Comments on: Second look at armor!

By: Rhidach

Rhidach — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:14:47 +0000

I think the only thing this’ll really change is it’ll give us empirical evidence to say “okay, this fight favor armor over stamina” and “this fight, go for broke on stam”… it broadens our understanding of the true value of armor. Pretty revolutionary change, in my opinion.

By: Meloree

Meloree — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:01:59 +0000

I’m not sure it changes much, honestly. The choice between armor and stamina almost always comes down to neck, cloak, rings, and trinkets. In ToC itemization, your option is Expertise or Armor (neck), and stamina or armor (258 Anub ring vs. badge ring). The armor trinket is already strictly inferior for EH, and it would only be worn in some theoretical mana-limited/stamina punishing fight (Vezax 2.0, for example).

If the choice is between armor and avoidance, I’m generally going to choose armor. If it’s between threat and armor, I’m generally going to choose armor. If it’s between stamina and armor, I’m generally going to choose stamina. Overall, this information really only codifies what we already knew… that 11:1 armor:stam ratio was a best-case scenario.

By: Tonab Shin

Tonab Shin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:44:20 +0000

Interestingly enough, will we need a Frost Resist set? And i assume by that it will be the IceBane set since i don’t see any Frost Res gear in IceCrown.

But yes, there are a lot of pieces to get, and I’m looking to get every piece (Not blindly tho) since I’m sure they will all have their uses. This change to EH was very much understandable before, knowing that where there is magic damage armor becomes a lot less useful, but having a graph and formula’s to follow should allow us to say which sets are better rather than guessing.

By: The Renaissance Man

The Renaissance Man — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:33:42 +0000

I wrote a post about Icecrown Itemization yesterday. The thing about it is that while everyone’s focused on the +armor pieces, what I’m kinda excited for is the scope of customizability that blizzard is going to give us. Even though we don’t have a magic resistant 4pc like ever other tank *grumble*, there are still solid choices in cohesive sets, which allow us to build an effective health set, an avoidance set, a threat set, a frost resist set, a block value set, and we can then mix and match in between them based on the encounters.

By: Ardent Defender

Ardent Defender — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:07:30 +0000

Great post. I’ve always figured that on magical fight armor dosen’t really do all that much so having high stamina or a high stamina set is of much value which makes sense for such situations. WTB Bigger Bags for Cataclysm for too much gear in Tow!

By: Rhidach

Rhidach — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:09:02 +0000

Exactly. It’s sad but true. Blizz really needs to do something about this in Cataclysm.

By: Figworth

Figworth — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:17:50 +0000

This is even more true as a DK tank. With all of the extra armor we get, anything with bonus armor is usually heavily outweighed by stamina items – i.e., much as it pains me to wear one, a Brewfest trinket > Glyph of Indomitably.