Here's a good link (including T6 relative value):
http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/39462-wotlk-tanking-gear-list.htmlNot so much for druids, but warriors/paladins/dks are considered.
I've found that at 80, it is relatively difficult to hit 540 defense. I've had to replace my chest, legs, and gloves with crafted blues just to hit it, and a trinket that adds 64 defense (seal of the pantheon, even drops in regular Halls of Lightning). This doesn't include a few +defense gems and enchants that I added as well. Regardless, I came out about even with my T6 in terms of avoidance (maybe even a little better), much higher in terms of health, and took a hit in expertise/hit rating that was slightly offset by the increase in AP from the strength on all of the items. I think my unbuffed health is almost 24k right now, 549 defense, and my AP (don't quote me on this) is around 1700. I am seeing an increase in misses, not surprisingly.
However, block value and rating are MUCH more important than I thought they would be. It seems that mitigation has overtaken avoidance completely, especially with critical blocks, the decreased CD on shield wall/last stand, and diminishing returns on avoidance.
I guess my point to all of this is that at 80, I found
+def to be my most important value (which tankpoints doesn't weigh heavily enough and thus skews the gear guide I listed) until 540, then +stam, and then block value/block rating. When I'm critically blocking attacks for ~2500, it's significant damage reduction, and I see now what was meant by shield block being a "mini shield wall". The crafted gear also has MUCH more armor on it. I went from about 65% reduction from AC at 70 to about 55% at 80 wearing T6.
Therefore, although the T6/Sunwell is listed higher on a lot of the gear lists, until 540 defense, it's definitely inferior. Lastly, in terms of weapons, I think, like BC, that's where you're going to get your threat. Trinkets/Rings will help, but a good threat weapon will minimally affect your defense rating and add the most threat. I'm currently using +50AP, but I'm wondering if the new 'fiery weapon' type enchant would be better.
Speaking of enchants, I'm using +20 DEF to shield (other option is +18 stam, but I thought it would be better to gain a gem slot that I could put a +24 stam gem in instead of a +def gem), +22 def to chest, +22? agi to cloak (for threat, other option is the new +armor enchant or the +def enchant if you need it), Armsman (+2% threat / 10 parry) to gloves, +22 stam to boots (is slightly increased speed worth 7 stam?) and additional sockets on my belt and bracers (bracers are BS only). I'm also looking for the new shoulder / head enchants, but I haven't come across them yet. There's a good meta gem also. It gives +22 def and +5% block value, I'm gonna pick one of those up today probably.
Also for warriors, the glyph of blocking is an
absolute must! It stays up pretty much the whole fight, so it's an almost permanent 10% bonus to your shield block value. GET IT ASAP!
