BiS Gear for Warlock Tanking in AQ!

Let us discuss which shadow resist pieces may be used to tank the twink emperor encounter in AQ40, what "good" stat trades are, and more! NOTE: As of the recording of this video AQ40 has NOT been released, so many of these gear choices me be open to change in the future!
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Music by: / ximertracks

[@IamAliveTv]

A lot of you are asking about the rank 7 pvp gloves that reduce pushback on searing pain by 50%. I definitely should have brought this up in the video and forgot to! My apologies! However, in the upcoming twins tank guide we will go over why you actually DONT need the pvp gloves

[@fennec7906]

If you aren't Engineering (don't want to respec), and don't yet have a Tear, is it ok to not use 1-2 Shadow Reflectors?

[@markoviitanen2671]

@@fennec7906 You can get demonblood trinket from a quest in Blasted Lands classic.wowhead.com/item=10779/demons-blood . The same quest also gives you rather good amulet +10 shadow res, if Eidolon talisman seems too expensive for you.

[@stevie3452]

Marko Viitanen wow I never knew about that! Is there any other shadow res trinkets? I currently don’t have tear nor engineering

[@Ryan_hey]

I was gonna ask this! Very curious

[@Breedlove00]

Do your thoughts change if it is the rank 12 gloves, as opposed to R7? Keeping the 50% pushback reduction, but also with 30 spell power and high stam? As a lock with access to R14 gear, are there any other pieces (obviously aside from spellblade) that you would recommend using for AQ tanking??

[@paulm.3591]

Thank you Alive-senpai for the services you do to the wlock community, I've always followed your guide and I'm parsing like crazy now, big POGGERS !

[@vocalcynic2953]

I cringe when KZbinrs ask for Likes and Subs but you have done so much for the Warlock community that you've earned the right to ask. I will like every video of yours that comes across my feed.

[@stellioleondis7192]

Good work keep up the quality content! I watch all of your videos its only a matter of time before your channel takes off!

[@franciscokln]

Thx my man. Can‘t wait for more AQ stuff

[@stevie3452]

That fake notification from yesterday!!! So glad it’s finally up this time :)

[@phillipfranken7460]

Will be adding this vid to the guilds Warlock discord channel. Great advice!

[@grantchzm]

Love your content man!

[@user-gm8ek2ps3v]

My like to u m8. Nice one as usual. Go on man)

[@phayge7623]

Nice guide. Questions on some choices: -Nat Pagle's Broken Reel!! 10% hit when you pop it right when it's your turn to pick up aggro should be insane! As a tank you want hit more than anything to reliably pick up aggro, and with your setup it will give you 15% (almost hit cap) hit at the most important part of the fight. The CD is short too. I think this is a better choice than 20 SR from reflector. -Similarly to Reel, there are 2 more trinkets from ZG - the warlock class one for 10% crit, which is similar threat as Reel, and can be paired with the ZG chest for 12 more spell power from set bonus. Last resort and super simple for people to get - ZHC, which works great for tanking by frontloading the spell power to ensure you secure aggro at the start. All 3 of these trinkets can either replace Tear if you don't have it, or use alongside Tear. (Edit: I see you mention Hazzrahs at the end, it'll be useful early on for a week 1 clear, but Reel or ZHC are other options!) -What do you think of ZG set chest? It has +4 stam and +14 dmg over Nemesis, and should be really easy to get. But -20 int which isn't as important as the other stats. Nemesis is nice if you need to hit the 3-piece but you shouldn't need chest for that (esp after getting the AQ trash chest) -Both the hit bracers are probably the best, but Nemesis bracers OR ZG set bracers (with the 2 piece bonus with the chest) look pretty much equal and easier to obtain! Nemesis specifically can help hit the set bonus if you're having trouble with Gloves and Belt dropping. -Your max SR set goes over the SR you'll need, since you'll get 60 from priest, 15 from Demon Armor, and 10 from Gift of Arthas, which means you'll cap SR at 230 from gear, and only 220 if you're undead. This means you can swap something like a Shadow Reflector out for one of the threat trinkets, or one of the other swaps you mentioned. (MOTW doesn't stack with priest/paladin buff) -Also should mention the enchants, the idols are HUGE here with the 10 stam that people might overlook. Should have one on Nemesis helm already, but maybe consider one on SR legs too if you're rich. Also remember 10 SR on cloak to add to your total, and 5 SR to shoulder from Argent Dawn if desperate for SR, but spell power is probably better. Nice guide, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts. Especially on spec. I'm assuming you'd recommend DS/Ruin for max threat, but there's some good Demonology options with MD or SL as well for people who want to be cautious.

