t10 buffs try hard, still don’t cross finish line

Zarhym hit the tank forums to give a sneak peak at the updated iLevel 251 tier 10 gloves and chest piece. While the effort they put into making the two pieces more attractive are appreciated, they don’t quite do the job. In terms of an all around survivability set you’ll still want the offset pieces. Let’s look at everything more indepth.

(Sidenote: I’m extrapolating what the armor on the 264 versions of the t10 gloves/chest will look like based on the updated 251 versions. Making an educated guess on my part for the purposes of a cleaner comparison between two 264 items.)

SANCTIFIED LIGHTSWORN CHESTGUARD
~3750 Armor
+162 Strength
+219 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Item Level 264
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 69 (1.75% @ L80).
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 85 (1.73% @ L80).

vs.

CATACLYSMIC CHESTGUARD
3817 Armor
+123 Strength
+207 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Blue Socket
Red Socket
Socket Bonus: +12 Stamina
Requires Level 80
Item Level 264
Equip: Increases defense rating by 108 (21.96 @ L80).
Equip: Increases your expertise rating by 82 (10 @ L80).

So, for the chest slot we’re looking at the offset have potentially 18 more stamina, around 70 more armor and exactly how much expertise you’d need to be softcapped on top of your talents. Whereas, the tier chest has itemization wasted on strength but more avoidance–though a severe defense deficit, which, coupled with the Pillars of Might, might be an issue. It seems in this case, the Cataclysmic Chestguard is a better all around piece as well as more EH.

SANCTIFIED LIGHTSWORN HANDGUARDS
~2550 Armor
+92 Strength
+169 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Item Level 264
Equip: Increases defense rating by 80 (16.27 @ L80).
Equip: Improves hit rating by 61 (1.86% @ L80).

vs.

GAUNTLETS OF THE KRAKEN
2658 Armor
+120 Strength
+157 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Item Level 264

Equip: Increases defense rating by 63.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 48

With gloves the offset piece will net you 18 more stamina potentially, along with around 100 more armor, 28 more strength, and more avoidance. The trade off being the tier gloves have more threat benefit from the hit rating, which you might find to be a precious commodity on ICC gear.

Utimately, the offset pieces were considered before a higher priority because they had better survivability stats. While the tier pieces were improved, that old conclusion still stands. I would recommend getting the Cataclysmic Chestguard and Gauntlets of the Kraken first if you’re looking to improve your effective health, time-to-live, etc. The tier pieces though do hold merit as part of a threat, farm, or avoidance set, but unfortunately those sets tend to take a back seat until the point of comfortable survival has been achieved.

TL;DR: The tier pieces aren’t as bad as they used to be, but they’re still not better than the offsets.

From the mailbag: getting your foot in the door

I received a really great email over the weekend from a new tank who’s struggling to get off the ground and start tanking heroics. He’s stuck in the same mire that many other fresh 80s are where the gear score-wielding snobs of the pug world are just looking for tanks with 40k health to carry them through the dungeon, and tend to heap scorn on any new guy who just wants to learn the ropes.

Consider the insanity of the situation: back in December we were tanking Naxx with 25k hp, but now that’s barely enough for a heroic.

I mourn for all new tanks out there and can’t rely on a guild for guaranteed heroic groups.

Anyway, as to the letter:

Hey Rhidach,

I had a couple of quick questions regarding tanking.

First, and probably the one you get a lot, why is corruption/vengeance superior to command after the command AoE changes? Wouldn’t hitting multiple targets help with multiple mob encounters in instances? I want to stop using command and move to vengeance, but I feel like I need some sort of authoritative position to prove to me why I should.

Second, I just hit 80 on my Paladin (my first character to 80), and I immediately specced out of Ret and moved over to Prot. I’m very happy tanking, but my gear score is only 3700ish right now and my defense is 512. I’m having difficulty finding gear upgrades, and as you probably know there’s no pvp gear for tanks.

Many times in groups I get ridiculed for not having enough HP (24k with BoSanc) or Gear Score to be effective, but in all my times running heroics I’ve never lost aggro and never seen a single party member die. Despite this, many people drop group when they see my score, or give me constant criticism over my HP. I’m not sure what do to here – I can’t get groups for ToC Heroic, much less any 10 man, and none of the heroics other than ToC offer me tanking upgrades. Where do I go to find tanking upgrades? I’m very tempted to gear up for Holy through PvP and spec it to gear Prot as an off, but that process would take time and I don’t want to stop tanking – it’s what I really love to do in MMOs.

