Warrior 4 piece + offset item

[Outbackjack]

Looking specifically at the normal mode Warrior tanking set pieces I'm trying to wrap my mind around the best combination of 4 piece and offset items to go for.

Wowhead comparison (http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items=70941.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.136:70942:70943: 70945:70916;70942:70943:70944.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.161:70 945:70921.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.121)
The first gear set uses the set gloves, legs, chest, shoulders, and Helm of Blazing Glory (http://www.wowhead.com/item=70916). I reforged the hit rating on the shoulders into Parry, otherwise I didn't touch the stats.


The second gear set uses the set gloves, legs, chest, helm, and Pauldrons of Roaring Flame (http://www.wowhead.com/item=70921). Here I reforged the expertise on the set helm into Mastery and the dodge into parry on the offset shoulders.


By virtue of the higher item level, the offset shoulder route gains more overall stats and has the most avoidance. However the offset helm route has a crapton more Mastery, probably even more if you start reforging everything possible into Mastery. It looks like you would gain more from the offset shoulders overall, but its too soon for me to confidently pick a route.

The fights in Firelands do seem to have a bit more flavor and variety than they did in the Tier 11 content. Under ideal circumstances I would think having a Mastery set would work out well for Alysrazor (although you could argue equipping more hit/expertise would be better for killing the baby birdies), Lord Rhyolith adds, and Beth'tilac. An avoidance set seems to be stronger for Baleroc and Shannox. I can't comment on Majordomo and Ragnaros yet, I wasn't present for our Majordomo kill and we just started working on Ragnaros last night.

Am I on the right track here? Am I missing something in my approach or does this look fairly accurate? If this is already covered in a different topic, my apologies for the duplicate question.

[Bigbad]

Sounds accurate, think its important to reach 96,4% unhittable or 102,4% and the choice between offset shoulders or head could depend a bit on that. Haven't made my mind up yet but think I'll go for offset headpiece or just have both option available if someone else doesn't want the tierhead piece.

[kopcap]

Not sure how you have been comparing them, but the tier helm is so bad no item level difference can salvage it. Blazing Glory route is far superior.

[Outbackjack]

Not sure how you have been comparing them, but the tier helm is so bad no item level difference can salvage it. Blazing Glory route is far superior.

This is kind of the answer I was hoping to get. I've seen a few mentions of the set helm being lackluster but it was never accompanied with any numbers or reasoning. I can see that both the set helm and the set shoulders are not ideal, I would like to get a little more understanding why the set helm is considered the worst of the two. I'm guessing its the Parry/Expertise secondary stats (with Parry being the higher of the two) which makes reforging it pretty craptacular?

[Takethecake]

I think I'll be going with the tier helm and rag shoulders. ~48 points more in avoidance vs the mastery on tier shoulders/blazing glory, plus 56 stam and exp being double the benefit of hit.

[kopcap]

You make it sound it bigger than it is, its 286 mast vs 334 avoid + 56 stam.

[klausi]

Not sure how you have been comparing them, but the tier helm is so bad no item level difference can salvage it. Blazing Glory route is far superior.
The offpiece helmet is a high strength variant, the tier helmet is actually not that bad. Some expertise never hurts, add Antichrist boots, thrown weapon and Shannox belt and you're close to softcap with your regular tanking gear.

And regarding calculating with offset pieces in general: I've never seen Nefarian dropping his shoulders in 32 kills, tier gear is at least guaranteed to some extent.

But for the sake of discussion, i'd go with Bethilac chest, Baleroc helmet AND Ragnaros shoulders over 4 piece t11 for a high mastery build.

[kopcap]

Its bad enough on the simple premise that it cuts our mastery at the worst time possible - when we are so close to unhittable and so desperately need just a little extra rating to hit the cap. No doubt this may change in heroic, but thats where it gets ironic - offpiece helm will be available long before any of us can have a chance at getting the shoulders and you will be forced to use it, like it or not. Oversight on Blizs part, but nothing we can do, just deal with it.

[swelt]

Is the 4 piece really worth the sacrifice? Set gloves + legs, offset helm/chest/helm - now that's a ton of mastery...
Beth chest: http://www.wowhead.com/item=70914

(er... like wot klausi said)

[kopcap]

I would not worry about it. At the start people just gonna use whatever drops first to push the block cap as fast as they can. And by the time they acquire both the 4 set and these 3 mastery heavy items to be able to choose from, blockcap issue should cease to exist anyway and it will be decided purely on a fight-to-fight basis which stats a particular fight favors more.