The Upgrade that 15% of you can’t even afford
Definitely one of the most enjoyable aspects of this site is just how involved you guys get in the polls. It’s a great way of seeing just where the tanking community stands on a particular issue or in the case of the above poll, what the average tank’s day-to-day life is like. (By the way, if you’re ever curious about a particular poll question feel free to ask me to put it up) After this poll was up for a while, a friend of mine commented on just how poor tanks are. Personally, I’d like to think it’s just that we actually spend our gold to improve our characters. Which brings me to today’s tip…
How much is 6 Stamina worth to you?
With Patch 3.2 will come a series of new epic gems, but what many of you may not know is that we’ve already been able to use 1 for a while now. Stormjewels are acquirable through the Fishing Daily available in Dalaran. As expected, the odds of getting one from the quest are horrible. The odds of getting the one you need are even worse. Of course, the simplest solution is to just buy one off the Auction House.
Solid Stormjewels sit around the 500 gold mark on most servers which unfortunately means a few of you can’t afford them. It also means probably 11% more of you won’t be able to justify it to yourselves to do it.
The rest of you, there’s really no excuse. An upgrade is an upgrade.
But, I might replace whatever I put it in right away!
Well the trick is for that not to happen! Let’s take a look at some of the best pieces available to you to put a Stormjewel in.
Indestructible Plate Girdle
The current best-in-slot belt has a blue slot just asking to have a Stormjewel in it. The best part is that even if you aren’t doing Ulduar25, you can save up some runed orbs among other things and pay someone to craft this for you. Between the jewel and the belt, it’s a big price to pay, but that’s the price you pay for longevity.
Saronite Plated Legguards
The majority of the community won’t be killing Algalon25, so these are your best-in-slot legs and thankfully, they drop early in Ulduar25 off Kologarn. They feature an unnaturally large amount of armor that makes them the perfect non-set compliment to your 4 piece set and as a result, are many player’s favourite place to put a Solid Stormjewel.
Armor Plated Combat Shotgun
For those of you not venturing into Ulduar25, the shotgun is the obvious choice to sport your Stormjewel. Even if you do manage to acquire Veranus’ Bane, for the Stamina stacking tank, this gun is still superior.
The Philosophy of Spending for Small Upgrades
There’s a lot of you out there that I know wonder how people afford stuff like this. You make excuses to yourselves and your friends that it’s a waste and that anyone that has such small, expensive upgrades has way too much time and money on their hands. What you don’t realize though is just how easy it is to maintain the “rich” look once you’ve got it.
Yes, it sucks when you’re first starting. It’s not cheap to get the best enchant on every piece and it’s not cheap either to get the best gems in every slot. If you’ve been raiding for a while though, you’ll notice it’s very rare to get more than a single piece in a week, often it’s even less frequent than that. It isn’t expensive to gem and enchant just 1 piece which really is what it’s all about once you’re set.
So, start grinding gold. Set yourself up. Then go back to being cheap again. 
July 27th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I am the worst gold farmer in history :p
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July 27th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I couldn’t agree more. The cost benefit analysis includes how long the piece is expected to last before it’s replaced, whether the enchant or gem will be replaced, and how much gold I have on hand. It’s an investment in the equipment, only worth it if the equipment is valuable.
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Cleaved reply on July 28, 2009 6:45 am:
I think the cost analysis has to do with how dedicated you are to tanking, not how long the gear is expected to last.
Blue gear needs an enchant. Not the best enchant, but an enchant. Once you get epic tanking gear, get the best enchant you can get. ALL gear will be replaced eventually, but will YOU be replaced at some point?
We just /gkicked a Pally healer, because he didn’t see why it was important that he have the best possible enchants on his T8.5… Not only did he not see the importance, he argued that he’d get the enchants “when he felt like it.” >_
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ihlos reply on July 29, 2009 8:39 am:
I would never, ever join your guild. Removing him from raids is one thing. Kicking him for not having top grade enchants is fail at people skills.
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Veneretio reply on July 29, 2009 9:29 am:
If you’re not interested in joining a guild like that, that is fine. You don’t know anything about his people skills though, so let’s stay away from personal attacks.
The reality is some guilds focus on raiding and if you’re not their to raid, then they’re not interested in you. That’s not a failure of people skills. That’s a guild sticking to the policies and goals they have in place.
Cleaved reply on July 29, 2009 12:18 pm:
Not to mention he told the Guild Leader to “f*#k off” when asked why he didn’t have his gear from a week ago… enchanted properly
It’s true, some guilds have policies about having enchants and such. We were willing to let it go, until he got abrasive and rude… and refused to admit he was wrong. There are many people that hang on in a progression raiding guild just because their attitude makes up for something they are lacking.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:10 am
It’s funny you should post this. I’m guild leader/Main Tank/Raid Leader of my guild. I only just put a post about minor upgrades yesterday. I spent 850 gold getting my 30 stam gem. Trying to get it through to people that every little bit counts.
my 6 stam gain could mean the difference between:
a boss that hits every 1.5 seconds killing me in 3 seconds, or me surviving to the 4.5 second mark and staying alive long enough to get a heal.
