I promised to do one of these, so here it is. This post will take a look at T20 set bonuses (and how they compare to T19, when to break the old bonus, etc.), trinkets, and other gear to try to get your hands on. Previously we took a look at the Stomp vs. Dire Frenzy builds for BM in this tier (and at how some of the best legendaries ranked).
Set Bonuses FAQ
From the testing and simming I’ve done, these are the general rules I’ve come up with for T19 vs. T20. I always recommend simming your character in both configurations to see how it actually pans out since it’s going to be slightly different for everyone.
- T19 bonuses: Eagletalon Battlegear
- T20 bonuses: Wildstalker Armor
Should I run 2-piece T19 and 2-piece T20?
- This is only a question you should be asking if you can’t complete the T20 4-piece.
- Assuming you’re breaking the T19 4-piece to do this, if both new tier pieces are about 15 ilvl above the old ones, you are generally safe to go with 2-piece T19 and 2-piece T20. If they’re anything less, it’s just going to be a side grade or even a slight loss in DPS.
- The reason this works is the T19 4-piece was nerfed and running only 4 total set pieces still gives legendary flexibility.
Should I run 4-piece T19 and 2-piece T20 (3 set bonuses)?
- It depends on your available legendaries. If doing this would mean you have to unequip your Parsel’s Tongue or Mantle of Command and you don’t have a suitable replacement, it’s probably not worth it. If your legendaries are in other slots, there should be no harm in doing this.
Should I run 2-piece T19 and 4-piece T20 (3 set bonuses)?
- If you are running the Stomp build it’s very advantageous to run 4-piece T20 and 2-piece T19!
- If you can afford to be picky, obviously use the highest ilevel T19 pieces for that bonus.
- This depends on your available legendaries. If your best legendaries are limited to The Mantle of Command and/or Parsel’s Tongue, this may not work. However, if you have a combo like Roar of the Seven Lions + Soul of the Huntmaster or Roar of the Seven Lions + Call of the Wild, then this is worthwhile.
- The T19 2-piece bonus is very strong for the Stomp build and could possibly last for the entirety of this tier, but eventually you may acquire gear (or a legendary) that is of high enough ilevel to warrant getting rid of it. The only way to know for sure when that happens is to sim your character when you acquire new gear that might warrant it.
- If you are running the Dire Frenzy build it’s less important to keep around the old T19 2-piece bonus. Depending on available gear (say you have a couple of 915+ T19 pieces) it could still be worth it, but if this prevents you from using Mantle of Command or Parsel’s Tongue, it’s probably not.
Should I straight up replace 4-piece T19 with 4-piece T20?
- Stomp build: If the new tier pieces are all about 15 ilevel above the old tier pieces, yes.
- Dire Frenzy build: Yes, as long as the replacement pieces are at LEAST the same ilevel (but preferably higher). Don’t ilevel downgrade to do this (doing so on one piece might be OK).
Tomb of Sargeras gear list
This lists the ideal gear for each slot from Tomb of Sargeras only. This is not a best in slot list. Yes, it still needs to be said sometimes, but Legion killed such lists with Mythic+ and titanforging gear. It doesn’t factor in legendaries, Mythic+, titanforging, or anything like that. This could be helpful for determining where to bonus roll.
| Slot | Name | Boss |
| Helm |  Wildstalker Helmet |
Atrigan |
| Neck |  Locket of Splintered Souls |
Engine of Souls |
| Shoulders |  Wildstalker Spaulders |
Fallen Avatar |
| Cloak |  Wildstalker Cape |
Engine of Souls |
| Chest |  Wildstalker Chestguard |
Maiden of Vigilance |
| Bracers |  Pain-Singed Armguards |
Goroth |
| Gloves |  Vicegrip of the Unrepentant |
Kil’jaeden |
| Belt |  Waistguard of Interminable Unity (Dire Frenzy build) Belt of Screaming Slag (Stomp build) |
Huntress Kasparian Goroth |
| Legs |  Flesh-Raking Leggings (Dire Frenzy build) Legguards of Siphoned Power (Stomp build) |
Atrigan Fallen Avatar |
| Boots |  Star-Stalker Treads |
Kil’jaeden |
| Ring |  Scaled Band of Servitude |
Harjatan |
| Ring |  Seal of the Second Duumvirate |
Kil’jaeden |
| Trinket |  Tarnished Sentinel Medallion |
Huntress Kasparian |
| Trinket |  Engine of Eradication |
Maiden of Vigilance |
| Arcane Relic |  Charred Hymnal of the Moon |
Goroth |
| Storm Relic |  Flawless Hurricane Pearl |
Mistress Sassz’ine |
| Iron Relic |  Chiseled Starlight**Trait is not ideal, see recommendations below |
Huntress Kasparian |
Infused Chitin Fragment or 
Lionshead Lapel Clasp from The Nighthold raid, or 
Soulsap Shackles from Vault of the Wardens Mythic+ or 
Ruffian’s Poisoned Blade from Lower Karazhan Mythic+.Relics
As you can see above, Tomb has some good relics for Arcane and Storm slots (Jaws of Thunder), but nothing too great for Iron. But the sheer ilevel bump on one of the Iron relics from Tomb might be enough to warrant using it.
