Stam stacking making a comeback?

[Juugimus]

We're getting ready to tackle the second half of Heroic DS (if Zon'ozz co=operates). I've noticed that most of the tankadins working on the latter heroics are stam stacking due to unblockable mechanics.

For any of you that are working on these heroics, how far below CTC do you allow yourself to fall (if you do at all)?

What unbuffed health target do you try to reach?


Thanks!

[Jeremoot]

"Stam stacking" never left. You want as much of at is you possibly can.

[Era]

CTC cap then stamina then exp/hit is what I'm doing. Worth noting that I'm 10-man raiding and my DPS is a significant part of the overall damage done.

I do try to keep some avoidance around though, sitting at a bit above 18% dodge/parry fully raid buffed. At this point I'm prioritizing stamina more than additional avoidance, just because of the nasty magical damage spikes in this tier.

[Juugimus]

I'm doing 10 man as well and I was gemming for expertise and mastery. As our DPS has improved (just got Heroic Ultra down) I find that my DPS isn't needed as much as it once was.

Is there anyone thats allowing themselves to drop below CTC for Hagara/Spine/Madness/Warship since block is not as strong there?

[theckhd]

I've done Hagara below block-cap on 25H, because she's farm now and I waned to test out my Ultraxion set (which uses mastery elixirs to cap). I doubt you'd want to sit below cap on Warship or Spine, though, just because what will usually kill you is a combination of un-blockable damage and one or two melee swings. That devalues avoidance significantly in favor of stamina, but keeping yourself capped is still a large "pseudo-EH" increase against the melee portions.

[Juugimus]

Awesome. Thanks Theck.

[madmessias]

I'm doing 10 man as well and I was gemming for expertise and mastery. As our DPS has improved (just got Heroic Ultra down) I find that my DPS isn't needed as much as it once was.

Is there anyone thats allowing themselves to drop below CTC for Hagara/Spine/Madness/Warship since block is not as strong there?

Fairly sure Warmaster can oneshot you if you wont block his attack if you got 1-2 sunder stacks, on that fight i just went with ctc cap, 35expertise, full hit, and a staminatrinket.
On spine i think (atleast if you are tanking blood) avoidance might be really good, i'll be trying the stacking dodgetrinket atleast, then i'm not sure, i think the tankdmg is low on the bloodtank so maybe a dps trinket.

[Era]

The only fights I'd risk not keeping my CTC up would be Hagara and maybe Madness, but yeah, I try to always keep my CTC up regardless. It's a nice little buffer between you and random melee swings.

[celast]

with full ctc I'm at 227k unbuffed. I don't see a reason to go higher then that. I can see it being better to try and get as much health as possible on madness hc with the adds doing mainly magic damage or unblock-able damage. but I m not so far. and do you mean you are trying to do more dps theck with the ultraxion set? I m very curious. btw I m raiding 25m

[theckhd]

Yeah, the Ultraxion set is pushing 6% hit and 26 expertise, with 2pc T12 ret and 2pc T12 prot. Because of all of that, it's below cap with a flask (but with food/elixir it's there). Doing that cranks out another 3-5k DPS, which isn't a lot, but every bit counts.

[Asmo]

My gear is setup such that I sit at 227k health unbuffed while CTC capped with one mastery trinket which is my "standard" setup. For madness I switched to double stamina trinkets and IIRC I sat somewhere around 96-97% CTC raid buffed.

[Treck]

Dont go double sta trinkets on madness when the fireland rep trinket is designed for that fight.
A sta trinket for that fight is only usefull for the impales, and nomatter the ammount of stamina on that trinket, its never going to come close to the effectiveness of a 60 absorb.

[celast]

I only feel threatened on madness when the adds spawn in the final phase. and for that tick , isn't it better to have more health and chain your cds? mind you , I ve only done it in normal mode so far, going to get 6/8 hc one of these days. but I m wondering why an increase in health is worse then a 60k absorb which returns 80% over 10 seconds, isn't that more damage in that 10 second time frame?

[Treck]

Its for impale, as its whats likely going to kill you during progress.
Once you reach p4, its a kill within just a few tries, IF you at that point feel impale is easy to handle, but the adds arnt, then maybe then swap, but i wouldnt do it.
The absorb is very good at the adds aswell, as you need it for when you take lots of damage, then the other tank taunts off of you, and you can easily survive even with its dot ticking.
And dont forget dream either.
The 15k hp you would get from using dual sta trinkets are nothing when you have all the buffs, and if you would to ever die from the dot, its not cuz you had to low stamina, its cuz you took to many and you were pretty doomed anyway.

[Fulkzz]

I've found the best way was to just reach ctc cap with whatever trinket combination you might need with a flask on and then as you get more heroic gear start throwing stamina gems into it. I think atm more than half my gear is stamina gemmed and I'm always ctc capped with a flask on (maybe using mastery food with some sets instead of feast, Madness heroic is the best example of this becasue of the FL rep trinket)

If your progressing and you need to gear for more dps or threat or whatever you might be doing I'd start using elixirs (I know i used them on Ultraxion, Yors'ahj and Zon'ozz).

Aside: Just a note on the Ultraxion chatter, using t13 ret legs and 4 piece t13 tanking I was able to get 8% hit, 26 exp and use 2 dps trinkets while remaing at the ctc cap with a stamina flask on. Using that you should be able to crack out some really high dps as long as a bear doesnt go and rip it off you with berserk