Post by Sokanon on Apr 26, 2011 8:54:04 GMT -5
Author: Elicas
Elicas here, back again with another dose of tanking trivia, gossip and speculation. The last few beta's have had some interesting changes for the Justicar soul for Clerics in Rift. Now with the headstart upon us let's take a look at what position clerics are in.
The changes in the racial abilities have mostly made choosing a race to now be a case of which race do you find most aesthetically pleasing? With the removal of the +10 racial stat bonuses, the choice really does come down to the player.
At the lower levels before diminishing returns really start to set in, using a two handed mace with lots of spellpower on it is will be slightly superior to using a mace and shield due to us not having lots of parry rating. With 3 points in devout deflection and a solid two hander you will be in about an equal position as going mace and shield. Your lower armour and mitigation being made up from the additional parry from spellpower, extra self healing and extra threat. However, at later gear levels when DR starts hitting our parry rating, that block is going to get more and more desirable. Also bear in mind, that should you decide not to put any point's in the fourteen (14) shield related Justicar talents, you will not only lose block mitigation and the armour from the shield, but also 14% armour from Mien of Leadership.
Personally, I found myself moving away from using two handers in my late teens though I did keep my off build as a two handed tank and having tried both out in instances, it definately seemed that the clerics I ran with struggled more to heal me in my two handed spec.
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Taking Doctrine of Valiance is a rather contentious issue. It hits for a rather small amount and generally heals for less than a single Doctrine of Bliss. If you're going for a 51 point build you have no choice but to take the talent. However, if your just after a self heal DoB is superior. Personally, I would not take the talent unless you either;
A - Needed the talent for a root ability and had nothing better to take.
or
B - For some reason did not want to take DoB.
DoB is superior in nearly every way. Sacrificing 4 convictions for the current healing DoV supplies just isn't worth it.
To calculate a cleric's EH and mitigation we need to bear in mind what spec they are using and what bonuses they have. To calculate EH you use;
Health/(1-Armour Mitigation%+Absorbtion Shields%(Riftstalkers)+Damage Reduction%)+Static Shield Absorbs.
For a cleric with Justicar/Shaman/Purifier it would look like this;
Health/(1-Armour Mitigation%+0%+0.03)+Glacial Shield + Shield of Ancestors.
A cleric tank at level 50 with level 50 trained shields with 8000 health and 45% armour reduction would have;
8000/(1-0.45+0+0.03)+764GS+831SotA = 16,976.61 effective health if both shields are used up.
This is taken with 0 spellpower affecting the shields and 0 points in the Protection of the Ancestors talent.
Also bear in mind that all the time we will be healing ourselves via Salvation, which will not directly increase our EH, but rather will reduce the amount of healing required to keep us alive. It's a subtle difference, but it is a note worthy one. You can add your self healing to your effective health still, but instead of increasing the amount of effective damage needing to be dealt to you to kill you, rather it reduces the amount of healing needed to be done to you to keep you at maximum health.
Calculating the amount of survivability your self healing will add is tricky, but doable. What you need to do is set a time frame for the fight you are doing, say 30 seconds with the above build. With clerics' GCD being 1.5 seconds, this means in 30 seconds we will use 20 abilities. Take two of those GCD's out of the equasion for Glacial Shield and Shield of the Ancestors, and your left with 18 attacks every thirty seconds of boss fight. Now, unless you are parsing the fight (in which case you don't really need to be worrying about the math for calculating your self healing, you can read it straight from the parse) you need to take your average healing range and find the median, then times that by the amount of attacks - miss%.
Sounds tricky, let me explain. If your cleric tank only used justicar abilities (which really, it should only be using main Justicar attacks due to the 40% damage reduction on other souls abilities) you will be healing for 25% of the damage done. If your attacks generally deal 90-110 damage, the average hit would be 100, for a heal of 22.5-27.5 or 25 healing median.
25*18 = 450 - Your average self healing would be around the 450 mark.
8000/(1-0.45+0+0.03)+764GS+831SotA+450SH = 17,429.61 Effective Health.
To calculate your total mitigation, the formula is a little bit complicated, but i will provide an example with nice easy rounded numbers. The following formula suggests you have 18% parry, 5% dodge, 45% armour reduction and 35% block chance, with 15% block mitigation.
Mitigation = Parry/Dodge > Block > Damage Reduction
Dodge and Parry should evade 1-(1-0.0500)*(1-0.1800) = .221 or ~22% of hits should be completely evaded dealing 0 damage.
Connected physical hits would deal 55% damage.
Blocks will occur on 1-(1-0.24)*0.3500 = 0.266 - ~26.6% blocked. Although my block value states that I will block ~35% once you factor in some attacks will be completely avoided the actuallity is the amount blocked becomes lower.
