With Cataclysm apparently dropping on Tuesday, June 28th, it’s time to start planning what gear you’re going for. Further updated after week 1!
Ultimately, there are 6 ways that you’ll get tank gear in Cataclysm:
- Purchased once you have sufficient Marks of the World Tree
- Crafted Gear
- Valor points
- Drops from raid bosses
- BoE drops from raid instance trash
- Avengers of Hyjal reputation gear
The first thing you should do is complete the Thrall quest chain for Patch 4.2 that starts on the Warchief’s Command Board in Orgrimmar, which leads you to a great tank cloak – Mantle of Patience – at the end of the quest chain. Best tank epic you’ll see for such little work!
After that, you’ll be ready to start grinding new dailies to accumulate our Marks of the World Tree to unlock the relevant tank pieces. You’ll likely want to start doing this right away on patch day, as there are a few pieces of interest. Tanks who are still gearing up will likely be interested in most of the gear, especially the Lylagar Horn Ring and Ricket’s Gun Show wrists, as well as the Moonwell Phial trinket. Wowhead.com has a nice summary of how you progress through the Mark of the World Tree dailies. Tanks who are already well geared into heroic tier 11 content won’t likely find most of these pieces useful though, as arguably the Magmaw and Valiona heroic t11 tank trinkets, the Halfus heroic tank bracers, and the avoidance/mastery heroic tank rings from Conclave are superior (ilvl 372, versus these ilvl 365 drops). If you weren’t already killing heroic Al’akir, though, the Mantle of Patience for the lead-in quest is definitely worth it.
Similarly, it will take a few weeks to get access to the ilvl 365 crafted gear, although notably the recipes for both Mirrored Boots and Eternal Elementium Handguards drop from Firelands trash (or on your local AH!), and are created with Living Ember that drop 1 per Firelands raid boss (and they’re not BoP, similar to Primordial Saronite from Wrath’s Icecrown Citadel, so expect to see them on AH in the coming weeks, although likely at a very high price). Fortunately, unlike with Primordial Saronite, the drops that casters will want for the legendary quest chain are Eternal Ember, so you can get a crack at your Living Ember without competing against people buying them up for the legendary. Given the great itemization and limited alternatives, the Mirrored Boots in particular will be high on the list of any tank looked for crafted gear in the coming weeks.
Your next option for tank gear is from valor points. This time around we’ve got some very well-itemized valor point pieces, including the Stoneheart Necklace neck, Deflecting Brimstone Band, as well as Deathclutch Figurine for your relic slot (or Deflecting Star for the warrior gun slot). The latter options aren’t thrilling given their lack of mastery (although the relic with reforging to mastery still provides comparable combat table coverage with a higher avoidance base), but alternatives are limited and the overall ilvl and associated stamina still makes them pretty desirable at ilvl 378 relative to the ilvl 359 alternatives from tier 11. Notably, your valor points also buy you some wonderfully itemized tier pieces, including your Immolation Handguards and Immolation Legguards, although I will likely buy the libram first, and give myself at least a week or two to see if the legs or gloves drop from Occu’thar, the new Baradin Hold raid boss in Tol Barad.
In terms of drops, progression in Firelands basically allows you to choose amongst 5 initial bosses to work on: Beth’tilac, Lord Rhyolith, Alysrazor, or Shannox, and Baleroc. Once all of these are down, you can open the Molten Span bridge and have access to Majordomo Staghelm and ultimately Ragnaros himself. Early on, your favorite tank gear boss will be Beth’tilac, who drops the Carapace of Imbibed Flame chest, Spidersilk Spindle trinket, as well as the Mandible of Beth’tilac 1H tank weapon for paladins and warriors. In turn, Shannox has a decent waist (Uncrushable Belt of Fury) and the DK tank’s 2H weapon Skullstealer Greataxe (good luck rolling against your competing 2H weapon dps’ers). Shannox also has Legplates of Frenzied Devotion, but given the itemization on the tier 12 (and the overall desirability of the 4pc t12 bonus), some tanks will choose to pass on these legs. The options from Lord Rhyolith are more limited, including only Fireskin Gauntlets that are inferior to t12 for survival, and Cracked Obsidian Stompers that are at best just fillers until you get the crafted boots. The fourth of the initial Firelands bosses, Alysrazor, is a little more appealing, with some Spaulders of Recurring Flame, a nice upgrade to what are probably i359 shoulders from tier 11 unless you were killing heroic Nefarian or Cho’gall, that will be competitive until you get a chance for tier 12 shoulders for a 4pc set bonus. Alysrazor also offers another leg option, Lavaworm Legplates, although tanks will be rolling against plate dps wearers for them. Finally, there’s Baleroc, who provides the tank shield Shard of Torment, along with the spectacular Helm of Blazing Glory (tanks going for 4pc will likely end out using this or Ragnaros’ Pauldrons of Roaring Flame as their off piece).
