WEAPON (ONE HANDED)
Grom'tor's ChargeI won't even bother listing any two handers for tanking. There is no way you can tank effectively using a two hander. It is one of the best tanking weapon you can get pre raid and pre heroic. +30 STA on this axe is the best stat of this weapon. It has decent speed and dps also.
Where to get it? Quest Reward! You have to finish the Cipher of Damnation quest line. I know it is a long quest line, but once you hit shadowmoon valley you will one way or another get the quest to start the line. I suggest to start looking into this quest around level 69. Personally, I am still using this axe. It is currently my weapon of choice for tanking 5 man normal/heroic instances and Karazhan until I get a better one.
SHIELD
Netherwing Protector's ShieldThere are several choices on shields. What I am listing here is a quest reward. Granted that you will need a flying mount to work on the quests, you won't need to run any intances or luck to get this. You need to complete Ally of the Netherwing to get this shield. As you have noticed, this is the end result of the Netherwing Drake quest line. You will be neutral as soon as your done with it.
or
SHIELD
Shield of the Wayward FootmanIf you do not have a flying mount. This is another good choice. I have usually seen it in the AH, so you will want to keep an eye out for this. Or you might get lucky and this shield drops for you!
Eventually you will be running the regular 5 man instances and you will want to keep an eye out on the following shields that are better:
Aegis of the Sunbird Dropped by High Botanist Freywinn in Botanica
Platinum Shield of the Valorous Dropped by Ambassador Hellmaw in Shadow Labyrinth
RANGED
Alley's Recurve This is a nice bow for starters and it is relatively easy to get. It is a reward from this quest Mark V is Alive! Now, this is temporary and you will need to keep an eye out of the following range weapons in instances:
Melmorta's Twilight Longbow Dropped by Chrono Lord Deja in Black Morass
Nethershrike Dropped by Nethermancer Sepethrea in The Mechanar
Now, do you have any tanking weapon in mind that you want to suggest? Something that's easy to get in quests? In normal instances?
16 comments:
Crystalblade of the Draenei is a nice boe blue you can pick up from the ah at lvl 66 for tanking till you get gromtor's. I know a lot of people use the Crystalline Kopesh from the Durn the Hungerer quest in Nagrand till they get Gromtor's as well (although it's a tad slow for my taste)
The Sporeggar rep shield (petrified lichen guard) is a nice leveling shield available at lvl 62 and honored rep, although you need to be careful not to accidentally poison something that you planned on CC-ing.
Don't underestimate green of the champion and of stamina ranged weapons from the ah. My level 67 of stamina bow has a whopping +24 stam on it. Sure you don't get the extra ap or crit from the blue bows you linked but an extra 9 or 10 stam is pretty nice.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32756
Gyro-balanced Khorium Destroyer
Mats are pretty easy to farm, the crafter has to have the nether.
It has a yellow socket for a +defense gem or ignore the socket color and just put a Solid Star in there. It's got some nice stamina and who doesn't want an epic pulling weapon.
I'm working on getting Grom'tor's Charge with the wife at the moment. It *is* a long quest chain.
We've done all the quests except the last half of the brother's who's sent us to Eclipsion Point.
Then the grand finale, for which I understand we'll have to call in a little assistance.
So far it's been easy for a Protection Warrior (mostly in Battle stance, dual wielding) and an Enhancement Shaman, dual wielding. (She'll get the glowly 2-handed axe out of the deal.)
I'm at 510 defense now, in tanking gear, and only missing the boots from the escort quest in the Mana Tombs. My shield is from the AH, +Sta and +Def, but I'm waiting for Hellmaw to drop mine. (Murmer's already dropped my shoulders.)
Nice links for the other gear though. I'll have to do some more quest planning. :)
@kinless (question at bottom)
I just wrote a lengthy post all about the ruul fight, how you should not underestimate it, strategies for completing it etc, only to read on Wowhead that ruul got the big nerf bat a while back and that you can probably duo him just fine now.
The final guy will require some friends though, as you mentioned.
How do you like dual wielding in battle versus shield slamming for killing stuff? I'm currently partial to shield slamming personally with either my gromtor's or my exalted scryer's 80dps dagger mainhand.
To be honest I haven't really compared DPS difference between dual wielding and axe & board with shield slams.
It "feels" the same.
I might need to go back to the Badlands and beat up on one of those unkillable servents and really compare the DPS numbers.
Too, I'm loath to give up my The Planar Edge. Not that it killed me to craft it, but I don't need one more epic stuck into the bank. :) And the Blackout Truncheon's haste proc adds a satisfying zing to the setup.
And the Primal Nether I got is going to be used to make my Stalwart Defender Helm. which I was insanely lucky to get the plans for, and not to upgrade my Planar Edge.
(The wife and I did duo Ruul. I tanked and she kept me healed. He's got an aoe so she couldn't come in close to add DPS. (Tried that. ;) Took a while whittling down his 81k health.)
Nice gear guide so far Brig!
Grom'tor's is defintely worth the time it takes to do the quest! I've had mine for a little while but helped a friend out with the final fight a couple weeks ago and it was just 3 of us, no healers. I let the 3 NPC brothers take some of the beating before pulling aggro back :) It worked out fine. Don't even think I popped a heal Pot.
Currently running Heroic Mech for the Sun Eater and whenever my guild decides to get into Kara regularly hoping to get that Kings Defender as well!
The only other piece of gear I feel I am missing is the Bold Shoulders. (Using the Warchief Mantles)For the life of me I can't get those things to drop, damn you Murmur!
Good call letting the brothers tank...I made sure to have target of my target turned on when I did that fight to help me see if/when they lose his attention.
I currently have the Hellmaw shield, and I'm wondering if I should worry too much about moving to the [Ogri'la Aegis] when I get an Apexis Crystal, or just go staight to the [Crest of the Sha'tar] when I ding Exalted (currently 4243/21000).
Meddy, Thorium Brotherhood
Thank you everyone for contributing ...
Jona, thank you for the kind words. I just got my shoulders tonight, I have been using warchief for life ... Do not give up hope =)
doogie, I wouldn't worry too much. but there is one more item with the ogrila faction that is nice http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32645. Its just a question on whichever comes first.
There's a pretty good pre-raid tanking gear guide on the forums here: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=194559515&postId=1944020256&sid=1#4
Another SL run today and no shoulders.
DAMN YOU MURMUR!!!!
Grats on yours!
BTW that Ogrila bow looks nice. I was contemplating gettin' the mats together for the Khorium Destroyer. Since I havn't even started any of the new faction quests, perhaps I should look into it.
This is also kinda nice: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32780#z0z
Nice list- no arguements with any of it. My addition would be the Consortium Blaster for a ranged weapon - +15 STA plus other goodies, and you can get the Consortium rep you need through solo quests and grinding them nagrand ogres.
What is the Quest for the Gromtor's Charge I have been arms specced the entire way to 70 and am gonna respec Prot when I ding so I can just run Instances and get my Tanking down before maybe doing some raids if I can get into a guild that isn't super hardcore.
@Lance
you need to complete this quest
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=10588
to get it. It is a long chain.
Right now I'm an Arms/Prot warrrior and a swordsmith, so right now I'm rocking out with Fireguard http://www.wowwiki.com/Fireguard and I hope to be getting Blazeguard soon. Though it doesn't give any defense rating, everything else about it works great for me. The sword specialization in Arms is a very nice bonus, by the way.
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