With a multi-roll combat system; the game makes two rolls, one to see if the attack hits or misses and one to see what the hit is. For example with a dodge chance of 15% on a roll of 1-15 out of 100 you would dodge the attack. The game would then roll a second time to see if the attack was parried. Again for block, again for crit, again for misses, again for normal hits until one result came back positive. It is very unlikely that the game uses thius system as it takes a lot of extra calculations in the middle of combat, so therefore it is most likely Trion use a one-roll system. This has yet to be tested with max level parses, but is the most likely conclusion.
With a one-roll combat system; the game uses a /roll100 command and checks your characters combat table.
Using the above stats, blocks will occur on 35% of attacks that hit, after dodge, parry and miss have been taken into account.
00.01-05.00 = miss
05.01-10.00 = dodge
10.01-28.00 = parry
28.01-63.00 = block (100% damage - block value)
65.01-68.00 = crit (200% damage)
68.01-100.0 = hit (100% damage)
Blocked hits will mitigate 1-(1-0.50)*(1-0.15) = 0.575 or ~57% mitigation.
Connected hits will mitigate ~50% of the damage at a rate of (1-0.22)*(1-0.35) = 0.507 or ~50% of attacks will not be blocked or avoided.
Wisdom - Spellpower
Wisdom converts into spellpower at a rate of 0.75 spellpower per point of wisdom. It also gives us 0.01 mana regen per 10 seconds (Hereafter referred to as MP10). With 3 points in Devout Deflection granting us 195% of our spellpower as parry, the formula for parry from wisdom's spellpower should look like this;
W = Wisdom
(W*0.75)*1.95 = 1.462 parry rating per point of Wisdom.
Block is also increased by a percentage of our spellpower, with 3 points in Stalwart Citadel it is 30%. The formula for block from wisdom's spellpower should be;
(W*0.75)*0.3 = 0.225 block rating per point of wisdom.
With a fully talented Precept of Refuge adding a static 20% block, this should now enable us to reach higher levels of block than ever previously seen on a Justicar. Bear in mind that the amount blocked is still calculated by your strength value, so that while we might block many of the incomming attacks we will still be blocking for less than a warrior.
Intelligence converts into spellpower at a rate of 0.25 spellpower per point of intelligence. It also gives us +10 to our maximum mana and 1 spell critical hit rating. With 3 points in Devout Deflection granting us 195% of our spellpower as parry, the formula for parry from intelligence's spellpower should look like this;
I = Intelligence
(I*0.25)*1.95 = 0.4875 parry rating per point of Intelligence.
Block is also increased by a percentage of our spellpower, with 3 points in Stalwart Citadel it is 30%. The formula for block from intelligence's spellpower should be;
(I*0.25)*0.3 = 0.075 block rating per point of Intelligence.
The Sentinal and Purifier sub specs offer two very nice looking static bonuses when you consider that Wisdom = Spellpower and that Spellpower = Block (via Stalwart Citadel) and Parry (via Devout Deflection). I will now try to show which is best for a Justicar tank.
5% of 100 Wisdom = 5
(W*0.75)*1.95 = 7.312 Parry Rating. (W*0.75)*0.3 = 1.125 Block Rating.
5% of 100 spellpower = 5
SP*1.95 = 9.75 Parry Rating. SP*0.3 = 1.50 Block Rating.
5% of 1000 Wisdom = 50
(W*0.75)*1.95 = 73.125 Parry Rating. (W*0.75)*0.3 = 11.25 Block Rating.
5% of 1000 spellpower = 50
SP*1.95 = 97.5 Parry Rating. SP*0.3 = 15.00 Block Rating.
As you can see from the above examples, the Sentinals +5% spellpower is much stronger than the Purifiers +5% Wisdom. However, the Sentinal tree offers many fewer tanking related talents than the Purifier soul tree. It all depends how many points you decide to sink into the Shaman secondary soul before taking your third soul. This is where you will need to decide, do i go for straight stats or do i go for extra shielding and more cooldowns?
It's up to you, but mathematically speaking, from a 5 point investment, Sentinal is stronger.
Strength - Block and Parry
Strength is generally not seen on Chain items or Cleric shields, we receive parry rating from the talent Devout Deflection which increases our parry rating by 65-195% of our spell power and the buff Mien of Leadership.
Block is found in the passive buff Stalwart Citadel, which increases our block rating by 10-30% of our spell power.
Parry and Block ratings are affected by diminishing returns.
Block rating is gained from gear and Strength, a blocked attack reduces the damage taken by a percentage determined by block rating. Our main source of Block is found in our passive talent Stalwart Citadel, which increases block rating by 10-30%. Blocking requires an equipped shield if you are a cleric.
Dexterity is generally not seen on Chain items or Cleric shields and thus our dodge value is not particulaly high outside of runeworking our items for pure dodge buffs.