Trait values have changed somewhat in 7.2.5 with the nerfs to Pack Leader and Jaws of Thunder. This is how things look right now:
| Relic Trait | Approx. ilevel value |
 Jaws of Thunder |
+8 |
 Pack Leader |
+6 |
 Unleash the Beast |
+6 |
 Slithering Serpents |
+5 |
 Spitting Cobras |
+3 |
 Wilderness Expert |
+3 |
The “ilevel value” being referred to here is the ilevel of Titanstrike itself (not the ilevel of relic items). For example, if you had a relic with Jaws of Thunder +60 ilevels, it would be about as valuable as a relic with Spitting Cobras and +65 ilevels. This is how you determine when an ilevel upgrade on a relic is worth it.
Jaws of Thunder is universally at the top, but some of these values can switch around a bit depending on your legendaries. For example, if you are NOT running Roar of the Seven Lions, then Slithering Serpents can go up a couple of ilevels in value. It really is a nice single target trait, and there’s 2 relics with it in Tomb, including one from Kil’jaeden.
Furious Swipes is harder to put a strict value on because it’s only useful for AoE (and in general, you should favor buffing your single target over AoE). It is ridiculously good for those situations though. In sustained 4-target AoE it’s worth like +25 Titanstrike ilevel. So if you do more dungeons than raids, it might be something you want on your weapon.
The end goal is to get Jaws of Thunder on all 3 relics, but that’s easier said than done.
Trinkets
The trinkets from Tomb are pretty good. There’s nothing quite like the next Bloodthirsty Instinct, but there are at least 3 solid options.
Tomb of Sargeras Trinkets
These are ranked from best to worst.
- Engine of Eradication: Passive mastery with an agility proc. When it procs, 4 orbs are spawned randomly around you. Every orb you collect increases the duration of the agility proc by 3 sec, for a total of a 24 sec agility buff if you catch them all. There is quite a bit of leeway to collect these before they despawn. BM Hunters should have no problem collecting the orbs unless they land in an area you can’t stand in. This trinket is only the top if you collect all 4 orbs every time.
- Tarnished Sentinel Medallion: Only slightly below the Engine trinket, but in pure single target it may be preferable since you don’t have to worry about orbs spawning in bad places. The owl does a pretty decent amount of single target damage, and it’s buffed by Bestial Wrath so you’ll always want to use it then. This trinket was far and away the best on PTR, but it received a stealth nerf right as Tomb went live.
- Tome of Unraveling Sanity: On an ilevel-for-ilevel basis, this trinket is more like 4th, but since it starts 10 ilevel higher than the rest (dropping from Kil’jaeden), I’ve moved it up. It’s another on-use trinket which means it’s not going to pair well with the Sentinel Medallion, as both trinkets will trigger a shared cooldown on each other (you can’t stack them). Essentially you put a mini A Murder of Crows on your target and when it expires you get a Critical Strike buff. If the target dies with the DoT on it, the resulting Crit buff is extended for any remaining time on the DoT. So on fights with adds you could exploit this by using it on something right before it dies, then get a 20+ second crit buff.
- Cradle of Anguish: This trinket sims well but I am not a fan of it. There are plenty of opportunities for you to fall below 50% health and lose the buff — either unavoidable damage that your healers can’t counter fast enough, or you simply mess up and run into a glaive on the Sisters fight or something. It’s basically a haste stat stick with a slightly higher budget, but with the penalty of falling off at low health. It’s a little too out of my own control for my liking. But if you get a really nice, juicy high ilevel one, it’s probably worth using.
- Terror from Below: This trinket is kind of fun to watch, but it ends up just being kind of mediocre. The behemoth hits like a truck (it is buffed by Bestial Wrath too) and it can crit. But it’s a random proc. So sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. In the end, it averages out to mediocre. As long as you’re not standing in melee range, you shouldn’t get hit by the behemoth yourself.
