The New Badge of Justice Pick Order
So while the following list does reflect that overall importance I associate with each of the new and old items, I’ve also decided to list the items that are worse than and equal to the item in question. Basically, you shouldn’t treat this as a static list something that’s a huge upgrade is going to be better to get over an item that’s only a slight upgrade.
- Unwavering Legguards (75)
- Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx (35)
- Iron-tusk Girdle (60)
- Bonefist Gauntlets (60)
- Slikk’s Cloak of Placation (35)
- Brooch of Deftness (35)
- Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian (75)
- Sabatons of the Righteous Defender (60)
- Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600 (41)
- Farstrider Defender’s Cloak (25)
- is a lot better than Timewarden’s Leggings
- is better than Wrynn Dynasty Greaves
The legs represent a huge badge investment and for good reason as they’ll easily take you all the way to Tier 6 quality loot. I’m hard pressed to call them better, worse or equal to the Tier 5 Destroyer Legguards because while these legs are going to be a massive Stamina increase and Block Value increase, the Tier 5 are going to offer a lot more avoidance as well as the potential benefit of the set bonus. Basically, if you already have the Tier 5 legs these go way down on the list and honestly make it so that you should just pass the Tier 5 legs to one of the other classes that it might actually be a big upgrade for. So bite the bullet and get the legs first!
- is a lot better than Vambraces of Daring
- is better than Vambraces of Courage
No doubt if you’ve had bad luck with getting Attumen’s Vambraces of Courage then you’ll want to pick this up first. In fact, these bracers probably have even more longevity than the legs due to the Expertise Rating which you won’t find on any other tanking bracers in the game. Nonetheless, I’m going to place this one at a healthy #2 on the list.
- is a lot better than Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable
- is better than Belt of the Guardian
- is slightly better than Girdle of the Invulnerable
Just like the first two items on the list, the girdle is going to be another massive upgrade for many tanks since a lot of you are still going to be using Moroes’ Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable. If you happen to be wearing Girdle of the Invulnerable this item certainly moves very far down the list.
- is a lot better than Tier 4 Warbringer Handguards
- is better than Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden
Don’t let the complete lack of Defense Rating deter you from this very nice pair of high Stamina/Avoidance/Threat gloves. You definitely will want to get these if you are still wearing Maiden’s gloves.
- is a lot better than Devilshark Cape
- is better than Gilded Thorium Cloak
- is slightly better than Phoenix-Wing Cloak
Heralded by many as the best tanking cloak in the game and although I agree it’s very strong it’s certainly a little lower than that on my list. Certainly you’ll be picking this item up too, but if you’ve acquired Al’ar’s Phoenix-Wing Cloak then you really should be waiting to pick it up a lot later if at all.
Combine a massive amount of stamina with 2 huge threat stats and you have yourself the best tanking neckpiece in the game. It really can’t be exaggerated how strong Expertise Rating is right now as both an offensive and defensive stat. That being said you won’t necessarily want to pick this item up immediately because you’ll require pieces that will help you take more damage, but it’s absolutely essential that you eventually get this for it’s raw threat increase.
- is a lot better than Breastplate of the Bold
- is better than Panzar’Thar Breastplate
- is slightly better than Tier 4 Warbringer Chestguard
Don’t let the Spell Damage deter you from picking up this item. It is especially good for those still desperately trying to find something to replace their Breastplate of the Bold.
- is better than Battlescar Boots
- is equal to Red Havoc Boots
- is equal to Jungle Stompers
Like the Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian these obviously aren’t intended to be worn by a warrior, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ll be the first upgrade from Karazhan’s Battlescar Boots. Basically, if you have insane amounts of time on your hands and your guild isn’t progressing too quickly you’ll want to pick these up after the other items on the list.
While Block Value certainly offers some level of damage mitigation this obviously should be treated purely as a threat trinket. Even though this item ranks significantly lower than it once did you still will want to acquire it eventually because it’s usage and massive passive block value increase is a huge advantage for fights where you need a lot of burst threat. This also still makes it the best threat trinket you can be wearing for trash mobs.
Similar to the Auto-Blocker in that there is no better Block Value piece in it’s particular slot making it an item that you’ll want to acquire eventually for trash and burst threat fights. Especially of a new 70 though this is going to be at the bottom of the list in what’s necessary to acquire.
Wait, you missed a couple!
Yup, I skipped 4 of them. The reason is that they are, for the most part, obsolete. Azure-Shield of Coldarra has been outdated by the much easier to farm Season 1 Gladiator Shield. Faceguard of Determination while very good for a passive uncrushable set really offers very little for conventional tanking and just doesn’t compare to easily acquired helms like Helm of the Stalwart Defender, Eternium Greathelm, or the Tier 4 Warbringer Greathelm. Necklace of the Juggernaut just won’t be used since you’ll be using Brooch of Deftness instead and finally Ring of Unyielding Force while certainly nice until you get Shade of Aran’s Shermanar Great-Ring is just so far down the list that you’ll probably already have Shade’s ring by the time you have the badges to purchase it.
So for those of you with a ton of Badges of Justice left to acquire, happy heroicing!
December 31st, 2007 at 6:56 am
Nice to see you finally posting this, slacker! *smiles*. Thanks for the tips… its nice to know once Im done grinding this damn honor you want me to do, I’ll be stuck in Heroics for the rest of my life earning badges
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December 31st, 2007 at 7:48 am
I have been standing around G’eras for hours thinking where to spend my hard earned 75 badges on. This guide made it easier for me to decide, thank you.
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December 31st, 2007 at 10:28 am
Awesome, Vene. I really appreciate your insight, both here and on tankspot. Thanks for all the hard work.
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December 31st, 2007 at 3:28 pm
I can’t believe you rated the Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian so low. 1.5% dodge, 12 stam and 100 armor over the t4 chest which (to my mind) makes it far superior to t4 for mitigation/progression. It’s almost as good as the t5 chest.
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December 31st, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I finally got 35 badges saved up and went ahead and got the bracers first. The legs are definately a must-have upgrade, but I needed something a little sooner as I don’t have much luck with Karazhan drops. This combined with a lot of other non-raiding epics have helped boost my stats to be geared enough for ZA (once my guild gets to it, that is)
Given my slow rate at earning badges, I may hold off on further badge purchases until 2.4 goes up on the PTR’s, in case some new rewards appear.
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December 31st, 2007 at 9:52 pm
@spn:
Ya, you are right that I’m a little off in rating it equal to Tier 4 (I’ve updated the post to reflect this), but at the same time I stand by my ranking position of #7 since a slight upgrade over Tier 4 is not going to be better than Brooch of Deftness.
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January 1st, 2008 at 8:11 am
Well, I’d also argue that you’ve placed the Brooch too low - both the chest and neck are bigger upgrades than the belt or gloves imo. ;D
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January 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Brooch of Deftness:
“That being said you won
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January 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 am
The badge cost for Slikk’s Cloak appears to be off. I believe it’s sixty badges, not the thirty-five listed. Aside from that extremely minor error(or my own idiocy if I happen to be the one off), the list is extremely valuable. As always, I appreciate it Venny.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
Great list. I was wondering what happened to the item popup tips? I am behind a work firewall and found them very helpful.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
The Slikk’s cloak is 35 badges, as I just recently picked it up.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
Could you perhaps include a suggestion of gems to put in these? I notice (for example) the boots you rated to “equal” yet the stats don’t appear to be equal. Is this assuming certain gems are put in? Or do you consider it “equal” to even before gems / enchants are applied?
I really just started the warrior tanking gig coming from paladin tanking (stam gems have pretty much been the staple / recommend gemming for her gear).
Thanks!
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January 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
This is cool, thanks Ven.
When I looked at all this badge gear, I realized that I’d be giving up a lot of sheild block value (attumen bracers, moroes belt). Granted, the badge bracers offers expertise which will help with overall threat. My question to you is, do you arm all the new gear on boss fights and keep your SBV on trash?
I already have the neck and the legs, I have enough badges to grab the bracers and belt; my problem now is that the dps in my guild has grown to the point that DPS is being throttled due to sustained TPS.
Thanks for writing this,
Fubs
Exodar
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January 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
@Fubar:
Generally speaking I don’t go out of my way to get excess amounts of SBV. Hit Rating is for the most part better than it as is Expertise. My threat set always has a high hit, expertise and SBV. So don’t worry the badge gloves are more threat than Maiden’s and the badge bracers are more threat than Attumen’s.
@Vehe:
The old system I used for item popups is no longer supported so I’ve went with Wowhead support for the time being. It’s a horribly long process for me to even add popups now since I have to do it manually, but assuming you can access Wowhead.com then there should still be popups for you. That being said, I’m working towards a solution to get things back to how they were.
@Cayleb:
Ya the badge cloak is luckily only 35 whereas the other 3 are 60.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
How does expertise turn into damage mitigation for a paladin tank? I’m well aware that it works nicely with threat, but you mention defensive.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Heh, I was just going through the list of badge items this morning trying to decide what to get. Thanks for the great recommendations!
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January 2nd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
It works fine at home, wowhead is blocked at work. Thanks for clarifying.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Daven,
Expertise turns into a mitigation statistic when you think about what happens when a boss parries you. It speeds up his next attack. So if you are eliminating your parries, you are in turn reducing the amount of damage you take. I’m sure it will help in Paladin mitigation, but I don’t think it helps as much as a warrior because we are always doing melee attacks.
This is partly why it is stressed that melee attack bosses from behind. Not only will it increase their DPS, but also reduce the boss’
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January 3rd, 2008 at 9:19 am
I’m wearing the Season 2 breastplate and Season 3 gloves (thanks for nothing Maiden and Curator!) in my tanking set so that further complicates trying to decide which piece to buy when. I Wrynn Dynasty Greaves with nether cleft armor on them, Vambraces of Courage, and Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable. So for all of those, I think the belt may be the next best upgrade for me. I’ve already picked up the cloak and have Red Havoc Boots so those are out of the way. I’m not sure what to pick up next after the belt though.
The DPS badge upgrades are even harder for me to pick. I’m a dps off tank (arms) so I’m having a hard time deciding which pieces are worth losing crit to get.
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January 3rd, 2008 at 11:56 am
Fabulous post - I love your blogs, and I use the info here all the time, so I appreciate your efforts - please keep it up!
If possible, when you have a moment, would you post the next upgrade you see from these pieces? In other words, what is the next upgrade from the badge pieces as you see it? For example, I may be wearing the Brooch of Deftness until my guild makes it through BT, but some of the items aren’t as clear for me where Tier gear is in question. I’m looking to get a feel for how long each piece will stick with me, and what boss drops the likely upgrade, so I can better determine where to spend the badges…
Hopefully that makes sense, and hopefully that’ll benefit some others as well. Again, great post and great website, please keep it up!
Ugzilla
Cho’gall
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January 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Ya I know where you’re going with this Ugzilla. The reality is that I really just need to make a complete gear progression guide. The good news is that it’s in the works. The bad news is it may take an eternity to finish in order to meet my standards lol
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January 3rd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
There was a recent blue post that said there are no current plans to add new Badge of Justice rewards in Patch 2.4. So I guess spend them if you got them! I’m guessing that they’ll have a new type of badge or whatever for Wrath when that comes out.
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January 3rd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Ya I noticed that today (may have been yesterday) too. Here’s a link to the question/answers for those interested.
http://blue.cardplace.com/newcache/forums.worldofwarcraft.com/3773248164.htm
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January 8th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Hi Veneretio
I really like your blog, but let me say two things about this post:
1 - this is a very good post, but still I think deciding which item get first is a very personal choice. It not only depends on playing style, on which is your role (MT or OT), but mostly on where your guild is and what do you do. What I would apreciate more is to give people the instruments to understand which one should be his first choice instead of saying “get this since is by far the best choice”.
2 - seems you really don’t estimate the badge cost of each item while you suggest to get it. There is a HUGE difference (in terms of time) between getting a 35 badge item over a 75 badge one. And in my opinion two 35 badge items (like bracers and neck, for example), are by far a better choice than one 75 piece (and still you save 5 badges!).
Also speaking about longevity, I think bracers and neck are the best choice over all. Then cloack (if you’re not that luck to get the Al’ar one). If you lookt at Kungen in tha armory (at the present day, I know he may swhich equip) he still wears neck and bracers from the badges (even if he got all the BT&MH alternatives). Looks like they are a long term investment! ^^
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January 8th, 2008 at 7:45 am
@Khail:
Thanks for the comment Khail.
Regarding your 2nd point: A fair criticism. I had considered taking the number of badges required into account, but ultimately decided not to in the end.
Regarding your 1st point: I’ll admit you’ve confused me a little. I do mention the longevity of the Neck and Bracers due to the power of Expertise as well as say at the very start that the list isn’t Static and that people should shift items down the list in order to take what is the biggest upgrade for themselves. In fact, a lot of what I’ve wrote under each item is in order to aid people in this very process.
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January 8th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Nice list, I have almost everything on the list except for the chest item. ZA was king enough to cough up the Jungle Stompers the other day, too.
About the “paly” chest item, I like the added stam and armor, but I was weary of replacing my Panzar’thar for it since I would lose even more SBV. I already gave up a lot for the badge items, but love the added threat I now do.
Do you think the added HP and armor make up for the loss of yet more SBV?
Thanks, and love the site.
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January 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I did not take Vene’s post to mean that the items should be purchased in, and only in, that order. I took it to mean that, in terms of value and impact potential, this is how these items are ranked. I could be wrong, however.
One question I do have regarding itemization is this: At what point do you stop keeping the old in favor of the new? My bag & bank space is quickly filling up, and I’d hate to vendor/destroy some of those items that I no longer use. For 2 reasons, really: (1) because there may exist the remote possibility that I could use them in a future situation, (2) because, well, I suppose it’s nostalgia that’s got me holding onto them.
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January 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Excellent Idea question Cimm. I’ll work on a post for this in the future, but a quick way of looking at it is that you should have 3 sets on the go.
1. Threat set composed on Block Value, Hit and Expertise items mostly.
2. Mitigation set that’s your standard tanking set that’ll be used on most boss fights.
3. Off-tank set / Low threat High Survivability set.
If an item doesn’t fall into one of those 3 categories it’ll probably be time to give it the boot. There are a few others exceptions (such as holding onto High Defense Rating pieces) but for the most part that’s it.
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January 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Veneretio,
Your set post is a bit confusing (at least to me).
Depending upon the fight (how well geared I am for it) and how well geared dps is for it in large part determines what gear I wear. For instance, if I’m tanking a boss that I know the healers will have to work hard because the fight will be longer than it should be (lack of dps for instance) I will wear more mitigation/avoidance gear.
By the same token if I am with a bunch of nukers, I know I will need to keep the threat up there, so I will wear more threat producing gear.
Does this make any sense?
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January 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Ya vwcrusher that makes perfect sense. You either use set #1 and #2 or set #1 and #3. I’m guessing its #1 and #2. Which means your mitigation/avoidance set is likely still mixing in some threat pieces. A proper set #3 basically doesn’t worry about threat at all and favours a lot more avoidance. That being said, set #3 is rarely required if you are the MT so I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it if you choose not to have it.
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January 9th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Well Veneretio you’re right, you give people a nice instrument of comparison and you make a good analysis of why a badge item is better than another item.
What I just meant was: instead of make a post called “The New Badge of Justice Pick Order” and making a numbered list, that seems very mandatory, I’d just call the post “Badge Items Analysis”, and make all the same comparisons without listing any picking order.
Is more or less like make a post calling it “How to assign talent points”. Talents are a very very personal choice and their assignation depends on too many factors to say that there’s ONE good way how to put them. Much more useful to make a post explaining why and when improved taunt is good and how work exactly improved defensive stance (this just to say I appreciate your work here)
Just let then people decide what to buy first by themselves.
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January 9th, 2008 at 3:36 am
I keep trying to save up for those legs and still don’t have them…damn my useless self control…instead I have the brooch and the bracers. I’m determined to buy the legs next!
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January 9th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Cant decide whether to get bracers or waist…..arg.
Have legs and broach.
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January 20th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Regarding the Autoblocker, is it better than Romulo’s Poison Vail for threat?
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January 20th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I see a lot of discussion about the different sets. Maybe it would be fun to have another ’serie’ of posting, the set serie.
The different sets you should have and why.
And then a deeper look into which items you should start with for a block set, an avoidance set, a stamina set …
Just an idea, would be fun to determine which pieces are still usefull in what set. Personally I only use one set, with 3-4 pieces I sometimes switch for avoidance. But as my threath set is based on expertise mostly I keep it as mitigation to, just no minimize the parry damage spikes.
I’m very interested in developing the different sets, but it’s hard to determine where to start
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January 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Bingo on what Nia said.
I have so much gear sitting in the bank, and on me that I have little room left. I save everything because, like Cimm said, fear of needing it down the road and nostalgia.
I have been trying to min max my sets to get an optimal set up and it really is difficult for me to figure it all out. As it is now, I basically swap out a ring and trinket for more mitigation at the cost of health.
But then in one night, I get my Kings Defender, Tier 4 helm, and the Decapitator (the day after I get my Khorium Destroyer socketed with +hit/+dodge).
Getting my expertise up is really important, not so much for mitigation, but because of threat. I seem to have a lot of low initial TPS fights as of late, and thats just embarrassing for me as a MT. I just don’t really know where to go with Kara/quest/heroic gear and get optimum sets.
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January 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Scroll down to a comment made by Tenjou: CLICKY
Very nice list of gear to maximize block value.
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January 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
There’s a complete list of Block Value gear here too
http://www.tankingtips.com/2007/11/07/block-value-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know/
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January 22nd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I have a bit of a problem. Bascially i have one blue left which is the Jade-skull breastplate. I’ve been waiting on picking up a Panzar’Thar Breastplate
but so far no luck same with Chestguard of the Warlord all my other gear is epic but i only have the Brooch, cape, bracers and trink from boj rewards so i’m thinking about picking up a chestguard of stoic guardian over all the other 60 badge rewards. Any ideas?
(tanking TK and SSC currently)
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January 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 am
Valner - get the chest. Even if you get the Panzar the same week - gem the Badge one for stamina, gem the Panzar for avoidance.
I was in the same boat not too many weeks ago
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January 23rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
alright but i will go kill nightbane this week for one last chance if not i’ll get the chest 100%
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January 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Hey Valner, got any arena points? The S3 chestpiece is one of the best chestpieces around. The armor and stam are insane and the resilience covers your uncrittable worries. The only problem with the S3 chest is the lack of avoidance stats.
However, the crit and armor ignore are great in the threat department.
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January 24th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I think the auto-blocker is rated way too low. In terms of longevity, the auto-blocker cannot be beat. I use it in every single boss fight up to and including Illidan. Depending on where you are in progression, some of the other stuff might be an upgrade for you now but it will all get replaced eventually - the auto-blocker won’t.
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January 24th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
@Speidel Nah right now i’m sitting on only 1200 i think and haven’t had the time to pvp as much as i would like latley. Preping for raids farming gold so i can finally hit my exalted aldor etc been busy but i’ll definetly have a look ty.
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January 24th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Well, that’s only 2 weeks of arena at a mediocre rating to get you the points you need. I really should get off my rear and start saving points up myself (only problem is i have 200, and it just seems like an endless journey to save up that many points).
I thought I made the right move in switching to armorsmithing and making the tier 3 chest.. Then Vene went and got the season 3 chest and made me feel really stupid about spending all the money on the AS one
Take your beating in the arenas the next 2 weeks, it’ll be well worth it.
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January 28th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
It bugs me that nobody says anything about this anywhere… but “why” are T5 legs better than Unwavering? I can’t claim any talent at theorycrafting but I’ve got the required reflexes and instinct… I just need your help when it comes to gear. /grin
If somebody could explain why T5 is better… I’d love to know. I’d also like to use it in my defense against the masses telling me I’ll likely never replace my unwavering even tho we have FLK on farm.
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January 28th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
@Joe:
As the article says, T5 and Unwavering are about the same. Basically, whichever you get first, use it.
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January 31st, 2008 at 8:27 am
Hmm, so what about shoulders?
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February 19th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Can you please revise this once patch 2.4 goes live? It would be nice to see the additional pieces of tank gear in your comparisons.
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February 21st, 2008 at 4:06 am
Patch 2.4 Badge of Justice Tanking items, my personal pick order:
Chestplate of Stoicism (100) : http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34939
Said to be about the same level to T6 chest. This is going to be my first pick - as I am still running around in a blue chest. Even if I had Stoic Guardian, I think I’d still pick this with my first 100 badges after patch 2.4
Girdle of the Fearless (75): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34941
I’m not sure why one would spend 60 badges on Iron Tusk Girdle, gather 15 more badges and buy this item. This will be my second pick item (replacing my Iron Tusk Girdle).
Sunguard Legplates (100): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34940
Also very nice boost for your expertise and defense, but last place in my list, as the badge cost is higher and the gain from the girdle replacement seems not a lot higher.(even loosing some hp here)
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February 21st, 2008 at 9:02 am
Vene, I have a question for ya. Would you rather save up your badges starting now for patch 2.4 or replace a few more pieces? I am looking to either start saving or get the Brooch of Deftness (wearing Maiden’s neck, who’s name escapes me), Silk Cloat of Placation (replacing Devilshark Cape), and the Auto-Blocker for threat.
I would be collecting the 275 badges for the chest, belt, legs (in that order) but hearing about the new daily heroic quest for MTerrace, it seems like badges will be easier to get. Any thoughts?
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