Originally Posted by
Splosion
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:
Code:
/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).