[Tallus]

First off, I'm fairly new to warrior tanking after being Fury DPS for the last 6 months, and I've been working on getting back into it by upgrading my gear and picking up tanking pieces as I go along. Now, I come to a predicament that I'm having a hard time finding full on, data-backed decisions and I've come to the place I trust for this information.

The choice is between two trinkets that will be for my HealersFellAsleep macro and any side stats they may provide...

Macro in question:
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Shield Block

Trinket #1: Furnace Stone
Trinket #2: Valor Medal of the First War OR Lavanthor's Talisman

STATS:
w/ Lavanthor's Talisman
Armor: 24368
Defense: 543
Dodge: 24.25% (-1.54%)
Parry: 19.29%
Block: 30.18% (+4.52%)
HP: 29151

Pro's: Block rating kept higher, Increased damage blocked
Con's: Shares CD with Furnace Stone, static stat redundant when used with shield block.

w/ Valor Medal of the First War
Armor: 24368
Defense: 543
Dodge: 25.79% (+1.54%)
Parry: 19.29%
Block: 25.66% (-4.52%)
HP: 29151

Pros: Does not Share CD with Furnace Stone, Increased static dodge rating, increased dodge rating when block rating will shoot through the roof with Shield Block. Not redundant reduction when used in conjunction with Shield Block.
Cons: Big loss in block rating.

I just don't know which one is the better choice between the two

[Halandir]

Block rating and value are... overrated. For any serious boss fights. If you're interested in survivability, go with the dodge trinket every time. Not only is the "use" effect immensely better, but the "equip" stats aren't even close to equal. Which is better: a 5% chance to mitigate 1500-3000 (depending on shield block being up and trinket popped) damage from a 20k attack? Or a 2% chance to totally avoid that same 20k attack.

Shield block rating won't save you on boss fights where you're worried about surviving the encounter. Neither will an extra 400 block value. That's a threat trinket or a trash trinket, where you have many mobs attacking for lower amounts.

When it comes to burst survivability for bosses, the base dodge on the second trinket combined with the extra "use" dodge boost pwns.

[Kazeyonoma]

Halandir... LOG INTO IKARIAM! that is all...

uhh I mostly agree with Hal, in that SBR and SBV aren't gonna be very useful to you in a raid boss situation, even post buff. Only a select few bosses are useful for a SBV set, namely Loatheb.

[Dragaan]

Lol, I tanked Loatheb in a block set once and only had something like 200 dtps. Actually wasn't even a block set, it was a threat set that just happened to have high block (could have geared for much more).

Edit: WoW Meter Online - Combatlog Replay

Sorry for goin offtopic... I just thought it was funny. The ret pally took like twice as much dmg as I did.