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

[Fenrìr]

Alright, I hope no one laughs. I was derping on askmrrobot and this is what it told me to do. I think it's pretty cool and i'm still at avoidance cap without buffs (I'm just nit picky like that >.< i know i should probably reforge to some hit or something) but I still feel like i'm taking a lot of damage. is it just because of my health being so high or what? should i go back to some hybrid gems?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/d ... e/advanced

Wow...you are so far over the CtC capped once buffed it's not even funny how much wasted stats you have.

There is no such thing as too much health unless you are not at tCTC. I personally hate AMR because you really cannot get it to even agree with itself which is why I like Chardev better. If you feel like you're taking too much dmg, you're probably not rotating your CDs are the more opportune times (IE: after stomp on morloot, right before lazer beam of hahainyourface on Zonozz, 5 stacks of void bolt on Yor'sahj the snoozefest, etc).

If you're a stam stacking kind of tank, then honestly, drop Resolve of Undying (not only because it's a terrible trinket, but because it's a terrible trinket) for Indom Pride or even a H Scales of Life. It'll still keep you over tCTC with complete stam gems. We are not warriors, we get ~zero~ benefit for being over tCTC in a raid environment and you will always have those buffs unless for some unknown reason you die. Even then, if you do die, the only buff you're going to lose is your food buff because your raid should instantly be rebuffing you once you pop up. You should never discount those buffs because you will always have them. 80% of the damage to be concerned about is unavoidable anyway, making tCTC pointless (yes, it's a randomly number, but the point is that the vast majority of damage is unavoidable and still requires a CD just like the avoidable/blockable stuff). So more stam is beneficial. You would gain almost 11k hp by using H Indom Pride which is more beneficial than you being almost 4% over tCTC with buffs.

However, you can just as easily run 8% hit/26 exp and still be fine. You would barely notice the drop in your health (5-6k max even with a stam trinket to replace the horrible Resolve).

[Shoju]

WoW.... Am I seeing this right?

104.98 sitting there,
with no stacks of resolve of the undying?
No Food
No Flask
No Elixirs?

Holy crap. Do you have a stam trinket?

[Antaka]

well after getting heroic trinket last night im just confused what to do, guess i will need to change some stamina gems in to mastery+stamina

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/n ... aka/simple


at the moment without buffs, food, flask, i have 98.14 avoidance.

[Gab]

well after getting heroic trinket last night im just confused what to do, guess i will need to change some stamina gems in to mastery+stamina

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/n ... aka/simple


at the moment without buffs, food, flask, i have 98.14 avoidance.

If you are at 98.14 unbuffed then you are probably very close to 102.4 buffed, depending on which consumeables you are using. Try importing your toon to chardev.org and set up your buffs (Kings/Mark and one of the str/agi buffs) and consumeables (Food and Flask/Elixirs). That should show you how close to 102.4 you are and then you can tinker with reforging and gems.

[Sizzwizz]

Need some advice on reforging as I dont truely trust askmrrobot.

I tank heroics but heal LFR and BGs.

I need a new helm...waiting for LFR one to drop. Shield is crappy too, I'll get the twilight heroics on eventually as well. And 333 trink/weap needs to be updated as well.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/a ... wer/simple

Thanks

[Klaudandus]

I'm trying to improve my dps stunt gear as a tank
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/f ... dus/simple

Was thinking of switching just about all Parry+Mastery for Expertise+Mastery and my Parry+Stam for Expertise+Stam (I am getting the Heroic DPS T13 Shoulder) -- my HP would be around 212K with all the changes and most buffs included and still be at 102.4%

I accidentally tanked all 6/8 in my current dps stunt gear, but with different trinkets

[Schroom]

what I feel, is a pretty good choice to reach Exp. cap withtout wasting to many stats is wearing the heroic Firelands neckpiece and the heroic Shannox Belt. Then switch 3 Red socket gems to Exp /stamina should be enough:
like I do:http://eu.battle.net/wow/de/character/die-silberne-hand/Schroom/advanced

[Klaudandus]

We never did heroic firelands, so I have no access to those items =P

[Marilee]

Howdy! So simple question: when the patch hits this week and I log in for the first time and dash off to the reforger, what should be my reforging goals? From reading threads here and various blogs sounds like maybe soft cap hit and expertise, and then favor parry over dodge? But I haven't found a good source of where mastery falls in the scheme of things and how I should aim re: that. I really hate math. I'm sure many other people who are just casual readers of this site have the same question.

Thanks in advance for your advice and patience. <3

[Sagara]

I'll give it a rough shot, and I hope people will help me help you

Globally, Theck seems to imply that there are globally two groups of stats that reinforce other stats in their group but weaken stats in the other:
Parry/Dodge (favoring Parry) is the TDR approach: damage stays spiky, but you'll take the least damage on average.
On the other hand, you could focus on exploiting ShoTR and WOG by focusing on Mastery/Hit/Expertise. Of the three, HIT/EXP have he weakest TDR, but they grant control by smoothing out HoPo generation.

So we're globally in a situation where we trade power (higher TDR) for control. With current content not challenging mana healer overmuch, control seems more appropriate. In short:

1) Safe route: Cap EXP/Hit, spam Mastery.
2) Experimentation route: Spam Mastery, and if you find yourself wanting to hit ShoTR/WoG more often, increase hit/exp as needed.
3) TDR route: focus on Parry/Dodge, with a rough 2:1 ratio.

[benebarba]

I'll give it a rough shot, and I hope people will help me help you

Globally, Theck seems to imply that there are globally two groups of stats that reinforce other stats in their group but weaken stats in the other:
Parry/Dodge (favoring Parry) is the TDR approach: damage stays spiky, but you'll take the least damage on average.
On the other hand, you could focus on exploiting ShoTR and WOG by focusing on Mastery/Hit/Expertise. Of the three, HIT/EXP have he weakest TDR, but they grant control by smoothing out HoPo generation.

