Revised Emblem of Frost pick order
I originally wrote a list two months ago when ICC first opened up that, I can now say, was pretty much worthless. At the time we didn’t understand the potency of armor to the degree we do now, nor the overall poorness of our various set bonuses (I mean the hints we there, but now it’s confirmed). Below I have revised my list and (per the suggestion of Honors and Ricardo) split it into a 10man and 25man list.
Saying the list is split, though, is a bit misleading. Because the offset +armor gear is so amazing (it’s BiS for 10man raiders, and generally BiS for non-heroic 25man raiders), both groups will want to prioritize snatching up those four pieces first. So, the list is less “split” and more diverges at one point.
Sidenote re: the Corroded Skeleton Key – I feel for this trap too, the “zomg so much stam!” feelings overtook me and I splurged 60 badges on this trinket. Generally it’s a good trinket, but there are better things you can buy with the 60 badges. If you already have Juggernauts Vitality/Satrina’s Impending Scarab, you should skip this trinket.
This is the order I wish I went in (and yes, this applies to both 10man and 25man raiders, these pieces are that good):
The near-BiS “freebies”
1. Cataclysmic Chestguard (95) — getting this will by itself cover the expertise softcap for you, and give you the peace of mind needed to maybe stop using that lesser iLevel +expertise item because you’re worried about threat
2. Gauntlets of the Kraken (60)
3. Verdigris Chain Belt (60)
4. Sentinel’s Winter Cloak (50)
Alright, so at this point we have our Chest, Hands, Waist, and Back slots covered. We still need Head, Shoulders, Legs, etc.
From here the list splits
Because the shoulders that drop in ICC-10 have hit rating, go for:
5.10. Lightsworn Shoulderguards (60)
6.10. Lightsworn Faceguard (95)
And because ICC-25 has some decent offset shoulders, go for:
5.25. Lightsworn Faceguard (95)
6.25 Lightsworn Shoulderguards (60) — this is assuming you have no yet picked up the Boneguard Commander’s Pauldrons by now
Then, the two lists merge again
7. Corroded Skeleton Key (60) — I’d made this 8th on the list, but gathering Primordial Saronites is going to take a while and you’ll be better served in the short term grabbing this. The choice is up to you though, if you skip this trinket and jump ahead to #8 I will not begrudge your decision.
8. Start buying Primordial Saronite (23 per, 181 EoFs total) to get the Pillars of Might made
9. Libram of the Eternal Tower — I guess.
Armory Feed
My personal list doesn’t include any of the Tier 10 gear, simply because my budget can’t allow for it. I need certain pieces to remain hit capped, and those pieces just won’t cover it. It’s a shame, really, because our tier set does look kinda nice this time around, save the blasted skirt, but I’m going to have to pick up that set well after I have the rest of my gear. Ah well. If you’re interested, I can post my own personal list for comparison. =)
@Rhidach
15 February 2010 at 5:11 pm #
Please do, I’d like to see it!
I personally don’t worry about hit. I’ve had under a 100 hit for long periods of time without any trouble. I like to get one piece with hit on it, but that’s enough for me. I just use the taunt glyph. The opening seconds of a pull are covered by a rogue or hunter misdirecting to me.
@Rhidach – My EoF list:
1.) Corroded Skeleton Key – Like everyone else, I went and picked this up first because I’m a goober who thought “Whee more stam!”. Wishing I had waited x.x
2.) Sentinel’s Winter Cloak – The cloak I had before this was the Pride of the Eredar, so I just grabbed this and slapped in a Glyph of SoV. Expertise issue taken care of.
3.) Verdigris Chain Belt – I had the heroic version of the Girdle of the Nether Champion, so this was just a pure upgrade for me.
4.) Cataclysmic Chestguard – I went for this because my helm (the 245 EoT piece) is the only other piece of gear I had that has expertise, and if I wanted to remain expertise capped, I’d need this.
