Gear Check/Advice Thread (All Specific Advice Requests Here)

[econ21]

i was thinking Soulshifter Vortex so keeping one stam one avoidance trinket.

The proc on the Vortex is wasted on us, so I'd agree with you.

I've seen highly geared palatanks using the Vortex as a chunk of stamina, as they don't need a mastery trinket to be block capped, but at your gear level, I suspect it's not the most efficient place to get stamina (as it comes at the cost of a wasted proc).

The on use ability of Fire of the Deep is a nice additional CD by contrast.

[Katzie]

Hi all!!! I've been tanking on my warrior since Vanilla, and just made a paladin at the end of Ulduar, and have used this site and EJ a lot to make sure I am top notch for tanking. Now I am just a bit casual, but I do want to get into a DS10 run.

With that said, here is my armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/w ... zie/simple

I am wondering if I can tank DS10 regular all 8 bosses fine. I am only CTC capped when I get full stacks of my trinket up. Also, I have 2 stam trinkets in my bags that I don't use because if I do use them, my CTC will be severely gimped.

I would also like suggestions on improving my gear. (I don't have the exalted shoulder enchant though I know that)

[Fenrìr]

@Katzie

I feel that seeing changes is a lot better than words.

http://chardev.org/?profile=360455


I did not change any gear as I do not know what you may have available to you while at work. I do recommend trying to get the Tier Helm and using the Morloot shoulders over Tier; but at the 384-397 ilvl range, the tier shoulders may be better than the tier gloves (I'll have to check on that).

You may want to start getting your hands on a different trinket over Resolve of Undying. I personally do not like it and feel that it can potentially be a killer if you do find yourself not hitting something for 10 seconds. I like having static trinkets with on use abilities if they have an ability to use as it's something I can control for the moments I need it.

I would really work on your TB rep for the Mirror of Broken Images and attempt to get into some Firelands clears for Avenger's of Hyjal Rep for the ring/trinket as well. Not to mention, some of the gear from Firelands will help you such as Scales of Life, Spidersilk Spindle.

[Katzie]

@ Fenrir

Awesome!! Thank you for the suggestions! I am wondering if grinding all that rep for the TB trinket is worth it, most likely I'd only be getting it for the Use effect, but how much is 400 resist really? I know a lot of the fights in DS10 have magic damage, but would I be using that trinket over say the Spidersilk Spindle? For some reason, I have overlooked that trinket somehow, and to me, that is my main priority right now.

About the shoulders, I will take you up on that. Hopefully I can get in a DS10 group and those shoulders drop, then I can use a token for the set piece.

And yeah, Morchok will be bad if I use the Resolve trinket, since unless I bubble and stay in the blood, I'll lose those stacks. Good insight.

Also, I am assuming regemming will net me more stamina? I see tanks that have less gear than me have more HP than I do. I always think I am doing something wrong.

[Fenrìr]

400 resist is quite a bit on Yor'sahj's Void Bolts and Warlord's Physic Drain. Do not underestimate those cause they can kill you if the healers lax or you get a back streak of hits.

You may not be doing anything wrong when comparing to other tanks. It all resides in your decisions and how you/your healers feel when you're tanking and taking damage. That's what I like about Chardev, I can adjust gems/reforges quickly and see the changes to how they relate to the buffs I know I have in a raid.

My go to trinkets for almost every fight in DS is Heroic Scales of Life and Heroic Spidersilk Spindle (mostly because I have yet to see Indom Pride >,<).

[Aeilene]

Hi there,

Hope someone will take some time to help me here,

What are the important caps that i need to focus on now a days, and where is the next natural step for me to go for getting some better gear DS 10 man HCs or ?

Gear i should consider swapping ? Respec ?

If i go with another tank they usually outaggro me and i have to taunt and struggle a bit so all info that could help out is most appreciated.

link to my paladin,

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/bloodscalp/Drakaie/simple

[econ21]

I can't help you with heroic tanking, but a few comments:

- On the other tank out-aggroing you, this should not really happen if you are both playing well. I wonder if the other tank is bad at handling tank switches? If he has vengeance, but you taunt off him, it may be that he has to ease off a little to let you build up threat. What kind of dps are the two of you doing? If you are doing much lower dps, unless he vastly outgears you, you might have to work on your rotation. Omen and threatplates are nice addons for managing with threat (make sure you co-tank has them too!). Where there are adds, I like marking skull and cross on targets, and making sure my co-tank knows whose tanking which.

