So you’ve got the STA to handle it, now what?
Because I’ve already been asked a few times already in game, here’s what I’m stacking for tanking: AGI. Surprised? You really shouldn’t be. As long as you’ve got a healthy amount of STA, AGI is still the best overall stat to stack for tanking furballs everywhere.
At a glance, 1 DEF rating and/or 1 Dodge rating seem superior to AGI—and you know what? They technically are if you’re only looking at the Dodge numbers (including the %chance to be missed). AGI, however, is only marginally inferior to Dodge Rating point-for-point and still affords bears Dodge, Armor, and Crit. But before you get excited, don’t toss out your items that happen to have Defense or Dodge rating on them; you just shouldn’t socket for it. They’re still substantial mitigation stats.
What you should do is seduce your local Enchanter and get them to give your pole some lovin’. Ditch your +35 AGI enchant on your tanking staff and pick up Mongoose. It not only looks cool, but since patch 3.0.2, it also procs while in Bear form and temporarily boosts your attack speed by 2% (great for TPS) and your AGI by 120 for 15 seconds. Don’t be fooled by the supposed 1ppm “normalization;” this can proc multiple times in a row, especially if you’re tanking multiple mobs (because Swipe is an actual physical connection with each individual dude).
You can’t only stack STA and AGI and hope to win: Expertise and Hit will also be crucial for connecting with the mob you’re hitting. According to EJ, you’ll need approximately 295 Hit rating to never miss specials on level 83 mobs, and you’ll need approximately 213/493 Expertise rating never to be Dodged or Parried. Those are primarily numbers for DPS classes, but the more you’re hitting, the more threat you’re generating.
As always, it’s important to evaluate your gear and make weighting decisions based on what you already have.
Edit: Kalon, from ThinkTank, makes an excellent point that I’ve simply glossed over in my general assumptions (based on my theoretical raid makeup). If you assume you’ll have Blessing of Kings, AGI is always a better stat to stack. Improved Blessing of Kings, if you’re so lucky, will boost your total stats by 10%. Total boners, IMO.
Depending on how gear scales through the end game, the diminishing returns aspect of agility (which they deemed necessary to add, sigh) will make it less valuable the more you already have.
At some point I suspect +dodge and even +defense will be more valuable even when you consider the armor and crit.
I haven’t run the math yet…. mostly because I’m lazy. Hoping to get to it soon.
karthis, agility doesn’t suffer diminishing returns - dodge does. Dodge from all forms - dodge rating, agility, and defense. It doesn’t matter where you get it from; the diminishing effect is calculated after all dodge is calculated.
Runy, one important point that I missed from the dodge/agility comparison is the assumption of BoK. If you believe you’ll always have BoK, agility is better in terms of raw dodge and in the benefit it gives for crit and armor.
You know, I’ve just made that blanket assumption without mentioning it as well (and I’d better make sure one of our Paladins is picking it up).
Yeah, they’d better be.
And even without BoK it’s better. With SotF, each agility gives 1.06 actual agility - which means it only takes 39.25 agi for one dodge. So…yeah. Screw dodge.
Defense, ironically, gets better than dodge around the time you have 51% dodge.
Erg - so much misinformation out there, and too little time to research it all while also trying to level. I read that agility had diminishing returns somewhere a while back, and I’ve had a few people email asking about it.
Anyways, thanks, Kal. I suppose I would have walked into this when I finally found the time to do the math - but appreciate the advance correction.
*digs*
Right. This thread:
http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t29453-combat_ratings_level_80_a/
Lots of numbers and formulas…. probably why I’ve been avoiding it.
I’m still sticking by AGI for now. As we progress, I’m sure I’ll be accounting for some other stats such as Expertise and Hit, but I don’t think we’ll ever see ourselves stacking DEF or Dodge ratings just for the avoidance it provides.
Good luck seducing this local enchanter. You know what I find sexy? Monies.
…and fluffy things. So, I’d like a teddy bear that coughs gold when I squeeze it. Deal? Excellent.
I’ve been using Mongoose in Catform. Is there a specfic buff I should look for when it procs..I would like to see how often it procs, Really test out the enchant you know?
Mongoose procs a buff called “Lightning Speed.” If you have any kind of Power Aura or SCT mod, you should see it come up whenever it happens, and it’s roughly 1 ppm (although it’s been timed as proccing a little sooner).
You don’t want a Mongoose chant on a cat weapon. Try Greater Savagery or Massacre instead.
Yeah. I have the Violet hold staff. And I’m really torn. Because I wanna use it for tankin and DPS. But I’m not gonna switch enchanted based on what I do in an instance. Until I get two separate staves with more specific stats, what enchant would you suggest?
It depends on what you do more of. If you tank more, go with Mongoose.
The Staff of Trickery, if that’s the one you’re referring to, is essentially the best staff you’ll be able to get before you hit up Naxx. They’re not unique and you can actually pick up two (which is what I did).
Oh really..two hmmm.Heroic Violet hold…here i come…again.