[@H3nr1kLarsen92]

I was about to write a very similar thing, I was lucky ro get the reel, and I'm not going engineering so definitely using that. I dont have bracers arcane accuracy, so I think I'll go with ZG chest and bracers as well. I'll use some of the stygian pieces as well, and aiming for around 170-190 unbuffed SR, think that'd give you a good mix between threat and mitigation. I feel the video may have overlooked a few very good alternatives and really a middel ground between the threat gear and max SR gear. Think I'll go with this, then you can always add a few more SR items to get more: classic.wowhead.com/gear-planner/warlock/human/AjwSBQAvIFA1ASIAH1BQAFECQAHwgUIhXmUCR6SDQadYRIVOQU46BkIlB1A6iFA5TjSJTYhOK4pCIDZ7Sy7xBbpMLswFug1Lsw5N649ITTTSkEucWN0SMT0

[@audiofun1]

Well thought out!

[@jonexir]

Finally . Btw i just got my tear today and now 8% hit gang 🤑

[@sgt391]

great video thank!

[@gunlancer1920]

Commenting to help

[@audiofun1]

Omg yes! Finally

[@MrCheezyNerdgasm]

If you don't have arcane accuracy bracer or t2 chest, the ZG set chest and bracer combo is real nice, gives alot or stamina, hit and alot of spell damage when you consider the 2 set, and you still have t2 3 set with head,gloves,belt

[@michaelcooper2708]

Thumbs up if you are excitedly waiting for Alive to drop his Fire Spec in AQ video! We need you Alive, the community calls on you!

[@bs5am]

Wake up! We need that twins video! :)

[@mammothminis9884]

Twin emps are a B. One of our 3 raid groups finally cleared it last night after like 15-20 attempts. Took them almost 12mins. They are super geared with BWL on farm for months. They had 6 warlocks - interesting that you can soulstone tanks in this fight to prevent wipes. My raid did 6 attempts our first week, its really hard to get everyone on the right page. The big debate is whether to wear a ton of tier/epic gear for high threat and HP vs wearing a bunch of SR garbage. My raid is leaning on SR but the other group that cleared it had much lower SR.

[@bass-dc9175]

I Like a mix of Shadowresistance and Damage. T2 Head Eidolon Neck T1 Shoulders Eidolon Cloak T2 Robe Rockfury (P5) PvP Gloves (Because of the Searing Pain interaction) Mageblade Bag of Whammies Serpentine Skuller Nemesis Belt T1 Pants Runed Stygian Boots (Tailoring P5) 2 Shadow Resi Rings (Or 1 + ZG ring) Nefs Tear + Shadow reflector

[@ebutuoy8272]

wOOt, now i can watch it

[@TheInnozenz]

"Humanly possible..." Hm.. But... I'm a gnome. A very nevous one when it comes to AQ. Thank you for the video.

[@foxmulder8955]

gnome is absolute bis race for warlock when it comes to pve so don't be nervous

[@sekzor7150]

Good shit

[@supersaiyandennis8700]

as others have pointed out, you should have mentioned which resistance buffs stack and which dont. appart from that gj :)

[@fluffydumpling5825]

I think Zandalar Demoniac's Robe is a good option as well, 35 stamina and hit.

