Loading ...Warning: 25 man raiders should save Emblems of Frost
The gang at Blizzard HQ had this to say recently regarding the Tier 10 tanking sets:
We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they’re provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. This will apply to all item levels of the tier-10 death knight, warrior, and paladin tanking gloves and chest pieces.
Similar items crafted or purchased with Emblems of Frost will continue to be very good and will compare favorably to all but the Heroic difficulty boss loot, so you shouldn’t despair if you recently acquired any of those. (source)
So, while we don’t know the buffs yet, what we do know is that the Tier 10 chest and gloves will probably be pretty comparable when upgraded to that of Cataclysmic Chestguard and Gauntlets of the Kraken. Which is why I recommend just not picking up either of these pieces for the time being if you can upgrade their Tier 10 counterparts. It’s very likely that when this change becomes a reality that you’ll skip getting the Emblem chest and gloves altogether.
What about 10 man folk!?
I wouldn’t change a thing and still stick to the Emblem pick order. The Tier 10 chest and gloves when not upgraded will still be significantly lower item level and as such, you’re better off going with the non-set components. Now true, come hard modes, you’ll be able to upgrade your Tier 10, but that’s still too far off to warrant skipping 2 massive non-set upgrades.
Thoughts on the Change
Excellent.
This basically makes it much easier to use our Tier 10 4-piece bonus even from a 10 man standpoint. Best of all, the 25 man Hard Mode Tier loot will be a no-brainer over the Emblem pieces now which is the way it should be.
January 25th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
People want to make informed choices, especially when you have limited resources.
My issue is tanks study long and hard the best way to upgrade themselves. The conclusion after all our discussions and research was that the Badge items were better than even the ilvl 264 Tier 10 counterparts. So we spent our meager first Frosts accordingly with the feeling we were making the best choices possible to help further the guilds we tank for.
I’ll wait to see what the actual adjustments are, but them changing things “mid game” if you will has an impact and right now it feels like a negative one to those of us who have already invested our early Frosts on the Badge Gloves, Chest, and possibly the crafted Pants.
My frustrations lie in that they created this gear, they saw the advantages and disadvantages. This should have been addressed before 3.3 launched.
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Argon reply on January 25, 2010 10:53 pm:
Yeah. My bigger annoyance is that I spent a token on upgrading a shoulder tier piece, anticipating I was going to get the 2 piece with head and shoulders. Sounds like maybe I should have saved it for one of the pieces that is going to be upgraded. Tier tokens will be in short supply for longer than frost badges.
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January 26th, 2010 at 12:14 am
Agreed. My larger concern is what this does for my choices. If nothing else the tier gear previously had better avoidance going for it so I was actually making a choice by swapping pieces. Now… they’re shaving off those points from avoidance to make room for bonus armor. It just sort of feels like the only choice is “get the set bonus or don’t.”
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January 26th, 2010 at 12:30 am
I have Cloak from Tribute 10 so I moved cloak down the list (know it’s upgrade but not that huge).
Took belt first, which was from current PoV the biggest upgrade.
Then I went long run for head and quickly after that got shoulders.
Now I was exactly between picking Gloves or Chest, but this makes me wondering what to do. 2nd thing that I’m concerned is very very huge loss of expertise with Icecrown gear so I will have to walk around a bit, but I think that chest will still remain great expertise item.
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January 26th, 2010 at 12:47 am
i got my shoulders and gloves already…next i will get my back and then helmet…..i like the stam on the trinket but the use is crap imo…i dont run 25 mans cause my guild has a over abundance of tanks …but least im a 10 man MT so i will just play this game of cat and mouse….really if u want to be awesome u have 3 alts and run dailies till u have saronite up the ting yang
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January 26th, 2010 at 2:39 am
it’s probably good to keep in mind that this isn’t just a straight increase in armour, the increase comes from the item budget, i.e. in this blue post by Zarhym -
Different items will lose different defensive stats (parry, dodge, defense, etc.) to compensate for the bonus armor being added.
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Veneretio reply on January 26, 2010 3:05 am:
Ya, but the emblem pieces already were losing part of their item budget for bonus armor as well. So, I think it’s fair to say these items will come out pretty similar when upgraded to ilvl 264 in which case the tier pieces become very appealing since both our 2 and 4 piece set bonuses are quite enticing.
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Bodasafa reply on January 26, 2010 1:52 pm:
I totally agree that the ilvl 277 Tier 10 should have more armor than the ilvl 264 Badge gear, its Heroic quality gear, that makes sense. This is the initial reason they made a change to the Tier which is totally acceptable.
We really need to see the numbers on the ilvl 251 and 264 Tier 10 to make any solid conclusions on if we wasted 155+ Frosts on the Badge Gloves, Chest and possibly the Pants. If the 264 version has the same Armor and the same HP, then we got screwed, cause we missed a free set bonus outta the deal and burned a ton of hard to get Frosts in the process.
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January 26th, 2010 at 3:27 am
This is great. I just skip the Gauntlets of the Kraken from the list because I can got one T10 gloves from VOA boss. And I chose to pick the helm before the chest, this because I’m a 10 man tank and don’t find any good helm on 10 man (I’m using the ony25 helm). This changes fit perfect to me.
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January 26th, 2010 at 5:57 am
Now that is just as awkward as the prot-pvp-dps-nerf-devastate-minimal-buff-thingy.
Personally I’m glad I just bought the badge chest and kept the rest of my emblems until now. But even those 95 badges are bugging me. If I had wanted to, I could now have the T10 ilvl264 chest being much closer to the 2pc bonus.
Now you could say the bonus is not necessary since its a threat bonus. Thats right, but come heroic ICC, T10 is the way to go because of the higher ilvl.
