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  1. #1

    Brand new to blood dk. Elitist jerks says mastery is the way to go, amidoingrite?


  2. #2
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Both are viable. Mastery is NOT the only way. Personally...I don't like mastery, but due to the itemization this tier I've chosen to move to it instead of staying avoidance.

    Well you've got a LOT of dps pieces...once you replace those your gear can really be critiqued (like the trinket!). Dodge, parry, mastery are your three stats. Your dodge/parry ratio is insanely off by a margin of 1,000. Your spec & glyphs, however, are fine.

    Do TB dailies to get the mastery trinket, or VP it up for the one sold by the VP vendor. You're going to want on-use or proc trinkets based on damage, not on health.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    Both are viable. Mastery is NOT the only way. Personally...I don't like mastery, but due to the itemization this tier I've chosen to move to it instead of staying avoidance.

    Well you've got a LOT of dps pieces...once you replace those your gear can really be critiqued (like the trinket!). Dodge, parry, mastery are your three stats. Your dodge/parry ratio is insanely off by a margin of 1,000. Your spec & glyphs, however, are fine.

    Do TB dailies to get the mastery trinket, or VP it up for the one sold by the VP vendor. You're going to want on-use or proc trinkets based on damage, not on health.
    So i shouldnt be reforging into mastery on every piece and gemming for it to?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by BRO90X View Post
    So i shouldnt be reforging into mastery on every piece and gemming for it to?
    You can go for mastery if you want.

    Like Darsithis, I'm an off spec tank who preferred avoidance in T12, but switched to mastery in T13. Mastery is great for heroic Yorsahj.
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Wingwraith View Post
    You can go for mastery if you want.

    Like Darsithis, I'm an off spec tank who preferred avoidance in T12, but switched to mastery in T13. Mastery is great for heroic Yorsahj.
    Is there a mastery cap? Or can i just keep reforging and gemming the way i have.

  6. #6
    There's no mastery cap you can hit in current gear. If you're going for mastery, reforge mastery onto pieces without mastery then reforge into dodge on pieces with mastery. Try to keep your dodge and parry ratings the same (remember you gain parry from HoW and Kings). Make sure all your gems have some form of mastery on them and you should be set.

  7. #7
    Herald of the Titans Avatar Killer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    Both are viable. Mastery is NOT the only way. Personally...I don't like mastery, but due to the itemization this tier I've chosen to move to it instead of staying avoidance.
    you hard emphasized on NOT and then said the ONLY way to go... but no one said only at all. The OP simply said would be the way to go. Currently though yes for blood with the itemization it is the better of the choices for most fights. Of course there are always exceptions to that rule but generally it stands to reason that mastery is heavier than it was last patch.
    Last edited by Avatar Killer; 2011-12-20 at 05:46 PM.
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  8. #8
    I liked mastery for the bigger shields, but that was in T12, not sure what the business is now.

  9. #9
    Herald of the Titans Avatar Killer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Strakha View Post
    I liked mastery for the bigger shields, but that was in T12, not sure what the business is now.
    Its always been a choice though. If you favor avoiding damage then avoid it. If you favor nullifying it then Mastery is your friend.

    The only major difference is repetitive avoidance strings lowering Vengeance stacks and then the next hit (nowadays) brings it back to cap so the choice is really how much of your stats do you want to burn against the DR ratio stacking avoidance.

    If you have enough to make it high enough then whatever. Otherwise for the most part they are pretty balanced. Mastery has a little more weight now since the Death strike heal/shield will now work on 100% of cases where there is a target in range. With that in mind its a choice in any case.


    Quote Originally Posted by flashur View Post
    Eh? Why did you mention Frost?
    mistype maybe. i fixed it for everyone's incessant curiosity. I meant blood.
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  10. #10
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    i'm still going with mastery, having around 200% blood shields from ds heals creates some pretty large shields and i definitely feel less spikey with all the 4.3 changes.

  11. #11
    The only time i've felt spiky was doing Heroic Morchok with only one healer in my little 5 man group. Korchorm gets so small he almost looks like a trash mob so the 80k melee hits are kinda unexpected. The only fight where mastery won't save you, is when blackthorn decides to sandwich a devestate between 2 melee hits as he gets below 30K health. That was only a problem the first time though, you typically have enough cd's to chain quite a few of them everytime you have to tank him during that phase.
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  12. #12
    Mastery is also nice for (heroic) Hagara. After watching our (admittedly slightly undergeared) prot pala get destroyed by Focused Assault (WITH cooldowns) again and again, we switched to me tanking. With ~30 mastery, all the cooldown you need for FA is enough runes for 2 Death Strikes and your healers won't even notice there IS such a thing as Focused Assault. Actually the whole business of other tanks trying all sorts of tricks to avoid FA (like healers taunting the boss, life-gripping the tank away etc) that Blood DKs might be slightly OP currently. Slightly.

  13. #13
    Get the gear you can get. Gem anything with Mastery.

    Reforge; does my gear have mastery, no? Reforge Avoidance,

  14. #14
    The Lightbringer SurrealNight's Avatar
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    Avoidance works fine for normal mode, not doing heroics so can't comment on those. Even single tanking Yorshj I rarely see a WotN proc.
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  15. #15
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bloodhunter View Post
    Get the gear you can get. Gem anything with Mastery.

    Reforge; does my gear have mastery, no? Reforge Avoidance,
    Yes, and no. Be careful to try to keep parry & dodge close together to increase total avoidance gained per point. It's really hard to keep parry level, but it's doable. Go for mastery trinkets with on-use dodge/parry so you can also up avoidance for heavy melee phases.

  16. #16
    no matter how much i reforge out of parry, i cant seem to get it any lower =/

  17. #17
    Legendary! Firebert's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BRO90X View Post
    no matter how much i reforge out of parry, i cant seem to get it any lower =/
    You're looking to match the dodge and parry RATINGS, not the percentages, and Strength increases your parry by 27%.
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  18. #18
    You will always have more parry than dodge after buffs. So long as you reforge correctly then that's all you can do.

    Please use a tanking meta like austere shadowspirit diamond (81 stam 2% armor). Also switch your weapon to swordshattering. Since it gives a flat 4% parry regardless of rating, it's not subject to dimishing returns.
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  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by hyperionx View Post
    You will always have more parry than dodge after buffs. So long as you reforge correctly then that's all you can do.

    Please use a tanking meta like austere shadowspirit diamond (81 stam 2% armor). Also switch your weapon to swordshattering. Since it gives a flat 4% parry regardless of rating, it's not subject to dimishing returns.
    I was just following what mmo champs guide was saying. Ill change it.

  20. #20
    The Lightbringer SurrealNight's Avatar
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    You will always have more parry than dodge after buffs. So long as you reforge correctly then that's all you can do.
    Pretty sure reforge calculators factored in buffs and could guide you to a balanced rating. It's just impossible to do so if you are avoidance spec'd. At least Mr Robot does.

    Though the difference in avoidance is usually less than 1% unless you are really horribly unbalanced in ratings.
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