Arms Hybrid - Part 1

I've been experimenting with damage output recently. Ever since the Prot Warrior changes came in, I've really enjoyed pushing out far greater damage... but I want more. I have really enjoyed my short time with Arms DPS. I have a lot more to learn, more gear to acquire and more fun to be had. So next up on the way to my first 50g respec, I thought I'd try out a new Arms spec to tank in.

The spec has come from and excellent thread I found on the Arms Warrior. It's reasonably comprehensive, and gets you thinking about all the facets of the Arms tree. It is a full Arms spec, with a spash of Prot, with most points being sacrificed from the Fury tree. In order to appreciate what I'm giving up, here are the specs.

Progression Protection Spec 15/5/51
Full DPS Arms Spec 53/18/0
Hybrid Arms with a splash of Prot 53/5/13

What you just plain lose
0/3 Armored to the Teeth is the big loss on both sides. When I first donned my DPS gear after speccing, I thought, "what happened to all my AP?". At almost 14k armor in DPS gear, it's a 231 AP sacrifice. Unfornuately, at 21k (down more than 2k armor with the loss of toughness) it's a 350 AP sacrifice in tanking gear.

It's a huge loss to both DPSing and Tanking - my least favorite thing about the build.

What you lose from Protection
The idea behind this spec is to be a credible tank the rare times you are called upon. It's also designed around having to tank usually only one mob in a raid environment... with this in mind, the biggest thing you loose a lot of AOE tanking viability.

AOE Losses

• Shockwave is gone, the massive frontal cone of AOE with the 4 second stun that makes large packs of trash (particularly in 5 mans) a breeze for both you and your healer.
• Damage Shield is gone, that lovely passive damage / threat generator
• AP losses impact both of these and Thunderclap, while Block Value (BV) losses impact damage shield
  

Survivability Losses

• 2/5 Anticipation - losing 3% dodge isn't a good start
• 0/5 Toughness - 10% armor loss (> 2k armor)
• 0/2 Improved Defensive Stance - 6% extra damage from spells
• Reduced BV impacts damage reduced from blocking
• 0/3 Vitality - 6% less stamina (and 2% less strength, 2 less expertise after considering Strength of Arms)

The survivability losses are quite manageable, depending on your gear, the content you are attempting and of course, your healer.

DPS / Threat Losses

• Shield Mastery, Gag Order, Critical Block and Sword and Board all combine to make your less frequent shield slams smaller and crit less often.
• Losing Devestate means that if / when you apply sunder armor, you aren't doing any damage
• Losing Focused Rage isn't a huge deal, but can impact how quickly you can get those first abilities off in those more difficult pulls (offset somewhat by Endless Rage in Arms)
• One Handed Weapon Specialisation - means you'll be doing 10% less damage compared to a full protection spec while tanking
  

The major losses aside from the obvious survivability ones center around AOE tanking viability and reduced damage over all. Of course all of this comes at a cost to tanking, since there's all those Arms talents going completely to waste when either not using a 2H weapon, or in battle stance. There are also some utility losses, like Concussion Blow, Vigilance, Warbringer and the silence in Heroic Throw from Gag Order.

What you lose full Arms DPS
Firstly, in the Fury tree, you loose

• Booming Voice / Commanding Presence - for some extra AP and utility from your Battle Shout
• Improved Execute - smaller Executes (which when combined with your small shield slams when tanking, really stings)

While nothing is missing from the Arms tree, again that 231 AP loss from Armored to the Teeth doesn't help things. You can certainly push out some respectable DPS in this spec, but we'll follow that up in the next post.

What you gain for single target tanking
The big winner for this spec and tanking viability is Unrelenting Assault, which reduces the cooldown of Revenge by 4 seconds, which means in practise, you have a Revenge available every global cooldown. Making sure to take the prot tree talent Improved Revenge ensures some great single target threat and DPS while tanking.

Mortal Strike in combination with Tactical Mastery gives another instant attack with added threat, as well as the utility of reducing a mobs capacity to be healed.

Trauma and Blood Frenzy bring some great party /raid buffs that you don't normally bring to the table while tanking, and 6% haste is great, particularly if you are using a slow 1H axe to work in with Poleaxe Specialisation.

So begins my experiment. Before I report on the practical, I have to quickly thank Jondy for letting me test this out with her healing. If it wasn't for your fantastic healing, I wouldn't have thought it such a great idea to experiment.

