Tweak your Toon with Trinkets
Your 2 Trinket slots are by the most flexible slots of your character and where you are able to tweak your toon to give yourself an extra advantage for an encounter. As a result, you need to be carrying multiple, unique trinkets.
The 5 Attributes to Tanking Trinkets
- Threat
- Stamina
- Avoidance
- Defense
- Resilience
Every single one of the above 5 attributes is useful in a different situation for a tank. You won’t need to be carrying 2 trinkets with each of these attributes all the time, but at any given time you should be carrying a couple trinkets that represent 3 or 4 of the 5.
Threat Trinkets
You want to use a Threat trinket when you are doing an encounter where the need to kill the boss quickly is a higher priority than your own survivability. This will also mean that as you start out-gearing content you’ll want to swap your survivability trinkets for these. While you certainly can use trinkets that offer Strength, Agility, Attack Power or Crit Rating for threat, you’ll get the biggest threat boost out of a trinket that offers a lot of Block Value like Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600 or one that offers a lot of Hit Rating like Icon of Unyielding Courage.
Stamina Trinkets
Stamina Trinkets are your best bet to get gross amounts of Effective Health in a pinch. As a general rule of thumb, I kept wearing mine as long as I wasn’t under 15,000 unbuffed health. This isn’t to say that you can’t still benefit from using Stamina Trinkets to get even higher health than that after that point for specific encounters (soaking bolts on Gruul comes to mind), but beyond that point I prefer using these slots to increase one of the other 4 attributes. There are a number of different trinkets that offer a huge pure Stamina boost such as Violet Badge, Goblin Rocket Launcher or Darkmoon Card: Vengeance.
Avoidance Trinkets
The other side of the survivability coin to that of raw Stamina, an Avoidance Trinket is your best bet to use for those hard hitting bosses once you’ve hit the proper Stamina benchmarks. It can sometimes be tricky to determine when it’s time to walk into an encounter with your Avoidance Trinket instead of your Stamina one. Generally speaking, Avoidance is fantastic for fights where you really won’t be pressed to generate a ton of threat and where your healer(s) has the benefit of being able to heal you reactively rather than proactively. This category blends into the next (Defense), but from a pure Dodge Rating standpoint this slot is often summed up as a single trinket, Moroes’ Lucky Pocketwatch. The usage by itself, which acts like another “Last Stand” style ability, warrants selecting this trinket over Stamina alternatives at times if the boss has a Frenzy, Silence or Enrage type state that you can use this trinket to help sneak through.
Defense Trinkets
These are your early bread and butter as they serve 2 very important roles to the early development of your character. You need to acquire 490 Defense ASAP in order to not be critable and Defense Rating offers Avoidance at a rate of 19.7 to 1%. (very close to Dodge Rating’s 18.9 to 1%) If you haven’t reached 490 Defense these trinkets are more important than Threat, Stamina or Avoidance alternatives. With the state of a lot of the items in the game for warriors at the moment it’s not uncommon to be wearing 2 of these types of Trinkets. Three fantastic Defense Trinket options are Dabiri’s Engima, Adamantine Figurine and Scarab of Displacement. (The latter two in particular have excellent usages on top of solid stats)
Resilience Trinkets
You might think that these are just for PvP, but you’d be wrong. The fact is that Resilience scales more aggressively than Defense when it comes to reaching uncrittable status. A Resilience Trinket is perfect for an encounter like Hydross where you need to stack a lot of Resistance, but also need to stay uncrittable. The Resilience Trinket of choice for tanking is Timelapse Shard since it offers Resililence combined with a decent level of Stamina too. (Don’t accidentally use the usage though!)
They’re worth the Space
Skimming over this list, I bet you can see where you could easily have 4 extra trinkets sitting in your bags along with the 2 on your toon and that’s a good thing. If you haven’t been flipping around trinkets for different encounters you’ll be amazed at the very noticeable difference tweaking these slots does for your performance. When I write about the importance of Tanks using multiple sets of gear in my other articles, it’s not like I’m saying you have to replace every single piece you are using.
