Tanking Consumables Review - Flasks and Elixirs

If your like me, when it came time to stock the shelves with consumables for Wrath Raids, you went directly to the flask aisle.

When you found the *New, Improved!* tanking Flask, Stoneblood, you probably frowned. An increase of a piddly 150 health, at the cost of 10 defense even! Other flasks saw a ~50% jump in effectiveness which should have put Stoneblood at something like 1350 HP (or less HP, and something else).

The horror! The bright side of things , however, is that Flask of Fort is then comparable, and you can get mats for it at a deep discount. As I planned on dying alot, I filled my bank alt up on 4g Fel Lotus and 10g/Stack Ancient Lichen.

Now that I'm financially secure and building my gold up, I'm looking again to get stocked before Uludar is released / consumable costs skyrocket again (And mark my words, consumables/enchanting mat prices will be astronomical when Uludar is released), or I go and spend my money on some vanity mount. This time around, I'm taking a stroll down the Elixir isle, and loving/hating what I'm seeing.

Elixirs beat current tank flask options hands down. Why is this good? Because finding ways to be a better tank is exciting! Why is this terrifying? Because the difference may demand double elixir use on -everything- progression, because they are that much better.

Generic Awesome Combo: Mighty Fort + Guru. 580 HP, 0.30% Dodge, 44 Armor, 46 AP, 11 BV & .35% Crit (After Kings & Vitality). There isn't much I trade health for (this combo has 70 less then stoneblood), but that's an impressive cocktail of stats for a very minor health drop.

Max Effective Health Combo: Protection + Guru. If your pushing progression on a physical damage dealing boss, this will push you as far as you can go EH. Looking at my current gear, I have 73690 Effective Health without consumables. Stoneblood provides 1573 Effective Health, but this combo gives 2032. While the difference may seem small (looking at a 500 point difference out of 70,000+), remember that it is not only increasing your damage threshhold, but doing so in a manor that healing will get more bang for the buck in doing so.

Threat: Change up Guru's in one of the above combos, for Elixir of Expertise. Don't forget about the reduction in parry-haste burst damage you get from expertise, and remember that Expertise is Always Better Then Hit. (So AH those Elixir of Accuracy!).

Avoidance: Keep Guru, and run Mighty Defense.

Summary? Flasks have their place. Stoneblood is still the most HP for things like 3 Drake OS. If you're sitting on a pile of cheep Fort Flasks, use them for farm content / non-consumable heavy progression (non-tank killing fights). But Start stocking up on Guru's, Mighty Fort, and Protection Elixirs - your going to want them.