5.) Gauntlets of the Kraken – My next upgrade, once I get enough badges this Friday. I initially had set my personal BiS list up to revolve around the Tier 10 set, before many of us knew armor would be so valuable in ICC, and the Tier gloves were the first piece I picked up with Emblems. While I do somewhat regret it today, the blow was lessened a bit when the armor change went in to plate tank gloves and chests.
6.) The final upgrade for me is going to be the Libram. Like everyone else, it’s a small upgrade over the Triumph Libram, not enough to warrant it getting upgraded before everything else.
As for the craftable gear, I had my army of alts (DK tank, Resto Shammy, and Mage) farming up Saronites for me to craft them with, so I could spend my main’s badges on the important things. =)
I didn’t bother to pick up any more of the tier pieces because they just don’t fit my personal list of best gear, which I did create around getting hit and expertise capped, along with including the badge armor pieces (as well as the bracers from Saurfang 10 which do have bonus armor and are comparable everywhere else to the ICC 25 bracers).
@Argon – I’m in a guild with many dps (and no raiding hunters…) that will pull off me at a moment’s notice if I’m not putting out as much threat as I possibly can (I can pull 10k tps + on any given boss fight). Hit and Expertise are valuable stats to me that I try to make sure I’m capped on at all times lest the DPS yell at me. =P
First tought was “mmh, no room for the crafted boots?” It’s not the best out of the series, but the Boots of Kingly upheaval (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49907) is a very strong contender on the 10-man route. For 25-man raiders, you should still be keeping an eye on Valithria’s boots: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50190, and relegate the crafted veryyyyyyyy low on the crafting totem pole (below the trinket, if that’s any indication).
Anyways, great article. An important sidenote though: if you happen to have a lvl 80 alt, consider using his/her Frost Emblems to buy a quick Primal Saronite or two – they can quickly (2 per day + 5 per week, up to 19 per week) add up, without stepping foot in ICC/VoA. With that, you might get your hands on the legs before your t10 pieces, without compromising yout other upgrades
I personally fell to the Stamina trap as well, but big numbers are soooo sweeeeeet :)
just my couple of cents here.
I bought so far: cloak, belt, skeleton key, T10shoulders and T10helm (I was lucky enough to get the mark so I spent my emblems on sanctified helm and than I bought shoulders for set bonus) + I have crafted boots (rest is ICC10 – 25 gear)
I am still exp soft capped, but I lost my hit (I had onyxia 25 helm before with 75hit), so now I am in doubt if I should buy T10 gloves which can give me enough hit to be hit capped again, or to go for kraken goves due to more stamina.
Cataclysmic Chestguard will be after gloves when I get enough emblems, and after that I will probably get BS legs (waiting for chest first cause now I have exp on legs)
Personally I went a completely different way. I got the t10 shoulders, gloves and helm first, which was a bad call on the gloves but i’ll need them at the end of the day.
Then i went for the Cat, Kraken then the Key. I did pick up the trinket first but gave it back realising that I had more pressing issues to attend to. I already had the Iron Heart and the toc25 normal trinket.
Next on my list is the belt and the cloak, both are 258 items to replace so it wasn’t any kind of rush.
You left the boots of kingly upheaval off your list. Was this on purpose? I’d be interested to see where they fell on your priority list now.
And personally the new Libram is nowhere on my ‘to get’ list as I don’t think its better than the t9 librams.
@Rhidach
16 February 2010 at 1:07 pm #
Yeah I skipped them because they’re more a threat piece (due to +hit) and I was focusing on survivability pieces.
I am equally annoyed by the new dodge libram. I’ll probably get offspec stuff before I get that.
True they do fit in more with the Threat set, but it leaves a gap in the survivability set. Is there a piece you would actually consider getting over them for this gear set?
Got the boots made up myself and I wouldn’t trade them up now with the hit on them it allowed me to drop a few other pieces and focus on other stats there. I do wish I had my kraken gauntlets though..
Check my comment on the armor post Rhidach if you can. Thanks.
@Rhidach
17 February 2010 at 1:15 pm #
@Senet: I can’t find what comment you’re referring to. I think I’m confused by all the recent armor posts, haha. What’s up?