What would you suggest? My armory is here:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Illidan&n=Emigre

Any advice you can give is much appreciated – I just want to know how to make the jump to being better geared.

Thanks,

Emigre

To answer your first question Emigre, it’s been worked out by some theorycrafters (primarily Theck) that if the mob is living long enough to get a 3-stack or higher of the Seal of Vengeance dot (generally 4.5 seconds, depending on your weapon), use SoV; otherwise, SoC will be more threat. Though, even then the threat gained is ultimately negligible. I think you’d ultimately be better off putting that point into Conviction and enjoying the constant 1% crit than a niche Seal choice.

As for the crux of your email, I poked around with your set on warcraft.net and came up with the following get-up that will give you 27k health unbuffed and 540 defense. Should be enough to get past the gear score snobs. One thing I couldn’t find was the Greater Inscription of the Gladiator for the shoulders, which will give you 30 more stamina and enough resilience to cover the defense loss. Also, if you have money to burn you might want to put epic gems in there instead of rare quality.

Now, the beauty of this set is the items you’ll need to put this together are mostly purchased from blacksmiths and jewelcrafters:

• Tempered Saronite Breastplate
• Titanium Earthguard Ring
• Titanium Earthguard Chain
• Tempered Titansteel Helm

Though, you will need the two trinkets from normal instances (easily done, at least):

• Seal of the Pantheon (HoL)
• The Black Heart (ToC-5)

Altogether you will be in a pretty good spot with this. You have some good equipment right now, you just need to build on it.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for how Emigre can gear himself to make himself a more desirable tank to the pug snobs?

The triumphant shopping list

Full disclosure: I stole the idea for this post from Veneretio at Tanking Tips. Eek.

Thanks to 3.2, it’s pretty easy to lard ourselves up with iLevel 232+ epics, because of the delicious Emblems of Triumph. The only real differentiator here between raiders and more social players is what quality of tier you can get, and how often you can get a new item.

For example, my guild raids 25man ToC so I can reasonably expect about 40 emblems or so a week. Some guilds might get similar numbers from doing both versions of the 10man, or all four modes, whatever. Everyone gets a slice of the pie eventually.

With all the different purps available, I thought I’d be useful and offer my shopping list of what order I’m planning to get everything in.

One quick caveat: please, if your guild runs the 25man raid, don’t buy the iL 232 tier pieces. Eventually you’ll win a Trophy and that 232 piece will be a huge waste of badges. If you absolutely must have an upgrade, there are iL 245 pieces you can splurge on.

1. Liadrin’s Shoulderguards of Triumph (45+1 Trophy)

My guild never killed Yogg, so I didn’t have to worry about feeling guilty about ditching the T8.5 shoulders (status symbol that they were), so these were an obvious pick. I thankfully picked up a trophy (actually, two) in ToC25 before people really caught on to how valuable those were. Had I not gotten a trophy this probably would have taken a back burner to #2 on this list, though Shoulderguards of the Enduring Order is not a bad piece. It’d be better if not for the tier bonuses.

2. Libram of Defiance (25)

Ah, Evasion, how I love you. This Libram is basically worth a little more than 4% dodge and it is up constantly, from the first HotR until the end of the fight. It’s a thing of beauty.

3. Liadrin’s Legguards of Triumph (75)

This only on my list because I have that second trophy banked. If not I’d jump down to #4 on the list. Why the legs? Well, for one replacing my current legs would not break my T8 2pc bonus, and secondly with all the new gear my hit rating is taking a severe beating, and I need to buffer it a tad.

4. Clutch of Fortification (35)

Great, great ring. Nice smattering of armor and lots of stamina.

5. Liadrin’s Handguards of Triumph (45+1 Trophy)

All my purchases from here on out are based on the assumption that I’ll be winning more trophies. Once I have another one of those wonderful items, I’ll spend it on these gloves which are the cheapest piece of tier I would still need to get. Instant gratification!

6. Liadrin’s Faceguard of Triumph (75+1 Trophy)

I already have a iL 245 chest so I’ll round out my T9 four set with this last piece.

