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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 4.3: Tier 13 set bonuses revealed
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 24th 2011 at 9:30PM
We've seen a lot of previews for the upcoming tier 13 armor sets that will come with Patch 4.3, but until now, we have had no concrete information on what the set bonuses will be. Well, thanks to Zarhym, now we do. While keeping in mind that the PTR hasn't even dropped yet (soon, according to the blues) we can take a look at the set bonuses and contemplate.
The set bonuses in some cases seem linked to the armor design (the mage one has a "Steal Time" mechanic that synchronizes with the name of the set), while others seem less flavor and more functional.
The set bonuses in some cases seem linked to the armor design (the mage one has a "Steal Time" mechanic that synchronizes with the name of the set), while others seem less flavor and more functional.
For starters, as a DPS warrior, I'm astonishingly underwhelmed by these set bonuses. The protection ones are awesome -- jaw-droppingly good. Revenge giving a damage shield? If there's no internal cooldown on this ability, it will make Revenge one of the best abilities in tanking. The raid Shield Wall four-piece seems shared with similar abilities across all tanking classes, and it makes me wonder just how much AOE damage we're going to be looking at in the Deathwing fight. But the DPS bonuses make me sad. Inner Rage? Reducing HS rage? That's terrible. And the four-piece seems ridiculously weak. Do we really want a set bonus that will only add damage for warriors in Execute range?
Here's the complete list of set bonuses so you can check them out for yourself. The mage ones in particular look interesting and thematic. I like the ret bonuses a lot and find the hunter set bonuses might be clues to the set's look.
Zarhym - Patch 4.3: Tier 13 set bonuses
While we've been previewing the visuals of tier 13 on the front page at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com, we thought you might be interested in the magics that lay imbued betwixt their stitches and plating. Behold -- the tier 13 set bonuses!
Please keep in mind that the below data is pre-PTR and could change prior to the release of patch 4.3.
Death Knight
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Shaman
Warlock
Warrior
Please keep in mind that the below data is pre-PTR and could change prior to the release of patch 4.3.
Death Knight
- Blood, 2P -- When an attack drops your health below 35%, one of your Blood Runes will immediately activate and convert into a Death Rune for the next 20 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 45 sec.
- Blood, 4P -- Your Vampiric Blood ability also affects all party and raid members for 50% of the effect it has on you.
- DPS, 2P -- Sudden Doom has a 30% chance and Rime has a 60% chance to grant 2 charges when triggered instead of 1.
- DPS, 4P -- Runic Empowerment has a 25% chance and Runic Corruption has a 40% chance to also grant 710 mastery rating for 12 sec when activated.
Druid
- Balance, 2P -- Insect Swarm increases all damage done by your Starfire, Starsurge, and Wrath spells against that target by 3%.
- Balance, 4P -- Starsurge generates 100% extra Lunar or Solar energy while Eclipse is not active.
- Feral, 2P -- While Berserk is active, Savage Defense absorbs are 100% larger, and your Blood in the Water talent now causes Ferocious Bite to refresh the duration of your Rip on targets with 60% or less health.
- Feral, 4P -- Frenzied Regeneration also affects all raid and party members, and your Stampede talent now grants two charges after using Feral Charge (Cat).
- Restoration, 2P -- After using Innervate, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for 15 sec.
- Restoration, 4P -- Your Rejuvenation and Regrowth spells have a 10% chance to Timeslip and have double the normal duration.
Hunter
- 2P -- Steady Shot and Cobra Shot generate double the amount of focus.
- 4P -- Your Arcane Shot ability has a chance to grant 25% haste to you and your pet for 10 sec.
Mage
- 2P -- Your damaging spells have a 30% chance to grant Stolen Time, increasing your haste rating by 50 for 30 sec and stacking up to 10 times. When Arcane Power, Combustion, or Icy Veins expires, all stacks of Stolen Time are lost.
- 4P -- Each stack of Stolen Time also reduces the cooldown of Arcane Power by 3 sec, Combustion by 4 sec, and Icy Veins by 6 sec.
Paladin
- Holy, 2P -- After using Divine Favor, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for 15 sec.
- Holy, 4P -- Increases the healing done by your Holy Radiance spell by 20%.
- Protection, 2P -- Your Judgement ability now also grants a physical absorb shield equal to 30% of the damage it dealt.
- Protection, 4P -- Reduces the cooldown of Divine Guardian by 60 sec and increases the radius of its effect by 70 yards.
- Retribution, 2P -- Your Judgement ability has a 50% chance to generate 1 Holy Power.
- Retribution, 4P -- While Zealotry is active your abilities deal 12% more damage.
Priest
- Healer, 2P -- After using Power Infusion or Lightwell, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for [10|15] sec. (10 sec for Discipline, 15 for non-Discipline.)
- Healer, 4P -- Your Power Word: Shield has a 10% chance to absorb 100% additional damage, and the cooldown of your Holy Word abilities is reduced by 20%.
- Shadow, 2P -- Shadow Word: Death deals an additional 55% damage, and you no longer take damage from your own Shadow Word: Death when the target fails to die.
