Tanking and gear beyond KaraFollow

Hello fellow Pallies.
Ok so our guild has cleared Kara now and will be moving on. As of now Im geared like this http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Thrall&n=Luthon. I do have the SSO neck and shield from Bane as I try and decide whats gonna be best for me now. Im working as best I can to get to 375 BS so I can make the boots of the protector.

Im almost to 70 badges and thinking that leggings will be my next upgrade.

Ok so I guess my question or delima is what should I do? Should I use the neck I currently use over the SSO? I know its a close call between the 2 shields. I was thinking of just gemming the shoulders with 2 +15 stam gems. Good idea? What should I be looking for now for upgrades over-all?

I have gotten to be a pretty good tank with the help of this forum and just plain ol experience. BUT. I went in as being the main tank but been noticing that our war tank is getting called on more so to be the lead. He's been winning the rolls more and hes at 15k hp unbuffed so when we roll hes at like 17 and im at about 15k. Which is not a problem cause we're a good guild who helps each other all the time. Guess its just more of a pride issue with me wanting to be "The One" when it comes to tanking. So guess im looking for some advice as to what to do next at my current stage.
Thanks all and keep up the good work.

I didn't expect to see you here Mindel!

Your Armory isn't loading for me, so it may be a little general..

After you have the Libram, the legs make a very good candidate for upgrade #2 from badges. The most important badge upgrades are the chest (2.3) and legs (2.4) -- though Slikk's Cloak of Placation should definitly be an objective as well. If you don't have the Devilshark (no armory) certainly consider grabbing it right away. If you do... it's up to you. It's a mediocre upgrade (from the Devilshark) now that would delay 2 very HUGE upgrades (unless you have one or both already.. again, I don't have your armory).

After the Chest, Legs, and Cloak there are a few more useful badge pieces. You can probably safely forego boots granted that you're going to be making the Blacksmithing ones. Depending on what you're wearing and if you need avoidence the Bonefist Gauntlets might serve you. They blow away the Tier 4 gloves and Felsteels easily by miles. If you need the Block Rating to stay uncrushable, the Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden are a better choice. If not, the Bonefists are the better glove. The Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx are also a decent item. They are odd in that they are BARELY an upgrade over the Bracers of the Green Fortress (crafted) and Attuman's Bracers but they ARE an upgrade. In fact, despite how nearly insignificantly better they are they, are probably the third (fourth debatably with Sunwell) best Bracers you can get and they WILL serve you well into the beginning of Tier 6. I'd also consider the 60 badge Ring of the Stalwart Protector. *IF* you can squeeze it in without going uncrushable (what Pally tank at the Kara > Tier 5 level can afford to drop Andormu's Tear?) it's a nice boost to HP and it more-or-less keeps you on par with the avoidence from Andormu's. Finally... the 2.3 Spell Damage Belt might have a place in your wardrobe. Again, a serious drop in Block Rating from belts that you might upgrade from, but if you can stay uncrushable it's usually worth it and it helps to make up some of that valuable Dodge you lose by not wearing the Boots of Elusion from Kara.

SSO upgrades... If you don't need Defense to stay at 490+, the Sunward Crest is a better shield than Nightbane's, but to be honest it's still only the best of the INTRO shields. Aldori Legacy Defender (Gruul) or Bulwark of the Amani Empire (Jan'alai) are the major upgrades. The SSO necklace will generally serve you better than any of the Badge necklaces or the Choker of Dicipline (Maiden) if you are Aldor and can stay uncrushable with it. It is especially a HUGE advantage against trash, and Hammer of Justice and an avoidence trinket it makes tanking whole heroics at once almost trivial. If you're Scryer it won't help you as much as a Warrior, but it's still valuable for threat. Not knowing your other profession, I can't say if there's another good upgrade from SSO rep for you. The Empyrean Tortoise is excellent though, as is the Alchemist's Stone if you can use either.

ZA offers you an excellent helm and the first worthwhile upgrade after the Eternium Greathelm from Opera. Neither the Badge helm nor the Tier 4 helm are even upgrades to the Opera helm, let alone worth it. It also offers what I consider the best boots until you can down a boss in Black Temple, but since you're getting boots anyway it's no big deal. The shoulders from the first timed chest are also amazing. They'd be my preferred pick over Tier 4 or Tier 5 shoulders. You sound like you're fairly satisfied with your shoulders though so I'm guessing you're already sitting on one of those three. Unless you have a crazy abundance of badges I'd probably save the +15 Stamina gems until at LEAST the ZA shoulders though. Solid Stars serve Tier 4 or Tier 5 ones quite nicely.

Finally, for a weapon I'm partial to the Cudgel of Consecration from Heroic MrT. I already had a Hyjal trash mace lollipop when ZA came out, but I just despise the Amani Punisher. If you're into PvP grab the Season 2 mace. The Season 1 mace was kind of trashy and I would never have been able to justify PvP to get it over a Cudgel of Consecration if I had to choose, but the Season 2 one honestly is superior. Or be like me and get lucky on a Tempest of Chaos and never have to worry about another weapon pre-expansion.

As for gemming and enchants.. Whenever possibly, stick stamina in your sockets. The 2.4 badge pants are certainly deserving of Solid Empyrean Sapphire if you have the badges. I would only consider sticking those gems in other pieces at that gear level (with the possible exception of the ZA Shoulders) if you are trying to push into Tier 6 content, or looking to join a Tier 6 guild where it is expected that you push every little bit of usefulness out of your gear -- which often means putting the most expensive enchants/gems on slightly sub-standard gear in an effort to bring them as close to par-for-the-course as possible. If it an expensive enterprise? Yes -- but it is often what's needed, and is not entirely futile. Should you need to use other gems in some sockets to reach Defense/Avoidence benchmarks, I suggest you experiment at Warcrafter to find the best combination. Whenever possible, try to trade out for Green (or possibly Purple) gems to keep some of that Stamina, and try to do so on pieces that have a Stamina socket bonus that you can take advantage of. This will help to limit the loss to HP that you take.

Post-Kara you're entering a gearing phase where you will need to scrutinize EVERYTHING that you do. You'll need to know what everything does for you and what you need to work on. Generally, people find that they have trouble holding that 490 Defense benchmark once they're decked out in Badge gear. Don't worry, by Tier 6 you'll be trying to find ways to dump your giant overabundance of Defense into other more useful stats :D Right now though, you'll notice that you have to start acquiring pieces in specific orders. If you break the order, you put yourself critable/crushable or both until you can get back on track. Playing around at Warcrafter can be quite valuable to a Protection Paladin at your level, to understand how everything works together a little better.

Again, sorry for this being so general. Without knowing your current gear/rep/other prof I can only offer you these suggestions. I hope that you can find something useful in them, and that you can work out an upgrade path. Good luck with gear -- good luck moving on to other content -- and have fun.

Thank you Losie, that was an AWESOME summary and just what I was looking for!