Mind you, I was asked this by a hunter, who wanted to find out how to gear his DK friend, so they should take some of this with a grain of salt, since the rules for DK's are ever so slightly different than the rules for us.
First and foremost, here is a basic list
For DPS Warriors
Both of these are links to www.LootRank.com which is a great source for compiling a "basic" list of gear to use. It's not the greatest in the sense that it tends to not allow you to compile the gear statistics you're looking for, but inevitably the gear set you want can be found by looking somewhere in the top 10 of each slot's values (and you can just ignore the gems, enchants, etc.).
I've set these up to exclude all raid drops, and all BoP profession crafts and PvP purchases. If you wish to include any of these, please feel free to, but this is intended to be as general purpose as possible.
So, here's my thoughts on the gear selection:
For Protection Warriors (I'll do the dps warriors in a later post):
Your first priority is defense cap. Nothing else matters until you get there. I have seen MANY foolish tank newbies offering to tank in resilience gear. Trust me, just don't try it. If you're "barely" under def cap and you've done everything in your power to get the gear and can't, you can use a "TINY" amount of resilience to get you there, but don't count on resilience to save your hide when the bosses can hit for 20-30 thousand points of damage and you really need to be avoiding as many of those hits as you can to give your healer time to prop you back up to be ready for the next 20-30 thousand damage strike. After that, get as much hit as you can afford, and as much expertise as you can afford, and put as much into dodge and parry as you can. Mind you, your goals will change once you get into raids, as this def cap will get easier and easier to reach with gear, and you'll be able to invest more of your gear rating towards worthier goals, but that's where you have to start.
Now, in line with that, you have some priorities. Getting your Argent Crusade rep to Revered is one of them. Getting your Hodir rep as high as possible (to Revered or better) is another of them. You will NEED the enchants from these. The Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector and either the Lesser or Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle will reduce the whopping 689 defense rating you need by 30-35, and you'll need it. Plus the dodge/stamina boost is pretty great too.
Ok, now to talk about gear.
Helm:
If you can manage it, skip straight to the Tempered Titansteel Helm. If you can't manage it, the Arcane Shielded Helm from Heroic Nexus is your next best bet.
To gem this puppy, I'd go with the +37 stam, +2% armor value meta gem, and use the other gem to either A) make up for any deficiencies in your gear totals, or B) add extra stamina.
Neck:
Don't start drooling over the Titanium Earthguard neck, I know it's pretty, but you want the Chained Military Gorget. You need the hit rating, and the loss of a single defense rating to get it and all the other things that go with it is well worth it.
Shoulders:
Ok, so if you have the gold or spare time to try for the world drop shoulders, be my guest. Ultimately, though, you're going to be replacing them once you start going through Naxx, so I'd advise against investing that kind of effort unless you just have more gold than sense. Now, here is one of the places where the choice will change for DK's. I would suggest the Pauldrons of the Colossus from Heroic Gundrak, and not for the shield block rating, but for the gem slot (which you can use what is suggested for a total of +8 defense and +18 stam, or wait and use it to fill any remaining gaps once you're done). For DK's, however, even though it lacks a gem slot, DK's will want to maximize their parry (since they have only dodge and parry) so the Iron Dwarf Smith Pauldrons look good for them.
Back:
The Cloak of the Enemy from Heroic Nexus is a good choice, and if you happen to be at least Honored with Wyrmrest accord, the Cloak of Peaceful resolutions is hardly a downgrade for you. Again, you want the hit rating, trust me. The top one on the list is only purchasable with the Emblems of Valor, and it's one of the first purchases you'll probably make, considering I LITERALLY never saw this cloak drop for me and had to make do with whatever pos cloak I had until I got the emblems to replace it. The main thing to do here, is get the titanweave enchant on your cloak that gives you an extra 16 def rating.
Chest:
The Breastplate of the solemn council. If you have some aversion to getting Revered with Wyrmrest, then you can consider the Ziggurat imprinted chest from Heroic Drak'Tharon, but why would you possibly not want to get to at least Revered with them for such a huge bonus? Extra def rating and expertise too? You should be salivating. Another possibility is to go with the Icebane Chestguard and gem and enchant it for max defense. I know that sounds bonko, but you'll likely need it for the end of Naxx anyway, so you may as well go ahead and get it going. Personally I carry it still, in case my guild doesn't want to try for the 100 club achievement that time, or in case I'm not MT on Sapphiron. Until you get def cap, +22 defense to chest is your only enchanting choice.
Bracers:
You may notice I don't really have to say anything here. Basically, you have one choice. And Harold in Heroic Ahn'Kahet is holding onto them for you. You will probably go with the Expertise enchant here. Greater stamina is expensive for something you're probably going to be getting rid of, and you need all the expertise help you can get.
