VP gear is a little different this time around. With tier being raid-only, all slots have some kind of VP offset piece you can purchase. Some are good, some are bad, many are crap. To help decide, here’s a list of everything broken down with their CTC values. Pieces with threat stats were assumed to be reforged to the best choice, and pieces with dodge and parry had the higher value reforged to mastery. Gem sockets are listed, but I didn’t include them in the calculations.

• Chestplate of the Unshakeable Titan (3.08%) [2]
• Gauntlets of Feathery Blows (1.83%) [1]
• Stoutheart Talisman (1.90%) [1]
• Bladeshatter Treads (3.05%) [2]
• Jaw of Repudiation (4.00%) [2]
• Forgesmelter Waistplate (4.07%) [2]
• Bracers of Unrelenting Excellence (2.49%) [0]
• Guardspike Choker (3.21%) [0]
• Indefatigable Greatcloak (2.20%) [1]
• Signet of the Resolute (2.35%) [1]
• Fire of the Deep (5.75%) [0]

Personally, my pick order will probably be:

1. Stoutheart Talisman
2. Bladeshatter Treads
3. Signet of the Resolute
4. Guardspike Choker
5. Foresmelter Waistplate
6. Chestplate of Unshakable Titans

And the rest are crap, except for the trinket which could be situationally useful. (Side note: all the socket bonuses are +avoidance! Ugh.)

I worked out the numbers of what CTC and stamina my current pieces give and compared that to the new VP pieces. The pick order I chose is based on what are the biggest upgrades for me (though bottom of the list is mostly stamina upgrades). Your mileage may vary, and I expect this to change based on what upgrades I get in Dragon Soul.

You know, I had a whole string of posts planned for today, but I got completely distracted by something I think you readers might find interesting instead.

Let’s discuss offspec tank gear and who gets priority.

A Story From My Past

Gather round, children, as Anafielle spins you a tale. I’d like to tell a little story about my old guild (called Brand New Day, on Drenden) and our troubles with the very first fight in ICC …. Marrogar 25.

When Brand New Day hit Marrogar for the first time, we used a 3 tank strategy. A lot was going wrong, but a disproportionately large number of wipes were to tank death. The MT and I were fine. But our third tank was a DPS warrior in a pretty weak tank set, and the healers just couldn’t keep him alive.

Our very first Marrogar kill took two weeks and no less than eight battle rezzes. I’m not even kidding. We had eight druids in the raid, and every single battle rez got used on a tank.

No problem. He’ll gear up, right?

But our third tank was DPS main spec – in fact, he would have been our first Shadowmourne recipient – and therefore he was “offspec” for tank gear.

Let me tell you. It’s really painful to face a fight like that, struggle with it as progression, struggle specifically with tank death, and then watch some beautiful offspec tank gear go to a healer’s bank set through the vagaries of RNG.

From Marrogar forth, Brand New Day quietly put an unofficial loot priority system in place. Throughout my time there in ICC25, our “third tank” quietly got priority on offspec tank loot. Several officers made a big deal out of passing loot to him on vent until no one had the guts to roll against him. The MT and I would even pass him sidegrades and make comments on vent like, “He needs this more.”

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Offspec Loot Priority: An Argument For It

When you only have two mainspec tanks, you’re going to occasionally run into a situation where your DPS offspecs will play a major role in your raid’s progression.

In an ideal world, offspec loot gets distributed evenly. Only people who will use their offspecs will bid on loot. But sometimes, that doesn’t happen. Sometimes you have to give someone priority. It really just depends on how many of your raiders are polite enough to distinguish between Druid #11′s fourth set and your raid’s desperate third progression tank.

It may not be entirely fair, but it’s true. If your progression is dependent on someone’s offspec gear, you have a vested interest in making sure that offspec gets geared up.

Offspec Loot Priority: An Argument Against It.

Loot priority is entirely reasonable when it affects your progression. But in my opinion, this is the only time when it should occur. Even if someone is tanking that week – even if someone ends up tanking a whole lot of the time – even if someone is a totally excellent person who I like, and who I enjoy tanking with – my personal opinion is that they shouldn’t get priority over other, raid-capable offspec tanks.

I’m complaining, in a really circular way, about a very minor loot issue last night. Since I’m a super pro Bitcher and Moaner, I decided to hop up on my soapbox – well, alright, I decided to take over Rhidach’s soapbox – and write a big long post about it. Even though it was probably a very minor error or a reasonable part of the loot rules that I just didn’t know.

Anyways. It begs an interesting question!

How many guilds have done the same thing? Prioritized someone’s offspec tank set in some kind of official or unofficial way?

Opinion of the Reader

Am I crazy for thinking this is reasonable sometimes? Am I crazy for thinking this is unreasonable sometimes?

How about you?

Do you have enough mainspec tanks that all tank positions are filled by mainspec tanks, or do your DPS end up tanking a fair bit in raids? Have you ever given certain offspec tanks in your raid priority on loot?

Let’s hear it!