Once you’re through the initial 5 bosses, though, the end of the Firelands tier finishes with a surprising whimper for tanks, not a bang; Majordomo Staghelm does drop the great Bracers of the Fiery Path, but that’s it (aside from a probable tier token, unconfirmed). In addition, Ragnaros himself is not very exciting for tanks either; aside from a probable tier token for head or shoulders (neither of which are spectacular anyway, except to complete a 4pc set bonus), Ragnaros only drops the mediocre Pauldrons of Roaring Flame (which may be valuable by ilvl alone), and Sulfuras, The Extinguished Hand for the DK tanks.
In the meantime, you’ll be grinding the Avengers of Hyjal from kills inside Firelands – trash farming is viable as well, although your rep slows down after Honored – and the reputation does include a few nice pieces, including your highest ilvl cloak option (Durable Flamewrath Greatcloak, although many will prefer to stick with the more survival-itemized Mantle of Patience), and a decent waist (Girdle of the Indomitable Flame) you might use instead of the one from Shannox. At higher rep levels, you’ll see a decent non-stamina survival trinket (Stay of Execution) and one of the only i391 rings of the tier, Adamantine Signet of the Avengers.
There are a number of Bind-on-Equip raid trash drops in Firelands as well, although most are not terribly competitive and have other options that are better itemized; you might use them as filler, but probably won’t want to spend a ton on them. The most notable exception is probably Scales of Life, a modest but decent upgrade from the i372 trinkets in tier 11 (and a quality upgrade from i359 gear for tanks who weren’t farming heroic Magmaw and Valiona/Theralion). Also notable is Firebound Gorget, simply for its “crapton-o’-mastery” value.
So by the time we’re clearing through Firelands regular and getting ready for heroics, I’m hoping the gearset will look something like this:
Head: Helm of Blazing Glory – drop from Baleroc
Neck: Stoneheart Necklace – 1,250 valor points (or maybe Firebound Gorget as a BoE for aggressive mastery-stackers)
Shoulders: Spaulders of Recurring Flame – drop from Alysrazor until I get Immolation Shoulders
Back: Durable Flamewrath Greatcloak – Avengers of Hyjal rep (Friendly)
Chest: Carapace of Imbibed Flame until I get Immolation Chestguard for my 4pc set
Wrist: Bracers of the Fiery Path – drop from Majordomo Staghelm (skipping Bracers of Regal Force for valor points since I have my Bracers of Impossible Strength from H Halfus)
Gloves: Immolation Handguards – 1,650 valor points or drop from Occu’thar in Baradin Hold
Waist: Uncrushable Belt of Fury – drop from Shannox, or possibly Girdle of the Indomitable Flame from Avengers of Hyjal rep
Legs: Immolation Legguards – 2,200 valor points or another drop from Occu’thar in Baradin Hold
Feet: Mirrored Boots – crafted when available on the server, and probably just using my Molten Tantrum Boots or Massacre Treads until then
Finger 1: Deflecting Brimstone Band for 1,250 valor points, ultimately replaced by Adamantine Signet of the Avengers
Finger 2: Theck’s Emberseal (BoE trash drop), as ultimately it’s the only ilvl391 ring option after the rep ring (upgraded with a Crystallized Firestone)
1H Weapon: Mandible of Beth’tilac – drop from Beth’tilac
Shield: Shard of Torment (although some tanks may stick with Akmin-Kura, Dominion’s Shield from H Nefarian if they can get one)
Libram: Deathclutch Figurine
Trinket 1: Spidersilk Spindle – drop from Beth’tilac
Trinket 2: Scales of Life – BoE trash drop, also swapping in Stay of Execution from Avengers of Hyjal rep where desirable
As a sidenote, DKs (not using 1H + shield from this list) will aim for Skullstealer Greataxe from Shannox until they get Sulfuras, The Extinguished Hand from Ragnaros.
I hope that’s helpful! Good luck to you in Firelands!
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How do you feel about the change to Holy Shield and how this effects our mastery? Do you plan on gemming and reforging hard mastery, or evening it out a little more?
