Damage Shield vs Resistance

jimmulvaney

Trying to decide if Fortified Brass is worth the loss of my 10320 pt Damage Shield from Whitestrake (stop laughing). I realize my Stam Nord Dk Heavy Tank is OG that is why I am looking to change it up. I pretty much only PVE and have tanked several trials with it before as well as too many HM vet dungeons to count. No real interest in PVP but one thing I like to do is solo WBs and Crag dungeons. Several times I have tanked a vet boss for 10 mins straight because my team wiped for one reason or another, and came out victorious! Would brass make those instances easier or harder? The shield procs every 15s when my HP drops below 30% but is 31829 SP Resist & 31849 Phys Resist better? Different? Any insight would be appreciated.

Didgerion

just put it on and give it a try. I'd say Fortified Brass is better and more reliable and it has 100% up-time.

And you can put some points from resistance into recovery for example or weapon damage - why not.

I think that Fortified Brass will make your tanking more diverse and interesting.

Maura_Neysa

jimmulvaney wrote: »

Trying to decide if Fortified Brass is worth the loss of my 10320 pt Damage Shield from Whitestrake (stop laughing). I realize my Stam Nord Dk Heavy Tank is OG that is why I am looking to change it up. I pretty much only PVE and have tanked several trials with it before as well as too many HM vet dungeons to count. No real interest in PVP but one thing I like to do is solo WBs and Crag dungeons. Several times I have tanked a vet boss for 10 mins straight because my team wiped for one reason or another, and came out victorious! Would brass make those instances easier or harder? The shield procs every 15s when my HP drops below 30% but is 31829 SP Resist & 31849 Phys Resist better? Different? Any insight would be appreciated.

Yes resistance is better than a damage shield. For one resistance is applied to your damage shield. 33150 is 50% damage reduction, which is the hard cap. On a boss like Bloody Horn in Faulkreath, Amalgamation in Bloodroot, or The Warrior in HRC all of which hit me for 20k through Block with resistance cap
20k damage
1- 0.5 (base block damage ) * 1- 0.2 (S+B passives) = 33K
50% resistance cap = 66k (my rough calculation of their raw damage output)

In the above 10k resistance would reduce the damage you took by the same amount as your Whitestrakes only it would reduce that amount with or without the shield. (100% uptime provide you keep your Harden/Volitale Armor up every 20%

I have also meet tanks who don't build for resistance cap and who also still just wear the meta of Ebon + Alkosh/Torug's

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Simply put, if your goal is to be a damage sponge, shields really arent the way to go. You are better off focusing on resistance and more importantly, block cost. When a shield takes damage, your resistances and whether you held block are essentially meaningless, unless the damage is enough to drop your shield and then some.

In other words (trying to keep it really simple), if you have a 10k shield and take 5K of damage, your shield will drop to 5k, irregardless of your resistance levels or whether you are blocking, as they essentially do nothing while shields are active. Note that in that example, blocking actually hurts because you will lose stamina for blocking, even though you really didnt mitigate any damage. For example, shield stacking sorcs in PVP dont permablock as it does nothing but slow them down and drain stamina.

If you have a 10k shield and take 15k of damage, the shield will be gone and the 5k damage over the shield will take things into account like blocking and resistances (your health wont drop by the full 5k). Because its impossible to always know whether the current hit will go above and beyond your shield, you are typically going to block most attacks as a tank. Ultimately, it means that you are likely burning resources or making tradeoffs to achieve a big damage shield that really doesnt do much for you.

The bigger question is does a PVE tank even need to get to the resist cap in the first place? And the overwhelming answer is absolutely not. You are far better off focusing on block cost reduction with glyphs and CP, and running sets that support your group, but that is a different debate.

jimmulvaney

I see. That is what I was looking for the practical mechanics behind the two but all I ever found was people putting up the same equation on the math behind resistance stats. I think I will stick with what I have. Actually I am quite adept at stacking damage shields while renewing resources, waiting for my ultimate, which then gives me further resources. I have even had to tank vet bosses for long periods of time because my group wiped for one reason or another. Coming out victoriously, of course. Thanks for the input everyone! You have been most helpful.

pelle412

I'd go with whichever gear makes the fight go faster. Buff the team's DPS by granting them major force and debuff the target resists.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

pelle412 wrote: »

I'd go with whichever gear makes the fight go faster. Buff the team's DPS by granting them major force and debuff the target resists.

It really depends on the group. If your goal is to carry 5-10k DPS pugs through vet dungeons, you are going to need to focus on staying a live. Spitting out warhorns every 30 seconds, and sets like Alkosh arent really going to do much for you.

If you are playing with good players, then you have 4 goals. Keep High threat targets taunted, Have enough resources to not die, debuff your targets, spit out warhorns on command. None of those require hitting the mitigation cap or stacking multiple shields. The vast majority of the content in this game can be tanked in medium armor.

Maura_Neysa

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Simply put, if your goal is to be a damage sponge, shields really arent the way to go. You are better off focusing on resistance and more importantly, block cost. When a shield takes damage, your resistances and whether you held block are essentially meaningless, unless the damage is enough to drop your shield and then some.

In other words (trying to keep it really simple), if you have a 10k shield and take 5K of damage, your shield will drop to 5k, irregardless of your resistance levels or whether you are blocking, as they essentially do nothing while shields are active. Note that in that example, blocking actually hurts because you will lose stamina for blocking, even though you really didnt mitigate any damage. For example, shield stacking sorcs in PVP dont permablock as it does nothing but slow them down and drain stamina.

If you have a 10k shield and take 15k of damage, the shield will be gone and the 5k damage over the shield will take things into account like blocking and resistances (your health wont drop by the full 5k). Because its impossible to always know whether the current hit will go above and beyond your shield, you are typically going to block most attacks as a tank. Ultimately, it means that you are likely burning resources or making tradeoffs to achieve a big damage shield that really doesnt do much for you.

The bigger question is does a PVE tank even need to get to the resist cap in the first place? And the overwhelming answer is absolutely not. You are far better off focusing on block cost reduction with glyphs and CP, and running sets that support your group, but that is a different debate.

With no CP in resistance and only resistence from Lord Warden/Blood Spawn I hit resistence cap. (Over on spell in the current Ebon/Torug meta), all sturdy and 3 Shield Play.

Just saying it's not hard to build for resistence, racially since roughly 6600 resistance is 10% damage reduction. So why yes even good tanks don't always build for resistance its still a very good goal

VaranisArano

Whitestrakes is good situationally. If you are learning new mechanics that regular drop you to low health, Whitestrakes can give you a chance to recover and make a mental note of "that popped my shield, block that next time." Whitestrakes is also really useful for rezzing PUG groups that wipe and you're the last one standing.

But the better you get at tanking and the bettter you understand the mechanics, the less you need Whitestrakes - and in fact, the less Whitestrakes will proc. I used it as training wheels when I learned to tank - its the set that tells you when you don't need it anymore because it doesn't proc.

Unlike Whitestrakes, Fortified Brass will be good all of the time. The others have explained the exact reasons why, but I would say that if you think you are ready to move on from Whitestrakes, you probably are ready. Its my favorite training set for a tank, but the more experienced you become, the less you need it. If you feel ready to move on to something else, go for it!