Dodge rating is affected by diminishing returns.
Per 1 point Endurance we receive an additional 9 maximum hit points, with our total Endurance multiplied by 90% from Mien of Leadership.
Toughness is going to be introduced as a level 50 tanking stat that will reduce the incoming damage received by monsters. It was recently stated in the Riftpodcast that tanks will need to gear for Toughness on a per tier basis.
For example, 50 Toughness needed for Raid 1, 75 for Raid 2, 100 for Raid 3. Numbers are of course made up and will be updated once more is known.
Armour reduces physical damage received by a percentage. Chain items to not have high amounts of armour, but Mien of Leadership gives us +100% armour +1% per talent in the Justicar soul tree (to a maximum of 151%) plus +15% armour from the Armour of Virtue talent.
Armour rating suffers from direct diminishing returns and while the amount of armour needed to gain +1% of mitigation can increase exponentially, the EH bonus remains roughly the same. Stacking armour is a good thing for mitigating incoming physical damage, but do not do it to the detriment of other tanking stats.
To show how DR affect our EH we need to use the following examples.
The formula for effective health is;
Health / (1-AM%).
1000/(1-0) = 1000
1000/(1-.30) = 1428.57 = A massive 30% armour value increase worked out to be just ~428 effective health due to the armour being so low.
1000/(1-.31) = 1449.27 = 1% extra mitigation is ~21 EH at these low levels of gear.
1000/(1-.50) = 2000 = An extra 19% armour mitigation here still only showing ~551 additional EH.
1000/(1-.90) = 10,000 = At a massive 90% armour mitigation, EH is becomming larger and larger.
1000/(1-.91) = 11,111.1R = At 90% armour, a relatively small increase in armour % is a much larger amount of increased EH than 1% at 30% mitigation. This shows that armour % mitigation scales well and that unless an arbitrary cap is introduced, it will always be a good stat.
However, the important thing to note is the values or armour needed to reach the next percentile. At lower levels, going from 0-30% will be two or three bits of gear from naked. To go from 90% to 91% would be a collosal amount of armour.
Toughness to cap (Unknown currently) -> Endurance/Spellpower -> Wisdom -> Hit/Spell Focus to tank cap (Unknown)/Dodge -> Strength -> Block/Parry -> Intelligence -> Dexterity -> Crit.
My reasoning behind the above list are thus: Toughness will reduce our chance to be crit by raid bosses and heroic/elite instance mobs. This will be our most important stat to cap in these situations, useless if running level 50 normal content as 1-50 normals cannot crit.
Endurance and spellpower both equal survival, endurance is raw health, spellpower becomes block and parry rating, as well as a major threat magnifier as most of our attacks use life energy which counts as spell damage. They will be on about an equal footing. Enchanting for endurance and spellpower will depend on the content you are doing. If you struggle to maintain threat, gear for spellpower (if hitcapped). If your threat is fine, gear for health.
Wisdom is our next important stat, as it provides MP10 and spellpower. It is slightly inferior to pure spellpower, but not by much. It is most likely that spellpower will be a secondary stat and that items with wisdom on them will also have spellpower. Wisdom should be enchanted for if lacking endurance/spellpower enchant options on that slot.
Hit to tank cap is in our third priority category along with dodge. Hit is an important threat stat and it has been stated that a high level of hit will be needed for raiding and instancing. Dodge shares this category because we do not get dodge from our spellpower. This means that it will always be significantly lower than our block and parry ratings and point for point it will be worth more than either due to a lack of diminishing returns. It is yet to be seen how much dodge rating there will be on chain items. Hit is worth enchanting for if you are below the cap. Dodge is not worth enchanting for unless there are no Hit/Endurance/Wisdom/Spellpower enchants on that slot.
Strength has reduced value compared to the other primary stats (excepting intelligence) but a higher value than block and parry rating on their own. 1 point of Strength provides 1 point of both parry and block. The only time it would be worth taking block or parry over strength would be if the combined block/parry and spellpower on the replacement item was higher than the voint balue of strength. For example, an item with 10 strength = 10 block and 10 parry. An item with 20 block or 20 parry would be equal to 10 strength. An item with 15 block/parry and 6+ spellpower on it would be better than 10 strength. Enchanting for strength could be viable, depending on what other runes are available for the slot.
Block and parry share an equal importance as we gain both from spellpower already. If they are on chain items they will be worth taking, but not to the detriment of any of the above stats. They are still worth more than intelligence however, as 1 point of intelligence provides a much smaller amount of benefit from spellpower than 1 point of either dodge or parry. Enchanting for strength is better than enchanting for block/parry, it really is sub optimal, but better than Intelligence/Dexterity.
