After some browsing the armory, I think I’ve narrowed down what I’ll be wearing when Lich King is released. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’ll be a mix of Lich King craftables, Merciless Gladiator’s Scaled gear, and some traditional BC tanking pieces.

Lich King Craftables

Thankfully, some brand new tanking items will be available at level 70. Seven patterns - helm, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs, boots, and a shield - will be available to blacksmiths with skills of 360-370. Each of these pieces features the new preferred itemization for tanking - stamina, strength, and defense.

The mats? Simply Cobalt Bars. Presumably, this will be the “cheap” ore in Lich King - similar to Fel Iron in BC. The recipes require 5 to 8 bars each, nothing extraordinary.

My current plan is to pick up four of these pieces.

• Cobalt Belt
• Cobalt Legs
• Cobalt Boots
• Cobalt Triangle Shield

In addition, I’ll probably throw Boar’s Speed on the boots, Shield Block on the shield, and Nethercleft Leg Armor on the legs. Gotta use those old mats for something, after all.

That’ll yield:

• 231 Stamina
• 116 Strength
• 121 Defense Rating
• 15 Block Rating
• 12 Agility

Merciless Gladiator’s Scaled

Some of the Merciless gear overlaps with the available Cobalt gear - so I decided to make some choice. Although the Cobalt gear yields defense, I figured the higher amounts of Strength and Stamina, along with Intellect, compensated for that. The Resilience will guarantee that I remain uncrittable, and there are some gem slots to add some extra defense back in.

I decided to pick up four pieces of this, so that I could get the 4 piece set bonus - a reduced cooldown on Hammer of Justice.

• Merciless Gladiator’s Scaled Helm
• Merciless Gladiator’s Scaled Shoulders
• Merciless Gladiator’s Scaled Chestpiece
• Merciless Gladiator’s Scaled Gauntlets

For enchants, I’ll stick with the normal Glyph of the Defender and Greater Inscription of the Knight.

For the Chest, I’ll opt for Exceptional Stats, since the Str is now as useful as the health. In addition, the +150 Health doesn’t provide me with any Spell Power, the way real Stamina does. For the gloves, I’ll probably go for Major Strength.

That also leaves gem slots - four red, two yellow, and a meta.

The meta socket is a no brainer. Eternal Earthstorm Diamond - an extra 10% Block Value. Hells yeah.

For the reds and yellows, I’m not entirely sure. My current instinct is to go with some new Lich King gems, like the Champion’s Huge Citrine. I’ll probably throw those in all six colored slots to begin with.

That’ll yield…

• 192 Stamina
• 230 Strength
• 114 Resilience
• 77 Defense Rating
• 27 Dodge Rating

Traditional BC Prot Gear

For the rest, I’ll probably hold on to my old Prot gear, until I find something more suitable. It’ll definitely be helpful for instance tanking (still need avoidance), but I’ll probably switch in some quest gear for grinding purposes.

• Barbed Choker of Discipline
• Slikk’s Cloak of Placation with Steelweave
• Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx with Fortitude
• Ring of the Stalwart Protector
• Ring of Sundered Souls
• Scarab of Displacement
• Commendation of Kael’thas

That yields…

• 280 Stamina
• 127 Defense Rating
• 99 Dodge Rating

Oh. And I picked up a Talon of Azshara to test out as a weapon. I also have a Sun Eater, which would be nice for the avoidance, but it’s giving up a lot of damage on Hammer of the Righteous. Might switch back and forth between them for Prot grinding and Instance tanking. Either way, I’ll probably throw Potency on them for the Strength boost.

Grand Totals?

So, what does that bring me to? It’s an interesting collection of gear, but will it be viable for instance tanking and protection grinding?

That’ll yield

• 703 + 126 Base Stamina = 729 * 1.16 (Talent Modifiers) = 845 Stamina (~11820 Health)
• 346 + 129 Base Strength = 475 * 1.15 (Talent Modifier) = 546 Strength (~1100 AP)
• 325 Defense Rating = ~135 Defense Skill - ~10.4% Miss
• ~5.4% Parry (from Defense) + 5% Parry (from talents) = ~10.4% Parry
• ~5.4% Block (from Defense) + ~2% (from Block Rating) + ~5.4% (from Libram) = ~13% Block
• 126 Dodge Rating = ~6.8% + 5% (Talents) + 0.65% (Class Bonus) + ~3.8% (from Agi) = ~ 16.25% Dodge
• ~250 Spell Power (converted from Stamina by Talents)

Although my health would be a bit low (<12k) and avoidance is a low too (~80% with Holy Shield), I think this will work great for grinding. I should have a decent Block Value (550+), and the AP/Spell Power combined should do some nice damage and threat. Hopefully.