Tank like a girl

I have been relatively quiet about what’s currently going on with me in-game, but it’s time to break the silence. Don’t want you guys to think I quit playing or something. The name of my blog is a curse in a way, because I do not spend all of my game-time tanking. It’s what I like best (most days), but it’s just not my only focus in-game.

Alts, a discourse:

• I’ve always had alts. No matter what time, I always have to spend time leveling a character to max-level. It’s not that I love questing so much. Especially in Northrend, repeating quests has very little charm. What I do love about leveling is learning to master a new class. The slow progress through levels, training new skills, becoming better and better. Trying different builds. That’s what I love. And so I will keep leveling and leveling, until a WoW killer comes along.
• My current leveling project is a Death Knight. Oh no, not another death-tard! Armory Mining has shown us that Azeroth is filled with DKs and Paladins these days. Rogues and warlocks are a dying breed. Usually I am a defender of the underdog, playing the least played race and least played classes in my guild (orc, warrior and shaman respectively). Just this once, I wanted the easy life. Kinda like the hunter I deleted at 43, because the easy life was a bit too easy for me. Also, I like playing classes that I have seen played not so great, to see if it’s the class or the player (usually it’s the player). So here’s my DK, rocking the craptastic Northrend quest greens, slowly but steadily leveling: Hélle. I originally rolled her as a pair to do the DK starter quests with my partner, and her DK is called Hiwater. Get it? We are teh funnay! Anyway. My partner detests leveling and questing and will likely never have more than one max-level character, ever. I am on my own now!

  Leveling through Outlands was deceptively easy, but in Northrend the cold reality set in. Unless I am doing something really wrong, you cannot kill elites anywhere as easily as a protection warrior can. Squishy in plate, that’s me. Other than that, it’s super-fast leveling, and with the help of TourGuide + Jame’s addon for TG, I just blast through. 80 is not far away. Already I am making Titansteel bars every day, to be fully prepared. Another reason I really enjoy leveling is the gear game at the end. I already have a gear plan for her. I intend to stay blood for DPS, but want to give unholy a whirl as well. I think she’ll be able to do great.

• There’s also such a thing as primary alt, and that spot is firmly held by my shaman. In fact I just wrote a Naxxramas healing guide for my guild. I have done more Naxx clears as healer than as tank. I am proud that I can strongly contribute to 2-man healing in Naxx-10. I love it that I outheal other healers on Patchwerk. I <3 my shaman. Her gear is pretty much perfect for Naxx-10, with maybe 2 upgrades left, and I can't wait to progress with her. She's also very strong in heroics. She's kinda everything I ever wanted in a healer, more than my paladin ever was. Playing a tank makes me a better healer, because I know when to expect spikes, what pulls are hairy, and when I can afford to DPS instead of hanging in the back. I have her ready to spec elemental, with a gear set that finds me hit-capped, and yet I haven't done it, because I want to heal and not DPS with her, much like I want to tank and not DPS with Kadomi. For me, the 'holy trinity' of MMOs still comes in 3 characters.
• I am already contemplating what character to level next. It should be ranged DPS. As I am full on my main server, I have a couple options. Should I level my 73 warlock, or my 72 boomkin? Should I go back and level the 55 mage I haven’t touched in 1.5 years? Or my 43 shadow priest? Ah, decisions. It’s hard. I have no clue. My other leveling project is on my German realm, but very much on the backburner. I re-rolled a warrior to level efficiently. She’s 20 and then my DK started distracting me. I want to finish that guide though, and I really want to try Arms. I wish she was on Bronzebeard, and I really wish Blizzard would raise the character limit to…15 or so. I have a hard time playing on other servers. I keep toying with the idea of joining a bunch of old friends on Doomhammer, but they’re mostly on Arizona time, so that likely wouldn’t work out either. Aaaah.

So, how about my gentle readers? Do you enjoy leveling? Do you have alts? No time for alts? Hybrid specs to be tank/healer/DPS all in one? Share!

