- Author: Kurathis
- Date: April 2, 2021
- Updated: March 2, 2022
- Expansion: TBC Classic
Gems
Low Gear Gems
- Green – Steady Talasite
- Yellow – none
- Blue – Solid Star of Elune
- Red – none
- Purple – Shifting Nightseye
- Orange – Glinting Noble Topaz
High Gear Gems
- Green – Steady Seaspray Emerald
- Yellow- none
- Blue – Solid Empyrean Sapphire
- Red- none
- Purple- Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst
- Orange- Glinting Pyrestone
Enchants
Armor Enchants
- Head: Glyph of Ferocity should be our first choice unless you have not reached the defence cap. Otherwise, use Glyph of the Defender (Keepers of Time – Revered)
- Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Blade or Greater Inscription of Vengeance (Depending on which faction you chose) should be our first choice unless you have not reached the defence cap. Otherwise, use Greater Inscription of the Knight or Greater Inscription of Warding
- Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Greater Agility or Enchant Cloak – Dodge
- Chest: Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats or Enchant Chest – Exceptional Health
- Wrist: Enchant Bracer – Fortitude
- Hands: Enchant Gloves – Threat or Enchant Gloves – Superior Agility
- Legs: Nethercleft Leg Armor
- Feet: Enchant Boots – Boar’s Speed or Enchant Boots – Fortitude
- Shield: Enchant Shield – Major Stamina or Felsteel Shield Spike
Weapon Enchants
- Enchant Weapon – Mongoose
- The Mongoose effect supplies:
- Armor: 240
- Dodge: 3.60%
- Critical Strike: 3.60%
- The Mongoose effect supplies:
Consumables
Potions
- Super Healing Potion, Mighty Rage Potion
- Not only does Mighty Rage Potion generate rage, it also generates threat for you, split evenly among the mobs within your pull
Flasks/Elixirs
- Flask of Fortification, Flask of the Titans
- Flask of Fortification is the better choice but Flask of the Titans is a great, cheaper alternative if you’re lacking the funds or your server is running low on supply
Food
- Spicy Crawdad, Fisherman’s Feast, Spicy Hot Talbuk
- It’s recommended that you use Spicy Hot Talbuk if you are below hit cap after you’ve reached around 11,000 health unbuffed
About the Author
Kurathis
Long-time WoW enthusiast who can't say no to a good-old poutine.
Could you provide a sixyupgrades with the enchants and the gems socketed in.
I am still struggling to understand how the hit% is being calculated.
Everything that i’ve researched said 490 DEF and Stam. Then I’ve read other statements saying we also want 9% Hit Rating / 6% Expertise.
However, everything being linked or labelled as BIS only show a DEF/STAM priority (socketed and enchanted). Nothing shows them hitting that hit number as well.
Here is the link from Seventyupgrades showing the Phase 1 BiS enchanted + gemmed.
Your first two stat priorities are Defence (490) and Stamina, absolutely. However, where some guides maybe get a little confused is that we don’t want to stack stamina. We get plenty from our gear and the various enchants and thus our gems shouldn’t be purely Solid Star of Elune. Given the link provided, if we chose that path, we would have an extra 228 stamina, roughly equal to 2,228 HP. That may sound like a lot, but in reality, if you’re not actually hitting the (boss) you’re not going to have aggro, and if you don’t have aggro, you’re not benefiting from extra health because you’re not being attacked.
It is recommended that you get as close to 9% hit rating (or 8%, if you happen to be a Draenei with Heroic Presence) as you possibly can. Unlike Paladin tanks with Consecration, a Warrior’s tanking abilities rely exclusively on melee hit rating, so every attack that misses, is a threat loss, which in this day and age will often result in DPS getting immediate aggro because they don’t like to wait before attacking. It’s especially important on fights that see bosses immune to Taunt. With the exception of Challenging Shout, every taunting ability we have relies on melee hit rating. With a Boomkin in your group, you are able to aim for 6% hit rating as long as you’re sure that they’ll be at all the raids you are, and maintain Improved Faerie Fire for the entire fight’s duration.
As far as Expertise is concerned, we focus on the hard cap, which allow our attacks to NEVER be parried – this is mainly a focus for our own survivability since every attack parried will either reset or reduce the boss’ swing timer, effectively attacking you a lot more frequently. The soft cap allows our attacks to never be dodged, which is used as a threat increase. Due to there being no gems or enchants for Expertise, we are unable to hit either cap in Phase 1.
This was very helpful. Would I be able to chat with you to pick a part some ideas/concepts that may of made this a little more confusing. As well as feedback throughout my adventures in WoW.
Yeah, for sure!
Hi,
I’m curious if you would also socket this way for the pre-raid bis pieces? Do we also want something around 9% hit? Or do we slam the stamina gems in?
Hey Boss your Seventyupgrades link is broken
It would be very interesting to see the seventyupgrades link fixed so that you can share the gemming, I’m having trouble deciding and sure others do.
