Quests for Tanks: Your First (of many) Spiky Shoulders

That title's not technically correct if you've ever gone spelunking in the Molten Core looking for your Pauldrons of Might (and probably a few other pieces that aren't coming to mind right now), but for now let's focus on Northrend. You've just come off the boat/zeppelin to Borean Tundra and you want to see what tanking gear you can get right away. A lot of us probably came into Northrend with something like Bold or Righteous shoulders (I swear Netherspite doesn't actually own any plate shoulders...) or perhaps a quest reward from somewhere like Netherstorm. The first thing you could look at is having a blacksmith make you a set of Cobalt Shoulders - more of a sidegrade for those wearing Bold, but upgrades for a lot of people that didn't get to spend a lot of time in Outland. These are nice and all, but the real goal for you here is over in Coldarra.

If you look at the map of Borean Tundra, Coldarra is the island to the northwest. Getting there is fairly easy - head north from Warsong Hold (northwest if you're coming from Valiance Keep) over to Amber Ledge. Once you're there, look for the large dragon just sitting in the grass. He'll give you two flight points: one for the ledge and one at the Transitus Shield on Coldarra. Next, just catch a flight over to the island. Once you get here, you'll see a bunch of people offering quests for you to do. Some of these lead into other quests, some of them are little one-shot jobs, and some even lead to where you'll be going next - the Nexus. If you want to take care of some of those chains first so you can get everything done in one shot, I suggest going over to reading Banana Shoulders' post on the quests you should focus on. However I know some of you are thinking, "I'll just have to do this place a dozen times anyways. Gimme my shoulders!" Good news - there's no chain for that quest.

At the Transitus Shield, look for a woman named Librarian Serrah. She'll have a quest for you called "Have They No Shame?" The gist of the story is she was borrowing a book from someone when a group of adventurers stole it on their way into the Nexus. Finding the book is easy: from the entrance of the Nexus, just keep taking the left path at each fork in the halls you come across. After a few hallways, you'll come into a room with a bunch of Alliance (I've heard some people say it was Horde, but that's what I saw) frozen in blocks of ice. When you get close to them, they start thawing out and they're looking for a fight. Once you finish knocking some sense into them, the book's lying on the floor about in the middle of all of the Ally-sicles. At this point, you can either finish exploring the Nexus or you can head out and pick up your new tanking shoulders.

Now that you've got your new spiky shoulders, take a good look at them. Do you like what you see? I hope so, because aside from some slight color differences, that's the style you're going to have for a long time. I don't know if there's just one guy who makes armor for everyone in Northrend or they're all just copying from each other, but that's what you're going to look like for quite a while. Works out for me since Tauren make spiky shoulders look awesome, but I suppose the look's not for everyone.

Quests for Tanks: Shiny New Weapons

There's still a lot of work to do over in Northrend, but I did come across something that I thought I should point out to my fellow tanks out there. Once you've had some time to get a bit settled in over in Northrend and have picked up a few new tricks (i.e. you just hit 74), I recommend you take a quick break from whatever you're working on, grab a buddy, and head over to Light's Breach in Zul'Drak. I know the temptation to stay and finish an area before moving on is strong, but just trust me on this. Light's Breach isn't that deep into Zul'Drak (I believe the wind rider master over in Camp Oneqwah will even send you there for free - don't know about Alliance, sorry) and this will only take about five minutes.

Once you're there, look for a wanted poster with the quest Wanted: Ragemane's Flipper. Apparently the local wolvar tribe had a pet lion seal that went feral after a run-in with some trolls, so you need to go over and put him down. As you can see from the picture, the lake where Ragemane is at is just to the southeast of Light's Breach. Once you're there, it'll be an easy fight. I could almost solo him at 75, so you won't have any issues with one or two friends backing you up. So far five minute's work, you've got a new flight path, some experience, and most important of all, shiny new tanking weapons.

If you're like me, you probably came into Northrend using the same King's Defender you've had for over a year now. It's a good weapon, but it does begin to show its age. From what I've been able to find, this is the first tanking weapon upgrade most of us are going to be able to find in Northrend. You even get a choice in what to pick up (unless you're a bear, then you're stuck with the kitty-type staff but I think even that'll be an upgrade). You've got the slow axe with defense and expertise, the fast mace with defense and dodge, or the fast sword with dodge and parry. I ended up taking the axe - I prefer fast weapons, but I wanted defense and expertise more than flat avoidance (not really an issue until we're ready to try some tougher dungeons). It's a personal preference though, so pick whichever one suits your needs.