As of writing this World of Warcraft guide for Dragonflight 10.0.7 on The Onyx Annulet and Primordial Stones, I have been testing the stones on all six tanks extensively and I do expect another round of tuning announced by Monday March 27th. I will be updating the guide as further testing and tuning continues.
The Onyx Annulet
The Onyx Annulet is a new ring easily gained in the Forbidden Reach in patch 10.0.7 by going into the Zskera Vaults. The ring itself has three sockets that can only have Primordial Stones socketed in it. Primordial Stones are farmed out through the Zskera Vaults and the Forbidden Reach itself that have a wide variety of effects. As tanks we will be focused on the stones that will be of the most use to us.
Primordial Stones
Right of the bat, there is a basic universal set that’s good for all tanks, which I will be covering first then going into more niche builds or options you can opt into for more survivability or damage options as well as some tanks do have some unique options available to them as well.
Universal Set
- Desirous Blood Stone: Dealing damage has a chance to drain life, it’s important to know for this set that the drain life effect counts as heal and damage
simultaneously to proc the Prophetic Twilight stone. - Prophetic Twilight Stone: Damaging effects trigger the healing effects of your stones proc the damaging effects and vice versa. Since Desirous Blood counts as both, it can double dip into this effect amping up this effect.
- Storm Infused Stone: Critically Striking an enemy has a chance to shock them and 2 nearby enemies. This is one of the few that isn’t a dot application and you will see good value damage wise from this stone combo.
Alternative Options
- Freezing Ice Stone: Dealing damage has a chance to proc this stone for a flat damage proc and applies a 15% slow to the enemy. All around this is one of the better flat damage increase stones.
- Pestilence Plague Stone: Dealing damage to an enemy has a chance to apply a plague, which can then spread to other targets dealing damage for 9s. As a flat damage proc this isn’t bad but not great, but can be good with lots of consistent tick damage, Blood Death Knight tends to proc this stone more frequently than other tanks.
- Searing Smokey Stone: The effect is simple, interrupt something, deal damage in an 8 yard frontal cone. Testing is still out on this one, there seems to be some internal cooldown on it avoiding the Divine Toll mass procs. If you’re playing a tank spec with a shorter kick than most, you can see some real value from this stone.
- Raging Magma Stone: Absorbing damage(from any source) has a chance to coat you in lava for 6s, causing damage back to melee attackers. Tank specs that make consistent use of absorbs that can proc this frequently can make good use of this stone. *I’m still in the early stages of testing this stone and will be updating soon*
- Cold Frost Stone: Every 20 seconds, gain an absorb shield that slows melee attackers by 15%. This is a nice consistent non proc based absorb and in a run can stack up a lot of healing.
Brewmaster
Brewmaster has a unique combo that can offer up a lot of self healing and really good damage. First step is add the Cold Frost Stone listed up above.
- Indomitable Earth Stone: Taking damage has a chance to proc one of the larger available absorb shields(from stones). While on other tanks the proc rate is actually pretty bad, this does proc off of Brewmasters stagger. Since you’re taking more damage consistently all of the time, while testing I’ve noticed this procs around 4 to 5 times more frequently on Brewmaster than other tanks.
- Shining Obsidian Stone: Gaining an absorb from a Primordial Stone effect erupts the ground, dealing physical damage split between enemies within 5 yards, damage is increased for each enemy struck, up to five enemies. This is not a proc based chance, gain the absorb, do the damage.
Combining both of the absorb stones with this one and Brewmaster’s stagger, the Shining Obsidian Stone performs exceptionally on the damage meters, while a pure dps stone setup may net you a smaller dps benefit, you do lose out on a LOT of healing potential from the other two stones. While testing this was doing approximately 25% of my total healing, since it is an absorb, it never goes to overhealing either.
