As a decently group-geared SK that does not reliably group with a debuffer, should I be using the cripple belt or the slow belt? I have been using a slow belt for awhile, and do not currently own a cripple belt or I'd just try to find out on my own. Thanks!
Slow belt for knights. 0.4s cast is close but not quite instant, so any additional gap between incoming hits is valuable. More valuable, pointedly, than making those hits lighter with a cripple effect, as the spells themselves reduce incoming damage or heal the hits off after impact.
Don’t ignore the boon belt, either. If you can get slow done via some other means, the boon effect is pretty solid for SKs. So ideally you’d carry both and swap out when you have an actual slower with you.
Boon: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=151394 Slow: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=151398 Cripple: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=151395 Above are the group versions from RoS. There are raid equivalents as well, along with older expansion items with the same focuses starting in....CotF/TDS-ish. There are also Overdrive Punch, Threads of Potential and Sympathetic proc versions that tanks don’t generally use.
The slow effect of tendon slice is better than having to use a truncheon of doom to proc slow on the mob, if you possess this weapon. Even if you bandolier it.
My ToD, my Hammer of the War Machine, and my Darkened ToD have all been banked for years. I keep a slow belt, bagged, for battles that will go long enough to care about slowing mobs, but I prefer the Cripple defensive proc nearly all the time.
It's situational, but I normally go with the cripple belt unless I'm expecting multiple mobs every pull. I usually have a beastlord, shaman, or enchanter in my group though so it doesn't really matter to me much. I never thought about using a boon belt, although I wonder if a threads of potential belt would be better for knights.
That seems unlikely, as it only impacts spells with a 100+ point mana cost, whereas boon impacts most procs and aa stuff. I like the boon belt, myself.
It is more nuanced than "the slow belt is the best belt for all tanks." It might be true that the slow belt will reduce incoming damage the most, sometimes that isn't all that important. One consequence of slowing a mob is that you will decrease your damage done. Because of this, both the cripple belt and the boon belt (which can generate a surprising amount of damage if you have enough self-buffs) are viable if not optimal in many situations.
I have all of the above group belts. I mainly use the cripple one as I am grouped with a shaman or chanter 95% of the time. If no slower is in the group I will start with the slow one, then switch ti cripple. If I am not tanking and just DPSing then Overdrive Punch belt gets used. Would like to see a belt bandolier
I don’t know anyone that has actually tested it, but I’d be interested to know at what point overdrive punch out damages boon. This certainly relies on a lot of factors, but boon typically is responsible for more damage output than the punch proc if you have a couple proc self-buffs and damage procs in you main and offhand. Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if the overal numbers were negligibly different.
Thank you guys for the input, I'm going with the slow belt for general use and I'm going to buy a boon belt for easier content / content where I have a reliable slower (I know it's close to the expansion, but I don't expect to immediately replace my belts right away)
