Block capping at 80 with Mastery
Saturday night I hopped onto the beta to screw around with Reforging and see if I could expect to block cap myself come 4.0.1. As many of you know, block capping means stacking enough block chance that ordinary hits are pushed off the combat table, which can pay huge dividends in damage reduction in certain situations. In Wrath, block capping was especially desirable for Heroic Anub in ToGC, allowing you to cheese the damage from the adds.
In Cataclysm, block capping is going to be amazing, if only because it’s going to be like having a cooldown up for every physical hit. With a successful block now reducing any physical hit by 30%, you want to be block capped. (Of course, that also means there’s a cap on our Mastery, because any further dodge/parry once block capped pushes block chance off the combat table, but that’s an issue for another day.)
So the goal is 102.4% total avoidance+base miss chance+block. How feasible in that in my gear set at 80?
Here’s where I was in terms of avoidance and mitigation when standing in front of the Reforger NPC.
46.42% avoidance + 5% base miss + 21% block (5% base + 16% for learning Mastery) = 72.42% avoidance and block. 29.98% short.
I then proceeded to reforge every feasible piece to mastery. Dodge converted over if there was more dodge on the piece, parry otherwise, and equipped the Heroic CTC and reforged that to mastery as well. I attempted to keep dodge and parry at least even, but I had so much more dodge rating that diminishing returns made it so I got a lot more mastery from dodge.
I then dodged over to a dummy, buffed, and put up Holy Shield. This is what I had:
At 42.03% dodge+parry I lost a total of 4.39% avoidance and gained 24.35% block chance from Mastery.
So, with the 42.03% avoidance + 5% base miss + 60.35% block chance, I was at 107.53% avoidance+block. 5.13% over block cap.
Not too shabby.
I’m actually at the point where I should reduce how much Mastery I have, because that 5.13% overage is just wasted block chance. To mitigate this I can swap the Heroic CTC for a stamina trinket, and then dial back some of the Mastery.
Actually, I’m really liking the extra control reforging gives us over our gear and stats. To be able to shuffle around secondary stats like this is pretty cool.
Anyway, once I hit 81 the ratings conversions will shoot through the roof and block capping will disappear until at least the first raid tier (at least according to the calculations done by Zarko in this thread) but I’m excited at being able to taste such amazing damage reduction potential for the next two months.
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It looks like all that reforging block capped you, but what about hit and expertise? It doesn’t look like you’re capped for either. Did you have to sacrifice either stat?
@Rhidach
11 October 2010 at 1:01 pm #
I’m actually over capped on hit just from gear, and 10 skill under the soft cap for expertise with the Glyph of Seal of Truth socketed (which it isn’t in those screenshots). I’m contemplating reforging some of the dodge/parry to expertise to cut down on being that 2% over and hopefully at least softcap expertise.
Isn’t becoming block capped at 80 much more likely than in deep tiers at 85 because you there is currently no mastery on any gear?
I was under the impression that if a piece of gear already had a stat on it, you could not add to that preexisting stat with reforging. Is that the case or was I misinformed? I remember GC saying (and I think you commenting) that if they wanted a shield class to have increased block chance, they would make gear with mastery.
If you look at the gear, there does seem to be a 2 rating maximum on most gear. I am sure I missed some, but the point is getting your block through the roof now is much easier because you can add mastery to every piece of gear because the stat does not appear on any of our current gear.
I am sure this makes no sense, but I swear it did in my head.
@Rhidach
11 October 2010 at 1:11 pm #
All gear from 81-85 content has Mastery on it, so I won’t be able to reforge additional Mastery onto the pieces, but the stat is given out so generously there is already talk of being able to block cap in the first raid tier.
You’re right that block capping is only possible now because current Wrath gear has no Mastery, meaning we can reforge through the wazoo and pile it up. It’s still not going to be that hard at 85, sans reforging mastery, just due to raw item stats.
Two questions, if I may:
1. With the removal of defense from gear, will avoidance become the new defense?
2. What spec are you planning on running for leveling? Ret or prot?
@Rhidach
11 October 2010 at 2:58 pm #
1. Not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean there’ll be a soft cap you need to reach of avoidance? If so, no, you definitely won’t need to have a certain baseline of avoidance before starting heroics at 85.
