Decisions, Decisions

June 13, 2008 on 11:55 am | In alts, tanking |

First things first: Thank you, you warrior tanks of awesome, who have given me little nuggets of pearly wisdom to go by.
Since Wednesday, Blizzard has been screwing with me, I think.  In a good way, maybe?  Let me ’splain.

Went ahead and ran Black Morass twice yesterday, to get our Kara attunement quests done.  Which they are.  It was a snooze fest.  Fio came on his huntard for the first one, then he switched to Gaia and we got the attunement for her.  Both times, I was easy to heal.  I did ok I think on holding aggro on the mini-bosses, and the big bosses, but I think that’s because the biggest aggro magnets were on add duty (BM hunter for first run and Furry warrior for second.)

Though in the second run, Celli did manage to pull Aenous off me T.T  So! Working on threat, indeedy.  Doom sent me this linky to the Tankspot forums about effective life per armor whatsit, and I had Fio translate, because… ok, look.  I am a very simple creatute.  Tell me Strength is good, Dodge Rating is Bad, etc, etc.  With the druid, it was: Look for Armor/Stam/Agility.  You had three or four things that you MUST HAVE, and you can do pretty darn well.  Warriors seem like a different universe.  I know warriors want similar things, but when I try to wrap my brain our the mathmatics, something just freezies up and I just… don’t get it.

So just tell me, is this good, is this bad, what do I need from here?  Ya know?  Trying to figure out for myself is probably going to land me in the crapper in the beginning.

So, right, the part about decisions!

Since Wednesday, I have gotten new stuff:

Gauntlets of the Bold
Legplates of the Bold
Myrmidon’s Headdress
Steam-Hinge Chain of Valor
Thatia’s Self-Correcting Gauntlets

So, now my question: ARG! I have the full Felsteel set Gemmed and Enchanted WHY DID YOU JUST GIVE MEH THINGS I ALREADY HAD UBER OTHER STUFF FOR!?!??! QQ

Ok, that wasn’t much of a question, more like a BBQ fest, but ANYWHO… is it worth it switching out the felsteel stuff for the Bold counterparts and the hat with a meta socket?   The Felsteel has awesome armor compared to the others, but the Bold stuff has more in stats.  I also got my Dabiri’s Enigma and my Adamantine Figurine (aka the PHALLIC) so my trinkets, they be awesome.  Enchanted my chest, so now Squeake’s looking like:

AC: 12440
Def: 517 (yea, I’m way over, need to regem, need something to put in yellow sockets T.T)
Dodge: 14.85%
Parry: 17.57%
Block: 16.68%
HP: 11614 unbuffed
So, do I keep the awesome that is the felsteel set or switch out?  And dear GAWD this sword is slow!  I didn’t realize it before but now that it’s been pointed out to me, ya, the Crystalline Kopesh is very slow.

I’m still having rage issues, even in Black Morass and Shadow Labs.  The SL run I did gave me more of a barometer of how I’d do in a group than the Morass I think, simply because the three DPS in the group didn’t like to watch aggro all that much T.T (”Oh, heehee, I SB crit, SORRY!” /rageoftehstephithatshecan’tgivesqueake)

I’ve also not been keeping Demo Shout or Shield Block up all that much, because they’re just a waste of rage at this point.  When I was in BM, the Shield blocking was ok, but it seemed an expensive way to get that guaranteed Revenge proc, in SL I totally forgot about it, even on bosses.

So yea, I know, I need to read some more on Tank spot, but if I have to keep reading math, I’m gonna go cry in the corner, K?

<3 teh Cay

8 Comments »

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  1. keep felsteel. regem red slots to +8 dodge. and blue slots to +12 stamina. like you said you +defense to spare. 12k HP unbuff is a good number to target for kara.

    run SV like no tomorrow until you get Devilshark Cape(it will last you a long long time). get COT rep to get head enchant.

    shield blocking is critical when you get to kara/ heroics, on normal runs i wouldnt even bother =)

    Comment by Brigin — June 13, 2008 #

  2. I wish there was some way to “reply” to people in this Word Press thingie, but anywho, Brig! I need to resocket my Yellows! Those are the only sockets with +def gems right now, the other two colors, red and blue, have dodge and stam gems in them XD

    Comment by Silentstephi — June 13, 2008 #

  3. For yellow sockets, you can put in Enduring Talasites (+4 defense, +6 stamina), which are usually dirt-cheap (around 10g or so on my low-pop server, while other gems are 40+).

