Cataclysmic Chestguard and Paladins

[Valhathos]

So I spent the better part of an hour searching through posts and I couldn't find a solid break down of the choices we paladins have, especially those of us who don't run 25s

The Cataclysmic Chestguard...ilevel 264...tons of armor, stam, and 3 sockets. sweet, right? But...108 def and 82 expertise? I dont need either of those...at all. I'm already at 570 defense...and I have the expertise I need.

The T10 chest seems rather disappointing in comparison. only 2 sockets, less stam to start, but it has the dodge and parry instead of tons of defense and expertise.

Then, easily in reach for 10 man tanks would be the chest off deathwisper 10. moderately easy to obtain, it has 3 sockets, def, dodge, and parry...but no bonus armor.



So I guess the question is, is Cataclysmic Chestguard really a decent option for paladins who don't have access to the sanctified tier piece? I realize defense isn't a horrible stat past 540...and that it would have the highest EH, but...that's a lot of unneeded expertise too...

[Kazeyonoma]

if you don't have access to 264 gear/tokens than Cat Chest i would imagine is just hands down the best option. things to note:

it has the highest EH out of what's available to you.

the defense on it, gives actually the highest returns on avoidance point for point than dodge/parry, so 108 defense versus http://www.wowhead.com/item=50864 's 60 dodge and 76 parry will probably come out to nearly the same amount of avoidance... before DR's the 60 dodge gives 1.52 and the parry gives 1.55. the defense would give 21.96 defense skill which is .88 miss, dodge, parry, and block. so in pure avoidance pre-DR the defense provides 2.64 avoidance + .88 block versus the 3.17 pre-DR from the dodge/parry. only .5% difference.

also, if you're tanking, unless you're at the hardcap of expertise, I'd still believe that even above the softcap of 26, it's gonna be useful as a threat stat, just not as powerful as below 26.

So yes, I'd say it's probably your best option until you can at least get a token (10man heroic!) to get the 264 chest.

[Valhathos]

haha, yeah...unfortunately my guild is primarily a bunch of people who get along great, have fun raiding, but don't always have consistent work schedules and have very busy lives, so our raiding schedule isn't very conducive to progression...so heroic is out of the question for quite some time.

I've heard mixed reviews on the quality of expertise for paladins, which is what worried me most I guess.

[Martie]

The Cataclysmic chestguard(CC) is BiS unless you have access to 277 chestpieces.

The armor on it makes it, hands down, the best piece for EH. While the T10 pieces have extra armor as well, they lack the slots that give them enough stamina to be the equal of the CC.
Now, the defense on the chestguard may seem to be redundant, but remember that defense is alsmost as good for avoidance as dodge - it's better then parry, and it increases your shield block percentage as well. So don't think of having a lot defense as a bad thing. Furthermore, having a healthy buffer of defense will allow you to more easily equip other nondrop 264 gear.

The expertise on the item does seem to be a bit much, but the sheer amount of expertise makes up for it - it means that you can all but ignore it on your other gear, and still won't have to worry about it one bit. (Try and count how many expertise I have on the rest of my gear.)

[Valhathos]

well I picked up the cataclysmic chest. Gained a buttload of armor and gained over 1k HP after gemming/enchanting (was using 232 t9). I did lose a smidge of dodge and parry, but not a game breaking amount when considering the EH gains.

Thanks for the input!