Building a Block Gear Set Guide

Unlike TBC, Wrath from the Lich King hasn't required any form of resistance gear to date and tanks happen to be able to enjoy more bag space for some months. Unfortunately, this is all about to alter in the next phase using the release from the Trial from the Crusader raid.

Welcome to Guide on Building a Block Set for Phase 3 of Wrath from the Lich King Classic. This guide covers the reasons for creating a Block Set, a Brief explanation of the encounter it's useful, in addition to the best slot pieces to gather before Phase 3 launches.

Anub'arak, the ultimate boss from the next raid, summons 2 Nerubian Burrowers to his aid every 45 seconds (4 in difficult mode) while he emerges. In the traditional strategy, these ads are incredibly dangerous and require immediate raid focus to consider them down before they tore your multiple off-tanks apart, in addition to interrupts to avoid their deadly backstab on the random raid member that's sure to kill them at that moment.

But there is a twist. With the proper gear set, two classes can singlehandedly negate all of the Nerubian Burrowers' abilities, enabling your raid to concentrate solely on Anub'arak's health bar. Yes, you read that right. Two tank classes can tank an infinite quantity of Burrowers in difficult mode, in each phase, while taking 0 damage and preventing these from attacking your raid members.

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Gear Requirements

1. Avoidance Cap (101.6%)

Your priority would be to put together a gear set able to reach an overall total of 101.6% (cap for level 82 enemies) combined avoidance and block chances, including buffs and consumables, to negate all incoming melee attacks from Nerubian Burrowers. Block rating offers the highest quantity of "avoidance" per point because it doesn't are afflicted by diminishing returns and really should be your priority. Defense and dodge ratings will also be very valuable, and parry rating may be the least valuable of avoidance stats since it suffers from higher diminishing returns.

2. Block Value Cap (3200-3500)

Once you accomplish 101.6% combined avoidance and block chances, the only real incoming hits connecting are going to be guaranteed blocks. Even if the Expose Weakness debuff can be applied for you through blocks, the harm multiplier only applies to the harm going through your block value. For this reason, you need to raise your total block value over the maximum melee hit you can theoretically receive from the Nerubian Burrower. The goal would be to aim for about 3500 SBV (pending beta logs for any more accurate number), including buffs ( Glyph of Blocking). Make certain to also maintain just as much uptime of AP reduction as you possibly can on all targets, a normal Demoralizing Shout is sufficient.

3. Hit Cap (6%) — only necessary for hard mode

To prevent Burrowers from casting Shadow Strike instantly once they accumulate several Spider Frenzy auras, you will have to use an AoE stun without any target cap every thirty seconds and this stun must arrive at every target, or else you will lose one or several raid members.

A Protection Warrior's Shockwave may be the perfect tool with this job, having a long 4-sec stun providing you with some leeway around the cast window along with a short 20-sec cooldown. Protection Paladins uses Holy Wrath for a similar effect but having a slightly shorter stun duration along with a 30-sec cooldown which should theoretically be sufficient for every window. If not, Glyph of Holy Wrath is an option.