I just finished arguing till I was blue in the face with one of my hunters, to get a pet that was only slightly superior in DPS than his current - which could mean the difference between a 1% wipe and a progression kill.
Keep it up Vene
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ihlos reply on July 29, 2009 8:40 am:
Telling a hunter what pet to get is risky business. We hunters are kinda crazy when it comes to our pets.
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Cleaved reply on July 31, 2009 5:39 am:
I agree with the min/maxing if you are going for progression content. Everyone needs to do whatever they can to make a boss die. Especially in hard modes. There are some videos of Mimiron Firefighter kills… where they kill him just after the Enrage timer. I believe one such video states that “if we had done just 500 less DPS, we would have all wiped”
Every little bit counts… thinking it doesn’t, is bringing your raid down, even if its by 50dps.
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Morrick reply on August 5, 2009 4:22 am:
Exactly what Coolade, 6 stamina may seem small, but its 6 stamina the boss needs to hack off before you go down, i for one say go for it
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I’ll be honest, while I might have the gold for it, I haven’t got myself to get the Stormjewel for my gear. The prices for them on my server is a lot higher than most, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. But since the last patch, I saved up for both the Ulduar crafted belt and boots and now so close (at least the impression we’re all getting with the patch downloads) to the next patch I made the decision to hold out.
I’d rather farm the Epic gems in the next patch and save my gold to work towards the next lot of crafted pieces that’ll become available on the AH, rather than blow 1.5k gold now for 6 Stamina.
I totally agree with the ‘Small Upgrade is still an upgrade’ philosophy, but for me we’re not talking about a few 100g for some enchants. When it’s so much gold (at least on my server) for the Stormjewel, it’s Gold Management/Future Upgrade Vs. Small Upgrade Now.
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Roffe reply on August 1, 2009 4:51 am:
i actually was about to post the same thing, i have the money needed, or well, i have the posibility to farm the money needed, on our server its bout 900g, and well i rather, as you say, save my money for new craftables as the epic gems will anyways be obtained in the next patch through badges
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Cleaved reply on August 1, 2009 4:57 pm:
Right now, it’s less of an issue. This upgrade and associated article, would have been more useful 2+ months ago. With the patch on the horizon and new epic gems, the prices of Stormjewels have gone down, but only on some Servers. If they are still high-priced, there is little harm in sacrificing 6 Stamina until the patch
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I slowly started to enchant my gear, my main is a resto shammy, but i’ve started a prot warrior alt, and it gets expensive, but if you add up all the minor benefits, it becomes pretty substantial.
Plus, if you have something you’re going to replace somewhat soon, then get the next best enchant/gems if money is a big issue. It urks me when people walk around with gear completely unenchanted/ungemmed cause they don’t have enough money/it isn’t worth it for the best gems/chants. My crafted mace only has the 50 SP enchant on it, cause I couldn’t justify the cost for the mats of the 63 SP for the craftable epic (I mean come on, it doesn’t even have int or mp5 on it). We have Razorscale 25 on farm, which drops my close to BiS main hand (and what does drop BiS we’re nowhere near downing) so once I get that drop I will shell out the extra few hundred gold to get that extra oomph of the 63 SP enchant.
Plus, speaking of spending butt loads of money on minor upgrades, I’m currently saving up for the trinket Je’Tze’s Bell which goes for the low, low price of 3500+g. Costs a lot, but the upgrades to it are from hard modes, so I’ll prolly hang on to it for a while.
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am
My tank is a mining herbalist…so i am never out of cash for long…my problem is I see something I buy it!!
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Veneretio reply on July 27, 2009 10:22 am:
You should totally drop Herbalism for something more-tankie! (Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking and Enchanting all offer 50 Stamina-ish bonuses)
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Kinch reply on July 27, 2009 12:25 pm:
Use alts for gathering.
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Sephirawth reply on July 27, 2009 12:44 pm:
Kinch nailed it, alts for gathering. I am a BS/JC and the $$ just keeps rolling in. I am about to pass 20k and I don’t even try.
Cleaved reply on July 28, 2009 6:54 am:
First… Level a DK to 77. Purchase Epic Flying (it will pay for itself in the long run, trust me), and level up Herbalism and Mining on that DK.
You can take the DK to 80 if you like, but you don’t need to waste the time. As a DK in Greens you can kill any Elite you come across, or 10 mobs at once… hell, you can even kill someone that tries to gank you, they are that OP.
Then… level up JC and BS on your Tank. JC = 3 extra gems with awesome stats, and BS = 3 Extra Gem Sockets. A perfect match up.
You CAN keep Mining (for the Stamina buff) and then get JC or BS. Either way… any of those combos are better than Mining/Herbalism.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:28 am
The question you’re not considering is this - why do we maintain the gold reserves that we have? In my case I keep 2000 to 2500 gold aside for a proverbial rainy day when I won’t have time for whatever reason to farm for a couple of weeks (it’s happened). Wipe nights in i226 plate get expensive.
