Casual LFR play and stat min-maxing

[ShasVa]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...anuva/advanced

This is my character. I'm also a casual player who mostly does LFR. Should I, to any degree, be aiming for tank-specific gear?

For example, there is a 665 neck piece with Haste+Bonus Armor that I'd like, even though Haste isn't that good for Blood DKs. As you can see from that, there are times when gear will have a good stat and a not-so good stat.

As it is, my Blood DK can reach around 46-47% Mastery, which should surely provide a decent absorb shield, right?

[Troxism]

Haste isn't a bad stat (defensively, it's easily next best after Mastery). And in general picking the correct stats isn't as important as ilvl, unless the ilvl difference is very small.

You should use Bonus Armour gear over non Bonus Armour gear unless it is over 15 ilvls lower, that is about as far as it goes in terms of using 'tank' gear.

Stamina trinkets are generally extremely poor, as they provide both 0 DPS (and to counter the obvious statement, A: tank DPS is hugely important, and B: Getting alternative trinkets that provide some DPS doesn't mean giving up tons of survivability depending on the ones you use) and no assistance to your mitigation (ie they don't reduce damage taken at all, which esp in LFR is more relevant then surviving burst). However there aren't that many great trinket options in LFR, so I would just suggest using the strength trinket in LFR (I think it's STR/MS?). Strength is almost as good as Bonus Armour defensively, and better for DPS then Bonus Armour (although not by a huge amount), so you should generally treat them as the same thing.

There aren't any specific mastery breakpoints; there isn't a % amount you 'need'.

[Skul]

The itemization in Highmaul is complete garbage. Just get what you can that has the higher ilvl. As a casual this will save you the most gold and help you enjoy the content the most. No reason to min/max for LFR (or normal for that matter).

[ShasVa]

Blackrock Foundry will have more interesting items even in LFR. Especially the LFR tier set (not true T17) which has an appealing and useful 4pc bonus. Other such items:

- Stoneheart Idol, from Kromog: Immediate boost to Bonus Armor, proc effect is Critical Strike which kinda sucks
- Blackhand's Forgehammer, from Blackhand: Nice Mastery stat, shame about the paired Critical Strike