Next step and blacksmith change?

[Belak]

Ok, I could definitely use some advice. I got some related info in another thread, but I think involving my armory may help.

I'm currently our guild's MT. We have Kara essentially on farm, have successfully downed Gruul 2 weeks in a row now, and are going to give a shot at Loot Reaver later this week before we start on Magther or SSC.

My current gear: Belak's Armory (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonblight&n=Belak)

At the moment, I'm waiting not-so-patiently for Nightbane to drop the chest and shield and Gruul to drop the shield. I am currently a hammersmith and have the Drakefist, which I use for grinding and devastate spam on fights like curator.

Since we're going to start getting vortexes soon, I should probably make a decision very quickly as to what I do. Here's the changes I'm thinking about:

1) Chest piece - Wait for Nightbane to drop the Panzar'thar, or switch to armorsmith and craft the Bulwark. I can probably get the remaining nethers fairly quickly and shouldn't be too hard to get the vortexes after that. If I do this, it will severely limit my trinkets when my defense drops. Is the effective loss of a trinket slot (for something like the darkmoon card or the auto blocker) worth it?

2) Weapon - I'm not really using the drakefist much in raids for obvious reasons. I currently use the King's Defender. Would I generate significantly better aggro if I switched to swordsmithing and pushed out a Blazefury and tried to get priority on vortexes for a Blazeguard? In this case, I'll probably work simultaneously for the arena shield while I wait for Gruul to drop his. In this case, I'll try to snag a slow beatstick from Kara when the melee dps is already full to replace drakefist as my grind weapon.

Does this make sense? Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks in advance! Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Crimsonstorm]

I'm in a similar position. I have dragonmaw, and it used to rule for 5 mans. Now it sits mostly unused. But, I have nightbane chest and will soon have mag chest (we're killing him). So I dont really need to switch to armorsmith.

I have kings defender and mallet of the tides, so the only MT weapon that would be better would be the T3 sword. And I dont want to go through the pain of getting it for a minor upgrade.

Currently I'm just passing vortexes to others and not doing anything with my blacksmithing basically. I hope to get red havoc boots soon.


On the defense thing: its much better to be able to use autoblocker and vengeance trinkets. Just get the arena shield. Its 31 resilience will reduce the defense you need to like 471-472. I also have the pvp belt, so I only need like 452 defense! That pvp belt is a better tanking belt than anything pre-SSC imo. High armor and stam, good threat. Screw the avoidance...and it has the resilience which allows you to screw the avoidance. :)

[Crimsonstorm]

In this case, I'll probably work simultaneously for the arena shield while I wait for Gruul to drop his.

When Gruul does drop it, let some other tank get it. Arena is better. Much better.

Yes, gruul's is better forthreat by a bit, but at the cost of a ton of armor.

You would do better overall with Arena shield + replace a tank piece with a good dps piece, than Gruul shield + Tank piece.

The arena shield is insanely OP.

[Wartorn]

I say you go for the BoAK. It's better than T5, which means you won't replace it till T6. Most bang for the buck.

[Belak]

LOL! So basically I got replies encouraging me to go each way. Heh. I guess that means that any of those will work?

I'd love to go for the arena shield. Unfortunately, I just recently joined a 5-man arena team (*cough this week cough*) and so my points are currently a whopping 0. Needless to say, the shield will take me a LONG time to get.

Gah! Dang you people and making me think! :D

[Belak]

Follow-up:

Well, it's been a busy weekend. I bit the bullet, took your advice, and was definitely rewarded. Switched to armorsmithing and assembled the Bulwark of Kings by Saturday. Sunday we did our first real foray into The Eye to try Loot Reaver and to make a long story short, I'm now proudly wearing a shiny new Bulwark of the Ancient Kings! Woo hoo!

Granted, this means that to compensate, my luck on drops for the rest of this year will be completely awful, but that's to be expected.

Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone for the advice and say that I can't wait to try this baby out!