Emblem of Heroism Pick Order - DPS gear

I can't wait for dual specs. Even though my respec cost is only up to 30g, I've managed to squeeze in a couple of decent Arms Warrior sessions in of late, and my DPS set is coming along nicely. When DPSing as a warrior I want to be ARMS! A brute force killing machine with a giant weapon - a commanding presence with some serious burst DPS and AOE capabilities. I know the consensus is that fury is the best raid spec... but I'd prefer avoid the wrist guards and remedial hand massages that come with titan's grip.

I couldn't find a guide to how to spend my excess emblems, ala Tanking Tips... so I thought I'd write my own.

Here is the available Emblem choices for a DPS Warrior:

>> [Heroes' Dreadnaught Battleplate] - 80 Emblems
>> [Heroes' Dreadnaught Gauntlets] - 60 Emblems
>> [Verdungo's Barbarian Cord] - 40 Emblems
>> [Mirror of Truth] - 40 Emblems
>> [Pendant of the Outcast Hero] - 25 Emblems
>> [Lillehoff's Winged Blades] - 15 Emblems

A reminder that I'm writing this from the perspective of a Tank, looking to add some beef to their DPS outfit - so while I have emblems to spare - something you'd buy for your primary spec to give you that boost while you wait for a drop - may be deemed too expensive to purchase.

For an Arms warrior, my general goals are
- Get hit capped (hopefully through gear alone)
- Get 35% crit (crit is HUGE for an Arms warrior)
- Get a huge whack of AP
- Enjoy the haste and armor penetration as it happens to be included in upgrades

With mostly blue / epic lvl 200 items, I'm so far managed (in polearm spec) roughly:
- 7.5% hit (1 drop away from capped without gems (13 runs and nada))
- 31% crit
- 3000 AP
I'm still wearing a couple of tanking items, but karma did pay off as I won [Incisor Fragment] while DPSing Heroic Drak'Tharon keep yesterday.

A lot of this discussion will focus around competition. Regular plate items are easy to acquire, particularly if you pair yourself up with an excellent DPSer in plate (thank you Zeltan). Each time you go into a heroic instance, you can rest assured that they have got the DPS item you are interested in, or something better. Neck, Rings, Weapons and Trinkets, however.... you have a lot more competition, including rogues, hunters, kitties and enhancement shamen as well as the regular Ret Pally, Deathknight and Warriors. Remember too that the Holy Pally, Resto Shammie and Tree might also want to roll on these items for offspec.

Here's my order:

1. [Mirror of Truth] - 40 Emblems

You can't go past this trinket as Arms. The crit is fantastic, and the chance on crit proc screams at you - "Arms Warrior - buy me NOW!". It's worth it's weight in gold and for anything even close to this trinket, you'll have up to half the raid to fight it out with.

2. [Heroes' Dreadnaught Gauntlets] - 60 Emblems

These are a clear upgrade over any of the rare level dungeon drops, and have a stack of expertise help fill in that gap left by chasing the hit cap and crit / attack power gear. Plenty of hit, and a yellow socket for some crit, and they are my second choice for your valuable emblems. Make sure you run Heroic Occulus for a shot at [Gauntlets or Dragon Wrath] before you buy them... but you will want to get these given enough emblems in any case. I also need figure out how good 10% extra slam damage is before I get carried away about the 2 set bonus for Tier 7.

3. [Pendant of the Outcast Hero] - 25 Emblems

The Pendant has excellent itemisation for an Arms warrior. It's better than [Collar of Dissolution] from Naxx 10 unless you badly need the hit and/or expertise - but you will have every physical DPS clamoring for that one anyway. It's a steal at 25 Emblems so pick this up as you make your way down the list.

4. [Heroes' Dreadnaught Battleplate] - 80 Emblems

I currently have [Breastplate of Undeath] from Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep, which is very similarly itemised, with agility versus crit coming out about even. The upgrade is worth about the 2 sockets in the T7, which is handy for plugging the gaps in your stats. It's a must have, but given that for just 5 extra emblems you can have both the gloves and neck, I had to put this fourth. Depending what you are wearing for gloves and neck, your mileage may vary.

Here is the DON'T buy list

1. [Verdungo's Barbarian Cord] - 40 Emblems

It is just not enough of an upgrade to [Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle] to justify the purchase, which is easily obtainable in one of the easiest heroics - The Nexus. Even if you have the same luck I've had with [Staggering Legplates] - I still wouldn't buy this belt.

