New DK tank in Cata

[Thuglyfe]

Hey, so I just started tanking on my DK this expansion and I am uncertain about what I should reforge. I know that mastery is one of the best stats but I don't know what % dodge, and parry I should aim for. I haven't really had a problem staying up besides how shitty Halfus is for DK tanks. Any other criticism would be much appreciated!

Heres a link to my armory.
us.battle.net/wow/en/character/skywall/thugglyfe/advanced

[Dazed]

Always keep parry and dodge equal and let the get better as gear progresses, reforge into mastery

[Conno]

never go for dodge or parry over stamina or mastery, blood shields and self heals is the whole point of us. i've only got 8% dodge and 12% parry, 18.45% mastery and i'm a doddle to keep up with my self survival.

to actually respond to your post though, once you're hit/expertise capped unless you have zero aggro problems then reforege any excess to mastery, parry should be your second choice to reforge after dps stats and dodge your last. But you'll want mastery above anything else.

[Deleted]

Hello, I checked your armory and here what I would change considering you have NO problems with aggro AT ALL:
head: expertise -> mastery
wrists: expertise -> mastery
weapon: expertise -> mastery
trinkets: parry/dodge -> mastery
ring 2: hit -> dodge
legs: expertise -> mastery
Also I would remove dodge gems and replace those with +20 mastery, +30 stamina and reforge some parry on gear into dodge to make those 2 equal~. Missing armor enchant on cloak, could be better enchant on chest (+75 instead of +55 stamina), also I would replace trinket 1 with stamina trinket from Stonecore hc last boss. But that would be what I would do. Maximize mastery + as much avoidance as possible without hit/exp caps. That is how I formed my char and I have no problems with aggro at all even on raids! Here is my armory link if you would like to check: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...riush/advanced

[Darthwader]

somewhere i found that you need 2400 combined dodge+parry rating.
dunno if this accurate or no. my values are around that, i have +4%parry runeforge on weapon, and all reforges to mastery and i tank all boss(only nefarian missing) with no problem.

for gems i use stam on blues, stam+mastery on greens and stam+parry on reds

[Deleted]

never go for dodge or parry over stamina or mastery, blood shields and self heals is the whole point of us. i've only got 8% dodge and 12% parry, 18.45% mastery and i'm a doddle to keep up with my self survival.

to actually respond to your post though, once you're hit/expertise capped unless you have zero aggro problems then reforege any excess to mastery, parry should be your second choice to reforge after dps stats and dodge your last. But you'll want mastery above anything else.

What?

Again, What?

Dodge and Parry are equal, and should remain at equal amounts, their Diminishing Return is the same so you'll gain the most out of new Gear by keeping both Stats as equal as possible.
You don't need to be Hit Capped and Expertise Soft-Capped. Being close is recommended so your Death Strikes don't miss but you don't need to explicitly have 8% Hit and 26 Expertise.
Parry shouldn't "be your second choice to reforge after dps stats and dodge your last." No. You Reforge as much as possible into Mastery, then balance out Dodge and Parry. If you have Crit/Haste Reforge it into something useful like Mastery/Hit/Expertise. You should really only have Crit and Haste on your Weapon though. Dodge isn't in anyway last, Crit is definitely much worse than Dodge, and Haste being worse than any Avoidance, better than Crit since it reduces Rune Cooldowns by a teeny tiny bit.

---------- Post added 2011-01-03 at 04:06 AM ----------

somewhere i found that you need 2400 combined dodge+parry rating.
dunno if this accurate or no. my values are around that, i have +4%parry runeforge on weapon, and all reforges to mastery and i tank all boss(only nefarian missing) with no problem.

for gems i use stam on blues, stam+mastery on greens and stam+parry on reds

You want to have equal amounts of Dodge and Parry.

Gems:
Blue: Full Stamina or Stamina/Mastery.
Yellow: Full Mastery or Full Stamina, although this is only for Stamina/Avoidance Tanks.
Red: (Personal recommendation) Expertise/Stamina or Expertise/Mastery. Can do Parry too.

[Deleted]

i like to have stamina/mastery gems in yellow slots while taking red slots for stamina-only, depending on what socket bonus there is.
would go for dodge/stamina or parry/stamina in red if not for pure stamina tho

[SurrealNight]

This is what I thought would make a good general guideline for gemming to keep things balanced.

Red: Defender's Demonseye (+Stam/Parry)
Yellow: Puissant Dream Emerald (+Stam/Mastery)
Blue: Regal Dream Emerald (+Stam/Dodge)
Prismatic = Puissant Dream Emerald for additional Mastery.

Reforge to acceptable Hit/Expertise (what that is still seems debated) that isn't covered by gear/enchants and the rest into Mastery with keeping Dodge/Parry at close to = levels.

[Avatar Killer]

You don't need to be Hit Capped and Expertise Soft-Capped. Being close is recommended so your Death Strikes don't miss but you don't need to explicitly have 8% Hit and 26 Expertise.

no there is exactly 0 recommendations for getting any amount of hit and or expertise in any amounts. by no means should you pick it up for any reason or even try to or care about their respective caps.

i like to have stamina/mastery gems in yellow slots while taking red slots for stamina-only, depending on what socket bonus there is.

this is retarded. why would you put a stamina only gem in a red socket?

you should put a parry/stam gem in that socket instead or a parry/mastery if you have enough hp. there is no reason to not get the socket bonus as a tank unless its a dps piece that adds crit or haste. If its a tanking piece it will usually have a tanking stat in it so there's really no question. even still a bonus is a bonus and since there is no real OVERPOWERING stat for tanking its generally worth it period to get the bonus regardless.


to the OP:

Just forge your gear into this and these are the reasons

Example 1: you have hit/expertise and mastery on a piece- forge the hit/expertise into dodge or parry which ever is lower in RATING (not percent)

Example 2: you have hit/expertise and parry/dodge on a piece - forge the hit/expertise into mastery regardless of how much avoidance is unbalanced.

Example 3: you have hit and expertise on a piece - vendor this piece or DE it. In the event that it happens to be better than what you had before (which is unlikely) forge the expertise into mastery.

Example 4: you have dodge/parry and mastery on a piece - Check your avoidance ratings. If the piece has dodge (or parry) and you have a lower dodge (or parry) rating leave the piece alone. if you have more dodge (or parry) rating and its dodge (or parry) on the piece then forge the dodge (or parry) into parry (or dodge).

Example 5: Dodge And Parry on the piece - check your avoidance (dodge and parry) ratings. Which ever is higher forge that stat into mastery. If they are balanced (between 1-20 rating difference) then forge the Parry into Mastery (since you can dodge without a weapon but you cannot parry without one hence if you get disarmed [currently not available from a boss] you can still use the avoidance) else forge the (+20 more than parry rating) Dodge into mastery.


the reasoning for this in this order as it is is because currently mastery has no diminishing returns and therefore is why we stack it. Also the application vengeance is still applied if you take damage vs avoiding an attack entirely which is also another reason to stack mastery as i listed. while if you take even 20 damage you stack at least 1 point of vengeance it prevents vengeance from diminishing where as if you avoided an attack you will likely loose some vengeance stacking.

This is why mastery is the better stat to stack for both of these reasons. It doesn't Diminish its use AND it allows you to continue to stack Vengeance for continued threat (though less important)

[SurrealNight]

This post is from the beginning of Jan, why is it even being bumped up? I bet the OP never ever sees this...

I think the DK community has a much better grasp on Hit/Expertise + reforging at this point.