7. Glyph of Indominatability (50)

The last item I intend to get before I start blowing emblems on my offspec. Lots of armor is nice, but I have a dream one day of pairing the Heart of Iron with the Juggernaut’s Vitality, so this just isn’t a priority like my 4pc is.

Better Late Than Never Friday, 8/28

I originally intended to do the next part in my “Characteristics of a great tank” saga, but then last night I forgot to run over to Elwynn to take some screenshots, and dammit that article is crap without accompanying pictures. So no part two this week, unfortunately.

For newcomers to this blog, BLTNF is when I pull search terms that brought people here from my Google Analytics and answer what they were originally looking for.

vindication 3.2 work on raid bosses now?

Yes, and it’s glorious. While warriors and other classes need to expend a global cooldown to apply their attack power debuff, ours happens automatically. Vindication is a serious mitigation talent and any tank worth their salt should take it.

how to get the new paladin mount in 3.2

Buy it from the Crusader’s Quartermaster in the Crusader tent at the tourney. It costs 100 Champion’s Seals.

shard of the crystal forest good for tankadin?

It’s not terrible, but the neck off of Kologarn-10 or the Malygos-25 neck quest are both better. Especially the latter with a Solid Majestic Zircon socketed.

what do protection paladins gem

I need to update my classic flowchart, but you can basically follow this: Use Endurings until crit capped, then gem Solids. The only time you are not gemming a Solid Majestic Zircon is if you want the socket bonus, which you should only go for if the bonus is +9 or +12 stamina. Ignore all other bonuses. Also, you’ll need one red gem for your meta (assuming you’re using Austere) which you can get from socketing a Shifting Dreadstone.

“greater inscription of the gladiator” defense cap

The Glad inscription gives you .18% crit reduction, so you need 5.42% from defense. I just wrote a lot of fractions in front of me to figure out how much defense skill that is, but I ran out of stickies and have no answers to show for it. I think it’s somewhere around 538 or so. Just refer to your character sheet to make sure your crit reductions add up to 5.6% or more.

Also (sorry, as a tank on the intertubes I am legally obligated to say this) there’s no such thing as a “defense cap”. Defense minimum!

how much defense = dodge

41 defense is 1% avoidance, or .33% dodge, parry, and miss. 123 defense rating is 1% dodge, parry, and miss (so, 3% avoidance).

2 bindings of the windseeker one clear

If this is true, I hate you. With all this Door Boss nonsense I’ve severely fallen behind in my Bindings farming. It’s kind of stressful thinking it’s going to be impossible to get Thunderfury once Cataclysm hits, so I have a very limited window (less than a year possibly) to farm these pieces. With a theoretical 52 tries remaining, each week lost to Door Boss’s cold, icy reticence is one week too far.

3.2 is hit rating important for protection paladin

Not so important you should gem or enchants for it, but it is definitely nice to have. Hit means more (consistent) threat and more successful taunts.

3.2 seal of righteousness tanking seal?

No. Maybe for quick-dying trash, but if you have enough time to apply a 5-stack of SoV, you should be using it.

are socket bonuses that good?

Depends on the socket bonus. +block rating, +hit, +expertise, +dodge, etc., are all bust. Only +9 or +12 stamina are worth going for, because if you’re gemming an Enduring or Shifting, you’re invariably losing 15 stamina. However, if the bonus reduces that then 3 or 6 stamina is a good trade for 10 agility or 10 defense rating.

Are you not entertained?!

Srsly, how long until someone makes a machinima movie of some shirtless human spinning around in a circle in the Crusader’s Coliseum and /yelling that phrase?

Um, but anyways. Last night was the first time ES walked into the Col25 raid and there was a wide range of opinions on how the night would go. Some doom-and-gloomers (shockingly, not yours truly) were expecting a wipe fest. Others just wanted to stay upbeat and put some good learning attempts in. The daring few (ahem) read this whole patch as being basically a wet kiss to casual players, and with the splitting off of a heroic difficulty setting suspected that the encounters would be a cakewalk once learned. Well, I was sadly right.