It’s the little things that make the big difference.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
For resilience don’t forget the medallion of the horde/alliance: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30344 and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30350
The use effect is quite useful for many situations outside of pvp, though may get more use in 5-man heroics than raiding.
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February 11th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Got the Adamantite Figurine to drop on my first run through Shadow Labs… Still using it for multiple situations in every raid in which I’m involved. I never leave home without it.
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February 11th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Two new trinkets in 2.4:
1.
44 expertise rating
chance on hit to increase AP by 260 for 20 sec
2.
57 stamina
if a hit would take you below 35% health you gain 380 dodge rating for 10 seconds, cant trigger more than once per 30 seconds
I may have those numbers slightly off bu surely these will be must haves come 2.4
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February 11th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Never got that damn figurine to drop and I’ve spent 205 badges already and cbf getting the auto-blocker as well, lol. So darkmoon card: Vengeance and the pocket watch are the 2 and only trinkets I have and use.
Vene, what do you think about this supposed drop from heroic Terrace?
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/february/commendationkaelthas.jpg
Because I think it’s so pretty it makes me want to cry. Monster stamina, and nice chunk of avoidance when you really need it. It will take testing though to see whether the 35% is “when you really need it” or “too late, enjoy the ghost run”.
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February 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Ya, I stumbled across that earlier too Talisman and like almost every tank that’s seen it I’m kinda giddy
The expertise one that Thug has mentioned looks very impressive too.
How will these stack up against existing trinkets?
Well you’ll just have to wait for Sunwell to be released for my article on that one
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February 11th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I’ve been farming Slabs for the figurine but no luck…so I think I’ll do the chain for Dabiri’s Enigma. I almost have a full furies deck for the vengeance card…just need the 3 and 5.
Also hoping that Moroes’ lucky pocket watch drops for me next time I go through Kara. *pray*
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February 12th, 2008 at 5:22 am
You made the quote under Stamina trinkets, “Stamina Trinkets are your best bet to get gross amounts of Effective Health in a pinch. As a general rule of thumb, I kept wearing mine as long as I wasn
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February 12th, 2008 at 6:10 am
I find that I have my Darkmoon Card: Vengeance and Moroe’s Lucky Pocket Watch equipped always. Right now we just do Kara, and even though I have Dabiri’s, and Adamantine Figurine sitting in my bags, I just never swap them out. Someday I may, and will always hold onto them just in case. And as a bit of a splurge I have been wearing both the Shermanar Great Ring, and my Great Protector violet eye ring as well. But thats just to be silly and see how high I can get my stamina to go.
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February 12th, 2008 at 8:22 am
@Johnny
Vashj, Tidewalker and Tidalvass are fights where additional stamina may benefit you. Some like to use more avoidance on Tidewalker though. Extra stamina is very helpful on Vashj since she is capable of slipping in 8K Shock Bolts whilst Grounding Totem is on cooldown. In general, double stam can be helpful when taking damage of differing types. Vashj has physical autoshot, physical autoattack, strong elemental burst, elemental AOE. She’ll pretty much throw the kitchen sink at you. Kael is another big stamina encounter.
Fathomlord I use double “use” avoidance trinkets on to help out my single healer whilst he gets pelted by shadowbolts. Hydross being a resist fight forces you to use whatever you manage to shoehorn in.
Leo, Lurker and Caribdis are more threat orientated fights.
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February 12th, 2008 at 11:09 am
how much does the deck usually cost for Darkmoon Card: Vengeance. cause i saw it in ah for 1500g buyout and wasnt sure to get it.
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February 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
@tyler:
Ya, 1500g is about right. Although if you take the time to make it on your own it’s going to be cheaper. The 6 of Furies is the hardest part by far so expect to pay high or wait a long time for it.
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February 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I’m one of the few tanks I know that uses 2 darkmoon cards for most content.
