Tanking Setup

[Griffin]

I'm a tank in a 10m raid guild. I normally don't have any issues. I've read what I can so far and know that EXP/HIT isn't that important anymore. I could use any advice though on if I'm heading in the right direction for gear/re-forging/etc. I finally have the 2200 valor points needed for my first piece or pieces. Any thoughts on what I should get would be a great help.

Thanks

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../auyana/simple

[Katzazi]

First piece should be chest. It's best in slot. (As are the gloves.)

When you know that hit and expertise is not as important anymore, why do you reforge for them? You should actually reforge away from them towards mastery (and parry/dodge if not possible). Same for gems and enchants. Don't gem for hit and expertise. (If you use an item for both specs, mastery is still ok as a stat.)

Reforging should be like this:
a) If an item has no mastery but hit/expertise/crit/haste reforge the highest of those stats to mastery.
b) If an item has dodge+parry reforge the higher one of them to mastery.
c) If an item has mastery use the other stat to balance parry and dodge as much as possible.
Parry and dodge should be "close together but parry a little bit higher than dodge". That's because of Hold the Line. You should consider this buffed and look at the ratings not the percentage. Parry should be about 1-3% higher than dodge in the end.

Gem like this:
- If an item has no intersting bonus, go for pure mastery. Else:
blue: stam+mastery
yellow: mastery
red: parry+mastery

If you have questions why this is a good way to go, don't hesitate to ask them.

I give you an example what to do with your current gear:
Head: ok - another option is to reforge expertise -> mastery, this would lead to a better coverage of the combat table but less mastery, which is better depends on your overall gear
Neck: +
Shoulder: ok - more or less the same as with the head for hit->mastery
Chest: +
Wrists: reforging ok - same as with head and shoulder, but don't enchant for hit
Hands: dont reforge for hit, reforge dodge -> parry
Waist: use pure mastey gem on prismatic socket, probably reforge dodge -> parry
Legs: reforge hit -> mastery
Feet: +
1. ring: reforge hit -> parry
2. ring: +
1. trinket: reforge parry -> mastery
2. trinket: mastery gem (would be ok for dmg-spec, too)
weapon: reforge hist -> parry, try to get the big enchant
shield: reforge hit -> parry
ranged: reforge crit -> parry if you don't need it for dmg spec, if you need it just undo the enchant

[Loganisis]

Gemming - could use a little work. You have a rigid (+hit) and solid (pure stam). Replace the stam with pure mastery (belt prismatic) and trinket with mastery/stam.

Where you've reforged avoidance into mastery instead of hit/expertise - it probably is the best. Just keep an eye out for upgrades where you can drop hit/expertise completely.

Reforging
Soulblade - hit to parry
Shield - Hit to parry
Gloves - unforge (dodge to hit?)
Pants - Probably dodge to mastery to max.
Red Rock - Exp to dodge or parry
Finger - Parry to Mastery
Gun - Crit to dodge or parry

It will probably take some getting used to - but I run with 0.64% hit and 3 expertise (all racial) and have no problems with threat - just threatadins running in right behind me giving me no time to establish threat.

My 2¢ - I'd take the 2 points out of thunderstruck and put them in Cruelty and take the 2 points out of shield bash and put them in sheild spec and vig (vig is great for 2 tank fights, free vengence). Thunderstruck is just meh to me (it just seems to take too long to be useful, and when it finally is, it's kinda meh, because you don't need it for AoE threat - though it's probably more useful than Blood and Thunder for boss threat)

You are missing 7 glyphs.

Prime - Devestate, Sheild Slam, and Revenge
Major - you have options - I like cleave and thundercalp for extra AoE and larger radius, but I"m not going to argue over them.
Minor - Demo Shout is a must. Then battle (as there are so many ways to get command shout, - are there still mass scrolls for it?) and intimideating would be my choices (which amkes me realize I need to change my minor up a little).

The prime are important, the rest are more flavor.

[Loganisis]

Reforging should be like this:
a) If an item has no mastery but hit/expertise/crit/haste reforge the highest of those stats to mastery.
b) If an item has dodge+parry reforge the higher one of them to mastery.
c) If an item has mastery use the other stat to balance parry and dodge as much as possible.
Parry and dodge should be "close together but parry a little bit higher than dodge". That's because of Hold the Line. You should consider this buffed and look at the ratings not the percentage. Parry should be about 1-3% higher than dodge in the end.

It's not quite that simple - when 2/3s of the ratings are in the avoidance rating (e.g. 200 doge and 100 hit) unless you haven't hit diminishing returns, it's almost always better to reforge the larger stat to mastery in order to minimize unmitigated hits.

That being said - the difference in the 3 or 4 items where he could reforge hit/exp and reforged dodge/parry instead is probably ~.4% more chance of being hit unmitigated, at the most. So it's more of a flavor thing. There's also the diminishing returns...

Essentially, point for point mastery reduces the chance of being hit by 1.5x what the same point of dodge/parry would. So it's not always perfect.

The best solution is grab gear without hit/exp XD

[Katzazi]

That's why I said that his reforgings are ok (and why I think so). But as a rule of thumb it's easier to describe this way.

[Loganisis]

Ah, you buried that deeper down in the line-item discussion. ;-)

Best rule of thumb - grab gear without hit/expertise XD

[Katzazi]

Well, but people would start to ask what they should do with all the other items - going naked? I fear they will not be happy with your rule of thumb. However I try to follow it. *g*

[Griffin]

Thanks for the advice. A couple of pieces were new and I hadn't reforged yet. I'll correct the others and the two gems probably. Not sure what's up with my Glyphs, they definetly aren't missing in game.