I set up some Wowhead filters for myself to filter Ulduar tank loot with defense.

Ulduar 10man
Plate Plate Armor - Items - World of Warcraft
Cloaks, rings, shields and necks Armor - Items - World of Warcraft
Weapons Weapons - Items - World of Warcraft
Trinkets Trinkets - Items - World of Warcraft
Set Valorous Siegebreaker Plate - Item Set - World of Warcraft

Ulduar 25man
Plate Plate Armor - Items - World of Warcraft
Cloaks, rings, shields and necks Armor - Items - World of Warcraft
Weapons Weapons - Items - World of Warcraft
Trinkets Trinkets - Items - World of Warcraft
Set Conqueror's Siegebreaker Plate - Item Set - World of Warcraft
Crafted Plate Armor - Items - World of Warcraft

Merchant items
Emblem of Valor Items - World of Warcraft
Emblem of Heorism Items - World of Warcraft

Lootrank.com comparsion
Loot Rank for WotLK

Blood Draining procs at a 50% rate with a 10s internal cooldown. So, basically, it will proc once every 10-11 seconds, typically.

I find it quite useful, even if it doesn't post massive numbers. It heals when it matters, which gives a slightly higher buffer for allowing HoTs and incoming heals to top you up before the next swing should you drop below 35%.

I would personally use either Blood Draining or Mongoose, there isn't much use for anything else really. (Accuracy is pretty pointless nowadays even as a threat enchant with so much hit on Ulduar gear.)

Given the timing of major events in fights is often around a 60 second timer, the 50-55 second restack time should not be an issue. Then the stacks are there to provide valuable bonus health to recover from a big hit like Unbalancing Strike or things of that nature. Basically it's 2k extra HP in the situations when it's fairly clear you need it.

The enchant isn't going to stand out as "omg amazing" right away, but the potential value there is much higher than the others just from a tanking dynamics point of view, IMO.

First of all thank you for compiling such a list, I found myself referencing many times once I got my warrior to 80 and wanted to start the gauntlet of getting tank gear for it.

Are you conflating hit with expertise? There's an enormous amount of expertise gear, and expertise seems to be the threat stat they itemise on BiS gear -- Iron Army and Sorthalis leap out at me -- at the expense of hit (Charred Saronite and Shiver/Titanguard). This leaves aside optimal survival gear, which is optimal for survival precisely because itemisation points aren't spent on threat stats.

It's not that I don't see the value in expertise, but with many tank-switching encounters (not the least of which, Algalon) in Ulduar, I end up making otherwise suboptimal choices for the sake of unresisted taunts.

Would it have killed them to itemise a 94stam ring with some hit on it, so I can retire the Impregnable Fortress ring?

Hmm, yeah, I forgot about that belt. I guess it seems intuitively like it should be one of those shite SBR/SBV pieces. I guess the item-naming team got it mixed up with the [Dragonslayer's Brace].

Let's talk about Coliseum tank gear, Warriors, and badges!

After having looking over mmo's loot list and thinking about our four piece set, here are some basics I thought would be useful:

Badges
Helm - Good piece, but probably not a buy
Shoulders - Better to use tier pieces for sure
Throwing Weapon - Excellent piece to buy, but probably something to hold off on unless it's a large upgrade
Ring - Not bothering - the 10/25 mans both have a ring to be used
Trinket - Probably worth buying

Looking at offset pieces dropping in the Coliseum that match up with the set pieces we get, it appears we're getting an option of wearing leg armor or chest armor.

Having looked at the set pieces, I think the legs look weakest, so I'd probably go for that in maintaining a four piece item bonus set.

Those are just quick thoughts - have to run soon.

I wouldn't discard the badge ring so quickly, it's the highest ilvl ring with bonus armor currently. Also, in contrast to all bonus armor rings so far it has defense. Currently I'm in a situation where I can't equip two armor rings and stay above the crit immunity cap.

