Protadin question

[Ninurta]

OK so I'm not quit sure but do we still want the stam trinkets now that defense rating is gone and we done have to scramble t get cap in the beginning of expac.

As a tank for a long time I'm just naturally drwn to stam high items, but it seems to me that stacking more avoidance instead of stam would be a better idea.

Not sure so please if you have an idea let me know.

[Deleted]

Mastery is key for paladins atm. Although stamina aint bad either.

I am gemming stam and reforging alot to mastery. As prot pala you want to block as much as possible.

[Ninurta]

And as far as my jc gems are concerned should i use them for dodge, parry, or mastery?
Or maybe one of each

[Helsreach]

Go stamina for your JC gems, and use them to fill blue sockets. Get mastery/stam in yellow and prismatic sockets, and stam + either strength or parry (depending on your total avoidance) for red sockets.

[Deleted]

and ofc dont forget to get some hitrating and expertise....no hits = no threat

[Deleted]

There's a very good thread on elitist jerks about our tanking. Basically reforge to hit, then expertise, then mastery. Gem stam.

[Lumidar]

we don't need threat right now.... i don't see why you guys say hit and expertise first. we need to survive more than threat in heroics cus my threat is like double to triple the closest DPS.

[Deleted]

we don't need threat right now.... i don't see why you guys say hit and expertise first. we need to survive more than threat in heroics cus my threat is like double to triple the closest DPS.

single target threat is great, yes

aoe threat can be a bitch...especially if you have frost DK spamming howling blast

[Lumidar]

single target threat is great, yes

aoe threat can be a bitch...especially if you have frost DK spamming howling blast

well all our aoe skills are holy damage based and count as "spells" so we would require 17% hit and that amount is ridiculous. expertise would not affect these skills.

[Deleted]

LOL! Stack stamina? I don't want to EVER heal one of you. Avoidance or expect a frustrated healer > leave.

[tjanson]

LOL! Stack stamina? I don't want to EVER heal one of you. Avoidance or expect a frustrated healer > leave.

Nobody's talking about "stacking" stamina, at least not to the point of ignoring everything else. However, stamina is still quite valuable so matching socket bonuses with Stam + Parry and Stam + Mastery gems is a good idea.

The reason stamina is still necessary is because magic damage(and there's a lot more of it than you think, even in heroics) doesn't care about avoidance. Avoidance doesn't do anything for you when you're stunned, either. Furthermore, being block capped is impossible at this gear level, so ignoring stamina could lead to tank death after a bad string of full hits(especially by a hard hitting boss).

Perhaps you could forgo the dramatic statements and do some research instead.

[RehabOC80]

There's a very good thread on elitist jerks about our tanking. Basically reforge to hit, then expertise, then mastery. Gem stam.

It's Exp to 26 > Hit > Avoidance > Dump rest into Exp til 55(according to EJ)

Yeah, don't ever Gem/stack Parry/Dodge - Not only due to DR, but Mastery provides Block which allows for a smoother damage intake and ultimately makes it easier on healers.

But as said above, Block doesn't have any affect on Magic Damage, so don't neglect Stam, but don't over stack it either. Since attempting to be avoidance capped is pretty much trivial right now w/o greatly impacting threat/stam...find a balance between Mastery and Stam. Mostly Reforge everything Mastery, and use Sockets for Stam - Stam/Mastery - etc and grab socket bonsues because they're pretty beneficial.

[Dieselpower]

Stacking stamina means a bigger health pool for your healer to heal while you're consistently dropping from 100% to 0% because you have no damage mitigation. Your oom healer will love you! ;-)

[gaian]

it hardly matters.

yellow: mastery
blue: stamina
red: parry/dodge (whichever is lower, usually parry)

I am choosing gems based on price right now.

[taekvideo]

Avoidance/Mitigation > Effective Health right now due to the dramatic shift in encounter and healer design... this is a major change from wotlk.
Stam is still important, but you need avoidance too. Imo match all yellow/red sockets with half-stam half-mitigation gems, and do what you want with blue ones, pure stam is fine. Getting socket bonuses helps.
For trinkets, the alchemy one is god lol.... other than that, idk.

My guild's main tank still won't believe me when I tell him he needs more mitigation (bear tank).... it's impossible to beat ripsnarl (heroic deadmines) when he's tanking because he gets ripped to shreds so fast.... yet I've done it plenty of times in lfg pugs and having healers with half their mana left at the end... /sigh

[Vaka]

Stacking stam means more than just a larger health pool. Stam, to a degree, means threat.

Vengeance: Each time you take damage, you gain 5% of the damage taken as attack power, up to a maximum of 10% of your health.

This, by no means, indicates that you should stack stam. Obviously, you'll want to fill your blue sockets with stam gems, but your red and yellow sockets are better served using mastery/stam or pure mastery (in yellow).

[Ralan]

If you're tanking heroics and/or starting raids you should be near hit cap and exp soft cap at least. After that becoming unhittable becomes priority unless you still have threat issues (which you shouldn't). Mastery is the easiest way to achieve this. 2 mastery trinks is a good start but it comes down to preference, procs, and individual stats. If you do happen to reach or exceed 102.4% with dodge, parry, block and miss then you should reforge mastery to dodge or parry as long as it keeps you at or near cap. Depending on how much mitigation you need will determine how much stam you will want to gem.