The Thorium collection is a set of plate with strength, crit rating, and armor pen, making it of particular use to DPS warriors and paladins with the first piece available at level 45, all but the leggings available by 51, and the leggings becoming usable at 55. The set remains useful, though less than optimal, through the end of vanilla. The lower level pieces of the set will probably be replaced before the higher level pieces are obtained, either from quest rewards, world drops, or other crafted items such as the Imperial Plate set. Note that the Imperial Plate set was removed from the game, which isn't much of a loss, as this can easily carry you through to the Fel Iron Plate collection, which is the next level of gear available if you like to make your own gear for leveling purposes.
It should be noted that this set has changed stats many times. It started with resistance to all types of magic. In 3.X.X it had strength, crit rating, and armor pen. In its current form, Blizzard has removed it's armor pen from 3.X.X and given it haste instead. The changes keep the DPS gain from the gear relatively the same, but changes mechanics such as on crit effects, because more hits mean more crits. Also, mechanics that use procs per minute are benefited, because the chance to proc of those abilities is based on weapon speed before haste is applied. Warrior rage generation relies on the damage of white hits, so raw rage generation remains roughly the same. Total crit chance bonus from this set is approximately 4.75%, and total haste gained is roughly 6.64% at level 55 when the whole set can be worn. There is also a +6 expertise rating bonus on the bracers.
Since this set lacks shoulders, one option is to fill in the set with the necessary parts from Imperial Plate set if you can find a BS who still has the patterns from before the Cataclysm. Thorium does look much cooler though, and is much easier both for a blacksmith to obtain the patterns for, as well as get the materials to make, thus it will be much cheaper for you.
Though some of the recipes were formally world drop only, all of the recipes can now be learned from trainers in addition to still having a chance to drop, and requires 250-300 blacksmithing skill to make.
Set[]
Item | Min Lvl | Min Skill | Thorium Bars | Other Materials |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
51 | 280 | 12 | 1x ![]() |
![]() |
45 | 250 | 8 | -- |
![]() |
51 | 280 | 12 | 8x ![]() |
![]() |
45 | 250 | 16 | 1x ![]() |
![]() |
55 | 300 | 12 | -- |
![]() |
46 | 255 | 8 | -- |
- Bulk Materials Total
- 58x
[Thorium Bar]
- 8x
[Rugged Leather]
- 1x
[Star Ruby]
- 1x
[Blue Sapphire]
Item | Min Lvl | Armor | Strength | Crit rating | Haste |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
45 | 476 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
![]() |
45 | 268 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
![]() |
46 | 212 | 6 | 6 | -- |
![]() |
51 | 429 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
![]() |
51 | 363 | 10 | 9 | 9 |
![]() |
55 | 477 | 14 | 13 | 14 |
Totals | -- | 2225 | 62 | 60 | 60 |