I say “sadly” only because I recall our first night in Ulduar with masochistic fondness. It was a huge knock on our ass that made us recognize that we’d been coddled by Naxx, and that raiding was much, much more difficult than Kel’Thuzad let on. And even though those early days were overtuned (and subsequently toned down) Ulduar continued to be a major headache for us all throughout 3.1. We never finished the place, and yet, with the easy gear of this patch… and apparently this raid, if the rest of it follows the same pattern… we’ll probably be storming back in short order brandishing 245 gear and suffering from a severe lack of chewing gum.

We started the night with a very productive guild meeting where I outlined my pet project, the DPS improvement initiative, and put everyone on notice that thanks to the Conquest badge change they were in charge of running heroics to get to the 226 level if they weren’t there yet, and to hit a 4k dps minimum baseline. Everyone seemed on board with that, so we’ll see how the dps situation goes from here.

As for the raid, we rolled in at 8 server time with a very strong group. Two developments I’ve been very happy about are the returns of Falowin and Morvain, two of our premier raiders that dropped out of the game a few months ago for various reasons. I’m sure it wasn’t just them being there, but there was a much different atmosphere to the whole raid than we’ve seen in the last few Uld weeks. It was… refreshed.

That’s the beauty of new content. It’s new. You haven’t been wiping on the same boss the last few weeks and aren’t yet sick of the lead up to some encounter; everything is exciting and fresh. This was definitely something the guild needed as a whole to get that awful taste of Ulduar out of our mouths.

To speak briefly about damage taken before I get into fight descriptions–I heard one of the tanks remarking that everything hit really hard in 10man. He didn’t elaborate, but from the tone of his complaints it sounded like bosses were going to hit much harder than any Ulduar boss. They didn’t. Honestly, if you can survive not getting instagibbed by a boss in Ulduar, you should be fine here. I had about 45k health last night and I was good to go.

Now, the first boss encounter is actually three bosses.

Gormok the Impaler

Biggest thing from a tank perspective is this: you get stacks of Impale (a bleed dot) which means you want a tank switch. On 25man the Impale stays up for a long time, so ideally Tank A racks up 3 stacks, Tank B taunts and holds it, then Tank A lets his stacks drop off and taunts back, Tank B does the same, rinse and repeat.

During the fight little Snobolds will get tossed onto random players. DPS needs to burn those off. If someone in melee has one on them and you’re not tanking, might as well help knock it off them. Name plates being enabled are a life-saver for spotting these.

Oh, and don’t be silly like me and cast Exorcism by accident during this phase. The boss will do an interrupting ground stomp and lock you out of the Holy school for around 8 seconds. Not good!

Dreadscale and Acidmaw

Two Jormungars! One will always be above ground the other just sticking out of it. Dreadscale applies a debuff on the tank called “Burning Bile” while Acidmaw applies a debuff called “Paralyzing [Something]“. You need the burning debuff to remove the paralysis debuff. The worms switch spots after a short while, so at one point the moving worm tank will be at risk of paralysis and need someone with the Burning debuff to remove it, other times the tank needs people with Paralysis to run over to him/her before they freeze up completely and die. Mobility is a big part of this phase.

The moving worm also needs to be constantly moved, as he drops acid clouds ala Grobbulus.

And be sure to kill Acidmaw first so you don’t get stuck with Paralyzed people and no Burning debuff to remove it.

Icehowl

Probably one of the more fun fights I’ve done in a while. The entire fight consists of everyone spreading out around the boss while he’s tanked in the center. Every so often Icehowl will do a “Massive Crash” sending everyone to the walls. He’ll then target a random person and charge. People in his path have a speed buff to help them get out of the way. If Icehowl runs over anyone on the way to the wall (even if he didn’t call your name out) he’ll enrage. The enrage can be tranq shotted off. If he doesn’t hit anyone, Icehowl will run into the wall and be stunned, and take extra damage for a short time.

Just make sure everyone knows how to move out of the way and this is easy sauce.

After Icehowl goes down you’ll get 3 Emblems of Triumph, along with the normal smattering of loot. I picked up the Hauberk of the Towering Monstrosity, which at 180 stam and 2 gem sockets is just… monstrous. Not to mention 90 defense. What an amazing item.

The next time you talk to the starting npc he’ll bring out a gnome that pales in comparison to Milhouse Manastorm.

…As Jaraxxus will then prove.

This fight was hilarious to do last night because there really weren’t any strats to refer to other than ability lists. We were more or less were going in blind, having to figure out what the hell was going on. The first attempt was just chaos, people running around like crazy, and then when the first person got hit with Incinerate Flesh all the healers spun on a dime to pour tps in them, allowing Jaraxxus to quickly murder the tanks. Eek.

