Bear tank item comparisons - Page 74

Sozar · 07/25/07, 11:33 AM

Would anyone be willing to look over my gear and give me some tweaking ideas? I just picked up the Season 2 shoulders, and haven't had a chance to socket them. I also tank with an Earthwarden with 35 agi, just happened to have my squid on.

My guild is small, so anything beyond Karazhan is not obtainable for me right now.

The Armory

By upgrading to the S2 shoulders and bracers I added some resilience that makes some of my +def pointless. I was thinking about picking up a Neckalce of the Deep and putting the CE helm enchant on my T4 helm.

Any suggestions or tweaks gladly welcomed.

Thanks

Mooncrow · 07/25/07, 12:25 PM

Not that they are particularly easy upgrades, but you may want to spend some time farming for your Badge of Tenacity to replace the Mark of Tyranny. Also, the season 2 chest will be a substantial upgrade over the wastewalker tunic. Aside from that, run some heroics and get your Necklace of the Juggernaut, and swap in a Thoriumweave Cloak if you're past the crit cap. Not much to add aside from those; your gear is looking pretty good.

• Vykromond · 07/25/07, 12:32 PM

If you're already over the crit cap, don't bother with the Juggernaut and just use the [Necklace of the Deep].

Sozar · 07/25/07, 12:56 PM

Badge of Tenacity or Bane of Tenacity. They are still at 1700g on my server, and no one in my guild has had one drop. *grumble*

What about socketing? Do you guys usually slap 12 stam gems in everything or maybe some 8 agi for the dodge?

Daenerys · 07/25/07, 1:55 PM

Originally Posted by Sozar

Badge of Tenacity or Bane of Tenacity. They are still at 1700g on my server, and no one in my guild has had one drop. *grumble*

What about socketing? Do you guys usually slap 12 stam gems in everything or maybe some 8 agi for the dodge?

They were 2k on my server until this weekend, when they magically started showing up for about 1200g. I snagged one last night for 940g bid (buyout was around 1200, which was just out of my price range - thank god it was on Short so I could baby-sit it before going to bed!).

12 Stam is always a good bet, but 4 Agi/6 Stam is a good tanking gem, and of course Def gems can help if you are not uncritable.

Septus · 07/25/07, 2:33 PM

I'm also interested in some suggestions for my tanking gear.

I've identified a lot of possible gear upgrades, but I'm not sure what my optimal tanking upgrades would be, for the minimal time spent. We raid three nights a week doing Gruul/Mag/SSC(just starting SSC), and we're only now doing Kara for "off-nights," and I wasn't raiding when we started on Kara, so there's tons of gear that I could use there. I'm thinking about going for the Treemender's belt, and I do Shartuul's Transporter as often as possible. We don't do a whole lot of heroics in guild though, and I think some of the tougher ones may be unlikely. That necklace of the deep sounds like a good option, but the barbed choker of discipline seems better and the Maiden seems to like dropping it for us(however, I'm currently about 27 def rating higher than what I need).

Celthis · 07/25/07, 2:44 PM

Originally Posted by Mooncrow

swap in a Thoriumweave Cloak [for Gilded Thorium Cloak] if you're past the crit cap.

This is something I've been looking at recently. Replacing GT with TW will net you 5 armor / 5 stamina / -24 defense rating. In bear, this is ~28 armor, ~80 hp, and the loss of 10 defense skill (= 0.4% miss, 0.4% dodge). Are the small bonuses to armor and health really worth the loss of 0.8% avoidance? I haven't really made up my mind on this issue, but it seems like the avoidance might come out ahead.

And besides, it's a purple

Jini · 07/25/07, 2:57 PM

I recently got my 5th piece of tier 4 gear and am wondering how to optimize my performance. I've looked used Hugehoss' spreadsheet and it points me down the avoidance path. My problem is that as I use more tier 4 with shifting nightseyes I am finding my unbuffed health dropping with each upgrade.

I recently started ditching the nightseyes and resocketing with SSoEs in a vain attempt to get back in the mid14k health range.

My general stats I use for tanking are 33k armor, 14.3k health, 36.7% dodge. I'm looking to replace some agility enchants now for stamina ones. This will further push down my dodge and my health up a bit.

I guess what I really need to do is to find a way to boost health at the cost of armor, not dodge.

I'm thinking of ditching Zierhut Treads and getting my Heavy Clefthoof boots back out of the bank for some more oomph. I'm even thinking of ditching the tier 4 legs for tanking and getting my HCL leggings for more health. The problem is that both of these changes will cost dodge as well as armor.

