PvE Protection Warrior Tank Best-in-Slot (BiS) & Pre-Raid Gear - WotLK Classic - Warcraft Tavern (2024)

Fresh 80

As a fresh level 80, there are multiple viable alternatives when it comes to your Weapon & Shield Slots, especially since Phase 3 comes with a new item vendor and the Heroic ++ Dungeons.

The best possible combination will be Shiver & The Boreal Guard which grants a great set of stats with a focus on both defense-oriented stats and much-needed Hit Rating. As they have a great stat spread, wielding those two will enhance your overall tanking performance considerably.

For your Weapon Slot, you will want to use either one of the Legacy of Thunder or the Stoneguard as your next-best alternatives. The Stoneguard focuses more on providing much-needed Hit Rating while the Legacy of Thunder will provide you with valuable Expertise Rating in case you can’t gain it from your other gear slots. In terms of defensive stats, both weapons are quite equal, providing a similar stat spread.

In case you can’t find the Legacy of Thunder and still require Expertise Rating, the Peacekeeper Blade will be the next appropriate alternative, providing similar stats in lower amounts. The main difference between the two is that one provides a raw Defense Rating while the other provides Parry Rating instead.

While there may be better weapons that you can use such as the Last Laugh, it will be highly unlikely to attend a Naxxramas raid as a Fresh Level 80.

Returning to your Shield Slot, if you can’t acquire The Boreal Guard due to the lack of Sidereal Essence, you will want to use the Shieldwall of the Breaker as your next-best alternative. The Shieldwall of the Breaker is also a viable choice for gaining Expertise Rating while maintaining a defense-oriented weapon or a weapon that focuses on Hit Rating.

Lastly, The Skull of Ruin is a pure defense-oriented option that grants a decently high amount of stats, with both baseline stats and secondary stats spread with a focus on Block Value.

Pre-ToC

There are many weapon choices for the Pre-Toc gearing phase, however, when it comes to the BiS, we will have Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers, and Bulwark of Algalon as our main choices. This is mainly due to their insanely high baseline stats, the combination of Expertise Rating and Parry Rating granted by Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers along with its Defense Rating, and the combination of high defensive secondary stats paired up with a gem socket granted by the Bulwark of Algalon.

However, until you can manage to get those items, you may find items such as the Shiver or Titanguard perfectly viable as alternatives for your main weapon. Both weapons grant you a much-needed Hit Rating, especially if you did not manage to get the soft Hit Cap from your other items while also granting you moderately adequate defensive stats.

As a stepping stone, you can choose the Legacy of Thunder, however, you will quickly want to swap it with an upgrade, since its stats are good enough only for Ulduar’s progression and not for any Hardmode content.

You can also use weapons such as the Caress of Insanity or Vulmir, the Northern Tempest which are traditionally DPS items for fights where you need to generate more Threat. However, it would help if you always remember that those weapons will be highly contested, especially at the beginning of Ulduar. A raid may choose to equip its tank with such a weapon only in the case that it has huge troubles in generating and maintaining Threat.

Returning to shields that you can use, The Boreal Guard is the next-best alternative to the Bulwark of Algalon. Since both items have very similar stats, the only difference is that one grants you Dodge Rating while the other one grants you Parry Rating and one additional gem socket.

Northern Barrier is a great alternative if you lack Hit Rating and Expertise Rating, especially if you are close to hitting your caps. Lastly, the Shieldwall of the Breaker will grant you very similar stats, however, instead of Hit Rating, it will grant you Parry Rating and a lower baseline stat amount than the Northern Barrier.

Best-in-Slot

There are many options available for your Weapon & Shield slots, with a great deal of variety in the stats they offer. Your BiS for this phase will depend entirely on the rest of your gear slots, as it is bound by your current Hit Rating. For your Main-Hand Slot, you will have to choose, depending on your current Hit Rating, between the Silverwing Defender/Orgrim’s Deflector which is a defense-oriented option, and the Stormpike Cleaver/Hellscream Slicer which is the Hit Rating-focused alternative.

Since we have major issues with Hit Rating due to its scarcity, most of the time you will opt for the Stormpike Cleaver/Hellscream Slicer as it helps us reach as close as possible to the Soft Hit Cap. While the other option provides great defense-oriented stats, our overall Avoidance is already high from our other gear slots.

If you somehow still have issues with your Expertise Rating, you can choose to use Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers as your actual BiS due to its massive stats. The only possible situation for using Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers is by focusing your other gear slots on acquiring Hit Rating/Avoidance Stats instead of Expertise Rating.

If you already have plenty of Hit Rating and Expertise Rating yet you can’t gain the Silverwing Defender/Orgrim’s Deflector yet, the next-best alternative for increased Avoidance will be the Honor of the Fallen/Blood and Glory. This is due to the item presenting precisely the same types of stats, only in lower overall amounts.

If you still require Hit Rating and still haven’t come across the Stormpike Cleaver/Hellscream Slicer, you can use either one of the Shiver/Titanguard from the previous phase of the expansion as they both grant a good amount of Hit Rating besides their defense-oriented stats.

As for your Shield Slot, the best possible choice will be the Crystal Plated Vanguard/Forlorn Barrier. This is due to the massive amounts of stats that it grants, with a very good stat spread, especially due to its increase in Block Value.

While you will especially want to prioritize Block Value for Anub’Arak, the next-best alternative will actually be the Bulwark of Algalon, even if it doesn’t grant any Block Value. However, for the Anub’arak encounter, you will want to use a shield that focuses on Block Value.

As viable alternatives that specialize in increasing overall Block Value, you will be able to use the Bulwark of the Royal Guard/Aegis of the Coliseum and its 232 Ilvl version. Naturally, the Crystal Plated Vanguard will be stronger than the 232 Ilvl Bulwark of the Royal Guard/Aegis of the Coliseum, however, since it lacks a Gem Socket, it will be weaker than the 245 Ilvl Bulwark of the Royal Guard/Aegis of the Coliseum.