In general, I prefer Destroyer over almost any Badge or ZA piece. Stamina is important and worth stacking but its not the only thing. One belief about Blizzard’s itemization scheme is that an item becomes a little more stat rich by splitting the stats up amongst multiple stats rather then excessively stacking a few stats. This is best observed by comparing the Destroyer Chest vs Chest of the Warlord. Virtually identical in design and has the same item level, yet Destroyer has 25 strength that almost looks free. I suspect this occurs because its a 6 stat item compared to Warlord’s 4 stats. The only Destroyer piece that suffers in this regard is the gloves, largely because the lack of sockets reduce this stat budgeting effect but its still the 2nd best threat generator in the game.

Oh and another thing, the set bonuses are incredible. Everytime I see Battle Rush proc it puts me in my happy place.

The warriors that have focused on BV / BR in my guild vs my self who haven’t seen the later as a huge importance, well they excel on the AoE packs. Not saying I can’t do it, but the BV / BR tanks take noticeable less damage.

@ Lorso
I wouldn’t take the T5 leggings over the badge leggings if you aren’t desperate in need of the defence. I would for instance choose the Scarab of Displacements from Hyrdoss instead, loosing the Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600, to compensate for defence in front of this. Necklas from Fathom Lord is also an option, but I personally disslike loosing the Brooch of Defness there with all it’s stamina, hit and expertise.

In terms of choosing T5 pieces the shoulders are a given upgrade. As for the second piece

If you are trying to get to 23k at the end of tier 5 then you are seriously gimping your other stats (like defense evidently). 23k is overkill. There is nothing in tier 6 that requires anything near that much hp, especially not the early bosses.

And my main concern is if I should choose t5 now that legs and gauntlets are available for me, main issue is the lower stamina on t5 in confront of the badge rewards.

Especially that my guild is moving past ssc and the eye, and our tank goals is to have 23000 buffed healt.

The one “problen” I see is that block value here is being used entirely as a threat stat, and people are neglecting its damage mitigation. Whilst of course 38 block value (49 with shield mastery) isn’t going to take an appreciable amount of damage off something hitting for 3000-4000 or above, but once you start facing lower damage opponents (ie, everything in a heroic, 10man trash etc) then the BV starts coming into its own.

In fact, when I’m facing stuff that hits for under 2000, I stack block value and block -rating- (if tanking 2+mobs) as the return on investment for item budget seems far swayed in favor of block as a mitigation stat.

If something is hitting you for 800, and you have 700 block value, the maiden gloves on top of that will be equivalent to 50% damage reduction assuming high block chance/shieldblock use. And when your block value is greater than the hits you’re taking, a mere 7.9 block rating for 1% suddenly starts being as powerful as 18.9 dodge rating.

Possibly something worth doing an article on? The breakpoints between when it’s best to wear Block gear, and when it’s best to wear stamina/avoidance/hit gear etc. I have bonefists and use them against all raid bosses, but I find myself wearing the Maiden gloves more often.

I was thinking of putting a 10 stam kit on bonefists to really put them head and shoulders above t5 for EH. Then I was thinking 2% threat on T5 for trash and quick agro bosses.

I also have the 2 piece t5 from legs/shoulders so that doesn’t factor into this arguement.

Maiden gloves with 2% threat for progression
T4 with 15 avi for farming/more avoidance oriented fights.

Clearly the badge gloves are superior, but I, as others have stated feel that other badge gear is more of a priority…like legs, neck, bracers, waist.

thoughts?

Basically, I can grind out the S3 chest and essentially get a sidegrade, or I can drop one of my current EH trinkets and start using one of the high-defense trinkets as a replacement. Neither option is terribly appealing to me right now.