Rings/Cloak

[Dag]

I'm having trouble picking out my rings.

I currently have:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33064
and
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29384

(I absolutely LOVE the extra armor.)

I have 34 spell hit, which I think is *just* about at the cap, so I'm unlikely to increase this, but I get the occasional resists on cyclone/roots, almost ALWAYS against Tauren or Night Elves. I am sure this is because I have 0 spell penetration. I think I chose wrong by putting the 7 resist all on my cloak.

So I'm thinking about switching one of my rings to:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33056

Another option is to ditch the armor ring and use an armor cloak instead. I already have http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28256 - currently unenchanted. I could also look into getting a http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24258 - but this seems like an expensive sidegrade to the Thoriumweave anyway...

If I went with the Resolute Cape (with spell pen.) + both Veteran's Rings I would be getting:
349 armor
29 int
87 stam
55 resilience
73 healing
5 mana regen
30 spell penetration

vs. just switching my current cloak enchant:
398 armor
29 int
94 stam
38 resilience
70 healing
5 regen
20 spell penetration
22 defense
-7 resist all

A difference of:
-49 armor
-7 stam
+27 resilience
+3 damage/healing
+10 penetration
-7 resist all
-22 defense

And subbing in Thoriumweave for the Resolute Cape, it looks like:
-8 armor
-2 stam
+6 resilience
+3 damage/healing
+10 penetration
-7 resist all
-22 defense

Is the +7 resist totally worthless thanks to OTHER people's spell penetration? With MotW I have 39 all resists, so even against 30 penetration I have 9 resist (19 Nature), and the first 10 resist is allegedly the most valuable. I could even look at using http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28301 as an "armor" cloak, which would satisfy my fetish for resistances as well (at the cost of stamina).

I'm leaning toward putting penetration on a Resolute Cape and buying the penetration ring, but does anyone have any other thoughts? Perhaps a better solution? How much penetration do I want? 10 will cover the racial bonuses, but what about MotW or warlocks? Is 20 enough? 30? I'm NOT one of these min/max players who is only looking at one stat on each piece. I need to be survivable, I need my CCs to land, and I need to heal. I'm looking for the best way to maximize all 3 of these.

armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Gorefiend&n=Dag

(I usually use http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28727 in my off-trinket slot.)

[buena]

Resolute cape is the very first item I made for my druid when it hit 70. My theory is that I'll stack armor items in traditionally non-armor accessory slots as long as they aren't giving up too much in terms of stats. Then I'll make up for it by gemming and enchanting my actual armor with an eye to healing, mana, etc.

That said I think your ring is giving up too much, because +defense is not really useful as a PvP stat. Or at least its not nearly AS useful as resilience - it is a much less efficient way to accomplish the same thing (reducing crits). And I'm not sure how the two interact.

Spell penetration is an interesting debate. Playing a mage for 100k HK at 60 against people in the old school random-resist raid gear I determined that spell penetration was the single most important stat I could have. Well up to the point where it matched my opponent's resist, after which it was entirely worthless.

I think a lot of people these days underrate it. I am aiming for 70 penetration on my warlock to cut through the priest resist buff, but I can't help but notice that few other warlocks are doing the same. I think this is a mistake.

As a druid the majority of people you face will have either 0 or 10 resistance to your main school. The exceptions are teams with a druid on them, which will have anywhere from 25 to 45 on each player, and SL/SL warlocks, who will have 70 or more. Therefore it is in your interest to get at least 10 penetration ASAP, and probably aim for somewhere between 20 and 35.

The flip side of penetration is resists: they are an extremely effective caster defense, but only to the degree to which they exceed your opponent's spell penetration. One thing to keep in mind is that nearly every arena DPS caster will have at least 30 penetration because there is no decent alternative cloak enchant and they all use the ring. So since you don't have improved MOTW, your +7 resists enchant is only putting you to 32 resists against 30 penetration. You're only actaully getting the benefit of +2 resistance.

So I think you should clearly get the spell penetation enchant. Depending on how important avoiding occasional resists on your CC is to you, you might want to aim for another 10 (or even 20) penetration on top of that. Note that you don't have to pick up the dps caster ring to do this - all you have to do is sacrifice one blue gem slot somewhere on your gear.

[Branket]

dont get spell penetration......... and theres a 2% spellhit cap in pvp

[Dag]

I have to disagree with you on not getting penetration. I get about 3 or 4 times as many resists on Night Elves and Tauren as I do on races without the 10 NR bonus.

And if you're right about the 2% hit cap (I thought for sure it was 3), please quote your source. I hope you're right, but I'm skeptical.

[Tyveris]

And if you're right about the 2% hit cap (I thought for sure it was 3), please quote your source. I hope you're right, but I'm skeptical.
I'm almost positive it is 3% as well.

[Ridzik]

you like the armor but dont spec thick hide?