After nearly a month without a computer I’m back in business, with a shiny ‘new’ desktop. Raiding is now prettier, but significantly less comfortable.

At the request of some guildies who don’t have Excel, I have uploaded the DR spreadsheet to Google Docs, and done the necessary adjustments to make it functional and user-friendly in that environment. None of the math has changed since I uploaded the Excel version of 4.3.0.1, so you should use whichever format you prefer.

Any future updates to the spreadsheet will be done in parallel on Google Docs and the Excel version.

Directions for Using a Google Docs Spreadsheet

1. If you don’t have a Google Account (e.g. a Gmail login, a Google+ login, an iGoogle login), you won’t be able to use the spreadsheet online. You have two options:
   • You can download it for use with Excel or OpenOffice, but at that point, you should probably download the Excel version; or,
   • You can create a Google Account.
2. Once you are signed in to a Google Account, a few extra options open up for you. At the top left corner of the spreadsheet is the File menu. Open it, and select “Make a Copy…”.
3. You now have an editable copy of the spreadsheet saved to your personal account!

Well I have some egg on my face.

I was messing around with full shield block uptime on Ultraxion and caught a basic probability error in my Hold the Line calculation. An egregious error which brings shame upon family. (My parents met in a graduate-level math course, to give you an idea of the magnitude of this shame).

I have corrected the error, and you can find the updated spreadsheet here: damagereduction_4.3.0.1 .

Thankfully, while the fact of the error was monstrous, the amount of error it introduced into the spreadsheet’s “recommendations” was very small. Warriors talented into Hold the Line may see a slight difference in their optimum dodge:parry ratio for overall damage reduction, but paladins, warriors without Hold the Line, and warriors gearing for CTC instead of damage reduction shouldn’t be affected by the change.

Thank you for your patience, and I’d just like to reiterate how very contrite I feel for having published this error.

Here’s the most recent spreadsheet: damagereduction_4.3.0.

Changes from version 4.2.2.0:

• Raised the cap on Shield Block and Holy Shield uptime to 100%, to allow modeling of the Ultraxion encounter
• Changed CTC calculation to include Shield Block if its uptime is at 100%
• Fixed a few formulas broken by the above changes.

I was also unable to replicate on my home computer a bug in the last version’s Yes/No dropdowns. Hopefully this means it resolved itself. If you experience this bug in the new version (you’ll know it when you see it) please drop me a line, either in the comments below or at uncrittable AT gmail DOT com.

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.

Because boss guides are everywhere and because I am lazy, I’m not going to explain the whooole Alysrazor fight. Consider this guide more of a tank-oriented supplemental.

I hope you find it useful!

General Strategy!

A little background here, for groups who may do this fight differently. We split the raid into two groups, each with one tank, one healer, and two DPS. Group one handles the left (west) side of the arena, and group two handles the right (east) side. The remaining two players are our flyer and a third healer (a holdover from our pre-nerf kill.)

Here’s What This Fight Looks Like As A Tank

Phase 1

Phase 1 is the majority of the fight, and it’s the phase of the fight that is the most punishing on new tanks, because there’s a lot going on, plus a fairly high tank DPS requirement.

First, everyone’s going to get knocked back. After around 10 seconds, Alysrazor is going to fly down near the ground and claw at the middle of the arena, so you want to be on your group’s side of the arena before she comes down. After she passes, there will be some molten feathers left on the ground. Do not click them yet! The first round of feathers goes to casters.

Next, Initiates of Flame fly down in fiery Flight Form. When they reach the ground they turn into night elf Druids of the Flame and begin casting. When they first start casting they yell “We call upon you, Firelord!” As a tank, you can help your side’s DPS with the first Initiate of Flame that spawns in every Phase 1. You can interrupt Fieroclasts with standard interrupt abilities, and Brushfires with stuns.

