Gearing Up for Hydross: Nature Resistance

Although our regular SSC run has a Nature and a Frost tank, I like to be prepared to step in. Just in case. So I started assembling the Nature Resistance gear.

Although it was rather expensive, it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be. wowwiki lists a bunch of extra enchants and whatnot to put on your gear, but this isn’t necessary. With a few common buffs, you should be able to hit the resistance cap - 365 - with only five pieces of gear and one resistance enchant.

Buffing Up - Resistance Buffs

Our goal is to reach 365 Nature Resist. So what buffs can we count on being in our SSC to push us towards that goal?

Hopefully we take at least one druid. Off tank. Healer. Whatever. Ne’er should a raid exist that has not paws. And (unimproved) paws gives +25 to all resistances.

We would also be rather silly to go to SSC without a single hunter. That hunter will of course be placed in the tanks group and he will dutifully put up Aspect of the Wild. Woot, +70 Nature Resist. We currently run with 4-5 hunters, so almost everyone gets this - but if there’s at least one hunter around you can count on the tank getting the buff.

We also have been using Flasks of Chromatic Wonder. The raid leader buys them and passes them out. This is a pretty awesome flask, if you ask me. The other component of the flask (+18 to stats) is slightly better than an Elixir of Mastery - which I usually use as a Battle Elixir. Therefore we’d be giving up a guardian elixir (like Elixir of Major Fortitude, +250 Health) to gain our resistance. Pretty good trade off.

That gives us a base of at least 95 Nature Resist and 130 Nature Resist if we use the flask.

Gearing Up

With that in mind, we can easily achieve our goal with five pieces of crafted gear and one enchant.

That’s a grand total of 255 Nature Resistance.

Add that together with our buffs - 130 Nature Resist - and you’ve got 385 Nature Resistance. More than enough.

Why No Armor Kits?

First, they’re unnecessary. Why should I bother to get 350 Nature Resistance unbuffed if I can reach the cap through a buff? I can use those enchant slots much more wisely - and not have to get new gear to use them on.

For example, let’s look at the leg slot. I could attach a Nature Armor Kit and gain +8 Nature Resistance. Or I could attach a Clefthide Leg Armor and gain +30 Stamina, +10 Agility. Is +8 Nature Resistance worth giving up 300 HP and 0.40% to dodge? I think not.

The chest slot isn’t as great a discrepancy, but +150 Health is probably more helpful than +8 Nature Resist. Same with boots and +12 stamina.

I’d also prefer Greater Inscription of the Knight on my shoulders. Although part of the defense is lost, since Blocking is impossible, that’s still ~1.25% avoidance. Nothing to sneeze at.

While we’re at it, I might even forego the Glyph of Nature Warding and pick up a standard Glyph of the Gladiator.

Other Gear to Grab

With the resistance gear out of the way, I still need to pick up a few pieces of gear to really be viable.

I’ve been in need of a new trinket for a while. The Adamantite Figurine is nice enough, but I’d love to get my hands on a Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch. It’d grant more avoidance (since Block is negated), and the on use is far more useful.

I love my Darkmoon Card: Vengeance, but I could really use a Commendation of Kael’thas. /drool

My shield could use an upgrade, too. The armor/block becomes useless, so the other buffs are the only important part. This would be a great opportunity for a Brutal Gladiator’s Shield Wall, but that’s not going to happen. The Dawnforged Defender would be a slight upgrade, granting hit rating and maintaining my avoidance with dodge rating.

Finally, the weapon. I think it might be time to ditch my Crystalforged Sword altogether, since the 11 Block Rating is kind of insignificant. The Gavel of Unearthed Secrets might be nice in the meantime, but I think I’ll follow the trend and get the PVP weapon.

Anyhow, the biggest part is done - I’ve got maxed out Nature Resist gear. Someday I might get to use it.

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