Arms warriors and leather

Hey guys, i just had a quick question - Is leather okay to use as an arms warrior? I see a lot of fury warriors using leather pieces I.E. Bracers of 25m saurfang, but i don't see many arms warriors using leather. I am curious because i have another 60 frost badges and i am not sure if i should purchase the Frost badge leather belt "????? noose" or "Gatecrasher Gauntlets". And another question, is the meta bonus worth losing some arp over? All tips/criticism are encouraged and appreciated, thanks.

- Jesberger

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...m&cn=Jesberger

I don't see why not, if according to Rawr at least the item is vital to your class you should use it. I tend to go by Rawr for gearing and DPS calculations over what Elitist Jerks writes up on Retribution Paladins and Rawr states that there are two badge leather pieces, chest and belt which are better for DPS than any 264 item level piece, including Tier 10.5 gear, in actuality the only items better in those two slots are 277 iLevel from heroic 25 man Ice Crown Citadel, one being from Sindragosa and the other being the Tier 10.75 piece.

If I were a Fury warrior I would probably use the Vengeful Noose since they stack Armor Pen like mad, not sure about Arms but I am sure it is similar. I have the Vengeful Noose belt as a Ret Paladin and it's a great item, gives me a boat load of crit. Gonna get the badge leather chest piece after I get a Tier 10 helmet which has expertise and haste on it, which is excellent since there aren't enough expertise pieces in ICC that also increase my current DPS (8.6k).

Also, the only time I would expect to see leather items go for a plate class is if someone in your raid does not need said item. Since you have feral druids and rogues to deal with for leather pieces, if a BiS item (according to Rawr at least) drops, it is more likely to go to as loot priority to either of those two classes.

It is perfectly acceptable to use leather as an arms warrior.

Some items, like Vengeful Noose, are better than their plate counterparts.

fyi, regardless of spec, dps warriors will and should stack ArP.

i picked up the leather bracers from saurfang 25 and venegeful noose (badge leather belt) when i played arms before i switched to fury. the leather bracers are bis for both specs, while coldwraith links are bis for arms in the belt slot. i would say if you don't have a chance at the dreamwalker belt anytime soon, get the badge leather belt. i wouldn't pick up gatecrashers for arms since the t10 gloves are better (arms needs more hit than fury which is why).

i don't understand your question about losing a meta bonus over arp.

It is more than perfectly fine to use leather over plate. I use leather wrists, hands and belt (Wrists - 25 Saurfang, Hands 10 Heroic Saurfang, Belt 25 Professor) and an agility ring (The one from sindragosa, I use the Ashen ring for tanking). It hurts your AP a little bit but when you end up getting 51% crit unbuffed (Well buffed I suppose with rampage being passive) and you are ArP capped so you can start using Str/Crit gems, it all balances itself out.

I also do not understand the meta bonus question =\

Edit: I forgot this was arms - you will (as others have said) want the t10 4p with hands instead of legs and try to make the crafted pants. You should also probably use the Agility back from badges instead of the strength/expertise one.

Awesome, thanks for the replies, i appreciate them. @ Destruyen - I am currently gemming straight ArP and nothing but it. My meta gem requires one blue gem and one yellow for the Agi/critical dmg, would putting in a yellow and blue gem be worth it to get the bonus? Or should i stay stacking Armor pen.?

You want to use 21 agi and then stick a Nightmare tearinto a blue spot that you can get some sort of socket bonus - nightmare tears cover 1 of each color, so the agi/crit meta need 1/1/1 (so they will all be covered)