Mastery is also a major mitigation stat for DK tanks, buffing our self-shield; no idea about Druids or Pallies.
At least for DKs the verdict still appears to be out on how to gem. Some folks seem to think that avoidance and mastery are the way to go now (with stam pools so high naturally). So the 2 yellow requirement might not be that burdensome anyways.
Although, as you said, even getting a meta gem is pretty damn hard right now unless you know someone with a transmute and a JC with the right cut.
Heh. I had a hell of a time in Heroic Tol’Vir on Monday, including my favorite wipe on the Phoenix boss. The healer died by body pulling a random merchant who killed him by throwing fruit at him. :smack:
I’ve been doing the same. Tanking regulars to learn the mechanics till I have them all down (trash and bosses), and getting in guild groups as DPS for the upgrades (helps that our primary tanks are almost all druids so the Plate gear goes to me!). I also need to write a cheat-sheet for useful class CC’s so I can properly and quickly mark and hand out assignments.
It is kind of chuffing me that the success of a heroic run sometimes comes down to having a mage, shaman, rogue, ret pally, or hunter (preferably two of the above). Got nowhere in a HOO heroic run with druid tank and healers and DPS of lock, DK, and warrior - just not enough useful CC for the caster trash packs.
I’d love to do Baradin Hold this week, but the Alliance has Tol Barad now and it seems damn near impossible to win as attackers unless it’s like 4am. Maybe we’ll get it back tonight.
I haven’t checked the results by the number-crunchers at Elitist Jerks yet, but feral druid Mastery boosts the Savage Defense damage absorption when in bear form. So on the surface at least, it sounds like it might be worthwhile.
IIRC, Paladin and Warrior Mastery improves our Block, while Druid and Death Knight Mastery provides absorption. That should make it a very strong stat for all four classes. It also suggests that Warriors and Paladins will be stronger on bosses that do more physical damage, while Druids and DKs will be better for magic-heavy fights.
For sure, rating-stat priority for Warriors is Mastery > Parry > Dodge. Just not sure yet what the target percentages are for each of those, below which it might be worthwhile to gem for socket bonuses with avoidance stats instead of straight Stamina.
In case you didn’t know, there is *no *CD on the meta gem xmute. The only cooldowns for Cata xmutes are Truegold and the elemental one (15 Life > 14-16 something else, depending on where you’re standing).
Hmm, thought I already replied to this, but I guess I just tagged the post and forgot to hit “Post Reply” cuz it popped up again in here. That said, I meant to reply,
BWAH-HA-HA! Awesomesauce!
I’ve run into this several times on several different toons, in different places with different quests (most recently, my dwarf hunter in Hinterlands). It’s almost as if the NPC is trying to offer you a followup quest before it’s finished “processing” the quest you just turned in.
Here’s what I figured out: when you land on the edge/non-bounce-enabled area, immediately take a step forward or backward, depending on which way you’re facing relative to the center. It counts the bounces when you go up, not when you land. So land on the edge where you take damage, immediately step forward/backward, and you’ll be launched right back into the air. You have to be quick about it, though - don’t linger on the edge. It also helps a great deal to open up your achievement window and check the “Track” button so that you can see what counts as a bounce and when it’s counted. Watching the counter was how I realized I could step forward and keep the counter rolling.
I also saw numerous people trying to “cheat” it by using their flying mounts, like you could do with the minefield in Storm Peaks, but from what I could tell this doesn’t work at all with the trampoline. With the minefield, the criteria was “without landing”; with the trampoline, the criteria is “land and bounce up again”. Also, I never had a single bounce actually throw me completely off the trampoline - some just landed me on the edges, and the step forward/backward solved that.
Half the problem was that there were two RNGs - one to determine whether you get the special fish, and then another to determine if the fish you got actually contains the locket.
I remember a human rogue quest problem I ran into some time back. It was a very low-level quest, that you turned in to the guy at SI:7, and the reward was a white-quality dagger. Either the reward itself wasn’t Soulbound, or else it was also obtainable via random drop, because when I tried to turn it in it kept failing, and I finally discovered the problem: I had the exact same dagger sitting in my bank. I had purchased it from the AH and stuck it in the bank because I couldn’t use it yet. The solution was to sell the dagger that was in my bank. Then I could turn in the quest. I thought it was very strange.
Almost forgot to mention the way I nearly choked to death laughing when I read this quest text:
http://www.mister-rik.com/hosted/wilhai.jpg
Cold … tentacle shrinkage … :D:D
Thanks for explaining that. I’m a hunter; I just avoided the zones (“OMG, this CANNOT be good. MOVE MOVE!”) and kept pew-pewing, so I never really noticed what was going on in there.
(That’s my major complaint as a hunter, BTW. My fault, really, but being 30 yards from the action means that I miss a lot. When I played my Enhancement shammy, I tended to notice stuff like that up-close and personal.)
Anyway, my faith in Blizz is restored (!). It’s good thing the encounter provides a specific mechanic to answer for what would otherwise be an awful limitation (“unwinnable without AoE”).
The Druid and Death Knight tanking masteries only absorb physical damage, and Savage Defense(the Druid absorb) only activate when the druid crit.
Orly? I was not aware of that. It makes sense, though–I’d been wondering how the hell they were going to balance an absob, which usually affects all kinds of damage, against a stronger Block, which is useless against Magic damage. Was that a change during the beta or simply something that was clarified? Or did I just somehow misread both Masteries and miss the word “physical”?
Don’t know about about the Death Knight ability(which only include the word physical in the actual buff, so I’m not surprised you missed it), but Savage Defense was added in patch 3.1 and has always been a physical absorb only.
The death knight thing also includes the word “physical” in the Mastery descriptions.
It does? I just looked it up on wowhead since I don’t have a Death Knight. Oh well, it wouldn’t be the first time wowhead isn’t 100% accurate.
It looks like the initial thought for druids is Dodge > Mastery, but I think the jury is still out.
I 've noted SFG’s advice about avoidence and I realize that Health Pool isn’t king anymore, but you tanks that are running heroics, what are you sitting at? I’m currently at 139K with MOTW, should that be cool assuming my avoidance is at least at a minimum acceptable level?
My knowledge of other tanks tends much more towards the broad understanding that helps me know who will work best for what roles in what fights, so nope, had no clue that Savage Defense was physical-only.
So, I’ve a question for the masses: I’ve often used Wowhead to help decide what gear I should be looking for. I’ve grown accustomed to tweaking certain things (such as, for instance, ignoring hit once I’ve hit the cap), but the latest recommendations for my spec are confusing:
I play a Destruction Warlock, and they recommend Spirit over Intellect. These shouldn’t be holdovers from before 4.0, seeing as they put Mastery at the top, but unless I’m missing something. . .isn’t that just plain wrong? I don’t think I get anything from spirit as a warlock…
Is it possible that you have a Talent that converts Spirit to Hit?
Yeah, that’s very wrong. It’s hit >> Int >> SP >> Crit > Haste = Mastery, if I recall.
Random guess is some idiot confused SP for spirit instead of spell power. Spirit is useless.
But there is no Spell Power stat anymore… it’s just a function of intellect I think, and maybe spirit.
ETA: I mean, there is such a thing as spell power, but you won’t get it on gear anymore.
No, it’s still a stat on weapons, enchants, and I think some trinkets.
Huh. Okay, I missed that.