Entry level ICC 10 Tanking Goals

[Tyrrandion]

Thought I'd ask some people with experience. Cat is my MS and I'm just finishing off gearing that, but we have a guild 10m coming up this week, So I thought with a day of running hc's I could get full T9 with one of the offsets, the trinket, rings, etc. Just for safteys sake, I though I'd ask for sure (keeping in mind we run with 2 priests usually, and go 4/12 regular, we're pushing into 5/12 this week or next week. Yes we know 2 priests isn't ideal, but thats what we have to work with).

What dodge should I be sitting at pre CotT:

What unbuffed HP should I be sitting at pre warsong:

I'm assuming grabbing 4 piece t9 is ideal. Would this be correct or would I be better off grabbing both offsets?

Trinket setup? Working on not getting the black heart ninja'd from me atm, once I have that I assume that+the badge trinket? I do have DMC:G agi, though I don't know how effective it is vs. the badge trinket.

Thanks for the help. Peace

[Cortano]

On badge gear: the tanking ring is really good, as is the armor trinket. Just grind out the Black Heart, it really is that good. The 245 helm is a very nice pickup. The 226 belt is also ok, if you are low on expertise or hit.

While the event is on, grab the tanking cloak from Ahune.

If you have wintergrasp tokens, the 251 shoulders are a good pickup (otherwise, the 245 badge ones are ok.)

The PvP Boots, belt and bracer are very nice for tanking, and the leather pieces generally are solid (if you prefer to PvP to grinding heroics.)

I think 48K health and 45% dodge (post-buffs, but before chill/warshout) is reasonable to start tanking there. (60K-ish health, 25% dodge) As you gear up, I think keeping that health and working on threat/avoidance is a good idea, but for learning, nothing is as effective as the health.)

---------- Post added 2010-06-28 at 01:01 PM ----------

One thing I can recommend: try an pre-made battleground teams. It can be a lot of fun (in part because a pre-made will win 85% of the time), but its also quite different than just doing heroics over and over.

[Deleted]

5,4k gs...

jokes aside, around 50k hp and 40%ish dodge selfbuffed is a good starter

[Cortano]

go from naxx10 to ulduar10 to toc10 , do togc10

No one runs Naxx or Ulduar these days past the weekly, so not great advice. With the warshout buff, ICC.1-4 is no tougher than ToC, and far easier to get a good group for. There really isn't a lot of opportunity to do the old stuff, and when people actually do them, it is for achievements (which means no opportunity for learning.)

however dont bother if you skip any of the above steps...

Well, skip all those steps because you probably don't have any choice in the matter.

You will want to get as much experience tanking as you can; do as many heroics as you can stand. Read the guides (wowwiki has a lot of links) and watch movies for every raid boss you are going to do. Let me repeat that again: watch movies for every raid boss you are going to tank.

Other than that, you just need to jump in and give it a go.

[Tmad]

Get triumph emblem gear and go with a pug instead of going with your guild. If you can't kill more than 4 bosses in icc10, when everyone does +25% damage, healing, you guys are bad. You can easily clear 9/12 with a random PUG. It's mostly just zerg and " OMG GREEN SLIME, MOVE ".

[Tyrrandion]

I should have mentioned. I do know all of these fights. I tank with my warrior and pally every week, but with the different tanking dynamics of a druid (no block, no parry), I thought it best to ask what the good pre ICC numbers are, rather than just assume its the same as with either of my blocking classes (I have a DK tank, but I hate DK tanking, so I don't use him either).

Also to the troll saying I'm in a bad guild because we only do first wing: Stfu

[Veriloquus]

If you are not going to carry your guild on your back (retarded DPS, AFK healers etc) the gear you mentioned is pretty good for ICC10 1st quarter. Of course on such forums you can find ppl that say that UK heroic 5man needs a 50k health tank and a haste-capped healer, but you can ignore them right away.


On a sidenote, two priests are good enough to heal that, if they cover both disc & holy specs - including glyphs, gems & enchants.

[Tyrrandion]

A quick question. Someone suggested the 251 WG shoulders and the 245 Badge Helm. Does this mean it's not worth going for 4 piece T9?

[Cortano]

I think the 4T9 is kind of a waste. The bonus is kinda 'meh' for tanks, and the loss of stats you get from down ranking from 245s isn't worth it. You really want to get that 2T10 very quickly, its really awesome for holding aggro on the trash, makes clearing 100% easier.

---------- Post added 2010-06-28 at 11:11 PM ----------

If you have a lot of cash, the "sack of wonder" and the crafted boots are very good pick-ups. You have to get into 25-man hardmodes to find upgrades. Grabbing a Battered Hilt also is very nice, a good weapon helps a LOT when starting in ICC.

