Answers to Some 3.0 Gear Questions

I was recently approached about some gearing questions, following the 3.0 patch. Here's my current take.

Should I still choose to aim for 490 defense? 

5.6% Critical Strike Reduction is still a requirement, and 490 defense is still the best way to get it.

Should I choose gear with SBV and SBR over other values?

Shield Block Value is now a great threat stat, particularly in situations where your tanking multiple mobs - and damage shield is kicking back 20% of it for every attack against you.

Shield Block Rating got a boost (its no longer worthless) - but its not something to be sought too hard after. Shield Block (the skill) give us the ten second window of all blocks (and super-sized ones, at that). For the other 30 seconds, Blocking will still be helpful, but its usefulness has to be measured in terms of [Avg. Boss Hit]:[BV] (as a way to reduce incoming damage), and compare that % Damage Mitigated to how much avoidance you could get (a common alternative on gear), and how much % Damage you could avoid.

Example: Fasty-McdualWield hits for 2k. With 500 Block Value, your blocks reduce 25% of damage. Whomp-Bigfoot hits for 8k, so that same 500 BV is only ~6% mitigation.

In the case where you could choose between 5% Block Rating, or 1% Dodge...
Over the course of 100 Swings
On Fasty: SBV Prevents 2500 Damage, Dodge Prevents 2000 Damage
On Whomp: SBV Prevents 2500 Damage, Dodge Prevents 8000 Damage

Now, this is a pretty terrible example, because the slow, large hits are going to be over a bigger period of time - but it should be enough to get you thinking that SBR isn't doing much for you against a slow-hitting boss.

Is HR and expertise still as important as they were before?

No. I use to keep myself near hit capped to stay above DPS in threat. But now, even after losing chunks of it to gear changes, my threat is still huge. It shouldn't be totally neglected, but its not as important. Expertise is worth retaining as much as possible, because its parry reduction still does prevent bosses from getting sped up attacks (even though damage, as a whole, is less of a danger).

Should stam still be one of the the most important values, even over SBV? (effective health vs. damage intake reduction+damage out)

Stamina still is king. SBV is great for threat/trash, but it isn't about to overtake good old fashioned effective health as far as boss tanking goes.

First Night with 3.0 (Long)

Part One: Summary of the Night

Part Two: First Impression of Warrior Skills/Talents

Easy.

Really the only word. Possibly to the point of uninteresting. Read on...

We cleared BT in under three hours. Three hours, and probably could have done it an hour shorter if we hadn't taken so long to realize our full potential, and swapped people less.

Najentus died in 1:46, before even doing tidal shield a second time.

Supremus died in ~3:00, after a single kite phase.

Akama died in 50 seconds.

Teron took ~2:00 min.

Bloodboil died in the middle of his second Fel Rage.

RoS didn't finish her first enrage, and had over 1:30 left in P2 when we pushed it to P3.

Shaz and Council were faster, but had no exciting landmarks.

Illidan was one-shot. He did shadow demons twice, the whole time.

All the trash was AoE'ed down. We did 3+ Supremus pulls at a time. Akama was done in two long pulls. Everything that was remotely close got done together, and with minimal tank damage, and tons of threat everywhere and on everything. And the efficiency of AoEing, combined with the 30% less health, made it just fly.

Now - for as exciting as this all sounds - it just felt too easy by the end. It felt like a run-through, and we aren't even rocking Sunwell Gear (yet). I had fun flexing my new skills (more later), but by the end, nothing was really challenging. Our healers were board to tears - since we were taking far less damage, and the fights were so short that their healing was a shadow of what it once was.

-Warrior Details-

I consider myself as having taken a low threat spec. No Impale, Cruelty, AttT, Puncture - and I still out-threated everyone on single targets. By a large margin. In avoidance gear. I had to try at some points, so I get the impression that threat talents will just reduce the margin of effort needed.

Shield Block: I macro'ed this into Shield Slam, by the end of the night. I didn't need the on-demand protection, and the extra threat/damage was nice. 

Vigilance: This was fun. I had DPS asking for it specifically, and it was pretty big in maintaining the large lead I had. I also tried to remember to stick it on people that were subject to large amounts of damage for its damage reduction component - Bloodboil's Fel Rage targets, and Illidan's Shadow Barrage Target.

Warbringer: The mobility was nice. The pace of the night was so fast, that I really liked being able to charge around - like when I intercepted the feral druid that was headed towards the next pull, then charged his target - that was fun to see in action.

Sword and Board: This was a general fun talent, and made secondary aggro a breeze. I'll take some time to get the sound/animation completely down in my head so that its automatic, but I see that in the future.

Shockwave: Between this and Thunderclap, I could tank most any sized group. My only complaint, was that there were times I got lazy while waiting for the cooldown to come up, and could have spent more time tab-targeting around. 

I still want to get some more experience with talents before I make final judgement, though.

I felt as effective at AoE tanking as our paladin. It was hard to tell without my fully configured scrolling combat text, but I think I tanked the bulk of pre-Shaz trash. Typically two AoE groups, a Pain/Pleasure Pack, and some servants - all together.

In Summary: I can't wait for Wrath, but its now more urgent. We now have power well above the content available, and need some content designed with it in mind. I really hope that raiding continues with its scheduled course until the expansion, though, and that people don't get disinterested.