Don’t gem Shifting Dreadstones anymore
Something not mentioned specifically in patch notes–but very important in case anyone missed the very hidden memo on this–agility doesn’t give armor anymore. One major by product is that (along with agility enchants no longer providing EH) Shifting Dreadstones are now an inferior gemming choice.
What made them so great before 4.0.1 was that agility was a triple-dip stat for us: dodge, armor, and crit/threat all in one tidy little package. While agility gems only provided 83% as much avoidance as the actual-dodge alternative, that 17% gap was easily made up (and then some) with the armor and threat. Now, obviously, the threat alone doesn’t make it as worth it.
As such, I definitely recommend you swap out that Shifting Dreadstones for Defender’s Dreadstones if you’re looking for more avoidance (and survivability), since parry is our only avoidance choice for purple gems.
Contrawise, if you’re looking for extra threat–and, it can be argued, survivability on Sindragosa–you can gem Guardian’s Dreadstones for expertise.
Personally I’m going to gem Guardian’s Dreadstones because that 60 parry rating I’ll be gaining will primarily go into the starving, gaping maw we call diminishing returns. At 85 it’s another story, but for now I’m opting for the expertise.
13 Comments to “Don’t gem Shifting Dreadstones anymore”
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Yeah, I went for the Guardian’s as well. I cannot figure out where my expertise went after the patch. /shrug
@Rhidach
19 October 2010 at 12:59 pm #
We lost 6 skill from talents, which is a lot of rating.
Ah ha! Thanks for the explanation!
@thorianar
19 October 2010 at 12:52 pm #
What about Sovereign Dreadstones? The extra threat (and a bit of parry) wouldn’t make it an interesting choice?
@Rhidach
19 October 2010 at 12:58 pm #
Strength is a much weaker threat stat than expertise (soft or hard cap) or hit. See this Maintankadin post.
I’m not sure how much parry we get per point of strength, but I don’t think it’s near enough to make it worth it.
Guardian’s Dreadstone seems to be doing well on the raids I have been able to test it on. Getting SoR to be parried less = less time re-casting, and therefore more threat overall. I think I’m sitting at about 28 – 29 expertise at the moment.
“Contrawise, if you’re looking for extra threat–and, it can be argued, survivability on Sindragosa–you can gem Guardian’s Dreadstones for expertise.”
Damn right I’ll argue it. ;) Glad I convinced you, hehe.
Oh, don’t forget about RS too. He parry hastes as well.
He shouldn’t be. I know they’re removing parry-haste entirely on bosses for Cataclysm. And considering all major mechanic changes were implemented with this patch, I’d hope, by extension, the current content wouldn’t parry-haste either.
Can anybody else confirm?
I could be mistaken but I don’t believe it has changed since RS was introduced.
See the relevant discussion here:
http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/forum/index.php?f=6&t=27934&rb_v=viewtopic
Also note the new uselessness of the Engineering cloak tinker. Time to re-enchant and remember to equip a different cloak before taking a ride on somebody’s X-53.
Joe Ego’s last blog ..Welcome!
Worry not, they changed Engineering perks. Flexweave Underlay, Mind Amplification Dish, Nitro Boots and Hand Mounted Pyro Rocket stack with all possible enchants!
On the opposite side Reticulated Armor Webbing takes enchant slot (still won’t stack with Heavy Borean Armor Kit or Armsman or whatever you preferred, but you can put Reticulated Armor Webbing together with Hand Mounted Pyro Rocket).
Also as a cost of this stacking Reticulated Armor Webbing got cut cruelly from 885 armor to 250.
Tested on my Engineer: bought scroll of enchant cloak – mighty armor, applied, it didn’t replace flexweave underlay, I can still use the parachute and it still gives 23 agility, on top of 225 armor.
So as an engineer, you gain: 10 armor over TBC glove reinforcements, 23 agility on cloak, 45 stamina on head (not sure if intended, I’ve read somewhere once on mmo-champion stamina from Mind Amp. Dish was supposed to be removed, at the moment it stacks with Argent Crusade arcanum), pyro rocket and nitro boots (only the speed, the crit was removed from it).
If it stays like this, I feel it’s worth keeping Engineering.
Hi, was playing a bit last night in HCs as holy and prot. and as I noticed that holy was buffed quite nicely, I noticed some threat issues in prot spec.
being geared from ICC25 mostly I had problems on last boss in POS where retri pala was stealing my aggro?! I was even checking if he has RF on, but he wasnt, and I was keeping my rotation very tight.
since patch I had no problems with aggro, but yday something was happening.
anyone else had something similar yday?