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I’m a little behind in getting this post out, but I guess I still have some time left before the first few tankadins start rolling over to 85 and begin the arduous journey of becoming raid geared. In any case, compiled below is a list of the best survival enchants for you prot paladin for each slot and (in some cases) who sells them or what profession they are exclusive to.
Head
- Arcanum of the Earthen Ring, from Earthen Ring revered.
Cloak
- Enchant Cloak – Protection
- Flexweave Underlay if engineer. (Stacks with the enchant.)
Shoulders
- Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz is the superior shoulder enchant from Therazane when exalted.
- Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz is the lesser shoulder enchant from Therazane when honored.
- Inscription of the Earth Prince is the best choice, if you’re a scribe.
Chest
Waist
- Ebonsteel Belt Buckle is the baseline choice for everyone, regardless of professions.
- Grounded Plasma Shield is the clear choice for engineering belt tinkers. Keep in mind that if the belt backfires, it will taunt all mobs within 40 yards to you.
Wrist
- Enchant Bracers – Dodge is probably the best overall survival enchant. There’s also Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina, but in terms of ROI dodge is probably better, especially with any avoidance that pushes you towards block capping being so powerful.
- Draconic Embossment – Stamina if you’re a leatherworker. This is the clear winner.
- Socket Bracer if you’re a blacksmith.
Hands
- Enchant Gloves – Mastery is the best choice for survivability. The Glove Reinforcements from TBC are nice too, but Mastery gives a much larger benefit than what the amount of armor brings to the table.
- Socket Gloves for blacksmiths.
- Quickflip Deflection Plates for engineers. Macro this (/use 10) to Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous so you just use it off cooldown for a rolling average of damage reduction of the course of a fight.
Legs
- Charscale Leg Armor
- Charscale Leg Reinforcements if you’re a leatherworker. Same as the other one, but cheaper to make.
Feet
- Enchant Boots – Mastery if you are specced into Pursuit of Justice.
- Enchant Boots – Lavawalker if not.
Weapon
- Enchant Weapon – Windwalk. Sidenote: the proc‘s speed increase currently stacks with Pursuit of Justice (or so I hear).
Shield
- Enchant Shield – Block is a weird enchant. I’m not sure exactly what block percent the 40 rating turns into [correction: Thanks to a link tweeted to me by Shathus, the 40 rating is worth about .45% block], and with block capping is as desirable as it is, anything that gets us towards that goal is very, very welcome. The alternative is Enchant Shield – Protection when over the block cap.
Coming next week are more posts on gear and gearing for the new end game that will be launch starting Tuesday. Stay tuned for posts on the best pre-heroics tanking gear, the best pre-raid tanking gear, and a new gemming flowchart for Cata gems.