While looking over my gear this morning, I wondered what kind of neck-piece I could get for an upgrade. I previously had Necklace of the Juggernaut (original Badge item) and I’m currently wearing Barbed Choker of Discipline (Maiden). There’s got to be a better amulet out there for a tank… right?

I browsed amulets on Wowhead and set a filter of Epic Quality and either + Defense, + Dodge Rating, or + Block Rating. In theory, this should bring up a nice list of tanking neck pieces. To my surprise, the list only contained six amulets. Two of these were the ones I previously had, which leaves four tanking amulets on the list.

Two of these are so far out of reach I won’t even consider them. Collar of the Pit Lord comes from Sunwell (Brutallus) and Pendant of Titans drops in BT (Essence of Anger).

That leaves two potential upgrades.

Frayed Tethered of the Drowned drops in SSC off Kalithresh. We’re currently working on Morogrim, so it’s possible that I’ll see this amulet in the near future. Is it worth it? Over the Barbed Choker of Discipline, it offers + 6 Stamina and + 8 Defense Rating at the cost of 21 Dodge Rating. It also offers 18 Hit Rating, but this is somewhat of an added bonus. With the Defense/Dodge trade-off, I’d be losing ~0.6% avoidance. At this point in time I don’t want to give that up, but this would be a nice tanking piece if I gain some avoidance elsewhere.

The Darkener’s Grasp comes from the quest to kill Kael’Thas in TK. This is an awesome amulet, and an upgrade in every way. +1 Stamina, +11 Defense, +2 Dodge Rating, and +14 Shield Block Rating. This offers some awesome static avoidance, and it’ll be great for add tanking in Hyjal… if I ever get there.

The TK amulet is the clear winner. I’d consider using the Kalithresh drop for added threat on certain bosses, but overall I love the avoidance on the TK amulet. Now if only I could find myself into a 5/5 TK run…