Expertise soft cap...just how important is it?

Post by 103911

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Post by Aadramelekh

Having AT LEAST the expertise soft cap as a Main Tank is very important because it basically improves your chances to hit your target by 13% (6.5% dodge + 6.5% parry). It greatly improves your threat generation to help your DPS have their way with bosses. Basically, for a raiding Bear, the expertise soft cap is mandatory. Otherwise you jeopardize the whole raid by risking either overaggro from your DPS or by holding their DPS so low that you'll reach enrage timers on many bosses.

However, having more than 26 expertise is a strong recommendation. The reason is parry. When the boss parries one of your attacks, his next attack comes with 40% more haste. Thus you expose yourself to spike damage due to faster incoming damage. Most bosses are known to have up to 15% parry chance. That is why a value of ~40 expertise is recommended (10%), since expertise rating is plentiful on Bear tanking gear and you also have Primal Precision for 10 expertise skill from talents. It is possible to reach the expertise hard cap as well from gear alone, but that would simply be too much of a hassle to achieve.

Bottom line is: expertise soft cap (6.5% = 26 expertise skill) is mandatory for any serious raiding tank. It is recommended that you stack up to ~40 expertise skill (10%). Also don't neglect hit rating. At least 6% (~200 hit rating) hit should be your goal.

PS: You overdid it with your HP. 46-47K HP raid buffed (Fortitude, Kings, Food, Flask) should be more than enough to complete any Ulduar 10 normal mode (including the big bad General Vezax with his Surge of Darkness). Try and improve your expertise, hit and avoidance (agility).

Post by Thror

Looking at ToC gear though, there doesnt seem to be much Expertise :< It was a lot better in the Ulduar tier. And even red sockets are very sporadic :-/

Post by Aadramelekh

Well then nothing keeps you from using some lvl 226 items until you get comfortable again with expertise from lvl 232 / 245 gear, ey? :P For instance, I have been using Thrusting Bands for a damn long time - and I don't intend to part ways with them until I find something with more expertise to meet my 10% expertise / 6% hit quota (at least).

And since you asked this question, I took my time to compile an easy to get tanking items list for those that will not set foot in Ulduar 25 or ToC 25, but have access to 10 man and Naxx 25 as well. They offer quite a lot of hit and expertise to boot. Some of them cost Emblems of Conquest / Triumph.

Head __ Neck __ Shoulders __ Cloak __ Chest __ Bracer __ Gloves __ Belt __ Legs __ Boots __ Ring1 __ Ring2 __ Weapon (EZmode to get) / Weapon Anub'Arak10 __ Trinket1 __ Trinket2 __ Trinket alternative

This list should provide a total of 308 expertise rating, or a little over 9.5% expertise. With Primal Precision we reach 12% expertise, an excellent value. Also we get 274 hit rating. A little over the 8% cap but nothing to cry about.

See what I did there? :D

Post by 175113

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Post by pelf

Main role of a tank = survive, secondary = threat. Doing 8k tps is usless if you get 1 shotted for example.

I'd say you're looking at it a bit black and white here.

Post by 109094

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Post by 103911

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Post by 216037

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Expertise soft cap...just how important is it?

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