2. Prot. I’ve leveled Rhidach as prot from 1-70 during TBC (when it was eye-clawingly boring) and 71-80 when it was much less self-mutilation-alicious. I’ll do the same for 81-85.
I should have phrased my question better, but yeah, basically I wondered if there was any stat we needed now that would make us “tank worthy”, the way defense did before.
@PinkRaidFrames
11 October 2010 at 2:56 pm #
Blizzard is not gonna like this one bit.
@Rhidach
11 October 2010 at 3:05 pm #
Seems like they’re resigned to it. Though only it later tiers. First tier will probably be an issue.
@PinkRaidFrames
11 October 2010 at 3:13 pm #
Good to know that they aren’t going to be surprised and then (hopefully) ninja-nerf our mastery.
@Rhidach
11 October 2010 at 3:17 pm #
I don’t know, I kinda feel we’re going to see ratings -> mastery skill take a hit. We’re safe for now, but at 85, who knows?
@PinkRaidFrames
11 October 2010 at 3:30 pm #
Yeah, totally. I’m gonna try not looking too far into the future for now.
After all, I’m still worried about tomorrow night’s ICC 25. O.o
I’m very eager to see how things go in current content with the new patch.
Yeah, they’re keeping an eye on it all right:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2011-Cataclysm-Beta-Build-13183
Joe Ego’s last blog ..Welcome!
@Rhidach
13 October 2010 at 8:04 am #
That sounds like they’re nerfing the Mastery rating -> skill conversion.
rhid, did you try tanking at all after you hit the block cap? if you did how did it feel? and what did u think of the “3X” 939 rotation?
Yes but…
with the -20% icc debuff that is still not enough. Did you reforge every single piece or do you think that it would be possible to squeeze that 15% extra block that would cap you even with the icc debuff?
@Rhidach
11 October 2010 at 7:05 pm #
They’re removing Chill of the Throne (as well as the 30% buff).
Woah! bad news for our progression! :D
The 30% buff, as far as I’ve been able to tell, is staying. It was not up on test to allow people to try out the new mechanics without bumping them up to the same degree they are on live in the instances. The patch notes mention nothing, as well, about removing the buff, only Chill of the Throne.
But I could be wrong, too. Will be easy enough to find out in a few more hours!
@Rhidach
12 October 2010 at 10:43 am #
That’s my secret hope as well. I’ll remain optimistic on that front for the time being!
oh god i hit 80 on saturday… and everything i learned to play up until now changes today lol i love it~! Hey guys whats the deal with gemming and enchants? What do i do for enchants that had defense on them like the arcanum head enchant etc..?
@HanaMoonfire
13 October 2010 at 9:02 pm #
:O I know Zarko! I used to be guilded with him in TBC. I always knew him to be a knowledgeable tank, but didn’t know he was into the theorycrafting end of things.
Hana’s last blog ..Blog Azeroth- Whats in a Name
Rhidach m8
at what lvl of dodge we are looking @ geting dr`s?
Didnt check the mastery ratings but will try to cap it same as you did, and a question to that – will that make me unhit?
Have you checked rotation? if yes what you use if it isnt a secret :P
30 mins in icc25 yesterday gave me a lot of thinking 1st 2 boss`es was complet fail Droot was doing 50k tps and i was doing about 35% of that
finaly at fester i got nice rotation with which i almoest got 11k dps without proper glyphs leaving behind ret pal, 2 furry wars, 2 hunters and prot warr @ recount in dps
hitting with shield of righteous by 42k without crit.
before 4.0.1 i was doing around 7k dps
nevermind ive read your whole page im doing same rotation and using consecration as a filler but a bit diferent glyphs.
what do you think about Reckoning?
Auto attack for dood made 50% of damage with caping block that i think this tallent is a good choice
@Rhidach
14 October 2010 at 8:15 am #
Reckoning is definitely a good choice. It’s one of our best talents in terms of dps gained per point, and it only gets better with more Mastery. You definitely want it.
yeah thought so will change my build and reforge items before todays raid
damn this clock of yours shows that im a real no life :P and @ this moment its 4 p.m @ mine place ^^