Around the time that the first Initiate of Flame dies, two Druids of the Flame in flight form will drop fiery eggs as shown in the image below. Once the egg drops you have a few seconds to get over to it. The tank must be the closest person to the egg when it hatches. When the egg transforms into a Voracious Hatchling, it will fixate on whoever was closest to it when it hatched. It is not tauntable and has no threat table – just a fixate, of infinite duration.

If the Hatchling fixates on the wrong person, there are two ways to make it stop: either the person it is fixated on dies, or the person it is fixated on flies. When either of these happens, the Hatchling will pick a new fixate target – again, whoever is closest to it at the time. Which should be you.

In a departure from traditional raid roles, the tank is responsible for the majority of the damage done to its hatchling. That means no pooling Holy Power for a timely WoG and no substituting Blood Boil for Heart Strike to game Runic Empowerment procs.

Intermittantly, the Voracious Hatchling will place a debuff called Gushing Wound on its tank. It has the same icon as Trauma. Gushing Wound is a heavy bleed that will remain on the tank for one minute, or until the tank dips below half health. Try to avoid self-healing until it drops off.

When the Hatchling spawns it will have a buff called Satiated, which has a yellow happy face icon. When this buff expires it is replaced by the buff Hungry, which has a blue sad face icon. When a Hatchling with Hungry hits its tank – blocks count as hits, but dodges/parries/misses do not, so pop avoidance trinkets during Hungry – it has a 50% chance to gain the buff Tantrum, which has a red angry face icon. Tantrum increases the Hatchling’s haste and damage done significantly, and should be removed ASAP. You can remove both Hungry and Tantrum, and make the Hatchling Satiated again, by pulling the bird over to a worm.

Worms – Plump Lava Worms, officially – are small, stationary, non-targetable adds that pop out of the ground shortly after the Hatchlings have hatched. They spawn four at a time, in a square centered around the middle of the arena. After a few seconds they begin to rotate in place at about a keyboard-turner’s pace, spewing a frontal cone of fire as they go. This fire hurts, even on a tank. With the possible exception of DK tanks (AMS), you would rather take a few more seconds of Tantrum than run through a worm’s Lava Spew.

The first set of worms are going to come up in a square diamond around the center of the arena, with its points in the north, east, south, and west.

The first set of worms will always spawn in these positions. Conveniently, each egg was dropped in a small safe zone between the sweeps of the worms’ Lava Spew; all you need to do to avoid the worms’ fire breath is to stand still, or at most shuffle slightly towards whichever worm is not currently facing your way.

By this point, Alysrazor should have dropped another set of feathers. I recommend picking up one for the movement speed increase it gives. Whatever you do, do not pick up three feathers in a single Phase 1.  If you do, the third feather will shoot you into the air – causing your Hatchling to lose interest in you and fixate on someone else.

Now, the temptation on the first Tantrum is going to be to drag the Voracious Hatchling towards whichever worm is not currently facing your direction; but bearing in mind that the tantrum is managable with a cooldown, there is a better way. On the first tantrum of each phase 1, pull your Hatchling to the north or south worm – tank 1 to the south worm, tank 2 to the north worm.

Why? Because shortly after you feed your Hatchling its second worm, another set of Plump Lava Worms will spawn.

Taking the east or west worm second places you conveniently between your two new worms – just like staying on the egg did for the first spawn. It also keeps you firmly on your own side of the field: it’s easy to get turned around on this fight and find yourself and your co-tank both relying on the same worm, while across the arena, another worm goes un-eaten.

As your Hatchling gets down towards 10%, you’ll want to look around and make sure that your worms are all accounted for. If DPS on the Hatchling has been high, or if you got lucky with Tantrum procs, you might have one or even two worms still alive when your Hatchling is nearing death. Try to feed the Hatchling any remaining worms before it dies, to make the arena safe for phases 2, 3, and 4.

If your Hatchling dies before phase 2, congratulations, you’re a DPS until phase 3.