[Deleted]

Yeah, grabbing the sack of wonder and the crafted boots is awesome Lots of sta and expertise.

[Fornaw]

On badge gear: the tanking ring is really good, as is the armor trinket. Just grind out the Black Heart, it really is that good. The 245 helm is a very nice pickup. The 226 belt is also ok, if you are low on expertise or hit.

While the event is on, grab the tanking cloak from Ahune.

If you have wintergrasp tokens, the 251 shoulders are a good pickup (otherwise, the 245 badge ones are ok.)

The PvP Boots, belt and bracer are very nice for tanking, and the leather pieces generally are solid (if you prefer to PvP to grinding heroics.)

I think 48K health and 45% dodge (post-buffs, but before chill/warshout) is reasonable to start tanking there. (60K-ish health, 25% dodge) As you gear up, I think keeping that health and working on threat/avoidance is a good idea, but for learning, nothing is as effective as the health.)

---------- Post added 2010-06-28 at 01:01 PM ----------

One thing I can recommend: try an pre-made battleground teams. It can be a lot of fun (in part because a pre-made will win 85% of the time), but its also quite different than just doing heroics over and over.

It's really not that good, I hate procing tank trinkets. Trouble is that there aren't a whole lot of other options. The Ignis trinket on 25 is decent and you might be able to pick it up from a weekly raid. The TotC 25 trinket is wonderful, TotC 25 is definitely still worth the trip for players who want to gear up for ICC. Otherwise the frost emblem trinket is a pretty massive upgrade over black heart, relatively strong upgrade per badge compared to other frost emblem pieces.

Edit: Depending on which boss I'm facing I might view the Ick trinket as an upgrade over Black Heart. Battlemaster's trinkets are a godsend to a tank.

[Cortano]

The Black Heart really shines on tank-swap fights. The proc triggers quickly, the uptime is extremely high (and you get the buff when you need it, during transitions and at the start of a fight.)

10 sec of every 45 = 22% uptime * 7000 = 1500 armor equivalent
On a tank swap fight, you have even higher uptime (35%+, 2500+ armor equivalent)
AND the stamina on it is a nice bonus as well.


Ick's .... really ick. dodge is the worst of the passive tanking bonuses, and the effect is on the weak side. Its outclassed by the card of greatness: agility.

[Deleted]

It's really not that good, I hate procing tank trinkets. Trouble is that there aren't a whole lot of other options. The Ignis trinket on 25 is decent and you might be able to pick it up from a weekly raid. The TotC 25 trinket is wonderful, TotC 25 is definitely still worth the trip for players who want to gear up for ICC. Otherwise the frost emblem trinket is a pretty massive upgrade over black heart, relatively strong upgrade per badge compared to other frost emblem pieces.

true, the frost badge is better, but the black heart is actually very good. i know, Rawr fail sometimes, but still, imo its a very good tool.

pic 1

pic 2

i know, the results is from my char so it can change from druid to druid. i have lots of expertise (47) so trinkets that gives threat is lower than "usual".

edit: stupid pics, wont work click on link, normal imageshack, no nasty stuff

[Azyoulike]

For icc-normal at 25% buff you can really stop worrying and just go tank it. We just did an alt run with a pally tank in ulduar gear, and mostly 10 man ulduar gear at that.

Their GS was about 4.3k, and they took fester at 3-inhales.

The 25% buff has totally trivialized icc-10 normal from a tank gear perspective.

[Fornaw]

The Black Heart really shines on tank-swap fights. The proc triggers quickly, the uptime is extremely high (and you get the buff when you need it, during transitions and at the start of a fight.)

10 sec of every 45 = 22% uptime * 7000 = 1500 armor equivalent
On a tank swap fight, you have even higher uptime (35%+, 2500+ armor equivalent)
AND the stamina on it is a nice bonus as well.


Ick's .... really ick. dodge is the worst of the passive tanking bonuses, and the effect is on the weak side. Its outclassed by the card of greatness: agility.

Ick's is ~400 stam when you need it. The black heart has a much lower uptime than you suggest, it only has a 1 in 4 chance to proc when you take damage, meaning a dodge or miss will never proc it.

You can't treat tank proc trinkets like DPS proc trinkets. DPS toons often generate the 2 or 3 times expected number of attacks required to proc their trinkets in the first 2 seconds after coming out of ICD. For a trinket like Black Heart and a Druid with 50% avoidance it will take 15-20 seconds to generate the expected number of hits for a proc after coming out of ICD.