In just a couple weeks, I will have my one-year anniversary as a blogger. It’s been a fabulous ride, though it has its ups and downs. It’s tough at times to come up with new content, but I am hanging in there, knowing that some of my regular readers will enjoy reading it, regardless of me raiding or theorycrafting or just rambling.

2009 has been a strange year if you look at the WoW blogosphere. Some of the biggest names in WoW blogging have closed their doors, including BigRedKitty and Resto4Life, but also guys like Skeleton Jack, who wrote my favorite DK blog. It makes me determined to keep going, even though the WotLK WoW is so different to TBC WoW in many ways.

The past couple of days has seen a bunch of posts from several WoW bloggers that show the vast dichotomy that currently exists. On the one hand, you have the professionals. There’s Matticus’ guide to blogging, who at times almost feels commercial with his ventures. Sometimes his blog feels less like a blog and more like a brand, and it’s all over the place. Incidentally the same day, Lassira, another (former) writer of the ubiquitous WoW.com, formerly known as WoWInsider, posted her commandments how to not suck at blogging. I vehemently disagree with some of her ideas. I only have to look at the post I wrote that has the highest ever comment count: Red Sword of Hotness. This much coveted drop touched a nerve with people. Gear and progress can do that. And it doesn’t make blogs boring. It all depends on how it’s written. A post that says ‘I got Last Laugh, mwah.’ might be boring. A post that tells an exciting story that finds you holding Last Laugh in your shaking hands at the end, now that sounds pretty neat to me. Not everyone comes to blogs to read the latest professional guide about classes. If I can find any fault with the two blogging guides above, is that they take things a bit too seriously. I am not writing to make money.

And so you have bloggers like Saresa and Leafshine, who present their views about WoW blogging, which are very different and a lot more relaxed than the above’s. Who’s right and who’s wrong? I enjoyed reading both sides of the dichotomy, and I fall somewhat in the middle. I try to come up with quality posts about tanking, solid stuff that’s decently written. I try to entertain with journals about my time spent in WoW, and that has just as many responses as my guides do. There’s a place for both in the world. I love reading Veneretio and Yakra as much as I love reading Naissa’s latest stories. There’s room for both. There should be. Every blogger wants to be read, and there used to be a time that I fretted over the visitor count, but life’s easier when you don’t. As long as people keep commenting and keep reading, life’s good.

That said, I have often pondered tossing out a request for new posts out there, for my target audience: not the tanks that are working on bosses deep in Ulduar, but the tanks that maybe just picked up protection, people who wish to start tanking and could use pointers. If you have any requests, send me a mail via my contact form, and I’ll see what I can do.

Lately, I haven’t done much raiding on Kadomi. I got my Naxxramas achievement and then spent lots of time futzing around with Argent Tournament. Which I am officially bored of now. Even IoQD was entertaining beyond that. The Tournament got old very quickly. It got me Exalted with Darkspear Trolls, so now I have me some raptors in my stable of mounts. One faction to go til Ambassador, but I am in no hurry to suck up to fancy blood elves.

I usually do my Sholazar dailies, the fishing daily, the cooking daily. Dutifully picked up my Oracles egg. But no more because I got my lucky break.

Isn’t she a beauty? I really love flying around on her, and /mountspecial is pretty fun too. I from that point on dutifully finished my Oracles rep til I got the achievement, and unceremoniously dumped them to become a fan of the crazy Frenzyheart. A mercenary is me!

My dear friend and fellow officer Cariad is heading out to the Arctic for research, like every summer, and it was her wish that our guild should attempt to at least down Flame Leviathan in Ulduar before she leaves for a couple months. I was a bit doubtful how we’d fare, but we have a very solid bunch of players, and our raid group was pretty much almost all of the best people we have. And I got scheduled as tank, which made me happy. After a late start, and a very chaotic beginning, we set off in our vehicles to try the first boss.

I really thought a vehicle fight would be extremely sucky, but I had fun. I was in a siege engine with my partner, and just like in RL, she accused me of being a terrible driver. I think this fight was never in danger of not being a one-shot, it was that easy. Loot pinata, woo!

