What are my next steps? (gearing)Follow

Yes, yet another "build my toon" post. I'm rocking in Heroics, and have off-tanked in Naxx 10 a couple times with a really great group of people (highly surprising for a pug), but I have some options on gear and I have a hard time knowing what to focus on next.

My Armory

I've got mats for a Tempered Titansteel Helm, just waiting for the Guild BS to be on at the same time I am. I also have a Titanium Earthguard Ring sitting in the bank, but I don't specifically need to equip it for DEF, and I get better avoidance from the two I'm wearing (barring socket options perhaps).

I've got three empty sockets (neck = red w/6STA bonus, shoulder = yellow w/6STA bouns, and belt = colorless w/no bonus (which doesn't show on Armory unless socketed I guess)), and a meta and a blue coming with the helm. What should my focus be? Block? Dodge? STA? Something else entirely?

I'm missing augments on my shoulder, weapon, and boots. The shoulder will have to be the lesser Aldor. I have the dusts just need to pop over to Shattrath. I know I need to start working on SoH faction, but haven't found the time yet. Same goes for Argent Crusade, as my best head augment is the SSO Arcanum. I have a weakness for the move speed buffs for boot enchants, but I've got 2/2 PoJ so that won't be needed. 22 STA seems to be the way to go there.I'm low on Hit, so Accuracy on the sword might be nice. But so would 65 AP. :)

Any critique of my build and itemization for going forward is appreciated.

Yes, but the factions I can buy a tabard for are not the best for Paladin gear. I've been wearing Wyrmcrest heading for the nice EXP chest piece. Kirin'tor won't do anything for me until exalted, and while I know I'll have to work on it sooner or later I'm aiming for low-hanging fruit. Kalu'ak has nothing for me, and I need to get to Friendly with Ebon Blade and Argent Crusade.

I should perhaps define 'rocking'. :) I've run about 4 Heroics, all full clears in Drak'T and UK. And cleared Arachnid and Plague quarters of Naxx 10 plus Patchwerk. We had some wipes learning the fights in Naxx, but otherwise they were surprisingly successful for a pug (mostly the same people in the group over two days). I'll count my emblems, but I was saving them while figuring out what the best purchase path might be.


Lets discuss. :) I've had no threat issues, so that's a non-starter. For me the reason to get the LoO would be if it were superior to the LoR for avoidance. Which I'm having trouble determining. LoR is up 100%, only while AOE tanking Instances under my level would I pull so many hits to drop it. LoO will be up 5/6. After this point I begin pulling out my hair trying to weigh the relative values of Block Rating vs Block Value...

Oh, I agree 100%. I used his guide when targetting my farming starting at about 78th, so that I could be sure to be able to put on some level 80 gear once I dinged. It is an excellent and informative guide, with the one exception that he might be making the assumption that the Paladin is leveling up from 1st for Wrath content. As an example of that, he suggests a (Heavy) Borean Armor kit as a fall back head augment, but every Paladin tank who was 70 during BC will have ground SSO rep to exalted and will have access to the Arcanum of the Gladiator. 20 Resilience isn't huge, but it is plainly superior and should be easily available.

Thanks for your feedback, I'll look forward to chatting with you some more.

Edited, Jan 26th 2009 5:08pm by Kompera

While Kirin Tor rep won't get you anything until Exalted, those gloves are frankly superior or at WORST in some people's minds a cross-grade to the best that can be obtained from anything in 5/10 mans. We're only seeing clear upgrades in 25s. It's a dirty shame seeing so many tanks using the 10-Tier gloves just for the bonus.

Grabbing quicker upgrades one at a time is certainly a sound strategy though.

Incidentally, the Libram of Repentance offers 2.56% Block at level 80. It becomes entirely pointless once Block Capped, but it can have some value prior to that. The immense increase to Block Value that the Libram of Obstruction provides (to call it merely a threat trinket is to ignore a HUGE part of its value) will generally provide far more Effective Health in the long-run than the Libram of Repentance. If we were talking pure avoidence, it would be a whole other story. Then it's comparing apples to oranges. But as it stands, if you aren't blocking 100% of the incoming damage, Block% is merely an Effective Health stat, and 2.56% comes up somewhat wanting compared to the Block Value you could have. It's certainly not useless to you, you do get value from it. It's just a matter of deciding what you feel offers you more. For now that decision exists, when you're Block Capped it won't even be a decision anymore.

As it stands, you're in a position where you can start looking for a big boost to Stamina. Gems would certainly be useful in that respect. As for notable upgrades, I'd consider the bracers from Heroic Old Kingdom, the UP Sword, Badge Belt, Heroic VH Pants, Kirin Tor Gloves, and MAYBE Ebon Blade/Titansteel Boots or Heroic Stratholme Shield. These are just possabilities that are available to you should you decide to go in either direction. While in general upgrades, any of them may be of varying value to you, depending on how you want to gear.

You're reaching the point where my Stickied guide has little to offer in terms of gear advice for you. This is happening for people very quickly in Wrath compared to in TBC. I'm hoping to expand it to offer options for gear progression beyond the Pre-Raid point in the near future. And yea :D I do mostly assume that people won't neccessarily have played at level 70 for any period of time. Though, I'd certainly hope they'd have Keepers of Time rep for that head enchant if they did :D

You parrying a hit doesn't lead to being parry gibbed (though it can indirectly contribute to it).

The BOSS parrying a hit does. Though, presumably if you're parrying lots you are attacking faster than if you were not parrying, giving the boss more chances to parry. Still... that's not the REAL reason Parry isn't too desirable.

The REAL reason is that Parry is far and away the most expensive avoidence stat and that there are more circumstances where you can't parry than where you can't Dodge (disarmed). Both Dodge and Defense give more PURE avoidence per item budget than Parry does, and that's only 3/4 of what Defense contributes. Even with Diminishing Returns, you really don't reach a point at which Parry becomes more economical in the real (digital) world. I still maintain that Miss is the most powerful avoidence stat, since you can be missed from any direction -- while stunned -- while feared -- any time. But you don't exactly stack for Miss.

As it stands, you can be successful in all of the current content in the game by reaching 540 Defense and then focussing primarily on Stamina with a minor focus on avoidence. In fact, you can be so successful, you can blow things away doing that. This is largely due to the insane amount of mp5 (or equivalent) that the healers have right now. On the other hand, you are much better built/well rounded by continuing to stack Defense/Dodge (and Block until capped) at about equal (or maybe slightly higher) priority as Stamina.

Expect the massive Damage Sponges that aim for strictly Stamina to fail miserably in Ulduar. Just as the max-dodgers that cry "there's too much HP in the game, go for avoidence and just take whatever Stamina you get along the way" will likely fail.

Edited, Jan 27th 2009 1:08pm by Losie