Torn between tanking trinkets

[obiwayne]

I'm currently using the Glyph of Indomitability and the reliable old Black Heart. I see a LOT of people recommending that I try to get Ick's Rotting Thumb to replace the BH. From a GearScore perspective this will give me a better GS, and probably push me over the 5K mark (people on my server are real GS-elitists usually), but I would lose 100+ stamina. I've gone a good mix of gemming and enchanting my gear, following a couple of guides I've read; Stamina (Solid Majestic Zircon) almost always except where the socket bonus is +9/12 Stamina, with one red gem (Shifting Dreadstone) to activate my meta gem (Austere Earthsiege Diamond). Currently, unbuffed my health is 34,459.

If I switch out the Black Heart, I'm looking at just over 33K unbuffed. Would this be "good enough" until I get the Corroded Skeleton Key and I can replace Ick's with it? At this point I'm unsure if I'm going to get the belt (Verdigris Chain Belt) or the CSK when I have 60 Frost emblems (my first upgrade was the cloak). I'm not in a progression guild so the only way I get my Frosties are through my first random daily, and the weekly depending on who it is and if I have time.

Any thoughts on what I should about my trinkets?

[Davih]

if your only doing heroics personally i find avoidance better than stamina for this, for raids i use juggernaut's vitality and corroded skeleton key but for HCs i use juggernauts vitality + eitriggs oath, in your situation i would replace both trinkets with ick's rotting thumb and corroded skeleton key mainly for balance, until u can get corroded skeleton key use ick's rotting thumb + the black heart for the best balance, i know armors nice but in a heroic it doesn't matter that much

[Steakdinner]

Just ask yourself this, would you prefer a stat that sometimes works against attacks (an avoidance) or a stat that is always there for you (stam and armor). I don't think tanks should have to play the GS game, since we intentionally hold onto certain pieces of old gear for bonuses to our survivability or that have threat stat improvements. Just because something is a higher gearscore doesn't mean it's actually an upgrade.

[Bodasafa]

Glyph + Black Heart are a superior option in any situation over Rotting Thumb + either of those.

Try to get into ToC 25 regular and get the Stamina trinket off Faction Champions and Get the Skeleton Key when you have the means to do so. Likely you will see a larger upgrade in the Belt vs. the trinket, due to the amount of armor and 3 gem slots in which you can place all +30 stamina gems.

I bought the trinket last after buying all the badge armor items.

[Starbuck]

I was going to start my own thread but read this and realised I'm in a similar situation. I missed out on the whole Ulduar thing so no trinkets from there, and there's not many pugs running Ulduar 25 today. So I sit with Glyph and Black Heart, and wonder where to go next. I put the Rotting thumb in the bank, cause I dont really see where I should use that over those two. I can also flash my Onyxia trinket for showing off GS but rarely uses it.

Satrina's from Faction champions is probably worth pugging for as Bodasafa mentions.
Is Fervor of the Frostborn worth getting?
Is there any other trinket outside of ICC that I missed?

*Edit: Here's a link to a comparison between the mentioned trinkets.

And as an advice to obiwayne I would say wait to get trinket from emblems. Upgrade all your other gear first. I'm at 41k hp and still haven´t taken the skeleton key. Especially if you only run heroics, there's really no need to switch those trinkets. (I run heroics with dps trinkets instead, just for fun)

*$

[Dreador]

Fervor is garbage.

[Spiff]

Avoidance trinkets are usually bad, and as for tanking heroics...just tank them in DPS gear with a UA or imp cleave spec and have some fun. To answer your questions more directly Satrinas/juggs is definitly worth pugging for, and if you have the gold and the option start getting into a weekly GDKP run and toss like 5k at a trinket, and if you don't have the fundage for one of those or they just do't happen on your server its definitly worth pugging weekly and testing the ol' RNG rolls on. Second trinket, the skeleton key is awesome (especially with the satrinas/juggs, popping both at the same time is a pretty decent cooldown when you don't quite need to use a bigger one like last stand or shield wall types CD), and the Glyph (245 badge) is a nice trinket also until you run into to something with insane magic damage like Heroic sindy. But the Black heart shouldn't be discounted out, the passive stam plus a huge armor proc makes it an awesome trinket.

in short, avoidance trinkets are usually bad.

[feralminded]

Since armor only gets better the more HP you have then anything that gives armor generally outclasses pure HP trinkets by the time you have ~50k HP buffed (which isn't very hard with the ICC buffs). At 50k, 5 Armor ~ 1 stamina for Effective Hitpoints, at 60k, 4.166 armor ~ 1 stamina. So if something gives you 200stamina or 1000 armor they are roughly equivalent when it comes to EH if you sit at 50kHP. Armor has the advantage of actually reducing the stress on your healers, stamina has the advantage of being useful against magic/bleeds. That said the vast majority of ICC fights are way over 80% pure physical so EH tends to rule the day and thus armor is king there. The blackheart, glyph, and putricide's trinket are basically the best pure tanking trinkets in the game unless you are fighting Arthas, Syndragosa, or Deathwhisper without an interrupter ... and even against them the vast majority of damage is still physical it's just the big attacks that will outright kill you are magic (and should be CD'd through).