- Spectral Thurible: When this trinket procs, it puts a spear above your head for a few seconds so you have time to “aim” it, or put as many targets between you and your primary as possible. The spear also continues through your target, hitting anything behind them up to a maximum of 50 yards. A case could be made for this trinket in Mythic+ or an encounter like Mistress Sassy, but not in any sort of single target encounter where it’s just plain bad. Users of this trinket have also reported unwanted pulls in Mythic+ (since the spear continues on through the target). The fact that it has versatility doesn’t help either.
None of these trinkets knock my socks off to be honest. The only reason they do well is because of the ilevel bump. If you could reliably get your hands on 915+ stat sticks or a BTI you’d still want those every time. Maybe we’ll see some truly awesome trinkets in the final tier when Blizzard is no longer concerned about us never replacing them. When I think back to classics like Deathbringer’s Will, Assurance of Consequence, and Mirror of the Blademaster, they were probably so good because it was the final tier of those expansions.
Good trinkets outside of Tomb of Sargeras
Some older trinkets are still relevant, especially if you’ve gotten lucky titanforges on them.
- First of all, yes, Bloodthirsty Instinct (BTI) is still the best Beast Mastery trinket on an ilevel-for-ilevel basis. But you’re going to have a tough time getting a 900+ BTI since that requires a big titanforge, and simply finding a group who still wants to run Emerald Nightmare Mythic (normal/heroic groups are common for legendary farming, but starting at 865 ilevel means you need an improbable titanforge).
- Unstable Arcanocrystal is still good, especially with the prospect of an 880+ version from relinquished tokens. This trinket is usually replaceable with Heroic Tomb of Sargeras trinkets (at least the top 3 of them).
- Stat Sticks are still one of the best, assuming you can get a high titanforge from a world quest or relinquished token. I have a 905 crit stat stick which sims only slightly below the top 915 Tomb trinkets. Plus, they’re just plain old reliable DPS. No procs to worry about, no lining up the on use ability. Just raw stats.
- Convergence of Fates still holds its ground for the most part. On a ilevel-for-ilevel basis, it’s maybe 5-10 behind the top Tomb trinkets. If you’re using Call of the Wild, its value is also increased to the point where it might be worth keeping around instead of Tomb trinkets.
If there’s anything I didn’t cover or you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Remember you can sim your individual upgrades easily with Simbot.
Excellent work as always bendak, the infos much appreciated.
You are amazing. I have been playing wow for years but only recently found your sit. I found your posts essential and this one answers all my questions and much more. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I love playing Hunter and your site makes me play even better.
Thank you very much for this.
How do you reconcile the info in this guide with the fact most of the top hunters are running Stomp build well into ToS? I’m really lost and don’t know how to improve. All the guides say DF, but the PARSES!
Most of them are running 3 set bonuses, it’s the T19 2 piece that keeps it so good. TOS is only a few resets in so gear options are limited. Once you get high ilevel non-T19 pieces to go in those slots, it can change. But not very much. Even in full mythic TOS gear using only T20, both builds are pretty close.
I try to emphasize this in both recent posts, but your gear is gonna determine what build is slightly better between the two at any given time. Someone who has mythic T19 can hold onto that a lot longer than someone who came into TOS with normal T19 (or no T19 at all in some slots) for example.
Bendak, Thank you so much for the content, great as usual. I have 28% Crit, 19% Haste, 74% Mastery, 4% Vers. From what I have gathered and heard I should be running DF build. Any Thoughts?
Hi Shawn you would want 35% crit actually i find 36% crot most optimal for stomp build, so yes run dire frenzy build if you cant push crit higher.
You could run either to be honest. Your crit isn’t ideal for Stomp, but if you’re still using Tier 19 2-piece then the Stomp build will still be ahead regardless. I updated the previous Stomp vs. DF post and have shown how close the two builds are now, even when Stomp doesn’t have tons of crit.
Here’s my “BIG” problem with trinkets …
I have http://www.wowhead.com/item=141482/unstable-arcanocrystal&bonus=1808:3573 i880 with socket and http://www.wowhead.com/item=139329/bloodthirsty-instinct&bonus=1805:1808:1487&spec=253 i865 with socket.
I also have http://www.wowhead.com/item=147019/tome-of-unraveling-sanity&spec=253&bonus=1512:3561 i830 in the bag (got lucky from mission satchel).
I can not come to terms with replacing either of those above trinkets. Tome gives a good chunk of 2728 agility which is great but bloodhtirsty even at i865 is still very good specially since we are progressing through ToS and it procs a LOT at lower hp.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
Nice job, once again, Bendak.
