Understanding "Gauntlets of the Iron Furnace"

[chun]

I was running an ulduar 10 yesterday, and
Gauntlets of the Iron Furnace - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft dropped.

+48 def is nice.
+56 dodge is nice.
But then there is +43 armor penetration. !?!

Is armor penetration now going to be a threat stat?

I got the piece since no one else was interested, and am trying to wrap
my brain around how I would use this piece of gear. Any suggestions/input,
or is this just a mis-itemized piece?

cheers, and ty.

[Esch]

For a paladin, junk.

For a warrior, mebbe if you need a pseudo OT to shift to pure dps (or vice versa).

For a DK, this are hawt. The Rune Strike mechanic is a physical attack, which buffs the threat component (by negating armor, increasing damage). Note the def/dodge also fit the DK preferences instead of Ulduar's SBR/SBV gear elsewhere.

If I didn't already have tier 8.5, I'ld consider these, but I expect these to get either DE'ed or picked up by a tank needing the def/dodge/stamina upgrade.

[Molohk]

Well, all "dps stats" are technically "threat stats". The value of ArPen obviously depends on your class and spec, and what you're wearing now, and in any case it is most likely not your ideal threat stat. I think Blizz got a bit carried away with adding ArPen into itemization here.

[Esch]

Well, all "dps stats" are technically "threat stats". The value of ArPen obviously depends on your class and spec, and what you're wearing now, and in any case it is most likely not your ideal threat stat. I think Blizz got a bit carried away with adding ArPen into itemization here.

ArP got buffed notably in 3.1, and it's still being sorted out on the value to DPS/Threat, IMO. Given that Rune Strike is (effectively) the only spammable, "High Threat" ability every DK has, it makes these gloves more useful to DKs as a class than warriors. Warriors have alternatives to Heroic Strike, though it's still as solid option.

There's also the DPS OT aspect, which I find myself in at times, and these may fit such a 'specific role' set if I picked them up.

[Kerg]

I don't think Blizzard intended anything with this, because IMO it is most likely a type-o. I look for them to be fixed in an upcoming patch, and changed to Hit or Expertise or another tanking stat.

[Molohk]

ArP got buffed notably in 3.1, and it's still being sorted out on the value to DPS/Threat, IMO. Given that Rune Strike is (effectively) the only spammable, "High Threat" ability every DK has, it makes these gloves more useful to DKs as a class than warriors. Warriors have alternatives to Heroic Strike, though it's still as solid option.

I disagree in making an absolute statement about DKs gaining more benefit from ArPen than warriors. Even though Rune Strike does benefit from ArPen more than other abilities because of the 1.5x threat modifier, DK's also rely on magical damage attacks that are not mitigated by armor. On the other hand, as far as I know, all warrior attacks are mitigated by armor, which means ArPen will increase threat from all warrior abilities, while it will only increase threat from a subset of a DK's abilities.

Either way, the OP was asking whether ArPen was a threat stat, and it is. The formulas are pretty clear, and because of the way ArPen works, it seems like it only suprasses other DPS stats if you stack it in large ammounts. So unless you're already capped for hit and expertise, you're probably still better off going for one of these stats instead of ArPen, or just sticking to your tier gloves which you can gem to your liking.

[Muffin Man]

ArP got buffed notably in 3.1, and it's still being sorted out on the value to DPS/Threat, IMO. Given that Rune Strike is (effectively) the only spammable, "High Threat" ability every DK has, it makes these gloves more useful to DKs as a class than warriors. Warriors have alternatives to Heroic Strike, though it's still as solid option.

There's also the DPS OT aspect, which I find myself in at times, and these may fit such a 'specific role' set if I picked them up.

This doesn't make sense to me. The spammable 'high threat' ability every warrior has is Heroic Strike and is physical... as is every other warrior ability (we don't have any alternatives to dumping rage btw).

In fact my first inclination was to call these Warrior Gloves because ArP gets better the more you stack, and prot warriors effectively roll with 20% ArP.

I can see these being useful for DK's and Pallies if it turns out they do a significant amount of physical damage, but a small amount of ArP in itself doesn't do much.

Also, ignoring the ArP on the gloves, they have more armor and hp than anything you could have picked up in Naxx/10 so even if you don't like ArP they have their use.

[Kazeyonoma]

wait, how do prot warriors effectively roll with 20% arp?

[Molohk]

I think he's counting sunders as ArP.

[ttocs]

ArP is not, under any circumstance, more valuable to a DK than a Warrior. The "gain" you get from increased Rune Strike damage (which is small when you're using just these gloves) would be better suited for other threat stats like Hit, Strength and even Expertise.

[Durandro]

Sunder Armour/Devastate.

Edit: Bit slow on the response there. Though I guess I can expand it and say that all melee get the buff as well...so it's a moot point really, unless there are no Warriors in the group (or they aren't Sundering).

[Kazeyonoma]

But any warrior in raid will always provide this buff, (dps warriors should put it up if no prot warrior is there, seriously, if they aren't, they aren't doing their job). So that's kinda out the door.

The key thing to remember is that for warriors this benefits every single one of their attacks except possibly shockwave/tclap. For that reason warriors benefit the most of the 4 tanking classes from ArPen. Why do these gloves exists? Because if you somehow manage to cap hit and expertise (this is tough!) this gives an additional threat boost that you otherwise would have to reserve towards str.

[Muffin Man]

But any warrior in raid will always provide this buff, (dps warriors should put it up if no prot warrior is there, seriously, if they aren't, they aren't doing their job). So that's kinda out the door.

It's a 10 man piece, so I wouldn't make any assumptions about raid composition.

[Whitegold]

Indeed. I'm almost invariably the only warrior in my group. One of only two (at 80) in our guild and the other is an alt. And if I'm not there my place will be taken by a pally.

[Lizana]

Arp affects shockwave and TClap damage as those are physical attacks

[Hamburglar]

This is a terribly itemized piece of gear. There's a good chance if you're off-tanking in Ulduar you might not be hit or expertise-capped. Any traditional tanking piece with hit or expertise would give you more threat and dps. There are several solid gloves with either hit or expertise on them as everyone knows like T7.5, T8.5, conquest badge gloves, etc.

[Kazeyonoma]

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's TERRIBLE, suboptimal sure, but it's from 10man.

[Rhyseh]

Hmm, without more prot pieces sporting ArP these aren't terribly useful on their own. However with people hitting the expertise and hit cap in Naxx this could potentially add an extra threat stat to our arsenal, but then again I would much prefer more strength to ArP....

[Satrina]

Hit capping is a joke in Ulduar gear. If I can expertise cap without using my T7 gloves I'll use these for a threat seat, absolutely.

Different is not bad.

[Clyde]

Might also be good for warriors using the unrelenting assault build and a mace spec.