My druid is only 71 or so (and he’s only that high due to doing dailies), but if I decide to tank with him Big Bear Butt Blogger has me covered with Bear Tanking Specs and Gear Pre-Naxx.

We ran Naxxramas for the first time last night.  It went very well.  We managed to clear the entire Arachnid Quarter in under 2 hours.  We were short of decursers so I opted not to try the Plague Quarter.  We gave the Military Quarter a shot, but got beaten down by Instructor Razuvious.

It was very smooth for a first time run.  We one-shotted Anub’Rekhan.  I wasn’t prepared for the first enrage on Grand Widow Faerlina, the on the second pull I disconnected, but we got her the third time.  I ran in for Maexxna and managed to get half the raid group locked out.  Oops.  We got her the second time.  Unfortunately we couldn’t seem to manage the mind control for Instructor Razuvious so we didn’t get past him.  Something to look forward to for next time!

It wasn’t as easy as some people have said.  There were some factors that added to the difficulty for us.  Due to people not showing up we were an all-melee DPS group.  I reviewed the Project Marmot videos many, many times and still messed up some descriptions.  However, this was a group of people who had completed Karazhan, Gruul’s Lair, and half of Zul’Aman in Burning Crusade so they are good raiders.  I fully expect that we’ll blow through the Arachnid Quarter much more quickly next time. Fear us denizens of Naxxramas!

Here’s a listing of Heroics ranked by difficulty. I’ve been doing heroics lately and it’s been fun. So far I’ve only completed Violet Hold on heroic (on an Utgarde Pinnacle run now) and I enjoyed it.

Here are the Pawn scales I’m using for my toons in Wrath of the Lich King.   As always, Pawn is for quick comparisons, not for squeezing every last point out of your gear.  Read Skeleton Jack’s post on Pawn for some of the things to watch out for.  I have tweaked some of these scales and I have no strong theorycrafting proof behind their effectiveness. 

A few more points to note:

1. Each rating is relative only to itself.

Some pawn users assume that if they have two strings, that the rating that has the higher value is what the gear is better for. This is NOT the case. You should only use a rating to compare two items together, rather than using ratings to determine what an item is better for. (Note: This rule can be counterfeit, but that requires balancing points)
2. A rating that gives you numbers in the 100’s is no better or worse than one that gives you points in the 10,000’s
Remember, this is a relative comparison tool. So 900 - 1000 may be better than 90,000 to 95,000.
3. Pawn doesn’t account for everything
Raid buffs, gear changing, and Talents factor in here as well. These are static values to help determine relative value, but raid buffs, talent changes, and changes from blizzard will affect the relative value of these statistics, so these strings will more than likely be dynamic.

Warrior

Protection

Balanced

(Pawn: v1: “Balanced”: CritRating=0.89, Agility=8.47, ExpertiseRating=9.22, DefenseRating=11.13, BlockValue=4.86, ArmorPenetration=1, Dps=3.56, Strength=3.84, ParryRating=8.24, BlockRating=8.42, DodgeRating=9.61, HitRating=1.98, Stamina=14.29, Armor=1, HasteRating=0.62, Ap=0.43 )

Survival

( Pawn: v1: “Survival”: BlockRating=8.49, Strength=2.91, ParryRating=8.56, Agility=8.02, ExpertiseRating=7.22, DefenseRating=11.61, Stamina=14.25, Armor=1, DodgeRating=10.09, BlockValue=4.98 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “Threat”: ArmorPenetration=4.54, CritRating=4.03, Dps=16.15, Strength=4.66, ParryRating=0.41, Agility=3.26, HitRating=9.56, HasteRating=3.02, ExpertiseRating=9.56, Ap=2 )

Based roughly on Elitist Jerks Tanking Spreadsheet.  Needs to be edited for sockets.

