AGI and RAWR for Gear

I've been a long time lurker, first time poster.

I have been using RAWR to help me gem out my gear (mostly 219-226 level) and I noticed that RAWR absolutely loves AGI above STA. Fully raid buffed (via RAWR) I have roughly 38K health, def min, 32% dodge, 18% Parry, 8.7 Miss. Total avoidance is 58.21.

My question is, does this seem like a bad way to go? I mean the health seems a bit low am I right? RAWR has me gemming mostly for AGI and really very little for STA. I don't really have the luxury of having multiple tanking sets yet.

Thanks,
Mod.

Agility is a great stat when it comes to all around benefit, however depending on the content that you are tanking, 38k hp is very low. Most tanks in Ulduar gear who perfer to gem for stamina have this unbuffed. The key to using agility to bolster your effective health, avoidance and threat is to use it tactfully in gem slots that have socket bonuses that benefit you the most. If you are ignoring sockets and geming raw agi, you are gimping your effective health too much.

Socket for hp if you are getting killed more often than not by back to back hits. An armory link would help in understanding what you are working with.

That is my dilemma, let's say I gem for STA and get up to 42Kish is that extra 4K actually going to be a life saver vs dodging more of the incoming attacks thus not getting hit at all. I understand that RAWR is just a simulator but like I said, it seems to really favor AGI and avoidance in general.

Yes it could. 42K health will allow you to live through two consecutive hits of up to 21k. 38K health only allows you to live through two hits of up to 19k. There are several bosses in Ulduar that hit harder, so you are still going to be getting pretty good gains from more health. This is basically effective health theory.

The dilemma is purely based on the content you are tanking. You have to consider that Effective health sets are only good for certain situations (most of them, but not all). You have to take other things into consideration such as how much of a mana sponge are you. What's good for tanking Steelbreaker on AoI hard mode isn't necessarily good for tanking general hard mode. You base your gear selection off the encounters that you will be facing and not the best theory out there for gearing.

However, with the fact that you only have one gear set at the moment, Effective health is probably your best bet. The gains out of pure stamina will be better than the gains out of a well balanced gem philosophy if you are having problems surviving encounters.

Just keep in mind as you start to acquire more gear, you should bring the right tools for the job. Create multiple tanking sets as you acquire more gear, and dont necessarily pass on that next piece of gear because its sub optimal for your set.

Short response: RAWR isn't good at gear advice for tanks.

Long response: RAWR can't handle the complicated stat balance required for tanking. It doesn't know how to keep you above the defense minimum, with the appropriate amount of hit rating, at (but not above) the block cap if you need to be, while providing quality avoidance with the best effective health.