We moved on to Razorscale next. The first try was pretty terrible, with adds all over the place. The second try we got her to the ground, but it was still kinda messy. The third try had one casualty, me, who ate 42k damage in 2 seconds. Is that normal? Because that was pretty brutal. Also brutal was what the rest of the raid did to her and she ate dust. How awesome is that?

I have to admit to a fatal tank mistake that I did not understand the Fuse Armor mechanics. I actually thought it was Flame Buffet that wears off and we did not properly taunt off each other. I only had 1 stack of Fuse Armor though, and my partner, as bear, lived through six stacks of it. All in all, I felt that a feral druid tank is really a lot more survivable in there. I bit it on the trash before Ignis, e.g., she didn’t. Food for thought.

We did XT-002 Deconstructor next. The first try we had some problems with healing through Lightbombs. The second try…well, a screenshot says more than words:

For a group that only went in to test the waters, we did pretty fabulously, I dare say! No tanking loot at all though, mumble. Ah, but my time will come. On XT-002, I tanked Pummelers. Which was okay. I was disappointed to find out that you cannot taunt them at range, which is just me being spoiled by just about anything being tauntable these days. I was very pleased that I can actually take out a pair of Pummelers without any help, from heart-phase to heart-phase. Maybe that was just lucky. My one frustrating moment was when I was slow to spot a Pummeler. The bear picked it up with Swipe, and no matter what I tried, I could not get it off her. So I eventually gave up, took my lone Pummeler off sulking, and that was that.

We tried Ignis a couple of times, not getting very far with him. However, it gave us a good idea of the encounter, and I am sure next time we’ll get him. I was MTing Ignis, but I think next time I’ll be on adds. Using Concussion Blow on a Construct while in the Scorch will be super-helpful. Veneretio was right, we are very mobile adds-tanks, and I enjoy it as much as handling big bosses.

Next weekend, we’ll try the grand finale of T7 content, Malygos. If we can handle three bosses in Ulduar, Malygos should work. I will likely heal, as this is a one-tank encounter for all that I know, but we’ll see. Getting out of Naxxramas was fabulous, and I can’t wait to see more exciting, new encounters.

It’s been a while since I posted versions I and II of the shopping list (pre-heroic and heroic gear). Ulduar is live, and then there’s the good ol’ Naxx gear, so it’s time to look at the three top pieces of gear for all slots, for the 10-man raider. Before you ask, I won’t make a 25-man list, but Wowraid has comprehensive prot warrior lists that include the 25-mans and their Ulduar hard mode drops. There’s plenty of tanking blogs out there that will run T8.5 content, so I reach out my welcoming arms to those who will remain in T8 content, like me.

To help out beginning raiders in finding upgrades, I will include a minimum of one Naxxramas-10 drop in each category. Also included is badge-gear that can be purchased with Emblems of Valor.

Head:

• Valorous Siegebreaker Greathelm – Mimiron, Ulduar. I am not fully sold on the itemization of this helmet, block rating, huh. Still, a strong piece, as one should expect from the T8 headpiece.
• Ironbark Faceguard – Freya, Ulduar – Now that’s a sweet piece, with plenty of expertise. My gut feeling prefers this hat to the T8 one.
• Thane’s Tainted Greathelm – Four Horsemen, Naxxramas – Easily beats the T7 hat for avoidance, and is your best bet for avoidance fights. Would prefer having it for starting Ulduar.
• Heroes’ Dreadnaught Greathelm – Kel’thuzad, Naxxramas – For me the weakest piece of the T7 set and the part I swap out for bosses. Very heavy on threat stats, so it gets its time to shine when tanking trash or farm content.

Neck:

• Mark of the Unyielding – Kologarn, Ulduar – a beautiful avoidance piece which is a direct upgrade from the Naxxramas necklace listed below.
• Fervor of the Protectorate – Ulduar trash drop – Not really the best itemization for warriors, but if you’re heavily loaded with defense, you might use it as a threat piece. If not, I would pass it to a DK who is interested in tanking.
• Amulet of Autopsy – Heigan, Naxxramas – The smaller version of the Kologarn neck. Armor, str and sta, def and dodge. Not bad.
• Medallion of the Disgraced – Naxxramas Trash – Here’s your warrior threat piece, with some lovely SBV value. Would not recommend for avoidance fights, but it’s lovely for sets heavy on SBV.

