Which consumables?

[chubtohd]

I've been checking armories, and with myself included, it seems most tanks are rocking around 5% hit and < 20 exp rating with the current gear choices.

While threat isn't an issue for most, this is a pretty big paradigm shift in tank gearing for a lot of people...especially newer tanks.

I was just curious if this is changing anyone's consumable's choices?

I'm using Dragonfin Filet and Elixir of Mighty Strength and Elixir of Protection

Thoughts?

The World of Warcraft Armory - Chübs @ Hyjal - Profile

[Dreador]

I always use Flask of Stoneblood with Rhinolicious Wormsteak.

[Bethrezen]

Flask of Stoneblood with Blackened Dragonfish.

[krc]

One consumable that very many people don't take into account is the Indestructible Potion. Those things offer huge amounts of armor for the first 2 minutes of the fight and any other 2 minutes into the fight you choose to pop it on.

[Theotherone]

I always use Flask of Stoneblood with Rhinolicious Wormsteak.

My favorite combo at the moment too.

Although, I'll use Elixir of Protection/Elixir of Mighty Strength if my Pally Alchemist/Herbilst hasn't farmed and made some flasks.

Freaking Frost Lotus was going for 80g each on my server yesterday - no way I'm a buyer at that price.

[Eisen]

Flask of Stoneblood with Blackened Dragonfish.

Ditto for this combo. Technically I could use the expertise from Wyrmsteak; but I find holding aggro usually isn't an issue.

[Antioch]

What I'm pondering over is the low 5% Hit? Scarfing down some +Hit food?

As for consumables I use Stoneblood Flask & Rhinolicious Wormsteak too. I let the avoidance and Hit come naturally through gear.

[Bodasafa]

Flask of Stoneblood and Snapper Extreme (+40 Hit Rating) atm.

Once I replace more gear with ICC/Badge upgrades I will be below the 26 expertise skill dodge cap so I will go for Rhinolicious Wormsteak (+4.88 Expertise Skill) instead of the Hit food.

The threat you gain through Strength from the Dragonfin Filet and Elixir are minimal compared to more expertise (especially under 26 skill) or hit (if under 8%) IMO.

Source: krc
One consumable that very many people don't take into account is the Indestructible Potion. Those things offer huge amounts of armor for the first 2 minutes of the fight and any other 2 minutes into the fight you choose to pop it on.

Ah yes on progression (new fights were still working a first kill on) I pop 1 of these just before the pull.

Source: Theotherone
Freaking Frost Lotus was going for 80g each on my server yesterday - no way I'm a buyer at that price.

Ours are up to 100g a pop with Stoneblood flasks ranging from 45g-65g ea.

WTB hotfix to increase lotus drop rate

[chubtohd]

The Strength your gain from the Dragonfin Filet and Elixir are minimal compared to more expertise (especially under 26 skill) or hit (if under 8%) IMO.

I use it for the damage and the block value ... since threat really isn't an issue, I'm not striving for soft cap of expertise ... especially since it's sub 20 atm anyway. Looking at warrior tanks from the top progression guilds, they're sub 15...

At this point, warrior dmg is a detriment to progression bosses that require tons of damage with strict enrage timers.

I see some guys wearing two piece T10 and two piece T9 for the dmg increases ... well below hit cap and exp cap (and not able to reach it with consumables) ... I guess I'm looking from feedback of people who have made the decision to not soft cap it...and because of which, which food and elixir/flask they're using.

[Koppy]

Flask of Stoneblood would seem to be paramount at this point since your HP matters more now than ever before.

As for food, it's situational at best. Depending on the circumstances of the fight, how you have geared your character, and the class you play. Let me break it down:

Death Knight Tank:

1. Dragonfin Filet - Gives you the Str to increase DPS(which increases threat) and Stam(duh!)
2. Rhynolicious Wormsteak - If you need the threat from Expertise, this is where you'll get it.
3. Snapper Extreme - Never been a fav. of mine since hit REALLY doesn't play a major role.

Paladin Tank:

1. Blackened Dragonfin - The +40 Agility increases armor, and we all know Armor & Stamnia = Survivability.
2. Rhynolicious Wormsteak - See above.
3. Snapper Extreme - See above.