My apologies – most that have asked for the updated link have added me on Discord. Here is an updated link for you.
Note: You can replace one Goblin Rocket Launcher with Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600 for better threat generation.
Hi,
would this be something okay’ish to start with? or do you think trying to get some Hit is not the way to go at this gear level?
https://seventyupgrades.com/character/ku6yPsBHqUGhAeAWePNtj6/set/x2uSnMrmgsShFNJrp5Pbi1
Unfortunately I can’t see your link – if you click the paperclip-looking-icon in the top-right corner, it’ll generate a public link which will allow me to see it.
Yeah sry,
here it is
https://seventyupgrades.com/set/JyE9k6oXRH3F1vsQRq8L5
Hit Rating is ALWAYS important for Warrior tanks. Every ability we use to generate threat relies on Hit Rating including our ability to regain aggro, Taunt.
The hard reality of tanking is that we’re already playing catch-up with threat since we won’t be Expertise capped until much later, so our attacks can already be dodged or parried, while bosses can’t parry attacks that come from behind, so if your DPS are Hit Capped (which 99% of DPS focus on first), they only have to worry about the boss dodging their attacks since most of the time the boss will be turned away from them, save for some exceptions.
Tanking raid bosses is incredibly difficult without Hit Rating since they’re immune to Taunt. This means if you have a string of bad luck and your attacks keep missing but your DPS didn’t wait, it’ll likely end in a wipe.
Your gear selection isn’t bad at all – there are some enchants that I find a little questionable: Weapon/Gloves – other than that, though, I’d say you’re ready to go for some Karazhan tanking and working on getting into some of the easier heroics.
This would be the gear I would wear myself going into heroics: https://seventyupgrades.com/set/cszKTkUDvtZhiCt3pXs3rH and if I was called upon to tank Karazhan before getting any heroic drops or buying badge gear, I would use https://seventyupgrades.com/set/5DW8RWoxiEiAPjn7reezCt. The only real difference is Heroics require 485 defence, while raids require the 490.
Realistically, you won’t see much over 6% Hit Rating in Pre-Raid gear unless you just gemmed +8 Hit Rating (Which in the above gear would place you at 8.81% Hit Rating, which is SUPER close, but not quite at cap) There are bits and pieces that can help us get up there, though, like Improved Faerie Fire, or Spicy Hot Talbuk.
Wow, thank you for this detailed explanation. Really appreciate it.
Which Heroics would you call out ‘easy’ heroics to start with?
In my opinion, for a tank just getting into heroics without any high-end gear, I would suggest beginning in:
These heroics present challenge to you but from my experience, it’s not a case of you making one mistake and immediately causing a wipe because of it. I wouldn’t recommend jumping into Heroic Ramparts until later and without a substantial amount of renewable C.C (Polymorph, Frost Trap, etc. instead of relying on Sap 100% of the time)
Thank you very much
Hi,
i currently noticed, that Seventyupgrades no more offers the Ascendant Boots. Also the on Wowhead the Quest: A Job unfinished no more shows these as a reward. Does that mean they are not in the Game yet?
I double-checked on Seventyupgrades, and you are correct, they are no longer posted for Phase 1, rather for Phase 3, instead.
With that being the case, I have redone the Pre-Heroic gearset recommendations: https://seventyupgrades.com/set/bgaTjUY92Mh1UUZ3eozuAT
Is it worth dropping the 5% crit from the cruelty talent?
Realistically speaking, from my perspective, the build is a good choice for doing dungeons, heroics and off-tanking in raids. Having Tactical Mastery and Improved Bloodrage will assist your uptime and utility in those situations.
If, for any reason, you decided that you wanted Cruelty, you could migrate the points from Improved Heroic Strike for 3/5. Would I recommend this? Not really. While Heroic Strike is more or less considered a rage-dumper, it still helps with threat generation and can be used in conjunction with your other abilities. However, if you find that saving 3 rage per use isn’t a big enough advantage for you, you could certainly swap the points.
For main-tanking purposes, yes, I would recommend grabbing Cruelty.
Is Regal Nightseye even in the Game yet?
After some investigation, it does not appear to be yet, so I’ve updated the list, replacing Regal Nightseye with Glinting Noble Topaz. Great catch.
is there an alternative option for weapon enchants that would be cheaper over mongoose until i get a better weapon
Heya Larry,
There are a few different enchants that we can use in place of Enchant Weapon – Mongoose, and I’ve listed them in order of priority/benefit:
Enchant Weapon – Crusader will likely be your cheapest bet while also being your worst choice for two reasons:
The Agility enchants both provide consistent benefits (For example, Enchant Weapon – Greater Agility provides you with 40 Armor and roughly 0.61% Critical Strike Chance, and roughly 0.66% Dodge Chance) An increase to our Critical Strike Chance will provide higher threat output overall, and an organic increase to our dodge chance will allow for us to use Revenge more often.