In Classic and TBC, a Rogue’s Improved Expose Armor is superior to Sunder Armor in that it cuts out that last 300 boss armor for a ~5%+ physical dps increase.
But, warriors obtain Devastate which deals more damaged based on the number of Sunders on a target, aka no bonus damage with a rogue’s IEA.
Also raids generally don’t bring heavy melee dps in TBC because, unlike ranged, melee take damage. Significant damage.
So the questtion is, which is superior for most serious raids in TBC: IEA or Sunder Armor? AKA Does the limited melee physical damage (and stacked god-tier Hunter physical dps) out-dps a warrior’s (or warrior tank’s) Devastate?
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It depends on the situation and raid comp.
There’s much less physical damage in TBC flowing to the boss.
Rogues are the red-headed stepchild of TBC raiding as it stands so, this question is a bit moot.
By the end of TBC, we were running sunwell with 0-2 warriors and 0-1 rogues depending on who was online.
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Devastate is bread and butter spam move for tank war. Don’t EA if you have a war tanking. If Pala or Druid tank, it’s an option.
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Im probably completely wrong but here’s what I’ve been told.
Most of a warriors threat comes from revenge, shield slam, and heroic strike. Devastate’s more like a filler.
The trade off from a little less devastate damage from one tank is worth +5% melee damage for the entire raid.
Melee damage will be very lackluster until ZA’s released, by then they can get enough armor penetration to completely ignore boss armor with an executioner proc which is when we’ll see them start to be competitive.
Still below hunters and warlocks though
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Keep in mind that the rogue maintaining EA is gutting his own damage output by 5 combo points every application. 1 rogue may not sound like a lot, but raid sizes drop to 10 and 25 in TBC.
The difference in raid dps isn’t that big at all in practice, but it also makes execution more involved since he cannot let EA fall. Most raids are probably going to see more damage just leaving the rogue to dps and having the War devastate spam.
EA is one of the reasons speccing deep prot, even on Alliance is a net negative.
Melee dps gets the shaft in TBC. Warrior tanks will get the shaft hard depending on the patch they use so this may not be an issue
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There is no difference between Horde and Alliance in TBC, other than Horde having overall higher dps thanks to Orc, Troll, and Belf Pally racials being better
I 100% agree with this. Tbc mechanics are far from melee friendly, uptime alone will be a challenge not to mention if you die.
I always feel like these kind of discussions aren’t really meant for most raids though ya know?
It’s like if the raids were a TAS speedrun I believe IEA would perform better.
And now I wanna see TAS wow raids 
This is pure and unadulterated nonsense. Nobody was running so few rogues and most guilds had atleast 1 if not 2+ warrior dps. Don’t confuse private server meta with how it was. Rogues were the first class to break the 4k DPS barrier.
TBC had alot more target switching fights so it was easier to just easier to let warriors deal with sunder duty. Rogues also had to manage weaving rupture,SnD and Evisc when the opportunity allowed.
I guess it will depend on how things shake out when we get there.
That was clearly in reference to right now .
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Lol you’re pure nonsense. Rogues and warriors are VERY unpopular for raids in TBC. Believe what you want though.
You necroed this a year later to say THAT? Next time… sometimes you just need to let things go.