Sure, I could go out and grab a solid stormjewel now (at a lot more than 500G on my server), but what use is it if I then can’t afford next week’s repair bill because I had to stay late at the office?
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Veneretio reply on July 27, 2009 10:53 am:
It’s impossible for me to know your situation, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re like most people and you hit a certain amount of gold that you’re comfortable with and then you don’t really try to push past that amount.
I’ve always found the best approach is to just watch the AH for a cheap one and buy it. Once your reserves are low, you’ll feel motivated to get them back to where you’re comfortable again. If you don’t ever spend anything, you’ll find yourself wasting time talking on vent running around Dalaran rather than talking on vent while doing dailies.
At the very least, you should really be doing the fishing daily. The odds are horrible, but you may just luck out and get one or get one for a friend that’s not willing to drop the 500 to 1500 gold either.
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Namthe reply on July 27, 2009 10:58 am:
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there.
And yes, I do the fishing daily religiously. There’s no good reason not to.
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I probably answered in the 1k range, but now I have 3k, for the smaller amounts of gold, those change for me on a day-to-day basis, after a few runs of instances I can have 4-500 more gold than I started with, after a 50g repair bill that makes 450ish, I can farm 2kg in a day if I set my mind to it
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I put mine in my shoulders as there won’t be anything replacing the conqueror’s T8.5 until next patch.
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Veneretio reply on July 27, 2009 10:55 am:
Agreed, that’s an excellent spot for it, too.
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July 27th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Hey, I just felt like pointing this out:
–Saronite Plated Legguards
The majority of the community won’t be killing Algalon25, so these are your best-in-slot legs
Fact is, SPL is best in slot OVER Legplates of the Endless Void. Little trippy? Lets talk EHP for a second.
The simplest EHP calculation is HP * (Armor + 16635) / 16635
This means that as long as your Armor is 16635 less than your HP it will always be better (point for point) to increase armor rather than HP. Of course, the 1x multiplier from Stam to HP and the multipliers from things like Kings and talents make it even worse. However, if we say a 13:1 ration of HP:Sta (I’m not sure what it is for Warriors), then say maybe 45k buffed HP and 28k buffed armor (Should be close, going off your armory) we’re looking at 228 Sta/2117 AR vs 195 Sta/2880 AR or 33 Sta vs 763 AR.
Going off the initial values I listed, 33 Sta gives you 429 HP for [429 * 44635 / 16635] = [1151] EHP while 763 AR gives you [45000 * 763 / 16635] = [2064] EHP
Point being, even if my numbers are a bit off because I don’t know your actual raid buffed stats, the end result should be pretty damn close. The counter to this is that magical damage is unaffected by armor, but to be fair there are so few pieces with +Armor that it’s worthwhile to stack them. On a side note, by the same logic, Seal of Ulduar and even Signet of Winter are stronger than Fate’s Clutch.
Am I wildly off topic yet? Yeah, I’m wildly off topic. Back to my corner
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Psy reply on July 27, 2009 11:48 am:
*10x
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July 27th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I can easily afford a Stormjewel, but getting an extra 30 or so HP does not seem worth it to me for 500 gold. I guess I should track my overkills more closely. How often do you see an overkill and it is an amount less than 100 hp?
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Veneretio reply on July 27, 2009 12:41 pm:
I can’t say that I track my overkills closely enough to know either. I’ve always taken the approach that gold is infinite in this game. Upgrades are not. Only good things can come from more stats.
Frankly, it’s dangerous to start asking one’s self if something is “saving” them or not. You could use 18 Stamina gems instead of 24s. You could use lower level enchants too. There’s lots of ways to save money in this game instead of minor gains. Those little things add up though.
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Drae reply on August 4, 2009 1:28 pm:
I was over killed by 97 on hard mode XT the other night…. 97hp….
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July 27th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Dual gathering professions with one of your alts can make it a LOT easier to gather some gold. I have an alt I use mainly for gathering, and then I use a questing addon to give him some direction for leveling. It’s working pretty well for me so far.
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July 27th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I was lucky enough to get one from a fishing daily, so mine sits squarely in my Armor Plated shotgun. I’m sitting on a large amount of gold as well, so if I replace it anytime soon, I can afford to buy another one off the AH.
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July 27th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
A good way to save money is to look at the patch notes and plot out what materials you’ll need and buy/ or farm them early. Not everyone has the time to quest or play the auction house, so managing the gold you do have is next best thing.
Be patient! Try bidding on items you want, rather than buying them out directly. I saved about 200g (i’ve seen them on my server ranging from 500g-750g buy out) on my solid stormjewel that way.
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Chet reply on July 27, 2009 4:11 pm:
I have to agree and disagree with you. I’m in kind of the same boat, in that I have to measure the time cost against the value of the upgrade, but at the same time, I should balance my time online as best I can. If I’m only able to play 3 nights a week, I should probably take at least one of those nights to farm instead of raid, so I can afford to raid. I don’t, but I should. Fortunately I’m not in a guild that requires high attendance.
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July 27th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
You mock me sir!
I’d spend 500-800 gold on a stormjewel in a heart beat.
If I had it.