Shoulders:

• Valorous Siegebreaker Pauldrons – Thorim, Ulduar – Another hybrid piece, with avoidance and threat stats both, but certainly nothing to sneeze at.
• Valorous Dreadnaught Pauldrons – 60 Emblems of Valor – Still a great piece of gear, with sockets, high dodge and some block rating.
• Shoulderguards of the Solemn Watch – Kologarn, Ulduar – More hybrid shoulders, and definitely weaker than the T8 shoulders, as they are itemized for parry and block rating. They also have no sockets at all. Maybe as a buffer piece until you get the T7.5 or T8 shoulders
• Abomination Shoulderblades – Patchwerk, Naxxramas – The best avoidance shoulders you will get in Naxxramas.
• Heroes’ Dreadnaught Pauldrons – Loatheb, Naxxramas – Last but not least, the T7 shoulders are also decent, the set bonus is great, so hold on to them for the bonus alone.

Back:

• Saronite Animus Cloak – General Vezax, Ulduar – I would consider it a sidegrade to the badge cloak, as it uses parry instead of dodge for avoidance.
• Platinum Mesh Cloak – 25 Emblems of Valor – a very nice cloak that doesn’t cost too much in badges.
• Gale-Proof Cloak Sartharion +1 – The only cloak with a socket, adding some flexibility to the cloak.
• Durable Nerubhide Cape – Leatherworking – Still a fabulous avoidance cloak to head into Ulduar and Naxxramas with, if you have the defense to afford wearing it.
• Cloak of Armed Strife – Maexxna, Naxxramas – This is definitely a threat piece, so is quite nice in a threat set. Would not wear it for progression.

Chest:

• Valorous Siegebreaker Breastplate – Yogg-Saron, Ulduar – The next-to-last boss in Ulduar is hoarding chest tokens, so depending on your progression it might be a while until you see it. Definitely the case for me. Another parry heavy piece, Blizzard expects us to be very high on dodge at this point, I believe. This so far seems to be the only chestpiece that drops in Ulduar-10, which I find very disappointing.
• Heroes’ Dreadnaught Breastplate – 80 Emblems of Heroism/Four Horsemen, Naxxramas – Sockets, dodge, this is definitely a piece to buy with badges unless you get lucky with drops right from the start.
• Massive Skeletal Ribcage – Sapphiron, Naxxramas – Not a bad piece, but I prefer the T7 chest. Also, do not want to look like a DK.

Wrist:

• Flamewatch Armguards – Flame Leviathan, Ulduar – So the loot pinata of Ulduar drops these bracers. Bracers are a tricky piece for protection warriors, so there’s much love for getting shiny new bracers so early in Ulduar.
• Bracers of Dalaran’s Parapets – 60 Emblems of Valor – If you’re having no luck with the above, you can always buy those badge bracers. However, that also depends on your progress in Ulduar as slow progression means slow rate of getting badges.
• Minion Bracers – Naxxramas trash – The only bracers that drop in Naxxramas. I was lucky to get them early on, so cross your fingers every Naxx raid.

Hands:

• Valorous Siegebreaker Handguards – Freya, Ulduar – On top of the avoidance, you get some hit, which is not as good as expertise, but not bad per se.
• Gauntlets of the Iron Furnace – Ignis the Furnace-Master, Ulduar – Armor penetration, wtf? A very strange stat to find on tank gloves, but probably part of the Blizzard drive to make armor penetration attractive. I don’t quite see it. Still, they score higher for avoidance than other gloves, so they might be worth a shot.
• Adamant Handguards – Ulduar trash – The same as the above can be said for these gloves. Higher on survivability, and yet they come with stuff like block rating.
• Heroes’ Dreadnaught Handguards – 60 Emblems of Heroism or Sartharion – One of the first badge purchases of every prot warrior, I would say.

