Patch 4.3 Valor Point Picks (For Warriors)

Veneretio used to post his emblem-purchased gear picks every major content patch, before his untimely retirement. I of course am no Veneretio, but since I have to construct my pick order myself now, I submit them for popular consumption.

1. Forgesmelter Waistplate – Belt – 1650 VP
2. Signet of the Resolute – Ring – 1250 VP
3. Guardspike Choker – Neck – 1250 VP
4. Indefatigable Greatcloak – Cloak – 1250 VP
5. Bladeshatter Treads – Boots – 1650 VP (These are BoE – use an alt to buy them ASAP if you have one.)
6. Ring of Torn Flesh – Ring – 1250 VP
7. Chestplate of the Unshakable Titan – 2200 VP

• Fire of the Deep

Note that only numbers 1-4 are best in slot pre-hardmode; whether or not you want to buy 5-7 will depend on if better has dropped for you already.

What about Fire of the Deep?

Fire of the Deep is a difficult trinket to place. Think of it as the tanking equivalent of a hit trinket. If you can’t reach the CTC cap without it, it’s your number 1 priority. If you’re above the CTC cap already, it’s very low on your priority list. Since LFR gear is easily available to anyone whose machine can run a 25-man, I consider it unlikely that any given warrior will find themselves unable to cap.

That said, it will probably be a worthwhile purchase at some point in your 4.3 gearing. As you gain enough mastery on other pieces, you may come to the point where you can run with a stamina trinket. This is where Fire of the Deep will be useful: as a stat stick to keep yourself capped with a stamina trinket. Since the trinket is situational at best until that point – on most physical fights I would prefer Stay of Execution + Spidersilk Spindle’s special effects to Fire of the Deep’s dodge – it’s not a piece that I can insert into my list in order.

Why are you valuing native mastery so highly, even though you’re already block capped?

Because more native mastery means more stamina.

After achieving the block cap, we want to stack stamina. Since most gear’s native stamina is determined only by its item level, the places we can stack this stamina are in gem sockets, trinket slots, and in our choice of flasks/elixirs. Every point of native mastery that you can apply towards the block cap is a point of gem/elixir/trinket mastery that you can later convert to stamina – in appropriately-sized chunks, of course. If worse comes to worst, you can always start forging away from mastery – but you’ll never be able to forge into as much mastery as any given slot would give you natively.