So you’ve got a non-blue gem slot, and you’re starting to think of options. You could just put a Solid Majestic Zircon in there, or perhaps the socket bonus is worth it? Well, for yellow sockets, the only survivability choice is an Enduring, but the piddling avoidance that you get from the defense hardly makes up for any stamina lost from not just slapping a Solid in there. For red slots, I concur with Honors, you want a Shifting in there.
But, you might ask, what about a Nightmare Tear? It’s +10 to all stats, how does that stack up?
Against an Enduring you’d lose .08% parry, block, and miss and 5 stamina and gain 22 armor, a nominal amount of crit, .1% dodge, some block value and dps from the strength, and a wide smattering of stats that don’t really enter into the equation (intellect, spirit, etc.).
Worth it? Using the commonly accepted armor:stam ratio of 11:1, you’re losing out on survivability ultimately equipping a Nightmare Tear instead of an Enduring.
Against a Shifting you’d lose 5 stamina, and gain the block value and dps of the 10 strength, plus all the useless stats. Derivatives of agility stay the same. Again, this is not a worthwhile trade off.
So, ultimately, no you should not gem anything with a Nightmare Tear unless it’s purely a threat pieces and you really want the extra damage that that strength can give you. In all possibilities you’re sacrificing effective health for threat stats.
I don’t think I’ve yet to see a tank with a Nightmare Tear socketed, but this was interesting to work out as a thought exercise.
What are your thoughts on putting Vivid Eye of Zul (10 Hit/15 Stam) in yellow slots where the socket bonus is + Stam?
I’m way over defense cap (yes, I know there are still advantages of stacking defense beyond the cap), but my hit rating has plummeted. I usually try to keep my hit rating around 200, because with a Draenei in my party, I get pretty close to the hit cap.
It would depend on the piece. If you use it primarily in a survivability set, then stick with +30 stam (unless the socket bonus is +12 or +15 stamina). If you use it for farm stuff or a threat set, go ahead and use hit.
If you’re under the expertise cap, I’d fill red slots (assuming +6 stam bonus) with a guardian, since it’s such a wonderful threat stat before you have 26. I’m a death knight, so I tend to like Vivid EoZ’s, because of the ~2-3 regular magic attacks that I have, taunt not included. My gear’s at the level now, though, that I’m starting to think about ignoring those +6 sockets sometimes.
The idea behind using a nightmare tear is essentially to dodge meta activation altogether. With the advent of epic gems, the socket bonuses currently available tend to fall short of impressive. Most 3 socket pants only have one blue socket, and a 12 stam bonus. So you’re losing out on a significant chunk of effective health if you match the sockets, 18 stam at a minimum.
The austere earthsiege diamond, the de facto tanking meta, requires one red gem for activation. Dropping a Nightmare’s tear into a red socket, can allow a player to essentially ignore all other gem sockets. The trade off is simply 5 stamina for 10 strength. This was a lot more even outside of ICC, where paladins were trivially block capped, so increased block value acted directly as additional armor, it’s a tougher choice in ICC, where it’s no longer a certainty.
.-= The Renaissance Man’s last blog ..The Nature of Raiding in Wrath: Gear Resets =-.
I don’t bother with bonuses that aren’t 12 stam (my t9.245 is socketed with 30 stam and 51 stam)… stopped going for the 9 stam bonuses once i could start affording epic gems in 3.2
as for hit v/s def gems… i would use a vivid zul when i am below the melee hit cap (currently i am right at the hit cap with like 560 or so def so it doesn’t matter much and i just socket with pure stam).
haven’t been raiding much lately so i don’t bother with building specific sets… gear that doesn’t get used in my regular set just sits in the bank and will only get enchanted/gemmed when i am really bored :P
@achanthion
my suggestion for you would be to ignore any socket bonuses that are not >= 9 stam for yellow/red sockets… it’s what i do on my own death knight anyway
+6 stam bonuses are just too meh now since epic gems came out
@ rhidach
was just going through your armory… and wanna point out…
you are missing a dragon’s eye in your gear >.>
@Vorian Haha I know and I am horrified. I spotted that last night after I logged off. I had a Dragon’s Eye in my old belt, which I replaced on Wednesday with the Verdigris one. I need to get the Dragon’s Eye out of my ring too, because I’ll probably end up swapping that with the heroic Band of the Twin Val’kyr depending on the fight. I was hoping I could fix it before anyone noticed. >.>
@TRM: Completely agree about BV: before ICC we could almost consider it mitigation/EH since 100% blocking was the norm. Now obviously that 100% block set is hard to reach outside of gimmick sets, so strength lost that “survivability veneer” it once had.
@Achanthion: Expertise is pretty awesome and I definitely recommend at least soft capping, but I have a hard rule of never gemming for threat, only survivability, so I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to gem for expertise.
err… ignore the part about my t9.245
@ rhidach.. your higher GS spec is the one missing a dragon’s eye the other is fine
Personally I’m a big fan of getting as close to melee hit capped as possible, especially since there seems to be so much taunt switching and on a timer in the recent raids. There’s nothing worse than DBS dropping a rune of blood on you while your other tank miss three taunts in a row. It’s also not necessarily a bad idea to keep a hit trinket in your bags for fights such as these where a taunt landing is the difference between loot and a wipe. Trust me, if you are regularly sitting around 3-4% hit, you’re going to miss a LOT of taunts. However, geming for hit is typically a bad idea simply because you don’t get enough out of the gems to make it worth your while. While we’re on the subject, since Blizzard apparently thinks it’s so much fun to make tanks taunt off each other regularly (I’m fine with that) don’t you think it’s time they put taunt on the melee hit table instead of spell tables? Or even better, make it so that taunts in general have a greater chance to hit? I have no problems with a mechanic requiring a properly timed taunt, however it’s pretty aggravating for a fight to rely on a 17% hit rating to never miss a taunt.
It’s why I hate the socket choices on Kraken gloves but I think it’s best to forget nightmare tears on most of this stuff if you are really trying to survive. Unless like Rhidach said if it’s a threat thing then by all means go nuts.
Pick up those gloves from Fester in 10 man for a threat set they are ridiculous and I would love them for my threat set.
@ Fawatam
melee hit cap + draenei aura + taunt glyph = i never miss a taunt :)
gormok was when i started to worry about my hit and i’ve generally never had problems… in fact i only got the glyph because i was at around 4-5% native hit at the time and didn’t wanna risk missed taunts… and the 2pc t9 rocks :P
@ Rhidach
haha, i apologize then :)
and just a question — i’m using the rep ring and the gunship10 ring but i have the clutch and anub25 ring in bank… should i be using the clutch over one of my current rings for icc? it seems to be the general idea that twins10 heroic + clutch are better than almost any other ring than devium and harbinger… thoughts?