Phase 2

This is the phase with the tornadoes going around all swooosh. If your Hatchling isn’t dead by this time, you need to work on your damage output.

There should be no worms left at this point, so you’re going to have to eat Tantrums. (If there are worms left, don’t wait for Tantrum! Go feed your bird ASAP). Since you can’t very well run in circles with a Voracious Hatchling on your butt, I recommend planting yourself on the line between two tornado ‘tracks’, facing one lane head on, and swinging your camera into overhead mode. This will allow you to efficiently side-step most of the tornadoes without risking turning your back to the Hatchling.

Once your Hatchling is dead, take advantage of this high-movement phase to  doublecheck that you’re on the correct side of the arena, and to run back there if you aren’t.

Phase 3

If your Hatchling isn’t dead by now, I don’t know what to tell you.

Alysrazor collapses in a heap in the center of the arena, and all the DPS and healers stack up on one side of her. Pay attention to where they’re stacking: come phase 4, you want to be on the opposite side. In our raid, the heals and DPS  stack on the south side of the boss, so the tanks are going to need to get to the north side at the beginning of phase 4.

For the moment, though, you have another job. Two Blazing Talon Clawshapers will spawn, land, and begin channeling at the boss. Your job isn’t just to interrupt this channel – it’s also to keep them locked down so that they can’t channel in the first place. Stuns and silences both work.

You’re going to be tempted to perform your rotation on the Clawshaper. I wouldn’t recommend it. They fly away at the beginning of phase 4, so damaging them doesn’t contribute to the success of the encounter; and if you have a stun or interrupt on the GCD, your rotation may delay your interrupts long enough for them to get a second of channeling in.

The purple squares indicate where the two Clawshapers spawn, and the arrows show where you want to be at the beginning of phase 4.

Phase 4

In the name of all that is holy don’t stack on your fellow tank.

Alysrazor has a nasty cleave – not a saber lash, just a regular old cleave. Worse than that, her +fire and physical damage taken debuff is applied to everyone hit by the cleave, not just her primary target. As nice as hugs are, you should really stay at the corners of that triangle.

You can one-tank this phase – it was even doable pre-nerf, though it hurt. If you choose to two-tank it, your offtank will want to taunt when she is at 75-80 energy. Bear in mind that her energy climbs a lot faster than you probably think it does. Be ready to taunt from the moment phase 4 starts, otherwise it’s likely to blow right past you.

At the end of phase 4, she knocks everyone back and resumes phase 1. Because you were on the opposite side of her from the healers, you are probably out of range of them. Don’t worry: her debuff doesn’t have a DoT component. You can bandage yourself without interruption!

Rinse and repeat.

When Alysrazor reaches 100 energy she knocks everyone back, lifts off, and phase 1 begins again.

As usual in any gear discussion, the rankings here are based on my own warrior’s gear set unless I state otherwise. What is an upgrade for one tank may be a downgrade for another, so please take recommendations with a grain of salt, and when in doubt, spreadsheet it out for your own character.

Weapon

4.2 baseline: Unbreakable Guardian (365, Crafted)
4.3 baseline: Gavel of Peroth’arn (378, Peroth’arn – H Well of Eternity)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Mandible of Beth’tilac): Mandible wins.

Blizzard sure likes its apostrophes.

Ranged

4.2 baseline: Gurubashi Destroyer (353, Hazza’rah – H Zul’Gurub)
4.3 baseline: Bronze Blaster (378, Quest – Murozond – H End Time)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Gurubashi Destroyer): Bronze Blaster wins.

The Bronze Blaster will be the BiS tanking ranged slot weapon ever, so get it while it’s hot.

No, really, ever. Warriors are losing our ranged slot in Mists, so this is the last ranged weapon you will ever need.

Chest

4.2 baseline: Earthen Chestguard (359, JP)
4.3 baseline: Breastplate of Tarnished Bronze (378, Murozond – H End Time)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Carapace of Imbibed Flame): Sidegrade.

