Upgrade everything to the epic equivalent and the advice remains mostly the same
Note that because stam gems are now 30 instead of 24, and hybrid stam/rating gems are 15 instead of 12, the relative value of socket bonuses has been reduced by 3 stamina per socket.

In TBC, this was enough that matching sockets basically went out of style in 2.4 - there was no point, just put stam everywhere.

Unclear is the same will be true in 3.2.

Meta:
• Austere Earthsiege Diamond Easy to activate, highest EH vs magic or big slow hits.
• Eternal Earthsiege Diamond Avoidance, very good EH vs small hits, threat. Slightly harder to activate.

Austere in your MT hat, Eternal in your TPS/BV/Trash hat.

Blue:
• Epic Stam gem I mean.. do I have to say it?
• Stam gem

Red:
Use these purple gems:

• Shifting Dreadstone EH & avoidance, a little TPS. Probably your best red MT gem.
• Regal Dreadstone EH & avoidance. Agility version is probably better.
• Sovereign Dreadstone EH + TPS & a little BV. Agility version IS better.
• Regal Twillight Opal EH & avoidance.
• Sovereign Twilight Opal EH + TPS & a little BV. Drop

Or use these orange gems:
• Champion's Flawless Ametrine Avoidance, TPS, tiny bit of BV. Best gem for your TPS set. Drop
• Stalwart Flawless Ametrine Avoidance, lots of it. MT set option. Drop
• Champion's Monarch Topaz Avoidance, TPS, tiny bit of BV. Best gem for your TPS set. Drop
• Stalwart Monarch Topaz Avoidance, lots of it. MT set option. Drop


Yellow:

• Enduring Eye of Zul Yellow slots are rare. This gem is awesome, BTW, so never slot a blue gem in a yellow slot with a decent bonus, use this one.
• Enduring Forest Emerald

Enchants

Rules of thumb:
• Ratings are fungible!: Pick the enchant with the most "item points" spent on tanking stats.
• Defence is your best enchant until over 540
• Defence is still your best avoidance enchant after 540, until block-capped.
• 540 is hard to maintain.
• Enchant to improve an item's strengths, not cover weaknesses.
• Your profession option is almost always better than the base enchant (or stacks)

This simplifies to "enchant defence > all, then stamina if possible". Armour enchants, where they exist, are also very, very good.

Best enchant by slot

Helm [item]Arcarnum of the Stalwart Protector[/item] Twice as good as anything else.

Shoulders Best Inscription of the Pinnacle you can get from Hodir rep.

Cloak: Mighty Armor (225 armour) is competitive with Titanweave once you are past the defence minimum. Some people like 22 Agility, I haven't run the numbers but have an irrational dislike for Agi enchants.

Chest:Greater Defence is your best enchant. Super Health and Powerful Stats are about even in second place.

Wrist: 40 stam enchant

Gloves: Glove Reinforcements is more EH than Heavy Borean Armor Kit (but doesn't work vs magic). Armsman for your threat-set gloves, if you have them.

Waist: Extra socket. Probably with a stamina gem in it, but look at the strengths of the piece and consider your options.

Legs: 22 agil / 55 stam leg patch.

Feet: 22 stam. Tuskarr's if you want the speed.

Mainhand:
Avoidance:
Enchant Weapon - Blade Ward New in 3.1. The proc is less than 4% parry due to diminishing returns. Proc rate, internal CD and source of enchant are all unknown.
Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Agility Some crit and dodge, and a little armour. I'm not a fan, but if someone posts the conversions, I'll stick them here.

EH (sort of)
Enchant Weapon - Blood Draining New in 3.1. The source of enchant is unknown. Proc rate is 50%, stacks to 5, heal goes off when you drop under 35%. 5-stack will take about 10 seconds to reach, and heals for 1.8k - 2.2k, unknown if there is any scaling.

TPS Options:
• Best TPS enchant is Enchant Weapon - Accuracy once you're in full Naxx-25 or Ulduar-10 tanking epics, but it is Expensive! so wait for a good weapon.

• Potency is next best, but is very hard to find being a somewhat rare world-drop TBC enchant, so just use Titanium Weapon chain in the meanwhile, as it quite decent TPS as well.

Shield: 20 Defence is substantially better than 18 stam by ilevel. 40 Block Value if you have a "Threat set" shield.

 

 



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