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Welcome everyone to a great new column here at WoW.TenTonHammer.com called Gear Eye for the WoW Guy. In it each week I will take a look at a player or victim either at random or through player submission and give them a complete gear makeover in an attempt to get them moving on to new content in the game.

This will generally focus on PVE content at or near end game as that is where most of the game occurs and where most players get lost. After all, when you are leveling it really is just “use item A until you find a higher level item B of the same type, since you’ll find it in 20 minutes”. Once you’re at the end game though, it takes a bit more work to find upgrades, and some of the options are not as clear.

Visit PlayerScore to find your score.

Of course there are two big tools that are needed to be able to check out a player and make useful recommendations. The first of those tools is an in-depth knowledge of the game, specifically the classes, mechanics, best stats, best gear, enchants, gems, and more. This isn't something that everyone has for the first little while that they play the game or even for the first while after they hit the level cap.

The second major tool is PlayerScore, which luckily is available and usable by anyone and hosted right here on our network. You can search for your own character and see how you stack up by visiting the PlayerScore site.


Our Victim

Now that you know what this is all about, on to our victim #1. Being a new column I just randomly went through Playerscore.com and picked someone that looked like they needed help. The lucky benefactor of a whole ton of useful knowledge, unwanted publicity and attention, mocking, ridicule, and more is…

Turumbar Playerscore

As you can see Turumbar is from the server Lightbringer and is a Protection Paladin and is
rated at 991 Raid points , #4160 on the server

Turumbar may be primarily DPS or some other spec for raiding or just be a fairly new level 85, I honestly have no idea as he was selected at random. Ok, so the selection wasn't completely random, it took a little time to find a character that fit a couple of criteria, so that some good suggestions could be made.

A look at Turumbar on the WoW Armory

You can find Turumbar's PlayerScore information here: Turumbar PlayerScore, remember however that it will change over time compared to what is listed here. This is due to PlayerScore constantly being updated to reflect any new gear, achievements and anything else that happens as Turmubar plays and upgrades or changes gear.

Turumbar could also be an alternate character used just for the odd tanking run. He has some really decent gear for a fairly new level 85 in the way of some 359’s and 353’s but really? Still sporting an heirloom helm? Worse yet, take a look at this: almost nothing is enchanted!

This character needs some serious help from someone on what to do and where to go from here and that is why he was selected him for our very first Gear Guy makeover.


Gear

Since something really horrible caught my eye let’s start with looking at some of the biggest upgrades and the most obvious gear faux pas first shall we…

An heirloom helm, honestly? Come on… That item alone is a huge detractor from his overall score. Since he is already Honored with the Wildhammer Clan and the dailies there are very easy to bang out, I strongly suggest getting to Revered and upgrading to the Crown of Wings as a quick fix. Longer term, running Heroic Zul’Aman can get you the even better Spiritshield Mask which gives two avoidance abilities with Dodge and Parry instead of Dodge and Expertise.

Helm Upgrade

Helm upgrade gains 53 stamina, gains mitigation, loses some expertise, but gains a Meta and regular gem socket, which means even more stamina! At least 111 more Stamina and possibly 141 depending if you need that gem to match the red socket or not.

Next up the neck piece has got to go. It’s an item level 325 DPS piece, not even a tanking piece! What were you thinking man, even as a DPS piece it’s not great. Head over to the Guardians of Hyjal and get the Mountain’s Mouth, you already have the reputation for it so its an easy upgrade or if you have the justice points for it a better upgrade is The Lustrous Eye available for just 1,250 justice points.

Ring Upgrade

This simple swap out picks up 179 stamina after adding a blue gem, increases dodge by 58, and swaps expertise for mastery which is pure win.

Next up, the rings, ok Felsen’s Ring of Resolve is a solid tanking ring to start with, but what’s up with the item level 288 Hallazeal’s Demize ring? Either grind a little more rep with Ramkahen and pick up the Red Rock Band, or better yet spring for the Elementium Moebius Band crafted by a jewelcrafter. Both offer huge upgrades to key stats.

Neck Upgrade

This simple upgrade grants another 17 Stamina, 100 Parry, and 23 Mastery.

The shoulders are ok shoulders for starting out, but really they should be replaced if for no other reason than they have a much more warrior than paladin look, although they do match the weapon choice nicely from a fashion perspective. However since the weapon has to go as well, so do they. Shoulder upgrades should really be the Earthshape Pauldrons from Heroic Grim Batol as they provide Dodge and Mastery, a boost to all stats and a gem socket. For a weapon upgrade the best option is the Elementium Fang from Heroic Stonecore since it provides Parry and Mastery where the other heroic drops only provide one avoidance stat and either Hit or Expertise.

