[BrM] Cloak swapping and the expertise cap

[Rockets]

So I know some folks are switching between the legendary Tiger and Ox cloaks from fight to fight, and I'm wondering what you're doing about the expertise cap.

As you may recall, the two cloaks have nearly identical stats outside of the proc; the differences are that the tiger cloak has 991 haste and a 60 agi socket bonus, where the ox cloak has 991 expertise and a 90 stam socket. My problem is that, assuming you still want to be expertise capped while wearing the Tiger cloak, that starts you out with 991 wasted stats while wearing the Ox. Gems and reforges can bring this closer, but any difference in expertise at the end of the day will mean wasted stats on whichever cloak has more of it.

The best option I can figure out so far is to reforge Ox as exp->something (probably haste, maybe dodge/parry?) and Tiger as haste->exp; that leaves Ox at 595 expertise and Tiger at 396, a 199 difference. The gem socket is red, so you can reduce the gap by another 160 by putting a 320 expertise in Tiger and a hybrid 160 exp/something in Ox, or a hybrid exp/something in Tiger and something non-expertise in Ox (probably just ignoring the bonus and sticking a 320 yellow gem in there).

That still leaves Ox ahead by 39 expertise, so that's still wasted, but maybe a 39 rating difference is the best we can do here?

Since the gems are different, I guess this is also how folks are flipping between the crit and mastery procs of RoRO by swapping cloaks. Eg. you could put a pure expertise gem in Tiger and a mastery/exp hybrid in Ox and use that 160 mastery difference to flip you over.

For people who are swapping between cloaks, is this basically what you're doing, or is there a better way of doing this?

[Dirtdogs]

For me I just Refoge on EXP for my DPS cloak and optimize around that (wear that one more) and then Reforge off EXP on my tank cloak and its roughly good for either cloak I have.

[ScooterPerpetual]

My tank cloak puts me at 15.50% and my DPS one at 15.1% I reforge out of Exp on Tank one into it on DPS one so they both have the exact same amount of expertise and they also both have a exp/crit gem now you can also figure out how much expertise your cloak has counting the gem/reforges and then put that number into what ever you reforge with in this case it would be 4544 so you would only have to hit that cap and both cloaks would work now I dont do that right now but thats just because I use my DPS cloak for pretty much everything.

[lairpie]

use an agi/(crit or mastery) gem in your ox cloak and an exp/(crit or mastery) in your tiger cloak, that and the reforging mastery off the ox cloak and onto the tiger cloak get you really close. I decided i'd rather be just short on my tiger cloak than over on my ox cloak because the tiger cloak is best for adds fights, which aren't always lvl 93, plus wasted stats are worse than slightly sub optimal stats.

If you're using roro with balanced mastery and crit there's a pretty cool trick that was suggested here: if you use an agi/mastery gem in your ox cloak and an exp/crit gem in your tiger cloak, swapping your cloak switches between the master proc and the crit proc for roro. Since there's quite a bit of alignment between wanting a crit roro proc and wanting the tiger cape, works out well.

[stellvia]

The way I do it, is reforge INTO Expertise on the one, and OUT of Expertise on the other. And make up the difference with a hybrid gem with 160 expertise. That puts them ~40 expertise difference between the two. Then balance out the rest of your stats on the rest of your gear without touching the cloaks. (And don't put any +hit on them either) That way your hit/expertise is always balanced.

[Deleted]

The way I do it, is reforge INTO Expertise on the one, and OUT of Expertise on the other. And make up the difference with a hybrid gem with 160 expertise. That puts them ~40 expertise difference between the two. Then balance out the rest of your stats on the rest of your gear without touching the cloaks. (And don't put any +hit on them either) That way your hit/expertise is always balanced.

This!

Same with the dps/tank meta and RoRo proccs. Different gems in the same helm with the same reforge flips the switch on mastery/crit proccs. Not perfect+1 but very convenient (and the +1 stat frenzy is an overkill imo, within a few hundred stats is enough).

[Chuupag]

I balance around my tank cloak and have exactly 5100 exp with it using exp -> haste reforge and a 160 exp/160 mastery in the socket. Dps cloak I reforge haste -> exp and put a 320 exp gem in the socket and end up 39 points shy of the cap. Close enough for me.

[Rockets]

For people who are swapping between cloaks, is this basically what you're doing, or is there a better way of doing this?

Sounds like the answer to my question here is "yes this is what everyone is doing", then. I was hoping there was a way to get it closer than 39, but I guess there isn't one.

Thanks for the input.

[SurrealNight]

Sounds like the answer to my question here is "yes this is what everyone is doing", then. I was hoping there was a way to get it closer than 39, but I guess there isn't one.

Not really possible since the stats are different. Since I'll probably be using the DPS cloak this week mostly I cap'd around that cloak and just accept that I"ll be over a little for when I put on the tank cloak. Going to have to pick being over or under with one.

[RuneeBH]

I didn't realize how often I'd be using my dps cloak and I actually forged with my Tank one on, so when I pop on my DPS one I'm a bit short on expertise, and I actually noticed myself get dodged or parried like 1 or 2 times on my H:Norushen kill last night, which is completely unacceptable. Over>Under, without a doubt.