Feet

4.2 baseline: Boots of Sullen Rock/Gryphon Rider’s Boots/Pyrelord Greaves (359 Dragonmaw Exalted/ 359 Wildhammer Exalted/ 365 Molten Front)
4.3 baseline: Boots of Sullen Rock/Gryphon Rider’s Boots/Pyrelord Greaves (359 Dragonmaw Exalted/ 359 Wildhammer Exalted/ 365 Molten Front)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Mirrored Boots): Mirrored Boots wins.
4.3 5-man item we’re ignoring: Chrono Boots

Hands

4.2 baseline: Earthen Handguards (359, JP)
4.3 baseline: Handguards of the Molten Giant (378, JP)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Handguards of the Molten Giant): Same item
4.3 5-man item we’re ignoring: Gauntlets of Temporal Interference

It’s not that the Gauntlets are bad – it’s just that the Handguards are better, and also easier to acquire.

Head

4.2 baseline: Spiritshield Mask (353, Nalorakk – H Zul’Aman)
4.3 baseline: Annihilan Helm (378, Mannoroth and Varo’then – H Well of Eternity)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Helm of Blazing Glory): Sidegrade

Annihilan Helm has 24 mastery where Helm of Blazing Glory has 24 parry; but the Helm of Blazing Glory has 45 extra stamina via socket bonus, while the Annihilan Helm’s socket bonus is worthless. If this drops for me I’ll take it, but I’m not going to go out of my way to farm it.

Legs

4.2 baseline: Legguards of the Unforgiving (353, Daakara – H Zul’Aman)
4.3 baseline: Legguards of the Molten Giant (378, JP)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Legguards of the Molten Giant): Same item
4.3 5-man item we’re ignoring: Bloodhoof Legguards (378, Echo of Baine – H End of Time)

Shoulder

4.2 baseline: Pauldrons of Sacrifice (353, Hex Lord Malacrass – H Zul’Aman)
4.3 baseline: Pauldrons of the Dragonblight (378, Archbishop Benedictus – H Hour of Twilight)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Pauldrons of Roaring Flame/Shoulderguards of the Molten Giant): Pauldrons of Roaring Flame/Shoulderguards of the Molten Giant win.

N.B. These shoulders are better than the Spaulders of Recurring Flame, if, like me, you’re currently wearing that inferior Firelands shoulderpiece.

Waist

4.2 baseline: Hardened Elementium Girdle (359, Crafted)
4.3 baseline: Girdle of Lost Heroes (378, Echoes, H End Time)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Uncrushable Belt of Fury):  Uncrushable Belt of Fury wins.

Wrists

4.2 baseline: Ricket’s Gun Show (365, Molten Front)
4.3 baseline: Bracers of Regal Force (378, JP)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Bracers of Regal Force/Bracers of the Fiery Path): Identical/Sidegrade

There actually aren’t any wrists from the 4.3 5-mans, but the VP->JP conversion will make the BoE bracers much more affordable.

Neck

4.2 baseline: Amulet of Protection (353, Gri’lek – H Zul’Gurub)
4.3 baseline: Stoneheart Necklace (378, JP)/Twilight Amulet (378, 4.3 5-man trash drop)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Firebound Gorget): Firebound Gorget wins.

The Twilight Amulet is actually slightly better than the Stoneheart Necklace, but it’s a difference of 2-3 rating, so I wouldn’t grind it if I were you.

Ring 1

4.2 baseline: Ring of the Battle Anthem (359, JP)
4.3 baseline: Deflecting Brimstone Band (378, JP)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Deflecting Brimstone Band): Identical

Ring 2

4.2 baseline: Lylagar Horn Ring (365, Molten Front)
4.3 baseline: Lylagar Horn Ring (365, Molten Front)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Adamantine Signet of the Avengers): Adamantine Signet of the Avengers wins.
4.3 5-man item we’re ignoring: Queen’s Boon (378, Queen Azshara – H Well of Eternity)

Back

4.2 baseline: Mantle of Patience (365, Quest)
4.3 baseline: Iceward Cloak (378, Arcurion – H Hour of Twilight)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Mantle of Patience): Iceward Cloak wins.