Intelligence provides spell crit(threat) spellpower(Mitigation and threat) and additional mana. This might make it seem like a very powerful stat, but the actual increases it gives to these stats are tiny in comparison to gearing for the actual stat. It is a nice secondary stat to have on gear and should not be neglected, but you should not gear specifically for it. Do not enchant for Intelligence.
Dexterity is unlikely to be seen on chain gear due to the conversion abilities in the melee souls, but if it is it is worth taking over Strength or crit gear for the additional dodge value. However, it is not worth gearing for and should be replaced quickly, as the dodge value it gives is much smaller than the bonus received in a point to point value of dodge rating itself. Do not enchant for dexterity.
Crit and spellcrit are both at the bottom of the stat list. While they both provide extra threat it is inadvisable to gear for either. Do not enchant for crit.
Next we will look at the subspec availible for a Justicar and what my preferred projected level 50 spec will be.
Justicar's still seem best paired off with a Shaman sub spec, for the 3% less damage received, 10% extra healing and 2% extra crit chance taking you to eight points for the Glacial Shield. This ability returns damage to attackers, acting as a sort of free threat generation aura that absorbs incomming damage. A nice adition to any tank.
Bizarely, i've found my favourite third soul to put points into to be the Purifier healing soul, rather than the Druid melee soul. With 8 points in Purifier, I project my max level 50 soul build to grant me a second self shield for when Glacial Shield is on CD, 5% extra wisdom (which buffs our tanking through the Justicar abilities that convert spell power into tanking stats) 6% extra armour whenever we cast a heal (we get an instant cast heal in the Justicar tree called Doctrine of Bliss that costs 1 Conviction and a tiny amount of mana). It is also important to note that the 6% bonus armour appears to proc from our self heal from Salvation.
I've found this build offers a very competitive tank, with large self buffed armour stats (though cleric shields are all badly itemised in my opinion, theres no need for the 600-700 armour difference between cleric and warrior shields in the mid to late level 20's). Though you don't quite have the versatility of a warrior tanks 4 possible souls, there are still some unique set up's that can be created and fill a niche spot. Clerics can most certainly effectively tank 5 man instances, though it does require a group willing to let them grab initial threat, and i also beleive clerics will be able to tank raid bosses as well.
It is also possible of course to take Druid instead of shaman as the Druid only requires 2 soul point for the shield, and if you put 5 points in the tree you receive 5% extra Endurance. I think this is inferior however to the 3% less damage received and 10% extra healing received presented by the Shaman tree, and vastly inferior to the bonuses the Purifier tree offers.
So, the Justicar priority list for tanking. It is a fluid animal, ever changing depending on what your souls are. I will give you the two priority lists i have been using so far.
Single Target: Sovereignty (to pull) -> Censure -> Precept of Refuge -> Strike of Judgment (to 4 convictions) -> Doctrine of Valiance -> Purpose if below 50% mana.
Multi Target -> Sovereignty (to pull) -> Even Justice/Precept of Refuge (to 4 convictions) -> Doctrine of Loyalty (AoE healing threat) -> Purpose if below 50% mana
Single Target
#Show Precept of Refuge
cast Censure
cast Precept of Refuge
cast Strike of Judgment
This macro will keep up your magical damage debuff and your block self buff while generating convictions.
Multi Target
#Show Precept of Refuge
cast Precept of Refuge
cast Doctrine of Authority
cast Purpose
cast Even Justice
This macro will spam even justice, whilst keeping up your block self buff. With EJ and DoA being our most mana costly damaging abilities i like to have Purpose on this macro to make sure I don't inadvertantly run into mana issues half way through an aoe pack.
Self Heal
#Show Doctrine of Authority
cast Doctine of Authority
cast Doctrine of Valiance
This macro will use DoA and then DoV to generate two rather large self heals using your convictions.
Combat Shields
#Show Glacial Shield
cast Glacial Shield
cast Shield of the Ancestors
This macro will cast GS and then SotA if GS is on cooldown. Just be careful not to overwrite GS before it has been used up.
Justicar Tanks definately have the potential to be well represented at end game tanking. They have more than enough tools to reliably tank 5 man expert dungeons, and I would not be suprised in the slightest to see them do well in end game raiding. They are certainly strong enough for 5 man leveling content.
The most important question is will the playbase allow them to tank at 50? I've seen many plays struggling to accept that clerics and rogues can tank in Rift, it remains to be seen how things will play out amongst wider server communities once the cap is reached.[/quote]
Original link: tanktelara.com/forums/blog/6/entry-6-justicar-tanking-mace-to-their-face/
Elicas said:
Justicar Tanking - Mace to the Face
Elicas here, back again with another dose of tanking trivia, gossip and speculation. The last few beta's have had some interesting changes for the Justicar soul for Clerics in Rift. Now with the headstart upon us let's take a look at what position clerics are in.
