Confused on an Upgrade

[Grizzled]

I just got the hardmode shoulders tonite from IC and I'm scared to use them. I currently have Garona's Guise and 4 pc Conq for my tanking set but those new shoulders are amazing! A ton of hit and exp on them with gives me hit cap and a bunch more needed expertise. Is breaking 4 pc viable for this upgrade? Interested in some quality opinions from knowledgeable bears. I'm Trentas on Cenarion Circle if you care to armory me.

Edit-I just armoried myself and dont make fun of my essence of gossamer :P, I have greatness card but was tanking malygos before I logged out.

[pomterri]

Hardmode ulduar I think you tried to say. But yes it worths breaking up the set, if you compared and decided shoulder is better than your missing part of the set.
Example: You have : SHoulder+head+pants+chest you are missing gloves,
current gloves - tier piece glove == Hm shoulder -tier shoulder?

[Grizzled]

Hardmode ulduar I think you tried to say. But yes it worths breaking up the set, if you compared and decided shoulder is better than your missing part of the set.
Example: You have : SHoulder+head+pants+chest you are missing gloves,
current gloves - tier piece glove == Hm shoulder -tier shoulder?

What I'm trying to say is I would be going down to 3pc T8.5 which would screw me out of the 8 more secs of our OP last stand, want to know if it is worth going without that.

[Degrador]

The 4T8 feral bonus really isn't all that important for bears. If the stats on the hard mode item are better (which at a quick glance they certainly appear to be) then go for it.

Note that I'm hardly a 'knowledgeable' bear, but coming from a healer perspective if the extra 8 seconds of Survival Instincts are really necessary then something went wrong with the healers a long time ago...

[Grizzled]

Ok my next question would be should I continue using Garona's guise over the 8.5 helm with the new shoulders or should I just not worry about 4pc all together. From what I've read from Tun and a couple others, they think 4pc is very important. Especially when tanking Thorim and Vezax hardmodes. I would be tanking animus btw(I mention this because what I've noticed is we are on pace of about 40 secs or so to kill the animus, a 30 sec last stand would come in handy).

Where's Alski or Qieth when you want to debate?

[Degrador]

Ok my next question would be should I continue using Garona's guise over the 8.5 helm with the new shoulders or should I just not worry about 4pc all together. From what I've read from Tun and a couple others, they think 4pc is very important. Especially when tanking Thorim and Vezax hardmodes. I would be tanking animus btw(I mention this because what I've noticed is we are on pace of about 40 secs or so to kill the animus, a 30 sec last stand would come in handy).

Personally I really wouldn't worry about the 4T8 bonus. IMO Survival Instincts is only used in emergency situations, and you really shouldn't be gearing on the assumption that they'll happen (and it's quite possible that having better gear will prevent those situations from happening in the first place).

My guild isn't doing Thorim & Vezax hard modes (hell, we only just got Vezax down for the first time on Sunday), so I can't really speak for them. Having said that, is there any reason you can't use those new shoulders + Garona's Guise for 90% of bosses / fights, then swap the helm when you're doing the fights that actually need the extra 8 seconds?

[Deleted]

Where's Alski or Qieth when you want to debate?

In pure stats, Garona's Guise is only slightly better than your tier piece, but that is a matter of perspective ofcourse. It might hold some stats that you would favor over others, but they are pretty close in the end.

The Shoulderpads of the Intruder is by FAR superior to anything else at the moment. But if you want to pursue the 4p bonus, know that you wont be doing a huge dent in your stats if you switch on T8 head.

[shadet]

I presume you realise there's nothing wrong with keeping 2 pieces of T8.5 in your inventory and equipping them on fights that the 4pc set bonus is worth using on!?

[ziggis]

I presume you realise there's nothing wrong with keeping 2 pieces of T8.5 in your inventory and equipping them on fights that the 4pc set bonus is worth using on!?

What he said.

For fights where threat is an issue, you the other head, on hardmodes where the imba last stand can come in handy use 4xT8.x

I usually carry 2 tanking set with me so I can switch depending on what I'm tanking. And switch around, using an equipment manager really helps!

[exochaft]

If you're serious about tanking, you'll most likely have several sets of tanking gear for certain situations. As mentioned above, keep both and use them accordingly.

As for cooldowns such as Survival Instincts being for emergencies only, I'd have to disagree. Certainly there are encounters where you HAVE to save a cooldown if you want to be self-sufficient and not rely on other raid member cooldowns to live. However, you can generally avoid being in an emergency situation by using your cooldowns at appropriate times. I suppose the succinct way to phrase this would be that I believe the cooldowns used proactively will eliminate emergencies and reacting to avoidable emergencies with cooldowns is a lot more dangerous game. Besides, most of the time if you find yourself in an emergency, you can't react fast enough to survive (say IC hardmode and Fusion Punch not getting cleansed fast enough or an unlucky string of crits on Thorim hardmode).

What does this have to do with the topic? If you are a proactive cooldown user, you'll know if you should use the 4-set bonus or not for encounters.

[axxey]

Keep both, fight specific, some fights long SI is very nice.
Until you get a second hat you may want to keep your hat dps gemed anyways.