Waist:

• Indestructible Plate Girdle – Blacksmithing – I was on the fence if I should post the blacksmithing gear from Ulduar. The plans drop in Ulduar-25 after all, and this is a 10 man list. However, if you are rich and can find a crafter on your server, that’s the best you can shoot for.
• Stormtempered Girdle – Razorscale, Ulduar
• Waistguard of Living Iron – 40 Emblems of Heroism – A very solid choice, and not significantly worse than the above belts.
• Waistguard of the Tutor – Instructor Razuvious, Naxxramas – Merely listed for completion’s sake, this belt would do well in any SBV set, but is definitely inferior for avoidance.

Legs:

• Gilded-Steel Legplates – Flame Leviathan, Hard Mode, Ulduar – Very heavy on defense, parry and expertise at the cost of 25 strength and a socket compared to T8. If you are ready to tackle hard modes, you’re probably justified with preferring parry because of dodge diminishing returns. I really need to check when DR make dodge less interesting.
• Valorous Siegebreaker Legguards – Hodir, Ulduar – Why we get stuff like SBV on our tier sets, I really do not understand.
• Archaedas’ Lost Legplates – Auriaya, Ulduar – This is for the discerning tank with no defense problems. Tanking pants with no defense at all in their budget, amazing stuff! :O If you can make them work using the yellow socket for extra defense, make it so, because they are pretty amazing, all things considered.
• Valorous Dreadnaught Legguards – 75 Emblems of Valor – T7.5 are still an option, if you cannot get a hold of any of the above before accumulating so many emblems.
• Heroes’ Dreadnaught Legguards – Thaddius, Naxxramas – If you are still in the Naxxramas bracket of raiding, Thaddius drops the token for the T7 legs, which aren’t bad at all.
• Legplates of Inescapable Death – Loatheb or Gluth, Naxxramas – The other pair of pants coming from Naxxramas are heavy on SBV and again best suited for a trash/heroics/farm set.

Feet:

• Spiked Deathdealers – Blacksmithing – Another of the Ulduar-25 blacksmithing plans, so prepare to spend a lot of gold if you wish to get those made.
• Kyzoc’s Ground Stompers – 40 Emblems of Valor – Considering there are so few options when it comes to boots, this is likely going to be my first EoV purchase. Especially as Noth just isn’t coughing up my boots.
• Plague-Impervious Boots – Noth the Plaguebringer, Naxxramas – The only option for boots that actually drop in a 10-man raid.

Main Hand:

• Shiver – Hodir, Hard Mode, Ulduar – This weapon was recently buffed, so is even nicer now. Disappointing for me that maces are what it’s at in Ulduar, but time for dwarves and humans to rejoice for extra expertise.
• Legacy of Thunder – Thorim, Ulduar – Holy moly, that’s a big mace to the face. No socket like Shiver, but beautiful stats otherwise. Do want.
• Slayer of the Lifeless – Gothik the Harvester, Naxxramas – Our tanking weapon drop from Naxxramas is a sword. Nice stats, and yet, why couldn’t it be an axe?
• Axe of the Sen’jin Protector – 25 Champions’ Seals – Technically speaking, this is not a raid drop, but it’s only a recent addition to the game not covered by my previous list. This is the axe for every discerning orc tank and all those tanks who are not having any luck in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Easily obtainable if you can suffer through the monotony of the Argent Tournament dailies.

Shields:

• The Boreal Guard – Hodir, Hard Mode, Ulduar – Hodir’s hard mode will probably be the dream to crack for any aspiring tank. Both the shield and the main hand are obtained that way.
• Shieldwall of the Breaker – Auriaya, Ulduar – Not a crazy huge upgrade from Malygos’ shield, but if you are already at the dodge cap for expertise, definitely worth replacing, for extra armor and stamina options. However, the stats are changed in 3.1.2, with extra expertise, so I don’t know which shield would be the winner anymore.
• Barricade of Eternity – Malygos – Ever felt like lugging around a Greek pillar? Here’s your shot. Pretty design, awesome stats.
• The Skull of Ruin – Grobbulus, Naxxramas – The only shield offering in Naxxramas is itemized for threat, and belongs into an SBV set. For avoidance fights, I would revert back to either the H CoS shield or the crafted one.

