Why have multiple gear sets as a Main Tankadin?

I've been a Prot-pally for quite some time and have read on many sites, including Knaughty's 3.2 Frequently *Answered* Questions - Tankadin basics thread http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21932 on this forum, that it's a wise idea to have multiple sets of gear. Specifically a block heavy set. I've been using the prefabricated PVE Protection Paladin template at http://www.lootrank.com/wr.asp which seems to be a good guideline as far as a tanking set is concerned. That said, I have several questions based on having a blocking set.

1. Is one set of top of the line tanking gear not enough?

2. In what scenario(s) would a block heavy set prove more useful then incorporating gear with more dodge and parry? Would the mitigation from blocking ever outweigh the chances for avoidance from dodge, parry and miss? Would this ever save one more EH and HP than he/she would lose both in and out of combat? If so, at what point. (Theorycraft)

3. What are the minimum stats and caps, if any, one should have and how should he/she balance the between block rating and BV on this gear?

4. Also, if one did have a block set, should he/she socket it with a little extra strength, instead of dodge, for the added BV? If so, approximately how much? (Theorycraft)

I am a level 80 Tankadin whom maintains a minimum defense value of 540 and an avoidance of at least 102.4% with HS up. Naturally, I use dodge as my main statistic for avoidance and prefer parry over block as secondary stat. Basically, Is it worth having a separate set of gear for blocking as a Tankadin? What other sets would be useful in a PvE environment as a Tankadin? All thoughts and ideas are welcome. I apologize for my lack of knowledge with blocking statistics and thank all who participate in this thread in advance.

If you are reaching your 102.4% avoidance/mitigation percentage using dodge and parry, rather than heavy block; there shouldn't be a reason to stack block. The point of block cap is to get to 102.4%, but it doesn't have to be done through block. The advantage of having block over dodge parry, is simply higher threat, dps, and mana regen; however, if you are blocking more than dodging, you are also taking more damage than necessary. If you must have the 102.4%, get it however you need to, but do it in a way that you increase your overall EH.

For my tanking, I strive for 102.4% but sometimes the gear just doesn't support it. For gems, I use Solid Majestic Zircon for all blue, Enduring Eye of Zul for all yellow, and Shifting Dreadstone for all red. There are several others who follow the same schema. With tanking gear socket bonuses of stamina, it helps to meet the requirements. Pushing Str will help with BV, which is double now; however avoidance is a much better percentage to stack imo.

Every tank does it differently, find what works for you and maximize it. Hope it helps.

I currently do not hit 102.4 because I decided to increase my overall health from 29.5k to 32K+ unbuffed. Mitigation/avoidance may be lower, but I can take alot harder hits before going down.

Palejugs
Aerie Peak

I specifically address gear sets here: http://avengingwrathy.wordpress.com/

I'm pretty sure by a block set, people typically mean a block value set and not a block rating set.

There are various reasons for a having a block value set. Increased threat for starters. But it's main appeal is that BV is a static damage reduction. Although BV is a bad stat compared to pure avoidance for big hitters that hit you for over 25k per hit, it excels for lighter hitters. Blocking for over 3k per hit for something that hit around 10k, just the block itself is an extra 30% damage reduction. A BV set does get a lot of use in naxx, but less so in Ulduar. And with 3.2 a BV set is just down right OP for heroics.

According to several posts, you can differentiate between 5 types:

- Effective Health (armor, health) = EH
- Magic Effective Health (health) = MEH
- Threat (hit, strength/attack power, block value, expertise) = T
- Block (block value, 102.4% avoidance+block) = B
- Avoidance (def, dodge, parry) = AV

In what cases would you use each of these sets?
For Ulduar-bosses I would use a EH/AV set. For Ulduar-trash a B set. For hardmode bosses (high dps req.) a EH/T set.
For Naxxramas I use the B set.

And how far would you go in sacrificing other stats, for instance for building a threat set. How much health would you allow to drop?
For example, I can build a threat set that sacrifices my health down to 26k (down from 31k for my EH/AV set) using several dps pieces.

I tried to maintain different sets for different purposes but with the possible exception of my BV set and my Frost Resist set, none of them looked sufficently different to merit the bagspace. Maybe one set gave me plus-or-minus 2% avoidance for plus or minus 2-3k health, but the differences didn't feel enough to warrant it. Maybe my OCD isn't strong enough, but I just go for a good balance of EH, Avoidance and Threat.

1. Is one set of top of the line tanking gear not enough?

If you have top of the line tanking gear then for most cases you do not need an extra gearset. Trinkets are very good ways to push your one set in different directions. If your one set is EH focussed (duel sta trinket) then its not too hard to swap them out for avoidance/threat etc. Also its very manageable and quick if your normal trinkets don't have def rating on them.

2. Would the mitigation from blocking ever outweigh the chances for avoidance from dodge, parry and miss?

The boss/mob would have to be hitting incredibly week for this to happen.

3. What are the minimum stats and caps, if any, one should have and how should he/she balance the between block rating and BV on this gear?

Keeping 102.4%. In selecting gear you want gear with a higher BV:BR ratio as this will reduce the amount of wasted BR, making gear without BR the best choices assuming of equal ilevel.