Fox,
Good question. I’m still sorting this out for myself, and looking at some of our logs to see how things are going in practice.
My gut response is that I like the holy shield change. I have more control over the timing of what is effectively a modest cooldown. Assuming Blizzard balances the content reasonably – and I have no cause to believe otherwise at this point – it simply allows me to time a nice holy shield benefit when I need it. In fights that have tank switches (Shannox), times where you’re not engaged with the boss (Beth’tilac) and such, I’m getting the feeling I can time the uptime when I want it and often have little impact while I’m waiting for the recovery.
Details are still pending, but so far my gut response is good.
~Vexryn
You may want to mention the Firebound Gorget from trash as a neck option. Huge amount of mastery for those who stack that on.
In my initial look, I was leaning towards the valor point neck, as I think we’re going (as paladins at least) to be bumping into the block cap with full mastery gear by the end of this tier. But given that the Gorget can be upgraded to 391 and the valor point neck cannot, I’m actually raising its value in my mind.
Pauldrons of Roaring flame are actually tooltip bugged and provide mastery, not hit. I would think that these would make it a very competitive decision against the tier piece, and even potentially in taking the 4 piece bonus overall.
Caeles,
Hrm, thanks for pointing this out! I swear they were tagged as dodge/hit at some point! But I agree, very compelling against the tier piece now, given itemization and higher ilvl!
With the recent patch and the current stats on gear where do you see most prot pallies going with there reforging and gemming.As i see it alot of the gear from this tier is lacking in mastery.I look on maintankadin to try get a idea.I dont understand all the calculations so hard for me to figure out.Id link my charactor but not sure how to do it here.
server:dunemaul
charactor:Kreyadon
guild:Cold Death
also cloak was showing no ench but i have the 250 armor ench on it
You made some first rate points there. I seemed on the web for the problem and located most people will go along with along with your website.
Do you worry about hit as much now, I’m hearing threat is a lot easier.
I have never worried about threat. I’ve been getting as close to 0 hit and 0 expertise on gear as I could since Cataclysm launched. Slightly difference in my opinion for a DK tank, but as a paladin I couldn’t care less about threat stats. If someone pulls early, that’s why I have two taunts.
Ok guess this wasnt the right forumn or place to ask my question regarding tank stats for patch 4.2.Very nice gear list though welp off to search the web for a site that you dont need to be a calculas wizard to understand lol.
Poison,
No calculus needed. Prot paladins are easy.
If it has mastery, wear it.
If it doesn’t have mastery, reforge for it.
Avoid threat stats, you don’t need them. If you have to take them, reforge them to mastery. If it has mastery, reforge them to avoidance.
Loot. Profit. Win.
Hi Vexryn btw great guide,
i’m a prot warrior and this evening with my guild we downed our first Fireland boss (Shannox) but my healers and some of my friends told me that i was a bit difficult to heal and that the age of stama is ended ( <_< )and i've to reforge the highest stats on my gear into mastery (if the piece doesn't already have it) and also put only mastery gems in yellow sockets instead of hybrid Mastery/Stama..if you want to look at my char here is the armory link http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/crushridge/Kaeldor/advanced.
Thanks mate ^^
Kaeldor,
Your healers are right, in that the age of stamina is over, and warriors and paladins are definitely stacking a lot of mastery now. The only stamina gems I use are stam/mastery hybrid gems in blue slots.
That aside, it’s worth noting that for Shannox in particular, many tank deaths are a result of immolation traps on the ground, which leaves both a nasty fire DoT on you and increases damage taken by 40% (which really hurts if you’re tanking Shannox).
So it’s possible that the difficulty healing you was less about your gear and mastery versus stamina decisions, than the immolation traps on the ground. If you’re logging your fights (and you should!), check the logs for how many times you get the “Immolation Trap” debuff.
Good luck in your future Firelands kills!
thank you i was just perplexed i seem to have a issue with threat since 4.2 mainly with the boomkin n feral druid in our grp it wasnt that big in 4.1 but now with most of us in 359 gear as we didnt get into hm`s do to lack of people showing up each week n setting us back to train the new people n get them geared were basically doing the firelands normal and it feels like hm`s lol.kinda was thinking they changed the pallu stat priorities.im currently using combo gems with the exception of the 2 101 stams n the 1 67 mastery jc gems.
Thanks mate,
so myabe it’s time for me to re-gemm all my sockets if you had a look at my armory link; in this case can you give me some advices???
