A lot of my gear analysis has been about maximizing survivability when tanking, but in reality I almost never need that gear. In my new guild I'm very seldom the main tank. We usually have a couple of prot warriors in our raids and because prot DPS is difficult they usually tank the big boss fights and I end up in cat form. And when I'm tanking trash I'm usually tanking the first target, both to take advantage of the strong burst bear threat and so I can switch to cat during the pull and start killing the rest of the trash.
This secondary tank role means that I'm almost always wearing my %26quot;threat set%26quot;, a tanking set that is still crit immune and with decent armor, but enough +hit, +expertise, and pure damage that I put out a lot of threat. Compared to my survival suit my threat set has about 900 less HP, 6500 less armor, and about 1.7% more dodge. But I do about 12% more damage and I'm putting out about 1200-1400 TPS. The suit's not a bad compromise for cat form, either; after my target's down I switch to cat form and do about 90% of my cat suit DPS. So even though I was tanking two adds on the start of Magtheridon last week, I still pulled over 800 DPS on WWS. Good versatility.
Building a good threat set is a exercise in balance; you want both DPS and survivability. Bear DPS math is different than cats. The big difference is that agility doesn't give any attack power, so strength is relatively more important to bear DPS. Agility is still good for crits though; Emmerald's estimate is that +1 strength =~ +1.4 agility for DPS.
The biggest problem in building a threat set is getting crit immunity without sacrificing DPS. My strategy has been to use as much PvP gear as I have to fill the gap; resilience is great for crit immunity and the PvP gear generally has a good balance of stats. I'm also fortunate enough to have the crazy +42 defense trinket, that rounds me out to well over 2.6% crit immunity. That's probably overkill; a threat set can get by with 2.4% crit immunity if you don't wear it against bosses.
I get to crit immunity with just four pieces of gear. Beyond that I stack the hybrid Badge of Justice gear; a lot of those pieces are good for both tanking and DPS. Then I salt in a few good pure defensive pieces so I don't get shredded up and finish with a couple of DPS items. I've also placed a high priority on +hit and +expertise gear. My goal is to generate predictable threat as much as it is to generate lots of threat, so I do all I can to avoid misses. I don't have a gear list I use for optimizing this set; too many factors to balance (although Emmerald's DPS numbers are helpful). I do use the DrDamage addon in-game to show me the DPS effect of various gear.
Here's the set, broken down by the role the gear plays.
Crit immunity
- Vindicator's Dragonhide Bracers (0.43%)
Second best cat DPS bracers in the game. - Vindicator's Leather Boots (0.76%)
Excellent tanking boots, I use these in my survival suit as well. - Violet Signet of the Great Protector (0.32%)
Excellent tanking ring, the defense is a fringe benefit. - Scarab of Displacement (0.70%)
+42 defense is an awful lot. Also doubles as a second panic button.
Those 4 pieces alone give 2.2% crit immunity; enough for level 71 mobs. Some of the enchants and gems I have lying around make up the difference and then some.
Pure tank gear
- Badge of Tenacity
Everyone's favourite tank trinket; I find the panic button %26quot;use%26quot; effect is very useful since I'm not as well armored as my healers would like. - Wildfury Greatstaff
The attack power this thing puts out makes for so much threat, it's a big help. Earthwarden is pretty good for threat too, but the expertise doesn't outweigh the lost attack power. I was hoping to use the new Staff of the Forest Lord for even more threat, but the loss of armor is too much.
Pure DPS gear
- Garona's Signet Ring
Great cat ring, and the +sta and +hit makes it nice for threat tanking too. - Razor-Scale Battlecloak
Huge +strength for DPS, shame it doesn't have the armor of a tanking cloak.
Hybrid gear
- Stag-Helm of Malorne, Greaves of Malorne
Good all around stats, and the T4 set bonus is great for both rage and cat DPS - Vestments of Hibernation, Waistguard of the Great Beast
Like a lot of the 2.3 Badge of Justice gear, this stuff is good for both tanking and DPS. - Grips of Deftness, Brooch of Deftness
All that expertise and +hit makes for predictable threat. Lots of stamina, too. - Nordrassil Feral-Mantle
I have a sort of love-hate relationship with T5 gear, but the stats on this are pretty good. Consider also PvP shoulders. - Idol of Terror
Mostly for tanking, but the agility proc is also good for crits.
So that's my current threat set. I've been tanking almost exclusively in it; all of Karazhan, all the SSC, TK, and Hyjal trash as well. The only place I'm using the survival suit right now is on the few T5 bosses I tank. Looking forward I expect I'll be fine-tuning things to use more strength and less agility. A lot of the new 2.4 BoJ gear is really good for threat, but I haven't figured it all out yet. Also looking to rebalance the crit immunity, I'm quite a bit over what I need right now.