The (Long?) Road Out of Crushability.

Typhoonandrew wrote:

Friggin shame that 102.4% is so darn hard to get to. I've been over the 490 def point for months, but still struggling to get to the Uncrush point. And that leaves me as the OT in places that otherwise I'd love to be MT.

It really isn't with a little perseverance. You have to be willing to watch your HP drop a bit, but that's preferable to leaving you open to a crush. Remember, you only need your uncrush gear if you're main-tanking a raid boss (anything three or more levels higher than you). For heroics and offtanking, you can afford to be crushable, since the chances of you tanking a "skull" mob are low-to-non-existant.

I used to pour over this guide daily looking for items within Ulu's grasp that would get him there and I managed it within my first couple of weeks of Kara. That said, maintaining uncrushability whilst working in gear upgrades was something that would bother me for months following.

A lot of the good items are drops. I drove myself nuts grinding Steamvaults for the cloak and Arcatraz for the damned ring. I was Exalted twice over with the Cenarion Expedition and the sha'tar before they dropped. I've similarly heard horror stories about people chasing the trinket in Shattered Halls, although I was lucky on that count at least.

I also threw my undergeared ass through every Heroic I could get into to get badges together for the helm, which in terms of raw uncrushability is still only beaten by the helm from Illidan. This was back before 2.3 when there were no other decent badge rewards and Paladin HP was the lowest of any tank class.

Yep, it's a lot of work, but if you put it in, you'll get there. Or you can wait until WotLK, where they're moving crushes to mobs that are at character level +4, effectively eliminating them from raid bosses.