I’m notoriously broke, but the reality is, with x amount of hours I’m willing to dedicate to playing, farming gold is far, far down on the list of ways to spend my time.
I keep my gear as enchanted and gemmed as possible, but Stormjewels seem to be a pretty heavy value : cost ratio. (Where cost is measured in the amount of time I’m at the computer rather than outside!)
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July 27th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Lawl same here, Ive been pondering if i should get rid of mining do it over on an alt and just go with JCing on my main for the stam buffs of JCing
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
since WotLK came out, I’ve never had issues with gold. I keep up on my dailies - the Argent Tournament ones, cooking, fishing, and a couple of others here and there, which is over 150G a day; then I have my enchanter friends DE any greens I pick up and sell those on the AH or save them for enchants I might need if I get an upgrade; I sell my extra Northrend Spices, since I really keep a stock of 3 stacks of well fed on me and a stack of Fish Feasts as well.
I was up to over 10k gold a couple of weeks ago; and spent 6k on the BS Uld. tank boots plus gems and enchants for them, and used up some gold starting a guild on my alt with 4 bank tabs; and I’m back up to almost 5k already.
Anyone who complains about being broke is really just lazy I think; heck, grab a handful of friends and blow thru Kara and make some gold (DE any drops you can and sell the mats). Use extra badges to sell BoE bracers; Frozen Orbs etc …
There’s lots of options to make money without tons of time or effort if you are smart about it.
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July 28th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I don’t farm stuff for Gold, nor do I do any dailies except for the Argent Tournament ones whenever I have time. Yet, I am sitting on 30k gold.
People in my guild ask how I can have that much and here is what I do:
I keep stuff. I stockpile items on a bank toon until I get too many of whatever it is… and HAVE to sell it. Then I sell it for the best price I can get.
I save money by keeping stuff. If something is an item I use for enchanting my gear, crafting leg armor or making a belt buckle… I save it. Again, until I have too much of it, THEN I sell the overage for a profit. Too many people get an item and say “I’ll sell this right now, because I don’t need it right now.” Save what you need for the next time you need it, or save it until the price is prime on the AH… then Sell it.
I don’t sell Greens, I DE them. I don’t sell the DE materials either, I save them… for when I need an enchant on my new pieces of gear. My Guild gives out Abyss Crystals for Enchants, but Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence can be expensive too, so I stockpile it. This saves gold.
I LOOT EVERY MOB. Pickup all that CRAP that they drop, whether you are out doing Dailies, helping a friend kill an Elite or doing a Raid… loot every mob. Sell all that trash, and it adds up.
SAVING Gold = Earning Gold. That is the point of what I’m typing here.
I do very little, if anything, to actually make gold. Yet, I have a Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth and am still sitting on 30k Gold.
Another PRO tip… setup Outfitter and make sure “Birthday Suit” is hotkeyed. Then, when a wipe is called or you KNOW you are going to die (especially if you are going Fury for a fight), hit your hotkey and it will remove your Weapons (MH, OH and Ranged). This will save you a HUGE amount on repair bills. Especially if you are Fury, since Two 2H’s + Ranged = a lot of gold.
Also… talk to your Guild about Runed Orbs. We give them out for 10dkp each. This way, it cost me zero for 2 BiS items…. well, it cost me 120dkp. However, I had all the other mats, or farmed them. Even if you can’t farm the other mats, you save gold by not buying Runed Orbs. Really, what is your guild doing with them… selling them? Letting people /roll on them? They should be available for DKP.
Hope any of these tips help.
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Sagramor reply on July 28, 2009 8:52 am:
Prices on most servers are largely deflationary, therefore I take the opposite view to hoarding. If you can sell something now for 100g, and buy it back when you need it for 70g, you’ve saved yourself some cash. By way of an example, I sold 2 of the the new inscription tomes for about 2k each, even though I have an inscriber alt. I could buy them back now for a tenth of the price.
Still, I can’t argue with your results. Like the other tips too!
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Cleaved reply on July 28, 2009 12:50 pm:
Yes, some items are worth selling as soon as you get them. However, I have noticed prices go up and down a lot on my server. I hold on to Scarlet Rubies, for instance, because I know they can sell for 100g one week, 50g the next, then shoot up to 100g again. I save what I anticipate needing for new Fury gear, then sell the rest.
Some items are worth selling depending on how often you get them and how fast you overstock on them. If you rarely get an item, I would suggest holding onto it. If you are DEing Greens, for instance, you should stockpile a lot. You will be upgrading gear a lot and pickup pieces for multiple “sets.” So saving those mats is a great idea. However, if you get a LOT of Greens one week… then it may pay to sell some of the mats off when the market is good, especially if bag space is at a premium for you.
A lot of things will vary by server, and the AH trends you have. But saving items never hurts your gold, whereas buying them does. One makes a null gain or loss, and the other is a definite negative.
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Sephirawth reply on July 28, 2009 12:50 pm:
This ^ Cleaved, I like you…. this is EXACTLY what I do as well.
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July 28th, 2009 at 9:30 am
While my gold reserve is no where in Cleaved league, making gold is fairly easy via dailies.
