Unexpected tank buff coming–armor value on all t10 gloves/chest pieces is being increased across the board. I wonder if this will blur the lines among what was, before, obviously “armor pieces” (the expertise of the Cataclysmic Chestguard notwithstanding) and “threat pieces”.

We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they’re provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. This will apply to all item levels of the tier-10 death knight, warrior, and paladin tanking gloves and chest pieces.

Similar items crafted or purchased with Emblems of Frost will continue to be very good and will compare favorably to all but the Heroic difficulty boss loot, so you shouldn’t despair if you recently acquired any of those.

I’ll have to see the pieces first before I can pass judgement on this. Interesting change, nonetheless.

Update: To accommodate the armor increase, other stats we be reduced to free up the ipoints:

Different items will lose different defensive stats (parry, dodge, defense, etc.) to compensate for the bonus armor being added.

The ICC loot available to us is fairly limited until January 5th when the next wing opens up. Furthermore, between patch day and January 5th the maximum EoF potential is 146 emblems, severely limiting how many badge items we can pick up before the next group of bosses. Here’s what we have to work with:

Marrowgar

Bonebreaker Scepter (10)
Marrowgar’s Scratching Choker (10)

Bracers of Dark Reckoning (25)
Legguards of Lost Hope (25)

Lady Deathwhisper

Ghoul Commander’s Cuirass (10)

Broken Ram Skull Helm (25)
Juggernaut Band (25)

Gunship Battle

Abomination’s Bloody Ring (10)
Neverending Winter (10)
Unidentifiable Organ (10)

Boneguard Commander’s Pauldrons (25)
Corpse Tongue Coin (25)

Deathbringer Saurfang

Deathforged Legplates (10)

Trash Drops

Harbinger’s Bone Band (25)

EoF Gear

Sentinel’s Winter Cloak 50
Libram of the Eternal Tower 30
Cataclysmic Chestguard 95
Gauntlets of the Kraken 60
Verdigris Chain Belt 60
Corroded Skeleton Key 60

Lightsworn Shoulderguards 60
Lightsworn Legguards 95
Lightsworn Handguards 60
Lightsworn Faceguard 95
Lightsworn Chestguard 95

Pick Order

This is tricky because there are so many amazing items to choose from. What’s making me torn right now is deciding which gearing goal I want to pursue first: more stam/EH, or more avoidance. Generally, getting the badge trinket or offset gear will fulfill the first goal, and tier gear will fulfill the second. Personally, with regards to how the boss encounters of the first wing are shaping up, I’m going to start on goal two, dip into goal one in preparation for the magical damage-heavy future wings, and then swing back and forth intending to pick up tier pieces when I anticipate I’ll have the Marks to upgrade them. To be less obtuse, my personal order will be:

1. Lightsworn Shoulderguards
2. Corroded Skeleton Key
3. Gauntlets of the Kraken
4. Lightsworn Faceguard
5. Verdigris Chain Belt
6. Lightsworn Chestguard
7. Sentinel’s Winter Cloak
8. Lightsworn Legguards
9. Cataclysmic Chestguard
10. Lightsworn Handguards

I will be avoiding the new libram until maybe my dead-last choice.

Eventually my goal is to have three sets: a high avoidance set with the tier four piece, a high armor set with lots of offset gear, and a high stam set with a conglomeration of the pieces with the most stamina from each.

This of course is very subjective, your personal gearing preferences may vary. Let me know in the comments how you intend to approach badges purchases!

One of my aspirations in TBC was to have enough threat that I could get away with tanking using a Sun Eater enchanted with Mongoose. Unfortunately, that day didn’t come until 3.0 when my trusted Merciless Gladiator’s Gavel was retired. But the dream lived on!

Last night in heroic ToC-10 (hopefully the last time we run that as current content), I scored the heroic Ardent Guard. Such an awesome weapon. As for enchanting it, I am terribly bored with the thought of Blood Draining on yet another weapon, so I decided to take a different route: finally giving Mongoose some time in the sun.

I’ve done a bit of poking around on weapon enchants, and what really piqued my interest was this threat sim run by Theck which shows Mongoose as being our second best (practical) threat enchant, only trailing Accuracy by a tiny margin. Combined with the armor and dodge granted by the proc, it seems worthy of a trial.

Update: Some actual numbers would be nice, eh?

• It’s been calculated that thanks to the change in how SoV is handled, Mongoose’s proc time has jumped to 52% since 3.2 (why it’s good all of a sudden)
• This means that the enchant is worth ~62 “constant” agility (120 agility x .52 = 62.4)
• That’s a “constant” 124 armor and 1.04% dodge and 1.19% crit
• In reality, when it procs, you get 240 armor and 2% dodge and 2.3% crit

Not too shabby!

