Tanking and some tankingcraft

EDIT* The kid to the right is not mine!


So my son is a little older now and my wonderful wife tanked him quite a bit last night as I got all into Heroics. I was going to run a Heroic damn it all! I first get into a pug that was advertising for a “good” tank. Well, you know what? I am better than average thank you very much.

Heroic Halls of Stone here I come. /w the lead and give him the baseline 23k unbuffed, 542 def, 22k armor. Given a good healer these are ample stats to start Heroics. However, from what I hear for Halls of Lightning on Heroic I will need at least another 2k hp and some more armor. If I can start getting some socket gear with the same Def on it, I can start gemming block and parry and dodge and what not. I’ll start doing posts on that when I get to it.

Right now, I am gathering mats for the Titansteel Treads/Sabatons whatever the hell they are called. Anyways, I am getting some help with the Titansteel smelting from Noobed and am very appreciative. I should have the helm and boots made for Friday night and I already have the shield.

Goodness here we go with theorycraft. Mind you, this is for nub tanks with nub gear like mine. If you have cleared Sunwell, BT, Naxx and spanked Malygos already, this is NOT for you. This is for my own and all the other peoples insight. If you can offer a better opinion, please do.

How to get to the Def cap and gem for Stamina before gemming for miss rates… or why I like Blacksmithing.

If you are going for the Def 540 cap, you are going to need some enchants. Depending on your gear and professions, you will either need a lot of enchants to get 540 or you will need to gem for it or both. What you do not want to do is give up a gem slot when you can get an armor piece enchanted.

You can grab the following chants.

Greater Defense to Chest
+ Defense to cap
+ Defense to Shield

Use them. Save any and all sockets for +sta gems. There is absolutely no reason you should be running around with Greater stats to chest while you have a Def gem anywhere on you. Now, if you need the gem AND had the Def to chest then we understand.

Blacksmithing as a profession still helps tanks out the most. You thought every item is BoE now? It is. But not the socketing options. Blacksmiths at 400 and over can socket their own gloves and bracers. That’s a difference of roughly 500 HPs you can drop in there. Would you turn down an extra 50 sta on a tanking item? Thought not.

Chants for Def cap first and then use sockets if absolutely necessary to hit the Def cap. However, if I didn’t have to do it then you shouldn’t either. All of the gear when I hit Def cap was questing and a red letter run through CoT Culling. I picked up the tanking boots and cap out of there. I need to do a gear list for starting out and I will eventually get to it I promise.

Next post is about how the Heroics went. How we owned Utgarde and couldn’t quit drop Anomylus in Nex.