- Shadow, 4P -- Your Shadowfiend and Shadowy Apparitions have a 100% chance to grant you 3 Shadow Orbs each time they deal damage.
Rogue
- 2P -- After triggering Tricks of the Trade, your abilities cost 20% less energy for 6 sec.
- 4P -- Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 sec, Adrenaline Rush by 3 sec, and Vendetta by 9 sec.
Shaman
- Elemental, 2P -- Elemental Mastery also grants you 400 mastery rating 15 sec.
- Elemental, 4P -- Each time Elemental Overload triggers, you gain 200 haste rating for 4 sec, stacking up to 3 times.
- Enhancement, 2P -- While you have any stacks of Maelstrom Weapon, your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and healing spells deal 20% more healing or damage.
- Enhancement, 4P -- Your Feral Spirits have a 45% chance to grant you a charge of Maelstrom Weapon each time they deal damage.
- Restoration, 2P -- After using Mana Tide Totem, the cost of your healing spells are reduced by 25% for 15 sec.
- Restoration, 4P -- Increases the duration of Spiritwalker's Grace by 5 sec, and you gain 30% haste while Spiritwalker's grace is active.
Warlock
- 2P -- The duration of your Doomguard and Infernal summons is increased by [15|45] sec and the cooldown of of those spells is reduced by 4 min. (45 for Demonology, 15 for non-Demonology.)
- 4P -- Soulburn grants a 10% increase to your spell power for 10 sec.
Warrior
- Protection, 2P -- Your Revenge ability now also grants a physical absorption shield equal to 20% of the damage done by Revenge.
- Protection, 4P -- Your Shield Wall ability now grants 50% of its effect to all party and raid members.
- DPS, 2P -- Heroic Strike costs 10 less rage while Inner Rage is active.
- DPS, 4P -- Your Execute critical strikes have a 20% chance to refresh the duration of Colossus Smash.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back! 
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 8)
kfrazier Sep 25th 2011 12:47AM
When you think about it. We use about 4 stead shots to fill up on focus and 2 is enough for chimera or aimed shot. So, it is creates more focus (Depending on how much) It will take us 2-3 to fill up and we will have more focus to dump with Arcane/aimed/chimera shot. I think its a plus
Ruta Sep 25th 2011 3:46AM
With the mechanics of the 2pc and 4pc bonus for Hunters, my initial impression would seem that a MM rotation would be fitted around the ISS uptime (yes, we may get 25% haste from AS on 4pc, but why sniff at another 15%?)
So the priority will read:
SSx2 for ISS
CS on cooldown
AS filler
So it'd be like SS - SS - CS - AS - AS - AS - AS - SS - SS - AS - CS - etc.
Basically, goodbye somewhat standardised rotation, hello chaos.
Of course, I could be well wrong, I'll wait and see what happens when more skilled Hunters test the set bonuses on the PTR say.
Lipstick Sep 24th 2011 11:23PM
I'm kinda confused about the disc and holy priest 2pc bonuses tbh.
Power Infusion -already- reduces the cost of all of our spells .. so basically it's a non bonus? Greaaat...
Most priests drop light-well at the beginning of a fight, and maybe mid-way through so I guess I could see it having some kind of vague usefulness but no where near is useful as what we have now as ever 2-3 mins getting a mild reduction in mana is kinda lame for a bonus, and does nothing to add compelling game play really. You are going to drop it when your guild needs the well to be up, not when you need or want a mana reduction. .
gymboy91 Sep 25th 2011 11:32AM
You don't have to use Power Infusion on yourself though so you could still get the mana cost reduction but give the casting speed boost to a dps caster :)
Completely agree about the holy priest bonus...there isn't really a better cd to tie it to (Guardian Spirit??) so I am not sure what they are going to do there :(
Erebos Sep 25th 2011 2:24PM
Yeah, the healy priest bonuses are a little lackluster. Given that druids and shaman (and I guess disc priests) are getting mana reduction added into mana returning abilities when they could really use it, the fact that they tied it to Lightwell for holy priests is disappointing, to say the least. Another slap in the face to holy this expansion, and another reason for me to make disc my main spec.
I can see the logic; they tied it to 3-min CDs that do get used, but the fact is that it's way better for those three specs (not sure about Divine Favor, but it's just a haste increase, right? In which case, the bonus for them is excellent for their throughput).
omedon666 Sep 24th 2011 11:28PM
I'm always baffled when players try to figure out the nature of a tier's mechanics by the set bonuses forthcoming... and even more baffled when they're right.
Isn't the point of tier (for you raider types) to "get the gear" as the grand finale trophy, not the "tools I need to function through the tier"?
Shouldn't the "default tools" for tier 13 be in the tier 12 set bonuses?
I mean, sure, you have to gear the whole guild, and I know that it gets easier as you gear up, from a "more DPS/healing/survivability" standpoint, but we're talking (this tier and others) about toolkit-changing bonuses here. I get that you'll be there "for awhile", but (and maybe this is a good thing I don't raid) do you really spend more time in tier 13 content WITH your tier 13 reward gear? I think that'd drive me nuts from a time efficiency standpoint.