Warrior Tank:

1. Dragonfin Filet - Call me crazy, and Aggy please correct me if I'm wrong - but the Str will increase your threat creating abilities(well, all your abilities create threat - but you know what I mean) and the DPS increase from this helps you beat those insane enrage timers nowadays.
2. Blackened Dragonfin - See above.
3. Rhynolicious Wormsteak - This is a distant last in my book. If you are an end-game raiding tank, you should be around 15-20 expertise as is. That USUALLY is enough.

*Note - Take whatever I say with a grain of salt unless someone comes in and validates my nonsense. After all, I am a DK.

*Also Note - I didn't include Druids because we all know Druids are OP tanks anyways. Swipe Spam FTW.

*Disclaimer* Just so I don't get torn to shreds for whatever information I have posted above that may or may not be accurate - I am not an end-game raiding tank although I desire to be. I have recently switched from DPS to Tanking and am going by my knowledge of my class, and fight mechanics.

[Aggathon]

Warrior Tank:

1. Dragonfin Filet - Call me crazy, and Aggy please correct me if I'm wrong - but the Str will increase your threat creating abilities(well, all your abilities create threat - but you know what I mean) and the DPS increase from this helps you beat those insane enrage timers nowadays.
2. Blackened Dragonfin - See above.
3. Rhynolicious Wormsteak - This is a distant last in my book. If you are an end-game raiding tank, you should be around 15-20 expertise as is. That USUALLY is enough.

As far as dragonfin Filet, I think you're going to get more threat out of the Rhynolicious Wyrmsteak than 40 str. So if you want threat, I'd say go with expertise. Str isn't BAD and I use it every now and then (specifically for the very small increase in SBV for anub'arak adds).

40agi/40stam imo is the best tank food. dodge + armor + stam = win.

Also, I would highly recommend using the expertise food if you're below 26, especially if it will get you to or just short of 26 expertise.

[chubtohd]

Flask of Stoneblood would seem to be paramount at this point since your HP matters more now than ever before.

I don't know about that ... nothing in ICC is hitting incredibly hard (as long as mechanics are followed) ... in which case I am thinking 800 armor from the Elixir of Protection is > than 1300 HP (same reason Glyph of Indominability > 2nd sta trinket right?) ... plus you have options for Strength or Agility elixirs further increasing dmg mitigation and threat capabilities.

Also, I would highly recommend using the expertise food if you're below 26, especially if it will get you to or just short of 26 expertise.

If threat isn't a problem...why? The parry reduction is the only thing from Expertise that helps inc damage ... which is nice not to have a boss speeding up his swing timer ... but if you have to sacrifice 85 agility (assuming food and elixir) or 90 strength (assuming food and elixir) ... is it worth it get enough expertise from food and elixir to cap dodge at 26?

Maybe I didn't state that well enough in my original post...I was just assuming other people were thinking the same thing...

[krc]

I would say that Festergut on stack 2 when you can't use your major CDs hits very hard Chub. The 800 armor is only worth about 70 stamina making it in no way close to the value of 1300 health and in any other encounter you might as well not flask it all since it doesn't matter.

I don't think that any one is saying the Glyph is really better than a second stam trinket either, if they are it is because on certain encounters that are all physical and need another CD and they don't have Satrina's or the ICC EH trinkets. In every situation the ICC trinkets are better because of loads of EH, Satrina's has more EH and a on par on use while the Black Heart is better because of loads of EH unless the encounter really stresses another CD and is around 90% physical damage or else the Glyph's N-EH armor value gets decreased too much.

[Aggathon]

below 20 expertise you will start having threat issues. I'm down to 26 expertise and 66 hit, and can already start to see threat issues that I've never had before because our dps are doing 10k+dps. Granted there are some fights where it probably wont matter, like festergut since you get a massive damage buff, but imo that's when you use agi/stam food, not str food. Flask of stoneblood is way better than any elixir combination for any boss except for anub'arak.

Those "top end" guild tanks, probably use expertise food, I know I would if I dropped below 26, and like to consider myself fairly top end. I actually think finkill and I talked about this and he does currently use expertise food, but I could be making that up. (he's the MT of rush, world 3rd putricide kill).

