New to Fury

[Vestal]

I have been a Prot warrior ever since I hit 80. Recently we have added a few tanks to our guild and I am now being leaned on to DPS. I chose Fury and have geared up to the best of my ability with out ignoring my Prot spec. I do have some Triumph badges (80+) that I can spend, but I have been holding out untill I know for sure that I will be a main DPS instead of tanking.

The World of Warcraft Armory (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Onyxia&n=Jvestal)

Any advise guys?

My biggest question is how important is the soft Expertise cap (26) for a Fury Warrior? Is it more important than Hit rating? Can expertise be ignored if I am always attacking from behind a boss?

Current progression is 10 man TOC and 10 man Hard modes for Ulduar. Within the next 1-2 weeks we will be starting Heroic 10 man TOC.

My rotation seems to be solid:
Bloodthirst and Whirlwind on all CD's
Slam when it procs, but only if BT and WW are on CD
Heroic strike as often as possible with out running out of rage (Cleave on multiple targets)
...
After that I try to keep up Sunders and Demoralizing Shout on bosses when everything else is on CD. (Current tanks are Pally and DK)

EDIT Note: I know my trinkets dont stack but that is all I have.

[Bashal]

My biggest question is how important is the soft Expertise cap (26) for a Fury Warrior? Is it more important than Hit rating? Can expertise be ignored if I am always attacking from behind a boss?

I'm sure someone will violently disagree with me if I have this wrong, so here's my 2 cents:

All those threads about expertise being twice as valuable as hit are for tanks only. FOr melee DPS, expertise is as valuable as hit until the soft cap (26) and worthless after that. When DPSing behind the mob, you can't be parried but you can still be dodged, so expertise still does matter.

Your special moves are hit capped at 8%, but you can still have your specials dodged unless they are of the "cannot be dodged, parried or blocked" variety.

As a dual-wielder, you will see more benefit from being 8% hit capped and expertise capped than having more than 8% hit and being under the expertise cap. You do benefit from having more than 8% hit (white swing damage), but I keep hearing that fury warriors basically stop worrying about hit rating once they reach around 10%.

[MellvarTank]

I would say that you want to have both. Expertise should be (as Bashal stated) 26, hit should be at least 8%. Keep in mind that if you spec into (precision I believe the talent is called) that is 3% to hit, and if you have a Dranei in your group that is another 1% to hit. So in reality, you only need 4% hit to get to the hit cap with 4% coming from talent/racial passive. Once you are expertise/hit capped, it's all strength.

[Unger]

No violent disagreement here....

Except to say that he is correct that expertise and hit are the same.... from behind the boss only. Because youre behind the boss, there is no parry. Only dodge is a factor. So if you get to 26 expertise and 8% hit, you will not miss, from behind, with yellow attacks. In front, you need expertise at 48 (ish?) to take parry off the table.

However, having a higher hit rating will help you not miss white attacks which is what drives your rage generation. I disagree with Mellvar in that if you stop at 8% hit, you will miss a LOT of white attacks and that will hamper your rage generation.

Make sure you are behind the boss, and everything that Bashal said is correct.

[Vestal]

So should I be Gemming and Enchanting for Expertise until I reach 26 instead of stacking all strengh?

[Bashal]

So should I be Gemming and Enchanting for Expertise until I reach 26 instead of stacking all strengh?

That's what I would do.

EDIT: or eat some expertise food and make up the difference using gems and enchants. Buff food ftw! ;)

[MellvarTank]

@Uger: I said at least 8%, not stop at 8%.

@Vestal: That is what I would do as well.

[Vestal]

Thanks guys. I have a +20 Expertise gem in my bag that I will be adding to my next piece of gear. The Expertise food will be in the bag shortly.

Great Insight!