Tanking stats updated for Wrath and Patch 3.0
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 8th 2008 at 1:30PM
We've been covering in depth the changes to tanking for various classes in the Wrath beta, and how these changes might affect players when Patch 3.0 goes live prior to Wrath's release. Now on the beta servers we have one very big sign that these changes may be going live fairly soon: the stats on Burning Crusade raiding gear, specifically paladin and warrior tanking set gear and many non-set epic plate tanking pieces, have been changed to reflect the new realities of tanking mechanics that are incoming.In a surprise move that's incredibly welcome (well, in my eyes) Blizzard has gone back and changed Paladin and Warrior tanking tier 4 to 6 gear as well as non set plate drops, shield and badge gear to take advantage of the new mechanics. As I primarily am a tank (and expect to remain so) I went online to check out how my tanking gear will change when patch 3.0 drops. A gallery of some select pieces and how they're changing when patch 3.0 goes live has been provided for all your browsing needs. I have to say that for the most part the changes are very welcome, they maintain old block value for threat while adding the strength we'll need for increased AP to scale our new threat abilities like Shockwave.
Take a look at the changes to date. (And thanks to MMO-Champion for the head's up.)
Filed under: Paladin, Warrior, Patches, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Arras Sep 8th 2008 1:42PM
great stuff...looks like a lot of nice images, but...they're kind of small and it's nearly impossible to read the text
clicking on the picture just advances to the next one
Acorn Sep 8th 2008 1:45PM
There's a "high res" button at the top of the page
Arras Sep 8th 2008 2:14PM
hidden in plain sight :) thanks
g8rcody Sep 8th 2008 1:51PM
ahem, not all of us tanks wear plate. any news on Feral gear?
BillDoor Sep 8th 2008 1:54PM
Hasn't changed yet. Not sure if it will.
Al Sep 8th 2008 1:55PM
Looks like a great change, but I noticed that in adding strength the change will also take away a bit of the defense rating on some of the pieces. I realize most tanks have much more than the minimum defense, but its going to be weird to see the defense drops anyway.
Heilig Sep 8th 2008 2:17PM
Actually, most tanks that know what they're doing try to stay as close to 490 as possible. Excessive defense increases survivability, but the role of a tank is not just to stand there and laugh while the boss barely hurts him. It's also to keep him off the squishies, and tanks running around with 550 defense (yes, they exist, and they're usually terrible) have sacrificed threat generation to get there. Removing defense from gear people are already wearing is a bad move. If itemization needed to be changed, it should have come from any other stat besides defense rating. All the tanks in my guild have spent the last few hours going through all our gear to find out what we need to have in our banks to make sure we can still be crit-immune when this goes live.
Matthew Rossi Sep 8th 2008 2:46PM
I'm pretty sure the reason that defense took the hit was because you're not going to be crit immune as soon as you start leveling anyway. With Crushings much less of an issue, the occasional crit's not seen as much of a big deal anymore.
With the removal of the ability to talent for defense, we'll definitely have to look carefully at our gear selection in wrath and patch 3.0.
dan Sep 9th 2008 1:46AM
While that's true of leveling matt it's not true of people that are still raiding and playing the game currently. People are going to still need the avoidance in the near term. My guess is to help mitigate this tho, that they'll remove the sunwell radiance effect and drop the damage on certain bosses.
Heilig, that's not entirely a true statement. Most max threat gear in the game currently also ends up being quite good for avoidance. It's easy to shoot past the 490 mark without sacrificing threat stats.
Mister K Sep 8th 2008 2:12PM
I understand the whole AP scaling thing for Paladin tanks but with 0 Int on every item I've seen where am I gonna get the mana to do any of my great new abilities, am I gonna have to put a couple of healer pieces on just so I have enough mana to get through a pull.
Heilig Sep 8th 2008 2:17PM
Blessing of Sanctuary
Mister K Sep 8th 2008 4:32PM
I understand the Blessing of Sanctuary change is awesome for mana regen, I just wonder with the spell costs being what they are is my base mana going to be high enough to sustain threat considering initial pull is going to use 62% of base mana (Avengers Shield, Holy Shield, Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous, and yes I know some of the talents will help with that but thats still alot of mana burned in just the initial pull). Knowing how much easier DPS seems to gear up its always a constant battle for threat. so with no Int at all on the gear our mana pool will be very small.
Braundo Sep 8th 2008 5:38PM
No offense, but if you are seriously stacking Int as a paladin tank you are doing something wrong.
Mister K Sep 10th 2008 12:41PM
Who said anything about stacking Int? I am just worried that my gear will have ZERO Int. If you have no mana you are putting out very little threat, granted with the changes we're going to be putting out alot more white damage with the AP stacking, but white damage alone is not gonna hold threat.
Deadlock Sep 8th 2008 2:19PM
Could someone please explain or link me to an article detailing just what the new tanking mechanics are? I've been taking a break from the game the last few months and am trying to get caught back up but am having problems finding information.
Graham Sep 8th 2008 2:33PM
So, is paladin threat now going to be based off of strength? I missed that post...
Braundo Sep 8th 2008 5:40PM
Most paladin abilities are being modified to scale with attack power as well as spell damage, so we will be able to make good use of most of the generic "tank plate" out there which will have mostly +Str and +Sta. Spell Damage will still have some use, but not as much as it currently does, it appears.
Warbutcher Sep 8th 2008 9:20PM
Damn, but that still doesn't make up the fact of low mana, how is a pally tank with all "generic" plate gunna do with so little mana?
Ed Sep 8th 2008 2:45PM
Blessing of Sanctuary and other changes to buffs will help paladins maintain the mana to use their abilities. However, one thing that altering armor to suit the new talents doesn't account for are paladin tanking weapons. How many paladins have warrior style weapons with higher bottom/top end damage at the T6+ level? Most of the weapons used are 41.3 DPS and the talent Hammer of the Righteous deals weapon damage.
Rorion Sep 8th 2008 3:09PM
So I assume that spell damage isn't going to be necessary to stack now that stamina = spell power for pally tanks. Too bad that I have to replace a couple enchants and find a new weapon since it seems that the nice caster hammer I have won't do much for me.