    Extra defense will still increase your dodge/parry/miss chance. Here’s how it breaks down for a warrior to get an additional 1% avoidance. At this point, looking at your stats, you probably don’t need additional avoidance (you’re at around 42% avoidance if my math is right):

    To get 1% more avoidance:
    Dodge rating - 18 rating
    Defense rating - 20 rating
    Parry rating - 24 rating
    Agility - 30 points

    Keep the felsteel — you’ll want it in Kara and maybe some heroics where your rage bar will be full. For normal dungeons, if you’re having threat/rage problems, I’d switch in:

    Thatia’s Gauntlets (You’ll probably hold onto these for a while for the shield block value)

    Legplates of the Bold - extra strength and crit, less armor

    Myrmidon’s Headdress with Regal Nightseye and Eternal Earthstorm Diamond - The meta gem is the same as 1 point in Shield Mastery!

    Steam Hinge Chain - again, extra shield block value.

    Basically, you’re building two sets of gear — one for fights where you don’t get hit hard, but need to generate lots of threat (the above), and one for fights where you get hit very hard (use felsteel here).

    Basically, you can think of the stats for warriors in two categories:

    Don’t die:
    Stamina, Defense, Dodge, Armor

    Keep them on you:
    Expertise, Shield Block Value, Hit rating, Strength

    I’ve listed them in probably a reasonable order to value them, but it’s very much about tradeoffs. You’ll probably end up keeping a few blues (like the devilshark cape, if it drops) around for a long time, while others, like the “of the Bold” gloves, will probably flit through your tanking life.

    Comment by Andris — June 13, 2008 #

  4. Agree with all of the above. Not too surprisings, since I learned how to gear up fer tanking from reading Brigin. There’s some good greens quest rewards in SMV fer shield block value/slam/threat, but iirc they’s all part of the netherwing rep grind, which means 5k gold. Gloves and legs of the bold ain’t that great fer tanking - they’s more general purpose. Mine ended up being me starter PvP gear. You’ll definitely want ta get either Grom’tor’s or the SSO rep sword fer tanking. Or both. A pain, bot totally worth it.

    And don’t go cry, hon. Warriors don’t cry. It gets the armor all rusty.

    Feel free ta throw questions at me anytime. I ain’t an expert, but I enjoys tryin’ ta fake it.

    Comment by Ratshag — June 13, 2008 #

  5. For your yellow sockets, you can go with Enduring Talasite like Andris said if you’re looking for avoidance or need some defense in your sockets still to stay over 490. Otherwise there’s also Rigid Dawnstone (+8 Hit Rating) for better threat generation. For the meta/helm question, I personally prefer having a meta like the Eternal Earthstorm in mine, but it’s probably not enough of an upgrade to redo your enchants and gems just to get that extra 10% block value.

    One other thing to note: don’t feel restricted by the color of the gem sockets. Half the time, if you look up another tank’s gear in the armory, they’ll have just stuck 12 Stamina gems in there because the socket bonus just isn’t worth the effort. For example, our Tier 4 helm Warbringer Greathelm has a socket bonus of +4 Block Rating. If I needed a spot to put a Rigid Dawnstone in, then sure; otherwise, I’d just stick a 12 Stamina gem or whatever else I felt I was lacking in there since Block Rating isn’t that great for warriors.

    Comment by Ragar — June 13, 2008 #

  6. I’m going to agree with Ragar on the yellow gems being for hit rating. If you’re good on defense and stam and have open yellow sockets, it’s awful nice to to MISS with something that you definitely need to hit. And better threat generation when you’re not whiffing too. If you need a new weapon over the Kopesh, do the quest chain in Shadowmoon for the Cipher of Damnation. Gromtor’s Charge at the end of the long chain is a much faster weapon for tanking.

    Comment by Bremm — June 13, 2008 #

  7. You should socket full +12stam gems. Avoidance is nice, but having the biggest possible health pool available wil make your healer’s life easier, and allow you to survive while still gewttng rage.

    here’s two articles every tank should read:

    Fortifications

    Effective Health Theory

    Basically, until you have over 16k health unbuffed, you should ignore socket bonuses and go for full stamina.

    Comment by Anglachel — June 16, 2008 #

  8. Tanks dont need avoidance until you reach Prince. So, forget socket colors, go +12 STA on all your gems, and enchants. Get yourself the S2 shield and S2 shoulders. They will last until you down Jan’Alai, and NightBane, respectively. That will grant you some nice armor. When you start reaching upper kara, past shade of aran, you will have lots of new gear, and then you should start thinking about avoidance. before that, just EH.

    Comment by Gigeer — July 8, 2008 #

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