So we're globally in a situation where we trade power (higher TDR) for control. With current content not challenging mana healer overmuch, control seems more appropriate. In short:

1) Safe route: Cap EXP/Hit, spam Mastery.
2) Experimentation route: Spam Mastery, and if you find yourself wanting to hit ShoTR/WoG more often, increase hit/exp as needed.
3) TDR route: focus on Parry/Dodge, with a rough 2:1 ratio.

I'm largely with Sagara.

But... if you're raiding DS, I have my doubts as to if going for the dodge/parry route is worthwhile if you do it at the cost of stamina. My reasoning is that I believe much of the 'killer damage' (at least what of it remains) won't be much helped by parry, which will probably end up being at least twice what your dodge percentage is, just because of how they scale (and how strength plays into it). We won't be blocking as often as we used to (looks to be about half as much), but now our mastery will be all about our active mitigation and our WOG boost.

Personally (ilvl 397 geared, DS normal/heroic mix), I'm going to keep my stam-heavy gem scheme but use reforging and re-gemming to get my 7.5% hit and expertise then reforge such that dodge gets converted to parry or mastery. May not be optimal, but the health buffer hopefully will give me a bit more breathing room as I get used to the AM mechanics.

I think in the 5-mans, a similar approach may not hurt - though I think there, parry may yield more benefits than in DS... but I have absolutely no math to back that up.

[Marilee]

Ah thanks you two. I was trying to herpderp my way through the Theck blog post on exp+hit vs dodge+parry and wasn't doing well, but your summary makes sense. I'm going to go with capping exp+hit and then stacking mastery and stam.

[Sagara]

I've tried something similar this weekend, we'll see how it pans out this week. Control does seem more valuable.

To touch bene's remark: we indeed shouldn't sacrifice stamina. In fact, an even MORE stamina-focused approach would be viable (as in, double-stam trinkets), especially if your healing team tends to panic easily. The "mana sponge" problem of druids isn't as acute with the three-heal model.

[Schroom]

yes, I aswell belive that stam is a lot more important again than mitigation, as you can't be blockcaped.
so I will also go for Stam->hit->exp->mastery-> parry->dodge

and see how it will play out.

[benebarba]

yes, I aswell belive that stam is a lot more important again than mitigation, as you can't be blockcaped.
so I will also go for Stam->hit->exp->mastery-> parry->dodge

and see how it will play out.

And of course I sold my soulshifter vortex after getting indomitable pride this week... to battle.net to see if I can get it back! :p

[Schroom]

hehe never sella trinket ^^ even at a later expansion it could be great.

eg: sindragosa 25 HM Trinket for yorshaj was amazing.

[Marilee]

To answer myself, Theck made a new blog post that sums things up nicely as well.
http://sacredduty.net/2012/08/27/patch-5-0-4-round-up/

[Sagara]

All heil the mighty Theck, wielder of the MATLAB.

[econ21]

Oh dear - I just logged on post-patch and started to think about reforging my gear to meet the hit and expertise caps. Then I found I had not reforged out of hit and expertise, so there were no easy gains to be made by reversing that. Worse still, almost none of my gear actually has any hit or expertise - I've been so successful in picking mastery/avoidance gear, I only have the tier gloves and twilight claw ring with any noticeable threat stats on. Getting hit/expertise capped is going to be harder than I anticipated...

I'll have to start looking at my previous threat sets, but they included markedly lower ilevel pieces.

[Fenrìr]

It's not that hard to get exp/hit capped even with current gear. Sure, you may sacrifice some dodge/parry/mastery, but the trade off in better HP generation is well worth it.

[econ21]

Yes, you are right. I think the psychological problem for me came from pre-5.0.4 when keeping at 102.4% was all and so the hit cap looked unobtainable, at least at my gear level. Once you get out of that mindset and reforge some avoidance/mastery, it's fine. In fact, I am looking sadly at my epic mastery gems and thinking "what a waste". Stamina ones look more attractive.

[Owalaz]

Hello, I was wondering if i reforged and gemmed my toon correctly after the pre mists patch. my armory link is http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/u ... din/simple Ive read four to five diffrent guides and ive no clue anymore. My guild is going through DS still till mists hits

[Sagara]

From your stats, I see a focus on the mastery side of things (have you read theck's topic on the subject back on Sacred Duty? Excellent read).

Going down to number crunching - I remember the hit/exp caps being at 7,5%, and you're a bit over it on exp (not that bad), but a bit low on hit. You're looking decent, but you could push it a little further by moving exp -> hit.
Also, avoid Parry gems and try to go for Exp gems.
Your health is in a good place, and it's a bit late to swap all your gemming to go for a mastery/Stamina trinket combo, so don't bother.
Should you have the luck, try and push for the 4-set, which is teh awesum. In fact, if your team is serious about still downing HC Mor'chok, try and get all 5 pieces - Chocky drops nice shoulders for us.

[Resolute]

Folks, seems my Pally is not very threatening. I have trouble taunting and keeping threat in general. I figured out one problem (Lock pet was causing aggro issues) but in general something seems off. I am using the standard rotation. Could it be my build? Here is a link to my armory.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/doomhammer/Res%c3%b5lute/simple

[Nooska]

Folks, seems my Pally is not very threatening. I have trouble taunting and keeping threat in general. I figured out one problem (Lock pet was causing aggro issues) but in general something seems off. I am using the standard rotation. Could it be my build? Here is a link to my armory.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/doomhammer/Res%c3%b5lute/simple

Sanity Check, do you remember to have Righteous Fury up?
What is the standard rotation you speak of (i.e. what do you actually do)