Twinkage: Warrior Advice
 

Hey folks,

Gearing out a friend's warrior, and in the process realized when it comes to melee gear, I don't have as much knowledge as I'd like. So it got me thinking, I should just come to the melee pro's and put together a resource for the next guy that comes along who wants to build the perfect level 1 warrior. And I'm sure I've missed some stuff as well, so it'll help me with those stray pieces. So if you know your stuff, help me add to the list. It'd be much appreciated!

Criteria: Money is not an object, looking for droppable or Crafted (quest) items only.

(I've added what I've purchased already, please correct me if there is a "better in slot" than what I have listed)

Head: Skull Shaped Barbute
Shoulder: Crested Spaulders
Neck: Runed Lava Pendant
Arm: Mithril Vambraces
Legs: Silver-Plated Leggings (Mithril comparable, went for tank stats)
Back: Hooded Black Cloak
Hands: Crafted Gauntlets
Waist: Flowing Black Silk Sash
Wrist: Granite Bracer / Hero Bracer
Face: Dented Brass Mask
Feet: Crafted Boots
Ears: Diamondine Earring x2
Fingers: Djarn's Amethyst Ring / Platinum Fire Wedding Band
Main-Hand: Short Sword of Ykesha
Secondary: Short Sword of Ykesha
Range: Runed Bone Fork

Too much focus on strength. Unless you're making a solo warrior? Maybe you want some challenge with your twink...?

So, money being no object, and this being a tank, scrap the second hero bracer for granite, black sapphire necklace, and the earrings go for black sapph earring x2, or, if you can't find a 2nd black sapph earring (or third black sapphire), go ivandyr's hoop.

Gear is fine pre-raid. I would recommend some black sapphire for ears and neck, though. It's just too much HP to give up. Also, change your mask to grotesque (as most warriors, being trolls/ogres, the real warriors, have abysmal dex). Also you're better off with two granites at the upper end, but they'll be replaced with indi anyway, so it's largely irrelevant and won't have a large impact either way.

Also depending how much you're willing to spend, the old raid gear is often sold. Things like bloodfires, RBBs, AoNs etc are sold....though the price is quite high o_O

You'll want more DEX instead of STR. And more AC over some of those other stat heavy low AC items. Unless you plan to solo PL your way all the way to 50, you'll want more DEX for procs.

Neck: Black Pearl Choker (DEX)
Arm: Crafted (More AC)
Legs: Crafted (More AC)
Back: Cloak of Shadows (DEX and more AC)
Wrists: Crafted Bracers (More AC) Ditch the Hero unless you are small
Face: Grotesque Mask (DEX)

Yaks are no good until level 37. Get a pair of Obsidian Shards and Gnoll Hide Lariats too. Again, if you are grouping this matters. If not, whatever does the most damage. If you have the scratch to pay for yaks, you can bank them and use something that actually procs and helps you keep aggro in the meantime. 1000pp for 2 shards and 40-50pp for 2 lariats should be nothing for you :)

yea, i don't quite understand the necklace. glowing bone collar is great and pretty even with black saph necklace imo, but 2x black sapph earrings would suit you well. replace the hero bracer with another granite bracer as well.

different fights require different gear, but generally speaking, you won't need massive +hp gear until you start tanking things that are 5-10 levels above you on raids. don't underestimate AC either, as it should be (in my opinion) your primary stat.

Yeah, Glowing Bone Collar is a good option, but 25 hp or 5 STR. The difference is marginal at higher levels. 25 is nothing. For a level 1 twink though, 25 hp goes a long way.

As a cleric, I'd say the opposite. Health swings aren't huge enough that I have to worry about a tank dying before I can react, so I don't care about health until 39 - until then, I care about AC. At 39, added health means added mana each CH cast. And at the higher end, +strength won't avail you, your dps is horrid regardless and most of your aggro comes from procs. You're much better going for dex - re str: a certain amount of aggro is given each hit, and then on top of that for the damage. Losing strength barely changes your hits (think 1 attack per strength), it more effects your damage.

Never understood Warrior's that went crested over crafted, and granit over crafted, the warrior hangs it hat/helmet on mitigation. You're going to be getting beat on, so might as well have it be for as low as possible. I would also focus on dex more than str, there's alot of items that dont give up too much ac and you gain alot of dex. I wore Dwarven work boots, and grotesque mask, and cloak of shadows that did me pretty well.

I was thinking about this today, actually. The damage mitigation via AC is quite nice now (since that was fixed), and you don't really need massive amounts of HP as a main tank until PoSky, where damage mitigation thru AC simply won't work because of the levels of some of the mobs. What i'm getting at is you may be better off going for dex/AC and some stam/hp thrown in there rather than looking for the best +hp items in-slot as a main tank.

Consider getting a Polished Granite Tomahawk. It'll let you solo to 20 with relative ease, possibly even further with that kind of twink gear. The proc is also decent aggro and, more importantly, is an AoE aggro gainer that doesn't break mezz or aggro neutral mobs. I find myself using it occasionally even after getting better weapons; the absorb shield is decent enough in a pinch where a difference of a few hundred health could save you, and if you're tanking one mob while three others are mezzed on top, a handful of berserker procs is about the equivalent of proccing a yak twice on each mob.