My guild is preparing to head into Hydross and we're assembling the gear that our tanks need. This is the list I've come up with but I'm not 100% sure this is what we should be using of if there is better out there. Either this list will serve other guilds preparing, or others can give advice as to what we should add to our list

In order to kill Hydross we're going under the presumption that we need two frost resistance tanks and two nature resistance tanks.

Frost Resistance:
Iceguard Breastplate
Iceguard Helm
Iceguard Helm
The Frozen Eye
Pendant of Thawing

Nature Resistance:
Wildguard Breastplate
Wildguard Helm
Wildguard Leggings
The Natural Ward
Pendant of Withering

For two sets of each of those items, that requires:
Khorium Barx 52
Primal Water x 92
Primal Fire x 98
Primal Life x 92
Primal Shadow x 96
Primal Nether x 12
Felsteel Bar x 60
Mercurial Adamantite x 20


With these items, a 65+ green resist ring, and a +15 nature cloak enchant the tanks should be at 290 resist. We need to figure out a way to get the extra 5 resistance and then add in 70 from totem/aura and that puts them at a maxed 365 resistance.

shoulder enchant, some trinkets, old level 60 gear etc.

There are +resistance armor kits.

Did you remember the 20 nature resist helm enchant from the Cenarion Expedition?

Glyph of Nature Warding - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29194

I would re-examine your presumption about what gear you'll need on which tanks. Think of it this way: How would having more than one NR-*MT* hurt you in his frost phase (and vice versa)?

i was wondering a bit about this fight myself... we've just begun SSC and not really sure which way to go in gearing the OT's... Most groups seem to do a 50/50 mix of resists but what kind of items are we talking here? Are warriors or druids superior offtank in terms of availability of resist gear...that is, assuming no diff in aggro... do they were 150 of each resist unbuffed or what?

Just having some trouble deciding what people should wear and i dont want to have them get a bunch of stuff thats just gonna sit in their bank

Also, don't forget that Tauren have 10 nature resist racial.

This thread needs more tauren.

needs more night elfs

Anyway, we get 10 NR... makes a pretty good difference.

One thing I'd recommend is the 20 NR to helmet, but NOT the 10 NR to leggings. The 30 stamina enchants are better spent if you can find another item (I used dragon shoulders).

Here's my "Ultimate" list of NR gear for a Tubby Tauren like myself.

Helm: Wildguard Helm (30 Stam, 28 Def, 50 NR, 20 NR enchant)
Neck: Pendant of Withering (18 stam, 30 NR)
Shoulders: Mantle of Abrahmis (63 Stam, 20 Def, 15 Dodge/10 Def Aldor enchant)
Back: Amber Cape of Nature Protection (32 Stam, 21 NR, 15NR enchant)
Chest: Wildguard Breastplate (15 Stam, 60 NR, 150HP enchant)
Wrist: Vambraces of Courage (42 Stam, 12 Def, 12 Stam enchant)
Hands: Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden (58 Stam, 14 Def, 8 Stam enchant ... 8 NR kit for non Taurens)
Waist: Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable (57 Stam, 21 Def)
Legs: Wildguard Leggings (30 Stam, 60 NR, 30 stam armor kit)
Feet: Boots of the Colossus (51 stam, 19 Def, 12 Stam enchant)
Ring 1: Band of Impenetrable Defenses (36 Stam, 25 Def)
Ring 2: The Natural Ward (12 Stam 35 NR)
Trinket 1: Figurine - Dawnstone Crab (32 Def)
Trinket 2: Scarab of Displacement (35 Def)
Shield: Aldori Legacy Defender (46 Stam, 18 Def, 18 Stam enchant)
Weapon: Grom'tor's Charge (30 stam, 11 Def)
Ranged: Barrel-Blade Longrifle (24 Stam)

Note: it is assumed that EVERY gem slot is filled with a 12 stam gem.

NR: 291 Unbuffed (301 for a Tauren, 299 with glove enchant for a non Tauren)
Defence Rating: 259. You'll need 5/5 Anticipation + Flask of Fortification to hit 490 def.
Stam: 624 (not including 150 HP enchant).

My actual gear is about 68 stam lower. I had 300 NR unbuffed, 490 def with fort flask and 19.1k HP fully potted and raid buffed for our Hydross kill tonight.

Granted druids are only going to be off-tanks for this fight, but its irritating that the only option for NR/FrR gear at 70 is epic plate. There isn't even any blue leather that fits the bill!

I was recently told to start gathering Frost/Nature Res gear for trash,etc (?), and while researching I also noticed that we (druids) don't have many options: most of the new items are only like two or three, while the rest would be random green items that drop here and there.

With that being said, how do druid tanks do?

If you are referring to adds Hydross spawns, you don't really need excessive amounts of resistance, chances are you can probably survive using standard gear if your healers are capable. Unfortunately for many, the leather/cloth epic frost resistance pieces are mostly Naxxramas recipes (NPC in DK wing) that require a lot of frozen runes, so if you've never been to Sapphiron, chances are you've never bothered with it. Nature resistance requires Cenarion Circle craftables which are a bit easier to acquire.

As for trash, I haven't personally witnessed anything that required FrR.

Why would you bother with things like Cenarion Circle craftables?

High-level greens of Nature Protection are better in every way.

Delete me please.

Here's my method for bringing these items into reach. I enter the auction house. I search for "nature protection" in the auction listings. I hit the buy button.

Seriously, they aren't in demand. You can get all the gear you want just by checking the AH twice a day. The crafted items are not nearly as good.

Might wanna do the math on that last 4-5 NR before dismissing it.

Nevermind I'll do it:
1 - ((1/(1-[360/365]*0.75)) / (1/(1-[365/365]*0.75)))
= 4%

You get exponential returns on resists up through the very last point... nothing else gearwise is going to compare to say, 5 NR to shoulders if that is your final bit.

Lucky you. I've been looking for about 2 weeks now with nothing to show for it.

I remember reading of being told a long time ago that resist scales in block values. So there's no difference between 360 to 364 resist, you have to hit or go above 365 for you next ACTUAL change to resistance.

That's very wrong. Ask any caster that pvps.

This is a myth perpetuated when they first put out a table/graph of what resist values where equal to in percents. The numbers were shown in blocks on the figure when they should have shown a line graph instead.

Something to add to the resist gear list, our tanks grab these just for resist fights where armor is irrelevant:
Hands: Felsteel Gloves
Feet: Heavy Clefthoof Boots

If there is something along these lines of high stam/high defense items of any armor type I'd like to see them.