After a few more attempts we refined our technique where the second to last attempt we got him to 3% when he enraged. 10 minute enrage timer, bee tee dubs.

To sum it up from the tank perspective, you’re either on Jaraxxus or you’re on adds. If on Jaraxxus you need to move him away from stuff when they pop up. Move Jaraxxus away from portals, and move him away from any infernals that roll over to root themselves next to you. Infernals won’t move while casting their AOE, so you just need to drag them away before the melee gets wiped out.

If you’re the add tank, grab a Mistress of Pain whenever she emerges from a portal and drag her over to the boss. Everyone focuses her down then switches back to the boss. Cut and dry. When a volcano emerges, pick up each infernal as they spawn and mark one for ranged to dps down. The infernals will periodically roll away from you, but don’t worry. Just let people know if they don’t see a roll ball of green doom siddle up next to them. It’s hard to miss, I’m sure.

So the second to last attempt was a 3% enrage wipe. The following attempt everything clicked, everyone knew the deal, and we burnt him down in record time with not a single death. It was a thing of beauty.

I’m fairly certain that next week we can easily one or two-shot these guys.

How refreshing, 2/5 of Col25 being easy farm already.

The once and future shield

I really don’t feel like writing a same old, same old raid recap (long story short: no Titanguard again, couldn’t kill Thorim again–but at least we know the new strategy works when dps is split right) so let’s talk about something else …

Well, I picked up the Northern Barrier last night intending it to be mainly a threat-set shield, but with the changes to avoidance in the next patch it had me thinking how NB would compare to my current shield of choice, the Wall of Terror.

As it stands right now, the two shields break down as:

WoT

1072 hp
1.63% avoidance
2.23% mitigation chance

NB

1072 hp
1.53% avoidance
.51% mitigation chance

So clearly WoT is the superior choice for a shield right now. What about in 3.2? Well, avoidance in WoT slips to 1.55% due to the sock in the gut that dodge rating is getting. This makes WoT only better by .02% avoidance chance. Assuming one is not block capped then WoT is the shield of choice, but if that block is a wasted stat then NB isn’t a terrible option come 3.2.

Personally my defense rating is a little tight right now so I don’t have the luxury of being able to enchant my shield or chest for stamina. However, that extra 22 defense rating on NB would give me enough breathing room to slap the +18 stamina enchant on the shield. The extra EH would definitely make the Barrier my favored bulwark.

Better Late Than Never Friday 6/5

I’ll skip the normal fluffy introduction to this feature, but let it be said: woo, Friday!

archaedas’ lost legplates thoughts

Not a fan at all. No defense means you need some serious defense on other pieces to make up for the gap, and expertise is such a wasted stat for us. Unless you have defense to spare I would avoid these pants.

are tankadins better with swords, axes, or maces?

Depends on your race. Blood Elves, Dwarves, and Draenei get no melee weapon bonuses, but humans get a 3 Expertise bonus to swords and maces. Expertise is of course basically crap (especially +3), so it’s not a game changer.

Correction! Muiran points out in the comments that Dwarves get a mace spec bonus of +5 expertise, as well.

does blood draining work for hunters

I hope not.

for paladin how much spell power do you get for each stamina

With Touched by the Light 3/3 you get .3 spellpower for every 1 point of stamina.

last laugh vs stoneguard

Last Laugh, hands down.

where will i find vrykul

I’m going to assume this is a question about the JCing daily, and not just in general (because they’re nearly everywhere in Northrend). Closest Vrykul to Dalaran is the area with the blight pool/blighted proto drakes in southwest Storm Peaks. Just fly over the Argent base, and you’ll be there in no time.

tankadin need hitrating

Thanks to all our many instant, high-threat attacks, hit isn’t as huge a deal for us as it is for other tanking classes. However, for consistent threat you probably want around 3-4% of it. Don’t ever gem for hit, though, you’ll get it organically from your gear. Also, it’s more than likely you’ll reach hit cap in Ulduar25 gear (I’m sitting at 7.9% right now) and that is not a bad thing. Embrace it!

The Leviathan’s Coil nerfed

The Leviathan’s Coil ring has had its armor reduced from 882 to 448 to properly reflect the item level.

