i am really lost about gemming as prot.

[tyggyr]

As for dodge/parry ratings, you'll want your dodge rating to be around 200 higher than your parry rating. this is because you gain around that much from raid buffs.

I remember reading that it's not just rating (Dodge & Parry) which are affected by diminishing returns but the raw percentage of the Dodge, and the Parry, which are - other than specifics from talents & spells.

A quick look in EJ found this from WoLK: http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t29453-c..._85_cataclysm/

3. Death Knight's Parry Rating from base Strength is affected by DR.
4. Direct percentage gains from talents and spells are not affected by DR. (e.g. 5% Dodge from talents, 4% Parry to weapon, 25 Defense to weapon)

I have reason to believe that the same is still in effect for Cataclysm (with changes to the other plate tanks' str<->parry).

What this means is that you shouldn't look only at "which of my dodge & parry ratings is higher" when deciding which way to reforge or gem, because your character sheet's parry rating isn't the only thing affecting your parry. Instead, you should look at the actual parry chance (percentage) and compare it to your dodge chance (percentage), and adjust somewhat for raid buffs (which will affect your parry, but no longer your dodge).

And yes, you can use a strength flask for more parry when you don't need the extra stamina - but if you're actually concerned about survivability, you should be using Prismatic Elixir and Elixir of the Master; together those will much more substantially reduce your damage intake. Remember to consider the 225 mastery from the Elixir of the Master when deciding how to reforge/gem for the 102.4% CTC.


OT: Here's a convenient macro you can use to display your current CTC:

/script local function f(v)return math.floor(100*v)/100 end;local d=f(GetDodgeChance());local p=f(GetParryChance());local b=f(GetBlockChance());local c=5+d+p+b;print("5%m+"..d.."%d+"..p.."%p+"..b.."%b = "..c.."% total")

This will display something like (numbers completely made up here as I'm hard at work):

5%m+15.03%d+17.21%p+63.22%b = 100.46% total

it will be displayed in your chat window but not sent to anyone else.
This macro is applicable to bears and DKs as well, just don't expect to see a non-zero block chance (or a non-zero parry chance, for the bears).

[Deleted]

That won't help you if you don't have the hp to survive a big hit. Like Crackle + Flame breath used to be on Nef. So it's actually 60 stam gems till you have the hp needed not to get one shot by boss abilities which cannot be mitigated by avoidance. Then you can start gemming for mastery.

I tanked nef heroic with below 160k hp, onyxia tank p1, adds p3. I never went below 50% due to smart cooldown uses on crackles. In most cases I stayed above 80%.

Trinket + glyphed divine prot is insane on that fight.

Gemming stamina is not the solution to you not being able to use cooldowns properly, its learning to use cooldowns properly. ( Duh )

[Deleted]

4. Direct percentage gains from talents and spells are not affected by DR. (e.g. 5% Dodge from talents, 4% Parry to weapon, 25 Defense to weapon)

Its more complicated. If I remember correctly game adds talent based dodge, parry et. to the beginning of rating (ex. from zero point to 5%) so you benefit more from it.

OT: Here's a convenient macro you can use to display your current CTC:

/script local function f(v)return math.floor(100*v)/100 end;local d=f(GetDodgeChance());local p=f(GetParryChance());local b=f(GetBlockChance());local c=5+d+p+b;print("5%m+"..d.."%d+"..p.."%p+"..b.."%b = "..c.."% total")

This will display something like (numbers completely made up here as I'm hard at work):

5%m+15.03%d+17.21%p+63.22%b = 100.46% total

it will be displayed in your chat window but not sent to anyone else.
This macro is applicable to bears and DKs as well, just don't expect to see a non-zero block chance (or a non-zero parry chance, for the bears).

There is an very old macro that displays CTC rating in very clean way.

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Need 102.4 combat table coverage to be capped. Currently at: "..string.format("%.2f", GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance()+5))

This will show you something like this in default chat frame "Need 102.4 combat table coverage to be capped. Currently at: 102.28". I have it on my toolbar whenever I go reforge something. I hit it every time to see the difference. It helps me a lot.

[Splosion]

I remember reading that it's not just rating (Dodge & Parry) which are affected by diminishing returns but the raw percentage of the Dodge, and the Parry, which are - other than specifics from talents & spells.

A quick look in EJ found this from WoLK: http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t29453-c..._85_cataclysm/

3. Death Knight's Parry Rating from base Strength is affected by DR.
4. Direct percentage gains from talents and spells are not affected by DR. (e.g. 5% Dodge from talents, 4% Parry to weapon, 25 Defense to weapon)

I have reason to believe that the same is still in effect for Cataclysm (with changes to the other plate tanks' str<->parry).

What this means is that you shouldn't look only at "which of my dodge & parry ratings is higher" when deciding which way to reforge or gem, because your character sheet's parry rating isn't the only thing affecting your parry. Instead, you should look at the actual parry chance (percentage) and compare it to your dodge chance (percentage), and adjust somewhat for raid buffs (which will affect your parry, but no longer your dodge).

Whilst that may have been true then, at the current stage of the game, you would recieve direct parry % from str rather than parry rating. There literally isn't anything to it. It's affected by DR, as it is the same as having +parry rating from a piece of gear.

The inherent issue (one I've found out about only recently), is that the prismatic elixir does not manage to get you to the next resist "threshold", you're still a few off, even if you're an alchemist (I think if you do have mixology, you still need to use a void sphere (+4 resist all) with the elixir to reach the next threshold), so whilst it is an extremely strong 2nd choice where it is effective (most FL fights, besides beth'tilac), as it provides around 8.92% magic damage reduction on average, you may find that it doesn't give nearly that amount, and using another guardian elixir is more prefferable (deep earth, or a stamina scroll).

As for talented dodge/parry, aside from them not existing, they are (were) added post DR, so you didn't have to watch their value diminish with more gear.

I'm sure most of this info is on maintankadin somewhere, I'm sure I remember reading a MATLAB thread about it a while ago.

[Weerra]

Is there a handy addon that calculates what and by how much is affected by DR in your current gear?

[Ecmelt]

http://www.zalambar.com/warcraft_calculators/parry i used to use this..but it is a bit out of date now. Still works if you find out how much str you have to enter to make 25% same as 27% of your actual strength (as in if you have 100 str you say 108 instead so 25% is 27 parry.