Steelskin?

[zaxxor]

I was just wondering is anyone has run numbers on Steelskin Flasks VS Armor/Mastery Elixirs for raids...??

[Hrolfr]

What are "the numbers" to run? You either go for more hp, or you go for less damage taken. With healer mana being an issue, and not survivability, I'd say the choice is pretty obvious.

[Kaji]

Survivability is still a huge issue (I haven't done heroics yet, but Cho'gall hurts heh).

Got money? Go with the elixirs. Going to wipe all night? It's a tossup. Poor? Go with the flasks if you're just going to wipe.

[Destruyen]

Survivability is still a huge issue (I haven't done heroics yet, but Cho'gall hurts heh).

best to use mastery/resist elixirs for chogall to lessen his dmg. i mostly just use elixirs since it's less dmg taken and a stack of battle and guardian elixirs are usually cheaper than 1 flask on my server.

[Dannyl]

I've been using the Flask of Steelskin so far but now, recently, I have begun to migrate into using various combinations of elixirs. I did not actually realize it at the time, but now after looking into it, this is also the most economic approach, at least on my server. The thing is, Flasks of Steelskin can still cost ~250g per pot, but the elixirs or the mats for those elixirs, cost only 3-6g per pot. So even if we wipe 10 times, using two elixirs per wipe, it would be cheaper.

If you have a herbalist alt, the mats for elixirs are also darn easier to farm. While there are still loads and loads of farmers on the prowl, to a point where it is really difficult to get enough mats for your daily consumables, it is a lot easier to get together 20x Cinderblooms and 20x Whiptail for 20 pots, than farming 12x Twilight Jasmine PLUS other mats for just one flask.

Now, for the actual data. If you are still gearing up, in partial heroic gear and no raid epics, I would say maybe go with the flask, simply to get your HP up. Once you reach a comfortable HP level, you can dump the flasks and move into mitigating damage with elixirs, which is what they are good at. Atm, I commonly stack up the following consumables for my raids, switching the composition based on the damage that I am expecting to take.

Prismatic Elixir - magic resistance
Elixir of Deep Earth - extra armor
Elixir of the Master - extra mastery
Elixir of Impossible Accuracy
Earthen Potion - extra armor

I will typically double pot with Earthen Potion at the start of the fight and save another for down the road. If I need to be hit capped for interrupting, I will use Impossible Accuracy, coupled with either Prismatic Elixir or Deep Earth, again depending if I expect high magic damage. Maloriak is a good example with high possibility of magic damage being an issue, and where I sometimes need to do interrupts. Then again, for Atramedes I went with Master and Deep Earth.

The best way to know what to use is simply analyze the fights. Look at your recount or skada and browse the WoL, check what type of damage did the tanks primarily take. WoL is an invaluable source of information for this, but also make sure you keep an eye on burst damage because WoL can easily report the tank taking 95% physical melee damage, but if the remaining 5% is magical burst damage, then you might want to rather prepare for the magic damage, since burst damage is much more dangerous than smooth melee damage.

[Kaji]

best to use mastery/resist elixirs for chogall to lessen his dmg. i mostly just use elixirs since it's less dmg taken and a stack of battle and guardian elixirs are usually cheaper than 1 flask on my server.

I have an alchemist and I made a few of these last night and our pally healer said I took a little less damage. Thanks :-)

I really can't believe how cheap these are to make. They are relatively expensive on my server, due to people mass farming herbs for cards.

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[Exiledknight]

For me I do not consider gold an issue and look at the choices on a per fight basis for farm content I usually run a hit and mastery elixer since I have pretty much zero chance to die. Progression is a different story, working on heroic bosses I usually go with the flasks from cauldrons until we are pushing the last phase of the fight, at which point I swap to a mastery and either armor/resist flask.

[gacktt]

Steelskin is god awful compared to mastery/resistance or mastery/armor. 300 stam = 200 item points. The flask is underbudgeted as hell compared to other flasks and double elixirs.