Eff.

The power of dkp, and a bonus story of delightful irony

So it’s official, my guild runs DKP. Were this a few months ago, I might be disappointed to report such a development, but today I’m actually quite happy. As you could tell from my raid recaps lately we’ve had major attendance issues, and after the last few nights I am feeling positive about DKP’s ability to fix these issues.

Sure, we’ve hit the same hiccups you’d expect from a guild adopting DKP for the first time. We had the dissenting quarters, populated mostly by those that raided very seldom and liked the thought that they could hop in once a week and maybe snag a purple. Which is all well and good, but ultimately this laissez faire attitude was hurting the guild and progression.

I look at DKP from the perspective of a hardened pragmatist. Human beings are rational creatures, and invariably will act in their perceived self-interest. Likewise, WoW players will act in a way that will maximize their loot intake. If a player knows that they’ll get the same amount of loot raiding one night a week then they will do that. However, shake up the system like we did and make it so raiding one night a week supresses how much loot you get on that one day (rather than having an even shot with everyone else in the raid) and they will be compelled to raid more often.

It’s simple economics.

There have already been several comments by guildmembers saying something along the line of “when’s the next raid?”, “does x raid I never attend give DKP?”, and so on. They feel compelled to accumulate the green points, to maximize their shot at loot, and will act accordingly.

We did Naxx25 as the inaugural raid for the new system and it went very, very well. Looting was smooth and very, very fast. No multiple rounds of calling for rolls, just one box pops up. Everyone puts in their maximum bid and the system resolves winners eBay-style. Whatever doesn’t get bid on comes up for a second round of offspec bidding. I’d go so far as to say it’s flawless thus far.

Only worry I can perceive of is (1) dealing with recruitment when people will come in and find themselves at the bottom of a DKP pile, and (2) dealing with raiders ceasing to attend raids once they are sitting on a fat pile of points. We’ll have to see how those two situations operate when and if they appear.

Now for a funny ironic story:

We have this one raiding healer who I’ve mentioned in the past. She was first mentioned on these pages for disappearing once she snagged most of the loot she wanted from Naxx25, and only recently reappeared in the week or two before Ulduar came out. I don’t think it’s unfair to characterize her attitude as selfish. We’ve had issues finishing Naxx25 in one night this last month, and when told we probably wouldn’t devote a second night to old content, she informed the guild she only runs Naxx for the chance to get a ring from Kel’Thuzad.

Gee, thanks. Screw gearing up folks to help the guild, right?

So on Wednesday we scheduled a Naxx25 so we could fine tune the DKP system and not let it hamper an Ulduar run. Seems reasonable, I thought. Well, like I said, despite it being an exceptionally smooth Naxx run, she bailed out after Maexxna (our first wing), probably assuming we’d stall after two wings like the last few weeks. And a boss later we noticed she was in Obsidian Sanctum.

Okay…

We continued through Naxx, steamrolling everything in our path, and once at the last wing I noticed she was still in OS. They must be working on 3D, I suspected. I /who’d her fiance who is not in our guild, and he was in Naxx as well. She dropped a guild raid to do a PuG achievement run in OS.

And not long after the achievement for 2D popped up in guild chat. No one grats her as far as I can recall.

So the point where irony kicks in is, and I’m sure you’ve seen this coming (and you especially see it coming now that I’ve foreshadowed the shocking twist), we downed KT and the Signet of Manifested Pain dropped.

Sweet revenge! Four different people linked it in guild chat to flaunt it.

More so, we did Ulduar last night and Ignis dropped the Pyrelight Circle (and the Heart of Iron, woooo). Because she skipped out on Naxx, she didn’t have near enough DKP to compete with the other people that rolled on it, and lost that ring as well.

The lesson here, kids? Be loyal to your guild, or irony’s gonna git you.

(Lastly, before I get ambushed by an English major, I know that story wasn’t technically irony… but I’m lazy and it’s so much easier to type that than “unfortunate coincidence” so many times.)

The Boreal Guard buffed

TBG is being buffed to have stats “appropriate to its level.” With these changes, it is now definitively the BiS shield.

Changes to item are:

+70 Armor
+2 Block Value
-14 Strength
+6 Stamina
+2 Defense Rating
+2 Block Rating
+37 Parry Rating