- In terms of caps, the key one is 102.4% combat table coverage. Do you have that? I would not worry about threat and expertise except for Ultraxion, when you'd switch some pieces.

- I am not a fan of your trinket choices - they make me suspect you are not at 102.4%, at least not without the dodge stacks from your trinket. I'd go for the VP trinket and perhaps an alternative stamina one - if you are at 102.4% CTC, the proc on yours is wasted.

- Your gemming is a little erratic. You don't want hit, expertise or dodge on the gems in your survival gear. Have a look at Digren's guide to gear enhancement.

- On your spec, you might consider focussed shield instead of dazing for some more single target threat. I found it helped a bit when I tanked with a cat in bear form (he was wearing dps gear and pushed me for a threat). Personally, I'd put 2 into pursuit of justice or nothing. A boot enchant would substitute for 1 pt in it. The spare 1 might come from reckoning.

[gronc2]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/g ... onc/simple

how is this set up for DS raids? I am specifically thinking about the amount of unblockable damage, and glyphed for Ultraxion fight. I hit ctc cap with master elixir and dodge food, and I am using prismatic elixir for more resistance as well. I am using the trinket for resistance.

gronc

[Nikachelle]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/gundrak/Gronc/simple

how is this set up for DS raids? I am specifically thinking about the amount of unblockable damage, and glyphed for Ultraxion fight. I hit ctc cap with master elixir and dodge food, and I am using prismatic elixir for more resistance as well. I am using the trinket for resistance.

gronc

Why dodge food and not mastery food? If you're already going to the effort of using a mastery elixir, you might as well use the food as well (and squeeze more hp of out of your gems that way).

In general your gear is fine for normal DS. Although that purple gem in your shoulders (in the blue socket) kind of sticks out a bit - I'd've used pure stam. You could probably upgrade your chest enchant to the higher stamina one... but you're likely waiting on a better upgrade.

[gronc2]

That is a mistake, I am color blind must have just slammed it in their without looking at the description carefully. I use the dodge food because in my realm the mastery food is never on AH, and I can't fish the lavascale yet. My flat mate has the recipes so I just give him the mud fish and he gives me dodge food. I will be replacing chest asap so you were very perceptive

thanks heaps, other thoughts?

gronc

[econ21]

how is this set up for DS raids? I am specifically thinking about the amount of unblockable damage, and glyphed for Ultraxion fight.

It's looking pretty solid to me.

Ultraxion's a special case and most people seem to gear somewhat for threat for that fight and not worry too much about block capping. Just for that fight, you might wear some expertise items - like the VP helm, the JP bracers etc - and licence to slay to boost your hit.

The mirror is great on some fights, not so hot on others. The VP trinket is a good one to swap for it for most fights: a bit more mastery and an on-use ability that will help with the physical damage the Mirror's resistance is useless for.

Dazing shield is great for PvP but a waste for DS. I'd recommend focussed shield - there's not much trash in DS.

[Schroom]

I wouldn't get off of ctc cap for Ultraxion, in our first attempts our DK got some trouble building up a bloodshield, and got some unmitigated hits of about 120k+ which resulted in some sudden deaths for him. I got the same hits of about 120k+ but being blockcaped and having 100% uptime on HS turned them into 60k hits which is quite a difference.

also gearing for threat isn't really necessary anymore, after the 10% nerf. just stay on ctc for that fight, and a solid chunk of stamina. if your gear allows you to get expertise capped as well you are free to do it, but making sure you survive should always be the first of your worries.

[econ21]

I wouldn't get off of ctc cap for Ultraxion, ... I got the same hits of about 120k+

On DS 10N? I'd be amazed - looking at World of Logs, hits on me average about 37k, dropping about 10k when blocked. I am sure I would notice it if something hit me for 120k. (IIRC, Zono'ozz hits could reach 70k or so, and I felt that.)

also gearing for threat isn't really necessary anymore, after the 10% nerf.

You are probably right.

[Lorax]

Good morning folks, just hit 85 last night. I grabbed a few easy quest rewards, some BoE stuff I had gathered, and gemmed/enchanted/reforged it as best I know how.