Regardless avoidance trinkets are almost all garbage at this point, per blizzard's design.

[Maèl]

If you are not raiding ICC, don't bother picking up the Skelleton Key. There are better ways to spend 60 frost badges on, which I assume will be in short supply.
Go for Cloak and Belt first.
I assume you have the little T9 set. Break it and buy the ilvl245 badge head&shoulders. If you can, craft the ilvl245 bracers and chest. If you can't afford the ilvl264 crafted boots and trousers, I'd make the T10 gloves and trousers my next frost badge priority. If you plan to go to ICC, don't by the T10 trousers but plan for the crafted ones instead. If you don't plan to go to ICC then crafting the ilvl264 boots is not a bad idea.
IMHO all of this has a higher priority over the Skelleton Key.

I know the GS problem. Don't try to cheat by using PvP stuff. That's just as lame.
If you use the strategy above, then 120 frost badges buy you the cloak, the belt , which are pretty close to BIS and propably huge upgrades. You can replace ilvl232 gloves with ilvl251 gloves for 60 badges and the rest is pretty much ilvl245.
Just don't spend 60 badges on a trinket which still is subject of a hot debate. Leave that be until you have a steady income of frost badges and not only the measly 2 you get for doing heroics. 14 badges for dailies + 5 badges for weeklies + 2badges for Toravon = 21 badges per week. Is the key worth 3 weeks of grind? No, it definitely isn't.

[razorburn]

Avoidance is great and so is armor and stam, but its always situational. Thats why most of tank's bags are full especaily if we carry dps gear. I think it would also get into class and spec's where a dk or druid would get more of an armor bonus from the Glyph trink, the same with stam. Im currently tanking icc 10 weekly with a dw frost dk i was stacking dodge and evasion but was getting hit with too much spike dmg and keeping healers on there toes. I started stacking armor before stam and was verry happy with the results. Bladded Armor was somthing that was verry helpfull in making my HB hit like a truck and grab that agg, but the increase of 30% more armor when i pop Unbreakable Armor is just the catts a$$ if youre stacking armor. Now as for stacking stam is verry dependent on youre healer's mana pool, as long as you have enogh life to take the bosses hit and healers have time to respond you should be fine.

[Aggathon]

Healers pretty much spam heals as it is, if your healer is running out of mana, chances are they are doing it wrong, EHP > RNG, period. Stack stam.

[Dreador]

Healers pretty much spam heals as it is, if your healer is running out of mana, chances are they are doing it wrong, EHP > RNG, period. Stack stam.

/derp

agree

[rodrain2]

Just in case you were interested in a very easy to get option while your waiting for some of the other suggestions in these posts, http://www.wowhead.com/item=49116/bitter-balebrew-charm Of course you have to que for this dungeon only during Brewfest.

[kopcap]

I have no business giving advice on this, but anyone saying to take Thumb over BH is a glaring idiot and you should never believe a word he says.

[Fledern]

The general idea for tanking trinket setup is to pair an armor trinket with a stam trinket. This usually gives a good balance between hp & armor and gives good, if not best, effective health for the ilvl gears in question.

That said, the glyph + black heart is one of the strongest tanking trinket combos available. Replacing any of those with an avoidance trinket is just......"lacking", it doesnt really serve much purpose.

If you're running around with low hp (as in less than 40K), the stat you need most would be armor imo. Avoidance really wont help you much.
In the same thinking, the frost badge belt is such a huge upgrade of both armor & hp that the trinket is really a low priority in spending your frost badges.

[Rune]

I have no business giving advice on this, but anyone saying to take Thumb over BH is a glaring idiot and you should never believe a word he says.

Agree, the LOT of ppl you are on about are all idiots, the BH is far far superior. Good suggestion on the Brewfest trinkets..........farmed for my new tank alt and is a great headstart

[Osyriss]

I used the Key and the Scarab and I seem to do fine, Although the trinket off Sindy25 is super sweet, too bad a pug on my server cant make it that far and there is only like two decent 25m guilds...

[Drizzt74]

Its funny much like yourself, I am in the same situation obiwayne http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...&cn=Drizztguen

Don't go trinket for your next frost purchase. Work on the belt, chest, gloves and then trinket....in my opinion.

I get frost emblem at about the same rate you do......slow, if I'm lucky two a day. So its easy to get anxious. I'm working on the chest now its taking me forever. My only advice is be patient.

[Loganisis]

Wow. Talk about bringing a thread back to life.... Obiwayne create the thread in April.

[Drizzt74]

Wow your right I didn't even notice the original posting date.