PTR patch 2.2: Seal of Vengeance

Posted on the PTR patch notes:

Seal of Vengeance duration increased to 15 seconds. In addition, when Seal of Vengeance strikes a target that already has 5 applications you will cause instant Holy damage.

Now, is it just me, or is this not going to bypass my occasional need for S/JoR to boost my threat?

Also, a followup question:

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Sentinels&n=Ardaic

That's me I'm currently using Abacus of Violent odds for its Use to boost my stacking of Seal of Vengeance. I was planning to toss it once I got Figurine of the Colossus to drop... But that was also because of a drop in use of SoV... With that modification, is the block rating going to override what looks to be a potentially ultra-delicious tanking seal? Goal-wise, I'm currently only running Heroics and lower, with an aim for Kara in the next 3 months. Any info/feedback would be groovy.

Whoo i'm already using vengeance most of the time, while tanking some bigger stuff which lasts more than a few seconds.

Had major problems stacking it up fast enough on bosses tho, but i solved this by speccing weapon expertise.

With the new changes, you'll rarely ever see it wearing off because of missing too much or something. The new instant damage is a small but nice bonus to your tps.

Yes, Vengeance is a good tanking seal atm.
It will be the ultimate one when 2.2 goes live.

I'm thinking of something like judging sor while stacking vengeance up in the future for bursting initial agro. Sure, burns alot of mana, but you can afford that one the bigger dudes.
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WTB SoV
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be careful, the instant damage is 4. so.... no real difference.
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If you invest all of your talents, all of your gear, all of your knowledge and skill into tanking, you should be the best tank.

The "Instant holy damage" patch note makes it sound so much better than reality...
The real difference is the extra 3 seconds. From 120/12s to 150/15s is technically an increase in dmg per mana, if not in dmg per sec, but I'm hoping that the extra 3 seconds will make a marked improvement in reliability, but to be honest I can't see that happening. At present it falls off at 2 or 3 stacks for me with a 1.6 or 1.8 weapon, an extra 3 seconds will certainly help, but not enough.

WTB SoB

sov works good for VR when i'm fighting for aggro

SoB isn't any use for tanking BTW :p

Sure you can use it with King's defender, but your threat will still drop massively as your consecration/holyshield won't be getting spelldamage bonus any more and JoB needs spelldamage to do decent ammounts of damage while SoB needs Str/melee crit to do decent damage.

So you can't really get much out of it.
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I'm using the gavel of unearthed secrets myself, and it's been great for SoV procs. However, I'm upgrading to the merciless gavel in bout 2 weeks. same stats, if not a bit more stam. More spell damage, and spell HIT which I enjoy. However, it's a 1.6 speed I believe. Back to SoR for me I'm guessing. Booooo, I was liking those 1.2 K crits with judgements of 5 proc SoV.

I use the merciless gladiator's gavel. The only boss fight where I use SoV is Leotheras (for heavy judgments following an aggro reset) but even there I'm considering ditching it for better sustained threat from SoR.
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Something I've been playing around with on PTRs is Stacking up to 5 Vengeance, judge Vengeance. Put up SoR. After 8 seconds, judge SoR, put up SoV to refresh stack. Judge SoV.

With Gavel of Unearthed Secrets I don't have much trouble getting the stack refreshed within the 5 seconds remaining.

It helps to judge SoV immediately after a refresh (love the new built in debuff timer from 2.1!) for maximum time to refresh it after SoR.

I forsee the SoR / SoV cycle being very powerful for sustained TPS. =D

Edit: I should add that while I was testing, the "on hit with 5 debuffs holy damage" part was only giving me 4 holy damage each time, which from what I understand is not what is intended. If that number is fixed to something decent, a SoR / SoV cycle might just be overkill.

Yes, I've tried it against 73s... Between Precision and the scattered hit on my tanking gear thanks to warrior tanking itemization, I rarely miss. Human +5 swords/maces also helps cut down on their dodges and parries. I can't say I've noticed SoV being resisted very much...

Even if the stack does fall off, You're set for restacking it, and you gained double threat while it was ticking and you were using SoR.

The only loss is the 30% boost on the first stack you might have had due to AW, but the gain is pretty big.

give it a try =)

Love that this discussion is kicking back up, but if i may redirect part of the original question...