Rings:

• Signet of Winter – Hodir, Ulduar – This BoE ring drops off Hodir and has no defense at all. If it didn’t have parry, it would scream druid ring. If you can afford wearing it, it’s certainly a strong offer.
• Signet of the Impregnable Fortress – 25 Emblems of Valor – What kind of name is that?? Packs huge defense, so it’s a very nice, early badge purchase. Lesigh, I should PUG Archavon some, shouldn’t I?
• Deflection Band – Anub’rekhan, Naxxramas – The tanking ring from Naxxramas drops very early in, has solid stats, not a bad option.
• Signet of the Accord – Sartharion – This BoE ring should be available on the AH, considering how easy a kill Sartharion with no drakes is.

Trinkets:

• Furnace Stone – Ignis the Furnace Master, Ulduar – Prepare to fight feral druids for this trinket. Tons of avoidance, and a big armor boost on the on-use effect.
• Royal Seal of King Llane – Yogg-Saron, Ulduar – Massive amounts of stamina. The on-use might not be as useful as some, but it’s still good. Effective health + avoidance, always cool in my book.
• Repelling Charge – Thaddius, Naxxramas – Otherwise known as ‘the trinket that drops when I am on my healer’. This should fill any defense gaps, and the on-use is -nice-.
• Valor Medal of the First War – 40 Emblems of Heroism – one of the mandatory badge purchases, IMHO. In a time where you don’t easily have access to a lot of avoidance trinkets, this should do the trick on progression content.

See also:

• Shopping List Part I: pre-heroic gear
• Shopping List Part II: heroic and badge gear

Hope you enjoyed. Wish me the best of luck, we’re heading into Ulduar with an expeditionary force on Saturday, to see how we will fare there.

At personal request of Naissa, here’s what a smexy orc lady looks like in Heroes’ Dreadnaught, 5/5. I cheated with the boots, they’re DPS boots that match, as Noth hasn’t coughed up my boots yet. Maybe he never will. May the lootgods see it fit to grant me all pieces of Valorous Siegebreaker when we set foot into Ulduar-10!

This weekend I got first-hand experience that made me ponder the endless dilemma of conflict when it comes to raiding. If anyone asked me what kind of guild I was in, I would say that Daughters of the Horde is a social guild that raids on the side. We have two raid-days in 10-mans per week, which is a step up from our raids every fortnight. It’s hardly a super-serious approach to raiding, and that’s fine for us. Those who like to raid more, end up leaving us after a while. (Which is another problem in itself, as those who depart are usually healers which we are really low on right now.) Often, we have people in the guild who are in more serious raiding guilds on other servers, and then come to chill with us.

Someone from that part of the guild who originally left us and our sister-guild on alliance side to do T6 raiding in BC, decided to sign up for one of our Naxxramas raids this weekend. The raid makeup wasn’t ideal, it had a couple people who had never been to Naxxramas before and thus things were a bit rockier than usual (or so I hear, it was at 3:30 am my time, so I was not raiding). Still, bosses were one-shot, this is Naxxramas, hardly the place to call ’srz bizness’. Now, everyone who’s been to Naxxramas knows the eyestalk tunnel after Heigan. Dash through, make it to the bridge, and burn ‘em. We usually have one or two casualties who die for one reason or another and then we summon them to the bridge with a warlock. Friday’s raid had no warlock. People died, mobs respawned, a couple tries were made, but not all of the raid made it through.

To be honest, I would have been irritated at this point as well, but you have to have your gameface on and make the best of it. What happened because it’s my dear, casual guild is that people laughed and joked about being such noobs. Our raiders have always been fabulous at wiping without losing their high spirits and to learning and making progress from it. They had fun regardless of the deaths. We play for fun, right?

The above raider I mentioned must not have had fun. Again, I can relate to that, I do take raiding a bit seriously. However, my reaction would have been very different. It would have been pep talk time. She logged off without a word, and then /gquit on all her alts, then logged back into the raid and gquit on that character as well. Being in a guild of people who wipe on eyestalks is apparently inconceivable when you are a dedicated raider. A replacement was found for her and of course they made it through that tunnel without casualties on the first try after the dramatic departure, one-shotting bosses for the rest of the night.