Like Bodasafa said you can’t plan your equipment, when the base of your plan - the equipment - is moving.
some OT:
Looking at all that the devs seem to be kind of helpless concerning protection warriors, tanking and stat distribution. Just like they didn’t know their own numbers. First they wanted to buff prot DPS to get closer to paladins / bears, then they come around with an nerf disguised as a devastate buff. On the other hand they must have known that armor/HP is king for progression tanking. Why in hell are/were badge-pieces for tanks the only ones that clearly come out ahead of the equivalent T10 pieces?
Just seems kind of confused to me the whole thing.
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Veneretio reply on January 26, 2010 4:37 pm:
Well I think you can take solace in the fact that them changing gear around is rare and it’d very unlikely to happen again. I think they did this because a lot of us were considering just never using our 4 piece bonuses as cool as they were and they didn’t like that. The change makes using the 4 piece bonus pretty easy to do.
As to your OT point, ya, I agree. It definitely seems like they’re at a loss of what to do. It’s a very complex issue and honestly, I can’t think of anything they could do either that doesn’t have huge ramifications across other specs or classes.
In the end, rage needs to be fixed. It’s been the elephant in the room the entire expansion and I think they know now that they’ll have to rework it significantly for Cataclysm.
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January 26th, 2010 at 6:35 am
Already bought the chest and trinket, getting the belt next. I have spent about 27K on the pants and boots to get crafted, which took long hours to farm up. Chances are I won’t see the heroic 25 man for a while, so I’m not concerned about the 250ish badges at this time. For now, the tier gear is still inferior at the 264 level if the number of sockets remains as it is. I’ll be buying my cloak, then belt, then gloves, I will purchase helm/shoulders from T10 after that, and work on the rest later, this change doesn’t really worry me too much.
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January 26th, 2010 at 8:10 am
I *just* purchased the kraken gauntlets over the weekend. I already have 2pc t10 (helm, shoulders). One of which is upgraded.
Really I won’t be seeing another token for a while, so I am sure I will get good use out of the Kraken and Cata. Even if I do see another token sometime soon, it will be used to upgrade my shoulders.
By the time I see a third token I doubt badges will be an issue. Also Cata chest is one of the few really good sources of expertise in this tier.
The changes don’t really impact me, and I won’t be changing my pick order.
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January 26th, 2010 at 8:37 am
It’s a good change, but I sure with I could trade my badge gloves in to get my 2pc set bonus.
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January 26th, 2010 at 9:07 am
It will be interesting to see how exactly the do the balancing. Looking at the chest, for example, I don’t see how they could change the tier piece to make me want it over the Cataclysmic chestguard, but the Gloves and pants, I can see being interesting. I’m really curious how much more armor they are going to give them. I doubt it would be the same as the armor pieces have, but who knows.
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Veneretio reply on January 26, 2010 4:39 pm:
The reason you use the Tier chest over the Emblem one is to complete the set bonus. If you have no desire to get your 4 piece bonus then you’re right, you’ll be using the Emblem chest.
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January 26th, 2010 at 9:15 am
I’d really like to see what they intend to change with the tier gloves, so I know whether or not it’s worth soaking up a token from my guild with them. Very informative post, I just wish they were more thorough with the announcement.
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January 26th, 2010 at 9:44 am
No patch with this stuff this week. Maybe next.
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January 26th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
New T10 Gloves vs the Krakens is a pretty easy choice. Unless you’re going to be doing heroics (which many will not), the Gauntlets of the Kraken are far superior - an extra socket, more strength, and nice slice of parry wins over a little bit of defense, dodge and hit. Also, if they itemize the T10 changes the way they did the Frost Emblem gear (which is likely) one of those stats on the T10 gloves will not be getting decreased so much as it will be going away entirely. Likely either the Dodge or the Hit. Dodge is pretty easy to come by, as is hit, so the Krakens win out.
Chest is a tougher choice. With bonus armor, the T10 chest would be a superior piece if it weren’t for the expertise on the Cataclysmic Chestguard. If there were more places to get expertise, the T10 chest would be the clear winner. I was planning on getting the chest next, but now I’m waiting. I already have the Cloak, Belt and Gloves, and am thinking about getting the crafted legs (though the T10 legs are the only other good source of expertise, which makes it a tough choice again).
I think the posted emblem order is still probably very valid, since there is a chance of getting the legs, gloves (and possibly chest) from the new VoA boss.
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January 26th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Just days after buying the non-tier chest… /sigh Just as well I like expertise, hey?
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Veneretio reply on January 26, 2010 4:40 pm:
Ya, it’ll still be really useful for fights that aren’t survival-oriented. The emblem chest is still a fantastic piece when you don’t need to wear your 4 piece.
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January 26th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=22748757488&sid=1&pageNo=15
They just announced a buff to Kraken Gloves.
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Veneretio reply on January 26, 2010 5:43 pm:
lol… I really wish I had scrolled down farther before posting… more work to do!
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January 26th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Looks like even the Frost gear as well as the tier gear is getting updated.
Does this change anything?
Current Warrior Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)
Ymirjar Lord’s Handguards
1579 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 63.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.
Ymirjar Lord’s Breastplate
2526 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 76.
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 68.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 68.
Updated Warrior Tier-10 Pieces (item level 251)
Ymirjar Lord’s Handguards
2461 Armor
+81 Strength
+148 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 71.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 54.
Ymirjar Lord’s Breastplate
3590 Armor
+144 Strength
+191 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 60.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 76.
Current Vendor Armor
Gauntlets of the Kraken
2308 Armor
120 Strength
157 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 63.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 63.
Updated Vendor Armor
Gauntlets of the Kraken
2658 Armor
120 Strength
157 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +9 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 63.
Equip: Increases your parry rating by 48.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=22748757488&sid=1
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