With a little planning, you can combine several of them into some quick hit money makers. I always at a bare minimum do Cooking/Fishing/JC along with Argent Tournament & Shadow Vault. The three at SV have to be the quickest 40g you can make, and kills there also count towards the 15 Scourge you need for the Tournament. I’ll also hit up the ones at Dun Niefilem if I have the time. I net at a bare minimum 150g a day.
On the point of small upgrades, I just recently switched from Herbalism to JC. Leveled it in one night. Speaking honestly, as a prot warrior I realized I didn’t have the best profession choices. I’ll probably drop Alchemy for BS once the initial rush of 3.2 passes and I transmute some of those epic gems I’ll need. But back on point, picking up JC was the best decision I could have made at this point. With the trinkets and prismatic’s, along with picking up a +30 STA gem someone was spamming in trade chat for 500g I raised my EH by around 3k! It was to low prior and hurting my tanking a bit in Ulduar.
I have a small advantage in that I work in tandem with my wife who is does mining/enchanting on her toon. Any greens I find while doing dailes or from any runs I send to her to d/e. She saved me quite a bit during the JC leveling process, although I still dropped about 1k in gold on making the switch. Plus, our guild just recently changed our rankings and I’m now in the core raiding group, so I have access to free flasks and 100g in repair a day. So, once that happened it made the switch a no-brainier.
Now, just waiting my turn to convert some DKP into Runed Orbs and get my nice shiny belt.
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Cleaved reply on July 28, 2009 1:02 pm:
I have every profession to 450, with the exception of LW and Tailoring. My g/f has a Tailor and Enchanter as well, with all the Enchants. I pretty much have all the bases covered as far as professions go and supplying my toon with stuff. However, being that most of my toons with professions aren’t 80, its not like I can just use them to save money all the time. Farming some items on a low level toon isn’t possible.
Speaking of Alts. Leveling an Alt is also a good way to make Gold, if… you don’t spend too much gold on it. Most common mistake I see someone make when leveling an Alt… is purchasing the best items they can get every 5-10 levels. Get the BOA Shoulders, a BOA Weapon, then survive wearing Greens/Blues from Quest Rewards ONLY! This saves you enough money that your Alt can pay for SOME of the Epic Flying skill for themselves, and you can afford to outfit them in some crafted/purchased level 80 BOEs.
Alts also mean 1 daily turns into 2…3…4… how many ever alts you have, you can do that daily that many times. I don’t often get the time to do dailies on all my toons, but if I can, I hit up the Argent Tournament. Alts also mean more Greens to DE, and more trash to sell. Even some BOE Blues if you are lucky.
I’ve purchased Epic Flying for all my level 77+ Alts (4 of them) and made it back easily enough, without trying hard at all. If you think I have a lot of gold… you should imagine the people that play the AH, Farm and do Dailies far more than I do. I don’t wanna know how much gold they have >_
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Valalvax reply on August 1, 2009 12:54 am:
For multiple character daily farming it’s VERY important to have a partner, not necessarily for the speed, but doing dailies is just BORING, very easy to burn yourself out soloing dailies
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July 28th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
ok, so i fail.
i’ve been fishing EVERY day to try and get one of these. i even had a pre-arranged swap worked out with a guildie who also fishes every day (i’ll give you my agility gem if you give me your stam gem). i never even thought about buying one.
i went to the AH last night after reading this post… 350g.
/facepalm
thanks for the 6 stam vene
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July 28th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Well i for one never understand how people ever have so much money lol. Granted i play way too many alts lol. Currently in the process of leveling 80 #4 lol. Leveling too many alts takes away from gold farming time. Plus I’m really cheap I’m so cheap my warlock alt (use to be my main) didn’t bother to get cold weather flying and instead i just use the loaner flying mount lol. That being said as cheap as i am I’m going to rush out and get that gem. I feel like such a nub i assumed that was a jc only thing lol. Never knew where it came from.
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Darraxus reply on July 29, 2009 8:34 pm:
That was a lot of lols.
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July 28th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I can’t afford it atm (they’re usually 1k-1.4k on my server) because I’m two runed orbs away from the crafted boots, and since I usually only get to run 10 man Ulduar I need the boot upgrade first.
Of course a week(ish) after I’m done I’ll have a stormjewel. Otoh in a couple weeks epic gems will come out and kill their price…
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Frazzle reply on July 29, 2009 3:44 pm:
Hey, if your ‘only’ getting to run the 10man Ulduar, that’s where the BiS boots drop! Maybe the belt is a better buy for you?
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TomHuxley reply on July 30, 2009 9:09 am:
The BiS boots drop from mimiron hard mode…I won’t be getting there without the crafted boots…
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July 28th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
this gem has been sitting in my gun the moment i could find one on the ah
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July 28th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
I have to admit, I’m still not sure why you’re so in love with the Indestructible Plate Girdle. I got it based on your last post about it, but realistically I don’t use it except sometimes on our most difficult progression (like 10-man Algalon). Notably I don’t use it on Hard Mode Vexax-10 or Hard Mode Hodir 10 or 25 (which is still progression for us) - bosses that hit rather hard…I just need the threat the Shieldwarder Girdle offers, I still feel like I don’t have enough.