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February 12th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Ya i think i have 4 diffrent tanking trinkets that i rotate depending on the need. a variety is important.
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February 12th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Call me a bad tank. I have Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch (it’s dropped for me twice, the first time I passed on it in favor of our druid tank) and the Darkmoon Card Venegance plus the Adamantite Figurine and Dabiri’s Enigma plus the Gnomish Poultrizer (chicken pull FTW) — and yet the one I like the best for normal play, i.e. not a raid boss, is the Hourglass of the Unraveller. The proc sends my tps upwards of 700+ which lets the DPS go all out.
As long as I remember to replace my Orb of Deception before entering combat it’s all good.
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February 12th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
There’s nothing wrong with that Evita. The Hourglass is a threat trinket. That being said by getting the Block Value or Hit Rating trinkets I suggest in the article, you’ll see an even bigger threat boost! (not to mention block value helps you take less damage too)
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February 12th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I typically use my darkmoon card: vengeance and autoblocker for most fights, but I switch in the pocketwatch on fights I think I’ll need the extra avoidance. I can’t wait for the 2.4 trinkets to come out. They look so nice…
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February 13th, 2008 at 6:08 am
For referens to Evit in terms of treat-generation a “normal” figure I tend to see in terms of treat generation is around 1000 TPS as long as the rage is very starved. Personally I tend to level out at about 1200 TPS and peak at about 1600 (T5 and Autoblocker “proc”).
Of course the above depends on what level you play on (pre-karazhan I could imagine about 400 TPS could be great so to speak).
But yeah, it all depends on your roll as a tank and what “issues” you want to boost. A solid balance of aggro, dps and stamina is the TK-trinket “Solarian’s Sapphire” which gives both 30 stamina and adds 70 attack power to you battle shout. In a melee group you buff the raid with up to 350 attack power. Also in many raid-set ups you have at least two tanks in the MT group which means one commanding shout and one battle shout. 140 extra attack power and pretty solid health boost for the tank himself.
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February 13th, 2008 at 8:38 am
I love this site of course, but you should definitely add the Commander’s Badge that you get for being Netherwing Revered to the stamina list. It is +45 stam.
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:05 am
One of the best things about Dabiri’s Enigma is that the Use doesn’t trigger a CD on the Auto-blocker so you can pop them both at the same time and lay down some monster shield slams. Same with Glyph of Deflection from Sapphiron if you happen to have.
I love my Moroes trinket, I think it spends more time equipped than any other trinket I have (and I have a lot…) and it has saved me more times than I can count. It scales up too since as your gear gets better and you get more and more avoidance, the Use effect makes you almost unhittable for the duration and 10 seconds is almost always enough time for healers to recover from whatever happened.
Considering my love for the Moroes trinket, I would kill someone - in front of their own mother - to get my hands on the trinket from Magister’s Terrace.
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Dabiri’s Enigma increases Block Rating, not Block Value.
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Since when?
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Well, wowhead says block rating so I guess I am just an idiot. Has it always been rating? I could have sworn it was value. My only defense is that I haven’t actually used that trinket in a long time…
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February 13th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Even if our MT is using critical strike gems on his tanking shoulders he still has that adamantite figurine along with every other tank known to man…
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February 13th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Yup, it’s always been Block Rating. If it makes you feel better this isn’t a terribly uncommon misconception.
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February 13th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I’m still a big fan of Styleen’s Impeding Scarab. Yeah it’s a lvl 60 BWL trinket…but def/sbr/sbv can’t go wrong there…and it’s solid amounts of a three so it can still hold it’s own.
Mostly for tanking I never take off my autoblocker and my Styleen’s. I’ve been raiding for 3 years with two of my main healers and I know I don’t really need to swap out those trinkets to make up for raid healing.
Although for fights like Hydross I fully agree with the timelapse shard to compensate for the resist gear (I hate being the frost guy, especially as a NE >
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February 14th, 2008 at 6:43 am
I typically run with Moroes’ trinket and the netherwing +45 stam trinket. For kara, I’ll equip that and the Argussian Compass, which is, I think, another +35 stam.