Any further ideas?

tunah · 07/25/07, 4:24 PM

Sozar:
[Necklace of the Deep] (sta) or [Necklace of the Juggernaut] over strength of the untamed
[Heavy Clefthoof Vest] over wastewalker chest

Septus:
As above, [Cowl of Beastly Rage] or [Stag-Helm of Malorne] over purple hat.
[Necklace of the Deep] (sta) or [Necklace of the Juggernaut] over ravenguard
[Thoriumweave Cloak] or [Gilded Thorium Cloak] over burnoose
[Veteran's Dragonhide Bracers] or [Forestheart Bracers] over umberhowl
[Veteran's Leather Belt] or [Tree-Mender's Belt] over manimal's
[Ring of Unyielding Force] or [Shermanar Great-Ring] over mok'nathal clan ring

Trinkets: I tend to use 2 of [Mark of Tyranny], [Violet Badge], [Argussian Compass] most of the time, only swapping in pocketwatch for... heroic BM as far as I remember. This is on the same basis that sta/armor > avoidance at that level - does the presence of a rare clicky make up for it?

Enchants: are +6stats chest, +12sta bracer, +15agi gloves the best in those slots? See some variations.

osirisunnefer · 07/25/07, 7:09 PM

In case people don't know of it, the TBC Bear Tanking Gear List is a great resource for finding items. It has prioritised lists of gear per slot that give a rough guideline to alternatives and upgrades to your current items. Its easy to deduce what items to go for

Tyvi · 07/25/07, 7:52 PM

Originally Posted by tunah

Enchants: are +6stats chest, +12sta bracer, +15agi gloves the best in those slots? See some variations.

If you need Defense still and chose to use Def/Sta or just Def gems, 12 Defense on bracers is the way to go. See it like this, 12 Stamina is "worth" 1 gem, 12 Defense is "worth" 1.5 gems. Try and get the max out of your item budget

(Same applies for 12 Agi on boots instead of 12 Sta. Always go for the Agi.)

Boevis · 07/26/07, 1:10 AM

Originally Posted by Liar

If you need Defense still and chose to use Def/Sta or just Def gems, 12 Defense on bracers is the way to go. See it like this, 12 Stamina is "worth" 1 gem, 12 Defense is "worth" 1.5 gems. Try and get the max out of your item budget

(Same applies for 12 Agi on boots instead of 12 Sta. Always go for the Agi.)

I'll keep taking Boars Speed until they give me a Sta/Speed metagem.

SS_Keera · 07/26/07, 3:07 AM

Originally Posted by osirisunnefer

In case people don't know of it, the TBC Bear Tanking Gear List is a great resource for finding items. It has prioritised lists of gear per slot that give a rough guideline to alternatives and upgrades to your current items. Its easy to deduce what items to go for

Yes its a nice guideline if you need advice. Nevertheless i would take it for 100% when the list says an item is an upgrade that it really is. For example if you are at the crit cap every gladiator item looses a part of its use, although they have nice stamina and so on. Generally i'm not a big fan of using resillience over defense. It may be small but i like the additional avoidance you get from defense, where resillience gives you no additional benefit.
Furthermore i would take [Darkmoon Card: Vengeance] over [Argussian Compass] in almost every situation, because the amount of damage the shield absorbs (68dmg per hit) is nearly nothing.

Long story short: It doesn't relieve you from thinking

tunah · 07/26/07, 4:25 AM

Originally Posted by Liar

If you need Defense still and chose to use Def/Sta or just Def gems, 12 Defense on bracers is the way to go. See it like this, 12 Stamina is "worth" 1 gem, 12 Defense is "worth" 1.5 gems. Try and get the max out of your item budget

Very good point, I was assuming uncrittable, it's a decent place to put def. If your priorities are:
1) Uncrittable
2) HP/armor
3) Avoidance
then +15resil to chest, +12sta bracers might beat +6stats/+150HP chest, +12def bracers.
If you value stam highly enough then the best way to handle anti-crit is to stack it heavily in places where the stam alternatives are weak, chest enchant seems to be one.

(Same applies for 12 Agi on boots instead of 12 Sta. Always go for the Agi.)

Nope, because your goal isn't to collect the most item points, it's to collect the most tank points (using whatever system you choose). In a tanking role, I value 1STA(=15.45HP) over 1AGI(=0.07%dodge + 0.04%crit), so i'd take 12STA.
And yeah, boar's is better still, I have 12sta on [Heavy Clefthoof Boots] and boar's on [Zierhut's Lost Treads] when I get a couple more shards.

dukes · 07/26/07, 4:33 AM

If you're an OT or multi-role player (tank for some, dps for some) then you should always consider the implications on the DPS role of what you enchant. I will generally always go with 12 agility on boots, because although I favour stamina over dodge for tanking, stamina is less useful for DPS purposes. The same goes for 12 stamina/15 resillience/12 defence enchants - if you're a multi-role player, it may be better to consider swapping out other items and grabbing +4 all stats/+6 all stats on bracers and chest. It's part of the reason I've held off getting the Tether or the RoS neck. The hit is useful, but agility is just better in general. I'm actually considering getting a Necklace of the Deep and sticking 8 agi or 4agi/6stam gems in it for tanking as I'm now crit immune without the defence from Juggernaut (T6 gloves last night so I swapped in Timelapse shard and found I have a bit of leeway on the crit cap now).