DK Tanking stats question

[MrNutty]

I haven't done much with my DK in 3 months, I got him geared to handle raids, and discovered for some reason my connection couldn't handle raids, so that was the end of that. Now that I can handle raids again, I'm curious on something I never got to look into..

3 months ago I was told on these forums that the single highest stat for avoidance stacking for a DK is straight defense, so with the stoneskin rune my DK has 35% avoidance excluding blade barrier, but a defense rating of 568

is it a bad idea to continue stacking avoidance?

I'm aware my helm isn't socketed and i'm missing various enchants, at the time that I crafted that helm it had no sockets :P

socketing my helm alone would put me at least over 28k unbuffed frost presence health...

should i maybe pop out one of the dragon defense gems and replace it with strength? :/

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...d&n=Deathknutt

[MrNutty]

Bump :x

[Gomexus]

Try to find a balance between avoidance and stamina.

Avoid socketing parry...if its on gear upgrades that's fine...but never gem for it...gem for dodge or defense for avoidance and try to gem for stamina as much as you can.

As you start getting upgrades from dungeons your defense will drop. Try to keep it around 540ish and keep stamina and avoidance going up.

With 28k unbuffed atm you're doing pretty good...pick up some avoidance and you're gtg.

[Illmar]

And dodge will always be better than parry. Even defense is better than parry.

[MrNutty]

so since my avoidance is only 35%, continue stacking defense?

its at something like 570 atm, it just seems off to me to continue to raise the number, but eh..

[Communion]

Try to find a balance between avoidance and stamina.

Avoid socketing parry...if its on gear upgrades that's fine...but never gem for it...gem for dodge or defense for avoidance and try to gem for stamina as much as you can.

As you start getting upgrades from dungeons your defense will drop. Try to keep it around 540ish and keep stamina and avoidance going up.

With 28k unbuffed atm you're doing pretty good...pick up some avoidance and you're gtg.

This is exactly right. Also, Gargoyle is a straight downgrade from swordshatter. Gargoyle provides (through defense only) 1% dodge, 1% parry, and 1% miss (approximately), as well as a very small amount of stamina. Swordshatter provides 4% parry (that's a full 2% higher chance than Gargoyle to proc Runestrike). Gargoyle is useful to get you to Uncrittable, but Swordshatter is an inherently better rune for your weapon after you have Uncrittable without Gargoyle.

That said -- Swordshatter is only useful because it provides a flat 4% increase to parry. Diminishing returns on Parry Rating make what Gomexus said exactly correct -- never ever gem for it, and you can probably ignore inconvenient socket bonuses that involve Parry in favor of Stam gems, Stam/Dodge gems, or Stam/Hit gems.

Also, as your gear gets better, you should try to get hit capped (8%, or about 262 hit rating) and at least to 5.75% dodge/parry reduction (I believe) through expertise as a minimum (to negate boss dodges). While Runestrike is an automatic hit, your rune-based abilities are not -- and missing a lot of Obliterates/Scourge Strikes, Icy Touches, Plague Strikes, and Blood Strikes is going to cause high-DPS members of your raid a lot of boredom as they autoattack to stay below you.

[MrNutty]

i think im actually expertise capped atm, editted: but im only at 3% hit

1% more avoidance from swordshatter is better than the 2% more stamina?

i suppose 2% is negligible, especially when you're a tauren with mining..

already a hoof and utter above the competition 8)


editted further: ...2% stamina is apparently a whopping 300 health, so yea..

[Communion]

Yeah, 2% stam is really underwhelming. It's a little better than wearing an extra stam gem. :

Sounds like you're on your way to getting back on track. If you're worried about hit, replacing some of the gems in your yellow slots with stam/hit gems provides a bit of help without sacrificing too much survivability.