Hydross: juggling max resist, crit immunity, and health

A simple evaluation concerning those resist tanks approaching or having already tackled Hydross. How do you weigh these three stats against this fight? Which take priority for you as a main resist tank?

My situation: I've gathered both resist sets, rings, and necklaces. Originally, my role was to manage the adds during transitions, which set me towards mixing my resists and generally ignoring my crit immunity and health in favor of reaching the resist cap (290 in my case, considering additional party auras). Turns out my overachieving as far as getting both sets made paid off, as our frost resist tank is stepping down and I'm to take his place.

Now I'm confused as to where I should place priority on this fight. How dangerous is a crit? How dangerous is a weak or missed partial resist?

My current frost resist gear:

[item]Iceguard Breastplate[/item]
[item]Iceguard Helm[/item]
[item]Iceguard Leggings[/item]
[item]The Frozen Eye[/item]
[item]Pendant of Thawing[/item]

With my other slots of gear set up as some mixed tier 4 and kara epics, I'm at these numbers:

255 frost resist
489 defense
12534 health

I've noticed that the nature set is much more forgiving, having much more badly needed defense rating to keep crit immune and allowing me to subsitute my cloak for a nature resist cloak to reach 290 and 489 defense. My problem is that the frost is not as generous.

Now, where do I go from here? Do I find a decent frost resist green cloak or an additional ring to get me to 290 resist, at the cost of precious crit immunity? Do I then sub in a green glove or belt that has nothing but +defense rating to compensate? It's a tough area.

Preemptive answers to some questions:

1. Yes, I am using exclusively +defense trinkets

2. Yes, I've used the Vindicator's armor kit on my chest and legs to grant an additional 6 - 7 defense.

3. No, you cannot use shield block to negate crits against Hydross. His attacks cannot be fully or partially blocked.

Try mixing in some resilience gear. :)

Flask of Fortification gives another 10 Defensrating (about 4 Def AFAIK)
And you need to reach 295 (+70 pala buff should get you to 365).

Argent Dawn Shoulder Enchant +5 FR.

I also own [item]Icebane Pauldrons[/item] outta Naxx.
IF you have such old stuff, there is a good Cloak.
Thre is als [item]Frigide Cloak[/item] around, random world drop.

To comepensate for the Def loss i habe [item]Vambraces of Courage[/item]
Socket with [item]Thick Dawnstone[/item] and +12 Def Enchant.

Head Enchant from the Keepers of time are another +20 FR.

Change your trinkets from Avoidance aggro to Def Dabiris, Adamantite figurine.

These are the tips who come more or less spontanous in my mind.

Ah yes, I suppose I meant to say 295 was the magic number, not 290. My mistake.

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Try mixing in some resilience gear.

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I'm pretty clueless as to how resilience and defense work in tandem. Do they add to each other in such that resilience will compensate for my lost defense? Or are they seperate checks somehow, and there's still a small window where a crit can happen?

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Argent Dawn Shoulder Enchant +5 FR.

I also own [Icebane Pauldrons] outta Naxx.
IF you have such old stuff, there is a good Cloak.
Thre is als [Frigide Cloak] around, random world drop.

To comepensate for the Def loss i habe [Vambraces of Courage]
Socket with [Thick Dawnstone] and +12 Def Enchant.

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As far as the shoulder enchant goes, I'm stuck with the tier 4 tanking shoulders as my only ones, and switching the enchant from the aldor to resist would be a bit of a needless burden.

Also, [item]Vambraces of Courage[/item] are my main tanking bracers, and it's the same issue where I'm reluctant to switch the enchants and gem choices I have each time I need to do Hydross. Although, your suggestion did give me the better idea to instead enchant 12 defense rating on my [item]Bracers of the Green Fortress[/item], which should kick my defense up a few more notches. Especially considering the block value on the Vambraces of Courage is all but useless for this fight.

I'm already using those two trinkets you suggested, as well as the frost resist enchant to my headpiece. I suppose it's simply a matter of grabbing a decent frost resist ring or cloak, then.

Although, my basic question remains unanswered. Had I the choice between max resist with no crit immunity, or unmaxxed resist with crit immunity, which would be better?

nothing has changed - crit immunity > spiky healing & luck IMO

I off-tank the adds and have approx 190 Fr & Nr and 480 Def. I've done it with a lot more resist but lower defence and been crit...

Yeah, i also made the mistake counting the FR Aura 75 instead of 70.

Well with the shoulder that sucks, but you got some nice avoidance on those for this fight. With the bracers, my had Greenfortress long before the Vambrace, so i used them a high Defensrating Bracers in general, for Hydross Resi gear and for Aggro gear with not so much block but some jucie to hit rating.

I started with that Spreadsheet fpr FrR and then build my own further. Maybe that gives you a few idea's.

Just stolen from another thread here:
"It takes 60 Defense Rating to reduce your chance to be crit by 1%.
It takes 39.4 Resilience to reduce your chance to be crit by 1%."

Going for max resist (295 unbuffed) and crit immunity is definitely a good idea. It's also quite doable for most tanks / guilds who've been in Kara / Gruul / Mags for a little bit, even with a few blues as part of the set. A few basic tips:


- Socketable items are a big help because you can add defense via gems.

- [item]Cloak of Eternity[/item] (crafted) is usually your best bet for use in a resist set.

- Keep farming Kara to get a second item you already have to socket / enchant it with Defense for Hydross. [item]Vambraces of Courage[/item]</SPAN> are a good place to start. The block value is actually quite valuable for threat given Hydross resets aggro every transition.

- Gloves are usually the best slot for a resist green since you can add an NR / FrR leather kit and avoid gimping a pair of tank gloves that otherwise could use a "real" tanking enchant.


Lastly, I know you're working on Frost, but just as a reference this is the NR set I started MTing Hydross with, which also got us our first kill. It's gotten better since, but those kind of stats are not too hard to achieve. Yes, FrR is a little harder than NR, but not by that much.

The shoulders were sitting in the bank and were re-socketed just for Hydross. The bracers are a second pair that I also socketed and enchanted just for Hydross.


I've been wanting to put together a better guide-type document about this btw. I just need some way to add a few hours to the much outaded 24-hour standard everyone insists on using, then it should be easier to find the time...

A few suggestions I can give you are:

Pick up [item]Alembic of Infernal Power[/item] off the last boss in Heroic Slave Pens if you can. I know this seems like an unlikely tanking trinket, but it comes in handy for fights like these -- the 33 Resilience is roughly the equivalent of 50 Defense Rating.

Cloak of Eternity is one of the best all-around cloaks to get if you aren't struggling with meeting FrR or Defense minimums, however you might want to take a look at [item]Resolute Cape[/item] if crit immunity is a problem. The 21 Resilience equates to 31-32 Defense Rating.

Replace the Vindicator's Armor Kit on your chestpiece with a +15 Resilience enchant (link) if you're still short of the cap.

I think you're doing fine health-wise. Although you don't need Resilience to get crit immunity, it certainly makes it easier and frees up room in your other gear for more Resistance/Health.

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Originally Posted by Armstrong

I just need some way to add a few hours to the much outdated 24-hour standard everyone insists on using

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:) I know the feeling.

I've outlined a good resist set here.

Basically 39 resilience = 1&#37; crit reduction, so it's much easier to stack resilience than def to hit the cap.