The shield equipped is also really sub-par as its dodge and hit and looks like a piece of discarded barrel. The easiest option here is the crafted shield Elementium Earthguard which is fairly cheap but still only has one mitigation stat and hit but does have much improved stats and a gem socket. Another great option is the Shield of the Four Grey Towers which is available for justice points and has dodge and mastery but lower stats. Either one would be a big improvement.

Shield Upgrade

Swapping to the crafted shield nets 137 stamina once gemmed, some strength, trades dodge for mastery, and gets 20 more hit. On top of that it looks kick as compared to the Truthbreaker.


Good Item Choices

It’s not all bad here though, there have been some really good choices made already as well.

The legs that can be bought with reputation from the Earthen Ring are great starting pants when tanking.

In addition getting the easy to purchase crafted chest and waist pieces that blacksmiths can make is always smart. On top of that the BOE wrist drop from Zul’Aman , and the BOE cloak from Zul’Gurub are also excellent choices.

Hell, even the choice of the very fashionable swashbucklers shirt is a good choice, or at least it would be if this was Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and not Gear Eye for the WoW Guy. I’ll still give you a thumbs up on the shirt though as the only thing cooler than pirates would be ninjas, zombies, or aliens.

Sure there are some other minor upgrades that could be done as well, but the ones listed above get you a long way towards being able to handle more advanced content.


Item Modifications

Next up however is another big issue. Why the heck are the items not gemmed, enchanted, and reforged?

Whats up with this?

Adding enchants alone would add over 250 Stamina, some armor, dodge, mastery, and more.

Looking at gems there is one missed socket that could add another 60 stamina as well. Also missed is the fact that you are a blacksmith and can easily add an additional gem socket to your gloves and bracers, and craft a belt buckle for your belt, that’s three more gem sockets adding up to 180 more stamina or a mix of stamina and mitigation/avoidance as required. Tie that in with all the new gem slots added with the gear upgrades suggested above and gems become truly significant.

In addition nothing has been reforged! It’s like you never read our handy dandy guide to Reforging. You have read Reforge This, right? If not go read it right now. When your done, check your gear over and adjust as required. Make sure you bookmark page 3 that clearly shows the reforge priority for each class - Class / Spec Priorities for Reforging.

In this case it means go in and reforge like this:

Protection Paladin Reforging Priority
Mastery > Parry = Dodge > Hit cap (8%) > Expertise soft-cap (16)

Doing this will get you way ahead stat wise, make you much easier to heal, and let you run harder content.


Overall Review on Turumbar

I know that this character is fairly new to tanking, and to end game content, but that’s also why I picked him as a first look toon. The gearing changes required are pretty drastic, but also fairly easy to see and understand. The suggestions provided here are made to provide an easy outline of where to go and what to get to be able to move from normal instances, to heroics, and onto tier 2 heroics and easy raids in a very short time frame.

Turumbar seems to have a basic understanding of what’s good and bad gear wise, with a few exceptions that may be chalked up to momentary insanity, or just a huge rush to start tanking.

Enchant, gem, and reforging wise though he is like too many fresh 85’s. Many players complain that they should not have to pay for gems and enchants on gear that they will very quickly replace. That’s hogwash. In most cases even if you upgrade gear the upgrade will be less of a stat boost than the enchants and/or gems would have added to your current gear. In this case almost nothing is enchanted and several gems are missing.

In Turumbar’s case he is missing out on over 500 Stamina alone from gems and enchants on current gear, never mind the other possible bonuses. That is a very significant self-inflicted nerf. Would you stand for Blizzard taking away that much health or would you freak on them? Yet you are doing it to yourself.

Reforging wise the situation is the same, no reforging has been done at all. This means that Turumbar is way over expertise soft cap, and has 3.5% more parry that dodge, thereby suffering a self inflicted hit due to not balancing them and losing some to diminishing returns.


The Messiah’s Final Word and How to Request your Makeover

The suggestions offered here should help push Turumbar to the next level in the game in as easy a way as possible. Many times characters fresh to 85 just don’t know what to do or where to go to proceed. That’s where I step in to give a guiding hand, or maybe sometimes just to poke fun.

Visit PlayerScore to find your score.

If you have a character that you want reviewed (or mocked for bad choices), or know of one that badly needs help but is just too lost to even know they need it, feel free to sent me a link to their playerscore.com page. One lucky victim, er, I mean player, will be selected for a gear makeover in this column each week.

To submit a character for a review make sure you look up the character's PlayerScore and send me a link to that character. Also if you want to provide any basic information on your goals, how far advanced you want to plan for, how much time you invest in the game, or just a bit about your self, please include it all in a comment below or a note to the Messiah.

Thanks for tuning in to the first edition of Gear Eye for the WoW Guy everyone, hope you enjoyed.


World of Warcraft - Related Content
Reforge This | Paladin Class Guide | Paladin Tank Guide
PlayerScore


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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