What armor, health, dodge do I need to effectively tank the easier LK heroics (Nexus, Utgarde Keep)? Currently I think I'm a bit too soft (I still have 2-3 lvl 70 pieces), so I'd like to have a goal of some sort. I think this was asked before but I can't find it anywhere (must be buried in an unrelated thread??).

I've successfully tanked hUK with my BC tanking gear... 2t4 pants and helm, s3 chest, s4 gloves and badge leggings, Moroes' lucky pocket watch, adamantite figurine, Idol of ferocity, bracers of the swift paw, and the staff from heroic VH. I don't know what my stats are, but I'm fairly certain that you have better just from LK dungeon blues, etc... I also did it without any points in Protector of the pack or SI...

I'm not saying this to honk my own horn, more to say that you should be g2g for the easier heroics... Just remember to have barkskin and frenzied regeneration ready to use for the boss fights. The final boss gave me some issues (read: a couple wipes) before i finally figured out when to straffe away from his yells, etc. I think it took a couple tries for our healer to look out for LoS silence as well.

I've tried to tank heroic Occ with the same setup and failed miserably...

Druids as a whole at the moment are helluvah squishy compared to other tanking classes from what I can tell. Dodge nerfs and the likes. It did take me quite a while to start shedding a lot of my 70 tanking gear since I was fairly geared. the problem is going to be mitigation and druid itemization is horrible. I've gotten rid of all my 70 gear now, and I still am rather squishy at times since we have so much less mitigation than healers are getting used to on warrior/pally tanks. On the bright side, we have like double their HP to make up for it. =x

one thing, do CoT Strat and the quest and get the hax gloves (they will nerf them but they're amazing gloves). You should be able to tank stuff like Nexus and Utgarde Keep with little problem.

Personally, the stats I tell people as a minimum for tanking heroics for bear are 28k HP in bear, 32% dodge and about 23-24k armor to start.

I just tanked hUK without much issue. Though I had really good DPS and a nice healer. I did feel a bit soft at times. But I did get my Enraged Feral Staff, woot!

yep i rememeber this being mentioned but must be inside a thread somewhere...

i thought the HP figure was lower though than Sy mentions are more like 23k ?

what sort of gear and stats are you running with atm tlb ? i'm still using a good few lvl 70 epics (pvp/badge) plus still got the old trusty CE rep weapon til the next patch changing our armour bonuses!

as much as i dont want to i reckon i need to run some normals before starting heroics.

So far I am able to tank hc UK, Nexus and AN with 29k health, 17k armor, and 28% doge. Yeah i'm quite a sponge. And need to work at my armor a lot. Hopefully the nice craftables will help me get that 25K armor goal soon.

my armour is better than 17k but i reckon my dodge and HP are both lower than yours Poy.

must check later as not really looked recently.

My tanking kit still contains at least 7? lvl 70 pieces (badge ring, badge cloak, kara ring, BoT, another lvl 70 trinket, pvp wrists, badge idol [though I use the coin idol for trash]) plus 2 polar pieces (chest and boots) and 2 trollwoven (belt and shoulders) and a quest reward head and gloves(??) and the hUK staff. The staff dropped last night before that I had a tanking staff from a group quest in ZD?? I have only quested through one third of ZD. And have done 4-5 reg 5-mans. And DPS'd one heroic before I tanked this one last night.

IIRC I have 26K armor(?), 24K health and ~30% dodge.

The 4 crafted pieces give plenty of stamina so I have gem'd them with +agi. Though I put a green gem (+def/+dodge) in the yellow slot on the boots for the set bonus.

my armour is better than 17k but i reckon my dodge and HP are both lower than yours Poy.

must check later as not really looked recently.

Yeah eventually I want to get close or over 30k armor.
Here is my wishlist: http://www.chardev.org/?template=110762

I notice there is a lot more things we can do to get gear then in TBC. I was quite fast ready to tank in Karazhan.

One more thing, my +def needs to get higher. One thing about leveling so fast and against lower level mobs, is your def doesn't level as fast as you do. I'm only at 399 and I'm lvl 80. Yikes! That probably had something to do with why I felt so squishy.

Edit: Doh! We max out at 400 not 450 (like professions), so I guess I'm not that bad off. I'll need to come up with another excuse for being a bit soft.

To be clear, druids are not squishy.

Anyone who tries to tank heroics with 17k armor IS squishy, however, druid or not.

I'd recommend around 23k armor and HP each and 28% dodge as a good baseline minimum to start tackling heroics. With no raid-level gear, I'm now sporting 33.6k armor, 28.5k HP, and 34.5% dodge with just paws on, to give you an idea of where you can get with some targetted gear upgrades, and I'm not done yet.

Khel I'm trying to figure out why you have so little armor? You had better gear than I did at the end of BC.

FWIW, I have 29K armor, 32.75% dodge and 26.5K health in my boss kit. Self-buffed (marks only) in bear form. I do fine in hUK. Haven't tried any others yet.

tlb - i had 'good' gear and stats for a non-raider in BC but with the nerfs we got and the coming of Wrath i do definitely feel my gear has gone backwards since Wrath.

i will check my stats later as cannot see armoury etc via the firewall and i dont use bear a lot atm, but also rememeber i've yet to run instances in Wrath. work and RL have meant my Wow time has decreased by around half in the past couple months. on average i get a couple hours post 19:30 after baby gone to bed.

atm from memory i am still running with BC items for :

resolute cloak
merciless gladiator helm / gloves
ring of stalwart protection
idol of terror
earthwarden
SSO neck with 39 stam cant remember its name.

Wrath items i'm using include :

dark arctic legs
trollwoven belt & spaulders
eviserator bracers

i'm looking to make the eviserators facemask but did not wanna lose the meta socket.

i'll be mixing this up as soon as the next patch hits us and changes the armour multiplier. as i've got a couple items in bank i would swap in, like the Durable Nerubhide Cloak and a ring and neck.

when i can afford it / when they come down in price - i'll be picking up some Dragon's Eyes for a Titanium Earthguard Ring.

and when a couple people i know get certain chars levelled we'll start hitting heroics so i expect to see my gear go up once we do this.....we will just start on the previously mentioned 'easy' heroics.

Don't forget to get the Titanium Earthguard Neck.

It is still the 2nd best neck after the armor nerf (After the 25 man Naxx neck)

And getting it before the patch will give you some of that missing armor.

its the cost of it Smart - no doubt it needs more dragon eyes.....

Khel I'm trying to figure out why you have so little armor? You had better gear than I did at the end of BC.

FWIW, I have 29K armor, 32.75% dodge and 26.5K health in my boss kit. Self-buffed (marks only) in bear form. I do fine in hUK. Haven't tried any others yet.
ok tlb to prove how far i fallen behind.....in bear buffed!! i am currently

25.7k HP, 27.2k armour, 30.9% dodge, 28.37% crit and a mammoth 74 hit !! lol.

That's not bad, you can tank hUK no problems.

Yeah, that's not bad at all. Your dodge is low relative to your other stats, though, are you using Polar or something?

Yeah, that's not bad at all. Your dodge is low relative to your other stats, though, are you using Polar or something?
nope, no polar.

new crafted like dark arctic chest, ring of earthen might, jormscale footpads, both trollwoven items and eviserators bindings. chain guard leggings. old lvl 70 merciless gladiator helm still as well some old badge items - ring of stalwart defender, handwraps of the aggressor and resolute cape (nerubhide purple raeady in bank). earthwarden. a badge of tenacity til the armour nerf patch.