3.3 Gem and Enchant Guide

I've been engineering since I trained a profession, I guess in late December 2004. I just don't see the need to switch since I like it (most of the time) and it does at least provide some benefit. I don't have to be perfect.

I could see a different guide that detailed the relative benefits of each profession for stats or other tanking intangibles. As Meloree pointed out, the ratio for the shoulder tradeoff tends to favor the inscription enchant, but when you look at it in terms of profession tradeoff, sticking with inscription for the direct benefit is a pretty poor choice. (Any such thread should acknowledge the intangibles, including sunk cost, flexibility, guild impact, etc.)

Thanks for the advice. I suspect I may eventually drop mining for JC but, well, I LIKE mining. Strange but true. Of course, I'd be happier if I could get a good price for any Northrend minerals but at least I can have my alchemist smelt lots of titanium from my stacks of saronite.

Just read through the guide again to see how it had changed in the past few months, and I have to commend you on how well done it is. I love the addition of the icons.

I also noticed one or two things you may want to add:
1) The 18 Stamina Shield enchant isn't listed in the Enchant section, despite it being right around the threshold for level 3 tanks and well below the threshold for level 4 tanks.
2) The "Agility is 99% as good as Dodge" is based on a 3.2 simulation. I haven't gotten around to re-running it for 3.3, but I will try to do so this week. The value of Agility should go up though, insofar as it will be strictly superior to Dodge for reducing incoming damage. As soon as I get to it, I'll let you know.

Njall wrote:Hmm. With the growing overkill of +DEF on my gear, I am starting to consider putting the Mind Control tinker on my hat. Yes, I loose +20 DEF and gain +8 STA - and mind control I can use to toss annoying people out of Naxx, off of Ulduar, or off of Ice Crown.

I've added this to the stamina replacement chart.

Digren wrote:I've added this to the stamina replacement chart.

Thanks. I see the ratio is pretty low. I'll hold off for a bit yet (unless I run into more flagged goofs at the summon stone in Ulduar and Naxx). I do like the tongue-in-cheek tone about engineering in the rewrite.

As a lifetime engineer I feel I've earned the right to enjoy my profession, even if that enjoyment is derived from denigrating it in text.

I know formatting is difficult to follow right now. Looks like the new design ignores un-numbered lists rather than indenting them like the previous design would do. Given that the indent BBCode is also off, I don't have a better method to generate readable indentations for the moment, so the formatting problems will have to ride for a while.

I think I'm gonna go Engineering. Yes, Meloree, I realize it's less than ideal, and I've been wrestling with my thoughts as of late over what to do with my professions. I'm currently a Scribe/Alchemist. I have zero interest in dropping Alchemy as it is both a close runner to professions such as BS or LW as far as EH return is (along with cutting out a lot of the price of supplying yourself with flasks/elixirs/potions), plus I just... like it. I like making my own potions and such. I like having the Endless Mana Potion for doing 5-mans (at this point, I can't imagine trying to do a heroic that I overgear without it).

And this is part of the reason I want to become an Engineer. It looks... fun! One thing that helps is that I'll get better overall profession bonus (if I was a JC or an Enchanter I would be much less willing to do this), and having a profession I can really enjoy would mean more to me than a little bit of extra health.

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Aside: Not quite sure where to put this, but I figure this place is as good as any... The emphasis on stamina as the go-to stat for tanks could potentially come back to bite us (and by "us" I mean all tanks) in the ass.

Health is a nice easy visible statistic which anyone can see by inviting a tank and looking at their health. Problem is, in Cataclysm, GC has stated they intend to dramatically increase health pools, but not dramatically increase healing done. On top of this, as we already know, avoidance will be dropping sharply.

Obviously, this is just theory until we see it in action, but even with more health, a tank will be taking more damage just because we will lose 20+% of our avoidance. I can very easily imagine a scenario (especially depending on how they change mana regeneration) that suddenly healers don't have limitless mana pools.

The current high value of Stamina is partially based on the theory that our healers will never run out of mana and can keep us always at full health. If this scenario or one similar to it comes to pass, Avoidance and Armor could easily catch up in value to Stamina (or at least greatly diminish the difference) for the balance between best and worst stats.

Now, it's not our fault that Stamina is such a good stat. We're just reacting to the situation given, but I'd hate for someone who just idiotically stacks Stamina in Cataclysm to get a raid spot because they have over 100k Health while a good tank who has "only" 95k but better understands what makes good stats and bad and has an ideal mix is sidelined. =/

When Cataclysm comes out, there'll be a whole new round of Theorycraft about it's mechanics. There fully exists the possibility that throughput damage will be a meaningful statistic, something to worry about minimizing in progression. If so, we'll gear accordingly.

Meloree wrote:If so, we'll gear accordingly.

I'm sure. I just wanted to rant a bit (not expecting anyone to change anything now) about the potential of dumb (pickup) raid leaders who only look at health after it being the king-shit muckity-muck for most of WotLK.

EDIT: Sorry for taking a good thread off-topic. u.u;

Alixander wrote:And this is part of the reason I want to become an Engineer. It looks... fun!

Too many lose sight of this part. If it is fun (and doesn't piss anyone else off) then doooo eeeet!