I recently picked up [Gauntlets of the Iron Furnace] (219 Ignis10). It's an interesting item, the "threat" stat on it being armor pen instead of the usual hit/exp. Just another piece to add to the list.

The problem with the gauntlets is that only a blood tank really gains from the ArP. For a frost and unholy tank a large portion of there damage comes from ability's that ignore armor.

Although it has shield block rating on it, [Adamant Handguards] (Trash 10man) can be an upgrade to someone.

What is currently the BiS 2H weapon in Ulduar. I know Worldcarver has nice exp on it but i think Rune Edge is a better avoidance weapon imo. I was thinking about taking that one and get expertise with other items/gems to reach soft-cap (push dodges off the table). Voldrethar, Dark Blade of Oblivion has some nice sockets but i see that more as a threat wep. Been looking around but can't see clearly what is the best weapon.

Most likely i will get Worldcarver and Rune Edge so i can swap gear depending on fights.

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this but [Voldrethar, Dark Blade of Oblivion] has different stats in Wowhead.com than in Armory.

Voldrethar @ Armory The World of Warcraft Armory

If the stats in the Armory are true then it's very desirable tanking weapon.

Im quite sure that The Dark Edge of Depravity is the BiS 2H item for almost every tank


VS Voldrethar you gain:
Around 1,4% Dodge
Close to 2% Hit
And 2,6% Haste

and lose:
Close to 100 AP
around 0,6% Parry
0,1% Crit
and 5,7% ArPen.

So the net gain is around 1% avoidance and 2% hit for the loss of 100 AP und the 5,7% ArPen. (those gains assume the stats on the armory are the real ones)

Titanskin Cloak is from Mimiron 25 Hard Mode.

With the upgrades to weapons for 10 man hard modes, the new stats on the sword from hard mode XT seems pretty incredible for a 10 man drop. 141 Stam and 2 sockets make it pretty amazing.

PTR stats

It's a great sword, to be sure, but not that great a tanking sword. You're going to be much better off with either Earthshaper or the mace from 10man Yogg, just because of the insane amount of hit each one of them carries.

What are you guys doing about +hit. I'm having a hell of a time getting enough hit with some of this gear. Its all expertise. Gloves/Belt is where I wanted to pick up hit but its 28 emblems each and will take several weeks to get them even if I was in every fight.

Lots of items have hit on them. Tier helm, XT shoulders, couple of cloaks, best bracers, badge fists/belt, Ignis boots.

Also, [Seal of Ulduar] from XT-10 man hard mode.

That's part of my tanking gear whish lists, it's not by far BiS, but it gets you to hit cap/experise cap without hard mode loot.

Hit rating is definitely a concern for death knight tanks in Ulduar gear depending on what drops you get in what order. the stats on tier 7 don't mirror tier 8 very much. The hardest item to replace is [Valorous Scourgeborne Legguards] with [Conqueror's Darkruned Legguards], this gear upgrade is the steepest drop in hit off a single upgrade in Ulduar. Overall tier 7.5 had 73 hit rating on all the gear while tier 8.5 has only 41 and is only found on [Conqueror's Darkruned Faceguard]. This is slightly balanced if you pick up the badge neck and belt along with the hit wrists and boots that drop in 25 man as well, of which all drop off non- hard modes.

I would advise investing in the 2 badge pieces and trying to use [Vivid Forest Emerald] as a cheap alternative to pure stam gems to stay at the hit cap.


////edit: on a side note an interesting thing I noticed the swap in avoidance stats is very peculiar... tier 7.5 has 190 dodge, 153 parry while tier 8.5 has 165 dodge and 227 parry. Is is possibly a way Blizzard is nerfing our avoidance scaling by putting more parry on gear instead of dodge? Since parry doesn't yield as much avoidance as dodge for the same Ilevel it could be a sneaky way of keeping death knight tier gear from giving them to much avoidance.