What Tier 7 to wear?
We’ve got a couple of set bonuses to look forward to when it comes to our Tier 7 gear. (Heroic and Valorous) Our 2 piece is very enticing because everyone loves bigger Shield Slams. Our 4 piece is perplexing as it offers a small extension to an ability we get to use once maybe twice per fight if we’re very lucky. It seems that the tank community is somewhat split on the usefulness of the 4 piece with probably more people disliking it than liking it. Ultimately, there are fights where it has value and there are fights where it does not. The important question is how best would one acquire these set bonuses?
Going for Just 2
Going for just 2 certainly gives us more freedom to pick up some of the more powerful non-set pieces of loot. To make the exercise a bit more exciting, I’m not going to do what so many before me have done and assume that all you care about is the perfect 25-man set. What if you only do 10s?
The “Just 2″ 10 set
- Heroes’ Dreadnaught Handguards
- Massive Skeletal Ribcage
- Heroes’ Dreadnaught Legguards
- Abomination Shoulderblades
- Tempered Titansteel Helm
The “Just 2″ 25 set
- Valorous Dreadnaught Handguards
- Dragonstorm Breastplate
- Helm of Vital Protection
- Legplates of Sovereignty
- Valorous Dreadnaught Pauldrons
Going for the Full 4
Going for our 4 piece set bonus certainly limits our ability to be creative especially with Malygos25 dropping the only high level piece of plate loot. Here’s what we get:
The “Full 4″ 10 set
- Heroes’ Dreadnaught Handguards
- Heroes’ Dreadnaught Breastplate
- Heroes’ Dreadnaught Legguards
- Heroes’ Dreadnaught Pauldrons
- Tempered Titansteel Helm
The “Full 4″ 25 set
- Valorous Dreadnaught Handguards
- Valorous Dreadnaught Breastplate
- Valorous Dreadnaught Greathelm
- Legplates of Sovereignty
- Valorous Dreadnaught Pauldrons
Thoughts on the lists
I put a lot of emphasis on Expertise and Stamina in my picks. I’ll recognize there’s some room for movement in these lists if that’s not quite as much your thing. In particular, the Tempered Titansteel Helm could be replaced in both the “Just 2″ and “Full 4″ 10-man sets with Thane’s Tainted Greathelm if you’d like a ton of Avoidance instead of Stamina. In the case of the “Just 2″ 25-man set, one could make a case for going with the Valorous Dreadnaught Breastplate instead of the Dragonstorm Breastplate in order to make room for Pauldrons of Unnatural Death, but even though you’re gaining Expertise… I think you’re just giving up too much in this trade to warrant it. Probably, the only piece that really bothers me in any of the lists is the Valorous Dreanaught Greathelm. I’m really tempted to sport the Helm of Vital Protection over it instead and use the Valorous Dreadnaught Legguards, but in the end, the Legplates of Sovereignty are just too strong to make this change as much as it pains me.
So, 2 or 4?!
I figured you guys and gals would hold me to this question. I think the answer is both and by both I mean being able to switch between running a more powerful “Just 2″ set and still having access to run the “Full 4″ set as well. Most of the time, I want to be running just 2 set pieces, but the occasional fight where an extended Shield Wall matters, I’d be foolish not to have access to the 4 piece. When you consider that in the future, we may be able to have Shield Wall on as low as a 2 minute timer, it only makes sense to maximize this cooldown’s uptime by adding another 3 seconds of easy street.
March 10th, 2009 at 8:12 am
I think the Pauldrons of Unnatural Death are strong enough to make up for the Valorous Shoulderplates. Sure you might lose 50 dodge raiting in return for 53 parry and 7 more defense, but you’re also gaining 30 expertise at the expense of some block raiting which is, arguably, pretty weak on the majority of boss fights.
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=40548;39704
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Veneretio reply on March 10, 2009 8:19 am:
It’s not just a question of whether you gain in that transition in which you’re barely gaining if at all, but also in how much you lose switching chests. The transition in the shoulders to something more threat oriented just isn’t worth the net-loss of having to use the T7.5 chest.
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=44000;40544
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Durnic reply on March 10, 2009 8:37 am:
We just spoke via AIM and we agree that the difference is whether you value threat over avoidance. If you need threat, go for the T7.5 chest and the Unnatural Shoulderplates; if you want avoidance then the Dragonstorm Breastplate and the T7.5 shoulders are best.
My advice… pick up all four pieces.
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Sephirawth reply on March 10, 2009 9:38 am:
I would have to agree, the Paudrons are a much stronger option than the T7.5 shoulders (which makes me sad because the t7.5 look great)
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March 10th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I play my warrior as my alt and currently for what ever reason(certainly no math behind it) I gravitate towards anything that helps my bloc and block value. Also as far as gear goes I take what I can get.
