Is gearing a fresh warrior horrible?

[Asrialol]

So I've been having a Warrior that's been level 74 since Wrath. Long story short, he's leveled from 1 to 74 in a grand total of 6 years. I like it slow I guess.

Anyway, one thing that's been bothering me is the fresh "start" at level 90. Basically, I want to tank. However, how on earth do I get gear that's good enough for tanking? Do I have to queue as DPS and be horrible until I get the gear? Doesn't sound optimal.

It's just dinged 76 but since I'm amazing at boosting him on my Hunter (Two accounts Hoo-haaa!) I should be 80 in an hour or two and 90 in a day or two. If you look away from the fact that I'll take him through Naxx, Ulduar and all that stuff for transmog and such. Fun stuff.

So. Basically. How did you gear up at 90 as a Prot warr? Run as DPS and being bad until you got the gear? Horribly long queues too. Shrug.

[Incognito Noctix]

Quest/vendor gear -> Normals -> Heroics -> LFR -> Raids -> HC Raids
As tank ofc.
Toss in some AH gear inbetween wherever.

[Detheavn]

So. Basically. How did you gear up at 90 as a Prot warr? Run as DPS and being bad until you got the gear? Horribly long queues too. Shrug.

I leveled as a prot warrior. May not be your cup of tea, but at least the greenies you can buy throughout pandaria should help you get starter tanking gear, with which I mean for normal dungeons.

[Cernunnos]

So. Basically. How did you gear up at 90 as a Prot warr? Run as DPS and being bad until you got the gear? Horribly long queues too. Shrug.

Most of the quest chain rewards let you pick a DPS or a tank reward. Take the tank reward. I did that on both my Dk and paladin, I quested as tank, and was able to grab a DPS offspec set in addition to getting a half way decent 440 tank set just from quests. And the DPS set is around 429/430 ish.

[Alvito]

If you are really worried about not having the gear or ability to tank then you may want to stop boosting him and actually tank things. If it really comes down to it quest greens and the random blues you get should be more then enough to get the job done. If you just want to zip to the end then jump into tanking then yeah you may run into some gear and skill issues.

[Gromnak]

Gearing a tank is very easy. You get instant queues and you decide how fast the dungeon goes, so if you are confident in your tanking ability and the ability of your healer, then that generally means the dungeons are very fast assuming you chain pull. The fact that you get instant queues and have the potential to make the dungeon faster means you should end up getting fully dungeon geared faster than other specs/classes (if they solo queue) because you will just have more chances at the loot in a shorter period of time.

Also, as long as you have 440 ilvl (bare minimum) then you can queue for heroics immediately to start gearing, don't worry if you think it's too low ilvl.....it's not. Heroics are very easy and it just takes proper cooldown management and a healer with half a brain to stay alive in quest greens/blues.

I suggest you get a ghost iron dragonling and put hit/exp/mastery or hit/exp/parry in there, it's a great starter trinket for all specs/classes. They usually go for ~125g or less depending on the realm.

Purchasing some of the cheap contender's pvp gear (ilvl 450) from the AH is a good choice as well.

[Nova Swaggins]

So I've been having a Warrior that's been level 74 since Wrath. Long story short, he's leveled from 1 to 74 in a grand total of 6 years. I like it slow I guess.

Anyway, one thing that's been bothering me is the fresh "start" at level 90. Basically, I want to tank. However, how on earth do I get gear that's good enough for tanking? Do I have to queue as DPS and be horrible until I get the gear? Doesn't sound optimal.

It's just dinged 76 but since I'm amazing at boosting him on my Hunter (Two accounts Hoo-haaa!) I should be 80 in an hour or two and 90 in a day or two. If you look away from the fact that I'll take him through Naxx, Ulduar and all that stuff for transmog and such. Fun stuff.

So. Basically. How did you gear up at 90 as a Prot warr? Run as DPS and being bad until you got the gear? Horribly long queues too. Shrug.

The best way is to invest in the Masterwork Spiritguard armor (crafted 450 tank set) with a shield and rings to match. That'll give you the setup you need for heroics, from there you go and farm heroics until you're comfortably geared for LFR. Do Sha and get the quest item, that will give you epic boots, and if money isn't an issue you can look into the 496 crafted epic gear. Enjoy!

[loki504]

tanks in heroic 5m doesn't need any gear. i went into hc with my 450 pvp set. and did just fine. active migration plays a big role in how often you die. but skills>gear for 5m.

[Calamari]

The entry into the gearing curve at 90 is very forgiving, even a green geared prot warrior has little to worry about with a half decent healer in your dungeon group. As Korza and loki504 said, if you buy some blue level 90 crafted gear, it makes things even easier.

If you still find yourself struggling, then you can always run Scenarios first, those are very easy and provide decent early-90 upgrades (sometimes ilvl 476 epics too).

[idefiler6]

It's no harder to gear a warrior than any other class. Why?

[Regen]

It's no harder to gear a warrior than any other class. Why?

I'm going to guess he said warrior specifically because that's what he's working on. Generally, it seems to mean tanks in general (though BrM/Guardian would be easy) being difficult because in his original opinion there's no easy entry.

[idefiler6]

I'm going to guess he said warrior specifically because that's what he's working on. Generally, it seems to mean tanks in general (though BrM/Guardian would be easy) being difficult because in his original opinion there's no easy entry.

If you mean tanks in general it should technically be easier at first with instant heroic and normal 5 man queues. In addition I usually get instant queues for Heart of Fear and ToES LFR as well. As long as he farms charms he's good to go.

[Regen]

Yeah you get instant queues but as far as gear goes he felt as though there's no good starting point. I'd say it's leaps and bounds easier as tank. I did my death knight as blood first, then picked up my frost set even though I never tank anything.

[Gandrake]

just wear your dps gear, it doesn't matter

you're basically going to want dps gear for that content anyway, because it is so easy

[dariusz2k]

Keep in mind normal dungeons with LFG have the following for you; the luck of the draw boost, level 90 players trying to gear up for heroics. I think with these two you shouldn't be extremely worried about much, if you are worried, then by all means mark and have some more CC to make up for your HP. Keeping threat with a warrior is pretty easy so just try and keep yourself alive and use CD's when you need to. Also take everyone else's advice and do some questing to gear up.