So I don't know if you go through this in post, and I am sure the GG discord probably has people more qualified than me to answer this, but for the lurkers who might be curious. In reference to the patch numbers being included. For someone who is new to savage, and arriving late into the game to begin prog. The reason why the starter set is labelled 7.1, is because with 7.1 the Alliance, Hunts (providing upgrades to your tome gear outside of raiding), and Augmented Crafted gear have been added as catchup. This can change your BiS going into savage fresh prog. In short, the floor has been raised, but the ceiling has remained since 7.05 so there is no need to adjust the gear. As for the balance page, the 7.1 gearset assumes you won't be doing hunts/alliance for the tome upgrades so they don't include augmented tome but it is still the best option to layer in. Once you have augmented tome chestpiece it will ofc be better than than the augmented crafted. Off Vit alone. (As a DRK, your vit is actually a bit more of note as it directly effects tbn, but not to a massive degree.) At most, it will mean whether it breaks from an auto or dot tick. Truthfully, TBN is the one ability that gets nerfed the better-geared you are cause it refuses to break sometimes. As for the gcd recast timer, it's comfort and compatibility. I play at 2.50 because I play all the tanks at a savage level. All tanks can be played at 2.50. At some points in time, different rotations/openers exist for faster speeds. For example, GNB has 8 GCD No Mercy(2.50), and 9 GCD No Mercy (2.47 and lower), this ofc is for optimizing purposes. Dark Knight operates on stack-based buffs so it's a bit more forgiving, but as a newcomer, you may want to play at a faster gcd to account for all of the ogcds you have to weave, as a triple weave on 2.46 is a lot less punishing, but you will still slowly slide out of buffs. A small side note as well, sometimes it is better to play at a bit of a faster GCD because of connection issues making buttons feel sticky, so don't hesitate to use a bit of throwaway gear (4 SkS 12s and a Churrasco will put you there) on the dummy to see if you can do a 3 minute comfortably. As a bonus I usually try to mitigate during bursts just to see if I can, because almost always it is a necessary muscle to have, especially on DRK, on average you're hitting 3-4 mits on top of your DPS CDs. The argument for 2.5 is that as it is slower, you can double weave easier. So 2.5 could be easier for you if you keep clipping your gcds frequently.
Surprise Vod Squad! 💜
So I don't know if you go through this in post, and I am sure the GG discord probably has people more qualified than me to answer this, but for the lurkers who might be curious.
In reference to the patch numbers being included. For someone who is new to savage, and arriving late into the game to begin prog. The reason why the starter set is labelled 7.1, is because with 7.1 the Alliance, Hunts (providing upgrades to your tome gear outside of raiding), and Augmented Crafted gear have been added as catchup. This can change your BiS going into savage fresh prog. In short, the floor has been raised, but the ceiling has remained since 7.05 so there is no need to adjust the gear.
As for the balance page, the 7.1 gearset assumes you won't be doing hunts/alliance for the tome upgrades so they don't include augmented tome but it is still the best option to layer in. Once you have augmented tome chestpiece it will ofc be better than than the augmented crafted. Off Vit alone. (As a DRK, your vit is actually a bit more of note as it directly effects tbn, but not to a massive degree.) At most, it will mean whether it breaks from an auto or dot tick. Truthfully, TBN is the one ability that gets nerfed the better-geared you are cause it refuses to break sometimes.
As for the gcd recast timer, it's comfort and compatibility. I play at 2.50 because I play all the tanks at a savage level. All tanks can be played at 2.50. At some points in time, different rotations/openers exist for faster speeds. For example, GNB has 8 GCD No Mercy(2.50), and 9 GCD No Mercy (2.47 and lower), this ofc is for optimizing purposes.
Dark Knight operates on stack-based buffs so it's a bit more forgiving, but as a newcomer, you may want to play at a faster gcd to account for all of the ogcds you have to weave, as a triple weave on 2.46 is a lot less punishing, but you will still slowly slide out of buffs.
A small side note as well, sometimes it is better to play at a bit of a faster GCD because of connection issues making buttons feel sticky, so don't hesitate to use a bit of throwaway gear (4 SkS 12s and a Churrasco will put you there) on the dummy to see if you can do a 3 minute comfortably. As a bonus I usually try to mitigate during bursts just to see if I can, because almost always it is a necessary muscle to have, especially on DRK, on average you're hitting 3-4 mits on top of your DPS CDs.
The argument for 2.5 is that as it is slower, you can double weave easier. So 2.5 could be easier for you if you keep clipping your gcds frequently.
Holy crapoli
SURPRISE STREAM!