Which race to choose?
The changes in the racial abilities have mostly made choosing a race to now be a case of which race do you find most aesthetically pleasing? With the removal of the +10 racial stat bonuses, the choice really does come down to the player.
The Two-Hander Controversy
At the lower levels before diminishing returns really start to set in, using a two handed mace with lots of spellpower on it is will be slightly superior to using a mace and shield due to us not having lots of parry rating. With 3 points in devout deflection and a solid two hander you will be in about an equal position as going mace and shield. Your lower armour and mitigation being made up from the additional parry from spellpower, extra self healing and extra threat. However, at later gear levels when DR starts hitting our parry rating, that block is going to get more and more desirable. Also bear in mind, that should you decide not to put any point's in the fourteen (14) shield related Justicar talents, you will not only lose block mitigation and the armour from the shield, but also 14% armour from Mien of Leadership.
Personally, I found myself moving away from using two handers in my late teens though I did keep my off build as a two handed tank and having tried both out in instances, it definately seemed that the clerics I ran with struggled more to heal me in my two handed spec.
Doctrine of Valiance?
Taking Doctrine of Valiance is a rather contentious issue. It hits for a rather small amount and generally heals for less than a single Doctrine of Bliss. If you're going for a 51 point build you have no choice but to take the talent. However, if your just after a self heal DoB is superior. Personally, I would not take the talent unless you either;
A - Needed the talent for a root ability and had nothing better to take.
or
B - For some reason did not want to take DoB.
DoB is superior in nearly every way. Sacrificing 4 convictions for the current healing DoV supplies just isn't worth it.
Calculating a Clerics Effective Health (EH) and Mitigation
To calculate a cleric's EH and mitigation we need to bear in mind what spec they are using and what bonuses they have. To calculate EH you use;
Health/(1-Armour Mitigation%+Absorbtion Shields%(Riftstalkers)+Damage Reduction%)+Static Shield Absorbs.
For a cleric with Justicar/Shaman/Purifier it would look like this;
Health/(1-Armour Mitigation%+0%+0.03)+Glacial Shield + Shield of Ancestors.
A cleric tank at level 50 with level 50 trained shields with 8000 health and 45% armour reduction would have;
8000/(1-0.45+0+0.03)+764GS+831SotA = 16,976.61 effective health if both shields are used up.
This is taken with 0 spellpower affecting the shields and 0 points in the Protection of the Ancestors talent.
Also bear in mind that all the time we will be healing ourselves via Salvation, which will not directly increase our EH, but rather will reduce the amount of healing required to keep us alive. It's a subtle difference, but it is a note worthy one. You can add your self healing to your effective health still, but instead of increasing the amount of effective damage needing to be dealt to you to kill you, rather it reduces the amount of healing needed to be done to you to keep you at maximum health.
Calculating the amount of survivability your self healing will add is tricky, but doable. What you need to do is set a time frame for the fight you are doing, say 30 seconds with the above build. With clerics' GCD being 1.5 seconds, this means in 30 seconds we will use 20 abilities. Take two of those GCD's out of the equasion for Glacial Shield and Shield of the Ancestors, and your left with 18 attacks every thirty seconds of boss fight. Now, unless you are parsing the fight (in which case you don't really need to be worrying about the math for calculating your self healing, you can read it straight from the parse) you need to take your average healing range and find the median, then times that by the amount of attacks - miss%.
Sounds tricky, let me explain. If your cleric tank only used justicar abilities (which really, it should only be using main Justicar attacks due to the 40% damage reduction on other souls abilities) you will be healing for 25% of the damage done. If your attacks generally deal 90-110 damage, the average hit would be 100, for a heal of 22.5-27.5 or 25 healing median.
25*18 = 450 - Your average self healing would be around the 450 mark.
8000/(1-0.45+0+0.03)+764GS+831SotA+450SH = 17,429.61 Effective Health.
To calculate your total mitigation, the formula is a little bit complicated, but i will provide an example with nice easy rounded numbers. The following formula suggests you have 18% parry, 5% dodge, 45% armour reduction and 35% block chance, with 15% block mitigation.
Mitigation = Parry/Dodge > Block > Damage Reduction
Dodge and Parry should evade 1-(1-0.0500)*(1-0.1800) = .221 or ~22% of hits should be completely evaded dealing 0 damage.
Connected physical hits would deal 55% damage.
Blocks will occur on 1-(1-0.24)*0.3500 = 0.266 - ~26.6% blocked. Although my block value states that I will block ~35% once you factor in some attacks will be completely avoided the actuallity is the amount blocked becomes lower.
