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.

Raid Synergy and Raid Wide Buffs

My initial reaction to the anti-raid stacking changes (buffs going raid wide) was negative. 

One of the things I really enjoy is composing groups - finding just the right way to squeeze the most synergy out of the group, weighing the pros and cons of putting X class/spec into Y group. Would I make a survivability focused tank group (Resto Shaman, Resto Druid, Paladin), or a Threat focused one (I liked a Shaman/GoA, 2x Hunter, Feral Druid group). Do we crank the dps synergy, or the healers? 

After talking it over with some people, I'm starting to see the plan behind all this. 

(In theory) - I'll be able to bring players because they are good, rather then because we want/need X class. I can think of many times we've had to deny guild membership to, or bench quality members of a certain class - because we were "full" on them (in general, or for a certain fight). 

Archimonde was probably the best(worst?) case of this. As Alliance, Shamans are still somewhat of a commodity, and we wanted 4-5 tremor totems for Archimonde's fears. When we couldn't fill that number, our standards (unofficially) got lower for shaman apps. We did get some excellent shamans, but I think I can also say that we got some that would otherwise not have been recruited. 

Progressing elsewhere, I noticed that certain people were sat out, (presumably) because of their class. Our Balance Druids come to mind - two great veteran players, but our caster DPS officer found it hard to justify raid slots for both of them, so we often would only have one or the other (if we had one at all). 

I also am happy this will let us function on a smaller player base in general. Rather then have extras of each class (ie, Warlock, Mage, SPriest) - so we don't run low/out of one on any given night - we could instead just have an extra dps caster, and know that we won't be suffering for lack of buff/debuff/synergy. 

I'm sure there will still be some amount of Min/Max potential, but I look forward to raiding along side my guild's best players, not necessarily the most beneficial characters. 

How about you? Feelings/thoughts on raid synergy changes?