Forged Alliance

I think that's probably pretty good, I wouldn't worry too much about that last 32. I don't think being fully resistance capped is absolutely required or anything. It's serving the same purpose as armour for this fight: mitigating damage - there's a cap on armour too, but you tanks manage to tank plenty of heavy hitting bosses with out being armour capped.

Did you do the helm enchant? .. .cloak enchant?  that would be +35 right there.I'm at 299 with the gear I have currently:3xWildguard PiecesHead EnchantCloak Enchant1xNR Patch1xNatural Ward ring1xNR/stam ringI had to put both +def trinkets in my slots, and I did swap out one gem for +def like you did.

If you need the Flasks, just let me know I'll craft them before the raid tonight. I thought I had put the 4 I made the previous week in the Raid Tabs, but when I looked for it earlier I couldn't find them \Edit: Nevermind, I'm just blind they are there ;_;

After poking around and around I now think I've got it. I'm going to re-socket my old Gauntlets of the Bold with two +8 Defense Gems. That plus the ring I got from badges (Ring of Unyielding Force) should make up the defense lost by replacing my tanking necklace with a Frost Resist one. Shipping two Noble Topazes Dudepal's way.

Even without the gems, I'm coming up with 233 Frost Resist and 484 Defense.

241 base
+ 70 Aura
+ 25 Druid Buff
+ 35 Flask of Chromatic Wonder

371 total Frost Resist. Nice. Health might not be what I want (around 12664 unbuffed), but I think I can deal with that.

12664 unbuffed

I'm around that .. could just barely break 13k if I swap my NR patch and get Nethercleft on my legs. But we also need to think about gearing up those offtanks -- I can craft 3/3 Icesomething  and 2/3 Wildguard plate gear.  I have 20 badges - but no Primal Nether, but let me know and I'll run a couple heroics.   Bravsirrobin?  Either of those good for your set?

Just tossing this out there - you two seem very zealous about the resist, but I'd venture to say that having a pile more of stam would be better than squeaking out a few more resistance points. Large stam pools gives the healers a bit more room to work with, even if you are getting hit for slightly higher magic damage hits.

Fargol wrote
Just tossing this out there - you two seem very zealous about the resist, but I'd venture to say that having a pile more of stam would be better than squeaking out a few more resistance points. Large stam pools gives the healers a bit more room to work with, even if you are getting hit for slightly higher magic damage hits.

Zealous? Me? Nevar!
I'm not sure where I could add more stamina without compromising defense or frost resist yet. As it is, it's a delicate balance. My gear will improve though.
If I can get the Mantle of Abramis and T4 Tanking Gloves, that'll be an additional 13 defense rating. Then I can replace one of those +8 DEF with a +12 STA. Maybe 2.

BTW, a huge thanks to everyone who helped me put this set together and to Akuma for listening to my ramblings and mutterings. <3 you guys.

Fargol wroteJust tossing this out there - you two seem very zealous about the resist, but I'd venture to say that having a pile more of stam would be better than squeaking out a few more resistance points. Large stam pools gives the healers a bit more room to work with, even if you are getting hit for slightly higher magic damage hits.

While I agree with you for the most part, I LOVE a huge stamina bucket -- resistance has incremental returns, so I would rather get from 360 to 365 than have another 10 stamina.  Info: http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Magical_resistance... additionally, more +resist means more chance for complete miss. (if that's possible on this boss)I read as well where someone suggested that you "could even use cloth" -- unfortunately we're also targetting 490 defense to eliminate crit. spike damage as well, and +def just doesn't come on cloth +resistance is rare on leather, etc. ...   Also, the Wildguard/Iceguard + various nature specific "items" are designed specifically for this, points spent only on +resist and +stamina.

I was talking to the OT's that we were planning on using last night, and they have almost no resistance gear between them.  We need to focus on getting them a little resistance too.

I'll ask Bravsirrobin in game if I can craft some plate ...

My current stats, unbuffed:109 Nature resist121 frost resist13k heatlth, 16k armor, 20% dodge in bear... meh1937 ap in catNot too bad. Buffed I should be somewhat capable.I still feel a bit nekkid in all them greens.

Do you still need waters?  I have been diligently crafting them every day   Not sure if the OT gear needs them?

I've been reading up on the MT gear again for the Hydross fight...Most of the information I've come across shows that the MT's are not worrying about having max defense becuase they claim that "crushing blows only come off of physical damage". Has anyone seen stuff similar to this? This is where I'm looking at from the Hydross thread on Wowhead:"They don't. But Hydross and his adds don't do spell damage per se. They have physical attacks that do elemental damage. A physical attack can crit, which ups the damage (in this case, elemental damage). But a crushing blow is all physical damage, hence the lack of crushings in the Hydross fight. On a related note, because there's no physical damage in the fight, armor value doesn't matter one bit; armor doesn't mitigate elemental damage. I've main tanked Hydross with one piece of leather and one cloth. The resistance (and stam) is what's important. Resilience also goes a long way in preventing crits. Look into the +15 resilience enchant to chest if anyone plans to tank this fight."Also from Wowwiki.com article on Defense:"Defense is a skill that helps prevent physical damage by reducing the chance to be hit or critically hit. Additionally, it also increases block, dodge and parry. Mobs receive 0.1% per point of defense."Edit: Nevermind, I guess you still need the 490def for crit reduction, avoidance,etc.

You're correct on crushing blows:

via http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t18865-work ... ing_2_3_a/

Other
Elementals
Elemental-based melee attacks (such as Hydross or most Fire Elementals) follow slightly different rules than normal melee attacks versus a player.
- Elementals can crit the player but will never crush
- Elemental melee damage is not mitigated by AC in any fashion
- Cannot be blocked
- Can be parried or dodged
- Can be partially resisted through the appropriate resist stat
- Attack power modification debuffs such as Demoralizing Shout will affect damage done

Concerning the last item I bolded - I think keeping -AP debuffs up (including dem shout and curse of weakness) are probably good ideas if we're concerned about incoming hydross tank damage - since the -AP will reduce the hit *before* the damage modifier debuff on the tank - therefore reducing the damage significantly more than a -AP debuff would do on an average fight.