I just turned 70, what now?

I would like to create a list of what I'm doing to reach uncrit/uncrush, step by step so anyone who is in my shoes can make the most efficient use of their time. Please feel free to add information, and I will try to edit my post as much as I can. This forum already has great lists of gear but the order in which it can be done can make each step easier. Another great thing you can do is pick up holy reputation gear from the different factions around outlands just as fillers until you can replace them. The resilience is a temporary item to stop crits and the spell damage holds aggro, the heals allow some off tank heals. These Factions include. Your first Step is to replace all subpar gear.
-Honor Hold -Honored
-Cenarion Expedition -Honored
-Lower City -Honored
-Sha'tar -Honored
-Keepers of time -Honored

Step 1- Auction House / Crafted Items / Profession Gear / Honor

Auction House
Felsteel Gloves- http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23517Cheap- nice stats-. These gloves are purchased at the Auction house for usually around 30-35g. Side note for all the Blacksmiths out there. Make these gloves from BS 361-370.
Felsteel Helmhttp://www.wowhead.com/?item=23519 - Not as cheap, but is a great starting point for your quest to gear up.
Crystal Forged Sword - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32660 I've never seen it but your server may be different.
Shield of the Wayward Footman http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31200

Optional if you have too much money and you want some easy epics. Getting gear crafted for you is EXPENSIVE. For these three items expect to spend 2,500g or more.
A. Belt of the Guardian- http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30034 Tier 5 caliber belt
B. Bracers of the Green Fortress - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23538 Great for avoidance
C. Oath Keeper's Helmet - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23536 Great helmet all around - lacks a meta slot and it's very ugly. Completely optional, Felsteel Helm is a better option as for cost effectiveness.
D. Cloak of Eternity - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24253 look for a tailor to get this one crafted =)

Profession Gear
Blacksmith
Boots of the Protector http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30033
Engineer
Tankatronic Goggles http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32473
Jewel Crafting
Figurine: Empyrean Tortoise http://www.wowhead.com/?item=35693
Figurine: Crimson Serpent http://www.wowhead.com/?item=35700
Alchemy
Guardian's Alchemist Stone http://www.wowhead.com/?item=35748

Honor Gear IF YOU HAVE THE HONOR DO THIS FIRST
Merciless Gladiator's Gavel - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32963 If you just happen to have 25,200 honor go buy this. This one piece of gear will help you keep the threat you need for all the instances you will be running.
Merciless Gladiator's Barrier - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33313 Nice aggro shield, resilience for crit protectopn, lots of armor and block value.

Step 2- Instances
Caverns of time!!!!!!! This is the best thing you can do, hands down, to get your gear up to par. Run Old Hillsbrad once and Black Morass as much as you would like to, until you reach revered. For doing this you have several items that are rewarded and 2 that have a chance to drop.
A. Andormu's Tears http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29323(ring with great avoidance stats) Quest reward
B. Timewarden's Leggings http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29184(Great def and avoidance, gem slots) Revered
C. Glyph of the defender http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29186 (+def and +dodge)
D. Continuum Blade http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29185(+spell damage for aggro)
E. Legplates of the righteous http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27839(chance drop from Black Morass, D3 prot pally drop)
F. Burnoose of Shifting Ages http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27988

Step 3- Profit

Step 4-
Steam Vaults, Clear the vaults, chance for 3 great items, 1 good Quest reward and one alright ring.
A. Breastplate of the Righteous http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28203(Chest)
B. Devilshark Cape http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27804(Back)
C. Ring of the Silver Hand http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27805(Ring, as many have pointed out there are rings of the champion, random enchant, with better stats at 65+. The bottom of this guide has different rings you can quest for very easily)
D. Steam-Hinge Chain of Valor http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27792(Neck)
E. Myrmidon's Headress http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28180(Head)



Step 5-
The Mechanar, Drops include (Make sure to do the key shard quest to get an awesome belt that has great uncrush statshttp://www.wowhead.com/?item=31460, thx UMIO)
A. Mana Wrathhttp://www.wowhead.com/?item=27899, Alternative to Continuum Blade, Continuum blade is still superior
B. Helm of the Righteous http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28285(D3)
C. Jade Skull Breastplate http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28262(Great def rating and Avoidance)
D. Dath'Remar's Ring of Defense http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28265(Helps to achieve uncrushable)
E. Warp Engineer's Prismatic Chain http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28254(eh. if it's an improvement take it, if not, no worries, it's good for threat but not optimized for pally tanks)

The above listed instances all have multiple items that can drop, below are some instances that have 2 or less that would be good for your tanking set.


