Failsafe gearing guide, 4.3

[yappo]

Minor edits made to take into account the good advice given in this thread.

[nalenb]

First, thanks for putting this together, it's very useful.

I ran my dailies today and got the following:

Wildhammer - 5 dailies - 1,553 rep - 70g 62s
Therazane - 7 dailies - 2,128 rep - 79g 96s
Ramkahen - 2 dailies - 460 rep - 18g 31s
Baradin's Wardens - 6 dailies - 1,725 rep - 99g 24s

For a total of 268g 13s per day, not including sale of any loot or repairs.

(I'm a human in a level 4 guild, so I'm getting the 5% rep guild bonus)

[yappo]

Thanks for the data on rep.

In all likelyhood I'll have to make some rather horrid changes to the list. I'm beginning to suspect that dps-gear with good chunks of mastery might be better tanking items than corresponding tanking gear with dodge/parry and zero mastery.

Hypothetical example: 100 mastery and 100 haste (the worst possible dps-stat for us) actually looks better to me than 100 dodge and 100 parry, despite the latter screaming: I'm a dedicated piece of tanking gear!

Before I start juggling around too much with strange equipment I'll need to verify those suspicions.

[econ21]

79.68 mastery rating gives 1% block
For me, around 206 dodge rating gives 1% dodge.
So gear with mastery plus something reforgeable will certainly get you further towards the block cap than pure avoidance gear.

However, in terms of overall damage reduction, I think dps gear with mastery is only more attractive (for survivability) if it comes with agility rather than strength.

A unit of dodge gives me 0.004854 (i.e. 1/206) damage reduction.
A unit of mastery rating gives 0.00502 (0.4/79.68)

These differences seem quite small - mastery is not 42% better than avoidance. However, given that agility gives 60% dodge whereas strength gives only 25% parry, it could be that mastery plus agility gear is better for damage reduction than avoidance gear (the Earthen ring epic ring has been cited as such a case).

[Barathorn]

I cannot see a huge amount of plate items with agility on them being available in honesty. I think we are probably only going to be looking at rings and trinkets with regard to agility.

Barathorn

[yappo]

Edited and added commentary to the links.

[nalenb]

In your description of the epic crafted chest you say not to buy it because of the lack of sockets. The patch notes for 4.0.6 say:

"A socket has been added to all crafted epic armor pieces that did not already have one."

http://www.wowhead.com/patchnotes=4.0.6-ptr

Not sure if this will come to pass or when 4.0.6 will go live, but I thought I'd add that. (mostly cause I'm wearing that chest and hoping it adds sockets).

[yappo]

In your description of the epic crafted chest you say not to buy it because of the lack of sockets. The patch notes for 4.0.6 say:

"A socket has been added to all crafted epic armor pieces that did not already have one."

http://www.wowhead.com/patchnotes=4.0.6-ptr

Not sure if this will come to pass or when 4.0.6 will go live, but I thought I'd add that. (mostly cause I'm wearing that chest and hoping it adds sockets).

I aim at keeping this list up-to-date, so when I can see the 4.0.6 items on live I'll change my recommendations accordingly. However, I won't change them based on premonitions

Personally I hope the socketing will make the crafted chest better than the blue. I have mats waiting for that to happen

[thayne183]

First off, thanks for the great guide!

This is as much a question as a possible item to mention for an upgrade that (I think )

1) Is better than the earthen ring legs and could save one the JP's to spend on other stuff.
2) comes from a heroic that's so easy and fast, I feel its kinda between reg and heroic.

Legguards of Winnowing Windhttp://www.wowhead.com/item=56367

These legs dropped so much for my guild I eventually won one greeding and was going to sell then when noticed all the mastery (even the socket bonus is mastery), so after reforging the crit to Dodge they seemed far superior to my Earthen ring rep pants.

I kinda consider heroic VP the easiest of heroics so I thought it might have a place for small guilds not fully random heroic ready but fully able to finish the easiest one (if that makes any sense haha) I know for several weeks random heroics for VP's just were not an option for me as I only run with guildies and they were a bit behind getting geared.

-cheers

[yappo]

1) Is better than the earthen ring legs and could save one the JP's to spend on other stuff.
2) comes from a heroic that's so easy and fast, I feel its kinda between reg and heroic.

Legguards of Winnowing Windhttp://www.wowhead.com/item=56367

While there are several drops from heroic 5-mans which are better than those listed here, they all share one component -- they're drops. This list consists exclusively of gear that you're 100% guaranteed to get.

[yappo]

Edited the list to acknowledge that the 4.0.6 changes made the crafted tanking chest a little less awful, and outright interesting for fights where you depend on generating Holy Power.

Also noted that the crafted tanking belt went from good to better.

[Skye1013]

I realize it's in direct competition with the trinkets, but Hellscream's Reach now has a 1h Str weapon (I can't remember the name of it off hand or I'd give the link.) Not sure how good that would be, but it's another option. Also there are now agi/str trinkets from alch. Obviously threat isn't a huge issue, but the agi might be useful for dodge.

[yappo]

I realize it's in direct competition with the trinkets, but Hellscream's Reach now has a 1h Str weapon (I can't remember the name of it off hand or I'd give the link.) Not sure how good that would be, but it's another option. Also there are now agi/str trinkets from alch. Obviously threat isn't a huge issue, but the agi might be useful for dodge.

I'll check that weapon.
I'm not listing BoP items from professions (as you need to be, for example, an alchemist to get them).

[yappo]

Added the Tol Barad weapon to the list. Marked it as low priority as five man heroics simply rain weapons over people. However, the TB weapon is indeed a failsafe solution for the hysterically unlucky.

[econ21]

It might be worth adding an AH "watch list" for BoE epics:

[Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace] : BoE Dungeon Drop
[Heaving Plates of Protection] : The Bastion of Twilight (Normal) BoE Raid Drop
[Pauldrons of Edward the Odd] : BoE World Drop
[Icebone Hauberk] : BoE Dungeon Drop
[Soul Blade]
[Blockade's Lost Shield] : BoE

They won't come cheap, but I think a failsafe guide is particularly useful for people - perhaps like ourselves - who struggle to get raid drops and may be willing and able to fork out where possible to compensate. I list them because, with the exception of the hauberk, they are very nice items that you won't want to replace in a hurry.