The Light and How to Swing It: The new tanking gear of patch 4.3
by Matt Walsh 
Dec 9th 2011 at 6:00PM
Last week, we talked about what you needed to know to prepare for the dawning of the Hour of Twilight. Now let's talk about what shiny new purples you can expect to rip from the still-warm carcasses that will lie in your wake as your cut a swath through the new content.
Our itemization goals haven't changed since 4.2. Mastery is still king, and threat stats are still to be avoided. In the list below, I didn't list the gear in any particular order, so don't expect the top choice to be the best. Indeed, the best piece will depend on how much mastery you have and thus how close you are to block cap.
Generally, the rule of thumb to follow when trying to decide what pieces are best is that mastery/avoidance pieces provide the most combat table coverage (and thus the most survivability), followed by mastery/threat pieces (with the threat stat reforged to avoidance), followed by avoidance/avoidance pieces, followed by avoidance/threat pieces. If a piece doesn't have mastery and you're seeking the One Stat to Rule Them All, reforge the higher number to mastery -- even if it's dodge or parry.
As always, I recommend using my CTC calculator spreadsheet (I really can't pimp that enough) to properly evaluate each piece in relation to your current load-out and to confirm that an upgrade is most certainly an upgrade.
Tanking gear for 4.3
Head
- Faceguard of Radiant Glory Dragon Soul, Warmaster Blackthorn (token)
- Jaw of Repudiation 2,200 valor points
- Annihilian Helm Well of Eternity, Mannoroth
- Shoulderguards of Radiant Glory Dragon Soul, Hagara the Stormbinder (token)
- Brackenshell Shoulderplates Dragon Soul, Morchok
- Pauldrons of the Dragonblight Hour of Twilight, Archbishop Benedictus
- Chestguard of Radiant Glory Dragon Soul, Ultraxion (token)
- Chestplate of the Unshakeable Titan 2,200 valor points
- Brestplate of Tarnished Bronze End Time, Murozond
- Graveheart Bracers Dragon Soul, Warlord Zon'ozz
- Titanguard Wristplates Crafted (blacksmithing)
- Bracers of Unrelenting Excellence 1,250 valor points
- Handguards of Radiant Glory Dragon Soul, Warlord Zon'ozz (token)
- Gauntlets of Feathery Blows 1,650 valor points
- Gauntlets of Temporal Interference End Time, any Echo boss
- Goriona's Collar Dragon Soul, Warmaster Blackthorn
- Waistplate of the Desecrated Future Dragon Soul, trash drop
- Forgesmelter Waistplate 1,650 valor points
- Girdle of Lost Heroes End Time, any Echo boss
- Legguards of Radiant Glory Dragon Soul, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping (token)
- Foundations of Courage Crafted (blacksmithing)
- Bloodhoof Legguards End Time, Echo of Baine
- Stillheart Warboots Dragon Soul, Ultraxion
- Bladeshatter Treads 1,650 valor points
- Chrono Boots End Time, Murozond
- Indefatigable Greatcloak 1,250 valor points
- Iceward Cloak Hour of Twilight, Arcurion
- Guardspike Choker 1,250 valor points
- Twilight Amulet Hour of Twilight, trash drop
- Hardheart Ring Dragon Soul, first six bosses
- Signet of the Resolute 1,250 valor points
- Queen's Boon Well of Eternity, Queen Azshara
- Resolve of Undying Dragon Soul, Spine of Deathwing
- Soulshifter Vortex Dragon Soul, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
- Indomitable Pride Dragon Soul, first six bosses
- Fire of the Deep 1,650 valor points
- Veil of Lies Hour of Twilight, Archbishop Benedictus
- Master Pit Fighter Darkmoon Faire quest: Master Pit Fighter
- Stoutheart Talisman 700 valor points
- Souldrinker Dragon Soul, Madness of Deathwing
- Gavel of Peroth'arn Well of Eternity, Peroth'arn
- Blackthorn's Mighty Bulwark Dragon Soul, Warmaster Blackthorn
- Corrupted Carapace Hour of Twilight, Asira Dawnslayer
The trinkets are a bit tricky. Personally, I'm of a mind that once you're block-capped, you pile on stamina to make sure you can survive bigger hits and spell damage -- so you can imagine the soft spot Indomitable Pride has in my heart. Fine print, though: Say the tick of some environmental AoE is what brings you under 50%. Suddenly the proc is garbage for survivability in that corner case. That worries me. When a big hit knocks you to the level, that's what it will really shine -- but we need to always be aware of corner cases.
Resolve of Undying is a big, fat kiss to dodge fanatics -- 3.72% (diminished) dodge chance when fully stacked, which is a wonderful chunk of avoidance. It'll be particularly useful for any fights where the biggest damage source is melee damage.
Soulshifter Vortex makes me sad, since when we're properly block-capped, the proc is completely wasted.
Fire of the Deep looks great for a kit where you're trying to get your mastery up to the block cap level, and especially for the cooldown-esque clicky (worth 8.79% diminished dodge chance). That's an awful lot of mastery, though, for one trinket, especially when we're looking to cut back around this gear level.
For the 378 item level, the Master Pit Fighter is great for up-and-coming tanks, while the Veil of Lies' stat combination makes it a viable choice for continuing to use even into Dragon Soul.
The Light and How to Swing It shows paladin tanks how to take on the dark times brought by Cataclysm. Try out our 4 tips for upping your combat table coverage, find out how to increase threat without sacrificing survivability, and learn how to manage the latest version of Holy Shield.
Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Diatenium Dec 9th 2011 6:40PM
Prot isn't my specialty, but I can tell you, from a healer perspective, you can encounter bosses which do massive hits that bring you low. Ultraxion, Madness, to say nothing of heroic encounters, Indomitable pride looks to be a must-have for those fights.
It's a little silly how precisely they tuned everything around this tier of raiding. Holy paladins get a new Holy Radiance with a set bonus that buffs its healing, prot classes get a set bonus which gives them "Raid walls", all due to excessive and constant aoe damage being dolled out. This trinket is another, smaller example of that being played out.
brettreeme_09 Dec 9th 2011 7:31PM
I know you said in the paragraph before the gear that "I didn't list the gear in any particular order, so don't expect the top choice to be the best. Indeed, the best piece will depend on how much mastery you have and thus how close you are to block cap" BUT I was wondering about our Tier set. I have been looking around and some people are saying legs while others are screaming back shoulders. I can see that the expertise on the shoulders is what is turning them off but im not so sure about the legs. Is there actually a clear winner or is it truly a case of the CTC cap?
warpknight6 Dec 9th 2011 8:57PM
Since expertise is a threat stat, and threat is a non-issue anymore, the only reason to use expertise, and hence the tier shoulders, would be for dealing damage. Definitely use the legs, the expertise is almost totally useless, but another ~300 in avoidance stat? Yes please.
Ostentaneous Dec 9th 2011 8:01PM
As far as weapons gi, I won souldrinker off the lfr and I'm wondering how the proc compares to something with stats on it.
Also, I found the normal version of the axe off of morchok to be better ctc than the dungeon weapon thanks to it's gem slot. (I'm on my phone or I'd link them.)
paulmewis Dec 9th 2011 8:31PM
Mirror of Broken Images still viable for any fight?
Thereone Dec 10th 2011 2:16AM
The clicky on the Mirror is still very useful for heavy magic damage fights, the mastery is useful depending upon where you are in regards to CTC. Definitely hang on to it, it's only one more thing to carry.
shadowhowl1900 Dec 9th 2011 11:15PM
so thinking of picking up prot as an OS. used to be holy but the buff and nerf roller coaster for that spec just makes me wanna go with prot now plus near instant ques are a plus...
Magnuskn Dec 11th 2011 6:40AM
The crazy thing is that the full tank set from the 4.3 dungeons looks better than any other plate set from this whole expansion. ^^
Hal Dec 10th 2011 9:15AM
Are you still holding on to your Mirror of Broken whatever from Tol Barad? With all the raid damage flying around, I can't imagine that thing going out of style.
trendy.ideology Dec 10th 2011 8:14PM
"Mastery is still king,"
While mastery provides the most CTC, it's hardly king anymore.
Paladins have been block capping by gemming straight mastery, using mastery trinkets, eating mastery food, and using mastery elixirs, since the end of Tier11 and earlier Firelands.
Let me explain it like this.
It takes X mastery to block cap assuming your combine parry/dodge is Y.
Assuming you can block cap at any point...
As Y increases, X decreases.
Because the numbers are getting bigger, and X is decreasing as Y increases, which happens naturally as item levels rise, the "Demand" or "Need" for gear to have mastery diminishes.
So saying "Mastery is still king" is misleading. You can pretty much make all decisions based on what gear has the highest total mitigation stats, with no stat weights.
"Generally, the rule of thumb to follow when trying to decide what pieces are best is that mastery/avoidance pieces provide the most combat table coverage (and thus the most survivability), followed by mastery/threat pieces (with the threat stat reforged to avoidance), followed by avoidance/avoidance pieces, followed by avoidance/threat pieces. If a piece doesn't have mastery and you're seeking the One Stat to Rule Them All, reforge the higher number to mastery -- even if it's dodge or parry."
This is really outdated advice, I genuinely don't feel like going forward into this tier anyone is going to have trouble block capping if they have a brain and remotely current gear.
"As always, I recommend using my CTC calculator spreadsheet (I really can't pimp that enough) to properly evaluate each piece in relation to your current load-out and to confirm that an upgrade is most certainly an upgrade."
I also recommend ReforgeLite - It's current iteration is doing a fantastic job of perfectly balancing my dodge/parry and hitting precisely at 102.4%
"and threat stats are still to be avoided."
I have mixed feelings on this.
Expertise softcapped with some anecdotal hit on some gear by the end of the last tier when fights were sorta just facerolled, I'd pull impressive prot DPS.
If your healers aren't having trouble keeping you up, you can be a valuable asset with expertise softcap, and it costs you very little compared to trying to hit cap.
John Dec 11th 2011 1:15AM
This.
I wish the term "block cap" would just go away already, as it is very misleading. You need 102.4% total coverage from dodge, parry and block. Mastery gives the block, and in a good amount, which is one of the reasons that this stat is so attractive.
DO NOT be afraid to take up some dps-ish pieces. Especially on the weapon. I don't know why blizzard feels the need to make high end tanking weapons so scarce, but if you see a nice 1-hander with expertise/hit on it...roll for it
Pay attention to set bonuses. Many of us paladins found that our 4 piece t12 was useless....if you're already at 102.4%....what good is extra that doesn't get used? So we took the two piece set an picked up stronger-stat off pieces. T13 4pc is pretty legit tho...and almost a requirement for Madness and certainly many heroic encounters.
Remember protadins. You aren't just picking up adds and bosses- you are the meat shield for your group!
warpknight6 Dec 16th 2011 10:14AM
@John
I would hardly call 12% avoidance 'useless'.