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Cleaved reply on July 29, 2009 8:14 am:
I’m over the hit-cap in my main tanking set, without the Shieldwarder Girdle. I use the Indestructible Plate Girdle as well. It did suck at first, losing the Hit from my old Belt, but I eventually made up for it with more gear from U25. I try to avoid any Block gear, but some of the Tier pieces have it on there and its unavoidable if you want the set bonus.
I’ve seen some Warriors gravitate away from the 2 and 4 piece set bonus, when they get Hard Mode loot. One really successful Warrior (Xav of Premonition) only has on 1 piece of T8.5 I believe.
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tPaste reply on July 29, 2009 4:41 pm:
Yeah, for a threat set I probably would definitely avoid the 4 piece…but the 2 piece is ok for threat. I usually run 2piece tier 8 and 2piece tier 7 in my threat set.
and that does make sense if you can stay at hit cap without the belt…I was up around 300 for a while in progression gear…it was short lived and I’m back around 200 (with the belt).
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Furiat/Vege reply on July 30, 2009 1:05 am:
Tbh you’re still below the cap. Taunt/Tclap/shouts still using spell hit cap? Tho from those only taunt matters, if any.
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tPaste reply on July 30, 2009 7:51 am:
Definitely true, however everyone recognizes that hit is a threat stat and the threat gains after 8% are simply not as valuable as almost any other stat. Heck, you can glyph for taunt to get capped and I’ve still never seen ANY TANK waste a major glyph spot on it…even though I’m sure there must be 1 or 2. Taunt being, by far, the most important of those 3, and yet people still don’t care about it at all.
Once you hit 8% everyone agrees priority drastically changes.
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Yarl reply on August 1, 2009 2:21 am:
Many top raiding guild tanks sport the Taunt glyph. The aforementioned Xav is one of them.
Veneretio reply on August 1, 2009 12:32 pm:
If I recall, he actually just carries around stacks of different Glyphs. So he wouldn’t be using the Taunt glyph for all bosses.
Cleaved reply on August 1, 2009 4:56 pm:
Carrying Glyphs is something I have considered doing. They aren’t that expensive, and some are awesome for Trash, while others are amazing for Bosses
I can’t remember the last time my Taunt was resisted/missed… however you wanna say it.
Bihn reply on August 3, 2009 8:54 am:
Taunt Glyph can often make or break hard modes that require tank switches. It might seem silly, but it seems a lot less silly when everyone is made at you for getting Steelbreaker out of position and fucking up MAXDPS/Range Soaking.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:53 am
They were sitting on AH for 1000g so I employed my friend who plays with AH pretty much to watch it for me if it comes to 500g range long time ago… We were making 10 man Ulduar, he told me that he got it for 500g, and that he will send me COD, we went to Ulduar and killed Hodir hard mode… Boreal Guard droped so Stormjewel landed pretty nicely inside.
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July 29th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Or you can just wait until the patch in about 10days and get a non-unique epic gem - Alchemists can make 1 a day about 50-75g worth of mats or JC can just prospect titanium ore by the bucket load
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July 29th, 2009 at 5:35 am
I thnk once anyone has mastered the AH money making is easy, I do 10 mins a day with the AH (6min scan followed by 4 mins of posting/checking markets) and usually make between 500-1200 a day, admitted though this can be slow to start from my expereince since the more money you have the more control you have over certain markets.
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July 29th, 2009 at 7:59 am
What’s amazing to me is how well-represented that poll shows us to be. A warrior in every range. And I wonder what impact finances are having on the successes (or failures) of warriors in each grade.
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Cleaved reply on July 29, 2009 8:10 am:
I don’t think Gold should be a deciding factor in Success vs. Failure.
Look at it this way… most content can be done with gear a Tier lower than what it drops. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to do that content at all. I say “most” because of Hard Modes. Some Hard Modes honestly are way easier when you have full U25 loot (even 10 man ones can be made trivial).
In any case… I have tanked on my Pally in U10 with some Blue quest reward pieces (its my offspec). On my Warrior, I didn’t walk into U25 with everything BiS from N25/Maly/Sarth… but we still got it done fairly easily. And it gets easier to do U25 (or any Raid) as you get gear from raiding it.
As I showed in my example above… I thrive on not spending gold, and earn gold as a result. So really, I could have 500-1000g, and still do as well as I am doing now.
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July 29th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Your post is an exact echo of my tanking philosophy, Vene. I’ve never held back on enchants, gems, or purchasing expensive gear, and the difference is noticeable. In BC, I had a difficult time finding a good raiding guild, especially considering that I was doing tier 4 when tier 5 was the forefront of raiding, and as a consequence, my gear was pretty poor. By filling even early raid pieces with epic gems and the best enchantments, however, I made myself appealing to an accomplished guild, and managed to clear ZA and tier 5, along with some t6, before Wrath was announced.
To summarize, people notice when you invest in your armor. It shows dedication, patience, and the desire to be great!