( Pawn: v1: “Heavy”: RedSocket=16, CritRating=0.8, Strength=1, MetaSocket=8, ExpertiseRating=0.7, BlueSocket=16, YellowSocket=16, ColorlessSocket=16, HitRating=0.7, BlockValue=0.9 )

Based roughly on Matthew Rossi’s post,The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Heavy.  This is for leveling as a Prot Warrior.  Vene has a good post for Raid DPS as a Prot Warrior.

Fury

See this post for Fury Warriors.

Paladin

Mostly from this thread on Elitist Jerks. 

Protection

Mitigation

( Pawn: v1: “ProtMit”: DodgeRating=18, BlockRating=1, Ap=1.2, CritRating=0.6, Strength=9.5, ParryRating=14.5, ExpertiseRating=1.5, Agility=14.5, HitRating=1.1, Stamina=19.1, Armor=1.2, SpellPower=0.8, DefenseRating=16.5, BlockValue=16.5 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “ProtThr”: Intellect=0.2, DodgeRating=15.1, BlockRating=0.9, Ap=4.7, CritRating=2.4, Strength=18.8, ParryRating=12.8, ExpertiseRating=6.1, Agility=12.2, HitRating=4.2, Stamina=16.8, Armor=1.1, SpellPower=3.1, DefenseRating=13.9, BlockValue=17.4 )

Holy

( Pawn: v1: “Holy”: Intellect=2.25, RedSocket=24, CritRating=1.1, MetaSocket=75, HasteRating=1, BlueSocket=14, Stamina=0.1, SpellPower=1.2, Mp5=2.5, YellowSocket=30 )

Shaman

Enhancement

Based on a run of EnhSim, DPS simulator

( Pawn: v1: “AEP Calc”: Intellect=1.14, CritRating=0.64, Agility=1.39, ExpertiseRating=0.67, OffHandDps=4.33, YellowSocket=32, ArmorPenetration=0.52, RedSocket=32, Strength=1, MetaSocket=16, HitRating=0.68, BlueSocket=32, MainHandDps=8.82, HasteRating=0.81, ColorlessSocket=32, Ap=1 )

Restoration

Based on this post.

( Pawn: v1: “Resto (EJ)”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=105, HasteRating=3, BlueSocket=86, YellowSocket=112, SpellPower=5, Mp5=10, CritRating=3 )

Hunter

Beastmaster

( Pawn: v1: “Beast Mastery”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=128, CritRating=5, MetaSocket=168, HitRating=10, Agility=7, HasteRating=2, BlueSocket=128, YellowSocket=128, ArmorPenetration=6, Mp5=8, Ap=4 )

From this thread

Druid

Cat

( Pawn: v1: “Cat (Toskk)”: ArmorPenetration=1.0161, RedSocket=37.312, Strength=2.332, CritRating=0.83, ColorlessSocket=37.312, MetaSocket=103.21, FeralAp=1, Agility=1.6992, ExpertiseRating=1.0362, BlueSocket=18.66, YellowSocket=26.92, HitRating=1.0334, HasteRating=0.7236, Ap=1 )

From Flyv

Bear

( Pawn: v1: “Bear (Toskk)”: RedSocket=113.7, YellowSocket=101.3, ColorlessSocket=172.4, MetaSocket=329, Stamina=7.185, Agility=3.429, Health=0.411, BlueSocket=172.4, Armor=1.066, DefenseRating=1.885, DodgeRating=2.685, ExpertiseRating=1.306 )

From Flyv

Resto

( Pawn: v1: “Resto”: Intellect=5.79, HasteRating=2.87, CritRating=2.05, SpellPower=9.4, Spirit=5.13, Mp5=10 )

From this Elitist Jerks Post

Death Knight

Unholy

( Pawn: v1: “Unholy”: ArmorPenetration=0.544, RedSocket=39.7552, CritRating=1.12, Strength=2.4847, ColorlessSocket=39.7552, HasteRating=0.621, Agility=0.7336, HitRating=2.474, BlueSocket=17.3929, YellowSocket=25.2329, TwoHandDps=7.567, ExpertiseRating=1.391, Ap=1 )

From Skeleton Jack’s Post.  

