Tank sword SoB tanking vs spell sword SoR tanking?

[Blutreich]

Basically wondering pros/cons of using http://thottbot.com/i29185[Continuum Blade] with SoR or http://thottbot.com/i29362[The Sun Eater] with SoB.

[arie]

SoB with a sun eater works fine for heroics if you have some str/agi gear, but I'm not so sure its effective in raids. I usually just go for spell damage with SoR now, but depending on your group composition and buffs SoB can work very well. Example, I go to heroic UB with a feral druid(+5%crit), dps warr(ap shout), and an enhancement shamy keeping strength of earth/windfury up, seal of blood is going to perform very well. In the same way I could be with a boomkin, ele/resto shamy for totem of wrath, retri pala judging crusader, and SoR is going to do alot better.

You may be able to do more average damage per swing with SoB than SoR depending on your gear, and it can crit(melee crit chance and rates) but with that the seal can also be dodged/parried/blocked/missed whereas SoR procs will always land if your normal swing does.

I still feel safer using righteousness with spell damage as its more stable threat and it doesn't drain my health =) And ofcourse the tier sets for tankadins are spell-damage based rather than str/agi which is why this doesn't get much farther than heroics IMO.

[Myotis]

Don't forget that +spell damage also increases your other abilities. ( Consecration, Holy Shield and judgment )

[Blutreich]

Ya, figured it was a bad idea, I just like the sexy tanking stats, and once you reach uncrushable the only tanking stat you can get on a spelldamage sword is stamina >.<

[Grigsby]

There's always -

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32660 (Crystal Forged Sword)

Tank Stats + Spell Damage ?

[Korrupd]

IMO, SoB was more designed as a stable damage source for DPSadins. Low-end instances and heroics, it can be nice (depending on group and gear, as was said), but SoR is more useful as a stable tanking damage.

There was a thread around the site about using SoR with a +spell dmg sword, and SoB with Kings Defender/Sun Eater, and it being nice as a mitigation used seal rather than a raw tanking seal.

Anybody know if it can be parried and if it will hurt if a boss were to parry it? Seems like since they changed it so SoB doesnt proc SoL/SoW, it might not trigger a true boss parry...

I dunno.

[Worldie]

I've tanked for some time with SoB and the Sun Eater, it gave me about 10 more damages with my 150 spelldamage than SoR, so i used to prefer it.

Then i realized that i was just giving bosses another chance to Parry something.

[Blutreich]

There's always -

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32660 (Crystal Forged Sword)

Tank Stats + Spell Damage ?

once uncrushable blockrating = nothing

[Nerfage]

There's always -

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32660 (Crystal Forged Sword)

Tank Stats + Spell Damage ?

once uncrushable blockrating = nothing

I don't know about you... but I arrange my "uncrushable" set arround the 102.4 mark... if I'm above that mark, then I'm trying other peices of gear that have better block Value/spelldamage/stam/AC. So that I'm just above the mark. With block rating being on the sword, this frees up some choices for gear.

All other spell swords have +spell hit, or +spell crit. Spell hit is moderatly usefull. But spell crit in my eye's is wasted item points. Crit is for DPS classes that don't have to be consistant. Ya it's nice to see a judgment crit, but we can't depend on it.

I'll prolly have my mongoose enchanted Crystalforged Sword for my entire tanking career.

PS: if your wondering why mongoose over +40 spell damage, just think about what +120 agi means to us

[Blutreich]

right now if i am over uncrushable raid buffed, and if not, i can but out my libram of BV. And when it comes to swapping gear to ride the line i can dump avoidance for stam, but dont' wana do that as of yet.

[mconeone]

It's not worth gearing uncrushable without your block rating libram. The alternatives are very poor in comparison. For example, you'd probably have to use the SH trinket, which while having a decent proc is nowhere near the effectiveness you'd get from a darkmoon stamina trinket.

[PsiVen]

Once you start getting past Kara quality stuff it's very hard to not be uncrushable without the Libram. I still don't use it unless I'm wearing pure Stam gear and even then it's like .6% away.

I've noticed a silly concept around here that block and avoidance are useless once you're uncrushable. That's only true if you have HS up all the time, and if you're either doing heroics or far enough in progression to be so much as clearing Lurker trash you have a reason to use a block set.