But for whatever reason if it has block rating and block value on it I want it. My dodge rating is respectable at 21%+, Parry is at 19%+ and my blocking with Lavanthors Talisman is at 26-27%+. (armory is down currenly). I do use my alchymist trinket for raid bosses instead of the Talisman. When I gem I go Stam, STR and Defense with Stamina always the priority after hitting 540 defense. (I try to keep some set bonuses).
Am I overvaluing blocking? I would love to block for 30% with a block value of 1600+… is this only useful for trash?
Also my expertise is a little low, I think I am just under 5%, should this be my focus also? I guess its hard for me to figure out Best in Slot items. Thanks for your above post, I will ponder it some more.
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Veneretio reply on March 10, 2009 8:29 am:
It does sound like you’re overvaluing block. It certainly is great for situations where adds are involved, but when it comes down to staring down the big monster by yourself… it just doesn’t hold up enough.
Sounds like your Expertise is a bit on the low side too. In general, both Expertise and Hit are going to give you more damage/threat than Block Value.
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Andenthal reply on March 10, 2009 3:12 pm:
Also remember that +hit effects every ability you have, and Expertise affects nearly all of them. SBV is only affecting your Shield Slams and Damage Shield. Granted it gets modified by other talents, abilities, but it’s only affecting 1/3 of what you do on the damage end.
Vene all ready said what I was going to about SBVs contribution to survivability - nearly null.
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March 10th, 2009 at 9:16 am
I’ve been having the dilemma of the more casual tank. I haven’t done any 25 man stuff, so that gear is out of the picture for me.
I’ve done very limited 10 man, so the only t7 piece I have is the chest that I bought with emblems. I now have enough emblems for the gloves as well, but I will lose a lot of expertise - which already isn’t even soft-capped.
I find myself sitting on badges with no 2 item bonus wondering if it’ll be worth it or not. I guess I should just start raiding more!
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Viggo Vickers reply on March 10, 2009 4:34 pm:
In a purely experience based reply, if you find your self running alot of Heroics and rarely hitting 10 mans very often, then defiantly pick up the Gloves. The addition to your Shield Slams is worth it for alot of Heroic useage, where as when your faces the big boy bosses in 10 and 25 man more often, I’d then worry more about making up that Expertise you lost.
Remember there is Expertise food (I use it all the time when raiding), Elixirs, bracer enchant and gems for it, which you could always trade out in between Heroics and Raids.
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March 10th, 2009 at 10:53 am
All I know is the more gear I get the longer it takes to figure out what to wear before a boss fight. It is kind of fun in a way, but sometimes frustrating too. As of last night I have all 5 pieces of T7.5, after getting the helm and shoulders, so I have even more to choose from and the 4 set bonus to consider.
I think the thing that confuses me the most is when I put on the gear with the most dodge and parry (like 27% dodge, 22% parry) my block rating drops to about 15%. I still don’t really understand how much that hurts but I know it does. When I sacrifice a little dodge and parry I can balance out to about 24% dodge, 20% parry and 21% block rating. That combo also gives me better expertise and hit than the max dodge and parry set.
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Veneretio reply on March 10, 2009 11:19 am:
Ya I feel ya. There’s always those raids where I’ve acquired a few new pieces for one set or another and it just dramatically shifts everything. I’ll end up sitting there for an hour or more just setting up sets of gear in Itemrack. If I’ve got a really important fight coming up, I’ll even make a specific set for just Malygos for example.
Currently, the 4 sets I move between the most are:
1. Survival set (lots of expertise with a good balance of the rest)
2. Threat set (2 DPS trinkets + loads of expertise/hit)
3. Block set (30%+ Block)
4. Fury set (for random dpsing)
There’s more than that, but those are the ones I find myself using the most.
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Sephirawth reply on March 10, 2009 11:45 am:
Hey Ven, do you find that stacking expertise beyond 30 actually helps with parries? When we did Naxx 25 last week I rolled in there with 29 expertise and had 5 parries all night. What are you guys seeing?
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DwarfTank reply on March 11, 2009 12:55 pm:
I’d be VERY interested to see what your threat set looks like - the full set.
I’ve been gearing in this priority -
1) keep def at 540
2) expertise at 6.5%
3) hit at 224 (food buff gets me to hit cap)
4) stam
Currently, I am happy w/my threat output, but I’d like to compare myself to the master, as it were.
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March 10th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
My “Just 4″ set replaces the Valorous helm with Helm of Vital Protection. I think it works great (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40328).
No love for this item?
