Tank like a girl

The addition of the new 5-mans plus the easy availability of Emblems of Triumph call for an update for the gear list for protection warriors who are just hitting 80. If you follow the list, you should be able to hop into the raiding scene in little time. It’s never been easier.

I will list several pieces of gear per slot. The top piece listed is your entry gear into heroics, and the further down on list, the better the piece.

Head:

• Tempered Titansteel Helm – buy in AH or bring the mats to a friendly blacksmith.
• Helm of the Crestfallen Challenger – 2nd encounter, H Trial of the Champions. Once you’re comfortable with tanking H ToC, this is what you should pick up next.
• Second Helm of the Executioner – Forgemaster Garfrost, H Pit of Saron
• Headplate of the Honorbound/Faceplate of the Honorbound – 75 Emblems of Triumph. Definitely more attractive than the T9 warrior helmet, with tasty amounts of expertise

Neck:

• Titanium Earthguard Chain – buy in AH or bring mats to a friendly Jewelcrafter
• Shard of the Crystal Forest – available for 19 Emblems of Conquest, so you will have to downgrade some emblems. Nevertheless, still a very solid piece, if you don’t dare set foot into the Icecrown instances yet.
• Fossilized Ammonite Choker – Arthas encounter, H HoR. A tough instance and encounter, with a great necklace as reward.

Shoulders:

• Crusader’s Square Pauldrons – common as dirt BoE drop in CoS (reg or heroic). Should be able to pick this up cheap anywhere.
• Regal Aurous Shoulderplates – Confessor Paletress, H ToC. Lovely shoulders from H ToC with a socket. Grab ‘em!
• Shoulderplates of Frozen Blood – Forgemaster Garfrost, H Pit of Saron. Excellent upgrade, with nice expertise. Too bad it has no socket.
• Shoulderguards of Enduring Order/Shoulderplates of Enduring Order – 45 Emblems of Triumph. Spiky shoulders with a nice red socket for expertise or dodge gems. Again, better than the T9 counterpart.

Back:

• Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions – Honored with Wyrmrest Accord, your companion for a long time
• Platinum Mesh Cloak – still a valuable buy at 25 Emblems of Valor
• Eerie Runeblade Polisher – Falric and Marwyn, reg. Halls of Reflection. I have revised my opinion, it’s better than the Platinum Mesh Cloak, due to stats being a touch higher. If you are having bad drop luck though, and spare badges, the PMC is still great.

Chest:

• Breastplate of the Solemn Council – Revered with Wyrmrest Accord
• Scourgelord’s Frigid Chestplate – Scourgelord Tyrannus, reg. Pit of Saron
• Hellscream’s Breastplate of Conquest/Wrynn’s Breastplate of Conquest – 50 Emblems of Triumph. Absolutely solid chest for warriors, no complaints here.
• Breastplate of the White Knight – crafted by blacksmiths. With the price of Crusader Orbs dropping every day, this is now a most excellent chest alternative superior to the ilevel 232 T9 chest.

Wrist:

• Tempered Saronite Bracers – Starting out with the crafted bracers should be sufficient to get you to…
• Bindings of Dark Will – in H CoS, a fairly common drop off the 2nd boss
• Bracers of the Herald – H OK, the best you can get outside of a raid instance unless you invest gold into…
• Saronite Swordbreakers – crafted by blacksmiths. Mats are pretty reasonable, now that Crusader Orbs are available relatively easily. Strong bracers.

Gloves:

• Mercy’s Hold – fabulous gloves from reg ToC, well worth running this until they drop
• Hellscream’s Handguards of Conquest/Wrynn’s Handguards of Conquest – 30 Emblems of Triumph. Cheap to get and one of the better pieces of 232 T9 for warriors, so the route to success is pretty easy here.