Now, even if she asked to come back, I don’t think I would ever want to raid with her again. She could have asked for a replacement. She could have done constructive criticism beyond the ‘ZOMG KILL EYESTALKS’ that I heard she supplied. She’s done Naxxramas countless times before. Or she could have relaxed and laughed it off like the others. Or she could have talked to the raid leader. Numerous, mature options. I can’t quite believe that dropping raid (and guild) like that is common behavior, even for the most hardcore of hardcore. I believe hardcore raiders require discipline, even when wiping. Tell me if I am wrong.

So for the hardcore out there who look to join social guilds to just relax and chill: please really do so. You might have killed Yogg-Saron already, but if you have, don’t bring attitude when you choose to raid with a casual guild. When you decide to raid with a guild that needs 4.5 hours for a full Naxxramas clear on their best days, keep that in mind. If that’s not the kind of raiding you can support, then do not raid on your alts. It’s a matter of respect. I think this generally applies, not just to my guild, but to any casual guild accepting raider alts. If you are fine with that, and bring your experience to such casual raids, then the casual raiders on the other hand have to be respectful of what you bring to the table. Both sides can benefit that way.

Hug them close, never let them go, cuddle them at night. Never throw them away. They are your best friends, even if someone fancier comes along. Eventually, you’ll go back to them, as real friendships never end. Because they are true friends, they will laugh it off that you forgot about them for a while. They know that ultimately, you’ll always need them, until you are ready to take a break from them again. Defense trinkets, they just understand.

If you haven’t made any such friends before and have not done all of the Outland content, Professor Dabiri of the friendly if shifty Consortium has an enigma for you. It’s an easy friend, just a quest chain away. The on-use is not spectacular, but definitely something to keep a prot warrior warm at night.

You wish to go a little bit more upscale? In the depths of the Shadow Labyrinth, rumors say an ogre carries a friend around. One that looks like a little old wise man of undefinable race. It is likely an orc, only those would have such lovely long beards. This friend is made of adamantite, shaped like a figurine. He is timeless, our friend.

Feel like visiting mystical places of the Outlands that few people visit today? You might find friends there as well. A corrupted elemental is supposed to hold Scarab of Displacement on him, and in the Black Temple of Shadowmoon Valley, Gurtogg Bloodboil has an insignia that would look good on any tank’s lapel. They are not easy to obtain, but if you are so blessed to have earned one of them, you better darn hold on to them.

If you are looking for friends in Northrend, the selection is equally slim. The corrupted Loken himself is said to carry a seal granted by the Titans, but I say, it’s just a myth. A myth, I say. It leaves the adamantine figurine I carry in the dust, but you have been blessed by the pantheon if you ever saw it. Less of a myth, but still rare is Thaddius’ Repelling Charge. I saw it myself as my greedy mind had to make the tough decision between the charge, and Dreadnaught Legguards. To this day, I do not know if I made the right decision. I hope I did…

All you tanking youngsters out there who are still gearing up, always keep in mind that once you start raiding, your defense values will ultimately drop. Every gear upgrade in Naxxramas comes at the price of losing defense. It’s a mini-game almost, as just about every tanking gear upgrade that drops in Naxxramas itemizes for more avoidance or threat, but cuts off the defense that all pre-Naxx gear has in oodles. While e.g. before Naxxramas I was able to wear the Keystone Great-Ring, I long had to go back to one of the level 200 rings with defense on it. With fully gemmed and enchanted gear and the full T7 set, I am sitting at 537 defense without a defense trinket equipped. I will likely have to replace Essence of Gossamer as trinket in avoidance fights, because I want to be able to wear a Durable Nerubhide Cape. I am switching back from The Skull of Ruin to Titansteel Shield Wall, all as part of the balancing game. It definitely makes receiving gear in Naxxramas less exciting, because at no point have I ever been able to actually equip something right away.

I will shortly post part 3 of my shopping list for prot warriors, looking at 10-man raid gear, including Ulduar. I am most curious to see the defense values on that gear. Should prove interesting.