stoicism chest or girdle of fearless

[protonly]

I'm sittin at about 90 badges and have one upgrade out of three options to get.

1) Jade Skull Breast plate upgraded to Chestplate of Stoicism

2) Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard upgraded to Girdle of the Fearless

and much less likely

3) Wrynn Dynasty Greaves upgraded to Unwavering Legguards or Sunguard Legplates.

I'm leaning toward the chest plate as the first upgrade. I probably can't go wrong with 1 or 2 but I think the chest is the bigger upgrade.

Currently
506 def
17.22 dodge
17.47 parry
25.75 block
480ish sbv
65 hit rating
21 expertise
14.2k health
15.4k armor

[veneretio]

1. Girdle of the Fearless
2. Chestplate of Stoicism
3. Sunguard Legplates

The Girdle is a powerful piece that'll push your hit and expertise stats up without forcing you to wear dps-style pieces. The Chestplate is an obvious 2nd choice as it's a commanding upgrade survival wise on all fronts. Finally, the Sunguard Legplates is your best 3rd choice as it's the superior of Unwavering Legguards.

[protonly]

Thanks for the input. I was leaning toward the belt after considering my badge acquisition rate but I'm a shield block value whore too. Hmm, I also need to look at how those items have changed in the beta (and upcoming 3.0something patch??) due to re-itemization...

[Bogota]

The belt is unbelievable bargain for the stats and I think your overall dps from SBV will shine with the increased hit and expertise.

[protonly]

I think I will go with the chest for survival reasons since I pretty much only PUG with friends and friends of friends on alts (I'm by far the best geared). We also don't manage weekly Nightbane kills with our two wipe policy and the survival boost would help out there -- if we can even summon him (sometimes for kills i gotta bring in my uber healbot to summon and heal the ot who would mt...it works for us).

The badges belt is no doubt the best upgrade for me but I think the over all quickest/best upgrade route is the badges chest, then the belt. I earn about 35 badges a week so if I get the chest first, I'll be able to get the belt two weeks later (provided I hit an extra heroic a week).

[Krashtork]

2 wipe policy? Please don't tell me you guys call raids after 2 wipes : (

[protonly]

2 wipe policy? Please don't tell me you guys call raids after 2 wipes : (

Lol we'd never finish a raid if we did that. Two wipes on a boss and we move on if we can (and go back at the end of the raid if time permits or pick them up another day). Generally Illhoof, Nightbane, and Netherspite are 2 wipe attempts bosses in kara and HKM, Gruul, Mag are all 2 wipers as well (per boss). :P This is in PUGs so yeah you wipe from time to time and generally in PUGs if you can't do it in two attempts you can't do it.

[TomHuxley]

The belt may still benefit survival-wise due to the parry reduction of expertise. I'd say belt first and chest second personally.

[Lionides]

Question : Do you do ZA ? If the ZA chest is a option of getting from Zul'jin then the 100 badges spent on the Stoicsm chest is an absolute waste imo , Ive tried to use it in alot of different ways but just cant get better performance overall than the ZA one . If ZA is not an opion then yes the chest is the best you'll get atm

On the flipside the girdle are the best ingame pre sunwell afaik and the leggings are allso better than those that drop in BT so I wouldn't even consider getting the chest before those 2

My 2 cents worth

[protonly]

I PUG ZA so... nothing is guaranteed except that we'll start a raid group.

I ended up getting the chest due to the higher armor and health for more EH. Also taken into consideration was the fact that on the PTR my defense dropped to 470 something (from 507) and the chest helped bridge the gap to 490 (got me up to 483) more than the belt did. I'll prolly get the belt before the 3.0 so it prolly didn't matter.

Thanks all!