Shield

4.2 baseline: Shield of the Blood God (353, Jin’do – H Zul’Gurub)
4.3 baseline: Corrupted Carapace (378, Asira Dawnslayer – H Hour of Twilight)
Comparison to N Firelands BiS (Shard of Torment): Shard of Torment wins.

Trinkets

There are a few new item level 378 trinkets being introduced in 4.3:

Master Pit Fighter – This trinket is a reward from the new Darkmoon Fair. It is strangely under budget for an epic trinket, with 192 less stamina than the Scales of Life. Even if its stamina is buffed before it goes live, its special effect is lackluster: a chance on hit to grant 1147 mastery rating for 20 seconds. Given that many warriors will be block capped in this patch, and nearly all will be soft-capped, this proc would see a lot of waste. I do not recommend this trinket.

Varo’then’s Brooch – Drops from Mannoroth and Varo’then in H Well of Eternity. I include this on the list only because I have seen some suggestions that it might be a viable tank trinket. It is not. 383 strength is the equivalent of 108.5 parry rating after Kings; and its proc, given that it is almost identical to that of the Master Pit Fighter, is likely to see a lot of waste on a warrior. I do not recommend this trinket either.

Veil of Lies – Drops from Archbishop Benedictus in H Hour of Twilight. This is something that we haven’t seen yet in Cataclysm: a stamina trinket with a decent damage reduction random-proc effect. This passive+proc combination is perfect for undergeared or barely-geared tanks learning a new fight – stamina buoying the undergeared health pool, while a dodge proc increases your overall damage reduction without adding another cooldown to use on an encounter you’re still trying to learn. That said, I don’t think many warriors will see use for this trinket. Since in 4.3 shield tanks are balanced around being at or near the block cap, and since warriors for the most part will require two CTC trinkets to remain capped until they are well into Dragon Soul, I can’t see us being able to afford to use this trinket until we’re too well-geared to need it (with the notable exception of the Ultraxion encounter). In all, a good trinket to have in your bank, but not something you need to grind.

CTC stands for Combat Table Coverage. Every time an enemy swings at you, the Combat Table is what decides whether you dodge, parry, block, etc. “Coverage” is what percent of the time the swing is not an unmitigated hit: so, your combined chance to block, dodge, parry, or be missed.

Full CTC happens when your chance to take an unblocked hit is 0%. This is called the CTC cap or block cap. It is sometimes also called being unhittable or being uncrushable.

When do I have full CTC/What is the CTC cap?

When your combined Miss+Dodge+Parry+Block = 102.4%.

Why 102.4% and not 100%?

102.4% is what it takes to be unhittable versus a raid boss. Against a level 85, it would be 100%.

Every level of difference between you and the thing that’s hitting you subtracts 0.2% from your Miss, Dodge, Parry, and Block. Raid bosses are considered by the game to be 3 levels higher than you, so your Miss, Dodge, Parry and Block are a combined 2.4% lower than their default displayed values. So we need a displayed CTC of 102.4% (against a level 85) in order to have an effective CTC of 100% (against a level 88).

Why is the CTC cap important?

The primary responsibility of the tank isn’t to take as little damage as possible, but to take damage in a predictable and healable manner. When you are below the CTC cap, melee swings can do 100% damage, 70% damage, 40% damage, or 0% damage to you, and your healers have to be prepared to heal you up from a 100% swing, even if they’d rather be helping someone who, say, lagged in the fire. Reaching the CTC cap means you’ll never take another 100% hit – the most your healers have to be prepared to heal you up from is a 70% swing. This makes it easier for them to deal with other players and mechanics, because they can trust you never to take a spike from a white swing.