[Reev]

below 20 expertise you will start having threat issues. I'm down to 26 expertise and 66 hit, and can already start to see threat issues that I've never had before because our dps are doing 10k+dps. Granted there are some fights where it probably wont matter, like festergut since you get a massive damage buff, but imo that's when you use agi/stam food, not str food. Flask of stoneblood is way better than any elixir combination for any boss except for anub'arak.

Those "top end" guild tanks, probably use expertise food, I know I would if I dropped below 26, and like to consider myself fairly top end. I actually think finkill and I talked about this and he does currently use expertise food, but I could be making that up. (he's the MT of rush, world 3rd putricide kill).

I'm sitting at I think 10 expertise right now? /alt-tab to check armory. Yeah. And 96 hit rating. Sometimes I have minor threat issues now, but rarely, and it's never anything 1 taunt doesn't fix (usually it's because I'll have 2 parried abilities in a row at the start of a fight). Of course, I'm lucky (unlucky?) in that I only have a couple of dps on my team that can reach 10k dps, and they're pretty good about misdirecting/TotTing/aggro dropping. But yeah, I went from 26 expertise in ToC to 10 expertise in ICC, and you definitely feel the loss.

As far as the armor elixir goes, I'd say it probably is better than the flask on physical fights (most of ICC so far), but I'm not going to want to deal with refreshing my elixir every time I die, or every 30 minutes. What a hassle...

[Aggathon]

With the 15/3/53 spec it really isn't AS important, but still decently important. I sometimes do have small threat problems, but yes our rogues/hunters are good with tricks, but for example our ret pally can pull 8k-9k TPS, that's right TPS, without righteous fury on. He catches up on fights sometimes, and the lack of expertise actually prevents me from going the 5/15/51 spec. I tried it for a couple of fights and just didn't do enough threat.

It would probably depend on the fight. Though now that I think about it as long as you get good tricks in the begining ->

Marrowgar - yes use expertise, the threat wipes after bonestorm make it very important that you have good burst threat, even with a good taunt a solid dps can still pull off you if you can't hit the boss.

Lady - yes b/c of adds and add pickup, it is a lot better if you can generate good threat on them. Agi also doesn't help that much in actually tanking her and you will have threat problems because of insingifiance.

Gunship - threat doesn't really matter for tanks here, I'd go agi/stam

Saurfang - maybe if your melee dps are really good expertise might be more important, but between taunt swaps and ranged switching to adds, it's not a huge deal.

Festergut - if you get good tricks in the beginning then I'd pref agi over stam

Rotface - same with saurfang, I'd probably pref expertise here

Putricide - Agi would be pref here, threat shouldn't be an issue since for a good chunk of the fight the dps are just dpsing adds.

Princes - good tricks at the begining is key for the force tank, other than that aggro shouldn't be a huge issue, I'd preff agi.

BQL - when the dps are vampires, they do zero threat, I'd preff agi here.

Also, I'd only pref expertise on those fights if you are below 26 expertise.

[Aggathon]

As far as the armor elixir goes, I'd say it probably is better than the flask on physical fights (most of ICC so far), but I'm not going to want to deal with refreshing my elixir every time I die, or every 30 minutes. What a hassle...

Double post but I missed this the first time. I completely disagree, 1300 hps is way better than 800 armor.

[Reev]

Double post but I missed this the first time. I completely disagree, 1300 hps is way better than 800 armor.

Yeah, I totally missed a decimal place in my math.

[Proletaria]

Stoneblood for just about any encounter (anub is the only exception that comes to mind). What food I use depends on what stat i'm still lacking for threat. I used snapper (hit) food for most of togc, but these days i've got a lot more problems finding expertise.

[Bethrezen]

If you're -really- worried about threat and/or DPS as a tank, on -any- fight in ICC, which you shouldn't (especially the former), just go UA specc and be done with it. This is especially nice on BQL.

Otherwise, you should be maximizing your limits as a tank, while minimizing the damage your taking, as a tank. Naturally, More Armor, HP, Avoidance.