Level 70 and 77ish Death Knight tanking gear

Ok so after pondering quite how I will get the gear to go tanking the Lich King dungeons, the answer comes to me courtesy of WoWGrrl. That being the Cobalt set as shown here.

The cobalt set runs to 37 cobalt bars or ore and goes a long way to providing crit immunity, and for normal runs should be just peachy. Then there is the Tempered Saronite set which runs to 20 cobalt, 148 saronite ore and 3 crystalized earth, and is rare and seems to provide an upgrade. Things to do, get watching for cheap Cobalt and Saronite ore.

Pre raid tanking gear list

Here is a list of gear obtained by Emblems of Triumph or other grindable items, plus the total cost in Triumph. Not the cost in sanity to grind this number of triumph however. Gear stolen from pwnwear.com forums.

Helm 50 triumph
Neck 19 conquest
Shoulders 30 triumph
Cloak 25 valor (or do Ahune)
Chest 50 triumph
Wrist 60 valor or AH and gold
Hands 30 triumph
Belt 23 conquest
Legs 50 triumph
Feet 40 valor
Ring 1 35 triumph
Ring 2 25 valor
Trinket 1 50 triumph
Trinket 2 40 heroism
2H Sword 25 champion's seals
Sigil 25 triumph

Total is 552 triumph and 25 champion's seals. By spending some gold on the Wrist this comes down to 492 triumph. Total defense rating for all this is 561, 657 including rings etc. The defense skill needed is 540, or 688 rating. However the Rune of the Gargoyle gives 25 defense skill, so some of these items may not be needed.

Now the Titan-forged shoulders are higher item level, but have no defense or parry on them. The Wrathful Gladiator's Bracers of Triumph, Relentless Gladiator's Greaves of Triumph and Relentless Gladiator's Girdle of Triumph have no defense or parry rating on them either. However I may get away with gearing from blues to hit the cap, then farming triumph and stopping once I have the non-honour items, then grab these honour items for threat.

To get started I shall follow this article which shows how to get upto the defense cap, also running daily normal LK dungeons gives 2 Triumph.