[@audiofun1]

Yeah I was thinking that would be a top contender for the chest slot. He didn't even give it an honorable mention

[@Anaomilfairbanks]

First comment.dope video I’m assuming they will hit like trucks for 3 weeks then they won’t after that. May vary depending on gear drops because by week 2 u will have a combo of sets (1 +2)and 3

[@Athanasious1901]

thanks for the detailed guide, btw when is the twin tanking guide coming? ;)

[@IronCBall]

There are green + shadow resist chests (best I’ve seen is +27) which are better than that visionwrap but still not recommended probably

[@josebogado6425]

Hi, im commenting to help xd

[@MrCliverandy]

You can cheat resistance with 30 demonology ( using SL is very good too but make sure your felguard get enough healing. Going SL make you loose Ruin though). Then you can focus more on hit and crit.

[@johngotti7652]

hell yeah

[@graham3024]

Lmfao, that dank dank set up xD

[@sabotsabotskij7047]

TY for the vid! You have any comments on the Sheen of Zanza vs. Spirit of Zanza for this fight btw?

[@JoesYoutubechannel]

When can we expect that fire spec video!?

[@julithun4576]

Fyi: Mark/gift of the wild doesn't stack with paladin/priest buffs, only demon armor and arthas' gift do

[@Falcrist]

And Master Demonologist.

[@mammothminis9884]

This is a HUGE point that was overlooked. you get +70 max not +90. That makes all the difference when trying to gear. You might have to wear Polychrom to make up the difference.

[@Falcrist]

​@@mammothminis9884 you can have the following buffs: *_EITHER_* paladin Shadow Resistance Aura (60) *_OR_* priest Shadow Protection (60) *_OR_* Mark/Gift of the Wild (up to 27) Master Demonologist (60) Demon Armor (15) Undead Racial (10) Gift of Arthas (10)

[@legend-of-synthwave5399]

Anyway to have fun with the improved fire stone and do melee with a 1.5 sword as human and have it actually be ok with DS in pvp? Could it work for tanking?

[@VENO412]

What would be the preferred spec or specs to use ? Thanks.

[@Shikaradin66]

Just go MD ruin and then run high threat gear with SR cap. Useful for NR for visc also

[@Shadowrich]

@Alive How do you feel about rank 7 pvp gloves for 50% reduced chance for push back on searing pain? Sounds op

[@gman9696]

I'm surprised this wasn't covered

[@hypt0ny]

Will only be useful for hordies as alliance get concentration aura from pallies.

[@willfulmisfortune3679]

Not worth the trade. Nem glove stats > no pushback, all day, everyday. Not even close.

[@Shadowrich]

Matt W not sure I agree with this logic. Horde rank 7 gloves have 6 additional spell power over t2 while losing 1 crit; minimal stat loss. 50% reduced spell push back can be huge when you are eating shadow bolt spam to the face. You’re saying 1% spell crit is superior to 50% reduced spell push back while tanking.

[@Xxole1]

Hi im setting up my Shadow resist build as Undead warlock, and i wanted to know if i could have this confirmed. I actually have before gear: +10 from Undead racial, +10 from Gift of Arthas, +15 from Demon Armor, +60 from priest buff. So i would need 315 -10 -10 -15 -60 = 220 Shadow Resist on Gear to reach the max cap. Is it all correct? Thanks.

[@Falcrist]

Yea, plus you can spec into Master Demonologist, which gives you another 60, so you only need 160 shadow resistance to reach the cap.

[@jamescunningham6427]

Didn't see a mention of a particular spec on here. Do we have one ? Thanks.

[@MrPhilBerg]

It would be much appreciated if you could link the builds in the video description

[@jynx5616]

315 is capped resist in classic wow, whats the best gear to have for that raid buffed, alliance, and horde respectively

[@andrewlee4830]

Tanked Twim Emps today @ 315 SR, each shadow bolt was hitting me for half my health. Insane damage, not sure how people are getting away with any less.

[@Brooksmaekai]

Hey Alivetv, how do you think parsing will be done if you are a warlock tanking vs not tanking?

[@isaqkampp4044]

There are also basilisks spines in stv that gives 10 shadow resistance.

[@Fullmetal6]

Trueeeee, bout to farm some up

[@joaosergiodearaujoneto4151]

It’s a buff that lasts for 1 minute with a 2 minute cool down. Not useful since you can’t keep 100% uptime

[@Remindw]

Do you think going without any shadow reflector while not having tear would be decent enough? Heading towards 315 sr buffed.