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Veneretio reply on July 29, 2009 9:36 am:
Absolutely. I know that when I look at an applicant nothing impresses me more than seeing a horrible piece of gear with an amazing, expensive enchant on it and the best gems money can buy in it. It shows a level of effort that any guild that raids loves to see and single handedly makes up for any lack of gear.
Basically, gear can be improved easily. Attitude can’t. (don’t misinterpret this as me stating though that not enchanting a piece perfectly when its green or blue = a bad attitude though)
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July 30th, 2009 at 6:47 am
I’ve got my gear enchanted with the best enchants. I’ve got the best gems.
Would I consider obtaining this gem for 1000 gold?(I haven’t seen them cheaper on my server) No way.
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July 30th, 2009 at 9:17 am
About the poll and distribution…while market-playing profiteers (not meant in a bad way) probably have lots of gold all the time, for other people (say below 5k gold) that can actually change a lot. I went from rich to broke getting the epic flier (obviously) then shot back over 2k gold in a week easy with mining (before I dropped it) dailies and the gratuitously awesome fire festival quests, but my “bank account” has vacillated a lot the last few weeks depending on purchases of mats for the crafted boots and how much time I’ve been able to spend outside of raiding.
But otherwise I’d have totally bought one of these. Now I’ll spend free time grinding heroism badges and honor so I can buy more gems to cut next week (which it looks like may be patch week) as the time-invested to return ratio is much higher.
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July 30th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I appreciate that even small upgrades can make the difference but at this point, with 3.2 looming overhead, I’m against forking out for 6 stam on gear that I will soon replace. Everyone will be upgrading gear very quickly with the new patch.
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July 30th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
For me, 500g was reasonable price at that time when there was no info about 3.2 epic gems yet. If you’re raid tank with enough credit, there’s really no reason to be cheap about it and when it comes down to it, there’s very little expenses you have to live with. Flasks, repairs, food and few indestructible potions once in a while, that’s about it. Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth is not necessity, although portable vendor is very nice thing to have.
As Beefringer mentions, traders are the rich folk who have found a way to make much money for a very little effort (login couple times a day to post auctions). However, it is not a magic road to riches, there’s risks involved and you can loose lots of money really quickly. Most people are also giving way exaggerated estimates on their profits. Farming/grinding on the otherhand is zero-risk but fairly time-consuming activity that can be done in one big lump over weekend.
Either way, you will eventually reach a point where you realise that the big pile of gold you’re sitting on will probably last through next expansion and one after that, even the most expensive items currently ingame are still fairly cheap if you consider the inflation that has happened over past two expansions.
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July 31st, 2009 at 1:34 am
Usually, I get the necessary motivation to farm the gold needed once I’ve got the item. I’m not saying I don’t do dailies if there’s nothing I need, I just don’t do the lengthy ones, jousting among other. I tend to sit around 500g, beyond that I usually find a mount or pet to spend it on.
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Cleaved reply on July 31, 2009 5:47 am:
Jousting is quick and easy:
Start the fight, backpedal, fire off a range shot while backing up… charge as soon as you are able. Wheel around and stay in close proximity to your target so he doesn’t charge you.
Then… you can do 1 of 2 things…
1. You can stay close and smack them with melee attacks, and wait for them to move away from you. Soon as they start to move away, spam the Ranged attack, and spam Charge as soon as the ranged attack flies towards them. Make sure to stay in Charge range so you charge before they get a chance to. Rebuff your shields, because they will probably have hit you with a Ranged attack. Repeat the same steps.
2. You can circle slightly away (strafing a bit) to juuuuuust get outside their melee range and into range to fire off a Ranged attack. Do so until they try to move away (you should get 2 Ranged attacks off), then Charge them.
In this fashion… I fight all 4 champions or 3 valiants, and hardly ever have to Heal up between fights. Sometimes LAG can get you, but if you stick to that plan, you won’t lose nearly as much HP as if you are reactive instead of proactive. Hope those tips help (^_^)
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July 31st, 2009 at 2:48 am
I was never a gold-farmer in the previous expansion or before and was horribly poor always, but now in Northrend, many of the daily quests are grouped well and genuinely fun to do. It’s easy for me to jump in and knock off a dozen in an hour and a half or so and get 200g from it. I’m a horrible spender as well, I’m messing with my talent build constantly, but money has rarely been much of a problem for me so far with this expansion.
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July 31st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I’m lucky enough to be in a guild where the GB gains more gold than it looses, even while paying the whole raids repair bills… I rack up anywhere from 100-350G a night in repairs all payed by Gbank. I get supplied by gems and chants and we all try to chip in to help others. I find it to be sinful not to search out upgrades such as the craftable BiS… I will go out of my way to find opposite fraction crafter to make them for me.
Stormjewel I’m still little worried about, i goes for 800G right now… I would not buy it because the 6 Stam for 800G is still not on top of my priority list, there is couple more pieces I can get for the Gold. If or when I run out of upgrades Stormjewel or similar things will be farmed and attained.