Hands:
Ok, two perfectly good options here. If you are already (or don't mind running heroics to get to) exalted with Kirin Tor, then the Fireproven gauntlets provide more dodge, which is great for mitigation. If you don't feel like it, then the Horn-Tipped Gauntlets from Heroic Gundrak are great for threat generation (with extra expertise) as well as some secondary mitigation (if bosses don't parry you as often, they don't get their swing timers reduced as often, so they attack you slightly less, etc.). For an enchant here, get Armsman, even though the extra hit rating would be nice, you want the threat increase, and it has 10 parry rating too, pretty tasty.
Belt:
The Ancient Aligned Girdle is pretty good from Heroic Azjol Nerub, but you should have the Emblems of Heroism to spend on the Waistguard of Living Iron, so I suggest doing so. An Eternal Belt Buckle in that and you've got a belt that will serve you well until you get your Ablative Chitin Girdle.
Legs:
If you're like me, you can't seem to catch a break on the stupid Bolstered Legplates from Heroic Violet Hold. I'm not kidding you. I lucked out here because I was still dps specced and went through an Heroic Obsidian Sanctum with a pug where all the tanks already had the DragonBrood Legguards and I beat the other off-spec rolls, otherwise I'd probably still be running Violet Hold today hoping to get them. Unfortunately, those are the ones you need. And there's only one leg enchant to even worry about, so get your frosthide leg armor and tip the nice leatherworker for it.
Feet:
Ok, you're going to laugh, I'm STILL wearing my Greaves of Ancient Evil from heroic Ahn'Kahet (at least at the time of writing this). I'll be springing for my Kyzoc's Ground Stompers soon, but for a blue, it's still your best option for a long long time. My suggestion for enchants? Go with Tuskarr's Vitality. Yes, it gives you a smaller amount of stam than the stamina only enchant, but kiting becomes SO much easier with a little extra speed.
Rings:
Even though it's down there further than you'd normally look, the rings you want are A) Unsmashable Heavy Band from Heroic Utgard Keep, and most likely either get your friendly JC to make you a Titanium Earthguard ring, or if you're already at def cap, you might be ok with the Keystone great ring from Heroic Drak'Tharon.
Trinkets:
Essence of Gossamer from Heroic Azjol-Nerub is a given. Even if you don't get this before you start running Naxx, you will have to beg your friends to go back and try for it until it drops, because you'll have a hard time finding anything better EVER. Second chair for general purpose is probably either the Seal of the Pantheon from REGULAR Halls of Lightning (if you're still not def capped) or the Heroism Emblem purchase of the Valor Medal which will give you some much needed dodge, plus an "OH #$()%*" extra dodge boost if you need it.
Weapon:
Here again is a difference between DK's and Warriors. No warrior in their right mind would do a protection spec and equip a 2 Handed weapon. EVER!!! Your shield generates MOST of all the good things you do, and the rest don't work unless you have a one handed weapon (don't believe me, equip your Betrayer of Humanity and try to use Devastate, I double dare you!). You will ultimately want the Red Sword from Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, and I have seen quite a few people who make do with one of the next three from either Heroic Utgarde Keep, Regular Hall of Lightning or Heroic Oculus.
Shield:
Ok, no kidding around here, the FIRST purchase you make with your emblems of Heroism needs to be Crygil's Discarded Metal Plate. I know it's ugly, but you won't find a better one until you start into real raids. And get it defense enchanted for goodness sakes, there's no better choice anyway, and you can always use the def rating. Heck, if that puts you over def cap, you can go back and trade out your trinket for the dodge one, right?
Ranged weapon:
If you can afford it, go ahead and spring for the Combat Shotgun from your engineering friends. It's well worth it. Remember that you don't need the weapon so much for pulls, but if you like to use your thrown weapon for pulls (I know I do too) you're probably going to be stuck with the Weighted Throwing Axe you got from quests in Storm Peaks while you were bored while working on Hodir rep (because you've grinded to exalted already, right?) unless you're already over def cap, in which case, maybe you'd rather get a Stolen Vrykul Harpoon from the Frenzihearts in Shalozar Basin (because what you really need is another rep to grind up).
As far as scopes for the gun, watch out for those. Notice the wording on the ones from "post-BC" that say "ranged damage" or "ranged hit". These will do you exactly 0 good. You're most likely going to end up trying to find someone who can make a Stabilized Eternium Scope since it's the only one that has a decent plus that doesn't say "ranged" in the description. Look around if you don't believe me.
So here is, essentially, what you want to try to have "pre-Naxxramus" (really pre-raiding, you may start with Obsidian Sanctum, who knows).
Notice that with the +35 defense from the head and shoulder enchants (Exalted with Hodir, it's worth it) and the +22 from the chest enchant and the +20 from the shield enchant, you're over defense cap already at 700 even. This is why you can afford to take the Valor Medal etc. If, on the other hand, you are about as unlucky with drops as I am, you may want to get that Seal of the Pantheon to help make up for whatever defense you don't quite have. Then you can afford to put whatever gems in this that you can scrounge to get more hp, or more hit/expertise/dodge/parry etc. and you don't have to try to scrounge together extra defense gems just to make it all work.
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