http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a...l&T=5912137&P=1
So with mild stat revisions (and aside from the three listed, I'm assuming these will be mild) is tier 2, ultimately just an alternate set of armor, a sidegrade and in some cases a downgrade from the first tier of set-based armor? I've read the lengthy itemization thread over at Raid and Dungeons, is everything checking out? Are Elitist Jerks raiders feeling justified in their tier 2 purchases, or did you guys have the forsight to see tier 2 as a sidegrade from the outset and price it accordingly?

Nice leading questions. If you want a specific sound bite for your article, just ask outright.

I can't think of any tier 2 set I would describe as anything but a strict upgrade from tier 1. I liked Ten Storms before the changes, and I like it after the changed bonuses. (Earthfury does still have much better bonuses, but oh well. The superior stats on Ten Storms justify it in my eyes, even if they aren't tweaked further.)

Bloodfang is still better, just not by much. I really don't understand why they felt the need to nerf a 2PPM proc. You get more dodge, better resists, and a couple of stamina more. It's not a huge end of the world upgrade, but it's nice and god knows I need the Feint bonus.

I don't understand, which sets are sidegrades?

Dragonstalker is still a lot better than Giantstalker, thanks for trying though.

Warning: Forum troll has invaded the EJ forums

Deploy anti-troll countermeasures.

Yeah, how is any set a sidegrade?

Nah, it's just normally thoughtful posting here (for example the +healing thread) and so I wanted to see what you guys thought of the new set bonuses, that's all.

I love how the Pubbie discussion forums is starting to become a public version of our Blizz Forum Watch forum.

Edit: Well the set bonuses are quite awesome across the board. I think rogues are the only ones who have any right to complain.

Cenarion 8 piece is still the best.

Does being a dumbass come naturally or did you attain your stupidity through years of dedicated practice?

We generally like the tier 2 sets. There's a fun thread on our internal forums making fun of the general Blizzard forums reaction to them.

Looking forward to seeing the Nemesis/Netherwind revamps especially.

The new nemesis set will turn warlocks into tiny gods, and all the races of Azeroth will bow to our will.

I have seen it in the eye.

EDIT: Except for this warlock below. He is a moron.

\/ And this man speaks the truth.

^ This man is the top warlock fyi

I think the new set bonuses suck especially Netherwind and I recommend that all EJ mages pass on the sidegrades/downgrades

They are all upgrades, but not nearly as much as an upgrade from going from Tier 0 (the blue sets) to the Tier 1 epic sets.

I went from Devout to Prophecy, my capability as a priest was increased substantially. I went from 3000 health and 5000 mana to 4000 health and 7000 mana, not too mention all my other bonuses. That's a 25% improvement.

I have five pices of Tier 2 now, and that's taken me to around 4700 health and 7700 mana. That's only a 15% jump in overall stats, but there are other benefits. The transcendence three piece set bonus is absolutely incredible for raiding priests (15% mana regen while casting). Teir 2 has tons more +healing too.

This is pretty much the same for all the sets. You will get more powerful looting them. But your preception of that upgrade won't feel as impressive or amazing as upgrading from blues (or even greens for those new people).

Hoho! Is the ~+65 healing worth loosing about 20mana/5 secs and the spiffy 5 piece EF bonus to you? I remember somone doing a calculation and the bonus alone was like an extra 9% to your mana pool?

Hurray, huge improvement on ten storms set bonuses.

I don't agree with you about the earthfury bonuses being better Gurgthock, even before the change. Mainly because chain heal is hot and healing wave is not.

Earthfury
+10 friendly totem range
+8.75% to lesser healing wave and healing wave
+24% to healing wave

Ten Storms
+3% nature spell crit
+19% to chain heal
+37.5 damage per lesser healing wave. If thottbot is correct and it has a 10 minute duration I could load up half the raid with this in a couple minutes before the fight for thousands of aggro free damage.

Well, 8-piece EF is meh. 3-piece EF is ok but it's really more of a convenience than a power boost.

5-piece EF is truly superb. That's really all that I'm talking about. If you are casting LHW, say, 8 times per minute on average, the set bonus is giving you roughly 20 mana/5.

That's really good.

But I think that the total package of Ten Storms warrants setting my Earthfury aside.

Wait what who.

Since when was lightning shield damage threat free?

Since always. It generates absolutely zero threat.

Yeah, won't put you in combat either. I usually get 2-4k damage on firemaw while playing the out of combat resser.

Roll a shaman and walk up to Az.