2. [Lillehoff's Winged Blades] - 15 Emblems

Even at 15 Emblems, it's not worth it. Get [Drake-Mounted Crossbow] from Heroic Utgarde Keep. It's the best you are likely to see for quite some time, particularly if you are in a guild (like many) that can have up to three hunters in a 10 man, and no less than 5 in a 25.

That wraps it up for the Emblem of Heroism pick order for DPS warrior gear. I would love to get some feedback from Tanks looking to improve their DPS gear, or dedicated DPS (especially Arms) with discussion about the list, resources for DPSing in plate or just to pop by and say "hey hey".

People don't understand tanking ...

While it's nice to have 'Borgthor is main tank' exclaimed in all caps with a redundancy of exclamation points, there is a serious trend in over simplifying what makes a good tank.

In this case, we were getting ready to take on some Horde home city bosses in a 40 man raid. There was already a guy informing people he was main tanking the bosses, when the raid leader asked us to pst our HP. 28k, and a confirmation that it was unbuffed (of course) was all it took to provoke the raid warning.

Now I looked at the other guy (a pally), and as far as I could see he was similarly geared, sensibly chanted and gemmed. There was also another prot warrior, waiting quietly at Chillwind Camp, who was WAY better geared than both of us.

So to quickly dispell the myth... having the most HP does not make you the best tank. Here's my quick guide about the total package that is the tank...

Firstly, I'm going to assume that for anything remotely dangerous (where you might die) a tank will be uncrittable.

Effective Health

Effective Health is a measure of how much raw damage it takes to kill a tank, assuming the tank does not avoid damage (dodge / parry / miss) or block. For magic, damage is mitigated (reduced) by resistance. For melee, damage is mitigated by armor. Most discussions ignore magic damage, but it's important to know that total HP (and resistance gear) is king for coping spell damage, particularly since magic attacks cannot be dodged, parried or blocked. For most fights however, it makes more sense to concentrate on reducing the incoming melee damage...

Armor reduces the damage taken from melee attacks, and the best way I've seen it's importance described is from the tankspot article on effective health theory, "Even though this may sound obvious, it needs to be repeated that every increase in Armor gives linear and potent scaling to the effectiveness of Stamina. Every increase in Armor is a direct increase in the effectiveness of Stamina; every increase in Stamina is a direct increase in the value of Armor."

If two tanks have HP (and attributes below) in the same ball park, the one with the most Armor will be able to take the biggest beating.

Avoidance

A tank's avoidance is the measure of how often they are able to avoid melee damage attacks altogether. A tank (but not all tanks, see below) can avoid attacks by being missed, dodging or parrying. Many statistics contribute to increasing avoidance:
- Chance to be missed is increased with defense rating
- Dodge is increased by agililty, defense rating and dodge rating
- Parry is increased by defense rating, parry rating and strength (DK only)

The more avoidance a tank has, the more often melee attacks will inflict no damage, the less healing that has to be done. However, while armor guarantees melee damage reduction, avoidance is based on probablities. If a tank has 50% avoidance, there will be times when a mob will hit (or miss) many times in a row, which is why tanks concentrate on getting their effective health to the minimum level required by content before concerning themselves too much with avoidance (which is heavily itemised on most tanking gear anyway).

If HP and Armor are in the same ball park, the tank with the higher avoidance will be able to take the bigger beating.

Comparing Different Classes

Not all tanks are created equal, and Warriors, Paladins, Druids and Death Knights have their own strengths an weaknesses. In italics above, there's lots of in the same ball park. While Blizzard have worked hard to make sure all tanks can tank most things, there major differences between the tanking classes that can make them hard to compare. For example:

Warriors and Paladins can use a shield and can block. So we get another source of damage mitigation based on block percentage and block value.

Druids can't parry, are automatically uncrittable with talents and usually have high dodge, armor and HP. A similarly geared druid and warrior tank will have different levels of HP, armor and avoidance in order to survive the same battle.

Death Knights can dual wield, or use two handed weapons to tank. They gain avoidance through strength (an important threat stat) and have a high armor modifier when tanking.

Add to this the different skills available to the different tanking classes, and it's not as simple as comparing total HP to decide who is best for the challenge. As a raid leader and guild master I have been learning more about the other tanking classes in order to best utilise them while raiding - I may write something on that in the future.

Threat and DPS

There is more to tanking than not dieing! While in WotLK the threat game has largely declined (so far), it has been replaced with tanks being able to dish much higher DPS. A tank that can make a significant contribution to party/raid DPS will help get those bosses down.