@Lanaka: Yeah I didn’t realize all boots in ICC-10/25 have some threat stat on them. This changes a lot.
I went with the crafted boots over Valithria’s because, as I mentioned above, I needed the hit, and am expertise capped without them.
@Kaelandros – I can see where you’re coming from about the libram, but it is a minor upgrade, overall. It’s a question of whether or not the +21 or so dodge rating is worth having a ramp up time on it. Probably not, in reality, but as I don’t have offspec stuff to get, it’s either I pick that up after I’m done with the offset armor pieces, or I pick up Tier for an avoidance set. /shrug
Here’s the comment from your impenetrable armor post.
I wish I had bought some stuff myself. Quick question though. I’m sitting on 89 emblems again and I still am missing the gloves. I would love to get them but I have a mark for a 264 piece of tier and I was thinking of finally ditching the 245 offset for the 264 faceguard.
Would that really be worth it? Keeping in mind that if I ditch my gloves I lose my 2 piece t9 bonus of legs and gloves. Although they are the crap pieces 232 which I hope to ditch once I get the legs from saurfang to drop again.
@Rhidach
17 February 2010 at 2:55 pm #
I would evaluate it in terms of what the bigger upgrade for you is. The t9 2pc is just threat (with a nice taunt cooldown reduction) so ultimately going from the t9.10 gloves to the Gauntlets of the Kraken is a HUGE upgrade (so HUGE, losing the 2pc is no bid deal) compared to going from the 245 offset to the t10.25 helm. I would definitely replace the gloves for now, and start saving again for the helm.
Ya I guess I just hate knowing I picked up the guilds first mark and am not using it. If my 10 man was clearing more than 5 bosses this would be a lot easier and if my guilds 25 man was continuing to do farther than saurfang again even easier.
@Rhidach – I’m curious, now. I’ve been mulling over what bracers I should get, and I’ve decided on the bonus armor bracers from Saurfang 10, mainly because the extra armor on them makes up for the slight loss in everything else (very minor stat losses, to be honest). What bracers have you set your sights on?
I guess that question can go out to everyone else, for that matter.
@Rhidach
18 February 2010 at 9:14 am #
I have the Bracers of Dark Reckoning now, but if the Gargoyle ones dropped off Saurfang I’d probably replace mine with them (per my armor kick). Even better if I can eventually score the 264 heroic ones!
The Gargoyle bracers dropped the other night and I passed them up for the other tank because I am transferring servers so I didn’t want to let that group lose a drop but I would like them.
Looks like I will be taking those Kraken gauntlets now instead of the Sanctified helm. I can get the helm next week so it’s not a big deal.
I am also having trouble deciding where to spend my frost badges.
So far I have the frost cloak and frost belt. I scored a hilt which let me get enough money together for the crafted 264 boots. Last night I scored the T10.264 hands from VoA25 (woohoo).
At this point I am trying to decide between saving for the frost chest (wearing ICC10 chest from lady deathwhisper), or just sucking it up and replace my EoT head or shoulders.
All I know for sure is that I would like to hold off on the T10 legs since the crafted ones are so awesome. I’ll take my chances on another VoA drop or ICC10 legs while I save up mats for the crafted legs.
I am not too keen on the 2pc T10 bonus so I’m leaning towards the chest, but it’s already 251 so I am not in a massive hurry to get rid of it. I would much rather upgrade a 245 EoT peice.
Tough choices. If I don’t figure it out I might breakdown and buy the stamina trinket, although I know it wouldn’t be the best value for my badges.
Any suggestions?
@Rhidach
1 March 2010 at 5:13 pm #
Go for the T10 head/shoulders. They’re probably the better upgrade choice over replacing your chest, even if the 2pc is lackluster. Don’t get the key until after you upgrade your other slots.
Thanks for your feedback,
I will probably just go for the shoulders, I will be able to afford them in 2 more days. :)
Then I guess I’ll have to suck it up and save the 95 badges for the T10 head. :(