I was thinking to do something like this:
Meta gem slot => Stama/5% block value (now i have Stama/armor meta gem)
Blue gem slot => Stama/Mastery
Yellow gem slot => Mastery or Stama/Mastery
I’m generally using stam/mastery in blue, full mastery in yellow, and parry/mastery in red. I think that’s a strong tankadin gemming configuration, as long as you’ve got reasonable hp/armor for the content you’re doing.
Thanks mate!! i’ll continue to check your site for further updates!
Hi Vexryn. Being a Prot Pally, I’m a big fan of your guides. When I make a list of potential gear I’m going for, it always matches your selection. Thanks for that.
I noticed you seem to link to the ptr side of wowhead for the item hovers, you might wanna change those to live.
Max,
Yeah, I need to go through and update that. The list was built when only the ptr links were active; now that they were moved to the main portion of Wowhead, I’ll clean up shortly.
Thanks for the reminder!
~Vex
So my next question goes towards the vendor gear.Seeing how it take roughly 14 days to even get to the rest of the vendors and gear being 365 ilvl.Do you see it being placeholder pieces at best and worth the grind to get them?
Hi Vexryn, it’s Max again.
I was just wondering why you want to go for the 4 piece set bonus. I’d say the Carapace of Imbibing Flame is much better, because the Immolation plate only has dodge and parry (no mastery), and 12% additional parry chance might not be very relevant anymore once you hit the mitigation cap. The mastery on the Carapace can later be reforged into things like expertise once those stats become important upon hitting the cap.
Hi, I had a quick question to stats too.
Like mentioned above, “the age of stamina is over”, however stamina trinkets still seemed to be rated amongst the highest above mastery or avoidance trinkets. What is the reason for this? Right now I am using the regular valiona/magmaw trinkets, and I am not sure whether I could be making better choics.
-Stern@Galakrond
Stern,
The age of stamina is over, but some stamina itemization is still valuable. Stamina trinkets are popular in part because they’re one of the easiest ways to manage your stamina – rather than completely regemming everything when you need more stamina, switch from a stam trinket to another one.
Beyond that, many of the stam trinkets in t11 were strong not only from their stamina itself, but their on-use or proc effects as well (e.g., Magmaw and Valiona trinkets). Ditto for the Molten Front trinket (Moonwell Phial). Arguably Scales of Life is a much weaker stamina trinket, as the on-use effect is more limited.
Similarly, stam trinkets often still dominated in t11 because the alternatives were limited. The Tol Barad trinket was strong where the on-use effect was relevant, but weak if the on-use couldn’t be applied. The on-use effect for the Darkmoon Card tank trinket was even weaker.
You’ll see more variation in t12, though. I’d make the case that the 365 Moonwell Phial is often stronger than the 378 Scales of Life; the Beth’tilac trinket is quite strong as well. And you’ll see some use of the Avengers of Hyjal avoidance trinket as well, as tanks gear up and don’t need to rely as much on the raw stamina from trinkets.
TL:DR – As more choices abound, you’ll see less stamina trinket use. In t11 the stamina trinkets were not only great stamina, but great procs/on-use effects as well. As we introduce t12 trinkets, more choices are effective.
Vexryn,
Question for you about the gear list. What’s up with the Theck’s Emberseal? I always heard that it was a horrible, horrible ring to have, even upgraded to the heroic version. Would it be better to use the Avenger’s ring and the VP ring together? Or is there something about the emberseal that I’m not getting?
Vexryn,
I’ve been using gear optimizers and getting all my gear rdy for FL though I have downed Shannox once
. My ilvl is 365 but I’m wondering at the lack of shoulder pieces for paladin tanks in general, should I aim for a drop at this point or go for the tier piece?
Traume,
If you’re struggling with shoulder drops, you should seriously consider investing in one of the ilvl 359 BoEs – the Heaving Plates of Protection or the Pauldrons of Edward the Odd. Both are high quality pieces for paladin tanks and well itemized, and will hold you until Ragnaros’ shoulders ever drop for you (or possibly your t12 shoulders from Majordomo, if you decide to use them towards your 4pc). I bought my Pauldrons of Edward the Odd the week that Cataclysm launched and used them for nearly 9 months until I finally got an upgrade from Ragnaros!
Hey Vexryn, I’ve made my personal gearing strategy which I’d like to share. This assumes going for the 4pc set bonus on the T13 Paladin set and gemming for Stamina as opposed to more avoidance. The first seems to be better than the latter in 4.3.
