grinding and weapons, seeing as how The Planar Edge is not that great a tanking weapon. I was considering switching to Swordsmith for Fireguard. The following is a reply I got which was really insightful, a rarity in the wow forums.

Well, given I am human, the Fireguard is better over Gromtor's Charge, however, in your case, I would not make the effort for a couple of reasons.

Axe specialization for an Orc is key, stick with the Axe. Gromtor's charge works in
your favor in two ways. One, specialization means you have 5 points in favor of
reducing parry/block. Two, Defense. Given you are arms, your gear probably
hasn't seen a lot of 'pro-defense' and you want to build that up to get
Uncrittable as well as getting serious stamina gear as your expectations will
now be about taking hits and trying to avoid them.

You will also pick up other weapons that will have better defense and stamina, like King's Defender in Chess Event in Karazhan. Now unlike my situation, I am stacked up a bit more on defense, in the 510-512 range for avoidance as well as not fully stacking up on stamina, but taking advantage of agility for dodge and armor. The time it will take you to become a Master Swordsmith will not be worthwhile to get
Fireguard/Blazeguard, more so on the fact if your Tanking gear is defense starved. This is also taking into consideration you putting 5 points into Anticipation to get the extra defense.

Right now, your main focus should be the following:

Stamina - Baseline, get above 10k, 11 to 12k would be better.
Defense - 490 minimum
Avoidance stats - Work on getting Dodge close to 18%, Parry to 15% and Block to 19% overall, pre-buffed. You will find tanking items that will bolster areas.
Strength - Bolsters your attack power which you will need for threat and helps with block value
Agility - Bolsters your crit chance, your dodge and armor which helps in mitigation and threat generation

While +hit would help a lot, your focus is going to be less about worrying about hitting a lot and more about just taking a crapton of hitting or avoiding it. Most fights will involve more about you taking hits, even as an offtank, because most of the mobs are now hitting upwards to 3k+, so more stamina and avoidance better.

On the solo side, I have favored Dual Wielding and DPS gear that is a little higher on +hit and +crit ability. The reason is due to faster rage generation and dumping ability. With fast weapons, in my case, a Blazeguard and Fireguard, Devastate, rend, thunderclap soloing hasn't been a problem with most 70-72 mobs. Elite wise, you will be better off in prot and defensive stance to mitigate the blows and also needing someone to back you up, but normal ones, I was able to fight 3 melee types consecutively with some decent DPS gear.

I don't favor the 2handed weapons mostly because of the slow speed in order to get the big hits and on a miss, that means much more waiting to get rage. Dual Wielding, you can afford a miss or two and still generate rage from another blow. But you also have to have 'fast' weapons. Given Planar Edge is a 2.7 weapon, for main hand, hopefully you will have a fast 2nd hand weapon to do some strikes with the offhand. Between 2handed and your planar edge, it is a toss up which would be better in your case.

Enchantments Listing

This is a nice listing of enchantments arranged by slots from Wowwiki. Will be useful in planning of enchantments.

Magical 490

The number to aim for when talking about Defense is 490. At 490 Defense, you can (almost) no longer be 'crit' by any mob/boss up to three levels higher than you, which will cover all heroics and raid mobs and bosses.

Generally, you have 350 Defense out of the box, and 20 Defense skill from the Anticipation talent (for both Warrior and Pally Prot trees) so that means you need +120 Defense from gear, which translates to 285 Defense Rating.

If you add up all gear from the list for warrior, you will have 308 Defense Rating, which is an 'overkill'. Of course, this doesn't take into account enchantments and gems. So, it's something to keep in mind to balance out together with the enchants.

The following are enchants that will go on (and can safely be counted towards the 285 required) mainly because there is nothing better to go on that slot.

Head: Glyph of the Defender [+16 Defense Rating, +17 Dodge Rating] (Requires Keepers of Time - Revered)
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Warding [+15 Dodge Rating, +10 Defense Rating] (Requires Aldor - Exalted)

So, the final number? 258 Defense Rating. Which means we'll have a fair amount of leeway to play with in terms of gear to get more Stamina and Avoidance.

Gathering of Tanking Gear

As Eld creeps towards 70, thought I should list out the quests I need to be aware of (with the tanking rewards) so I don't miss them.

Mana-Tombs
Someone Else's Hard Work Pays Off (Feet)

Shadow Labyrinth
The Soul Devices (Bracers)

Shadowmoon Valley
The Cipher of Damnation (Axe)
Dissension Among the Ranks (Ring)

Netherstorm
How to Break into Arcatraz (Waist) - Requires Botanica & Mechanar runs

Will probably look at grinding of PvP for the Season 1 Arena shield (15,000 Honour Points & 20 EotS Marks). Probably less effort than the Exalted Sha'tar shield...

Epic Belt

Had my first full Heroics run, in Slave Pens and won the Nether with an amazing roll of 100! :)

I ended up buying the Primal Fires on the AH so I've got another upgrade!