I know I still need to work on earthen ring rep and get my arcanum, but other than that I think it's not too bad. I also chose mending over windwalk as I had the mats for one and not the other. (I crafted my own enchants on my priest, but don't have maelstrom crystals handy)

My questions are, did I do anything glaringly wrong with my gearing, and what content level should I be able to tank with this setup?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/k ... rax/simple

[Gab]

The mirror is great on some fights, not so hot on others. The VP trinket is a good one to swap for it for most fights: a bit more mastery and an on-use ability that will help with the physical damage the Mirror's resistance is useless for.

As an alternative to the VP trinket, Stay of Execution (if you have FL revered) reforged to mastery is only something like .2% ctc less than Mirror reforged to dodge. Because of the trinkets I currently have I CTC cap around the SoE and on fights where the Mirror cd is too good to pass up I simply switch them out and only .2% ctc is wasted. Works fairly well IMO.

[gronc2]

The mirror is great on some fights, not so hot on others. The VP trinket is a good one to swap for it for most fights: a bit more mastery and an on-use ability that will help with the physical damage the Mirror's resistance is useless for.

As an alternative to the VP trinket, Stay of Execution (if you have FL revered) reforged to mastery is only something like .2% ctc less than Mirror reforged to dodge. Because of the trinkets I currently have I CTC cap around the SoE and on fights where the Mirror cd is too good to pass up I simply switch them out and only .2% ctc is wasted. Works fairly well IMO.

I need to get more firelands rep but that sounds like a great idea, thanks

gronc

[econ21]

Good morning folks, just hit 85 last night. ...
My questions are, did I do anything glaringly wrong with my gearing, and what content level should I be able to tank with this setup?

You did a fantastic job gearing up in such a short time. The only thing I would quibble with is that you ignore one or two socket bonuses, presumably to push your mastery. Personally, I find it hard to turn down free stats, so I would not forgo stamina, mastery or avoidance socket bonuses. You'll get to 102.4% sooner or later, but it's hard to force it if you don't have the ilevel. And while it's nice to have, you can tank normal raids a little short and not go splat.

For content, you should farm the heck out of the new 378 5-mans. Then go into looking for raid and Baradin Hold as soon as you feel ready (go as ret if you don't feel ready but meet the ilevel). You'll soon be ready for DS 10N.

[Bakey]

Bit of question regarding trinkets. Our guild is 5/8 10M Normal, working on Blackhorn this week. I just got the Soulshifter Vortex and was wondering about what trinkets I should be using.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/w ... n/advanced

I have the Lifebound Alchemist Stone, Brawler's Trophy from Direbrew, LFR Resolve of Undying, and Veil of Shadows on top of the 2 I have equipped.

Any advice tankadins?

[Cowmmunion]

Assuming you need the fire of the Deep to remain CTC capped, I'm running with that and the Veil of the Shadows as my default set up at the moment. I have pretty similar options to you, but I swap the veil and the soulshifter from time to time if I want the 100 stamina more then the dodge proc. Right now I'm geared for heroic hagara so I'm actually running with the Veil of Shadows and the Soulshifter (as I find pure stamina worth way more then some CTC when dealing with Focused Assault).

On normal blackhorn I might run with the Fire of the Deep and the Resolve - the avoidance I find very useful in that fight. It's the one fight in the entire tier where Resolve of the Undying has any use, to attempt to avoid/drop off stacks of the debuff on phase 2.

[Bakey]

Well I'm at 102.43 raid buffed with the 2 trinkets shown, using a non-mastery flask. I could go back to the mastery elixir to help make up some of that loss if I drop Fire of the Deep for something else. I will try Resolve on our next Blackhorn pulls and see what that's like.

[Worldie]

Just bare in mind for a paladin, the proc of Soulshifter Vortex is useless, so you are really using only half trinket there.

[gronc2]

you may want to consider mirror of broken images for fights where resistance is at a premium.

gronc

[Bakey]

Just bare in mind for a paladin, the proc of Soulshifter Vortex is useless, so you are really using only half trinket there.

This is because I'm already at CTC cap and the extra mastery proc is useless?

[Klaudandus]

Just bare in mind for a paladin, the proc of Soulshifter Vortex is useless, so you are really using only half trinket there.

This is because I'm already at CTC cap and the extra mastery proc is useless?

Yes.

[Bakey]

Damn, wish I'd passed the trinket to our Blood DK now...