[Shadowcorpse]

Alright, now I want to start off by saying that I'm sure this is a pretty common question, and I've been browsing the forums for several hours trying to get an understanding of which is more more desirable for me.

My previous concept in avoidance versus stam is that once you have enough to avoid being single shotted by a boss, then your better off gemming towards avoidance (or more specifically dodge, since from what I've read DK's will never reach the magic Dodge-Parry ratio). My reasoning behind this is that most of the bosses in ToGC hit for somewhere 25k to 30k, you would need almost 60k health to survive two hits in a row from one of them. So my general rule is to get just over 30k health unbuffed so that with a full set of buffs I'm over 40k. However lately my server has become overcome with tanks that do nothing but gem stam once they hit the def cap. This doesn't seem right to me, but people have taken to judging a tank by a glance at the health pool. This has even lead to some heated discussions with some random people that stacking stam is more effective because it gives the healer more reaction time. So I once again hit the Internet and forums looking for some solid answers, but most of them seem to be based on numbers for level 70s and are a little over my head in comprehension to adapt to current levels.

I'm looking for some coherent values or suggestions on what I should do. My wow armory is here. A few notes about it, my spec is unholy, a rather unconventional spec for tanking, is self-made and I really prefer it over the other builds right now. However because of the lower threat of the build and I run alot of raids with more dedicated and more well geared people, I do use the Sigil of Virulence to make sure my threat says high enough. I'm not looking for comments on that, just on what I should be gemming for.

So once again to sum it all up, if someone help me out or at least point me in the right direction for some answers, that would be spectacular.

[__C3__]

Oh boy, you just let the cat outta the bag - I did the same thing a couple days ago. Check out my post to see if it helps you at all. The question is along the same lines and there is 3 pages of replies that should be able to answer your question. Also, try using search or just browsing forums

My Post:
Yet Another Avoidance vs EH Thread - Rating's vs Stamina in ToC gear

Seems more or less to be stamina all the way on gems, except on hit/expertise or def cap - reason being for ToGC and upcoming Icecrown Citadel, where bosses and their instant abilities can hit you for say, 25k and 26k say back to back, requiring you to have more than 51k let's say. Read my topic and it's much better explained.

Hope this helps!

[Quenchiest]

With the way TotGC works, stacking stam tends to be ideal since most of the damage in there can't even be mitigated by avoidance anyway.