Waist: nothing has changed for this slot at all

• Waistguard of the Risen Knight – common BoE drop in H DTK, should be cheap.
• Ancient Aligned Girdle – a direct upgrade in H A-N
• Shieldwarder Girdle – available for 28 Emblems of Conquest, unless you want to get yourself the crafted…
• Indestructible Plate Girdle – made by a friendly blacksmith, mats should be not too expensive now

Legs:

• Legguards of Abandoned Fealty – first encounter in reg. ToC
• Legplates of Frozen Granite – Devourer of Souls, reg. Forge of Souls. Lots of hit instead of avoidance, but pretty solidly itemized otherwise
• Hellscream’s Legguards of Conquest/Wrynn’s Legguards of Conquest – 50 Emblems of Triumph. Definitely a threat piece, with all the SBV and all the hit, but the best you can get for that slot.

Feet:

• Tempered Titansteel Treads – grab a cheap pair of those crafted boots to start tanking heroics.
  
• Boots of Heartfelt Repentance – Eadric the Pure, reg. ToC. These boots will take you a long way.
• Black Spire Sabatons – Devourer of Souls, H Forge of Souls. Awesome boots, definitely nice to grab.
• Spiked Deathdealers – crafted by blacksmiths, cost a pretty penny, but are most excellent. Two sockets give you an EH edge, so I place them above the Black Spire Sabatons.

If you already have the Spiked Deathdealers, you’re set, if you don’t, save the gold and get the Black Spire Sabatons.

Rings:

• Titanium Earthguard Ring – fabulous ring, crafted, save up some gold and profit
• Signet of the Accord – BoE drop in Obsidian Sanctum-10, should be up in the AH or…
• Keystone Great-Ring – if you’re still def-capped anyhow, drops in H Drak’tharon Keep
• Alternatively any of the blue tanking rings from heroics. Eventually replace the above with…
• Mark of the Relentless – beautifully itemized ring from H ToC, just no defense on it.
• Clutch of Fortification – 35 Emblems of Triumph. Simply perfect ring. Armor, stamina, avoidance.

Trinkets:

• Seal of the Pantheon – regular Halls of Lightning. Should it just not drop, have Dabiri’s Enigma or Adamantine Figurine as standby.
• The Black Heart – the sacred grail of stamina, available in regular ToC
• Glyph of Indomitability – 50 Emblems of Triumph. Clearly a mix of EH (due to the high armor) and avoidance trinket, it’s on use should allow powerful avoidance. For someone who only does heroics pretty useless, but in raids it should rock.

Main Hand:

• Wanted: Ragemane’s Flipper – start out with any of the quest rewards as per race and personal taste.
• Axe of the Sen’jin Protector or Teldrassil Protector – if you enjoy the Argent Tournament Dailies, these are available for 25 Champion’s Seals.
• Peacekeeper Blade – 2nd encounter, H ToC. The turkey knife is nicely itemized and has a socket. As there’s no def on the sword, you might have to gem it for defense.
• Lucky Old Son – Bronjahm, reg. Forge of Souls. If a baby rattle is more your style and you like inherent def on weapons, this drop might be for you. Not a huge upgrade, but slightly higher DPS.
• Falric’s Wrist-Chopper – Falric and Marwyn, H Halls of Reflection. This is it for orc tanks. Go figure that Blizzard had to hide it in one of the most difficult dungeon encounters ever. This is best pre-raid for orcs, however if you’re not one of us, you’d rather go for…
• Rimefang’s Claw – Scourgelord Tyrannus, H Pit of Saron. No wasted item budget on block rating, all around solid stuff. Looks pretty nice too.

Shields:

• Titansteel Shield Wall - crafted by blacksmiths
• Royal Crest of Lordaeron – with a lead on avoidance, this drops from H CoS and is still your best bet outside of raids
• Splintered Door of the Citadel – Falric and Marwyn, reg. Halls of Reflection. Whew, they changed the model, no one wants to carry around a face, trust me.

Ranged:

• Blades of the Sable Cross – makes no sense to buy the engineer gun anymore. Go straight for the thrown weapon for 25 Emblems of Triumph.

To get all Emblem gear listed here, you’d have to spend 25 Emblems of Valor, 47 Emblems of Conquest and 310 Emblems of Triumph. Remember, tanks get instant gratification when queueing up for random heroics, so you can get those emblems faster than any other role. Happy hunting.