Shattered Halls-
Figurine of the Colossus http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27529 - VERY VERY AWESOME TRINKET
Gauntlets of the righteous http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27535

Botanica - Finish the Key shard quest for http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31460
Spaulders of the Righteous http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27739- I list these first because best shoulders you can get until Tier 4. Shoulders are far and few between, I recommend getting these for part of the 2 piece bonus.
Enchanted Thorium Torque http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28321- Amulet with dodge and hit rating. not that good for pally, but it does help if you lack avoidance, good to keep in your bag of tricks =)

Step 6- Quest Reward Upgrades
Tinkets-
Dabiri's Enigma http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30300Get to Netherstorm and seek out Professor Dabiri, he sends you on a three step quest. All should be self explanatory except one annoying mob. I don't remember the name except it's a big shadow elemental with a big pink thing above him. The trick to him is whatever type of spell you cast, the elemental will put up a shield for that school of magic which sucks as a paladin. DO NOT HIT HIM WITH ANYTHING HOLY, instead, cast Blessings of Might, Shadow Protection Aura, and Seal of Light and out live him. After you finish the item quest get a group together and slay the elite. I put a lot of emphasis on this item because it is awesome when you are silenced for a make shift holy shield, add in figurine of the colossus and you have the best (imo) pally AoE farming combo. Watch how farming can be simple on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKBXuLZFRgo watch his life at around :48 seconds into video when he pops both trinkets. Boss in Shattered Halls drops the Figurine, read above.
Regal Protectorate[b] http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28042

[b]Rings - Thanks Dorvan
Ring of the Stonebark - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31528
Wind Trader's Band - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30006
Protector's Mark of the Redemption http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31078
Also any ring over lvl 65 with a random enchantment, ...of the champion can work =)

Enchants
You can find awesome threads on this forum.

After you get enough of the gear to start getting into heroics, here is the BEST PRE KARA GUIDE to help you progress past the begining steps http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=163

Tanks for your support
Contributors - Aerfalle - Dorvan - Haganomir - UMIO - Petrus - Redlenses – Shoju – Haganomir - Davidred - Stopokingmee
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I'll be watching this as I am closing in on 70 ....oh so slowly though !

Thanks as well , I am sure many of us "up and coming" tankadins will appreciate it.

Razz
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Very nice guide. Here are the few thoughts/corrections I have:

Oathkeeper Helm -- Extremely overrated, and definitely not worth investing resources over other items that could help you more. It's at best a sidegrade to the Felsteel helm.

Steamvaults -- The ring is actually *terrible*, one of the few remaining relics of Blizz's first attempt at itemizing Tankadins in TBC. mp5, seriously? You're honestly better off with even a mid-60s "of the champion" ring.

Also, the SV quest reward, Myrmidon's Headdress is a good starter tanking helm....you can always throw in a Terrokar +dam/run speed meta if you don't want to invest in a real meta gem for such an early helm.

Dabiri's Enigma deserves mention as a good starter tanking trinket if you can gather the people for the short 5 man quest.

All in all a nice, concise guide to getting your Tankadin off and running after you first ding 70.
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I'd mention:

Step 1 - Honor Rewards / Crafted Items / Auction House

Merciless Gladiator's Gavel - buy this with the honor you've been saving up while leveling. This one piece of gear will help you keep the threat you need for all the instances you will be running.

Felsteel Gloves- Cheap- nice stats-. These gloves are purchased at the Auction house for usually around 30-35g. Side note for all the Blacksmiths out there. Make these gloves from BS 361-370.

Tankatronic Goggles - If you are engineering, craft these ASAP.

Felsteel Helm- if you aren't engineering, these are a great starting point for your quest to gear up. Buy on Auction House or craft as a Blacksmith.


The gavel and tank goggles are two items you can have on Day 1 of being 70, and both will serve you well for a very long time.

Crystalforged Sword is also a viable weapon choice and is purchaseable from the AH or can be grinded.
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Bracers of the Green Fortress
Shield of the Wayward Footman
Arcatraz - Ring off final boss

JC:
Figurine: Empyrean Tortoise
Figurine: Crimson Serpent

Alch:
Tank Stone trinket (not sure of the name)
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Step 7:
Grind BGs for S2 Gavel and/or S2 Shield -.-
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make a note when doing bot/ mech to get the keyshard quest which gives you http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31460. which is probably not as good as belt of the guardian but has uncrush and is from a quest so no price tag
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"Pally tanks don't die, They just stop to Regen"


http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dreadmaul&n=Umio

Keep in mind something. You are a tank. You are going to have A LOT of gear. You are going to have a couple of shields (you better have BOTH of the shields from SSO at LEAST), multiple pairs of boots, legs, gloves, cloaks, etc..... If you get tanking pieces, KEEP THEM. Make sure that you don't need them first before you vendor them. You never know what comes in handy. I have 33 pieces that I carry with me of healing, tanking, spell damage gear to put together what the situation calls for. I know that sounds excessive but, I like the options.

a couple of things.

I ran the numbers on the sha'tari vindicator's belt. It IS EPIC QUALITY AVOIDANCE. 3% avoidance, AND 33 stamina. It is a VERY acceptable belt.

Another belt, is Lightwarden's Girdle if you are aldor. It's actually got better defense than the sha'tari belt, 3 less stam, AND spell damage. I use it for 5 mans. it's SEXY threat.

Sha'tari Vindicator Boots - Q in Slabs. they have good stam, and 21 agility. They offer 1% avoidance if you gem them with 12 stam gems AND get fortitude. they end up with 58 stamina off of these boots. Once you get your badge libram, you can swap these in instead of the flesh beast greaves and still be uncrushable, AND get a huge armor and HP boost.

Burnoose of the Shifting Ages - BM drop. It's a common drop on my realm, and it's a GREAT cloak. Good to have several options. Devilshark is good, but so is this. Don't discount this cloak.

Andormu's tear is good for uncrushable, AND THAT'S IT. you DO NOT wear that ring in heroics. nothing crushes. If you can swing the 490 defense with a ring slot open, snag a Black Pearl ring from a JC. 33 stamina, and spell damage. I wear it in Kara on trash, and in all heroics.

Crystalforge sword is good, easy to get from AH, and acceptable.



You should talk about easy to get enchants too.

head: 80g from Keepers of Time
Shoulders: the green enchant from aldor is uncrush, while the blue is better, the scryer green is defense rating, and the blue one is both
chest: if you can afford it, get 150hp. it's cheap
wrists: 12 stamina once you have 490 defense. SERIOUSLY.
Gloves: As weird as it sounds, once you are uncrush, 240 armor. Effective Health is a big deal. Seriously.
Back: Dodge is good until uncrush. 120 armor is good once you are. EH again.
Legs: I don't skimp on my gear. I have felsteel leggings, and I tossed nethercleft on them. It's Expensive i know, but it's avoidance AND HP.
Boots: If you spec 48/13 or have another way to increase movement, get fortitude. If you need the movement, get Boar's Speed.
Weapon: 40 spell damage. If you just dinged 70, or are still in kara, this is a must. I know that later on you can do mongoose (swp), but it's awesome for threat.
Shield: once you have the 490 and uncrush, get stamina.


I have been talking with a good friend who tanked all the way through illidan. He's helped me see that once you are 490/102.4 stamina and armor are your best friends. Most people who are now dinging 70 and are tanking aren't going to hit swp. I know that some will, but the most of us wont. A lot of us wont make it out of 10 mans and heroics. It's a fact of the way the raids are structured. Because of this, Maximizing your HP and Armor will make tanking that much easier, and ensure that you are not getting crit/crush, AND make sure that you are getting heals to keep your interest meter full.

If you don't like/agree with my opinion, that's cool, but I have to tell you, since I adopted this philosophy my tanking has improved immensely, and I'm starting to see more content faster. People like to see 12.7hp and 14.7 armor UNBUFFED, and that's with 0 badge/kara gear. I have to fight off the heroic invites with a stick.
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[quote="Petrus"][quote="Skwigelf"]