Plate Specialization - Can you gear enough non-plate to make losing it, worth it?

[AnarchyAo]

Hello all,

I ran many GDKP raids and then was getting ready to transfer to play elsewhere at the launch of Cataclysm. I'm well off with money in real-life, and didn't care for breaking the EULA and risking my account. So, with all the gold I had I decided to spend it on items that I could at least mildly put to decent use.

Because I did not have a guild, and pugs had not been able to defeat many bosses yet, I bought some leather and mail epic BoE pieces.

The BoE pieces (Tsanga's helm, arrowsinger legguards, etc) were pieces where there are no plate equivalent pieces for that slot.

I noticed when using these items that I was sacrificing armor, strength,and plate specialization.

I would gain agility (dodge), and mastery (the epic pieces I bought had a lot of mastery).

But, what's interesting is I noticed a significant decrease in the damage I was taking.

Yes, I lost enough armor that equated to around 1.5% dmg reduction to melee hits, and stamina that equaled around 4,500 HP -- but I was sitting at 15% dodge, 12% parry and 70% block.

Many people hate on me for buying leather or mail pieces, but why would I care about giving up Strength? I do tons of damage anyway and have no issues with threat -- I lose an HP bonus from plate specialization, but I'm not gemming or enchanting for stam, so I can accept that loss for now.

I am not arguing that leather and mail is better than plate -- I'm arguing that leather and mail is better when there's not a plate equivalent, epic higher ilvl piece and the only alternative is a blue.

What do you guys think?

[Smittles]

With strength you get a lot of parry. I am pretty sure all bosses have a form of melee attacks that do physical damage, and that damage reduction is very useful. You could always get armor with mastery on it from heroics, keeping a good deal of stamina and armor, as well as block. I think what you are doing is very stupid, but you can do whatever as long as you can live.

[eternalwhitemoon]

With strength you get a lot of parry. I am pretty sure all bosses have a form of melee attacks that do physical damage, and that damage reduction is very useful. You could always get armor with mastery on it from heroics, keeping a good deal of stamina and armor, as well as block. I think what you are doing is very stupid, but you can do whatever as long as you can live.

This is a pretty articulate way to express how I feel on the matter. Str=parry, parry is good. Also, armor adds up.

[DistortionSleep]

The BoE pieces (Tsanga's helm, arrowsinger legguards, etc) were pieces where there are no plate equivalent pieces for that slot.

Corefire Legplates

[Deleted]

IF you actually have 15% dodge 12% parry and 70% block, KEEP IT. that means you're sitting on 15+12+5+70 = 102% avoidance, which equals to a permanent 40% physical reduction,

[MestHoop]

I can't believe no one mentioned the immense loss in armor you've got there!
Taking an epic leather head over a plate blue one is not only a stam loss but also a massive armor loss and the avoidance just does NOT make up for it.

[Charo]

One point of misinformation from all these posts: Leather armor (and Cloth and Mail) have exactly the same amount of Stamina as a plate item in the same slot / item level / quality.

[Nillo]

One point of misinformation from all these posts: Leather armor (and Cloth and Mail) have exactly the same amount of Stamina as a plate item in the same slot / item level / quality.

It's called plate specialization and gives 5% stamina if you wear plate items only...

And on topic: The armor loss is too much of a disadvantage if using leather items combined with the loss of plate specialization so no it's not worth it. On the other hand agility rings/necks are often BiS due to Strength not being needed.