Thoughts on Tank gear

Vanco is approaching the level cap (4 bubbles of rest XP to go), and I'm looking at tank gear for him.

Now, I've already crafted all the Blacksmithing stuff for him, sans the Titansteel Destroyer (I have to see if I have enough Defense without my current tank sword). I've also started the rep grinds while leveling him, so he has a jumpstart on those.

And I've also crafted the epic tanking jewelry as well as the tanking JC trinket. I bought a tanking cloak and enchanted it with 16 def.

Anyways, I'm really curious about how close I will be to the 540 def cap. See, all this gear has "defense rating" on it...not defense, and from what I've read:

Roughly 5 defense rating = 1 defense.

So, what do I need?

400 base defense - This is what every toon's maximum defense is.
140 additional defense, which translates to approximately 689 defense rating.
Or 115 additional defense if I'm two-handed tanking (due to the +25 def Runeforging available for two-handed weapons), which translates to approximately 566 defense rating.

Oh, and there's this scaling issue, because I actually was rockin' 543 defense at level 78 with my crafted blue gear.

Let's switch gears to weapons. Anything that has defense on it is considered a tanking weapon, and it appears that there's very little in the way of two-handed weapons with defense. Thankfully, I do have Runeforging and can throw a +25 defense (not rating, actual, honest to goodness defense) on any two hander. Also, luckily, I have a level 77 weapon that is "of the Champion" that has 53 defense rating on it that I may use if I need the defense.

Now I understand why Teurion was always complaining about weapons. Besides his vow to never use maces 'cause they're gay (who's wearing a dress??? yeah, he is....), Teurion was always looking for a good tanking weapon.

Our situations are slightly different, but you can bet your boots that I'll be going for the Red Sword of Courage for when I can switch to dual wield tanking. Yes, Virginia....you can dual wield them!