Tank gearing for progression.

[Frag]

I made this post on the official forums to see what the gear "requirements" are for progressing into BT/Mt.H from SSC/TK as our luck in tank drops from Kara hasn't been all that spectacular and if that continues I was curious if we would end up "stuck". Well here's the answers I received:

In learning SSC (and Vashj/Kael) you will find that you need the best possible tanking gear you can get.

By the time you kill Vashj and Kael you will have all the T5 level tanking loots you need for Hyjal and BT.

Lady Vashj and Kael are the gear checks for both instances, all the bosses prior to them are pretty easy to do when everyone does their jobs right.

Lurker hits like a wet noodle. A really wet noodle. Do yourselves a favor and skip morogrim, kill karathress first. Morogrim is the only thing in SSC and TK that will give you trouble on a tanking front except maybe vashj/Kael. VR Al'ar and Solarian are also doable with that gear as MT. Don't listen to those guys :| Also, it might seem "unfair" But you really should be getting priority with your gear the way it is from t5 tokens. As well as offslots, one thing to note, morogrim is a healer skill check, vashj is just how much stamina you can stack, 490 defense then pure stamina for vashj. All of her burst damage is autoshot and shock, her melee is weak.

you will want to acquire a fair bit of t5 gear before you can hope to progress into Hyjal/BT.

Those are snippets, and I don't agree with some of the assessments (like tank gear priority? Please, been there, done that, it's not wise) but does that line up with everyone's experiences? What those people actually seemed to be saying is: If your guild can kill Vashj/Kael, the MT's gear is fine not that you're going to want 4/5 Destroyer on your tank(s) before stepping foot into BT/Mt.H?

Cheers,
~Frag B)

[Skandranon]

What those people actually seemed to be saying is: If your guild can kill Vashj/Kael, the MT's gear is fine not that you're going to want 4/5 Destroyer on your tank(s) before stepping foot into BT/Mt.H?

Correct. The first bosses of Hyjal and BT are, in my opinion, actually somewhat easier than Kael. Of course, Kael, once learned, I would argue is probably more reliably repeatable, but the first bosses of Hyjal/BT are learned in one night at most and Kael can take multiple weeks.

After Morogrim in SSC, there basically isn't a tank-gear-dependent fight until Azgalor in Hyjal or Gorefiend in BT. Azgalor is the fourth boss in Hyjal, and Gorefiend is also customarily also considered the fourth in BT (although you can actually go three ways after Shade dies).

[TheDragoon]

I'm a bit surprised that you guys feel like you have had poor luck in tanking gear. Both Tiga and Geldauran are easily geared up enough for anything early SSC would throw at you (you each have like 90% of the best tank gear from Karazhan). I am unsure about Shamadros (though he's probably pretty close if memory serves me right) and from when I last looked I think Moors and Acalan could use a bit more tanking gear, but we're getting there. :)

[Kevin]

I'm a bit surprised that you guys feel like you have had poor luck in tanking gear. Both Tiga and Geldauran are easily geared up enough for anything early SSC would throw at you (you each have like 90% of the best tank gear from Karazhan). I am unsure about Shamadros (though he's probably pretty close if memory serves me right) and from when I last looked I think Moors and Acalan could use a bit more tanking gear, but we're getting there. :)

A lot of it comes from the fact that the T4 warrior, priest, druid foo never drops for us. I think we have had 3 drops of either of them the whole time we are doing Kara and we've killed prince twice in a week a few times. I think 2 gloves and 1 helm.

[Jester]

A lot of it comes from the fact that the T4 warrior, priest, druid foo never drops for us. I think we have had 3 drops of either of them the whole time we are doing Kara and we've killed prince twice in a week a few times. I think 2 gloves and 1 helm.

And here's me with the hat on my head, and the glove token *in the bank*.

:blush:

IIRC, Torenia now has the hat, so that's at least 2 hats.

-Jester

[Concillian]

Head:
Dunar got it in our lock this week, but Geldauran was tanking.
Johnybeef has one
Geld has one

Hands:
Me
Geld
Saryn
Shamadros
Durambar
Wimpy
Dunar
Torenia
(Necrali and Frag are notable have-nots here)

BTW I bumped the thread... and stirred the pot a bit :whistling:

[TheDragoon]

It kind of cracks me up that people seem to think that you need T4 gear to tank. Realistically, isn't a lot of the Karazhan stuff actually better for tanking? I know this is the case for Paladin tanking if you're trying to max out avoidance and mitigation. /PaladinTankingThoughts - The T4 gloves and shoulders are really nice and the T4 pants are pretty decent (great stuff on it but less sockets => less stamina than other options). But the gloves from Maiden are certainly better for pure avoidance and Panzar'thar is amazingly awesome for a Paladin tank. /PaladinThoughtsOff

Taking another look at the T4 tanking gear, it does seem marginally better than the other Karazhan stuff, but it really doesn't strike me as being required. I still think you guys are fine. :)

[Concillian]

Taking another look at the T4 tanking gear, it does seem marginally better than the other Karazhan stuff, but it really doesn't strike me as being required. I still think you guys are fine. :)

This is the case, marginally better, which is why I went off on that NE, she was just plain ranting about stuff that didn't matter and didn't apply.

Anyway here's to hoping for two weeks in a row of quad Defender in Gruul's.

[vor_lord]

Head:
Dunar got it in our lock this week, but Geldauran was tanking.
Johnybeef has one
Geld has one

Hands:
Me
Geld
Saryn
Shamadros
Durambar
Wimpy
Dunar
Torenia
(Necrali and Frag are notable have-nots here)

BTW I bumped the thread... and stirred the pot a bit :whistling:

Yeah as I recall, Defender was all that dropped for the first several Curator kills. But there has seemed to be a pretty bad drought recently. Johny beat me by one slot for the head, and I've been outbid at least 3 times on the gloves. But I haven't seen it drop for a long time so it is getting frustrating. Months ago I decided not to spend on a glove enchant for my Gloves of Shardly Blessings. I'm still wearing them.

The T4 gloves and head are probably the largest remaining healing upgrades for me in Karazhan (boots off Shade might be bigger). The T4 priest damage pieces are pretty awful, I wouldn't consider taking the foo for those if anyone else was still wanting it.

[Tal]

It kind of cracks me up that people seem to think that you need T4 gear to tank. Realistically, isn't a lot of the Karazhan stuff actually better for tanking?

The Karazhan set makes up my Stamina set. T-4 Makes up my mitigation set.

[Frag]

Hehe, ahh, Conc. You crack me up man. I seriously thought it was a dead thread and had done what I wanted out of it. I like the good cop, bad cop routine we ended up with there. :D

Thanks for swinging by guys. I'm not worried about Fathom-Guard Tidalvess, Mogrim or the T5 instances in general. I've done enough research to be confident we'll be ready for them when we make it to them, it was that "unknown" that I wanted to get a little first-hand on. Gotta love the official forums. :lol:

Ahhh, good times all,
~Frag :wub: