Loading ...1 Gun. The only Gun you need, again.
It would seem Blizz loves to give us that one godly gun that makes getting anything else useless and they like for Engineers to make it. I’m talking, of course, about Armor Plated Combat Shotgun.
The Mats
- 10x Titanium Bar
- 20x Saronite Bar
- 15x Eternal Air
- 15x Eternal Water
- 1x Frozen Orb
- 1x Walnut Stock
How to get this stuff?
If you aren’t a Miner, the Titanium Bars aren’t going to be fun and even if you are, they still really aren’t that fun, so ultimately, I’d be biting the Auction House bullet and just buying them there. (which isn’t to say you should just rush into buying this stuff, look for deals especially on bulk while you farm your other items) Saronite Bars on the other hand are cheap and easy to acquire. It’s very likely a friendly guild member will just hand you the 20 you need.
The single Frozen Orb you’re going to need to acquire off the final boss in a Heroic. Generally speaking even most pug groups will be willing to pass this item to you if you say you need it considering you tanked the run after all. The single Walnut Stock is easily the easiest part of the puzzle costing you just 5g from an Engineering Supplier.
Eternal Water is acquirable by transmuting Fires or Airs into it, but I would strongly recommend against that route as it’s just a huge waste of money. Miners will find themselves overflowing with it for some time as it’s prevalent in Cobalt nodes. A Mining trip around any of the lesser zones will yield endless amounts of Cobalt as well as all the Water you need. They can be fished as well although the drop rate is pretty poor. You can of course also just kill things which outside of buying them on the Auction House is the most obvious way to get them.
Where to kill stuff?
…and why haven’t you mentioned Eternal Air?
Patience, young one. Patience.
Lake Wintergrasp otherwise known as that massive PvP area that you probably have avoided like the plague while you leveled to 80 is a great place to farm Eternal Water and the best place to farm Eternal Air. (told ya, I’d get to it) The trick is to never farm there unless you control Lake Wintergrasp. The reason you only do it when your team owns the place is not to avoid getting ganked, but instead because that’s the only time Water and Tempest Revenants are going to be visible to you. They have a 100% drop rate on Crystallized Water and Crystallized Air not to mention they’re surrounded by their lesser friends that also have a great chance of dropping Crystals as well.
Is the farming going to go super fast? Nope, but it’s worth it when you’re a fresh 80 still trying to make a name for yourself in the tanking scene.
Why such an in-depth post on such an easy topic?
Because I still see too many people without it. It’s the only gun you need, get it.
January 20th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I agree. Im an engineer and it is the only reason I leveled my engineering all the way to 450. The first one I made wasnt even for myself. In exchange, the guy gave me eternal airs as payment which I used to make the gun.
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Cleaved reply on January 20, 2009 9:33 am:
Didn’t Blizzard recently remove the +75 Stamina weapon enchant because they said it would be “the only enchant tanks would ever get…” ?
Seems this weapon is the same way, just as its predecessor was. Get one weapon, keep it for the rest of your tanking days… not sure how that fits into their philosophy on the weapon enchant. Sure we can pickup a DPS weapon for Threat generation if it has the right stats, but that would be a very slight amount of wiggle room.
I would like to see better options for weapons, and for enchants for our MH weapons. Accuracy seems to be the current king of Tanking enchants (25 hit + 25 crit). Outside of that enchant we have old-world ones like Mongoose or +20 STR, and the Weapon Chain for BSmiths (which isn’t as good as Accuracy, imo).
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Veneretio reply on January 20, 2009 10:30 am:
I think the difference is they may actually make another Tanking gun at sometime in the future.
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Cleaved reply on January 20, 2009 12:24 pm:
Yes, but making another gun available goes back to one of the reasons they stated they wouldn’t make the Titanguard Enchant available in-game. If they wanted to introduce another enchant after that, it would have to be 85 Stamina, or something. Honestly, if they put out any other type of Tanking enchant, they were worried that people would still only use 75 Stamina.
Also, they didn’t add another gun in BC… although they did leave room with no recipes for professions above 440 skill, so who knows what they will/won’t add.
I’m all for a new gun, especially since this “shotgun” looks as though it was made to fire those ping-pong balls like the old toy-guns of our youth.
Furiat/Vege reply on January 21, 2009 3:03 pm:
@Cleaved.
Blizz added another gun in BC, if not two.
One was from Teron. Second one was The Boomstic from heroic Setthek (flight form boss) - yea, worse one, but was added later.
And, like Q already posted, enchant’s issue wass more about “a must have” for all tanks, not only warriors. While gun is (and will be) only our issue and rest of tanking class have their “guns”.
Q reply on January 20, 2009 4:34 pm:
I think the difference here is that all three other tanking classes have no access to this gun. That makes it an obvious must-have for us warriors but blizzard will not suppose every tank to have it.
As I see it at the moment the book for paladins that gives like 350 block value is a must-have for THEM, so we warriors are having a stamina advantage over paladins in this slot.
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bondetaamp reply on January 21, 2009 1:47 am:
The difference, the way I see it, is that it is probably ok to give a single best in slot ranged slot for a melee class or melee slot for ranged/spell caster, but not vice versa.
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January 20th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Ouch! To think I almost spent a fortune on the AH for Eternal Waters and Airs. Thanks for the tip!
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January 20th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Stuck on engineering 446 at the moment, but I have all mats ready to go.
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Jacob reply on January 20, 2009 12:05 pm:
I used Gnomish army knives for the last stretch. It’ll probably only take you 5 or 10 knives for you to reach engineering 450.
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Djiss reply on January 20, 2009 1:08 pm:
It depend of your race. For gnome, recipe stay orange much longer since we have an head-start in engineering.
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Uthamog reply on January 21, 2009 1:19 pm:
Orc here, gray already. Heartseeker scope is still green. I might do that and they sell quite well in my server.
January 20th, 2009 at 8:50 am
This is something there shouldn’t be any debate about. I bought the Shotgun for 3000g within minutes of turning 80. I paid a premium because it was only 10 days after WoTLK was released and few on my server could make it. Today I could buy all the mats on the AH for around 1500g. Eternal waters are very easy to farm in Wintergrasp. Eternal airs will take a little more time as there are far less Tempest Revenants. 10 Emblems of Heroism get you a frozen orb if one hasn’t dropped for you on a heroic run. As for the Saronite and Titanium, if you aren’t a miner surely there’s a guildie who can help you out.
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January 20th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I had my gun two weeks after Wrath came out, 1 week after turning 80. It was my first epic. Socketed with +24 stam and I am one happy damn orc!
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January 20th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I farmed the mats the moment our first guild engineer was able to make it. I believe in good solid hours of farming to make you feel accomplished when you equip something.
However, I hate farming in Wintergrasp. Everytime I have been there, I’ve been put in combat when leaving the fortress via a bridge and cannot get out of combat, ever. Farming without a mount? Lame.
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January 20th, 2009 at 9:21 am
So much has changed in regards to tanking but yet, so much stays the same. Good post, Vene.
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January 20th, 2009 at 9:29 am
I farmed the mats for mine before I hit 80, being a miner made it fairly easy. Titanium Nodes drop Crystallized items of every flavor except Life… so that is also an easy way to get the Air and Water.
I did not pay for one, nor a premium for having it made. So soon after the Xpac hit I was willing to tip 100g out of generosity, but declined offers from several people that wanted 300 to 500g just to press the button with my mats. I have no issue tipping big (even with my mats) if the pattern is rare, hard to get or takes a lot of rep farming to obtain. However, if all they did is go to a trainer and pay the same gold every engineer did to get the same cookie-cutter pattern, I don’t see it being proper to ask for so much. Granted, the nature of “worth” is what people are willing to pay, and if they are able to find people to pay that much, more power to them. I found someone that only asked for a tip.
People will say “but they spent all that time leveling engineering and all those mats, etc.” True, but I spent a lot of time leveling BSmithing and Mining. It doesn’t mean I charge money to press a button. I never ask for a tip but if one is given, I am grateful. (Besides, they would have leveled their profession regardless for themselves.) More or less just a heads up to those out there with mats, its learned from a trainer and there ARE people willing to do it just for a tip.
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January 20th, 2009 at 9:54 am
I really got lucky on this one. In BC, I was the guy who never had the Destroyer because A. I’m always ALWAYS poor, buying mats for flasks and paying raid repairs, and B. I’m a full time student and don’t have time to just go around and farm mats. The reason I saw I got lucky with this one is that my birthday is inbetween Christmas and New Years, and one of my long time guildies and friends made it for me as a birthday/christmas present. Atm, there is nothing even close to competing for this slot for tanks.
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January 20th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I guess I’m in the minority. I have it, but I have to admit I rarely finding myself using it.
In my opinion the content doesn’t warrant it…yet.
Also, they made the cooldown on Heroic Throw much much too long. In my opinion it should be 20 or maybe 30 seconds. As it is I’m almost always ready for the next pull before the cooldown is up. As a result 99% of the time I actually have this garbage equipped: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=36981 …and heck I like the extra threat/dps. The other 1% is 3-drake sarth or malygos. Ever since I started using a thrown weapon I just hate pulling with a gun. Maybe I’ll get lucky and melee won’t want Spinning Fate( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40190 )…yeah right
I suppose I could break down and buy the spineslicer ( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43612 )
I expect I’ll get a lot of use out of the gun (though far less than I got out of my destroyer), but really, why can’t they lower the cooldown on heroic throw? If they’re afraid it’d be op…maybe make it talentable deep in prot? I’d probably spend 2 points to lower the cooldown 20 seconds each *sigh* or they could be awesome and tie to to gag order.
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belligerent reply on January 20, 2009 2:17 pm:
Do you really think the reason the weapon is require is because the OP wants you to use it?
Hint: The answer is no.
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Veneretio reply on January 20, 2009 2:34 pm:
I’m really confused at what you’re trying to say here.
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tPaste reply on January 20, 2009 2:56 pm:
Thank you, I would have been depressed if I was the only one.
Mojin/Hawksong reply on January 21, 2009 2:56 pm:
There seems to be some confusion over whether “to use” means “to shoot” or “to equip”.
I think tPaste needs to understand that the reason we warriors love this gun is not it’s DPS but purely because of its tanking stats.
Veneretio reply on January 21, 2009 4:43 pm:
Yup, you’re right Mojin and so was belligerent, I just had trouble understanding his point. (lol even though it was my point)
The reason this gun is amazing is it’s a huge stat boost for bosses. It serves no other purpose. You aren’t going to be shooting it instead of using Heroic Throw or Charge or something else along that lines.
tPaste reply on January 22, 2009 3:35 pm:
I do understand that, and I’m saying this content doesn’t require those stats outside of a couple instances (which is when I actually use it). How do people miss the fact that I have the gun, I love the gun and I do use it when necessary. It’s just rarely necessary so in most cases why bother?
My bigger point is if they had those exact same stats in a thrown I’d get rid of the gun and always use the thrown…why can’t they make better tanking throwns?
megagrogan reply on January 20, 2009 2:19 pm:
i hardly ever pull with my shotty, with a combination of heroic throw/taunt being used on things that i have to pull back, and warbringer for those that don’t
taunt has become even better for pulling today (patch finally out!), 30 yard range ftw 
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megagrogan reply on January 20, 2009 2:21 pm:
also, WTF.
Hand of Reckoning(NEW): Available on trainers at level 16. It’s a 30 yard range taunt that causes Holy damage.
wtb dmg on my taunt.
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Veneretio reply on January 20, 2009 2:37 pm:
All damage does is makes it so that you break a mob that the Mage is trying to re-sheep as it runs towards him and he gets killed. Make no mistake, a lack of damage on our Taunt makes it superior, not inferior.
p.s. Eventually, raids will involve CC again and this is going to actually matter.
p.s.s. The tagging system changed this patch so there’s really no advantage to damage for the sake of tagging mobs.
tPaste reply on January 20, 2009 3:03 pm:
I don’t think if I agree with Ven in this case…if you’re taunting the mob he’ll be on you not the mage. It’s not going to run to him and kill him it’s going to run to you…so the damage component is simply a bonus and (unless I’m missing something) doesn’t make it in any way inferior in this specific case imo…unless it’s a dot, I guess, or if there is a chance to resist the taunt but still damage the mob - but then you’re dealing with horrible ability design.
I know I’d prefer my taunt to damage.
Veneretio reply on January 20, 2009 4:47 pm:
Fair point, you are correct the mage wouldn’t be getting hit, we would instead. It still stands though if it’s the type of mob that needs to be CCed for whatever reason, we really don’t want to be breaking it on a re-sheep… we just want to stop it from killing the sheeper. When you consider that lag can exist as can mistakes, I’d still much rather have a taunt that doesn’t break CC over one that does.
Furiat/Vegelus reply on January 21, 2009 2:57 am:
Isn’t it 1 (yea, one) holy damage and skill that isn’t affected by spellpower?
Strogg reply on January 22, 2009 9:43 am:
To be honest, you know that once CC matters again vene they’ll take the damage off the pally taunt.
Q reply on January 20, 2009 4:39 pm:
You could build a macro that equips the throwing weapon and then throws and put the gun back on during melee. Luckily, this slot can be changed during combat
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tPaste reply on January 21, 2009 9:18 am:
I had one of those for a while in BC, but don’t bother with that right now because the content doesn’t warrant it at the moment. In current content I don’t need the defense or stam that the gun provides (aside from 2 fights) over the thrown so I’d rather have that little bit of extra hit and attack power the thrown provides in all cases but the two I mentioned.
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Beefbringer reply on January 21, 2009 4:34 am:
I have the gun and use it all the time.
Usually best way to open, shoot with gun, Heroic Throw, charge.
I was checking my OMEN and realised that the gun does do quite a nice ammount of innitial threat, so its great for the opener when rage gets burned for me all too quickly.
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tPaste reply on January 21, 2009 9:25 am:
So long as the mobs aren’t patting, don’t have mobs pat into them and don’t need to be LoSed. The gun is simply too slow.
We’ve had this discussion before - and here, no less, and I’d say Ven more or less agreed based on his initial blog entry:
http://www.tankingtips.com/2008/06/16/throwing-yourself-ahead-of-the-competition/
Why can’t they make kick ass thrown weapons for tanks?
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Veneretio reply on January 21, 2009 10:42 am:
Yup, I agree that this Gun doesn’t replace your Throwing Weapon. You need both. The Gun is for bosses as it’s the best stat boost you can get. The throwing weapon is for everything else.
Irghen reply on January 21, 2009 2:29 pm:
tPaste, are you saying that you can’t time a shot right if the mobs are moving?
Because if that’s so, you need more practice and better planning on your pulls, I can consistently shoot at Heigan during the dance with the shotgun.
Besides, it’s not always the best option to waste Heroic Throw first time every pull. Something that works on pats including a caster is to shoot one mob, taunt another, pop Reflect and save Heroic Throw for the moment the caster needs to die to pull him over. It only gets better with the Engineering rocket.
tPaste reply on January 22, 2009 3:27 pm:
No, that is not what I’m saying. I like to chain pull and if we’re almost finished with one group and the next group is a pat I try pull them. The gun has had more failed pulls in that case than a thrown because of the extra second it takes to pull means the pat can pat out of range. It’s the annoyance factor.
No planning is required in this content level. I enjoy clearing easy heroics like The Nexus in 30 minutes for badges because 5 badges in 30 minutes is excellent. I’m not going to bother planning pulls in these heroics that only get even easier as gear gets better. I never pull with a gun if I can avoid it, and I’d never practice with the gun if anything I’d again use the macro that I had before but lost when I got a new pc.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:37 am
If you are an engineer, Zapthrottle mote extractor is indisposable. I gemmed my gun with the +24 stam gem. This time, what is nice is that you gem it with a blue gem and you get the +6stam bonus which is icing on the cake.
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Hao reply on January 20, 2009 10:39 am:
With the mote extractor, it helped me get the water motes. Fortunately, my guildies helped out with the Air.
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January 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
For eternal air, you can also farm crystallized air from Altar Wardens in Zul’Drak:
http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=28784
They are elites with 30k health, and quite farmable as prot. You’ll average nearly one crystallized air per kill, and they respawn fast enough that there are always more to kill.
The Altar Wardens are hostile (red) initially. They become neutral (yellow) after you finish one of the quest chains in Zul’Drak, and they’re even easier to farm when they are yellow.
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January 20th, 2009 at 10:52 am
This may be the only GUN you need. But, there are other good (not nearly as good) tanking ranged weapons… at least 1, I mean (Weighted Throwing Axe - www.wowhead.com/?item=43187)
A 75 stam enchant would be the ONLY one of it’s kind, not just the best one.
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Hao reply on January 28, 2009 10:39 am:
The throwing axe is good for instant pulls, but I use Heroic throw. (I sometimes forget to put bullets in my bags since i run out of space quickly)
Otherwise the stats given from the gun really have no equal…… yet…
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January 20th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Honestly why can’t we just get a thrown weapon made. I will forever forgetting to bring the bullets for this damn thing.
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Djiss reply on January 20, 2009 1:10 pm:
Just pick a Box of bullets, 10 charges of 200 bullets will last you for month and it will tank only 2 inventory slots.
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Mojin/Hawksong reply on January 21, 2009 3:09 pm:
Plus, we engies often make the boxes to skill up because of how cheap they are. I put 10 boxes in my guild bank and kept 10 for myself.
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January 20th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Bought mine for 1900 G on the AH just a few days ago. I decided to stop being so cheap (I had 6k G).
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January 20th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Frozen Orbs can be purchased on the AH. They were running 65g on my server this past weekend.
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January 20th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
agreed, as soon as i hit 80, this gun and the titansteel shield were at the top of my things to do
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January 20th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I kept the tanking throwing weapon as well. I still use it when chain pulling my way thru an instance. The gun takes too long and Heroic Throw has too long a cooldown for the breakneck pace I prefer in some instances.
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January 21st, 2009 at 3:30 am
I expect to get this pretty soon, but, yes, I’ll still use my thrown weapon for chain pulling trash.
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January 21st, 2009 at 3:54 am
Why are people using throwing weapons to chain pull trash in instances did you not spec warbringer ?
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Jacob reply on January 21, 2009 11:27 am:
Charge is fun. But sometimes charge is dangerous.
Think of the frozen hallway in Nexus, with the Berserkers who knock back. It’s better to pull them, rather than fighting where they start.
An important part of Charge is knowing when not to use it.
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Mojin/Hawksong reply on January 21, 2009 3:12 pm:
In addition to Jacob’s point, another danger of charging is that, often times your healer is standing 10-20 yards behind you as it is. If you charge into mobs 30 yards ahead, you’re now out of range of heals.
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Veneretio reply on January 21, 2009 4:45 pm:
This is a lesson a lot of tanks are going to have to re-learn in Ulduar, I suspect. Even these days with easy content, I still see people charging into Raid bosses and occasionally getting WTFPWNed before a healer is even range to throw a heal.
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Cleaved reply on January 21, 2009 4:55 pm:
On bosses I heroic throw then charge, thus closing the distance and actually flipping the boss most of the time, where his back is to the DPS/heals.
MadTanker reply on February 13, 2009 4:24 am:
I use the same as Cleave. Fastest way to put his back to the heavy dps.
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January 21st, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I used to shoot , Heroic Throw , and Charge if I had a basic 3 pull. I tried out the new Taunt distance last night and I was happy. I was in H.Nexus last night and was at the area right before the frozen mobs . There was a hunter that I knew would sit back and try to pick off the clothies. So while I was tanking the first 2 mobs , I taunted the mob in the back so he would just sit back and shoot at me . I definately like the range difference.
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January 21st, 2009 at 10:28 pm
EHP is cool right? Right?
Yeah totally man.
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January 22nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
don’t buy this off the AH, buy the mats and get it made, usually save a couple hundred gold that way.
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January 23rd, 2009 at 8:57 am
I waited for one of my guildmates to reach the level to make this gun. I farmed/bought the mats, sent then to my guildie, and voila! I have my Gun!
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February 13th, 2009 at 3:08 am
And i want to dedicate my new gun to all the guildies who pitched in…
WooWoo..
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Chet reply on February 14, 2009 6:43 am:
yeah, it’s great when your guild pitches in on stuff like this, isn’t it? I probably still wouldn’t have my gun if my guild hadn’t helped me out so much
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February 13th, 2009 at 4:23 am
I’m sure there will a newer version along shortly to make us even happier.
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