Seeing that our tier gloves/chestpiece are getting changed is it still safe to assume the badge pieces are a better goal if you are in a guild that just does 10 mans or is the base tier gear going to end up being better?

And I'm sorry if this isn't relevant since this is end game tanking, but this is the only thread that's ever had a decent BiS list and I usually follow it religiously ><.

Actually on a related note am I the only one not liking the tier changes? I mean like 900-1000 more armor (before FP affects it that is) is fun and all, but losing 63 dodge rating and 60 def/16 dodge rating on the hands and chest respectively kinda seems much...unless I'm missing something?

Frost Presence won't affect the armor changes at all, since it will be bonus armor.

It matters how quickly you think you are going to get the 264 tokens (which drop from 10 heroic on the end bosses). For pure 10 man progression, the badge hands/chest are better, since the set pieces only are better once they are in the 264 version.

Assuming 30k armor, you have 64.329% DR on physical damage, getting 2k more from items (FP does not apply to bonus armor, only base) will get your DR to 65.796%. 65.796/64.329 = 1.022805.
2.28% less damage on (almost) all physical damage sounds pretty sweet to me. How much actual dodge do you get from 63+76 dodge rating (after diminishing returns) ?
Not to mention current content (ICC) favors EH over avoidance.

Does it? Bosses hit faster and lighter and there are less unavoidable damage spikes than in ToGC. On top of it is -20% dodge. IMHO avoidance is more important in ICC than it used to be in ToGC.

Let's say you used to have 70% avoidance in ToGC, if you manage to get 1% more dodge, you will be getting hit 3.33% less often (290 times out of 1000 swings instead of 300). Now that you have 50% avoidance, adding 1% of dodge will get you hit only 2% less often (490 times out of 1000 swings instead of 500).
What do you think now ?

Note: Don't forget that the -20% dodge is after DR, so dodge doesn't get more attractive with the debuff.

Can anyone confirm that the magic reduction meta and spellshatter rune are effective for the soaker tank in the Blood Queen encounter?

Unless it actually got fixed at some point the magic reduction meta is bugged and worthless. Instead of actually reducing magic damage taken by 2% it would increase your resistances by 2%. Needless to say that's not even close to the same thing, and a fun surprise I found out about when tanking Sarth+3.

It's easy to test in game, put on a bunch of frost resistance gear and then take your hat with the meta on and off, you'll be able to see an increase of a few points if your resistance is high enough to begin with.

By all means, test this for yourself because, as I've said, it's been a long time since I actually tried using it. But as a heads up: be aware that Blizzard probably hasn't fixed it and it probably is utterly worthless.

With the revisions to the Tier gear today and the introduction of the new S8 Weapons, does Cryptmaker still hold out over even the T1 Season 8 weapon in terms of effective health?

It was indeed fixed at some point. I haven't used it yet as of this patch, though, so I can't say if it's still working properly.

Well, since [Cryptmaker] is a STR weapon, it's only EH comes from stamina, and it has 185 stam with 2 sockets and no stam socket bonus, which means it will net you with 245 stam. [Wrathful Gladiator's Decapitator] has 243 stam with 2 sockets, which means 303 stam total. So to sum up, the new S8 gear wins out.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I've recently noticed that SoB isn't proccing for me on anything besides auto attack anymore, alike how necrosis is no longer triggering on Rune Strike, yet I hadn't seen any mention of this issue effecting SoB in the thread.
I imagine this probably makes the talent almost redundant for any spec beside dual wield frost?

It looks like the fix has altered a lot of DK mechanics for the worse. SoB, Necrosis and KM all being of reduced effectiveness makes for much reduced TPS in every tanking spec.

I haven't seen mention of SoB but it stands to reason that it's been affected by the change as well.

If Rune Strike is no more considered as a white hit, even if it's not common in tank spec, BCB should be also in the list of collateral damages of the proc nerf.

Why would maintaining threat be a problem? They have a very nice top end(dps on the weapon), and should be able to provide enough threat.

Also, with the change to Corroded Skeleton Key(now absorbs 6400 damage instead of 3200), does it pull ahead of Unidentifiable Organ or 258 Juggernaut's/Satrina's?

Arena weapons lack of supporting threat stats like hit/exp. I've been using my weapon as a good way to fill a gap in one of those stats for threat purposes. With current itemization I am always sitting right around soft caps (I've noticed hit playing a pretty big role in threat when tanking as frost), and PVP weapons don't offer anything in that regard.

The biggest issue I see with using PvP weapons to tank is:

A) You have to be relatively proficient at PvP (and have an arena team) to acquire it, and
B) You can't really use it to PvP once you get it (unless you gem stam for PvP or change the gems every time, and change the rune every time)

Plus, the resil itemization on the weapon is wasted.

Hello,

Does anyone know if GM will give me a refund on the Badge Gloves if I raise a taicket? Secondly, is it worth chjanging? I still think that the stats on the Badge Gloves are better than the 264 T10 equivilent.

Also, I dont think the Chest is better for me than either the one I already have [Hauberk of the Towering Monstrosity] from ToGC, or the badge one - mostly for the Expertise.

Long story short, I'm not sure it is worth switching the gloves if I could. The 2p set bonus isnt particularly good and I'll never get the 4p without seriously nerfing myself elsewhere

Personally I think that that unless you need the defence from the badge gloves that the tier gloves are a good choice. They provide a decent source of hit and slightly increased armor.

The choice between badges gloves and tier gloves isn't much like the chest one. Badges gloves have effectively more stamina (despite their base -12 difference, +3 from socket bonus and +15 from half an extra socket, or +30 if you gem exclusively for Sta), their avoidance is far inferior, with 17 more Def but 48 less parry, and 7 less parry from the -28str. They're only a good choice if you're badly missing on hit, and only if you value 61 hit (and 17def) as superior to 55 Parry and 30 Str.

A slightly odd choice, as both hit and Str are effectively threat increase stats. The case for the chest is much more clear-cut.

FN has provided a "final" gear list for ICC; thanks again to him.

I've been exclusively a Blood tank for some time and I feel that my Frost and Unholy sections may be a little lacking. For those of you raiding competitively, please provide your thoughts about the listed builds/rotations and why they work for you (Specifics are key here. For instance, I don't know the value of Scent of Blood for Frost tanks. 1 point is plenty for the GDC-starved, Heart Strike-spamming blood tank).

I'm not at all interested in adding 6 rotation possibilities per build but I wouldn't mind having 2 ST rotations and 2 AOE rotations if there's enough variability to warrant them (i.e. Glyph of Howling Blast).