[@btwice916]

Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't 2.5 pants be better than black blizz in the bis set? Way more stam/int for only 7 less sp?

[@tiltnmafks]

LMAO IM GOING FIRE SPEC TOOOO LETSGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@minhaochen2990]

FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~~please

[@Abalamski]

Juno cloak won’t be in the game till phase 5...also the rank 7 gloves weren’t covered?

[@erkislerk]

So I saw the video and it had some great information, but I was wondering about a couple points you mentioned: 1. The Spell power coefficient of SP vs SB. While yes, SB does have twice the coefficient (if my numbers are correct), the cast time is also 2/3 longer (with Bane ofc), meaning the value of spell power for SB is only 20% higher. At some points, it felt like you treated spell power like it meant very little in regards to SP dps, which might affect some of your gearing choices. 2. Sort of tying in to the first point, you strongly reccomend swapping t1 pants to stygian pants over swapping t1 boots to stygian boots. Using t1 boots & stygian pants does net you 2 more SR (and 8 stamina), but you're losing 12 spell power (and 8 int) when compared to using t1 pants & stygian boots, which is a tradeoff I don't think I agree with. Maybe you misread the t1 boots, as you mention at 21:33 "you're gaining 10 shadow resistance" which isn't correct, you're actually gaining 13. 3. As a final point, you mention the wand being a great place to swap in some SR, as it generally doesn't have a lot of stats. Comparing swapping t1 legs to stygian legs (again) versus swapping touch of chaos to the SR wand, the SR gain per SP loss is 0,55 (10/18) for the wand swap & 0,5 (15/30) for the pant swap, meaning there is only a slight difference in spell power lost per point of shadow res gained with swapping the pants over the wand. In addition, you lose a ton of int & stam with swapping the pants, which is why I would argue swapping the wand is not at all an obvious choice. What are your thoughts on the above points?

[@vjiffy8598]

Are these sets running MD/Ruin for the 60 shadow resistance, or can u run DS/Ruin as u please?

[@IamAliveTv]

Ds/ruin is fine. No need to respec

[@romainb6474]

Now that you guys downed them, what amount of SR would you recommend ? Heard a little bit of everything so unsure what to actually do as my guild is rather casual. Also does the shadow reflector actually works ?

[@The0nlyy]

Please let us know!! I’ve heard 315 cap is absolutely required. That means I’ll have no choice but to run MD/Ruin until I get some of the AQ shadow resist gear.

[@Marksm50]

You can have 260 fully buffed and use greater shadow protection pots on cooldown

[@danielcachopo6645]

This is a good guide, but there's a big big big problem my friend. Mark of the Wild doesn't stack with Priest's Shadow Protection or Paladin's Shadow Resistance Aura. The buffs you should be counting on are: +60 from Felhunter (If you are specced into Demonic Knowledge) +60 from Priest/Paladin Buff, +15 from Demon Armor and +10 from Gift of Arthas, that's a total of 145 extra SR. And before you ask, yes Felhunter buff stacks with Priest/Paladins's buff. If you wanna reach cap, you gonna need 170 SR unbuffed (160 if you are Undead).

[@The0nlyy]

Can anybody confirm this comment? We know lot has changed from PServers.

[@danielcachopo6645]

@@The0nlyy you can test this right now in game mate or even on the PTR if you dont want to spend money respeccing

[@supersaiyandennis8700]

this is what i am aiming for too. 170 resistance should be needed for non undeads to be capped with buffed. very good point sir. should be mentioned in the video

[@Gr33nsurfer]

This is not true. At least not for the part with Gift of Arthas which stacks with Demon Armor and Shadow Protection.Tested it few days ago.

[@danielcachopo6645]

@@Gr33nsurfer is correct, just done test it myself, gonna edit the original comment. So TL;DR everything stacks EXCEPT Mark of the Wild (And Paladin Aura + Priest Buff ofc).