Gemming for avoidance:
18.85% Dodge, 19.03% Parry, 58% Block (= 42.9% avoid., 58% mitig., 100.9% CTC unbuffed)
Gemming for stamina (while honouring socket bonuses):
18.29% Dodge, 17.88% Parry, 59,2% Block (= 41,2% avoid., 59,2% mitig., 100.3% CTC unbuffed)
(Buffed: 18,63% Dodge, 18,65% Parry, 60,2% Block, 102.4% CTC)
Very decent numbers even with Stamina gems. I’ll go for Stamina.
Gearing/gemming strategy
Gear priority:
1) Dodge/Parry pieces
2) Dodge/Mastery pieces
3) Parry/Mastery pieces
4) Expertise/Mastery pieces
5) Hit/Mastery pieces
Also, gear with more sockets has priority since they are subtracted from the Strength at 20 Str per socket.
Gemming:
Meta: Eternal SSD (Stamina/+1% SBV)
Yellow: Puissant Dream Emerald (Stamina/Mastery) or Fractured Amberjewel (Mastery)*
Red: Defender’s Demonseye (Parry/Stamina)
Blue & Prismatic: Solid Ocean Sapphire (Stamina)
Reforging:
1) All Hit/Expertise to Mastery.
2) All Parry on Parry/Dodge pieces to Mastery.
3) Parry on Parry/Mastery pieces to Dodge as much as you need to to get Dodge and Parry chances (close to) equal.
*After reforging, replace as few as possible Puissant Dream Emeralds in Yellow sockets by Fractured Amberjewel in order to reach CTC. There is more room for this when using JC gems or Epic gems.
Upgrading to Epic gems:
1) Solid Ocean Sapphire => Solid Deepholm Iolite. (doesn’t affect CTC)
2) Puissant Dream Emerald => Puissant Elven Peridot. (more Mastery, which allows you to replace any Fractured Amberjewels in other yellow sockets by Puissant Dream Emerald/Puissant Elven Peridot for more Stamina)
3) Defender’s Demonseye => Defender’s Shadow Spinel. (more Parry, so it may be necessary to reforge Parry to Dodge to keep them (close to) equal after upgrading a few of these)
The goal is to slowly eliminate all Fractured yellow gems and replace them by Puissant green gems as far as your CTC allows you (e.g. without going under 102,4%). Ultimately, I expect to have:
Meta: Eternal SSD (Stamina/+1% SBV)
Yellow: Puissant Elven Peridot (Stamina/Mastery)
Red: Defender’s Shadow Spinel(Parry/Stamina)
Blue & Prismatic: Solid Deepholm Iolite (Stamina)
Enchants
I’d say enchants remain the same throughout 4.3. There’s been som discussion on how Windwalk may be less favourable at CTC cap but it’ll still create extra avoidance and push some mitigation off the CTC while active. I’ll still go for Windwalk on my weapon.
Example: http://ptr.wowhead.com/profile=33036172
(Note: In the example I’m using JC gems)
Max,
Interesting stuff here. A few thoughts, in no particular order…
- The jury is still out to me on whether or how effective it will be to stack stamina beyond CTC, vs stacking more avoidance while staying at CTC, when we’re in patch 4.3 progression. I’ve heard the case made for stamina, and I’m not opposed to it, but I think it REALLY depends on exactly how fights are tuned on Live, and we just won’t know that until it’s… live. Personally, my first priority for fights that require stamina will be using double-stamina trinkets, and only then stacking more stamina via gems if necessary.
- I’m VERY unconvinced there’s any reason to skip socket bonuses to stack stamina and give up raw itemization points, unless perhaps you’re on the BLEEDING edge of world progression (top-50? top-10?) where as a tank you may be so undergeared in late stage heroic progression that you just have to stack some more stamina and pray for a bit of luck.
- In terms of gear priority, technically my priority will still be dodge/mastery and parry/mastery pieces over dodge/parry pieces, but that’s only in the spirit of reaching CTC (which I don’t think will be difficult overall). From there, yes I’d be swapping in dodge/parry pieces as next priority.
- In general, yes I give a lot of weighting to pieces with low strength itemization. That’s not exclusively via sockets, though. Sometimes pieces are just itemized with lower strength. See, for instance, the t12 378 valor bracers.
- If you’re going more stamina-centric in your gemming, yes your setup makes sense. I still haven’t decided the order I’m going to do my epic gem upgrades though. Realistically, I will sit on the first few if necessary while I decide how stamina-centric I really need my gemming to be.
- Yes, I still plan to use Windwalk for weapon enchant. I don’t see a viable alternative.
