3.3 Progression Gear Guide

[yappo]

I'm not sure about going into ICC with an item level 200 weapon. Yes, you could do it (PUG or guild willing) and it's a failsafe, but this kind of gear guide is about ranking the best options at each level. And while drops are random, there are about half a dozen 219 and 232 one handers so most tanks should be able to pick one up while gearing for ICC. ICC drops will quickly replace most stuff of 232 or lower, but that's not an issue for a level 3 5-man tank (or even for most people gearing up for ICC). Given that the guide lists the 232 HOR neck, I think for consistency it should list the associated weapons.

My bad. I read it wrong and supposed you were referring to the level 2 tank. Sorry.

[Threatco]

I appreciate the list!

Would be nice to add to the 25 man list 10m heroic items.

[Digren]

I appreciate the list!

Would be nice to add to the 25 man list 10m heroic items.

I disagree, because I don't believe 25 man normal players necessarily have access to 10 man heroics. In any given guild 10 of your players might, but the other 15 likely don't, and I'd rather leave both lists cleaner (and let you merge them on your own) than muddy the lists for everyone else.

That's also my situation, and the 25-man list would be less useful for me if it had a bunch of junk in it I couldn't get.

[Feanorion]

Checked the level three list.

Librams.

While I bought the 264 one for my epeen-set, the 245 dodge-libram has yet to ever leave my bags. If I, for some strange reason, would tank in anything but the 245 strength-libram, it would be the 226 BV libram. Hence I'd argue they both have a place in the list

This.

I've even macroed my Str libram to SoCorr and BV libram to SoCleave since they're really the only Librams I use.

Sorry for the necro, but I am curious: macro'd the librams and the seals--- how? To do what? When you activate one seal, you macro-equip that libram? If so, what is the command for that? That would be extremely handy.

[econ21]

IIRC, it's as simple as:

/cast Seal of Command
/equip Libram of the Sacred Shield

and so on. I don't have a Seal of Command button on my toolbar anymore - just one for that macro. Ditto for Seal of Vengance. They are nice for making sure your equipped libram is always useful while switching seals between trash and bosses.

[yappo]

I have made a minor edit to the failsafe gearing guide. Mostly to warn people to use it blindly. There will be no proper update of it until I'm familiar with Cataclysm content, which should translate into mid - late December 2010.

In short: Stay the hell away from agility, resilience is a dead stat and stop frowning at avoidance stats.

[econ21]

In short: Stay the hell away from agility, ...

What's happened to agility? I heard it has lost its effect on armour, but does it still add to dodge and crit chances? If so, it does not sound so bad. It's not that relevant to your guide, as that is more about choosing strength rather than agility dps gear. But I am wondering whether to regem my mixed agility/stamina gems (if I have any - I tended to go pretty pure stamina towards the end).

BTW, with your guide, I don't know if you mentioned it, but two big changes are getting frost gear from heroics and getting PVP gear for honour (weapon and shield especially). I expect a lot of people are grinding heroics for JPs now to get T10, hit the 4000 cap etc. Yes, it's a little pointless given Cata, but it's a fun way of familiarising yourself with the new abilities and what else is there to do?

[yappo]

In short: Stay the hell away from agility, ...

What's happened to agility? I heard it has lost its effect on armour, but does it still add to dodge and crit chances? If so, it does not sound so bad. It's not that relevant to your guide, as that is more about choosing strength rather than agility dps gear. But I am wondering whether to regem my mixed agility/stamina gems (if I have any - I tended to go pretty pure stamina towards the end).

BTW, with your guide, I don't know if you mentioned it, but two big changes are getting frost gear from heroics and getting PVP gear for honour (weapon and shield especially). I expect a lot of people are grinding heroics for JPs now to get T10, hit the 4000 cap etc. Yes, it's a little pointless given Cata, but it's a fun way of familiarising yourself with the new abilities and what else is there to do?

Dropping armour from agility made an alround stat (a little bit of avoidance, a little bit of armour and a little bit of threat) lose one out of three components, which is a pretty huge loss. In fact it's more than a 33% loss, because the threat part of agility was always rather minor.

I did mention PvP gear, but I forgot to mention that you can bypass the old EoT gear in favour of EoF gear if you're so inclined.

The main reason I don't plan to make an updated guide for post 4.0 but pre Cata is that the assumed reader is unlikely to be facing the need of a failsafe guide while at the same time being able to gear according to it in time to get any use of it before Cata hits. Ie, the non-failsafe tank has a month and a half to both gear up and get inside ICC in the hopes of upgrading failsafe gear to get better equipment. Add that even if said tank does so we can expect him/her to replace that gear within a week or two after Cata is released.

[Digren]

Even when EH was king, tanks benefited from avoidance, and it was useful when picking up red socket bonuses. Having agility provide 97% of the survivability of dodge rating - except doing so as ~76% avoidance and ~21% EH - made it a better overall stat than dodge rating alone. The crit rating was gravy.

Now, agility provides 75% of the dodge chance that dodge rating provides, plus some crit. That sucks. Why? Because you don't need crit in your survivability set. You really do not need any threat stats at all. If you want threat stats for a given encounter, put on a piece or two of threat specific gear. If you threat set consists of a special weapon and shield and libram, you can even use your threat gear for the first part of the fight, then switch to your pure EH set once Vengeance has ramped up. And, if you're designing threat gear, agility is a poor choice. Hit or expertise rating or strength are better choices.

So agility isn't good for survivability gear. And it's not good for threat gear. That leaves it good for nothing.**


** Note there are a few enchants (cloak) where agility is better than the dodge rating enchant, but that's due to the large difference in raw numbers.

[Digren]

I redid the item enhancement guide for 4.0.1 because there were so many questions popping up from people who wanted/needed to reforge, regem, and reenchant so they could keep working in ICC. But I don't plan to touch my 3.3 gear guide or make one for 4.0.1. Well here's one:

4.0.1 Progression Gear Guide

1. Get the highest iLvl piece of tank gear you can. EH is still important, but now reaching the block cap is important to extend your EH, too. And you'll replace it all in a month so don't worry about it.