[@PandaOfRegret]

Didn’t talk about MD/Ruin? My guild has DS/Ruin locks not put corruption up anyways so you’re trading improved tap really for 60SR on twin emps and all other fights you’re almost normal DS/Ruin without the tap or instant corrupt. Just a thought that’s what I’ll be running for a while so I can keep some more normal gear on for threat. Good vid though.

[@taekwonjeff]

25:53 petition to normalize calling your bis gear as your 420swagyolo gear hahah

[@neomfoxeh]

How do you feel about angellista's belt for hit? I've been theory crafting it for maximizing threat

[@Danne89]

T2 belt is waaaay better.

[@Jsaluma]

how necessary do you think the trinket will be?

[@ferreroblank6389]

MOTW and Shadow res aura don't stack right? The max you can get is +85 from buffs, 60 from shadow res, 15 from demon armour and 10 from gift of arthus.

[@deconstructeddad2628]

This is correct.

[@tzeentch1001]

what talents should be used

[@senateb]

Polychromatic Visionwrap might lose you a lot of threat but I think you are forgetting it is very close to BIS rp

[@rolandheinze7182]

You assert Mageblade > Claw due to low SP coefficient on searing pain. 42.85% of +24 sp is +10.284 sp, and you also get 5 more int which is 75 Mana, 4mp5 which is another 48 Mana over 60 seconds (so at least 120 Mana total), and 5/60 int = +0.08% crit chance, all for a 1% crit boost from mageblade. Seems like they're pretty equal, but I suppose Mageblade may have a small advantage.

[@The0nlyy]

Claw is the best MH in the game for warlocks currently. A lot of people choose mageblade because they can’t afford Claw. At the end of the day the difference is negligible, use whatever you have bro.

[@Bleckyyyy]

@@The0nlyy i love how people wanna make mageblade look better just because they cant have claw of chromaggus xD

[@MjmanDK]

GIVE. US. FIRE SPEC!

[@sigurdlorenzen9580]

Cant agree more! Giiiiiiiive it now!!!

[@FireWaia]

I’m a noob, when do we spec fire?

[@kwodjo]

Please fire spec build!

[@SurvivingAddiction]

Is Junos shadow out right now?

[@TheLarslund]

Got mageblade and jindo oh. Also got straff of the shadowflame. Straff must be better for tanking No?

[@Fullmetal6]

Use staff until you can replace the mage blade

[@user-gm8ek2ps3v]

And by the way, Alive, what's your opinion on deep Demonology build to get 60 Shadow Resistance from Felhunter? Is it worth to spec or we should wait to see what dmg we'll soak from Twins?

[@doctordemento965]

I would steer clear of that MD build. It is good for a beginner tank with bad gear but will absolutely pull your DPS way down if you are in an avg. / above avg. guild to the point of losing threat. You want your imp sacc'd for this fight.

[@Abalamski]

The Humungus this is wrong. You’re exaggerating. At best md/ruin is safe first week. At worst it’s a less than 5% dps loss because of improved life tap. Which nobody is going to care about on progression unless you min/max first week for whatever reason

[@deconstructeddad2628]

I would argue that the MD buff allows more gearing options to further augment threat generation.

[@doctordemento965]

​@@Abalamski You have no clue what you're talking about. He didn't say progression. Progression is where you want your best effort, best spec and best gear. Why? You don't have anything from AQ yet! 15 percent damage DECREASE is a huge amount of DPS loss. Your job in that fight is simply to hold aggro... that means spamming searing pain with your imp sacc'd. I've done it. I did it in vanilla. Don't mislead people with nonsense and theory crafting. That build is not an optimal build... and a SR pot will do more than losing 5 points in your talents which you are going to need for the REST of the raid. CAN you do it? Sure. You can also be a destruction lock... but you aren't doing your best for the raid. You can go SL too lmao... if your raid is wiling to lose your DPS. There are better options.... think.