The maximum number of badges you can obtain before starting the heroic 25 man should be 152, provided each boss continues dropping 3 badges each on both 10 and 25 man versions, which means you can get at most 3 pieces of your tier set provided you buy a 50 badge ilvl 232 set piece, otherwise you can only get the head and gloves and one offset piece.

Outside of those, the only badge offset pieces worth mentioning, in my opinion at least, are the trinket, the ring and the ranged slot. 1792 armor with a clicky attached to it is going to be basically a metric shitload of mitigation against any hard hitting bosses. The ring, as was mentioned already, is the best in slot armor ring and for only 35 badges that's a pretty good steal. The ranged slot, however, is an extremely minor upgrade compared to Veranus' Bane, it will be last on my list for sure. The rest of the badge items have a superior alternative that drops I'm pretty sure.

My plan is to nab the shoulders first, then the gloves (need that two piece for the two seconds off of taunt, you know), and then the trinket before we start in on heroic modes. Once we're doing heroic I'll just have to see what has dropped at that point, and how hard the hard modes are for the ilvl 258 set pieces.

Forget about [The Leviathan's Coil]? The badge ring is a slight upgrade from that, it's comparable to what you'll see in other slots when you upgrade from Ulduar gear.

For me, the trinket is probably the biggest initial upgrade from badges, followed by the helm. I'm still debating if the 4pc is worth it, which will influence my decision on what to buy next, helm or ring. The extra 1792 armor from the trinket is over a full percentage point of additional mitigation for me with raid buffs (even in the newer gear with higher armor values) and that's before you talk about the BiS click effect.

The tier 9 legs are a pretty big threat piece, but I doubt I'd wear them for anything other than heroics or a really harsh threat race. The alternative off Jaraxxus isn't that far behind them for threat purposes, plated saronite are still pretty close to BiS for anything that hits hard and legplates of the endless void are still the best avoidance legs you can get. If the 4pc does turn out to be useful, I'd probably use the helm before I'd use the legs. The strongest two tier pieces are the shoulders and the hands (the chest would be if Northrend beasts didn't drop an amazing piece).

The dps throwing weapon is actually pretty good for tanking if you can afford to lose the defense. The agility and the dodge rating are basically a push, you trade hit for expertise, and you lose a little bit of stamina, BV and AP. In return you get some armor pen and some crit. It's better from a threat perspective.

One other observation after looking at a lot of the pieces is that we'll probably be approaching DRs for block value's contribution to shieldslam. There's upwards of 20str increases on every single piece and a lot of pieces with bonus BV. We probably need to start thinking about BV as a mitigation stat more than a threat stat after this tier. That also changes how I look at my glyphing situation. I was debating whether or not to drop glyph of blocking, but between the 4pc bonus and the added BV, it may become quite a bit better than it was.

Tier shoulders were a given, and probably gloves too to get the 2set bonus. I'm contemplating whether going for the 4set bonus is worth it though. There's some really amazingly itemized chest ([Chestplate of the Towering Monstrosity]) and leggings ([Legguards of Feverish Dedication]), and I'd like the non-set helm ([Faceplate of the Honorbound]) which is a direct upgrade from [Ironbark Faceguard], I could get something like 35-40 expertise with really good non-gimmick gear. Going for 4set however would only let me use 1 expertise piece which would put me about 6-8 expertise short of dodge cap, not too great.

I have a hard-on for armor, especially on rings, but when it comes to the armor trinket I'm not sure. 1.35k-1.6k health vs 1792 armor, armor one being better for physical only bosses but when is a boss ever physical only anyway, guess it would help me more on Algalon but seems pretty limited use for 50 badges. I'd probably combo Loop of the Twin Valk'yr (10n and then later 10hardmode with same name) with [Clutch of Fortification] however.

If only the 4set was still -20sec as it was on the PTR, or we'd have T8 4set innate, then I'd sacrifice the stats and go for it instantly, but right now I'm at a total loss if I should bother or not in my general do-everything set.

I only counted 10man hardmode and 25man normal loot i.e max ilvl245 loot. I won't be doing 25man hardmode unless it turns out to be ridiculously easy as well. I can assume a lot of people are in the same position.