That's a question with no short answer mate! But I'll kick it off to start with...
If you're going to fish for kings then buying cheap gear is a complete waste of time! They're big, serious fish and you don't often get hooked up to them. When you do, you want to give yourself the best chance you can of landing them I reckon!
So, reels first. I've got a 330gti which I used to use for deep water Puka fishing in the cook straight so it's got plenty of grunt, there shouldn't be a problem there at all. I've hauled puka from 150m with it before! Don't forget that it doesn't matter what reel you're using (unless it's an 80 wide game reel!) that when a good king goes on a run it's going to be taking line.
But with it being level wind I've never bothered using it for LBG as it's just another thing that can go wrong. I've got a couple of TLD 25s which I use and most people I know seem to have one tucked away somewhere for livebaiting. They're popular for good reason being reliable and fairly grunty. You can push them to about 11kg drag which is plenty when you're standing up! You could go up to a 30 or 50 if you wanted, they'd certainly give you even more stopping power but make sure you've got a gimbal!
Rods: the simple rule is that the longer the rod the bigger the lever the fish has to work on you with. Not so important when you're snapper fishing and 8 or 9 ft is fine even on a big snap and the length helps keep them out of snags, but for kings it's a different story. I use an LBG rod with heavy duty guides on a calstar blank which is a serious bit of rod and has handled some reasonable bronzies with no problem at all. Generally I reckon you want to go no longer than 7ft and a rod that's rated to 24kg. Stay well away from hard chrome guides and make sure it's got good fujis or better. A great starting place would be to go see Matt or his old man at Just Fishin on Wairau Rd if you're in Auckland.
If you're really keen you could go custom built which is what I was going to do until the calstar came up. You'd be looking at prob $650 min for this though, so you need to be keen!
Dunno if that helps much - hope so :)

Rocky 2? Loving mine at the moment mate - fish it with the slx30 and it got a good workout this last weekend :) :). Loaded it up before on a bronzie and seemed ok, wonder how it'd go on a king...hopefully find out up at doubtless bay aye? ;)

forsyth - just sold my rocky II as it doesnt get used as much as it use to. Been fishing mine with a tourium 20 for snapper but have used it for kings a fair bit.

I got an offshore LBG70 earlier this year for live baiting and it's certainly got plenty of power....

Yeah havent used mine for livebaiting, both were caught on skipped piper as are most my kings nowadays

Yeah BA that's the way of it mate. Shorter grunty rods are good for the angler and not so good for the fish! Long rods are just going to make life difficult on yourself.

Blue Asparagus wrote: JK wrote: forsyth - just sold my rocky II as it doesnt get used as much as it use to. Been fishing mine with a tourium 20 for snapper but have used it for kings a fair bit.   Have landed a 26kg king on it on 15kg and more recently one around 18kg also on 15kg and its hardwork with that 10-15kg rod compared to a decent 7ft 24kg jobby! Just doesnt have the grunt where it really counts. says it all mate, dont know why people go for length, said it here many times before for those starting off, watch marlin from the rocks and see the difference between long and short, some times size dont matter and game fishing from the rocks is one of those times.

Its not so much the length,its the action and grunt of the rod.The taller rod has the advantage of keeping the line away from the rocks,especially when in close and creates a steeper line angle on the fish during the fight.I have a composite developments 15-24 kg lbg rod(which is designed for this purpose),i also have 3 rocky 2s which are 10-15 kg.
They are both the same length near enough.I have caught sharks on the composite and it was a pleasure,the rocky 2 would need more patience and of course the line would be lighter,so more careful,less power in the blank..The ledge you are fishing,foul ground,deep water could all influence you.At the end of the day.match your tackle to your catch(If you can!).I think the rocky 2 would be good for GTs off the rocks if it had better quality guides.Anyone ever tried the lime tip rocky 2 ?I think the rocky 2 is so good for snapper because they tend to dive for kelp,bottom,really quickly and persist at trying to get there.Thats where having the length helps to lift them up.eg look at geoff thomas on snapper secrets catching that 30 pound snapper with a surfcaster rod and a shimano baitrunner!You take the pressure off big snapper for a moment and they bust you(had it happen).Kingies fight different.More power/stamina.If i am still connected after 5 mins i feel confident!  when using the rocky 2 for snapper,you are targeting fish up to 10-15 kg tops which is within the line rating of the rod.when fishing the lbg 15-24 you are targeting fish in the 15-24 kg range = kingfish size and up!

Jk im only going to use it for kingis nothing else

I have the baitrunner 6500b and 7ft backbone elite rod. Havn't caught anything big on it yet, and no kings :( but it's taken a hell of a beating over some pretty dodgy landscape and other than some scratches is going strong :)

Really interesting LBD2 im trying to take this all in so I can make the best informed desicion