Comments on: Huge and massive pre-raid gear guide

By: Onitsuka

Onitsuka — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:26:43 +0000

I must say this is the best Pre-raid gear guide i seen while google them, just wondering if anyone knows if there is any webpage with tools to check which item is better in terms of tanking, like dps.com with dps gear.

Thanks again!!

By: Mungoid

Mungoid — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:27:50 +0000

Nice guide! helps me save lots of time researching the options. gg

By: Zyro

Zyro — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:29:51 +0000

You could use both the pocket watch and the medal… at the same time. If dodge is that important to you.

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:46:46 +0000

Thats true. But the point that I was trying to illustrate is that the purples often are only marginally better than the blues. And because the whole post is about pre-raid gear, the idea is that it will all be replaced in the near future so it would be silly to spend a huge amount of resources (be it time, effort or gold) to get an epic when there is a much easier to obtain superior with stats that are nearly the same.

By: abez

abez — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:28:40 +0000

“Don’t get fooled by pretty purple pixels. Most of the stuff I am recommending is blue/superior but the ilevel is 200 which means they have the same stat budget as Naxx-10 loot. ”

This is incorrect. Superior and Epic quality items work from a different table of Item Level. Just like an iLVL 138 green quest reward from Borean tundra is less quality than an epic drop with iLVL 138 from Lady Vashj. 200 superior < 200 epic.

By: Tankette

Tankette — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:51:37 +0000

I see craftable items as an easy way to get gear quickly. It wasn’t that hard to accumulate a lot of gold while waiting for the expansion. I got the Titansteel Shield Wall, Titanstell Treads, Titanstell Helm, the Shotgun all within a couple hours of turning 80. I got the Titanium Earthguard Ring later and I should have the Titanium Earthguard necklace soon. 6 easy epics without hoping for something to drop. I’m sure they will all get replaced sooner or later, except maybe the shotgun, but the headstart on epics is worth it to me and my guild.

By: kirami

kirami — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:09:23 +0000

Well done this is amazing work and will be closely followed by me :D, thanks!

By: blancek

blancek — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:35:23 +0000

I understand what u mean now. One possible reason why the amount of dodge granted on use was not on par with the pocket watch at 70 is due to diminishing returns I guess?

Meaning that to grant that same amount of ~15% dodge, the dodge rating required would be a lot a lot more, not just double.

That’s what I’m driving at :)

Thanks for the response! =D

By: Karl Hungus

Karl Hungus — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:13:17 +0000

Amazing list, extremely well detailed. Thanks. ;)

You leave out craftable items, so I thought I’d put what I’m aiming for here. Something that has caught my eye is this: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42508

Titansteel Shield Wall. I took one look at it, and said to myself “Damn, I’m taking up blacksmithing this instant!” and so I powerleved up to 370 in a day.

Compared to the Royal Crest Of Lordaeron, it’s got the same armor and block, with a little less stamina and strength and no hit rating bonus, but makes up for it with a better defense rating. Add to that the fact that it’s BOE, it looks like the best shield available for someone who’s only running instances/doesn’t have time for raids.

That alone makes blacksmithing a hugely worthy profession, moreso than it was before I think. There’s also two other crafted shields that should see me through leveling to 80 and any instances along the way:

Saronite Defender: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40670

Saronite Bulwark: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41113

Both having over 6000 armor each, at levels 73 and 77 respectively, they look supremely good for under 80 game content.

I know you’re not really looking at crafted content, but craftable shields look like a huge boon for a lot of players, and I felt it was really worth talking about.

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:47:27 +0000

I’m not sure which part of my assessment of the pocket watch you disagree with. The numbers are pretty clear, the pocket watch has 300 dodge rating and the valor medal has 335. At level 80, that relates to only a 0.5% difference.

Of course the passive dodge on the pocket watch is less, but nobody ever wore the pocket watch because it had passive dodge on it. That was a nice bonus, but the only reason anyone ever wore the pocket watch because 16% dodge on demand changes the course of a boss fight.

The tanking gear that I have seen so far from level 80 raids leads me to believe that tanks at 80 will have notably less avoidance than they did at 70. And the nature of avoidance is such that it becomes increasingly more effective the more of it you stack i.e. if you have 0% avoidance and you gain 1% avoidance, you reduce the incoming damage by 1%. But if you have 98% avoidance and you increase your avoidance by 1%, you reduce the incoming damage by 50%. So, if tanks have less avoidance at 80 than they did at 70, the ‘use’ effect on the new trinket has to grant significantly more avoidance than the pocket watch did in order to have the same game changing effect that the pocket watch had. But the valor medal does not have significantly more dodge, it has half as much. That means that it is nowhere near as potent as the pocket watch was.

Which leads to my conclusion, if you want a trinket with a lackluster use effect, you might as well save your badges and just keep using the pocket watch.