I spotted this thread on the WoW tanking forums and it brought up something I haven’t post on in a while: weapon enchants. Believe or not, a lot has changed and weapon enchants are a bit murkier now than they were a few months ago. Let’s talk about each of the major contenders.

Mongoose/Exceptional Agility

Up to the early days of ICC, Mongoose had an uptime of about 52% for us, which was damn good. These days, thanks to the retooling Ret got to defang Bryntroll for them, it’s down to as low as 25%.

Mongoose generally is, as Dirgen says in his epic enchants thread on Maintankadin, no better than Exceptional Agility now in terms of average Agility gained. And unlike EA, Mongoose might not be there when you need it. If you want an enchant for armor, I would go with Exceptional Agility.

Blood Draining

I’m a fan of Blood Draining right now because of the content I’m currently tackling and will be tackling in the near future. The beauty in BD is that it’s a free heal when you need it the most, under 35%. And, not to mention TBtL makes its crits 30% more effective. While we can’t stack it as fast without bleeds, having an extra oomph to the heal is a worthy trade-off, I would wager.

Accuracy

For farm content, threat sets, and sets you need to be hit capped for. The best threat enchant, but obviously weak for survival needs.

Conclusion

If feasible, I recommend keeping a stable of three weapons. A slow dps weapon with Accuracy, a tanking weapon with Blood Draining (for dangerous bosses), and a tanking weapon with Exceptional Agility (for less mortality-inducing encounters).

Ditch ‘goose, the RNG has won this battle.

Check out the Petrified Twilight Scale from Ruby Sanctum. 2282 armor plus a free Last Stand-ish effect in the Ardent Defender range. Hot damn.

That puts it at 490 more armor than Glyph of Indomitability, 392 more than the normal Unidentifiable Organ, and 154 more than the heroic UO. The effect is pretty sexy for progression content, or something like Soul Reaper. And, ultimately, you really can’t sneeze at that much armor.

I will be seeking this trinket in earnest, if only to feed that gaping maw in my soul that can only be sated by bonus armor.

Last week when we killed Sindragosa, Nordicslayer, our designated Shadowmourne-wielder-to-be, completed the Frost Infusion quest. Last night in our usual 10/12 romp through ICC-25 we had 7 Shadowfrost Shards drop. That’s a 70% drop rate, much higher than the 25% I was expecting.

I’m not sure where I got that number, but I’m happy that I wrong. We’re on track to finish that Shadowmourne by the end of June (sooner if luck is favorable and the randomness holds out). We have another person, a DK, who’ll be finishing Frost Infusion tonight and can collect shards as soon as Nordic is done. I’d expect his Shadowmourne to be done around August.

Very exciting!

On a related note, there’s been discussion about what to do with the BOE chest loot. While the system that these items come from is ridiculously ill-thought out, the fact that they are BOE means I can use them for some great guild morale boosting. The plan as it is now is the two Shadowmourne builders can pick one item from the chest to keep for themselves (both will probably pick the mount) and the rest we’ll distribute via some sort of guild lottery or as prizes in guild events.

Likewise I’m planning to somehow cajole everyone into unanimously giving me the Tabard of the Lightbringer as a thank you for all the stress the lovable scamps have put me through while running the guild and raids. I think I can sway them with some dignified weeping.

What I’m curious about is this, if your guild is building a Shadowmourne, what kind of drop rate are you seeing–or did you see–on the shards? And also, what’s your plan for the five BOE items?

Oh, how many times I farmed Shattered Halls to get this trinket. It must have been at least fifty times I dragged Ildara, Cendra, and Dargu through that ooze-infested sewer system, the fiery gauntlet, and the hallway of ninjas. Unlike my amazing luck with the Sun Eater (first try in Heroic Mech it dropped), the Figurine eluded me for as long as it could.

It was an amazing piece back in BC, when being unhittable was the norm. I sent most of BC farming heroics with friends so believe me when I say the Figurine was firmly cemented into one of my two trinket slots. Where it truly shined, though, was out in the wild when AOEing down huge packs of melee mobs.

The gold standard for this activity was the Demon Hunter Supplicant farming outside of Black Temple. I spent a lot of time there, buffed with (the old) Blessing of Sanctuary, my shield-spiked Petrified Lichen Guard in one hand, Sun Eater in the other, and a Figurine of the Colossus on my bars. They never knew what hit them. The good ol’ days!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHAZe2_UVh4]

It’s a shame that a similar item doesn’t exist in Wrath. I know being unhittable has fallen out of vogue between the death of Crushing and the onset of Chill of the Throne, but there was always something about activating a trinket while in the midst of 40 meleeing mobs and watching your health continuously crawl up to full from 50%. That was one of the greatest things about being a Pally Tank in TBC, the feeling you could take on an army all by yourself (as long as there were no casters!), made all the easier with this remarkable item.

I still have my Figurine in my bank. I’ll probably never use it again, but it’s one of those items I can just never sell or delete.

