Hit/Exp vs Mastery blood DK

[Summerginger]

I try to a little thorycrafting, but I am no expert. However by looking into ask mr.robot then testing it on my own toon I realize that when I proritize Hit/Exp i actually have a higher mastery % than if i prioritize Mastery itself! I give up about 5000 health and 3.2% avoidance, but i gain 6% DPS increase.
As a side effect of hitting more you build up more of the mastery bone shield so the mastery effect is even bigger. Why isn't there more hit/exp dominant blood DK? What am i missing?
my toon as reference us.battle.net/wow/en/character/dalvengyr/Killerbush/simple

[Deleted]

both are appealing stats, more vengeance means more dps, but also is in need for higher defensive stats as you want to get higher blood shields. so in the end you'd need all stats, if its solely about surviving, defensive stats would be your way to go. if your raid needs your dps, you want to achieve hit and expertisecap, mostly you will take hit and expertise where you are able to get it, but also want to have quite alot of mastery. in the end its about personal favor and the needs of your raid and also a lot of your gameplay, I'd, from a personally preference, go for defensive stats above offensive ones, as your most important task is surviving, dps is just a nice addition.

[jasonleekungfu]

I am one. I have 2 tank sets, straight tank set and "dps-tank" set for those farm bosses, and I believe straight tank set has both 7.5% hit and exp, and dps-tank set has 12% ish exp. I didn't see hit/exp as bad things for dk tank. Besides dps (threat), they also give more SoB and ofc smoother resource regen.

And according to my personal feeling, surviving as tank normally wasn't our problem when progressing. Exception was bosses like Gara'jal and Lei Shi, but, well, as a dk tank it doesn't make that much difference for them if you reforge some hit/exp to mastery or parry/dodge anyways.

[Lachez]

I have a related question to the OP. My main spec is dps but I keep a blood off-spec geared and ready to go in case one of our tanks can't show, dc's, etc. I'm sitting at 170.28% mastery unbuffed. Is there a point where mastery becomes sub-optimal compared to another stat (hit/exp/dodge/parry)? I've been gearing and gemming for mastery. Just wondering if the consensus among my MS Blood Dk friends here is Mastery over everything or Mastery to a point then something else?

[Nillo]

I have a related question to the OP. My main spec is dps but I keep a blood off-spec geared and ready to go in case one of our tanks can't show, dc's, etc. I'm sitting at 170.28% mastery unbuffed. Is there a point where mastery becomes sub-optimal compared to another stat (hit/exp/dodge/parry)? I've been gearing and gemming for mastery. Just wondering if the consensus among my MS Blood Dk friends here is Mastery over everything or Mastery to a point then something else?

170% mastery is more than enough imo. At that point you should have the survivability needed to get hit/exp to 7.5% each.
Don't go for dodge/parry .... unless you're fighting a boss with lots and lots of adds - it's overall damage reduction may be on par with mastery but overall you won't see much of a gain from randomly avoiding a hit once in a while. (as in it has a tendency to not save you when you need it and produce overhealing when you don't)

[Vereesa]

I'm personally an advocate of capping both your hit and expertise as a Blood DK (even at the expense of mastery) due to the pretty hefty amounts of DPS it brings.

[pimpeddakota]

I have a related question to the OP. My main spec is dps but I keep a blood off-spec geared and ready to go in case one of our tanks can't show, dc's, etc. I'm sitting at 170.28% mastery unbuffed. Is there a point where mastery becomes sub-optimal compared to another stat (hit/exp/dodge/parry)? I've been gearing and gemming for mastery. Just wondering if the consensus among my MS Blood Dk friends here is Mastery over everything or Mastery to a point then something else?

I reforge hit/exp into mastery at all times. Parry into dodge to get the % more in line with one another or if I'm wearing a trinket that requires me to dodge (think of Delicate Vial of the Sanguinaire) I'll go heavy into dodge.

Honestly it comes down to what gear do you currently have and are you in progression, current, or past content.

[Reniat]

Perhaps the reason ask mr. robot gave you more mastery with the hit/exp build is that it when you have 2 avoidance stats it picks the one to be reforged into mastery based on which you need more of to balance DR instead of what it should be doing, which is picking based on maximizing mastery. There should be no difference in mastery between a correct avoidance build and a correct accuracy build unless you are intentionally taking out of mastery to specifically to hit/exp cap for DPS.

[Murdos]

Just make sure you cap Hit first, Hit rating is the biggest gain, even over Expertise due to the nature of how Rune Strike and Death Strike works.

So if it comes down to a little mastery/Expertise or the Hitcap, stay hitcapped.

[Colors]

I've experimented with both a hit/exp build, mastery build, and a stam build, and I prefer the hit/exp far more than the others. It not only contributes to more dps, but it gives more blood charges since you aren't missing, therefor more overall death strikes. It also feels smoother, and not as rng based as a sole mastery build.

Rubý - Mal'ganis

[jasonleekungfu]

I've experimented with both a hit/exp build, mastery build, and a stam build, and I prefer the hit/exp far more than the others. It not only contributes to more dps, but it gives more blood charges since you aren't missing, therefor more overall death strikes. It also feels smoother, and not as rng based as a sole mastery build.

Rubý - Mal'ganis

Can't agree more. That's exactly how I feel. But when I tried to explained to others when they were asking, most replies I received are ability links and how they do not depend on hit and theoretically no reason to get hit/exp at all. Just feel so... disheartened.

[burbon]

Earlier in the tier I was tanking for a top 10 us raiding guild as blood. I can say from experience that I definitely prioritized hit and exp caps and got great results from it, with only 1 or 2 fights that avoidance may favor. Any encounter where Mastery is a great stat for us has to do with the nature of the encounter itself, and in all these cases hit and expertise are very attractive. We have so many tools at our disposal that the better we can actively control our mitigation the better.

Hit and expertise caps dramatically smooth out any down time and probably the biggest benefit is that they naturally contribute to our resource feedback mechanisms. The more white attacks you have, the more RP you have from every Scent of Blood Charge you gain, which yields more runes per minute. The added bonus of bigger heals from death strikes is nice, but not my main motivation.

As others have mentioned tank damage matters and this greatly contributes to that as well. I would recommend you have an avoidance set and a hit > exp > mastery set and use either depending on which one is best suited for the encounter, but generally your hit/exp capped set is the one that should be used. Also don't forget to gem hit/mastery and exp/mastery in blue and red sockets respectively as needed.