It depends, personally I'm a little lazy when it comes to turning on my trinkets and such, I prefer them to auto cast. Only reason is because I feel like I might lose DPS if I forget to turn them on unless I macro. If you prefer to macro/micro (If you can check the cool down consistently) then go ahead and look for a trinket which suits you.

Rawr at least claims to have updated for the changes to armor penetration:


Source: http://rawr.codeplex.com/Release/Pro...eleaseId=26578

Not in my opinion. The proc on Mirror is a lot better then that 2-min trinket.

Personally, I've found Lushen's post to be the most in line with what I am looking for in BiS Blood Itemization.

This is how I've broken it down for options on items. These include the hard mode items from 10 or 25 man, and it is meant to directly compare equivalent slot items. I've added a few different things for comparison as well.

Helm: [Conqueror's Darkruned Helmet]

Neck: [Frigid Strength of Hodir]

Back: [Drape of the Drakerider] (41 Sta, 72 Str, 6 Armor Pen, 6 Crit) vs [Drape of the Faceless General] (69 Agi, 92 AP, 2 Sockets)
Back Comparison

Chest: [Conqueror's Darkruned Battleplate] (1 Socket) vs [Steelbreaker's Embrace] (8 Str, 5 Crit, 3 Expertise)
Chest Comparison

Shoulder: [Shoulderguards of Opportunity] (43 Armor Pen, 65 Crit) vs [Shoulderplates of the Eternal] (14 Sta, 21 Str, 38 Armor, 60 Crit, 41 Hit) vs [Conqueror's Darkruned Shoulderplates] (20 Sta, 21 Str, 38 Armor, 56 Haste, 41 Hit)
Shoulder Comparison
I put the Shoulderguards of Opportunity on this list because they are the only shoulders that I know of that have ArP.

Bracers: [Bitter Cold Armguards] (42 Crit, 1 Socket) vs [Decimator's Armguards] (8 Str, 12 Armor Pen, 36 Hit)
Bracer Comparison

Gloves: [Gauntlets of the Wretched] (1 Str, 60 Armor Pen) vs [Conqueror's Darkruned Gauntlets] (12 Sta, 16 Armor, 42 Crit, 17 Hit, 1 Socket)
Glove Comparison

Belt: [Girdle of Embers] (29 Str, 49 Armor Pen, 3 Crit) vs [Belt of the Titans] (30 Sta, 40 Expertise, 2 Sockets)
Belt Comparison

Legs: [Clockwork Legplates] (78 Armor Pen, 62 Hit) vs [Plated Leggings of Ruination] (16 Sta, 1 Str, 63 Armor, 85 Crit, 62 Haste, 2 Sockets)
Leg Comparison

Boots: [Melancholy Sabatons]

Ring #1: [Sif's Promise]

Ring #2: [Bladebearer's Signet] (5 Sta, 4 Str, 36 Expertise, 46 Hit) vs [Strength of the Automaton] (5 Sta, 4 Str, 36 Armor Pen, 46 Crit) vs [Power Enhancing Loop] (43 Armor Pen, 35 Hit)
Ring Comparison

Trinket #1: [Darkmoon Card: Greatness]

Trinket #2: [Grim Toll] (hit) vs [Mjolnir Runestone] (crit) The proc on these have been told to stack, and so it is player call on whether or not they would want to use both of these or Greatness depending on how the proc works.

Weapon: [Voldrethar, Dark Blade of Oblivion]

Sigil: [Sigil of the Vengeful Heart]



That's the list as far as I have compiled and seen various options. I still need to go through the math and figure out what combination will give the highest overall, thanks to everyone who has posted the groundwork, and hope this direct comparison helps.

Well that is just wrong because in theory not having enough hit or expertise is a DPS loss! At least reaching the HIT cap is needed to reach the max dps.

Statistically speaking you're wrong, but thanks for the input!

GC had made a post regarding ArP and while he was not 100% accurate according to some members of the community, he was close enough to give us an idea of where the ArP "cap" is. There are several people reporting that even at 100% the boss simply goes to negative armor, however, I was wondering if someone had some hard data or a spreadsheet/somewhat accurate model to place this equation into while calculating Blood's BiS dps gear. It would give us a fairly good idea when we get everything from Ulduar 10 and 25, what we're looking at for choices. Personally, I like having the idea so that when I do get a piece of BiS gear from a boss drop, I know what I'm going to do with it or replace with it.

Blood DPS Discussion

There are a plethora of different theories floating out there, but what I would like to know specifically is this:

1) What will our BiS gear generate for hit and expertise cap
2) Where are we going to be with respect to the "cap" in ArP (I'm assuming this cap simply means a significant drop in AEP)
3) What is going to scale once we get up to that level

I have read that Ghoul/Garg/DRW do not benefit from our ArP but do benefit from effects such as sunder/expose armor. I do not know how accurate that is or if it is a pre-cast thing (much how you can pop a trinket prior to DRW summon which will allow you to summon it with a higher AP base).

Nerfing T7 isn't at all surprising, although slightly buffing T8 is. Now the question becomes: How do unholy/frost deal with this? Two pieces each of T7 and T8? Only 2 T7 or T8? Or ignore tier gear altogether?

Bloody Hell.
There is likely no one that didn't see this coming. T8 is officially an upgrade now though still not by much at all. T7 bonuses are still technically better but the set bonuses on T8 plus the overall stat upgrades mean about a 1% upgrade for Unholy and more for Blood and Frost. So basically Unholy will want T8 just to get back the damage we'll lose on patch day. A+

2/5 T8 is a nice upgrade and since you'll most likely take three pieces anyway you could just go with 4/5.

Frost Strike is pure frost damage, so just like Scourge Strike (which is pure shadow damage) it ignores armor, just like spells do.