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February 14th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I like to use the Darkmoon Card: Vengence (found 6 to be easy 75g on ah)
And the Auto Blocker. For a fight where i need more stam instead of block (hydross for example) I like to switch in my newly made Gnomish Poultrizer. I had a fun time dropping 800g to power lvl engi 1-364 when i decided it’s better than having blacksmithing sitting at 290 donig nothing. (cost 800g because i made all the fun stuff on the way). Luckily i raised Engi the day before the new googles we’re released and got myself a deal
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February 15th, 2008 at 2:05 am
I use Darkmoon Card: Vengence and Auto Blocker most of the time. For Prince in Kara, used Argaussian Compass + DC: Ven. For AOE pulls, nothing beats Dabiri’s Enigma and Figurine of the Colosses(got it my first trip into Shattered halls). Hit both, and you suddenly start blocking everything and healing youself because of it. I used Nifty Pocket Watch(that’s right, a level 40something green) while learning the Murmur and Shade of Aran fights.
Mark of the Chosen(from zangormarsh pvp tokens) makes for a nice early threat trinket. + 40AP and an on-hit chance to heal self.
I nearly wet myself when I saw that new expertise trinket. Then I realized I’m going to have to roll against every melee character in existance for it. LFG: H MgT anyone?
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February 18th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Fustigator, I’m not sure you mean “Mark of the Chosen”. I think you’re talking about the “Mark of Conquest”, which can be bought for 30 tokens from the Hellfire Peninsula PvP quest. The vendor (for Alliance) is in Zangarmarsh. It’s +54AP, and a roughly 10% chance on hit to heal (or return mana for a ranged hit). I love this trinket, and I got it as soon as I could. It was amazing for levelling, and I still keep it equipped for farming and questing.
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February 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 pm
No love for Spyglass of the hidden fleet? I’m currently using that and Moroes’ Pocket Watch and they’re pretty nice. The Spyglass is good if a healer misses a heal or if you’re in a 5 man.
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February 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
I use the spyglass all the time, and I’d mostly list it as a stam trinket. I didn’t think I’d use it that much, but ever since I’ve picked it up it’s become a free potion every two minutes and saved me a ton of cash on consumables. I also use it in my PvP/grinding set since I can just pop it any time I hit 50% and keep going.
It’s nice for fights with silence like Gruul and Narlarok, too.
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March 11th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I carry around like 9 trinkets (including dps trinkets) or something ridiculous like that… and I use them all for different scenarios… but I don’t do anything with resilience really. You mention the Hydross fight above - is there any other specific fight where y’all prefer a resilience trinket over the ol’ standbys? Please understand - I’m NOT talking about the usage of the medallion of the horde/alliance, but just plain resilience. I use the resilience ring from ZA for my stamina set (since 54 stam on a ring is just crazy until I get some better rings), but that’s for stam, and in that set my defense rating is still around 510 or so, therefore the resilience seems somewhat pointless…
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March 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Finally got off my butt and got the Dabiri’s trinket. Glad I did because it pushed my black rating to almost 50% on use, which when I tanked bosses that ate my shield blocks up (i.e. Prince) the trinket actually saved me from quite a few crushes on its own.
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March 25th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Alright with 2.4 going live today I decided to look at trinkets and holy crap Commendation of Kael Thas (hope this link works) http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/february/commendationv2.jpg
Right now i’m using Auto-Bloacker and the Darkoon Card: Vengence and i am totally at a crossroads as to which of the 3 trinkets to use. My guild recently started getting into BT so the insignia is a possibillity. Please help
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March 25th, 2008 at 11:15 am
When i pick up the Commendation, i’ll probably still be using Autoblocker + Darkmoon Card for trash and bosses we’re comfortable with. Then trading in the Commendation for the Card for fights where that proc can save my life, or even for the Autoblocker/Watch/Scarab, when I need that massive amount of Stamina.
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