Other

Other specs, Warlocks, Priests, Mages, and Rogues are out of luck here.  I suggest Elitist Jerks as a starting point. Good luck in your search!

NOTE: No warranties, either express or implied, are hereby given. All software is supplied as is, without guarantee.  The user assumes all responsibility for damages resulting from the use of these features, including, but not limited to, frustration, disgust, system abends, disk head-crashes, general malfeasance, floods, fires, shark attack, nerve gas, locust infestation, cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis, local electromagnetic disruptions, hydraulic brake system failure, invasion, hashing collisions, normal wear and tear of friction surfaces, comic radiation, inadvertent destruction of sensitive electronic components, windstorms, the Riders of Nazgul, infuriated chickens, malfunctioning mechanical or electrical sexual devices, premature activation of the distant early warning system, peasant uprisings, halitosis, artillery bombardment, explosions, cave-ins, and/or frogs falling from the sky.

Warrior Vene’s Quick and Dirty Pre-Naxx Prot DPS Guide gives some tips for when you have to DPS as a Prot warrior. This would also be useful for the daily quest grinds.
EDIT: Do NOT use this for questing. It hugely over values Hit and Expertise against mobs your level or lower. This is only for raiding. Follow Matthew Rossi’s ideas instead for questing or leveling.

Point 4 in Doofy’s Unsolicited World of Warcraft Predictions for 2009 is a good one. I know that I’d be tempted to go for two different tanking specs, or two different healing specs depending on the toon rather than spec for tanking and healing or tanking and DPS. If I was interested in PvP, I’d definitely have a PvP Spec and a PvE spec, which would leave my off-spec role abandoned again.

Orly Factor - Tank Gemming in Wrath, my experiences seems to match what I’ve seen. Now I need to get some gear with gem slots on it (or at least modify my own gear to provide gem slots).

At the request of one of the members of our guild alliance, I focused in on leveling blacksmithing last night.  Jaimie had spent way too much time mining saronite, eternals, and the odd bit of titanium so thanks to her I had the raw materials to proceed. 

I didn’t bother following any leveling guides.  If I could make an item from the Tempered Saronite set I made two so that both my paladin and my warrior would be geared for tanking.  The exceptions were the two Daunting pieces, which are better than the Tempered Saronite equivalents for tanking.  I wound up disenchanting about 8 items and now I have tons of Titanium Skeleton Keys but I’m almost at the point of being able to craft any blacksmithing item in the game.  I should hit that point tonight. 

Blacksmithing is expensive to level and so far the good stuff seems to be all BOE.  I suspect that if I had taken mining instead and used the money from that to buy the pieces I need, I’d have been way, way ahead.  Nevertheless, leveling professions is something I enjoy so that’s what I choose to spend my in game gold on.  Next big money sink is engineering! 

Taliafears at Elitist Jerks has a Tanking Spreadsheet up for warriors. I’m probably going to harvest this for values to make a Pawn scale for tanking gear. Then again, using a spreadsheet like this might help me spot when when my gear is not optimally enchanted or gemmed. I’m going to have to think about how much work I want to put into this.

I actually did some leveling on my warrior this weekend as I need to catch up to the most advanced member of our static group.  We thought about running our current four instances (Utgarde Keep,  The Nexus, Azjol-Nerub and Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom) over and over to level, but we decided that would be dull and a waste of the shiny new content.  Instead we’re going to try to stay close to the same level and do a fair amount of solo/duo questing. 

I tried out Matthew Rossi’s ideas for Leveling a Protection Warrior to 80.  With Jaimie’s holy paladin beside me, it feels even faster than our paladin/mage duo.  I did a bit of solo questing and even without a healer this approach is amazingly fast! 