That said, reaching the CTC cap is an option, not a requirement. If you decide it’s not for you, that’s fine.

When should I gear towards CTC?

Gearing for damage reduction/conventional tank gearing and gearing for CTC are very similar. For the most part, you’ll gain CTC without needing to focus on it.

I recommend switching to a focus on obtaining full CTC, at the expense of conventional tank gearing, at around 95% passive CTC. This is a holistic recommendation, not a mathematical one, so feel free to experiment with gearing for CTC earlier.

Don’t Shield Block/avoidance procs/the tier 12 4-piece devalue the CTC cap?

Yes and no. It’s true that between Shield Block, the 4-piece bonus, and on-uses, you could keep up full CTC a majority of the time without needing to be passively capped. Taking this approach is a perfectly viable and reasonable gearing strategy, but it is not equivalent to full CTC. The benefit of passive full CTC is absolute certainty that you will never take an unmitigated hit. I am unaware of any combination of trinket on-use effects that will, in concert with 4-piece 12, have 100% uptime – so there will always be the chance of taking a 100% hit when all your effects are on cooldown.

Gearing For CTC

When it comes to CTC, your stat priorities are:

mastery >>>>> dodge = parry >>> strength

Note the absence of armor and stamina. A lot of gearing for CTC involves finding out-of-the-way places to replace stamina with mastery or other CTC stats.

You may also notice that I’ve placed dodge equal to parry, which is different from the normal warrior “slightly prefer parry” gearing strategy. This is because while Hold the Line does provide some damage reduction, it does not provide any CTC. CTC from dodge and parry is highest when dodge % and parry % are equal after raid buffs – and since there are raid buffs which increase parry, but are no longer raid buffs which increase dodge, you’ll want your dodge to be slightly higher before raid buffs to compensate.

Because of the amount of strength on plate, it is likely that you will wind up with high parry even after forging as much as possible away. This is normal; just do what you can.

Consumables

Specialty consumables are a huge boost to CTC, but they can get expensive.

First, ditch the stamina flask in favor of elixirs. The Elixir of the Master, a Battle Elixir, grants 225 mastery; and it can be used in conjunction with the Elixir of Deep Earth (900 armor) for physical fights, or the Prismatic Elixir (90 spell resist) for magical fights. Unlike flasks, elixirs fade when you die, so you’ll want a lot of them. I generally go through around 30 elixirs a week.

For food, you should eat Lavascale Minestrone, which gives 90 mastery and 90 stamina. Eating Fortune Cookies or Seafood Magnifique Feasts will give you 90 dodge, not 90 mastery, so bring your own food.

Gems

Fractured, fractured, fractured. Ignore stamina bonuses entirely. Ignore blue sockets unless they give enough mastery to make up for the loss of half a fractured gem. Ignore red sockets unless they give CTC bonuses.

“But Button!” I hear you cry, because I’m lurking outside your window as you read this. “I need three blue gems to activate my meta gem!” Yes, that’s true – but only if you’re using the Eternal meta gem. The Austere and Fleet Shadowspirit Diamonds require only two yellow gems each. On top of that, the Fleet gem trades in the 81 stamina passive of the traditional tank gems for 54 mastery, and its runspeed effect means that you can drop the Lavawalker on your boots for an additonal 15 mastery.

Personally I recommend going with the Fleet gem if you’re struggling to hit the cap; but remember, a meta gem effect is the single greatest difference you can make in your own damage reduction. As soon as you can afford to switch back to the Austere or Eternal without dropping below cap (or losing the run speed bonus!), I encourage you to do so.

Enchants

Head – Arcanum of the Highlands. This trades in 90 stamina (worthless for CTC) for 60 strength (17 parry rating), and 35 dodge (good) for 35 mastery (better).

Shoulders – Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz. Technically the Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal has slightly higher CTC, but the wasted item budget on agility (which no longer gives us dodge) turns me off of it. I wouldn’t use Shattered Crystal unless it was the tiny push I needed to cap completely.