With a multi-roll combat system; the game makes two rolls, one to see if the attack hits or misses and one to see what the hit is. For example with a dodge chance of 15% on a roll of 1-15 out of 100 you would dodge the attack. The game would then roll a second time to see if the attack was parried. Again for block, again for crit, again for misses, again for normal hits until one result came back positive. It is very unlikely that the game uses thius system as it takes a lot of extra calculations in the middle of combat, so therefore it is most likely Trion use a one-roll system. This has yet to be tested with max level parses, but is the most likely conclusion.
With a one-roll combat system; the game uses a /roll100 command and checks your characters combat table.
Using the above stats, blocks will occur on 35% of attacks that hit, after dodge, parry and miss have been taken into account.
00.01-05.00 = miss
05.01-10.00 = dodge
10.01-28.00 = parry
28.01-63.00 = block (100% damage - block value)
65.01-68.00 = crit (200% damage)
68.01-100.0 = hit (100% damage)
Blocked hits will mitigate 1-(1-0.50)*(1-0.15) = 0.575 or ~57% mitigation.
Connected hits will mitigate ~50% of the damage at a rate of (1-0.22)*(1-0.35) = 0.507 or ~50% of attacks will not be blocked or avoided.
Wisdom - Spellpower
Wisdom converts into spellpower at a rate of 0.75 spellpower per point of wisdom. It also gives us 0.01 mana regen per 10 seconds (Hereafter referred to as MP10). With 3 points in Devout Deflection granting us 195% of our spellpower as parry, the formula for parry from wisdom's spellpower should look like this;
W = Wisdom
(W*0.75)*1.95 = 1.462 parry rating per point of Wisdom.
Block is also increased by a percentage of our spellpower, with 3 points in Stalwart Citadel it is 30%. The formula for block from wisdom's spellpower should be;
(W*0.75)*0.3 = 0.225 block rating per point of wisdom.
With a fully talented Precept of Refuge adding a static 20% block, this should now enable us to reach higher levels of block than ever previously seen on a Justicar. Bear in mind that the amount blocked is still calculated by your strength value, so that while we might block many of the incomming attacks we will still be blocking for less than a warrior.
Intelligence - Spellpower
Intelligence converts into spellpower at a rate of 0.25 spellpower per point of intelligence. It also gives us +10 to our maximum mana and 1 spell critical hit rating. With 3 points in Devout Deflection granting us 195% of our spellpower as parry, the formula for parry from intelligence's spellpower should look like this;
I = Intelligence
(I*0.25)*1.95 = 0.4875 parry rating per point of Intelligence.
Block is also increased by a percentage of our spellpower, with 3 points in Stalwart Citadel it is 30%. The formula for block from intelligence's spellpower should be;
(I*0.25)*0.3 = 0.075 block rating per point of Intelligence.
+5% Wisdom vs +5% Spellpower.
The Sentinal and Purifier sub specs offer two very nice looking static bonuses when you consider that Wisdom = Spellpower and that Spellpower = Block (via Stalwart Citadel) and Parry (via Devout Deflection). I will now try to show which is best for a Justicar tank.
5% of 100 Wisdom = 5
(W*0.75)*1.95 = 7.312 Parry Rating. (W*0.75)*0.3 = 1.125 Block Rating.
5% of 100 spellpower = 5
SP*1.95 = 9.75 Parry Rating. SP*0.3 = 1.50 Block Rating.
5% of 1000 Wisdom = 50
(W*0.75)*1.95 = 73.125 Parry Rating. (W*0.75)*0.3 = 11.25 Block Rating.
5% of 1000 spellpower = 50
SP*1.95 = 97.5 Parry Rating. SP*0.3 = 15.00 Block Rating.
As you can see from the above examples, the Sentinals +5% spellpower is much stronger than the Purifiers +5% Wisdom. However, the Sentinal tree offers many fewer tanking related talents than the Purifier soul tree. It all depends how many points you decide to sink into the Shaman secondary soul before taking your third soul. This is where you will need to decide, do i go for straight stats or do i go for extra shielding and more cooldowns?
It's up to you, but mathematically speaking, from a 5 point investment, Sentinal is stronger.
Strength - Block and Parry
Strength is generally not seen on Chain items or Cleric shields, we receive parry rating from the talent Devout Deflection which increases our parry rating by 65-195% of our spell power and the buff Mien of Leadership.
Block is found in the passive buff Stalwart Citadel, which increases our block rating by 10-30% of our spell power.
Parry and Block ratings are affected by diminishing returns.
Block Rating - Mitigation
Block rating is gained from gear and Strength, a blocked attack reduces the damage taken by a percentage determined by block rating. Our main source of Block is found in our passive talent Stalwart Citadel, which increases block rating by 10-30%. Blocking requires an equipped shield if you are a cleric.