Recently I’ve seen some folks poo-pooing Last Word, decrying as yet another one of “those sucky proc weapons.” I’d like to clear up this misconception, because nothing could be further from the truth. Here are three complaints I’d like to counterpoint:

1. It’s dependent on a proc

The proc was changed to have a 100% uptime. As long as you’re swinging that mace, you are benefitting from Blessing of Light.

2. The proc sucks

This sentiment could not be more wrong. Just focusing on the healing half of it, whenever Blessing of Light is up, any heals cast on you are increased as if the caster had 300 more spellpower. While this may seem like a small amount, it can be as much as 8% of the healer’s total buffed spellpower. That’s a lot of extra oomph to get just from a weapon proc.

This won’t translate into 8% more healing received, but it will make a noticeable difference in your healing intake and could feasibly make the difference in some sticky situations.

3. It doesn’t have any threat stats

With the proc having a constant uptime, you’re looking at 100 more strength. That’s comparable to just about every tanking weapon in ICC. Not only that, but the weapon speed is also huge. Slower weapons make your Holy Vengeance procs hit for more damage, among other abilities.

The slower the weapon is, often, the more threat your abilities will do. Indeed, according to Theck’s analysis, Last Word is the best tank weapon in the 264 range for tps. The 277 Last Word is the highest tps tank weapon in game.

In short, Last Word is a very powerful weapon. It’s a huge boon in the age of the trickle-down death, adding extra oomph to every heal you receive, and a powerful threat weapon to boot. Benefit while you can of the ignorance that surrounds this weapon and snatch it up before anyone knows any better.

I saw this tip mentioned on the blog Hunters Rhok, and wanted to spread it to you, my tanky brethren. The buff-giving items of the Love is in the Air event apply independently of flasks, food, etc., and can be used to give you and your fellow raiders an edge in ICC tonight and for the rest of the week.

Here’s what you can nab and from what

Lovely Thunder Bluff/Ironforge Card — Reward from the eponymous quests. Gives +30 stamina for one hour.

“STALWART” Cologne — Purchased for 5 tokens. Gives +20 defense rating (+.16% dodge, parry, block, and miss) for one hour.
“Forever” Perfume — Same as “STALWART”.

But wait, there’s more! (… a bug)

When you’re wearing perfume/cologne and stand next to someone with the opposite, you’ll both receive the Love is in the Air buff, giving +3% crit change. Sound good, right? In principle, but when Paladins (and some other classes) have this buff, you will not be able to auto-attack of use certain melee abilities.

Best way to prevent this is coordinate with your raiders and make sure everyone in melee is wearing either perfume or cologne, and don’t mix. If you notice you can’t auto-attack or use some spells, that’s why.

Do your dailies and grab these items. The cards at least are like having a free extra epic gem in your gear. Take advantage of it while you can!

I originally wrote a list two months ago when ICC first opened up that, I can now say, was pretty much worthless. At the time we didn’t understand the potency of armor to the degree we do now, nor the overall poorness of our various set bonuses (I mean the hints we there, but now it’s confirmed). Below I have revised my list and (per the suggestion of Honors and Ricardo) split it into a 10man and 25man list.

Saying the list is split, though, is a bit misleading. Because the offset +armor gear is so amazing (it’s BiS for 10man raiders, and generally BiS for non-heroic 25man raiders), both groups will want to prioritize snatching up those four pieces first. So, the list is less “split” and more diverges at one point.

Sidenote re: the Corroded Skeleton Key – I feel for this trap too, the “zomg so much stam!” feelings overtook me and I splurged 60 badges on this trinket. Generally it’s a good trinket, but there are better things you can buy with the 60 badges. If you already have Juggernauts Vitality/Satrina’s Impending Scarab, you should skip this trinket.

This is the order I wish I went in (and yes, this applies to both 10man and 25man raiders, these pieces are that good):

The near-BiS “freebies”

1. Cataclysmic Chestguard (95) — getting this will by itself cover the expertise softcap for you, and give you the peace of mind needed to maybe stop using that lesser iLevel +expertise item because you’re worried about threat
2. Gauntlets of the Kraken (60)
3. Verdigris Chain Belt (60)
4. Sentinel’s Winter Cloak (50)

Alright, so at this point we have our Chest, Hands, Waist, and Back slots covered. We still need Head, Shoulders, Legs, etc.

From here the list splits

Because the shoulders that drop in ICC-10 have hit rating, go for:

5.10. Lightsworn Shoulderguards (60)
6.10. Lightsworn Faceguard (95)

And because ICC-25 has some decent offset shoulders, go for:

5.25. Lightsworn Faceguard (95)
6.25 Lightsworn Shoulderguards (60) — this is assuming you have no yet picked up the Boneguard Commander’s Pauldrons by now

Then, the two lists merge again

7. Corroded Skeleton Key (60) — I’d made this 8th on the list, but gathering Primordial Saronites is going to take a while and you’ll be better served in the short term grabbing this. The choice is up to you though, if you skip this trinket and jump ahead to #8 I will not begrudge your decision.
8. Start buying Primordial Saronite (23 per, 181 EoFs total) to get the Pillars of Might made
9. Libram of the Eternal Tower — I guess.

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.