[@Abalamski]

The Humungus you sure do edit your comments a lot. It’s obviously going to be progression. Lmao. Yes you can play ds/ruin first week. You can also play md/ruin to give your healers and yourself breathing room. Not sure how your tiny brain can’t understand that it’s ok to go md/ruin for the first week. You literally gain 60 resistance which is huge to play around with other gear options to augment threat. There’s no theorycrafting that needs to be done. All you have to do is join the warlock discord and gain the same information I’m getting. Not sure what point you’re trying to make with soul link or destro but it would be nice to stay on subject, or are you just derailing to try to prove a point? Viable builds for raiding in aq: ds/ruin, sm/ruin and md/ruin. Guess what? You can tank just fine in all 3 specs and that’s a fact. Md/ruin is fine first week especially. It’s pretty obvious you don’t know what you’re talking about because md/ruin becomes ds/ruin with fel domination. The only difference is 20% mana gain from life tap and corruption is casted. You shouldn’t even have a corruption slot in aq when the mages go fire.

[@campbellthomson8252]

any update on the new tank vid xD

[@jonathanerickson8832]

Paladin SR buff, priest SR buff and Druid SR buff do not stack. ZG robe is probably your best option for chest outside of the AQ40 trash drop. Didn't mention getting items enchanted. Could add another 5 SR or 18 SP to shoulders, another 18 SP/10 stam to head and legs, 10 SR to cloak. Cloak of Consumption is a decent option with hit and damage.

[@SleeperVII7]

You did mention Gift of Arthas as a consumable but there is also Crystal Basilisk Spine from the Crystal Spine Basilisks in STV; could be another cheap way to put on another 10 SR into the setup: classic.wowhead.com/item=1703/crystal-basilisk-spine

[@IamAliveTv]

I havnt tested it on classic yet, but in past private servers that didn't stack with gift of arthas. I don't think it works in classic either

[@TheStewy09]

What about the pvp gloves for 50% chance to avoid interruption?

[@The0nlyy]

I think they hit slow enough where the loss of stats, damage, set bonus, resistance is not work it. Searing pain is only 1.5 sec cast time and warlock don’t have issues holding threat with thorns on.

[@Young-ep8ik]

stats and damage wise, R7 gloves in itself is pretty close to t2 gloves. You also gain an extra 23 damage set bonus if you another pvp piece along with it. Vek'lor casts a shadowbolt every 1.5 sec, so unless your searing pain cast is timed perfectly, you will get a spell push back for every single searing pain cast.

[@kinkytheslinky]

This is the setup I plan on using going into twin emps, and speccing MD/Ruin once my guild progresses to that point. Thoughts? classic.wowhead.com/gear-set/gear-before-aq-63600

[@supersaiyandennis8700]

exactly sniped the 170 resistance which should be needed to be capped (for non undeads) with md fel hunter+shadow protection+demon armor. i will go with something similar and prefer it over anything of the mentioned setups by alive.

[@svai501]

motw does not stack with the shadow resist

[@TheExtraSausage]

So where is our twin tanking video?)

[@93JennyPham]

First 😘

[@Danne89]

What about tanking speccs? How needed is it to respecc for this fight if you're SM/RUIN or DS/RUIN?

[@thesorrow312]

Not at all

[@Asianmannly]

Sp doesn’t matter searing pain gens 1k threat

[@andrejcagalj4089]

people keep forgeting the 50 all ress potion that last 3 mins which is crazy nice and cheap

[@Danne89]

"The resistances granted by this potion do not stack with any other Resistance buff (Auras or Totems, Mark of the Wild, Shadow Protection, etc.). They will stack with resistance gains from gear and Juju items." So it's useless.

[@kaikwekkeboom7724]

sixtyupgrades.com/set/cFjVZMSUaHQXR2pPuYaRDQ iam go in with this Setup.. maybe i swap out Staff of the Shadow Flame for Mageblade + Jin‘do but i dont know if the extra % hit is relevant.

[@ryanjoslin]

The bis set isn’t even bis.. Cthun ring is better than unspoken, pvp gloves are absolutely bis for threat gen, 3 pc t2 does not even come close.. chucking t2 helm and gloves for 2.5 helm and pvp gloves and swapping in a piece of runes Stygian (boots) is much better. Heck swap in the pants too and wear both bis rings imho

[@booba1008]

I pity those who waste 41 minutes on this video on a 15 year old game with faceroll raids