Help me with my tankadin, please!

[Queen of Hamsters]

I am at a total loss here, I've leveled and geared a bear without any difficulties since they're so easy to find gear for and to give mitigation.

However, with both paladin and DK (and eventually Warrior) I am struggling. I ask for advice on other forums, and I get so many different views on my character that I get all confused.

Have a look at him: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Daowin/simple

I've been trying to gear him for tanking, since I really love pala tanking and I'm not very big on the DPS or healing part of the class. Problem is, I'm having serious bad luck with the tank gear dropping, I don't know where to find the pieces (people keep saying the AH or vendors, but I have yet to see anything with static stats on them except one with mastery for VP).

Can someone please tell me what to go for and from where? He can currently tank the old heroics without much trouble, but not even from them have I managed to get trinkets/rings with static tank stats on them. And I was told to not go down in ilvl since the loss of stamina is too great.

I need: Shoulders (ZA perhaps? Not sure he can tank that tbf)
Legs (From vendor, but which ones? The 359 or 378? I need dodge to even out the difference)
Head
Gloves
Belt
2 rings
At least 1 trinket, but people say that veil of lies "sucks" as well.

Seriously, I have a real problem with numbers and this is starting to stress me. I can't just get gear aimed for tanking and start to tank, I have to fight over the pieces with DPS who'll probs never even use it, and I need to balance stats out just to see them go down and up by miles each time I get a new piece....

Help a n00badin please, tell me where to go for what...no 30k epics from the AH though since I don't want to raid with him, I just want him capped for ALL heroics to enjoy tanking. I want to, if possible, reach the CTC cap. Atm I'm farming Therazane rep, and I've got mats to get some of the enchants needed that I didn't find on the AH.

[Ferocity]

You can get mastery trinket for valor points.
For head - Mannoroth's drop in new 5-men http://www.wowhead.com/item=72842.
Belt - VP belt .
Rings - one nice ring can be bought from Molten Front vendors once unlocked http://www.wowhead.com/item=70127. One nice ring drops from Azshara event in new 5-men http://www.wowhead.com/item=72837.
Legs - tier 12.

You can keep dodge and parry close to each other via reforging. Difference in dodge parry ratings ain't as significant as lack of mastery on gear. You will want to aim at having miss (5%) +dodge+parry+mastery at 101.6 for 5-men or 102.4 for raids.

Edit: shoulders from Benedictus in new 5-men http://www.wowhead.com/item=72861.

[Xami]

Trinkets - VP one and Tol Barad exalted trinket are both excellent Mastery boosters.

Once you get rid of your PvP items you're pretty much ready for LFR tanking. If you're not confident in doing that, just keep running Hour of Twilight heroics till you get the shield, mace, cloak, etc. You can fill every slot with 378+ just by doing this and buying JP/VP gears.

The VP items "to get" are the belt and the trinket. As for JP stuff, I'd pick up the ring, and if you don't come across 378 one in the 5mans, get the T12 legs, but T12 doesn't give you any avoidance so they're not that important compared to getting T13.

Don't get too worked up in capping block, since you won't be reaching that anytime soon. Just aim for higher item level gears and work with what you have.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Thank you very much guys, I feel a bit less freaked out now. I got the head and my CTC went from 74 to 77, I'm working on Therazane for shoulders, Hyjal quests for the ring and getting the mastery trinket from VP this week!

[Rehgoth]

To me you are still gearing, and your gear is just fine to do the new dungeons. Stack mastery to hell, even gems at first. When you reach the CTC cap (enough block via mastery, dodge, parry and +5 miss), you can start gemming / reforging to avoidance. It's pretty simple. All in all you want to get it all together enough to cover up 102.4%.
Here, take a look at my own paladin: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ashia/advanced
I have 12.71% dodge, 17.09% parry, 67.73% block +5 miss = 102.53%. That's above 102.4%, so that means that every melee hit against me will be either a block, parry, miss or dodge. Never a full hit.
That's our goal as a tank, to reach the CTC cap (combat table coverage). The reason why we want the extra 2.4% is because for every level an enemy is above you, you get a 0.6% less avoidance from your stats.

[juugimus]

Just keep at it!