Equipment Choices

[Velth]

I'm in a bit of a dilema and I'm hoping some more experienced players can help. In tiers 1-6, choosing equipment was a simple matter, wear legendary until you could get the rare crafted and then replace with Fabled as you go. Tier 7 is fricking nuts and has no rhyme or reason. On one hand, everyone says to go with one stat, or to go with resists, or to mix it all up, or to use stuff with procs, etc.My Paladin is 62 in full xegonite vanguard & acrylia jewelry. My INT is pretty low when in defensive stance, but that doesn't matter imo (tell me if I'm wrong). When I switch to offensive stance I generally switch out my ranged slot (pristine fashioned cobalt tablet) to (Enspelled Vultak Eye) for the INT bonus and the chance of procs. I'll alternate between using a (xegonite great sword) or equipping the (xegonite kite shield & the xegonite battle axe) for the added protection and the INT bonus.The (Blade of the Bixies) dropped for me today and while it has a higher rating then the (xegonite battle axe) it has less stats, and weaponstats reports that my damage will be less. I had someone in my group tell me I was stupid for not wearing it since it was the best 1h for my level. Is this right? I also have a (Scalesplitter) that gives me a +5 bonus to slashing and +3 to parry. What 1h should I be using when having a shield equipped?I also have run across alot of equipment with +defense; what use is this to a mitigation tank? I thought defense related directly to avoidance, and when in defensive mode, my avoidance is at 51% (32.9% base, 17.9% block, 11% parry). Im speaking of the (Wyrm Skin Belt), (Zorv's Wristguards) and the (Planar Orb of the Warrior; which has a proc that seems like it might be useful, not sure).My head is about to explode with all the different equipment options in T7 and I'm not even into Fabled and Relic gear (which I hear is crap now? [Removed for Content]). Any advice on what I should be using would be appreciated for the following situations:Main Tank & Backup Healer/DPS.

[Boli32]

<div><blockquote><hr>Velthas wrote:I'm in a bit of a dilema and I'm hoping some more experienced players can help. In tiers 1-6, choosing equipment was a simple matter, wear legendary until you could get the rare crafted and then replace with Fabled as you go. Tier 7 is fricking nuts and has no rhyme or reason. On one hand, everyone says to go with one stat, or to go with resists, or to mix it all up, or to use stuff with procs, etc.<font color="#ffff00">Mastercrafted is generally worse than legendary... but ignore the tags just look at the stats I know of many cases legendary is betetr than some fabled.</font>My Paladin is 62 in full xegonite vanguard & acrylia jewelry. My INT is pretty low when in defensive stance, but that doesn't matter imo (tell me if I'm wrong). When I switch to offensive stance I generally switch out my ranged slot (pristine fashioned cobalt tablet) to (Enspelled Vultak Eye) for the INT bonus and the chance of procs. I'll alternate between using a (xegonite great sword) or equipping the (xegonite kite shield & the xegonite battle axe) for the added protection and the INT bonus.<font color="#ffff00"></font><font color="#ffff00">Sounds good <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> INT is a underused resoucre for damage when on the offensive for a pally</font>The (Blade of the Bixies) dropped for me today and while it has a higher rating then the (xegonite battle axe) it has less stats, and weaponstats reports that my damage will be less. I had someone in my group tell me I was stupid for not wearing it since it was the best 1h for my level. Is this right? I also have a (Scalesplitter) that gives me a +5 bonus to slashing and +3 to parry. What 1h should I be using when having a shield equipped?<font color="#ffff00">Use Scale splitter... you'll hit more (as you will have -slashing from defensive stance) and avoid more (+parry)</font>I also have run across alot of equipment with +defense; what use is this to a mitigation tank? I thought defense related directly to avoidance, and when in defensive mode, my avoidance is at 51% (32.9% base, 17.9% block, 11% parry). Im speaking of the (Wyrm Skin Belt), (Zorv's Wristguards) and the (Planar Orb of the Warrior; which has a proc that seems like it might be useful, not sure).<font color="#ffff00"></font><font color="#ffff00">Its less useful vs raid mobs and the like but in general day to day activity +defence is pretty handy, you'll get less interupts if you are hit less and a Paladin unlike the guardian is not at the defence cap. Overall though the more mitigation you can squeeze out of equipment the better</font><font color="#ffff00"></font>My head is about to explode with all the different equipment options in T7 and I'm not even into Fabled and Relic gear (which I hear is crap now? [Removed for Content]). Any advice on what I should be using would be appreciated for the following situations:<font color="#ffff00">For Tanking grab anything that has + vs slashing/crushing/piercing. If you do the claymore quest series this abounds with good defensive equipment, for solo and small group try and mix in some priest equipment which has +INT/WIS on. Really thgouth for a paladin the best stats you want are (in order) STA STR WIS.</font><font color="#ffff00"></font><font color="#ffff00"></font><font color="#ffff00">If you are concentrating solely on the support role, its STR/WIS/INT and you can pretty much igore everythign else unless you expect to take agro.</font>Main Tank & Backup Healer/DPS.<hr></blockquote></div>

[RaistNA]

<DIV>im going to dissagree with the above poster on some minor aspects, but it may be because im comming from a different view point.  IMO avoidance is key to tanking.  This comes from a fully t7 raid equiped paladin.  In raids i prefer my avoidance to be 60%+ and honestly...i think i can tell when its not...but thats just me.  Dont knock AGI, the thing about str and sta is they are so easy to get, agi is what i concider to be an under viewed stat.  Its hard to get on heavy armor, so its important that when u can pick some up, to get it.  I would say stats by importants IMO is Sta, AGI, Wis, Str.  Thats just different view points tho hehe.  Iv heard a lot say agi is useless and avoidance is kinda unimportant to raid tanks.</DIV>

[Boli32]

In the new system avoidance will count as lot more than it does now... but as it stands now, fighting raids/named who get a bonus to hit its best going full out in mitigation over avoidance... sure in in the normal grouping sense avoidance is half the tanking battle and there AGI is needed somewhat more but since you are in plate it is best to get +defence items rather than +AGI as you don;t get as much avoidance from AGI in heavier armoru as you do in lighter.<div></div>

[tiger911]

Ya, from experience, I never really noticed a difference on avoidance, mit buffs is key in raiding. Grouping however, I did notice a difference in avoidance. However, like the previous poster said, the new changes should definetly change that and make avoidance count quite a bit.