I am currently in a weird position where t19 + shoulders + wrists are still the best vs 4t19 + 2t20 plus either some form of combo between wrists , belt and huntsman. And my 2 tier 20 pieces are 915 and 920, too. Going to be interesting ’til I get 4 T20 pieces and work though my best remaining t19s to see what set-up I want to use.
The other thing I am not sure about, with huntsman (if I end up using it), is if I should use the ring as dire beast build or in a stomp build…. rotations are a little different. That is something else I need to kinda work out.
First off let me tell you what a help you are to a mediocre hard core hunter like myself, second I am running a 880 BTI with a socket, also have an 880 Arcano, but my question is that I also have a 915 Engine, i really hate chasing the balls especially in progression. Should i suck it up and use it or stay with what I know works. My sims are coming in really close for all of them but sometimes the sims are not completely telling. Don’t even wish to touch on my tier issues yet, they just make my head hurt. Shadestrider@lightbringer
I’ve been wondering the same thing. I got the Engine on Thursday, and have been playing around with it this week. I hate chasing those dang balls around. I know its supposed to be BiS, but honestly.. is it really worth it?
I got a 915 Engine the first week on a bonus roll. Tried it on this fight, tried it on that fight, tried it outside of raid, in M+……I think it does show a Sim increase for sure over most other trinkets, but in practical use, especially on mythic progression fights (still personally working on 1/9M) I think I would rather take a stat stick or high level BTI. Before anyone yells at me because anecdotal experience is anecdotal, I fully understand the R of RNG, but this thing rarely procs for me when I want/need it to. Your mileage my vary.
Yeah, it’s only BiS if you collect every orb, every time. For single target I think I’d still prefer the Sentinel trinket because of the control.
Like I said in the post, my 905 crit stick is just barely below the 915 Engine in sims… and that’s collecting every orb. Miss a few orbs and suddenly it’s the same DPS as my stat stick. The cradle trinket also has a big drawback (that is even more out of your control in some cases).
If I had a 915 engine, I’m not even sure how much I’d be using it! At 930+ it becomes harder to ignore the advantages though. If you have a high level BTI/stat stick/arcano you get to hold onto them longer. For people who’ve been unlucky and can’t get a nice 900+ stat stick or an arcanocrystal, the Tomb trinkets are just gonna be more relevant.
@Shadestrider, 880 BTI + 880 arcano is a tried and true combo. If the Engine is really close to the Arcano, there’s nothing wrong with staying with the reliable trinkets.
I recently got my 4T20 (combined with 2T19) and simmed all reasonable legendary options. The wrist/prydaz combo was the top choice and has the added defensiv boni.
:: https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/report/3AXMGCVXb5snfDHpBFCTX8
The 905 CoF/wrist combo beats also all ToS trinkets up to iLvl925. The 880 BTI can be exchanged by some 915+ ToS trinkets but it’s always an DPS loss as soon as I exchange the 905 CoF. The top choice up to 925 was 905 CoF + 925 K’J Tome.
At 925+ the Engine/Tome combo goes ahead, but I also fear the movement requrirements of the Engine. Generaly, It’s easy as BM hunter but I’m also in charge for almost every boss mechanic and I think Engine is no good choice for fights with forced movement mechanics.
So I guess I will target an good K’J Tome combined with my trusty CoF.
2pc t19 4pc t20, stomp build, ran through all 12 legendaries and oddly Sephuz + Belt came out on top. I guess if the 3 set bonuses is to be maintained mantle and parsel would have to step down. …but the one beating them both turns out to be Sephuz? Wow…
Was thinking really about this thread i think the only thing missing is a metion of trinkets in relation to builds ue stomp or dire frenzy, ‘terror from below’ for example a pure crit stat trinket really, is this more useful with stomp build for example?
Suppose i mean to explain it further is the bis trinket list? would it be better saying bis trinket list for dire frenzy build is this? and bis trinket list for stomp build is this? or are they completely equal regardless of bm hunter build?
There’s no big difference between the 2 builds and trinkets really. Terror might be slightly better for Stomp build (the crit, and more chance for it to proc during Bestial Wrath) but not above the other 3.