I'm really just genuinely curious. If I was in full T13 my thought would be "yay! I'm done in that hellhole!", not "finally, I can be effective!".
Natsumi Sep 24th 2011 11:58PM
T13 is changing it up a bit, you'll have the ghetto T13 from LFR and the normal T13 from your weekly raid, then, hopefully, you'll move on to Heroic T13. Since you can mix and match the 3 versions of the same set it will likely be fairly easy to obtain the 4 piece set bonus so that you can "finally be effective". My reasoning behind this is that set bonuses have a tendency to change up rotations and/or priorities in the buttons you press. The sooner you master the "new rotation" the more effective you will be. Basically every Tier you're relearning your class, unless you're an Arcane Mage ;)
omedon666 Sep 25th 2011 12:07AM
So... raiding guilds are going to demand their membership do LFR to "be effective"?
That sounds kinda counter-intuitive, but ok.
Natsumi Sep 25th 2011 12:31AM
No, but Raiders will likely do it to learn mechanics and get minor upgrades or sidegrades that are difficult to normally obtain (DPS Plate Shoulders are notoriously difficult to get). They're also likely to use LFR to start their T13 sets or off spec gear, or valor cap if you get valor from the LFR tool.
DragonFireKai Sep 25th 2011 3:19AM
Omedon, while that might be the case for you, the tier bonuses are often a measure of what to expect in heroic raids, particularly the tanking ones. In T11, the four piece allowed a tank to use their major CD to cover an entire fued phase on Chimaeron, and entire mangle on Magmaw, the entirety of Anshal's ult, or two crackles back to back on nef. In T12, the 4pc allows tanks to significantly reduce incoming damage on Baleroc and Shannox heroic, due to the interaction between avoidance and some of the key mechanics of those encounters. T13, every tank is getting a raid CD. Heroic Demon Soul will have enough raid damage to make your healers curl into a ball and cry until dehydration puts them out of their misery.
I had my 4pc a month into T11. Do you think I just stopped raiding there? There's always new progression.
paul.morales91 Sep 24th 2011 11:30PM
"Feral, 2P...and your Blood in the Water talent now causes Ferocious Bite to refresh the duration of your Rip on targets with 60% or less health."
*Squeeeeeee!*
"Feral, 4P...and your Stampede talent now grants two charges after using Feral Charge (Cat)."
Wait, two charges? Does that mean...Feral Charge grants TWO ravages?
Double *Squeeeeee!*
Luregas Sep 24th 2011 11:50PM
"Feral, 4P -- Frenzied Regeneration also affects all raid and party members"
Wow. Little did feral tanks know they would be raid healing in Cataclysm after getting four pieces of armor. Lol.
Wonder if this is effected by the Frenzied Regen glyph. Probably not.
Natsumi Sep 24th 2011 11:59PM
It's as if millions of healers cried out and were suddenly silenced.
WoWie Zowie Sep 24th 2011 11:56PM
i'm intrigued about the mage bonuses. so far sounds really great for longer fights
Stormwalker Sep 24th 2011 11:58PM
The difference between a haste-stacked Aimed shot focus dump or an Arcane shot focus dump is not as large as most people make it out to be. Yes, Aimed focus dump is theoretically higher damage, but if you have to even interrupt one of those AiS casts to move, it can potentially be a damage loss over arcane.
You're probably aware of that already, but based on how movement heavy fights in Dragon Soul will be, it's may be better to stick with Arcane as a focus dump. This of course is all speculation. We shall see.
Further, I have qualms with the 2p bonus as a Marks main. With the change, it will mean that we will be steady shotting less in MM, which makes it harder to keep up the improved SS buff, which is already quite unforgiving to prevent from falling off (miss even one SS in your rotation and the buff is likely to fall off, = substantial dps loss). Unless they increase the duration of ISS, I have mixed feelings about the 2p bonus as Marks.
Stormwalker Sep 24th 2011 11:59PM
Why, comment system, why?!
This was meant as a reply to a poster on teh previous page.
Natsumi Sep 25th 2011 12:01AM
So ditch that dusty spec and go Beast Mastery, I hear it's competitive now, well, that's what Frostheim says anyway ;)
Morcego Sep 24th 2011 11:59PM
I'm kinda annoyed by the Kitty 4PC. So we have to start running out and charging back in again ? That is a very annoying mechanic. The 2pc, on the other hand, is pretty sweeeeettttt.
As far as bears go, can't say I'm trilled by either bonuses.
Natsumi Sep 25th 2011 12:02AM
At least your bonuses are something you'd actually use.
Morcego Sep 25th 2011 12:04AM
Really not sure how much we would use 4pc. I mean, if we get a fight like Alysrazor, where we have to run out and attack low-hp adds, it might be nice. For considering how many encounters these days have stuff on the ground you can't step on, or you can't get close to other players, this bonus risks getting ignored pretty often.