leveling gear

[Ghreystar]

i see everyone talking about SBV gear sets for leveling, and quite frankly im not sure thats the best route to go. i'm currently runnning around 5/8 t6 sporting 17.5k health, 660 (ish) SBV and 1614 attack power. i do have a SBV set that puts me around 1100 SBV, but i lose 200 attack power, and 1500(ish) stam. my sbv set is still gemmed for stam. ive got plenty of epic +str gems, and even more BOJ, so i could re-gem for str. how much attack power would i gain, and would it be worth it to lose all that stam? i usually pull 3-5 mobs and grind them down... anything less is wasted time, i just dont have the rage to do anything but whites. sometimes i will bandage and go again, sometimes i dont even bother. also, how concerned need we be with the hit cap whilst leveling? im up to 73 now, questing solo like a mofo with the occasional guildie instance run. perhaps i should try to hybrid attack power and SBV. any input?

current armory
The World of Warcraft Armory

[Kazeyonoma]

i've found that leveling with max STR has proven the fastest for me, but I can't AoE grind as fast. If I know I'm gonna AoE i put on my sbv set because I am able to benefit from damage shield and survivability better.

I normally run in full season 3/4 gear to solo quest and tank in good speed runs:
The World of Warcraft Armory

[Brucimus]

I have been using a bastardized set of tanking/pvp/dps gear and am very happy with what i can do

The World of Warcraft Armory

I have more than 18000 armor 600+ strength/ 28% Crit / 900 + SBV and 14K Hit points. My revenges crit for 2500+ Shield slams for about 4K. I bowl almost anything over with out even trying. I have a reliable silence and a reliable stun....life is good so far at 73.5

[Ghreystar]

so, do we not need to worry about hit rating or def rating? whats anti-crit for leveling, or do non-bosses not crit?

[Brucimus]

of course i was talking about running around and questing....when It comes to tanking and my dps isnt important anymore i will use my full tanking set.

And big whoop if a mob gets a lucky crit on me...18K armor soaks most of that.

I will have to watch my hit rating as i level up...there was a nice ring as quest reward for killing Harold Lane Ring of Indignant Rage - Item - World of Warcraft i may sub in

[Kazeyonoma]

hit rating is gonna be tough to watch without knowing what gear is good to grab along the way.

5% crit for equal level mobs. you want to stay 5% uncrittable when tanking things in instances, 1 level higher is 5.2, 2 levels is 5.4%. Use whatever you can to obtain this kinda #, I have so much resilience, even at 72 i still reduce crits by 9%

[~Luffie~]

I've been just running around with whatever tanking piece I have that gives SBV. The only thing I have gemmed for STR is my ZA shield and overall I'm sitting at 900+ SBV. I've actually done a level with my regular raiding tanking set sitting around 650-700 SBV and I really didn't see a difference in speed.

[Dismember]

My strategy has been to wear whatever tank gear I have with block value on it. If I don't have tank gear with block value on it for a particular slot, I wear my best DPS item for that slot. Both for leveling and for tanking instances. At this point I've done everything up to Violet Hold and Gundrak, and haven't yet hit the point where I've needed to swap gear for more survivability.

[Ghreystar]

well, i ended up putting in some +ap and +SBV gear. up to around 2k attack power, still hit capped, 700ish SBV and like 14.5k health. not sure how i like it yet. i still rather like my 17.5k health pool in my tanking gear. its like pull 5, grind, pull 5, bandage, loot 10.

still not sure what gear set i like better, but i am more comfortable in my tanking gear.

[Halgreg]

My method has been focusing mostly on AP. My crit is at about 25% in Def Stance, unbuffed AP at around 2K. White hits generate a lot of ready rage. With Battle Shout and after popping an AP trinket, my concussion blow and shockwave crits at 2.5K.

On most single mob fights, what usually happens is 1) white hit, 2) shield slam, 3) Concussion blow, 4) white hit and done. If the mob is still alive, I sprinkle in a shockwave, or do devastates and shield slams, but honestly, most mobs don't survive very long.

On multi-mob fights or for soloing elites, I use my instance tanking gear. Well...to be honest, on my first try, I try to use my AP set to see if I can get through simply because my white hits, shockwaves, and concussion blows do so much more damage in that AP set. I'll gladly pop last stand and shield wall if it means a faster death for the mobs with my increased AP. The quicker the fight, the better!

I also reduce downtime by using Medallion of Heroism and LifeBlood during every cooldown...bandage if need be. Sometimes the Medallion of Heroism crit heals...it's so awesome! Downtime is never a real problem except after a rare tough fight.