Back – Titanweave. This Wrath defense enchant now gives 16 dodge. This was one of the first things I replaced after I reached the CTC cap: though it’s the best CTC cloak enchantment in the game, Protection is much better for damage reduction, even after the cap.

Chest – Greater Dodge. Stamina is worthless for CTC, and Stats gives the equivalent of only 5.6 parry rating, while the Wrath enchant gives 22 dodge rating.

Feet – Lavawalker, or, if you’re using the Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond, 50 mastery. Don’t give up your run speed bonus by enchanting 50 mastery without the Fleet meta: run speed is a must-have effect.

Weapon – There are no weapon enchantments that give passive CTC; stick with Windwalk.

Reforging

If it doesn’t have mastery on it, forge the highest stat into mastery, ignoring dodge/parry balance. Having more mastery is more important than having dodge and parry balanced.

If it doesn’t have mastery on it, and the stats it does have on it are not dodge and parry, replace it. Something of a lower item level with better itemization will do a better job.

Unintuitive Gear Decisions in 4.2

These are generalizations based on my own gear set. If you suspect that your dodge or parry diminishing returns would yield a different result for you, I encourage you to stat it out for yourself in my spreadsheet.

Neck – Firebound Gorget‘s ridiculous amount of mastery and diminishing returns on the Stoneheart Necklace‘s parry make the Gorget a better choice.

Shoulders – Believe it or not, the 378 Spaulders of Recurring Flame do have more CTC than the 359 BoE shoulders. The Shoulderguards of the Molten Giant and the Pauldrons of Roaring Flame are both better than the Spaulders, and are approximately equal to each other in CTC due to the Pauldrons’ excessive dodge and the Shoulderguards’ excessive mastery.

Ranged – Despite its low item level, the Gurubashi Destroyer remains the highest-CTC ranged weapon until the Heroic Deflecting Star.

Professions

Tanking professions have been woefully restrictive this expansion. Only four professions even have damage reduction benefits, and of those, only three have CTC benefits.

You shouldn’t feel obligated to change your profession just to reach the CTC cap; but if you want to, here are your choices:

Alchemy – When using the Elixir of the Master, an alchemist receives 40 additional mastery. (He also receives an additional benefit from his Guardian Elixir, but that does not increase CTC).

Blacksmithing – A blacksmith can add two extra sockets to his gear, for a total of 80 additional mastery. If the blacksmith is able to afford/acquire enough epic mastery gems, this bonus could increase to 100 in 4.3. (It is only a 100 stat bonus if every other slot also has epic gems).

Jewelcrafting – A jewelcrafter can add three special gems to his gear, for a total of 81 additional mastery. If epic gems are hard to acquire in 4.3, this bonus could increase to 111. (It is only a 111 stat bonus if the sockets containing JC gems would otherwise not contain epic gems). There is some controversy on whether the JC gems will be buffed to account for the higher stat baseline of epic gems; if chimera eyes are not buffed and a tank could afford to fill the relevant sockets with epic gems, the JC bonus will be reduced to 51 mastery.

What comes next?

You’ve reached the CTC cap! What are you going to do next?

The first thing you want to do, after you’re done celebrating, is take a good hard look at your stats. How much dodge, parry, or mastery could you afford to lose and still remain block capped?

If you’ve taken any of the more extreme measures I’ve laid out above – using the agility shoulder enchant, or the Wrath cloak enchant, for instance – those are the first things you want to lose. Start gemming to match socket bonuses. Consider switching meta gems (remember, you’re losing 69 mastery, not 54, because of the boot enchant – and 60 more on top of that if you’re going to activate the Eternal). Gear more like a warrior who isn’t stretching for the block cap, while still remaining block capped.