Yeah, I just wonder whether an extra 1,7% avoidance is going to weigh up against like 400-500 Stamina when gemming Stamina. I also don’t plan to give up on socket bonusses, that indeed wouldn’t make much sense. I played PTR 4.3 a lot and it seems to come with a lot more magic damage. Of course we don’t know for sure until it hits live, but 1,7% avoidance seems so little compared to an extra 400-500 Stamina. But yeah it’s also possible to do a mix of both depending on your raid experiences. I too will be keeping my epic gems until I have a solid plan.
I find we tend to underrate the value of avoidance because it’s not consistent, even though in the end it can be a HUGE savings on cumulative damage taken, ongoing dtps, and the pressure on healers.
That being said, magic damage is always a mitigating factor to the value of avoidance. It really just depends on how bosses are tuned when patch 4.3 goes live, and the pace of progression. I’m not opposed to dialing up the level of stamina gemming I’m doing… I’m just cautiously skeptical.
We’ll see soon enough!
Hi mate! i think you are plenty of thing to do right now to help players like me to understand something with all these new items ( LFR tier, Normal Tier, Heroic tier, Valor Pieces and new 378 from new heroics ) but i’ve had a really fast glance on the new Tank trinkets with stama and, damn!!!, they seem to be far far far better then the previuos stama trinket from 4.2!!!!
Kaeldor,
Indeed, there are some nice new trinkets, but their value does depend on your class.
Indomitable Pride should be popular for everyone, and the valor point trinket looks great.
Resolve of Undying should be nice if you’re in a position to use the avoidance without giving up too much, but given all the magic damage I suspect many tanks will prefer two stamina trinkets, or a stamina trinket + a mastery trinket.
Soulshifter Vortex is actually quite weak for paladins or warriors who are block capping the combat table, though, as the mastery proc will just be wasted once you stack static mastery high enough (in the same way Symbiotic Worm became weak). Similarly, while Veil of Lies from the 5-man is still, in my opinion, better than Scales of Life, a random dodge proc overall isn’t great; I’ll likely still use heroic Vial of Stolen Memories.
Now i’m Standing with the trinket from beth’tilac and SYmbiotic Worm Normal and i was thinking to go (as a warrior) with 1 stama trinket and 1 mastery trinket, why you say that Suolshifter Vortex is weak for a warr?? i was thinking to aim for it and the mastery trinket from valor points.
ONe thing that i’ve noticed looking at the loot tables is that finally it seems that we have a BiS Helm from the tier, for the offset piece i think i’ll go for the crafted legs.
Kaeldor,
Soulshifter Vortex is weak for paladins or warriors WHO ARE BLOCK CAPPED. If you’re not capping your combat table in your gear yet, it’s a fine trinket. When you ARE capping your combat table, additional mastery doesn’t do much for you, which means a random mastery proc isn’t helpful.
In practice, you’ll want to have several trinkets with stamina and mastery and avoidance, and adjust your trinkets based on the needs of the fight.
Of course mate, thanks for the advices you gave…now i’ll wait for your gear list to check if my thoughts about it are fine or not
Hi Mate!!
i was wondering wich wuold be the best offset piece to aim for…according to http://www.askmrrobot.com it seems to be shoulders..and another question, do you like the (only) tank sword from Madness??
Kaeldor,
I’m expecting almost all tanks to choose shoulders as their non-tier set. Although the tier shoulder itemization is different for each plate tank class, all of them have some undesirable threat stat on their shoulders, making the alternative more appealing. And the ilvl 410 Brackenshell Shoulderplates fall from the first heroic boss, which appears by far to be the easiest to kill and farm, while all the other slots don’t even have an ilvl 410 alternative. So 4pc with non-tier shoulders seems to be the way to go, unless you skip the 4pc completely for certain fights.
Regarding Souldrinker from Madness, I love it.
I understand perfectly now that i’m looking a bit deeper into the 2 tier pieces with threat stats (gloves and shoulders) full socketed and enchanted gloves provides more mastery than shoulders, you are right! doy you think that we wuol dbe capable to cap the combat table with Souldrinker and 2 stama trinkets?? because i was thinking to aim for Veil of Lies + Inomitable Pride…
btw happy new year mate!!
Kaeldor,
Yes, I expect that we’ll be able to cap CTC with two stamina trinkets, as long as you’re gemming heavily for mastery.
That being said, most of the fights where it’s truly necessary or useful to stack stamina, I’m not sure it’s necessary to be CTC-capped anyway (e.g., Madness of Deathwing).
Thanks mate