High end tank weapons

[Chiropractor]

To those who know more than I do about warrior tanking weapons :)

Why in the world would a Tauren warrior take http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30874 over http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32254. One of our main tanks just crapped his pants over Unbreakable, while Brutalizer dropped the week before and he didn't even bid dkp on it. What am I missing?

[Vysogota]

I don't get it either. While I could understand a Human warrior taking The Unbreakable Will over The Brutalizer (because of the racial), a Tauren doing the same seems a bit stupid to me.

[jakethesnake]

Because he's bad maybe?

[Shane'O mac]

The only thing I see with it is the top-end damage. But its not a significant amount to make it an upgrade... Imo, the Brutalizer is an upgrade no matter the racial.

So yea, what Jake said.

[Chiropractor]

Awesome. Thanks guys!

[Iluminati]

It's possible the UW is better for his mitigation set, 308 armor > some defense if you are at the uncrittable cap.
The Brutalizer is MUCH better for threat gen.

Does he have any other weapons? I'm pretty sure that's the logic he's using.

[Xi-]

It's possible the UW is better for his mitigation set, 308 armor > some defense if you are at the uncrittable cap.
The Brutalizer is MUCH better for threat gen.

Does he have any other weapons? I'm pretty sure that's the logic he's using.

Pretty sure he's a dumbass because you're going to get a lot more mitigation off 5 expertise than 300 armor.

[Chiropractor]

He has Mallet of the Tides, Talon of Azshara (for trash) and Blazefury. He wasn't lacking in options at all.

[Episkey]

Quick conclusion: he likes looks over stats :P

[Benix]

^^ its funny to see people with 2x UW going over their backs, looks n1nja

[Iluminati]

Pretty sure he's a dumbass because you're going to get a lot more mitigation off 5 expertise than 300 armor.

reduced parries -> less boss attack speed increase? Never thought of expertise as a form of mitigation, but that makes perfect sense.

[Denrye]

Yeah, and having windfury is actually going to increase the damage you take (assuming you're not expertise capped).

[Benix]

Yeah, and having windfury is actually going to increase the damage you take (assuming you're not expertise capped).

what is the expertise cap?

[Denrye]

I don't know the exact parry % for bosses, but it should be in the neighborhood of 6-7%, so it would be 24-28 actual expertise (over 90 expertise rating, enough that its doubtful anyone's going to be close).

[Xaviera]

you aren't going to get more mitigation from 5 expertise than 300 armor, and the 300+ armor is affected by talents. moreso tanks should executioner their expertise weapon and mongoose their mitigation weapon (UW) and that's the best setup you can do. (armor reduces all damage you take regardless of source as long as its physical, expertise just reduces damage you might take if the boss parries YOU, it's relying on a random statistical event rather than something passively always active, on top of the flat damage reduction gain from the armor being rather significant)

as for the parry rate of bosses and the expertise cap, bosses have about 13% parry chance, and to fully negate that from expertise you'd need 168 rating, which isn't gonna happen anytime soon. a full expertise set right now as a tank gives you -8.75%

[Denrye]

K, I had been thinking it was more in line with the dodge rates.

I'm aware that expertise is going to be far more based on random chance, but because of that it is also more likely to cut down on spike damage caused by parry counterattacks. If the increased speed from parrys creates more attacks within one Shield Block CD, its more likely that the tank will get crushed, in addition to just the faster attack speed.

Also, from what I've read, 5 expertise would be equivalent to around .3% dodge, vs. 339 armor from the UW.

[Xaviera]

sure, expertise will slightly, slightly reduce the likelihood of chain-parry-explosions, but they can of course still happen. the majority of the time you survive parrygib-like sequences is by using a timer, only on shahraz is it really so massive that you often will die before you could have known a timer would've been needed.

In my mitigation suit, unbuffed, I'm at 20397 armor with UW, for 65.89% physical reduction. Without the sword, I'm at 20058 armor, for 65.52% reduction.

at 65.89% mitigation I'm only taking 34.11% of the original damage, an increase over the non-armor weapon of 34.48%, or over 1% more reduction in damage, almost 1.5%. Overall the armor will let you take less damage, and lessen the individual hits of any spikes, which are likely to still occur even with expertise.

[Iluminati]

I was right, yay!

[mko]

Armor is the best thing you can get pretty much itemization wise for mitigation/survival.

Mitigation is for idiots though, stack the hit/crit and l2p. :)

[Xaviera]

different gearsets for different encounters blunted!

[Telestia]

ok, I'll admit that I know nothing about tanking weapons. I'm just wondering why Thunderfury is a bad tanking weapon now. Would it be a good idea for our MT to get the hammer off Lurker or something like that? We have Vashj down and we're currently working on Kael'Thas.

Sorry for the (sorta) Necro

[Impulsive]

The threat generation from TFury's effect was nerfed a while ago (3+patches ago), I want to say around 70% but I am not sure of the exact number.

[Iluminati]

Thundfury is a bad tanking weapon because it's:

a) low dps
b) got no good stats on it compared to the weapons you have available
c) proc doesn't do enough threat anymore

It's excellent for hyjal trash though.

[Citrinite]

Holy pally tank for hyjal trash for all but the aboms, if you ask me.

[jakethesnake]

We have trouble justifying bringing a prot paladin when they are 99% useless on all but like 3 encounters in the game (not including trash).

[Citrinite]

I agree don't bring a prot pallidan. Use a holy pallidan to tank the trash. As long as your healers are good they are great hyjal trash tanks.

On a side note prot palidans can tank the bosses in Hyjal. Although as a warrior I am not suggesting it :)

[Impulsive]

Its Paladin, not "pallidan" or "palidan".

[Iluminati]

We have trouble justifying bringing a prot paladin when they are 99% useless on all but like 3 encounters in the game (not including trash).

um? what? Paladins can off tank anything, and most encounters do need an offtank.

Hyjal:
Anetheron
Azgalor
Trash is harder than the bosses.

BT:
supremus
akama
bloodboil
mother
council
illidan