Tanks should never stack stam in Cataclysm. (Actually, it's a question.)

[Conno]

OP you are right with regards to paladin/warrior mastery and stats, they shouldn't stack stamina atleast not until they hit the 102.4% unhittable mitigation mark.
But for DK's and I believe a slightly lesser extent Druid Tanks, Stamina is still our best stat due to the increased self healing, the increased blood shield, the increased vengeance etc etc, until that changes no DK atleast should stack anything but.

[Deleted]

once again.... you CANNOT dodge, parry, block, or mastery a fireball. lets say i have capped dodge with 10k hp and i get hit by a 12k fireball = lose. lets say i have 35% dodge and 25k hp and get hit by a 12k fireball = win.

Savage defense says 'hi , i can 'block' that fireball' ...
But it's a wierd argument 'you can't block magic so stacking stam is good' cause on that same note you can dodge, parry etc that 50k cleave the mean boss is doing so makes that stacking avoidance good ?
Anyway , good tanks will have multiple gearsetups they can use depending on the boss they are fighting and what is needed for that fight so argueing over what is best is useless , it all depends on what you are tanking in the end.

[Deleted]

I personally have always disliked Parry and Dodge due to them being RNG. I much prefer passive damage reduction like Armor, or Block (not 100% chance, so still somewhat RNG ofc). So all my gemming (except for the gems to meet Meta requirement and those with nice socket bonus) go towards Stamina and Mastery.

Speaking of Meta, does anyone have a link to some theorycraft about the 2% armor value vs 5% block value meta? (supposedly the 5% is actually 1%)

Its 5% of your current block value. so at 30% blockv it gives you 1% more blockv.

[Tandrius]

Interesting post. OP states his opinion, which is fine, but it is really just that: an opinion. Any time anyone disagrees, OP says that's unfounded and has no proof. Possibly true, but both opinions are just as valid.

There is value in stamina. There is value in avoidance. Good tanks don't ignore either. How good is one vs the other is yet to be determined and varies from fight to fight and class to class. Any attempt to say one is worthless is sensationalism and should be ignored.

I think you're also arguing only half of the issue. Healer mana is everyone's concern, and a prime reason healers go oom is the raid incorrectly managing the fight mechanics and thus taking too much damage. The other reason healers go oom is bad healing, and it seems no one talks about this. If you manage your mana poorly, you will oom. So if you're finding you're out of mana, sure, look at the tank, sure; look at the dps; but you should also take a moment to look at yourself, because the problem could be you.

[Cæli]

From what I understood

If healers have no mana problems, stacking stam allows to take more damage overall.
If healers have problems, stacking mitigation allows you to take less damage.
Stacking stam allows to have more health than necessary to survive in non heroic raids.
Stacking mitigation allows you to not stack stam and to reduce damage taken.

It seems that in non heroic you are a mana sponge if you stack stam.
Conclusion : focus mitigation on non heroic raid encounters when you get the amount of stamina that allows you to survive

[Beetlejuice]

The fail is strong in this one.

Just take a look at what a greater heal heals and what a tank without stam gems and trinkets already has as hp and you know the "value" of stam as a tank stat. Well at least if you manage to activate those 2 brain cells left and don't keep clinging on something someone told you to be a good idea in last expansion.

Effective Health is a theoretical concept that gets practically interesting only if healing is irrelevant, either because it does not exist at all or there is an abundance of it. Neither is true in cataclysm.

If a tank gets hit by that 120k dmg magic spell (and learning to kick is not an option ) then yes, dodge won't help with that. But stam won't help either. In both cases healers will have to heal 120k dmg. The difference is that healing up 120k dmg is much easier if the tank does not take every single melee attack while you pump your biggest heals into him. So once you start trying to get his hp up again stam still won't help you, but dodge will.

[Pieterman]

Balacing stats is ftw.
It kinda depents on the boss whats best rly.

[Deleted]

learn to use your cooldowns :P
the 120k spells all come with a big "HEY HERE I AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!"
So as Paladin i just press my 1min CD 20% dmg shield
oder the other 20% shield on 3min cd oder the 80% shield on 3min cd
use cooldowns to give healers a chance. there is no dmg in the raids so far that is absolutly surprising.
and those who say 102.4 isn't reachable..... i nearly got it with half epic gear :P i'm at 90% without proc and with proc of my trinket over 120%. at 160k raidbuffed