Good To know and thanks for the quick reply, was kinda curious as looted terror last night, it doesnt sim higher than the crafted dmf trinket though, actually a 895 convergence trinket doesnt sim higher than that 900 dmf trinket either, which almost seems weird to me, in any event ive decided to bench my mantle legendery and run with bracers 895 convergence, t19 4 set and t20 2 set, sims show this as being a dps upgrade over my mantle and boot set up, im noot convinced and its not a massive upgrade either, but im willing to try it out on our next guild raid night, if the other guild hunters somehow bet me on dps which never really happens, ill be going back to my 4 set t19 and mantle set up lol
Had a good chance to try the setup of 4x t19 and 2x t20, unequipping the mantle and using bracers and convergence instead, thanks to a good 4 hour pug wipe fest on the naga lol, in any event was a good 20k dps loss so back to mantle and 4x t19 i go :), oh we did eventually kill the naga on heroic after those 4 hours of constant wipes, and my reward? GOLD thanks blizz lol
200k dps loss without mantle even 🙂
I notice that with the gear list above you come out with 23% Crit, 22% Haste, and 91% mastery. Even if you pick some Crit legendaries it looks like this is a gear set geared more towards DF. Do you have a setup that stacks crit for stomp builds? Only reason I ask is that factoring in any food (factoring Panda) and ring enchants you only get your crit to 28%. If you swap out Scaled Band of Servitude for Apex Predators you get 34% crit base (with crit gem) which combined with ring enchants and food 38% crit. I’m guessing this is the best way to get your crit up for stomp and then swap out the belt for Roar and you are good till next tier?
Btw I didn’t factor the 300 passive crit you get from the mark of claw neck chant. That would factor 1% Crit which would leave you at 39%.
Yeah, the list only includes Tomb gear so options are limited. There is an alternative belt and legs with crit though. I just added them to the list. Depending on what tier slots you fill, there can be more alternates. The 4 tier slots listed here are just the best overall (mainly to avoid versatility as much as possible). Beyond that you have to look at Mythic+ gear to get more crit, or get some via two T19 pieces with crit (if you’re using 3 set bonuses), such as the gloves, shoulders, and/or legs.
For T19, I think gloves and cloak are some of the better ones to keep that old bonus with. The cloak has a small stat budget so you’re not missing out on much, and the gloves have crit. The legs have tons of crit, but also a huge agility budget you could be missing out on (unless you have a nice titanforge of them). Shoulders are another possibility since the T20 shoulders aren’t that great either.
I completely overlooked the stat budget per armor slot when building my spreadsheet. Thank you for pointing out this oversight. I appreciate that you added the belt and pants suggested for the stomp build.
Had another question for you as I haven’t advanced to swapping out gear by item numbers on raidbots yet. My current stats for my secondarys including food buff is 38% crit, 20% haste, and 57% mastery (NeidzWiedz -Zul’jin). I get a good amount of procs to reset dire beast. I see on the hunter discord people say to stack crit paste 40%, but no one talks about haste. I was skeptical at first losing the mastery I did when I first moved to stomp, but it did outperform frenzy since I was able to maintain 38%+ crit. Has your investigation provided any soft or hard caps to crit and haste where mastery starts to be the better choice? I figure haste is important as it includes more proc opportunities, but also wondered if the extra haste in combination with certain legendries (Roar) is a waste due to focus capping. I will experiment with some gear I have. I can stack my crit to 48% and haste to 24% with one set, but would remove some set bonuses. I’m curious to see how the weights adjust the higher the crit and haste go.
I’m going to openly admit that I am biased to the stomp build because I like to see all the rare tames I have come out during fights in combination with the build being very enjoyable. I am not one to chose a certain build to min max so my focus is to get the most out of the stomp build. The enjoyment thus far has been to find the balance between crit/haste/mastery.
Any thoughts on the slithering serpent relic being a strong candidate in combination with killer cobra? I thought it would be a stronger candidate if one opted out of using the legendary belt. Also I wondered if Blizzard ever mentioned in a blue post they considered letting you swap relics in the future rather than destroying them like gems? If not I would hope they would implement this eventually as I like to test in a live environment rather than relying on the sim itself.
I’ve been rocking the Stomp build + CotW+ CoF (890) + Apex with 2Xt19 and 4Xt20. I likely need a little more crit (32.5% unbuffed), 17.4% haste and 71.7% haste. Good news / Bad News – I proc’d 2x 915 and a 920 for my t20 in normal, but 2 of those have vers, so… looking for a second ring with ring with more crit, but for now this setup seems to work fairly well.
A suggestion for a ring would be off the broken shore world boss, Si’vash. This is a Crit/Mastery ring which might help you. Otherwise you might get lucky with the ring off mythic spellblade with warforged proc for another crit/mastery ring. otherwise look up dungeons to see which ones you should focus your mythic+ runs on. Just make sure your haste doesn’t drop below 16.5% as it seems to impact your focus generation along with your proc rate for dire beast.
Thanks for this wicked awesome site! Just found it and it’s a great help. Thanks for all your efforts – very much appreciated!!