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Veneretio reply on March 10, 2009 1:16 pm:
It’s a fantastic item which is why it’s in my “Just 2″ set, but it’s just not as awesome as Legplates of Sovereignty. In my wrap up, I even state that I wish I could use it. There’s love for it, just gotta look for it
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March 10th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I’m wearing 4 set with helm of vital protection since pants never dropped for me and I passed many times helm due absolute superiority of HoVP over t7.5 helm, but yes, as soon as pants come to my set, I will go for helm and meta gem it with SVB meta to have it for SBV set aswel, imho tier is good but also there are allways 1-2 “single superior” items and if you are good tank - you should be rewarded with them and be smart to balance out when you need what.
Ulduar great start (missing 2 items atm):
1) starting 15/5/51 with “Just 2″ set
2) ~5/15/51 with Imp Disc/ and Blocking+LS+SW glyphs with 4piece set
Btw great roundup as always Vene.
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March 11th, 2009 at 9:58 am
I’m between two stools here. Currently religiously clearing Naxx 10 every week, and though I have pretty much all the non-tier plate from there, I only have the T7 chest from emblems and the T7.5 gloves from Heroic OS.
But I run Heroic VoA and OS religiously, and so have Dragon Brood Legguards too. In the current content there isn’t really anything that requires a ton of avoidance (at least at 10 man level), so I generally gear for effective health on Malygos and Sarth+, otherwise I gear for DPS (expertise and hit) without gimping my avoidance or health pool.
With that in mind I can’t see me going for the T7 four piece. Take tier 7 legs; Dragon Brood are better for avoidance, and Inescapable Death are better for threat/DPS. I’d like the T7 helm for the block value, and the T7 shoulders for the block rating. Like most tanks I tend to gear as the situation requires but for a general set I’d take;
T7 Head (block value)
Skeletal Ribcage (expertise)
T7 Shoulders (block rating)
Legplates of Inescapable Death (block value)
T7 Gloves (expertise)
And I’d rotate my other gear around this “core” as the situation demanded. the T7 4 piece isn’t worth giving up the block value or expertise I would lose otherwise, at least at present. All the above pieces have sockets too, which allows further tinkering if needed.
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March 12th, 2009 at 12:55 am
*Veneretio reply on March 10, 2009 11:19 am:
*Currently, the 4 sets I move between the most are:
*1. Survival set (lots of expertise with a good balance of the rest)
*2. Threat set (2 DPS trinkets + loads of expertise/hit)
*3. Block set (30%+ Block)
why 30% + block?
is it to try and reach a passive block cap set?
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Veneretio reply on March 12, 2009 7:21 am:
Yup, that’s pretty much the point behind a block set. If you’re blocking everything or close to then when tanking multiple mobs, you’ll take significantly less damage.
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March 12th, 2009 at 11:26 am
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=41387;42549
I’ve got the mats in my bags to make the Tempered Titansteel Helm but haven’t been able to get myself to take off the goggles.
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Blackheathen reply on March 12, 2009 5:03 pm:
I would suggest you make them and use them for an EH set. Sure the goggles will win out in most encounters (threat/avoidance) IMO but nice to have the extra stam available for the times when EH is required.
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Gravelayar reply on March 13, 2009 6:05 am:
I run a lot of OS and VOA pugs. The question always is “Who’s the main tank?”. The answer is ALWAYS “so and so has the most health so he is….”
Its not worth even getting into hit or expertise values with them.
So I’ll make this thing for my Pug MT set
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Blackheathen reply on March 24, 2009 8:30 pm:
ROFL, I so feel your pain. Having some nub is full frost resist gear made MT just makes me laugh or /wrists lol.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Pre 3.1 - Two piece
Post 3.1 - Four piece w/ Shield wall glyph.
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March 14th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I actually have a slightly different concept, since the content has several hard hitting bosses and most others are relatively technical in nature I looked into the following priority of gearing.
Def540+
HP26K+
Avoidance
Avoidance
Avoidance
I gem red sockets for expertise/stam to help with threat.
And chant agi for dodge and crit (DW)
I competed with geared DKs for the Avoidance MT spots and I do enjoy not getting hit ^.^
Downside of my set (missing 3 more upgrades ring, pants and a trinket) is that I become rage starved very quickly, last week on 10men Patchwerk I ran out of rage 5 times for as much as 20 seconds at a time (I was on hateful duty).
Till blizzard implements a Blessing of Sanctuary type of mechanics for tanks I will just have to chain pull dungeons =)
my armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Maelstrom&n=Alimea
BTW, Good job Vene its a pleasure to read your blog =)
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March 15th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
whe havnt really talked about Block value
block rating set
and stamina ofc
expertise - even hit set
but I have a block value set mainly for doing high amounts of SS
but in some way I would hope it would have more use
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