I probably won’t get a decent test of it until Icecrown on Tuesday (crossing fingers) so I’ll let you all know how it goes.

3.3 will bring a pack of new trinkets for use to jam into slots 13 and 14. Like most batches of new items, some are good, some are bad. Let’s take a look at them and assess:

Corpse-Tongue Coin (and Heroic version)

Drops in the 25man Gunship encounter.

I’m sure many are going to look down at avoidance stats in light of Chill of the Throne, though you should not. Even though we lose a huge chunk of dodge while in the Citadel, avoidance is still a worthy stat. Icecrown gear is pretty heavy on armor, and it seems Blizzard is trying to push mitigation on us in lieu of the avoidance we’re sacrificing. Likewise, 5712 (or 6426) is a powerful amount of armor.

Using the 11:1 armor to stamina equivalency (in regards to purely physical fights), the proc is worth 519 stamina when you need it the most (at under 35%). This proc alone makes this trinket awesome for physical damage-dominant fights. Not so much if we’re talking more of a magic damage fight, like Sindragosa.

I would definitely use it… possibly on most fights. Even in a high magic-damage fight, the proc is that intense.

Unidentifiable Organ (and Heroic version)

Drops in the 10man Gunship encounter.

I hate ramp-up effects, and this trinket is no exception. Maxed out the effect is worth 240 stamina, which is great, but two big caveats: (1) it’s possible to go into a lucky avoidance streak and lose your stack (especially with a 60% proc chance, that’s double RNG) and (2) this trinket is nigh-useless for offtanking. Sure, the armor is great, but if you’re not getting hit by melee attacks with enough consistency to guarantee and ever-increasing stack, you’d be better off with the Glyph of Indomitability.

MTing in a melee-heavy encounter is another issue altogether. Then it’s ok, but depending purely on how often the proc is up and how high it gets.

Corroded Skeleton Key

Purchased for 60 Emblems of Frost.

/drool, is all I need to say about this. 228 stamina is amazing and the one-use effect is nice for moment when you’re expecting a big hit. This will definitely be welcomed upgrade to my Heart of Iron. Even better, it’s spectacularly easy to obtain.

A must have for sure.

For starters, the base Ashen Verdict ring is iLevel 251 which is an encouraging sign of its progression. The exalted version will probably be iLevel 277 if the rings follow the same formula as the Hyjal ones. And I’m very excited it has hit on it. Will be a staple of my gear set for sure.

Actually, overall I really like the itemization of the ICC gear I’ve seen. Some pieces with hit, nice chunks of stam, no accursed expertise.

And can we talk about this trinket? 228 stamina and a pretty nice Use effect to boot! Commence /drooling, friends.

Despite having a totally badass name, this Libram is garbage. Maybe as a purchase later on, but it’s ultimately worth 19 more dodge rating than the Libram of Defiance, so it’d be silly to waste Emblems of Frost on it.

This chest is the only badly itemized piece I’ve seen so far. Totally for the threat set. (Correction! Yours truly is a dope–the bonus armor actually more than makes up for the odd stats, making this a very awesome chest piece.)

Most annoying thing I’ve seen thus far: either Blizzard hasn’t finished designing a tanking Quel’Delar or they don’t intend to include one. I’m leaning toward it being the latter. Sigh.

But, let’s focus on the positive! So far lots of well itemized gear and no deluge of expertise like what we had to suffer on ToC pieces. Hopefully Blizz keeps that pace going as they fill out all the loot tables in Icecrown.

I picked up the Gleaming Quel’Serrar from Ony10 last night, and while its threat capabilities are subpar, I’m enamored with the potential of the Sanctuary proc. So I trudged over to the old digs in Silvermoon and sat in front of a dummy for 30 minutes, seeing what the uptime on the proc would work out to.

In case you’re wondering, I wore a set that was hit capped, expertise soft-capped, but not expertise hard-capped. This is per usual for me in raids, though YMMV.

As this log shows, I’m happy to report that I got an uptime of 64.5% on the proc, which works out to a “constant” 64.5 defense rating and 903 armor, which is not too shabby. The defense will obviously not help you get uncrittable (seriously, don’t use this sword unless you’re already at 5.6% uncrit, you can’t depend on the proc to bridge the gap), but it is worth 1.57% avoidance. Also not too shabby.

I’m pretty happy with the sword, although I’d prefer the 245 version. Alas, beggars, choosers, and whatnot.

