What is good about Shield Block Rating?

So far I have been stacking avoidance. I am around 45% dodge+parry and 17% shield block.

But I see some high end tanks that are around 40% dodge+parry with much higher shield block, more like 27%

I'm sure they know what they are doing, but I don't understand it. If a block mitigates on average 25% of the damage from a hit, then you would need 4x the shield block to match an equivalent amount of dodge/parry.

So why would you give up 5% avoidance to gain 10% block rating? You would obviously be taking more damage (save for fights with very weak hitting bosses, like Loatheb). What am I missing here?

You have to look at the person's gear. Does it look like they are intentionally stacking block rating? Does it look like a "main tank" set? Maybe it was just a trash set with block rating on.

Maybe they haven't had gear drop that isn't covered in block rating. There's a billion trillion variables that can cause someone's gearing to change.

I have an extremely high block rating set that I use for trash and some other fights, it's like 23/21/40 for dodge/parry/block totals. Nearly done with that set, which I'd be at 102.4% coverage with when completed (and raid buffed).

You're right, Block rating is inferior to actual avoidance in nearly every situation, and you're also aware of when block rating can be genuinely useful or better.

However, tanks do not yet possess an ability that lets us yell at our gear to change its stat allotment. As much as I'd love to shout at a Wall of Terror - Item - World of Warcraft and tell it to not suck so much and to change its stats RIGHT NOW so I can use it, it doesn't work.

I personally don't understand why anyone stacks block rating unless you're tanking trash. I run about 20% dodge, 20% parry, and 15% block rating when I tank bosses. But I also have 254 hit and 36 unbuffed expertise for boss fights. The threat you gain from stacking hit and expertise will far exceed what block rating gives you through damage shield and rage. In my trash tanking gear I have 40% block rating, 20% dodge, and 20% parry.

I have multiple gear sets. I have my maximum damage handling set which I sometime wear on patchwork.

Rest of the time I wear my SBR/SBV set because it's more fun.

Encounters right now just simply don't warrant gearing for survivability. With the exception of sarth +2/+3 I haven't died to taking too much damage in a long while now.


Also, I can solo Garr and that is fun.

Multiple gearsets FTW!

Seat of the pants, ad-hoc napkin math in my head has shown me that with around 1350 SBV (buffed) when hit size is ~3000 after armor + stance + talents:

block rating = dodge rating, for pure damage mitigation. Yes, I said it.

this doesn't mean 1% block = 1% dodge.

39.3 Dodge Rating = 1% Dodge
16.39 Block Rating = 1% Block

so what this means is that when (hit size < block size):

1 block rating = 2.39 dodge rating


When (hit size = block size x 2):
1 block rating = 1.195 parry rating

When (hit size = block size x 5):
1 block rating = .478 dodge rating

Please feel free to elaborate and retaliate as necessary. I'm not factoring Glyphs or Shield Block ability in my quick and dirty example, but those obviously favor block.

On a side note, Wall of Terror ain't that bad. I believe it's still the top mitigation shield for hit sizes under 6kish but I need to do some math for that. It also provides significantly more AP then any other shield, and has the 2nd highest SBV.

Actually, I did think of a reason why shield block is good.

If you shift from dodge/parry to block rating, on most fights you will end up taking more overall damage. But that damage will be less spiky.

The higher a warrior pushes their pure avoidance stats, the more we risk a long string of misses, leading to rage starvation and losing threat. Blocking instead of dodge/parry makes for a more steady stream of incoming rage.

Steady damage is also easier on your healers, even if it is more damage overall.

Lets not forget that you get more rage (and get it more consistently) when you block vs. when you avoid damage.

And of course Pallys do have the shield block cap to achieve.