Need tanking cloak advice.

Usually, the first stat you need to achieve when entering a new instance is the EH requirements for those bosses.
The fact is that if u run a instance for 4 months, you would probably wear Devilshark for 3 months, but the first month of that instance you would want EH items like Gilded or Farstriders. It has happened to me and probably will happen for most warriors. On my first days of BT I was wearing my Farstriders like 95% of the time. As my guild has been getting loot I've been replacing items: now I have the same EH as the first day I got attuned, but with +5% dodge and +5% hit gained from new loots. I use now farstriders just for aggro battles, the rest of the time I use Al'ar's.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Narshe

Usually, the first stat you need to achieve when entering a new instance is the EH requirements for those bosses.
The fact is that if u run a instance for 4 months, you would probably wear Devilshark for 3 months, but the first month of that instance you would want EH items like Gilded or Farstriders. It has happened to me and probably will happen for most warriors. On my first days of BT I was wearing my Farstriders like 95% of the time. As my guild has been getting loot I've been replacing items: now I have the same EH as the first day I got attuned, but with +5% dodge and +5% hit gained from new loots. I use now farstriders just for aggro battles, the rest of the time I use Al'ar's.

---

Have you tanked teron gorefiend? Entering a new instance the gear i use is max avoidance which is actually my max EH. While having 60% avoidance limits my threat i still have 8% hit so its not bad and the longer i live the more experience the raid gets.

And in response to your statement of you can go an entire fight and not avoide a single attack... you can also go an entire fight with that extra hp and armor and still get hit for the bosses maximum dmg, its all based on a roll calculator there is nothing to it really.

This argument has changed from some one asking for opinions to every one else arguing over the fact that Guilded Thorium Cloak is better, or Farstriders is better, which is COMPLETELY UNTRUE! Its better for one thing EH that is all, that doesnt make it a better cloak period.

Here's the thing, all those cloaks are great. You really can't go wrong using any of them. However, when you are clearing KZ and starting SSC/TK the 100-300 armor increase from GTC makes a huge difference. In most cases, warriors at that progession level have about 12K-15K armor and 300 armor is at least a 2% armor increase. That's 1 point into toughness and a nice HP boost. Just what the doctor ordered to get over the Gruul/Mag hump.

As you progress into SSC/TK gains from armor become less noticeable and threat becomes a serious issue. The best way to alleviate this problem is to stack SBV or +hit. Here is a list of cloaks to consider (KZ and below).

Block
Hit

(Sidenote : I'd like to point out that I am, and will always be, a proponent of consistency over chance. EH over avoidance, Hit/AP over Crit, etc. Mainly because you never know when someone(present company included) is gonna screw up. Why leave it to chance, when you can create a consistent atmosphere so results are repeatable and predictable.)

So looking at the SBV cloaks, I'd have to say Farstrider's outclasses the rest because of the superior EH and SBV. I feel that while the dodge on Devilshark is great, it will only save me 1/100 hits at low health, while Farstriders (and every other SBV cloak) will help me maintain a better HP buffer after every single block and hit.

Now let's look at +hit cloaks. Both the Drape and Kings cloak offer a good chunk of threat and EH. The Drape has superior threat capabilities and Kings offers more EH. I personally would use Kings for the superior EH (though Drape is hella sexier for trash).

This is just my personal preference. In the end just do what makes you feel most comfortable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paruhdox

Have you tanked teron gorefiend?

---

Teron Gorefiend has such a slow swing timer you hardly need to worry about crushings, that's actually a fight where you really don't need much avoidance to almost never get crushed, I might have taken one or two at the most on our first kill last week. Technically, that fight would probably be a prime example of a fight where high effective health wins. Though weapon skill/+hit are pretty nice for that encounter, too. :P

The reason that 300 more armor is good is because even with 75% avoidance you are going to eventually get hit multiple times in a row. Armor is what helps you survive that.

Armor prevents against Burst Damage.
Avoidance makes you easier to heal.

Both are important, but you need to be able to survive first and be easy to heal second.

Bursts will happen to all tanks. They will be frequent for EH tanks, and less frequent for avoidance tanks. Since the healers can't tell, they must heal the tank equally. Therefore avoidance does not make you easier to heal.

Avoidance allows for more emergency healing of the raid, because the MT healer can gamble and occasionally throw a heal for other raid members, counting that the MT will miss/parry/dodge during the next 1.5 seconds.

I was curious. I did not read through most of this thread, just certain posts here and there. My question is, if I have access to both the Farstrider's Cloak from Heroic badges and the one from Illhoof, which should I go with? My guild has not progressed past Gruul as we were a late blossoming guild who all are experiencing raids for the first time. I stack all stamina gems and enchants. I am under the impression that farstrider is better for threat and I am not 100% sure what shield block value does short of raising your shield slam damage, thus raising tps. Does it raise the amount that your shield blocks? If so, then what does shield block rating do? I also am not sure I need more avoidance. In my current setup, I have 24% dodge, 18% parry and once I get my nightbane chest piece i'll have a nice bit of block as well. Any advice would be helpful as I wanna do all I can to stay alive longer for us to down Gruul for the first time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by klor56

I was curious. I did not read through most of this thread, just certain posts here and there. My question is, if I have access to both the Farstrider's Cloak from Heroic badges and the one from Illhoof, which should I go with? My guild has not progressed past Gruul as we were a late blossoming guild who all are experiencing raids for the first time. I stack all stamina gems and enchants. I am under the impression that farstrider is better for threat and I am not 100% sure what shield block value does short of raising your shield slam damage, thus raising tps. Does it raise the amount that your shield blocks? If so, then what does shield block rating do? I also am not sure I need more avoidance. In my current setup, I have 24% dodge, 18% parry and once I get my nightbane chest piece i'll have a nice bit of block as well. Any advice would be helpful as I wanna do all I can to stay alive longer for us to down Gruul for the first time.

---

im a paladin but i can answer your question :D,

Shield block value - Increases the ammount your shield blocks (simple enough it will increase the ammmount blocked by (Equip Block value + Shield block value x1.3 +block from str) Tank points is a great addon to show shield block value. Shield block value is good mitigation if you can guarentee you will block every hit (aka being able to keep shield block up all the time)

Shield block rating - This stat is actually worthless if you are fighting a boss and have shield block up, The combat table according to my understanding roles in such a way that a crushing blow can not be blocked unless shield block is up (or your gear is above 102.4% avoidance (total miss/block/dodge/parry +base 5%) which is unlikely unless your in t6 and if you get it before your likely having a much smaller HP pool. It does however work on trash as trash in most cases (magtheridon trash can crush!) does not land crushing blows.

I hope that helps its a little bit complicated so in lamens terms:
-Shield block value blocks more damage
-Shield block rating doesn't do anything against a ?? mob as you can not block a crushing blow (that might confuse you, just accept it...:s)

I got my Devilshark's recently and I'm not planning on switching it out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by brain9h

Bursts will happen to all tanks. They will be frequent for EH tanks, and less frequent for avoidance tanks. Since the healers can't tell, they must heal the tank equally. Therefore avoidance does not make you easier to heal.

---

QFT.

A Tanks healers should be ignoring the raid, IMO. There should be other healers for that.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but the title is very relevant to my situation.

I currently have http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=29777 and read that the Devilshark is better. But is it the block value that makes it better? I think that, with my gear, the armor on my current cloak is more valuable as my guild progresses into KZ.

BTW, great site that I just found. Time to spend my day off being a geek here =)