Pally Tanking

[dishsoap]

I have been a pally tank since day one of me being on this game. Loved it all the way. Lvl all the way up that way. I have gone for avoidance since I started raid tanking in BC. It has always been a trade off between that or stam stacking. I have always felt with a pally tank(grabbing groups and holding them all). Avoidance is best cause you are not getting hit as much. While a war needs to get hit to help with rage. I was a T5 tank in bc heading into BT when they did the big wrath patch and nerffed everything. I was only able to play the first couple of months and last couple of months of wrath. So I missed all the wrath raiding. I am back to it now in Cata and as a Pally tank I seem to be better than a lot at the pally tanking in Heroics where you hear cc cc cc. I if need be just grab all of then and start kill order and burn them down. I also am able to single target tank like a beast with my guilds top war tank having trouble getting aggro off of me. I only rock about 141k health in dungeons and about 151k in raids. And Do well. I am just wondering what yall think would be best for me to gem into. I have been putting into Parry and dodge with gems and reforging. Had trouble with Magmaw the other night. Was dying during mangle. Any real advice would be appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

[Deleted]

I am just wondering what yall think would be best for me to gem into.

Here! Have fun.

[pretiwhitboy]

there is such a huge debate right now among all tanks out there about what to gem for. Some will tell u avoidance and some will tell u stam. EJ will tell u Avoid, and other good sites will tell u stam. To each there own to be honest. Its so new noone knows what to do, even though they claim they will. The server first kills they all stacked stam. Yes it because they were undergeared for the where they were at. But at the same time it made it ezier for them to down bosses that they shouldnt of been able to with that gear. But on the flip side they also have the worlds best healers healing them. So in the end either will do you fine. I personally went straight stam, till i started getting raid gear, that had more hp, then started going for avoidance

[jmmathe1988]

I stack all stam/mastery gems...and 1 stam gem in my relic...I am currentlly 348 with zero raid gear and zero crafted gear, sitting at 155k hp, 10% dodge 14% parry 49% block...I get compliments all the time in heroics about my dmg intake. My reasoning for going with mastery is since avoidence has been nerf'd is its best to smooth out the incoming dmg rather than try and dodge and parry it which has dimishing returns unlike block. If you go with dodge and parry and dont ramp up your mastery to get block up you will notice your dmg intake will be rather jump'y, meaning you could be fine one minute and then take a large hit the next unlike going with mastery which gives your healer a steady dmg intake and they dont end up freaking out when you suddenly take a massive hit.

[Deleted]

in any case where you got above 10% dodge/parry then you want to go for Mastery, Think someone on Maintankadin, *Now in Cata imagine that all non blocked/avoided hits are Critical Hits and that all Blocked hits are normal hits*

Go for Good socket bonuses With Stam as a the main Stat you want to improve, The more Health the more the healers can use Mana efficent heals, but dont go overboard with Stamina and dont forget about Mastery (1 stam trinket is enough)