But let’s say, through some miracle or gear way better than mine, that you have successfully returned to a match-all-sockets, all-enchants-up-to-date-and-conventional configuration, and you’re still at least 20 mastery rating above the block cap! What should you change that half a gem into?

Theck has the answer.

tl;dr: After block cap, stack stamina.

Upon googling for warrior tanking blogs, I found none on the first two pages that were still updating.

This will not stand.

Uncrittable was originally going to be a warrior blog, but I made it a class-agnostic venture because I didn’t think I could say anything that wasn’t already being said in the warrior tank community. This worked out fine when Cataclysm was in beta and I could give purely theoretical information, but between betas, theory and speculation really don’t cut it.

By declaring this an explicitly warrior-centric blog, I free myself of the obligation (but not the ability!) to discuss the other tanking classes; which reduces the amount of time I have to spend researching each post by well over 75%; which means more posts and less guilt.

So keep an eye on this space!

As always for pre-release information, all of this may be subject to change.

Tanking-related bits I’d like to call your attention to:

• New tanking spec, the Brewmaster Monk, will use leather gear (probably Agility) and no shields. No word on possible Monk masteries yet.
• The races which can be Monks include Draenei, Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Night Elves, Pandaren, Blood Elves, Orcs, Tauren, Trolls, and Forsaken.
• New race, the Pandaren, with the Monk and Warrior classes as their tanking possibilities. This race will be available to both factions.
• No Death Knights! The loretard in me is happy at this, and wishes that Blizzard had been willing to do the same for Worgen.
• Pandaren racials applicable to raid tanking include a 50% reduction in fall damage taken, and a 100% increase in stats gained from Well Fed buffs.
• Bear and Cat druids are being separated into two separate specializations, nixing the hybrid spec (and presumably reducing Bear DPS considerably).
• The talent system is receiving a massive overhaul. Talent trees are being removed, replaced with 6 tiers of completely optional, largely utility talents available to all specs of the class. Spec-specific abilities and bonuses will be assigned passively as you level up.

Naturally I am very excited. A new tanking class! New tanking mechanics! New things to learn and speculate on! Wooo!

A couple more quick observations of my own, on tanking mechanics changes:

• Judgements of the Just is currently still present as a Prot Paladin specialization passive, indicating that the attack speed slow debuff is likely still in the game at this point in development.
• Demoralizing Roar has been modified beyond recognizability, and is now an AoE interrupt, indicating that the -physical damage debuff is likely no longer in the game, or possibly has been rolled in with the attack speed slow debuff. I highly doubt that the -physical damage debuff has been rolled into bears as a separate passive, as that would indicate either that a) all tanks’ -physical debuffs have been made passive, in which case what’s the point; or b) the devs thought bears needed their debuff application simplified, but think warriors should still have to apply theirs. (Assuming here that diseases will be important enough for 5.0 Blood DKs that Scarlet Fever would be considered passive).

If I’d been a little more timely in updating this space, this would have been version 4.2.0.1, but whatever – it’s not like warriors or paladins received any survivability changes in this patch or in the recent hotfixes.

Here’s the most recent iteration of my spreadsheet: damagereduction_4.2.2.0

Changes from version 4.2.0.0:

• Fixed an error in combat table calculation which was doubling the penalties against enemies above level 85;
• Expanded supported food buffs to include Strength food and +60 stat options;
• Added a flask field, including elixir options and toggleable Mixology bonus (Prismatic Elixir is not included because it has no effect on physical damage).

I hope anyone who’s actually using my spreadsheet finds it helpful and informative!

I have a few ideas for improving the spreadsheet in the future. Please keep in mind that these are not promises, just ideas. I reserve the right to not implement any or all of these for any reason whatsoever, including my own laziness.

• Refining Hold the Line uptime calculation;
• Allowing the user to input a non-default Hold the Line uptime (presumably based on logs);
• Adding spell damage reduction support;
• Automated dodge/parry reforge optimization;
• A proc evaluation tool;
• And of course, support for future mechanics changes.