You can also see the effect of the new add-on to change the fontset. Needs a bit of experimentation but for now, this font is a vast improvement over the default...

Epic Helm

Finally got a Nether; it dropped of Warp Splinter in normal Bot... Since no one else needed, I finally got my engineering helm made... :)

Woot!

Big night for Mart tonight...

First, managed to get the ring off the Headless Horseman (The Horseman's Signet Ring)... If I had missed it, it wouldn't have been too bad since there is an identical ring but this one with the pumpkin icon is just too cool...

Then, I managed to buy the pattern for the Girdle... Sure it set me back by 1000G but it's not like I had something to do with the money... :)

Now, I really need to get to those Nethers...

Season 1 Arena Gear

With Season 3 Arena coming, Season 1 Arena gear will be available for 'sale' with Honour Points and the usual trinkets.

The problem with Arena gear is needing a settled group to do this with and that's not always possible... With Honour Points, at least you could grind those out in BGs. Some stuff that I might want to start saving for...

For Lock:
Gladiator's Spellblade (25,200 Honour Points, 20 EotS Marks)

For Hunter:
Gladiator's Chain Helm (14,500 Honour Points, 30 AV Marks)
Gladiator's Chain Armor (14,500 Honour Points, 30 AB Marks)
Gladiator's Chain Gauntlets (10,500 Honour Points, 20 AV Marks)
Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow (27,000 Honour Points, 40 AV Marks)

For Warrior & Paladin:
Gladiator's Shield Wall (15,000 Honour Points, 20 EotS Marks)

2.3 Badges Highlights

Just to keep an eye on some of the stuff that I should be targetting for 2.3 Badge of Justice turn-ins.

Trinket (75 Badges)
Battlemaster's Audacity

Higher +dmg on equip than the Icon of the Silver Crest. It's good to pair together as both 'Use' abilities have different effect, although Audacity is more survival based, rather than boost to damage. Quagmirran's Eye is still nice, but the difference in +dmg might suggest that this and the Icon are likely to be the two trinkets.

Edit: This is the new PvP trinket. It can also be bought for 30,000 Honour Points and 40 AV Marks

Wand (25 Badges)
Carved Witch Doctor's Stick

Well, better than my current wand, so pretty much a given. The boost isn't that much so might KIV until I've upgraded the rest of the gear.

Hands (60 Badges)
Studious Wraps

Better than the Jaedenfire Gloves of Annihilation so easy decision.

For the rest (mainly the Wrist, Waist & Legs), I need to read up more on how Spell Haste works and if it is beneficial to locks. The off-hand looks to lose too much +dmg compared to the Orb so probably forgo that. The back is a PVP cloak so will skip that.

Edit: After looking at Spell Haste, will be giving the Wrist, Waist and Legs a miss.

Staves

Not really a fan of them, since the +dmg from a Main Hand/Off-hand combo will always be higher (at the cost of raw stats).

However, the following might be useful in their appropriate circumstances

Before getting the Off-hand from Heroic badges:
Terokk's Shadowstaff (Sethekk Halls (H), Talon King Ikiss)

Before getting the dagger from Prince:
Staff of Infinite Mysteries (Karazhan, The Curator)

Heroics and Kara Upgrade

Did the research to see which heroic instance contains upgrades for Mart...

Waist: Glyph-Lined Sash (Mana-Tombs (H), Nexus-Prince Shaffar)
Ring: Cobalt Band of Tyrigosa (Mana-Tombs (H), Nexus-Prince Shaffar)
Trinket: Quagmirran's Eye (Slave Pens (H), Quagmirran)

Not much there...

The Cobalt Band is identical in stats to the ring from the Headless Horseman (as it was on the PTR). If I get that ring, then this ring is not that enticing...

The Girdle is also superior to the Sash, but no sign of the pattern yet.

Either way, time to run Shadow Labs to get Revered with Lower City for the key to Heroic Mana Tombs and time to start looking for Heroic Slave Pens runs.

The following gems (if they drop will be good as well)
Yellow/Red: Shining Fire Opal (The Mechanar (H), Mechano-Lord Capacitus, Pathaleon the Calculator or Nethermancer Sepethrea)
Blue/Red: Glowing Tanzanite (The Black Morass (H), Chrono Lord Deja, Temporus or Aeonus)

Similarly, the following are upgrades from Kara.

Back: Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran (Moroes)
Wrists: Bands of Nefarious Deeds (Maiden of Virtue)
Legs: Trial-Fire Trousers (Romulo, The Crone or The Big Bad Wolf)

Main Hand: Nathrezim Mindblade (Prince Malchezaar)

The following are good for the +hit on raids
Neck: Brooch of Unquenchable Fury (Moroes)
Back: Ruby Drape of the Mysticant (Prince Malchezaar)