It is easy to forget that a little upgrade in tanking gear makes everyones life little easier… it trickles down and magnifies fast.
I would like to add that engineering (I am one) is a tanking profession but the 800 armour glove enchant is has not convinced me yet (compared to 15 Expertise) … the 23Agi+slowfall in 3.2 just might ^^
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August 3rd, 2009 at 10:31 am
The cost of beginning a tank at all is prohibitive. At 80 there is so much equipment to buy just to become a viable tank (and not get laughed at and kicked before it starts) to get into heroics even. Tempered Titansteel Helm, Shield, boots, will all run you 8-1500g on my server. You can pick up valor emblem bracers for 17-2k gold, inexorable sabatons another 15-2.2k gold. Ultimately since tanking warriors are so gear dependent it was cheaper for me to lvl Blacksmithing from 1-450 than buy the equipment to not wipe a party due to lack of stam/def. I can fully understand why Tanks have no money.
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Zalgosh reply on August 4, 2009 1:16 pm:
My tank is a death knight, rather than a warrior (although i am levelling an alt prot warrior atm) and it really didn’t cost all that much to get me started to tank heroics. The time you, and probably other people as well, spent on farming money/BS to get all of this equipment I spent running regular level 80 instances. I got rep up with certain places, and got the best drops from regular places, and it didn’t take that long to get defense capped and have reasonable stats.
I wasn’t the best geared tank ever when I started heroics, and had to be actually use my cooldowns sometimes, but it wasn’t that bad. The only crafted things I got were the ring (made it myself) and a weapon (got the mats myself really easily). This was my first 80, so I couldn’t pass him gold from my main or anything, and this was before deathknights got the +25 defense rune for their weapon.
Its not that hard (or expensive) to get geared to tank heroics, I’ve healed several tanks (including warriors) on my shaman who only had around 23-24k health unbuffed without too many issues.
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August 3rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I think it’d be fair to say that I did answer the poll but am NOT a tank. I’m a healer who likes to read about tanks ^^
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August 4th, 2009 at 8:30 am
One thing I’ve noticed is that people just need to get out there and do it. There is no reason for being poor in this game and sometimes all it takes is a little push.
I have a DPS DK in my guild who used to constantly complain about being poor and he would constantly float in the double digit gold numbers. Further, he is a obsessive about his DPS. I used to grind him constantly about not having a Darkmoon: Greatness card, something I obtained the first time it was available (first week of Dec08).
Eventually I managed to break him via massive guilt trips and bruising his ego. He went out, pounded out the gold and bought the card.
Whats the upside of this for him? He hasn’t been poor since. He learned that gold isn’t so bad to make and it isn’t so bad to have. His needs aren’t heavy duty but at least he can comfortably meet his gear maintenance with room to spare. Currently he’s been buying Titanium Ore for 3.2, something he wouldn’t have been able to do before.
Personally, I won’t allow myself to be poor. I’m not too obsessive about it since I frequently skip some easy gold but I sometimes will work the system when needed. I also have a tendency to obsess over achievements and have spent more then more fair share on mounts, pets and a pesky little Feat to get an uncommon title.
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August 4th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I have my Storm Jewel in my Armor Plated Shotgun since the only thing I would replace that with is the gun from Razor, which has a very low drop rate. Been raid 25 Uld once a week for the last 2 months and only seen it once. So for me that makes sense.
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August 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Wasn’t there a poll about how many of us are actually tanks? I admit i’m not anymore, but i still visit here frequently.
Maybe because of topics like this. It’s not about being a better tank, it’s about being a better player. I doubt this poll’s outcome would be much different with other classes.
It’s not a shame being poor, but it’s a shame not giving the best you can. And more often than not this is more than you may think. There really aren’t that many excuses. (If any at all)
Vene reminds me of that.
Therefore I thank you
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August 21st, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I don’t know if I ever told you this, but that poll went up about a day after I’d bought my epic flying mount and skill. I went from being minted to not even being able to afford my repairs after VH HC!
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August 25th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
These are actually rather affordable on my server. I have some on lesser gear(still epics) and use that gear to help me aquire better, as a step method. As a paldin tank, the more +Sta the better as it also increases our spell power. However if you are a Paladin tank and are short on cash you have on of the easiest ways to make gold, just run vanilla Stratholme a couple times, take an hour and run it 3 times boom you have close to 2k gold and then sell the food/drink and grays/whites to vendors, another few hundred gold, and AH whatever BoE’s may drop.
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September 1st, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I realize that the orginal post was made prior to latest patch, but have found that the Solid Majestic Zircon also has +30 stam, and in my experience on AH on my server is only about 150-200G as opposed to the Solid Stormjewel that runs closer to 700. Not really sure what the difference is, but hey if I can get +30 for 500G cheaper, I’ll take 3 or 4. So if looking for the +30, and Stormjewel is too much, go for the zircon (She will never know the difference!). lol
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September 25th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I’m glad I leveled my Priest who has Alchemy/Herbalism! He can make one Epic Gem per day! Get a guild member to cut them for me and I have a constant supply of epic gems to go with the inevitable change of gear. It’s good to have alts!
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