Dexterity - Dodge
Dexterity is generally not seen on Chain items or Cleric shields and thus our dodge value is not particulaly high outside of runeworking our items for pure dodge buffs.
Dodge rating is affected by diminishing returns.
Endurance - Health
Per 1 point Endurance we receive an additional 9 maximum hit points, with our total Endurance multiplied by 90% from Mien of Leadership.
Toughness - Mitigation
Toughness is going to be introduced as a level 50 tanking stat that will reduce the incoming damage received by monsters. It was recently stated in the Riftpodcast that tanks will need to gear for Toughness on a per tier basis.
For example, 50 Toughness needed for Raid 1, 75 for Raid 2, 100 for Raid 3. Numbers are of course made up and will be updated once more is known.
Armour - Mitigation
Armour reduces physical damage received by a percentage. Chain items to not have high amounts of armour, but Mien of Leadership gives us +100% armour +1% per talent in the Justicar soul tree (to a maximum of 151%) plus +15% armour from the Armour of Virtue talent.
Armour rating suffers from direct diminishing returns and while the amount of armour needed to gain +1% of mitigation can increase exponentially, the EH bonus remains roughly the same. Stacking armour is a good thing for mitigating incoming physical damage, but do not do it to the detriment of other tanking stats.
To show how DR affect our EH we need to use the following examples.
The formula for effective health is;
Health / (1-AM%).
1000/(1-0) = 1000
1000/(1-.30) = 1428.57 = A massive 30% armour value increase worked out to be just ~428 effective health due to the armour being so low.
1000/(1-.31) = 1449.27 = 1% extra mitigation is ~21 EH at these low levels of gear.
1000/(1-.50) = 2000 = An extra 19% armour mitigation here still only showing ~551 additional EH.
1000/(1-.90) = 10,000 = At a massive 90% armour mitigation, EH is becomming larger and larger.
1000/(1-.91) = 11,111.1R = At 90% armour, a relatively small increase in armour % is a much larger amount of increased EH than 1% at 30% mitigation. This shows that armour % mitigation scales well and that unless an arbitrary cap is introduced, it will always be a good stat.
However, the important thing to note is the values or armour needed to reach the next percentile. At lower levels, going from 0-30% will be two or three bits of gear from naked. To go from 90% to 91% would be a collosal amount of armour.
Stat Priority
Toughness to cap (Unknown currently) -> Endurance/Spellpower -> Wisdom -> Hit/Spell Focus to tank cap (Unknown)/Dodge -> Strength -> Block/Parry -> Intelligence -> Dexterity -> Crit.
My reasoning behind the above list are thus: Toughness will reduce our chance to be crit by raid bosses and heroic/elite instance mobs. This will be our most important stat to cap in these situations, useless if running level 50 normal content as 1-50 normals cannot crit.
Endurance and spellpower both equal survival, endurance is raw health, spellpower becomes block and parry rating, as well as a major threat magnifier as most of our attacks use life energy which counts as spell damage. They will be on about an equal footing. Enchanting for endurance and spellpower will depend on the content you are doing. If you struggle to maintain threat, gear for spellpower (if hitcapped). If your threat is fine, gear for health.
Wisdom is our next important stat, as it provides MP10 and spellpower. It is slightly inferior to pure spellpower, but not by much. It is most likely that spellpower will be a secondary stat and that items with wisdom on them will also have spellpower. Wisdom should be enchanted for if lacking endurance/spellpower enchant options on that slot.
Hit to tank cap is in our third priority category along with dodge. Hit is an important threat stat and it has been stated that a high level of hit will be needed for raiding and instancing. Dodge shares this category because we do not get dodge from our spellpower. This means that it will always be significantly lower than our block and parry ratings and point for point it will be worth more than either due to a lack of diminishing returns. It is yet to be seen how much dodge rating there will be on chain items. Hit is worth enchanting for if you are below the cap. Dodge is not worth enchanting for unless there are no Hit/Endurance/Wisdom/Spellpower enchants on that slot.
Strength has reduced value compared to the other primary stats (excepting intelligence) but a higher value than block and parry rating on their own. 1 point of Strength provides 1 point of both parry and block. The only time it would be worth taking block or parry over strength would be if the combined block/parry and spellpower on the replacement item was higher than the voint balue of strength. For example, an item with 10 strength = 10 block and 10 parry. An item with 20 block or 20 parry would be equal to 10 strength. An item with 15 block/parry and 6+ spellpower on it would be better than 10 strength. Enchanting for strength could be viable, depending on what other runes are available for the slot.
Block and parry share an equal importance as we gain both from spellpower already. If they are on chain items they will be worth taking, but not to the detriment of any of the above stats. They are still worth more than intelligence however, as 1 point of intelligence provides a much smaller amount of benefit from spellpower than 1 point of either dodge or parry. Enchanting for strength is better than enchanting for block/parry, it really is sub optimal, but better than Intelligence/Dexterity.
