Very low amount of Defense on ZA/Heroic gear

[Beertap]

I know we're all excited with the upcoming PTR patch, especially us T4/T5 tanks who will be able to get a large amount of upgrades from the new Zul'Aman instance and new Heroic Badge rewards.

I've already started farming gold, gems and enchants and looking at gear to see what possible stats I could expect. I've already made a list on my guild forums concerning my calculations. So here is what I got:

Weapon - http://www.mmo-champion.com/images/n...nforgiving.jpg
Enchant: Moongose
+8 Defense Rating (Yellow)

Shield - http://www.mmo-champion.com/images/n...ani_empire.jpg
Enchant: +18 Stamina
+12 Stamina (Blue)

Ranged - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32756
+4 Defense Rating +6 Stamina (Green)

Head - http://www.mmo-champion.com/images/n..._tuskguard.jpg
Enchant: +16 Defense Rating and +17 Dodge Rating
+5 Dodge Rating and +6 Stamina (Purple)
+8 Defense Rating (Yellow)
+12 Stamina (Blue)

Neck - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33296

Shoulders - http://www.mmo-champion.com/images/n...ne_resolve.jpg
Enchant: +15 Dodge Rating and +10 Defense Rating
+12 Stamina (Blue)
+12 Stamina (Blue)

Cloak - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33593
Enchant: +120 Armor

Chest - http://www.mmo-champion.com/images/n...he_warlord.jpg
Enchant: +150 Health
+8 Defense Rating (Yellow)
+5 Dodge Rating and +6 Stamina (Purple)
+12 Stamina (Blue)

Wrists - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33516
Enchant: +12 Stamina

Hands - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33517
Enchant: +8 Stamina
+5 Dodge Rating and +6 Stamina (Purple)
+12 Stamina (Blue)

Waist - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33279
+12 Stamina (Blue)
+8 Defense Rating (Yellow)

Legs - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33515
Enchant: +40 Stamina and +12 Agility
+5 Dodge Rating and +6 Stamina (Purple)
+8 Defense Rating (Yellow)
+12 Stamina (Blue)

Feet - http://www.mmo-champion.com/images/n...e_stompers.jpg
Enchant: +12 Stamina
+12 Stamina (Blue)

Ring 1 - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33499

Ring 2 - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30028

Trinket 1 - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31858

Trinket 2 - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32864

Total Stats:
9.76% to be Missed
17.92% Dodge
16.65% Parry
40.12% Block
0.83% to be Crit by a level 73 mob
574 Block Value
84.45% Total Avoidance

158 Strength
106 Agility
16604 Hit Points
16940 Armor
469.58 Defense

Now the gear is excellent, I don't think anybody will doubt that. The main problem I see is the extremely low amount of defense rating on the tanking gear. Usually I'd stack up +12 Stamina gems in everything, like my live character, but I had to resort to Defense gems and try to work with gems colors and socket bonuses to maintain a high amount of hit points while trying to stay above 490 Defense.

Does anyone have any ideas to work around this? One solution would be to stack defense rating gems, possibly +4 Defense Rating and +6 Stamina with the +8 Defense Rating gems.

[Kazeyonoma]

use season 2 shield, the resilience from it will give you ~.86% chance to be crit reduced, and thus solve your problem =]

[adrenalize]

I know we're all excited with the upcoming PTR patch, especially us T4/T5 tanks who will be able to get a large amount of upgrades from the new Zul'Aman instance and new Heroic Badge rewards.

I've already started farming gold, gems and enchants and looking at gear to see what possible stats I could expect. I've already made a list on my guild forums concerning my calculations. So here is what I got:



Now the gear is excellent, I don't think anybody will doubt that. The main problem I see is the extremely low amount of defense rating on the tanking gear. Usually I'd stack up +12 Stamina gems in everything, like my live character, but I had to resort to Defense gems and try to work with gems colors and socket bonuses to maintain a high amount of hit points while trying to stay above 490 Defense.

Does anyone have any ideas to work around this? One solution would be to stack defense rating gems, possibly +4 Defense Rating and +6 Stamina with the +8 Defense Rating gems.

Out of the gear in ZA it allows you to really mix up your sets much more then currently. Also, are you factoring in the +20 Def from anticipation? If not then that 489 def.

Seriously tho, It means that you mix and match your gear with other pieces of the same item level, Giveing yourself the absolute perfect stats for what you atually doing at any given tinme

[Jedan]

I agree, after looking through most of the Badge rewards and ZA loot I found that I will be keeping a few items from SSC/TK. So even though my def will drop, I shouldn't be in trouble of dropping below 490.

[Beertap]

Out of the gear in ZA it allows you to really mix up your sets much more then currently. Also, are you factoring in the +20 Def from anticipation? If not then that 489 def.

Seriously tho, It means that you mix and match your gear with other pieces of the same item level, Giveing yourself the absolute perfect stats for what you atually doing at any given tinme

Yes, I have factored in the +20 Defense from Anticipation.

I still haven't added up the effective hit rating I'll get from all the expertise + hit rating I'll get. It is a possibility to reach the hit % cap and just switch a few pieces like badge gloves for T5.

[Sair]

I think you tend to overvalue the new expertise stat in your calculations, maybe. I won't argue that it's an absolute godsend for protection threat, but it's not a priority over your crit immunity. Your neck, for instance, is a prime piece that has a lot of stamina and expertise, but absolutely no defense. You can possibly sub that for something more defense worthy to help keep that immunity.

Also, you use two stamina trinkets - it won't be the end of the world if you have to equip a defense one instead. The Hydross trinket (or even the adamantite figurine) will factor in nicely to help preserve your gems and keep you alive.

[Velor]

After looking at the links i can say one thing, i am thinking about reactivating my account

Most of these items for me have the tag 'prot pvp' I stopped raiding after downing void reaver and lurker and i had no access to a block value legs item the new badge item seems a very nice choice to take into pvp, as well the shield and the helmet mentioned above.

I gotta say that being mt and trying out prot pvp was very very fun. With these new eq i can expect about ~100 block value increase and if you add up 100% dispel from shield slam makes great improvements for prot pvp.

I don't know why you expect all the items to have the single use of being used in tanking, with different choices you can make outfits to do different stuff, eg i had a threat outfit a pvp outfit, max stamina outfit and a nice outfit with maxed out avoidance to solo instances as far as i could for fun (winning bets on if i could solo all the 6 first mobs together in shattered halls was fun) So just because you can't get your 490 defense with just these eq (one is from SSC though isnt it?.. whats up with that) Doesn't mean they ain't good

[veneretio]

These items are amazing, you'll just have to combine them with your other higher defense gear and make some tough choices. It's going to be a lot of fun trying out different setups and remember you don't need 490 defense for trash 4k shield slam crits here I come!

[Horacio]

I think it may be a conscious design thing.....There's huge defense values on existing gear so really, its an opportunity to fove us some more options for stats besides watching our Def go to 530ish and wishing we could just swap in a little stam here and there.

[Devro]

Honestly, if you need to, as mentioned before, replace the ZG-remade shield with the Merciless Gladiator's Shield Wall, which, if I recall correctly, will reduce the "Defense Cap" to 371. Then you can switch a ring or a necklace and get over 371 while retaining the majority of the gear in the OP's setup.

I have also noticed that the majority (or at least a large portion) of the gear from ZA are supplements to solo/threat gear. Some of the pieces lack non-blocking avoidance stats, while others have no avoidance stats at all. This leads me to believe that the gear isn't really meant to be a complete upgrade for tanks in later boss encounters.