For a warrior, important threat stats are expertise, hit, strength/attack power/block value. Particularly expertise and hit are important for early on in a fight where if you get dodged, parried or miss a couple of times, an eager DPSer (or healer even) could end up on the pointy end of a sharp stick.

If all else is equal, take the Tank that can push out the most DPS.

Tanking Skill

Gear is important to a tank! Developing a well rounded meat shield that can take a beating, and have enough avoidance to avoid gobbling up all the healers mana and push out some credible damage takes a lot of work. However, all the gear in the world won't make up for a player that doesn't know their toon.

Tanks have an enormous array of offensive and defensive abilities to reduce incoming damage and bring the pain! A smart healer won't blame themselves for losing a warrior tank that doesn't know how to use shield bash or spell reflect to reduce avoid spell damage. Smart DPSers know the difference between playing with a tank that can weave all those new AOE tanking abilities into a pleasant AOE fest through and instance. One day, the healer may even thank you for understanding how to weave your AOE stun, mob attack speed / attack power reduction and defensive abilities together for when those pesky DPS have all but forgotten that sometimes, single target DPS is still useful.

Take the time to appreciate your tank. Don't just reduce them to a number. If they can talk about their experience and gear intelligently and are geared enough to have a go at the content, give them a go! They may just be a friend you haven't met yet.

WotLK and The Ancients

Borgthor is now 80, having traveled far and wide through the wonderful landscape of Northrend. Combined with leveling, gearing and raiding - a massive increase in my out of WoW workload has resulted in tumbleweeds drifting sweetly across this blog.

I'm not a huge fan of playing catch up on blogs, but if I don't - the perfectionist in me will drive the last nail into the coffin of this story... so here goes.

I am the guild master of The Ancients, on Dath'Remar. I took over months ago from Liself, and am really surprised that I haven't blogged about it yet. Aside from Zenborg's flirtation with a 25 man raiding guild, The Ancients has been the only guild I've ever known. I believe thanks is owed to Lashana, who found this guild long ago... and who first instructed me to "type 'ding' into guild chat".

Another reason this blog has been left untouched, is that I've been much more active on our guild website. Recently I added a section to the site just for myself and our council members, which as been a fantastic way to communicate within the leadership of the guild. Jondy and I have had much restricted play time recently, and it's virtually impossible to get a hold of everyone online... and multi-typing is much to much to handle. We've managed to get some overdue promotions done, and talk about the way forward with raiding...

... RAIDING! The Ancients have completed (all 10 man) Vault of Archavon, Obsidian Sanctum and Spider Wing, Plague Wing and Patchwerk in Naxxramas. We had a ball learning the safety dance, found out that Loatheb hits like a wet noodle (we one shot him the first time with two of our hunters locked out). We're short a healer or two, and some more DPS with oomph for our second Naxx group, but we're close and 25 man Obsidian Sanctum should be just around the corner.

I'm impressed with the raiding team we've assembled and pleasantly surprised how much things have improved week to week. I was overjoyed when we defeated Patchwerk on our very first night in Naxx, and two weeks later (a week off for Christmas / New Year) I was at 1500 dps, every DPSer above 2k (with Oday just shy of 3k) and the healers hardly seemed to break a sweat before the abomination hit the ground.

TANKING. I have had a blast with tanking in WotLK, but have found it a little too easy. Leveling as protection was just plain FUN. Having much improved DPS, and some great AOE abilites made questing a breeze. Add to that, a delightful resto druid and we hacked and slashed our way through the fields of mobs, with Jondy protesting about avoiding mobs that weren't related to our current quest objective. Gearing into heroics was a joy, with many BC epics holding up well - there we're plenty of quest rewards, reputation rewards to easily meet the defense cap. While we managed to 'Tour the Fjord', our targeted questing (against a meticulously crafted gear plan) and level appropriate instancing had us to 80 much quicker than I expected.

After AOEing our way through normal instances, I was actually looking foward to using some CC come heroics... until I got some sage advice, "just pull the first pack in Heroic Utguarde Keep - if you don't die... it's AOE all the way". So that's just what we did. I also have to remember that all things are relative, and I have been able to get away with wearing a pretty much full block value set for most heroics because I have my wife Jondayla (a spirited, evergreen, resto druid) to heal me through thick and thin. Now we've just got Heroic The Oculus to finish them off.

Well, that's caught you up in extremely broad strokes to where I'm at. Zenborg has been temporarily abandoned at level 71, questless, surviving on DPSing through the lower level instances, dreaming of one day harnessing some true AOE prowess.

More soon... Thanks to everyone that's bugged me to update the blog (you know who you are).