I may have been a wee bit rough on the Purified Onyxia Blood Talisman. Yeah, hp5 is utter garbage, and that trinket isn’t ideal for anyone except those that need the defense or heretics from the Church of Effective Health (stamina be stacked upon It), but it’s not the end of the world to own one. The talisman has its uses.

Now, as for some of the other items in Onyxia’s loot table, well they’re interesting to say the least. Some are great, some are situational, and one is garbage. I’ll go through them all.

The Good

• Judgement Heaume (10: Judgement Helmet) — This head piece has something that tier9 gear desperately needs: hit rating. Grab this as soon as possible for the hit rating, hold on to it for the generous stamina budgeted. All around great helm, and best of all: it looks badass.

The Meh

• Burnished Quel’Serrar (10: Gleaming) — Not a bad sword overall, but there are better ones at lower iLevels. QS suffers because most of its item budget is spent on a proc, which gives when up 2.7% avoidance and 1500 armor, a heaping helping of stats. Unfortunately, the uptime is about 55% according to most tests. Moreover, you can’t rely on the proc to make you uncrittable, so 540 defense would be a prerequisite for any sane tank to wield this. Moreover, threat-wise, it’s a little lacking. The slow weapon speed is nice for big SoV procs BUT the lack of any threat stats on the sword itself makes it fall behind other weapons of its iLevel, and even below its iLevel. Check out this post by Theck over at Maintankadin for a ranking of weapons according to threat. Overall, I would definitely use this sword for survivability over the 232 Ardent Guard (missing threat can be made up elsewhere). Though, I would probably not choose it over the 245 AG. That much stamina is too hard to pass up.

• Signified Ring of Binding (10: Runed) — Awesome ring for magic damage heavy fights (Hodir springs to mind immediately). Probably be useful in Icecrown, because dammit you know they are going to have at least one fight with massive amounts of frost damage everywhere.

The “Oh god, kill it with fire!”

• Shiny Shard of the Flame — No! Don’t even think about it. Put it down and slowly back away.

Anyone wanna get me one of these for my impending bday?

Exit question: With diminishing returns, think it’s possible to hit 100% avoidance with that equipped?

There’s a DK tank in my guild who I reference from time to time. He’s a nice guy, a good player, means well. But, sometimes he has a–oh what’s a nice way to put this–really stupid idea of how tanking works. His latest delusion is that the Purified Onyxia Blood Talisman is a good progression tanking trinket. It’s not.

When it comes to tanking you and I (and him) have two specific jobs: one is to hold threat on the mobs, and the other is to stay alive. To maximize the former we talent for threat, we swap in hit gear, etc. To maximize the latter we stack and enchant stamina to have the highest survivability possible. In this regard, the trinket is a total flop.

As I’ve mourned in the past, EH is king these days. And the reason why is EH is the best metric to determine time to live (TTL), that is, how long you can survive without a heal. When standing up versus a raid boss with silenced healers, what do you think is going to help you survive more: 2000 hp from a trinket, or a tick of 101 hp? The answer is obvious.

We should scorn hp5 for the same reasons we don’t talent into Divinity, it’s just useless overhealing. That tick of 101 hp is not going to save your life unless by some statistical miracle you take a hit that would have been a gib if not for that lucky proc. It’s a one in a million shot. Instead you’re often going to see those magic ticks swept under the ever-rising flood of heals being poured your way.

The only time this trinket should be used is if you’re not yet uncrittable and need the defense, or if you’re farming some vanilla instance and can’t be arsed to self-heal. Otherwise, leave it at home and equipped a stamina trinket.

This is what I do when I’m bored at work: make bad spreadsheets. I wanted to see if there was a pattern with bids on Trophies from Col25–in the sense that they get more expensive as the night goes on, or they decrease in value, etc. It’d help me game when to bid dkp on a Trophy and get it as cheaply as possible.

X-axis is position of Trophy (1 drops from Beasts, 2 from Jaraxxus, etc.) and Y-axis is the relative cost of the trophy with 1 being the least expensive of the night and 5 the most.

As you can see there’s no real discernible pattern in bids aside from (I guess) the first week being a rush for them, then second week people trying to play it smart so waiting until the last one of the night but really driving up the price, and then in the third week the reverse happening because everyone assuming the same pattern would hold and the first one would go for cheap.

And, if you’ll indulge me the hypothesis, once we hit the fourth charted week, people gave up looking for patterns and bid whenever.

Of course, that’s all conjecture! Maybe in a few more weeks when I have more data this will make a little more sense.