An Ex-Gnome Tank's World

The Red-Headed Stepchild of Tanking Stats

June 25th, 2009 Posted in Class Discussion

Block. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it…. Ah, no, hang on. Nobody gears for block these days, it’s a wasted stat. Back in Naxxramas it was godlike, a successful block taking a healthy chunk of the incoming hit. Nowadays, it’s a bit, well, like one of those games from years ago that you remember playing endlessly for hours and yet, when you come back to it, you can’t for the life of you remember why (Hello, X2: The Threat). Something about it just hasn’t kept up with the times.

And now, are things changing? Well, maybe. In the patch notes, we see that bonus shield block value on items is being doubled. “So what?” I hear you ask. “My regular tanking gear has almost no bonus SBV as it is”. True, neither does mine. But hidden away in the cupboard, destined only to come out for certain fights, is another set of gear, my Shield Block Value set. And I can see things changing here – rather than some people using Frost Resistance gear on Hodir, I can see all of us moving to using SBV gear because it will mitigate Frozen Blows in its entirety.

There’s the rub. This change isn’t huge, but it does introduce choice in how we gear that was less present. Sure, for someone like General Vezax, who hits for 30k, isn’t going to be the fight you use your SBV gear on – a chance for a 10% reduction in incoming damage is nothing – but there are plenty of other fights where the melee hits come more often and for less. A good example might be the crusher tentacles of Yogg-Saron, where a good amount of block value (especially with shield block up) would help immensely.

Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of these changes – maybe a change in the percentage block you get per point of block rating will crop up too – but I’m intrigued as to what we’ll end up with. More choice over what gear is feasible can only be a good thing.

  1. One Response to “The Red-Headed Stepchild of Tanking Stats”

  2. By Eksy on Jul 2, 2009

    I’m welcoming the change to block. I too am interested in seeing what the final say on the changes are.

    Also, nice blog.
    It should really get more attention! :)

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