what meta gem for prot warriors?

[Thad]

so I'm just wondering what would be the best choice for a meta gem for prot warriors?

[Renuit]

I'm pretty sure the Austere Shadowspirit Diamond would be the best choice.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52294

[Morghax]

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52293 + going for being unhittable?

[Tengenstein]

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52293 + going for being unhittable?

I think you'd have to be unhittable before that would be a nice choice, but I doubt you'd be able to get Unhittable without trading off enough EHP to make this Meta an option

[klausi]

I'm pretty sure the Austere Shadowspirit Diamond would be the best choice.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52294

I doubt so, either going with Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond or Effulgent Shadowspirit Diamond looks more attractive to me - depending on the boss fight.

[Dealt]

I would imagine eternal shadowspirit diamond would be the best overall meta due to more block rating letting us have more critical blocks to smooth damage and increase rage gain... effulgent is nice for an alternate helm for caster heavy fights

[Thad]

okay thanks for the info.

[krc]

According to some napkin math at EJ in terms of overall damage reduction without factoring Shield Block or HTL Eternal comes out on top.

(T11 provides ~36k armor)

Regular hit
Damage taken with Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond: 0.9 * (1 - 36000 / (36000 + 2167.5 * 88 - 158167.5)) = 0.427507382
Damage taken with Austere Shadowspirit Diamond: 0.9 * (1 - 36000 * 1.02 / (36000 * 1.02 + 2167.5 * 88 - 158167.5)) = 0.423065266

Block
Damage taken with Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond: 0.427507382 * (1 - 0.3105) = 0.294766339
Damage taken with Austere Shadowspirit Diamond: 0.423065266 * (1 - 0.3) = 0.296145686

Crit block
Damage taken with Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond: 0.427507382 * (1 - 0.621) = 0.162025297
Damage taken with Austere Shadowspirit Diamond: 0.423065266 * (1 - 0.6) = 0.169226106

Regarding crit block, the 0.621 value is not confirmed yet. It's just my assumption.

[Kazeyonoma]

all that shows to me, is that if you block an attack the eternal reduces more damage than if you blocked an attack and had the austere. But you can't guarantee that you'll block every hit. Until you reach unhittability, the austere seems to be better doesn't it?

If you don't block you take .0045 less damage than with the eternal.
if you do block you take .0014 more damage than if you had the eternal.
if you critical block you take .0072 more damage than if you had the eternal.

at 85, what are players avoidance levels at and their mastery levels at? if it's <75% combined, I'd have to believe that you're getting regular hit more than you block, let alone you critically blocking. so the austere provides more damage mitigation overall.

[nimchip]

I'm sitting at 63% combined with almost 40% block, with blue gear and only 1 heroic pieces (mostly 333-346 rep gear). I was thinking the Eternal would be better but maybe I'll stick with Austere for now until t11.

[MellvarTank]

I'm not liking block/mastery for prot warriors right now. It seems that overall you are better off trying to get dodge/parry up way higher into DR territory before really trying to up your mastery/block.

[SquishyTheTank]

all that shows to me, is that if you block an attack the eternal reduces more damage than if you blocked an attack and had the austere. But you can't guarantee that you'll block every hit. Until you reach unhittability, the austere seems to be better doesn't it?

If you don't block you take .0045 less damage than with the eternal.
if you do block you take .0014 more damage than if you had the eternal.
if you critical block you take .0072 more damage than if you had the eternal.

at 85, what are players avoidance levels at and their mastery levels at? if it's <75% combined, I'd have to believe that you're getting regular hit more than you block, let alone you critically blocking. so the austere provides more damage mitigation overall.

Thing is... It does seem pretty easy to hit that 75% mark. Im currently in all heroic gear (346) with like 3 epics (359)... and im sitting at 65% without the eternal. (Also, I need to redo my gems, they are pretty random blue qualitys atm)

Looking up the better geared warrior off my server... he is actually at the 75% mark, but I didn't check if that was with the Eternal... I'm sure that it is however. (Also, he is just using perfect green quality cut gems)

[Reev]

I have about 21% dodge+parry and 42% block right now and of course the 5% miss.

[Takethecake]

Thing is... It does seem pretty easy to hit that 75% mark. Im currently in all heroic gear (346) with like 3 epics (359)... and im sitting at 65% without the eternal. (Also, I need to redo my gems, they are pretty random blue qualitys atm)

Looking up the better geared warrior off my server... he is actually at the 75% mark, but I didn't check if that was with the Eternal... I'm sure that it is however. (Also, he is just using perfect green quality cut gems)

The eternal meta gem doesn't increase your chance to block... it just increases how much you block for... 31% block 62% crit block.

[SquishyTheTank]

The eternal meta gem doesn't increase your chance to block... it just increases how much you block for... 31% block 62% crit block.

Ohhhh. Wow, that clears up ALOT. I had this confused. Thanks so much!

[MellvarTank]

We were going on about this in the shoutbox. It appears the results may be different for warriors and paladins as paladins have 10% more block value than we do. The armor gem still appears to be superior for warriors (armor is calculated pre block), but more math is coming methinks.

[Mixie]

I am sitting at about 50% block, with about 7 epic items, and about 150k hps, I am going to prolly regem everything i can get away with to mastery from now on, why? prot wars can get 98% unhittable. if fully geared/gemed

I will use the block meta, once I can find someone who has it, since I am only one in the guild who wants it, and am not a JC, No one has it yet.

If you would like to Wow heroes my toon, < Adydar On Garrosh>

ps I love tanking all over again with cata my god its so much fun

[Aggronaught]

We were going on about this in the shoutbox. It appears the results may be different for warriors and paladins as paladins have 10% more block value than we do. The armor gem still appears to be superior for warriors (armor is calculated pre block), but more math is coming methinks.

it doesn't matter whether armor is calculated before or after block; it gives you the same reduction.

Ex: 50% armor reduction / 30% block reduction on a 10k dmg swing.

Armor before block = (10,000 * 0.5) + (5000*0.3) = 6500 dmg reduction.
block before armor = (10,000*0.3) + (7000*0.5) = 6500 dmg reduction.


anyways..Mastery gives you more dmg than the measly avoidance you get for not reforging.

I'm at 21.5% combined dodge/parry and 48% block...loooking at the last raid..I took 22% regular hits from halfus/valiona+theralion..seems to be way to go.

I'll only switch to eternal if I get uhittable....its Austere all the way through untill then.

[Hartzell]

What about Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond http://www.wowhead.com/item=52289 ? Could you use it and replace lavawalker, and gain an extra 15 mastery along with the 54 mastery on the gem? could this outweigh the 81 stam and 2% armor (or 1% shield block value)?

[Tengenstein]

No, the fleet meta gem sucks in terms of damage reduction in comparison to other three options, for minimising damage taken you pretty much want the eternal unless the majority of damage is unblockable physical damage (Hagara) where you want the austere, or Magic (yor'sahj or Madness) where you'd want the efflugent

http://www.bacondev.com/tankmeta/ - really good calculator for comparing physical metas as a warrior