I'm wondering what other druids opinion are of these two shoulders for tanking.

Shoulderpads of Assassination
Link: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27776

Merciless Gladiator's Dragonhide Spaulders
Link: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31971

Now the Merciless Gladiators one have intellect, and plus healing on them, which all the Druid PvP shoulders do. These however have more armor, and stamina then the Shoulderpads of Assassination, but to me it would be wierd to see a Druid with +healing and (15 Dodge / 10 Defense) Enchant.

More people have said the Shoulderpads of Assassination for Druid tanking, but these comments were made before The PvP ones easily available.


The differences:

Armor:
Merciless +158 Armor
Merciless +14 Stamina

But would anyone use these for tanking, or put the (15 Dodge / 10 Defense) enchant on them to tank. I just sense a bit more of an outcry from groups with people saying "Why would you put that enchant on a shoulder with healing" or "Why would you tank with +healing on shoulders"

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I'm looking for other druid opinions for these.

Thanks

Unfortunately, for bears some of the best (if not the best) shoulders come from PvP. It is sad, but true.

One of these days I need to update my S1 shoulders to the S2 version.

Yeah,

I see from your armory that you have done exactly what I am talking about with the S1 shoulders.

Good to know that Im not too crazy.

Another option is to use the .5 vendor bought dragonhide for tanking and the assassination ones for cat. That is what I did for a long while. It really all depends on what you have access to.

Another option is to use the .5 vendor bought dragonhide for tanking and the assassination ones for cat.The .5 set is great for those just starting tanking at lvl 70 (or who have just respec'd). They are nearly free and they fill the gaps where the few crafted/quest tanking items don't fill (shoulders and hands).

Agreed, it is weird... but really the resil (really easy to become uncrittable with resil) stam and armor, the S2 ones are great for tanking.

i detest and hate pvp.

but as you will see from a thread or 2 on here i had to start pvp a few weeks ago simply for the shoulders.

for tanking they are brilliant.

before i got the Merciless ones i was using a crafted set whose pattern was a trash drop from MH/BT and cost me an arm and a leg to make - pattern cost and mats cost- 2 Heart of Darkness !!!!

the Merciless were better and all they cost me was a few hours of enduring pvp.

hence why i still detest pvp for the simple and easy epics its gives you.

if you done wanna pvp for the merciless and you cant afford the swiftstrike ones or are not a LW then the next best ones for a druid for tanking are from Heroic BF...Mantle of something or other !

i actually now also the Merciless Helm as i dont raid so my choices are limited.

Agreed, it is weird... but really the resil (really easy to become uncrittable with resil) stam and armor, the S2 ones are great for tanking.


Yeah, the resilence will only help out, but Im already past the 415, at 425 actually. It will help though, yes.


I detest and hate PvP also, and this will prob be the only piece that I go for. Thanks for all the comments :)

The good news about getting the crit reduction (crit immune) through the PvP gear is that you can re-gem or re-enchant some of your clefthoof stuff (or other +def pieces) to include more Agi or Stam (Agi is king. dodge + crit immune ftw, not to mention more crit = more threat)

With LK on the horizon (somewhere) I wonder at using PvP gear for tanking and need to run Emmerald's lists giving both resil and def 0 weight. No doubt it will work, and often times work very well, in the short run. For example I don't see it is worth too much of my time to grind Arena points with an eye toward S3 items to use in my PvE tanking set. Maybe I am jumping the gun a hair though.

You are correct Taiglin. I would just pickup PvP gear for DPS (for solo leveling) and not worry about its usefulness in tanking. Unless you need it today.

I heard that resilience is going to have no effect in PvE in WotLK.

That is true.

thats a shame now i've joined the dark side and done some pvp for nice items !

While resilience is going to suck for tanking purposes, pvp gear is likely going to be the best gear you can use for leveling until you get to 80. The crit rate of druids is being nerfed, so having all that +crit can help quite a bit.