4. Also, if one did have a block set, should he/she socket it with a little extra strength, instead of dodge, for the added BV? If so, approximately how much? (Theorycraft)

Previous block sets threads have said to socket str but these were lolthreat block sets and not used for progression. In the event of a block set actually being more than a plaything I would probably go for agi - offers mitigation, threat and avoidance (which will contribute to 102.4%).

For the most part I agree with Lythac, however, I do disagree that if you have "top of the line tanking gear then for the most cases you do not need an extra gear set" paradigm. I have what we would call top of the line gear, however I still have more than 40 pieces of gear in my bags that are associated with five different gear sets. And I still swap them out all the time.

A few good examples of this would be drastic differences in Assembly of Iron and Hodir Hard Mode. My Effective health set buffs me up to >30k armor, ~37k hp, and a combined 62% avoidance, on the down side i have 130 hit and diminished threat. While I can take fusion punches and tank him when he is hitting upwards of 25k a swing ever second and a half, I would never dream of wearing my "dalaran or BiS set." The same concept can be applied to Hodir. If i have 130 hit, and a lot less AP, Str, and SBV, I would not be able to keep up with the ranged dps that are pumping out 15-16k dps throughout the fight.

Gear sets are necessary to achieve "top of the line tanking gear" and are still used once you have them. If anyone here is 9/9 hard modes and uses one set, I would be amazed.

Zaluthar wrote:According to several posts, you can differentiate between 5 types:

- Effective Health (armor, health) = EH
- Magic Effective Health (health) = MEH
- Threat (hit, strength/attack power, block value, expertise) = T
- Block (block value, 102.4% avoidance+block) = B
- Avoidance (def, dodge, parry) = AV

In my personal armor spreadsheet, I have columns where I can mark each piece I have as my best for each of four different uses (EH, A, B/T, H where B/T is a combined block/threat set and H is a pure Health set for magic tanking). I also mark each upgrade to know which sets the piece is an upgrade for.

As far as actual sets go, I only maintain (via ItemRack) an EH set and block set. I made the block set so I could have a block capped set with an extra 250 or so block value (maybe more now after 3.2; I haven't looked) for both threat and trash mitigation.

I always keep my best piece for each set, though, on the chance that I need it to craft for a custom encounter. When we were learning Kologarn months ago, for example, I simply didn't have the gear to survive as an EH tank, so I built an avoidance set for that encounter. We'd still wipe when I got unlucky but if I was lucky we could clear him and move on to content we wanted to learn. After a few weeks I'g gotten several upgrades and went back to an EH set for him. (And I think he got nerfed.)

Kliamovich wrote:I've been a Prot-pally for quite some time and have read on many sites, including Knaughty's 3.2 Frequently *Answered* Questions - Tankadin basics thread http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21932 on this forum, that it's a wise idea to have multiple sets of gear. Specifically a block heavy set. I've been using the prefabricated PVE Protection Paladin template at http://www.lootrank.com/wr.asp which seems to be a good guideline as far as a tanking set is concerned. That said, I have several questions based on having a blocking set.

1. Is one set of top of the line tanking gear not enough?

2. In what scenario(s) would a block heavy set prove more useful then incorporating gear with more dodge and parry? Would the mitigation from blocking ever outweigh the chances for avoidance from dodge, parry and miss? Would this ever save one more EH and HP than he/she would lose both in and out of combat? If so, at what point. (Theorycraft)

3. What are the minimum stats and caps, if any, one should have and how should he/she balance the between block rating and BV on this gear?

4. Also, if one did have a block set, should he/she socket it with a little extra strength, instead of dodge, for the added BV? If so, approximately how much? (Theorycraft)

I am a level 80 Tankadin whom maintains a minimum defense value of 540 and an avoidance of at least 102.4% with HS up. Naturally, I use dodge as my main statistic for avoidance and prefer parry over block as secondary stat. Basically, Is it worth having a separate set of gear for blocking as a Tankadin? What other sets would be useful in a PvE environment as a Tankadin? All thoughts and ideas are welcome. I apologize for my lack of knowledge with blocking statistics and thank all who participate in this thread in advance.

a couple things,

1) Parry = dodge now so anything with both = win

2) Block RATING beyond 102.4 = wasted as it covers the chance to block only. If you're over 100% theres no possible way to not block so why have more of a chance if you're already unhittable. The BV is the only thing that matters.

3) In your BV set you should never be below 102.4%. At this point your block value essentially becomes Effective Health for all Physical attacks. I only have a half serious bv set and i hit about 2k BV. So, my loss of 3k hp is only really a 1k loss on all physical attacks. This makes a much more even dmg income and from a healer perspective, steady dmg > spikey dmg. Pure STR gemming for BV set would be unwise as the buff to BV was for pure BV from gear only. If you feel the need to gem str, do str/stam.

4.) One suggestion, get a 2nd helm to have the Meta for def/bv.

In my everyday tanking I use basically 3 "sets" I use a health set for IC Hard mode, which is just max health in every slot, that gets me like 38k unbuffed health. For most jobs I use my mt set, which is a balance of EH and avoidance, it has closer to 35k health but 3-4% more avoidance and a lil more armor. Then for bosses that are easy or on farm I use a threat set, this set comes in at around 33.5k health less avoidance then my MT set, however it is hit capped, exp capped, and has around 2k block value unbuffed.

In addition thought I change rings and trinkets on a boss by boss basis. Its my opinion that all good tanks should carry lots of trinkets, and mix and match depending on the situation.