Anyhow, since it looks as though I’ll be hitting 80 sooner rather than later, I need to make sure I’m working on upping my defense gear.  Current target is 540 defense skill (i.e. 689 defense rating).  Ciderhelm has an Easy 540 Defense Gear Guide up.  I should have no problem getting enough of these items.  My blacksmithing is proceeding apace, so I should be able to make a pile of pretty crafted gear.  In a lot of cases, it looks as though crafted gear is giving drop gear a run for its money.  As someone who spends way too much money on crafting, this makes me happy.

Still no Bear Tank Pawn scale, but if you’re sick of waiting this is where I’m going to start research for building one: Recognizing Bear Loot.

Next time I’m in a capital I think I’m going to switch to this Warrior (0/8/54) for leveling. I’m tanking a lot but it looks as though I’ll be doing some questing, which means more DPS would be great.

I ran across these two posts and found them very useful Transition from TBC Mechanics to Wotlk Mechanics for tankadins and Frequently *Answered* Questions - Tankadin quickie basics.

Maintankadin has Zamach’s WoTLK Gear List for tanking paladins. My paladin will be one of my first three toons to level, so this is good stuff to have.

Karilyn on Tankspot has a great graphical breakdown of Warrior Ideal Warrior Single Target Threat Rotation as of 3.02. As is noted in the comments, be careful with Shockwave as it can easily miss a large target if you don’t aim it dead center while standing inside the target.

I don’t have much to add to this Things Every Warrior Tank Thinks Every Non-Tank Should Know. Mostly I’m making a note of it for when we get back into raiding again in Wrath and a new raider joins us.

We ran the first part of Kara pretty much spontaneously last night.  There were four druids itching to tank the place and we only had one healer, so I decided to respec my shaman resto and help heal.  This is the first time I heal anything on my shaman and it went pretty well.

I was woefully unprepared, but with the way they’ve nerfed Kara it really didn’t matter.  I grabbed a spec off of WoWWikki and pulled my gear with the highest spellpower out of the bank.   Any spells that looked like they’d help out with healing were dropped onto my action bar and I spent the evening trying to figure out what to use when.  Hopefully next time I remember to consult resources such as Resto Shaman vs. Karazhan - a Healing Guide.

A lot of gear dropped for me, mostly enhancement stuff.  When we started Kara we had an enhancement shaman who couldn’t stop getting resto drops, so I suppose this is to balance that out?  Due to the inordinate number of druids there were only three people who could use the axe from the holiday boss, so I got it by greed rolling.  (From what I can tell you have to be able to equip the axe for its use effect, so hopefully there wasn’t a druid who wanted to try it.) 

I don’t know if I want to go back to healing at all.  This was a heavily nerfed Kara, an instance I’ve been raid leading for months, and I still spent all my time making the bars go right.  I really didn’t see any of the fights, I just focused on standing in the right place and keeping people healed.   As a tank, I’m very aware of what’s happening around me even when I’m standing there staring into a demon’s crotch. 

As I look forward to Wrath, I’m worried about having to PvP for PvE gear again.  I still use my PvP shield for tanking on my warrior despite having cleared Kara many, many times and having done a good chunk of ZA.  I’m bored with PvP and I really don’t plan on doing much of it come the expansion.  No incoming dramatic protest, I’ll just live with having sub-optimal gear if the optimal gear requires PvP to acquire.  If PvP becomes fun for me again, I’ll do it then. 

ThinkTank has a Druid Bear FAQ for 3.02/Wrath. It’s so nice to have all this information summed up concisely, especially given that I’m new to druid tanking. Now I need to dig up something similar for druid healing.

Warrior Best item point scale to use going into Wrath? looks like a good point scale for rating items in Pawn for Warriors.

Looks like something similar for paladin tanks.

I’ve missed having a Pawn Scale. Now I need something for a resto druid, tanking druid, and resto shaman.