Long story short: We are progressing quickly through Naxx. We don't have a clear 3rd HS eater at the moment, so I want to know how much more I can improve my gear without relying on more drops. This is copied from our private area:

I know you guys like math and stats (and spreadsheets!)

Also, do the 1hour armor buffs stack with the 2 minute ones?

3 Might sucks, get Wrath gear or AQ40 pieces. No, I don't care what 3 pieces they are, they're not NEARLY worth the set bonus over wearing wrath or better in those slots.

Superior Defense, Rumsey Rum, and good lord, get rid of the Might. Do you not have more than five pieces of Wrath or do you choose not to wear more?

This is also another instance in which skipping AQ makes your life harder. If you had some of the plate drops from there to complement your Wrath you'd be in much better shape.

I'd suggest looking here
http://forums.elitistjerks.com/viewtopic.php?id=7594

Even if they might be good pieces normally, if you can't hit the HP/AC you need to for Patch, why are you wearing Might?

Replacing your 3 might with wrath in those slots would get you 120 HP and ~200 armor or so, which would get you barely over surviving your max hit.

Yes, I did not notice that. OTing Patchwerk without Toughness is an exceedingly poor idea.

Also spec toughness, its a decent boost to mitigation which although not needed with good gear is clearly needed in what you have.


/edit - damned elitist jerks posted before me :(

Me on our last pw kill:


Although that was with Imp LoH up (+30%) armor, it's not much lower with only inspiration instead.

That is the max amount of Wrath I have, being a DPS war. We can do AQ up to Cthun in one day. I assume Armaments should save my ass by giving me a better shield? I feel I've done enough research and calculation for today, so I'm not certain of it.

Mid-Post Edit: And speccing Prot, aha! There goes 45g down the drain, but for good reasons I guess :D

Other nice AQ pickups are Pauldrons of the Unrelenting, Gauntlets of Steadfast Determination, and Royal Qiraji Belt; not to mention Conqueror's BP for Patchwerk.

About the buffs. I thought these two didnt stack?

Elixir of Fortitude: 120
FoTT: 1200

Just a quick off tangent question. What is that trinket in the second slot of your screenshot? Never seen that icon before.

It's the exalted AV trinket for alliance if I'm not mistaken, Stormpike Insignia.

Pretty impressive Andrise.

It's still several weeks before my guild reaches Patchwerk, but what are people's thoughts on the right balance of defense versus dodge/parry mitigation? Elsewhere here I've read that 440 defense is a must for Patchwerk, but I also know dodge and parry push the Hateful Strikes back a cycle every time there's a dodge or parry, giving the healers time to catch up.

Remember to add in elixir of superior defense and GSP's for your armor. They're essential.

And you wouldn't really want to even think about tanking patchwerk without 5/5 parry and 5/5 toughness. Especially in a learning phase.

You definitely want to get a new pair of boots/gloves, and most likely a new shield too. Styleen's is also pretty ordinary for patch. Definitely new necklace (nef head).

Edit: As far as I'm aware 440 defense is only a must for the MT. For the hateful tanks defense is more or less irrelevant, beyond adding avoidance.

You'll want 440 def if you're MTing him, otherwise you want gear with Stam, armor, and dodge/parry. Styleen's, for example, is good to swap out for av exalted trinket, etc. I also wear Royal Qiraji belt instead of my dreadnaught, and pauldrons of the unrelenting over dreadnaught, since the block bonus is mediocre compared to the avoidance on the AQ pieces.

Also .04 chance to be missed.

Thanks Andrise. Actually had misunderstood a statement in this older thread http://forums.elitistjerks.com/viewtopic.php?id=7825 to mean that HS actually could crit.

Everybody seems to be looking at the 3 pieces of Might, but I think you should mainly focus on your shield and maybe on your neckpiece. Go to AQ20 and grab Burus Skull Fragment and the Head of Ossirian. These are much more accessible than Wrath and will give you an additional 28 stamina over your current gear. Better options are Elementium Reinforcend Bullwark and the Head of Nefarian, but getting them depends a lot on who else in your raid wants them too.

Basic truth of the above is: Patchwerk is a gearcheck. Considering your current gear and the fact you're still looking for a capable 3rd OT tells me you may not be ready for him yet. Either you are unlucky with tank drops or tanks leaving the guild, or you need a good talk with your fellow warriors about picking up the tank stuff as well as the fun DPS stuff so you're not completely helpless when fights like this turn up.

I've off-tanked Patchwerk and from what I recall with all buffs I had around 9.5k armor, 9900 health and around 15-ish parry/dodge ratings each. And I was forced to chug Greater Stoneshield Pots throughout the fight to make the HS's less painful. You NEED Toughness for this fight, as well as decent avoidance. Contrary to earlier rumours, HS no longer keeps trying to hit you until it hits, if you dodge/parry it it's likely to go to another tank. It also buys your healers more time which is always good.

Go do more AQ and force some Qiraji Armaments on yourself and 1 or 2 other tanks. It's basically the best shield available and it's a bit more common than those good Chromaggus drops that never drop (I haven't seen the shield drop in... 4 months?). 3-4 tanks with full Wrath or 5/8 Wrath with Pauldrons ot Unrelenting, Royal Qiraji Belt and Gauntlets of Steadfast Determination will make decent OTs as long as you also bring Stoneshield pots. You will learn to like these as a tank in Naxx in general as well, so start pumping them out ;)

Just a quick update for those interested.

My Item History
Other Candidate History

I decided to go DPS and let a similar geared person take the job (we've been equipping on DKP, bar MT of course). We did all of AQ40 today, and the other warrior picked up Gauntlets Of Annihilation and Conq Breastplate off CThun. We've been in Naxx all of four days and have gotten Instructor + Spider Wing. I guess next up is Noth, and nothing left til Patchwerk. With AQ40 cleared up, leaves us the next six days on BWL, Naxx and Ouro (we haven't touched, bar some confused shamans during the corpse run, but thats another story).

Anyhoo, am I too optimistic or do we look like we need more gearing up to do?