Reforging/Mastery/Block Cap Compilation Guide (4.0.X)

[Greengo]

If you're in full 277 gear you can block cap with one avoidance trinket reforged to mastery ( corpse tongue hc ).

It's also possible with two stamina trinkets by gem socket matching and using some avoid/mixed enchants (+10 all on chest, etc.) - with hit/exp softcap (hit/exp food included).
Priceless on events like Halion/LK hc.

[Aurema]

It only matters for a couple more days, but here's how I got to 102.41% with raid buffs in 4.03a:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/s ... a/advanced

just 4 hit rating short of 8% hit.

[theckhd]

Reposting this here, since it's probably a question others have been asking as well:

You can come up with a general rule of thumb for reforging on items that have an avoidance/threat combination. If an item has A avoidance rating and T threat rating, the break-even point is found by solving (0.6*A/Ca + 0.4*A/Cm)=A/Ca+0.4*T/Cm, where Ca and Cm are the avoidance and mastery conversion factors respectively (Ca=176.7189 for avoidance, Cm=179.28/2.25=79.68 for mastery).

Solving that equation, we find that T = (1-Cm/Ca)*A = 0.5491*A. In other words, as long as the threat stat on the item is larger than 55% of the avoidance rating, you'll get better attack table coverage by reforging the threat stat. This assumes, of course, that you're willing to sacrifice the threat stats.

Note that this is completely ignoring Diminishing Returns, which effectively increases Ca. Thus, a ballpark estimate of 50% 60% is probably closer to a real-world value, which will decrease increase further as your gear accumulates more avoidance. In general, this means that you'll probably prefer to reforge the threat stats on your gear to mastery if you can afford to.

<edit> oops

[sculder]

I for one will be leaving my hit alone for a looooooong time. With just over 1% hit rating I'll be missing far too many shield slams to reforge away hit

[Awyndel]

Can I just try both options at the reforge guy and hit the block cap macro to see wich comes out higher? I realise not both will have the same avoidance, but the attack table should be correct. Or am I missing something?

Also, isn't there an offset when trying to balance between parry and dodge? Isn't dodge ideally something like 0.4% higher then parry ( raid buffed ) ?

[theckhd]

Can I just try both options at the reforge guy and hit the block cap macro to see wich comes out higher? I realise not both will have the same avoidance, but the attack table should be correct. Or am I missing something?

You can, but that costs gold, doesn't it? In most cases, the item distribution isn't X of one rating and X/2 of another, so the 50% rule of thumb should save you some cash and time. For example, if you're looking at an item with 120 Parry and 90+ expertise, you can tell by inspection that reforging the expertise will give you better attack table coverage, because 90>60.

Also, isn't there an offset when trying to balance between parry and dodge? Isn't dodge ideally something like 0.4% higher then parry ( raid buffed ) ?

That only comes into the discussion of whether dodge or parry is seeing higher diminishing returns, and would only be relevant if we were considering reforging one into another (i.e. dodge->parry or parry->dodge) or a threat stat into one of them (expertise->dodge or parry).

In general, this changes the actual value of Ca for each stat based on your current rating level. However, since it simply pushes the threshold lower and lower, it's mostly irrelevant for this question, since we're specifically looking at reforging an item with an avoidance/threat rating combination.

If you're considering reforging a double avoidance item, then the simple rule of thumb is probably just to reforge whichever one is higher. Diminishing returns will change Ca for each stat separately, but that difference is likely to be relatively minor given current itemization. If one stat is 10 points or more higher than the other, the difference due to DR is probably irrelevant. And in that situation you could always just reforge and use the block macro for an exact comparison, like you suggested.

[Awyndel]

Alright, so basicaclly for parry/dodge balancing, we will have to fiddle with it. That will be an expensive joke with gems, but that prolly won't happen very often.

Thnx for the updates.

[edsdame]

Sorry, if it was already asked, but:
Should I reforge items to get closer to hitcap and expcap, if I am not anywhere near to it, or should I push my mastery higher?

[theckhd]

Sorry, if it was already asked, but:
Should I reforge items to get closer to hitcap and expcap, if I am not anywhere near to it, or should I push my mastery higher?

That all depends on whether you feel you need more threat/DPS or more survivability. The only reason to reach hit or expertise caps is to increase threat generation or DPS. If you're not having threat problems, there's probably no reason to increase your hit or expertise.

[æ]

What is the DR formula now? Or is it...*shiver*....the same at 85?

[theckhd]

What is the DR formula now? Or is it...*shiver*....the same at 85?

DR formula for what? Avoidance? The formula is more or less unchanged, but the cap on dodge/parry has been lowered to around 65% (it was ~88% for dodge and ~47% in 3.x). So the diminishing returns on avoidance are actually a bit worse than they were in Wrath.

[æ]

What is the DR formula now? Or is it...*shiver*....the same at 85?

DR formula for what? Avoidance? The formula is more or less unchanged, but the cap on dodge/parry has been lowered to around 65% (it was ~88% for dodge and ~47% in 3.x). So the diminishing returns on avoidance are actually a bit worse than they were in Wrath.

Yes, avoidance, thank you good sir!

[sculder]

Updated for Cataclysm.

tl;dr of the entire post: reforge everything to mastery.

[theckhd]

For the "I've reached block cap, now what??" section, you might want to add that if threat is not an issue you can start shifting your reforging from mastery to dodge/parry to reduce total damage taken. I.e. if you get an upgrade that puts you above block cap, un-re-forge some mastery back into avoidance while still maintaining block cap. This gives you the same total hittable chance (0%) but a higher amount of avoidance, and thus reduces damage intake.

[sculder]

For the "I've reached block cap, now what??" section, you might want to add that if threat is not an issue you can start shifting your reforging from mastery to dodge/parry to reduce total damage taken. I.e. if you get an upgrade that puts you above block cap, un-re-forge some mastery back into avoidance while still maintaining block cap. This gives you the same total hittable chance (0%) but a higher amount of avoidance, and thus reduces damage intake.

forgot that section in my edits ><