Intelligence provides spell crit(threat) spellpower(Mitigation and threat) and additional mana. This might make it seem like a very powerful stat, but the actual increases it gives to these stats are tiny in comparison to gearing for the actual stat. It is a nice secondary stat to have on gear and should not be neglected, but you should not gear specifically for it. Do not enchant for Intelligence.
Dexterity is unlikely to be seen on chain gear due to the conversion abilities in the melee souls, but if it is it is worth taking over Strength or crit gear for the additional dodge value. However, it is not worth gearing for and should be replaced quickly, as the dodge value it gives is much smaller than the bonus received in a point to point value of dodge rating itself. Do not enchant for dexterity.
Crit and spellcrit are both at the bottom of the stat list. While they both provide extra threat it is inadvisable to gear for either. Do not enchant for crit.
Subspecs
Next we will look at the subspec availible for a Justicar and what my preferred projected level 50 spec will be.
Justicar's still seem best paired off with a Shaman sub spec, for the 3% less damage received, 10% extra healing and 2% extra crit chance taking you to eight points for the Glacial Shield. This ability returns damage to attackers, acting as a sort of free threat generation aura that absorbs incomming damage. A nice adition to any tank.
Bizarely, i've found my favourite third soul to put points into to be the Purifier healing soul, rather than the Druid melee soul. With 8 points in Purifier, I project my max level 50 soul build to grant me a second self shield for when Glacial Shield is on CD, 5% extra wisdom (which buffs our tanking through the Justicar abilities that convert spell power into tanking stats) 6% extra armour whenever we cast a heal (we get an instant cast heal in the Justicar tree called Doctrine of Bliss that costs 1 Conviction and a tiny amount of mana). It is also important to note that the 6% bonus armour appears to proc from our self heal from Salvation.
I've found this build offers a very competitive tank, with large self buffed armour stats (though cleric shields are all badly itemised in my opinion, theres no need for the 600-700 armour difference between cleric and warrior shields in the mid to late level 20's). Though you don't quite have the versatility of a warrior tanks 4 possible souls, there are still some unique set up's that can be created and fill a niche spot. Clerics can most certainly effectively tank 5 man instances, though it does require a group willing to let them grab initial threat, and i also beleive clerics will be able to tank raid bosses as well.
It is also possible of course to take Druid instead of shaman as the Druid only requires 2 soul point for the shield, and if you put 5 points in the tree you receive 5% extra Endurance. I think this is inferior however to the 3% less damage received and 10% extra healing received presented by the Shaman tree, and vastly inferior to the bonuses the Purifier tree offers.
Tanking Rotation & Macros
So, the Justicar priority list for tanking. It is a fluid animal, ever changing depending on what your souls are. I will give you the two priority lists i have been using so far.
Single Target: Sovereignty (to pull) -> Censure -> Precept of Refuge -> Strike of Judgment (to 4 convictions) -> Doctrine of Valiance -> Purpose if below 50% mana.
Multi Target -> Sovereignty (to pull) -> Even Justice/Precept of Refuge (to 4 convictions) -> Doctrine of Loyalty (AoE healing threat) -> Purpose if below 50% mana
Single Target
#Show Precept of Refuge
cast Censure
cast Precept of Refuge
cast Strike of Judgment
This macro will keep up your magical damage debuff and your block self buff while generating convictions.
Multi Target
#Show Precept of Refuge
cast Precept of Refuge
cast Doctrine of Authority
cast Purpose
cast Even Justice
This macro will spam even justice, whilst keeping up your block self buff. With EJ and DoA being our most mana costly damaging abilities i like to have Purpose on this macro to make sure I don't inadvertantly run into mana issues half way through an aoe pack.
Self Heal
#Show Doctrine of Authority
cast Doctine of Authority
cast Doctrine of Valiance
This macro will use DoA and then DoV to generate two rather large self heals using your convictions.
Combat Shields
#Show Glacial Shield
cast Glacial Shield
cast Shield of the Ancestors
This macro will cast GS and then SotA if GS is on cooldown. Just be careful not to overwrite GS before it has been used up.
Conclusion
Justicar Tanks definately have the potential to be well represented at end game tanking. They have more than enough tools to reliably tank 5 man expert dungeons, and I would not be suprised in the slightest to see them do well in end game raiding. They are certainly strong enough for 5 man leveling content.
The most important question is will the playbase allow them to tank at 50? I've seen many plays struggling to accept that clerics and rogues can tank in Rift, it remains to be seen how things will play out amongst wider server communities once the cap is reached.[/quote]
Original link: tanktelara.com/forums/blog/6/entry-6-justicar-tanking-mace-to-their-face/