Getting defensive about Zul'Aman tank gear
by Dan O'Halloran 
Nov 20th 2007 at 4:44PM
Player Faldomar of the Cenarius server has very unhappy to see that much of the tanking gear dropping in Zul'Aman is lacking in Defense. How is a tank supposed to do their job if they can't get the uncrittable benefit of 490 Defense as well as the boost to Block, Parry, Dodge and chance to be Missed?Community Manager Bornakk responds that Zul'Aman gear is not meant to be a full replacement of Karazhan tanking gear. In fact, the low occurrence of Defense was intentional. Instead Blizzard wanted to offer pieces that filled other stat gaps to compliment alternate tanking styles. Examples are Hit Rating, Stamina and Block Value.
While it would be nice to have a full set of armor catering to our exact needs, the reality is that there are different styles of tanking (as well as healing, dps, etc.) Blizzard has chosen to service all those styles with their current system of modular mixing and matching. And if equipped armor doesn't put your stats where you want them to be, there is also the gem socket system to customize your toon even further.
Moral of the story? Don't expect a custom suit off the rack. An outfit that is going to fit you like a second skin is going to come from attention to detail on your part.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Neil Nov 20th 2007 5:06PM
I haven't really studied the ZA tanking gear, but the "other" stats are something I've really been missing while trying to build sets for tanking--particularly hit rating. A bad string of early misses can be deadly if the party isn't paying attention (or a bad string of misses in the middle with a couple of crits from a mage, let's say). Anyway, I've got over 510 defense, and while there's still benefit to defense over 490, I find myself missing more than I'd like, so I have to socket +hit gems instead of +stamina. It's a little sad not being able to get a full set of replacement gear from ZA, it's not the end of the world.
klink-o Nov 20th 2007 5:45PM
Most of the caster gear is like that too- a lot of spell haste at the expense of hit, crit and even some damage. It's okay filler gear but there are much better alteratives if your guild is doing SSC/TK and beyond. Actually, it kind of reminds me of ZG, I remember a lot of the gear from there had kind of odd stat arrangements as well.
Eyeon Nov 20th 2007 5:57PM
problem is that while its all nice and good to have variations on tank gearsets, you still need that defense cap.
Zhalseran Nov 20th 2007 5:58PM
DPS gear is basically all haste rating and armor pen. It's ok but won't make or break a gear set. The OH sword fills a big gear gap though! I just wish more of the DPS gear had hit rating on it.
The idea behind ZA loot was to fill in gaps for offspecs. I dunno how well it did that, but they did a good job, I think, of making a lot of gear that is awkward for offspecs and normal specs alike. It gives options, but a lot of it is a sidegrade from Karazhan gear because of it.
Hide Nov 20th 2007 6:32PM
OP: WTF?
Jungle Stompers
Chestguard of the Warlord
Pauldrons of Stone Resolve
Battleworn Tuskguard
Those are the ZA tank rewards. Only the Tuskguard lacks DEF.
By the time you're upgrading to ZA gear, you have so much DEF, you can't get rid of it with a stick.
Non-issue.
Acceptable Risk Nov 20th 2007 6:50PM
Eh, screw Defense. Why waste the item budget on useless Parry and Block when I can get more out of Resilience and Agility for the same iLevel?
Of course, you crazy bipeds might disagree.
KaonNemesis Nov 20th 2007 6:54PM
I did a full analysis of this gear and it actually turns out to be some really great tanking gear when handled properly.
You can check out the post I put up about it on my guild's site:
http://www.guilduniverse.com/entropy/forumreply.aspx?tid=433599
brister417 Nov 20th 2007 7:15PM
I, personally, am very excited about +hit rating tank gear. Like #1 said, it can be fatal to a raid with a string of misses at the start of an encounter. I know that defense still has benefits after 490 but wouldn't you want to be a more effective tank by taking away the early misses or misses when a raid member has a nice string of crits?
Just in half Kara gear and stam gems I have 14442HP unbuffed but that makes no different if my shield slams, devastates, and revenges are missing all the time. You miss three times in a row and someone else hits and possibly crits them they are toast.
/cheer for +hit tanking gear!!!
Stephannie Nov 20th 2007 7:47PM
I am loving ZA, not just as far as loot goes but it is nice to face new challenges without having to find 25 people to raid, and Kara was getting old.
http://www.happykeg.com
DJTyrant Nov 21st 2007 1:53AM
What a baby, maybe if he wasn't in such a scrub guild they'd get some decent tanking gear.
Pzychotix Nov 21st 2007 4:06AM
ITT bad guilds with bad DPSers who don't know what the meaning of threat meter is.
MartinC Nov 21st 2007 5:06AM
There is some great tanking gear in ZA. Just have to chalk it up as OP ignorance, I guess.
Neil Nov 21st 2007 7:31AM
OK, even if the raid understands threat fully (which, let's be honest, they should) and doesn't pull off of you if you miss, you're still gimping the raid by forcing DPS to stop or slow, use cooldowns to dump threat, whatever.
Cheeno Nov 21st 2007 9:29AM
@7 Nice work on that link you posted.
This 2.3 ZA/badge gear is one reason that I opted to get the trinket from Hydross (Scarab of Displacement), along with times that I need to wear a resist set of gear. It's all about options for me, and alot of this new gear fills in some holes where I didn't have T5 or T5 equivalent gear.
I have to admit, I was not pleased that they were adding T5 equivalent gear in terms of badge rewards, however, since it's gone live I have learned to embrace it. I still never forget how hard it was back in the day to put together a pre-40 man tank set, and even with a little T1 mixed in after you started MC, it was a challenge at times to hit the old defense un-critable mark. I wasn't tanking during the pre-Dire Maul days, so I really can't imagine the time and effort it took then. You have soooo many options now, with rep rewards, crafted items, enchants, gems that with crafty itemization and use of these things available, the new defense mark is so much more attainable than it has ever been.
With all this said though, I'd still like to see Blizz sharpen the gear curve a little more...Not to the pre-BC levels, but a happy medium. The jump from 10 man gear to 25 man gear, and the jump from tier to tier should be alot more noticable and rewarding than what it is now.
Pook Nov 21st 2007 11:10AM
I'm getting increasingly annoyed at Resilience on gear obtained through PVE. Ive no idea if this serves a purpose for Tanking classes, but for everyone else this seems to just be waisted points.
We had been lead to belive the reason for the Uber-ness of Arena gear was to allow to paths to gain gear, so why are PVPers benefiting from PVE with the new Badges of Justice gear, more than PVEers are. most annoying.
Cheeno Nov 21st 2007 11:59AM
Well, I would not call resilience a "useless" tank stat (less desirable maybe?) because it does lower the amount of defense that you need to have to be uncritable, however, it adds no avoidance therefore defense will always be superior. There's alot of discussion about this at www.tankspot.com One example that I read there shows the Merciless Gladiator's Shield Wall which has 31 resilience. This 31 resilience means that to be uncritable, you have to have a minimum of 471 defense instead of 490 defense(not sure if the math/formula is right for this).
I guess that in theory, resilience could be another way to itemize your gear to compensate for the lack of defense on the ZA/badge gear to reach uncritable.
Pook Nov 21st 2007 12:02PM
Ahh well its good to hear its not useless for all of us PVEers :P
aden_nak Nov 26th 2007 1:34PM
Of course you could be a Feral Druid, in which case there are exactly ZERO tanking drops in Zul'Aman. Which is a shame, because the lack of crushing blows makes Druids such awesome tanks for this instance. Of course, if you have any Rogues along, there's no reason for them to even show up, since the only upgrades to be found in ZA are Kittygear.