Tanking Professions: Mining > BS ?

[Tankette]

BS gives 2 extra slots, 2 extra 24 stam gems = 48 stam.
450 mining = 50 stam

What am I missing?

I guess the 2 slots give you versatility and you could gem for defense, dodge, expertise or whatever you may need but generally we are looking for tons of stamina.

[Esch]

Those extra slots can be worth 41 stamina each if you do the BS/JC route. Intensive, but currently the 'best' profession combination for stamina increases overall. Furthermore, epic gems that have been datamined will also be worth more than 24 stamina each, making BS slightly better than mining ultimately.

Personally, if you're not going to be bleeding edge progression, I would take mining/BS or mining/JC since you can level both together in that fashion without resorting to the AH.

How you do it depends a lot on your committment & time.

[Dubzil]

Not to mention Meta sockets requiring more than just blue gems, you can use the BS prismatic slot for your non-blue gem and keep set bonuses.

[CKaz]

I've been leaning adding JC (so mining/JC) - there's just so much you can do there
Real loosely I believe (and anyone feel free to correct me/dispute)

JC/BS > JC/mine > BS/mine > ...

[Tankette]

How is BS/JC better than Mining/JC?

[Muggs]

I use Mining/Jewelcrafting on my Prot warrior. They are solid for Tanking and a few stam will not make or break you once the epic gems come out. If they appear next raiding tier, we're going to be looking at tanks with 45k hp... +/- 10 stam will be negligible at that point. Leveling mining and JCing at the same time will save you SIGNIFICANT amounts of time and gold because you'll be able to supply your own gems through the process.

[Dubzil]

How is BS/JC better than Mining/JC?

Thinking just HP, JC/Mine will provide you with more, but if you are looking at any other stat, JC/BS will be better, extra sockets for gems.

[Diridin]

JC/BS beats JC/Mining in flexibility to provide for multiple specs. As far as usefulness goes mining falls behind for anyone but a tank.

From a purely tanking point of view JC/Mining beats JC/BS until they release the epic cuts mentioned above. At that point, however, JC dips a little in value depending on how much you are getting from socket bonuses and not having to socket for your meta.

*EDIT*
Dubzil, Mining was changed to 50 stam some time ago.

[Muggs]

Thinking just HP, JC/Mine will provide you with more, but if you are looking at any other stat, JC/BS will be better, extra sockets for uber gems, uber gems that scale with kings where Mining has 500HP, not 50stm

Mining was changed to 50 stam a few patches ago, it use to be 500hp, but now it's 50 stam!

[Dubzil]

Since you won't be putting your limited number of JC gems in the prismatic sockets, you will only be better off JC/Mine if you are looking for other stats than STM

[Tankette]

Thinking just HP, JC/Mine will provide you with more, but if you are looking at any other stat, JC/BS will be better, extra sockets for uber gems, uber gems that scale with kings where Mining has 500HP, not 50stm

Mining is 50 stam not 500 health. That was changed a few patches back.

[Muggs]

There is no question JCing is the best prof, but you get more bang for you buck as miner over BS... imo.

[Diridin]

It is Toughness. Anyone who uses a prismatic gem in a prismatic socket is wasting socket bonuses but that is besides the point we're comparing BS to Mining, JC is by far the best no matter how you look at it for the time being.

[Crossied]

Thinking just HP, JC/Mine will provide you with more, but if you are looking at any other stat, JC/BS will be better, extra sockets for uber gems, uber gems that scale with kings where Mining has 500HP, not 50stm

??? Mining gives you this Toughness - Spell - World of Warcraft +50 stm. Personally i'm doing mining/jewelcrafting I want those nice gems, IMO. After I finish leveling my jewelcrafting I might get rid of mining(after farming a lot of ore) to level BS just to get the extra sockets but not sure, and 500 HP isn't that much at all IMO. I wouldn't get mining just for that reason, I have it to level JC faster/cheaper. If you're going to pick up mining just for the extra 50 stm it's not worth the time and effort you put into getting it to 450. So in that case(if you have the gold or want to deal with the hastle) BS and JC would be your best bet.

[Bryan1218]

For HP don't overlook LW for the 90 stam to your wrists!

[Diridin]

The reason that LW doesn't come up to par is that it uses an enchant slot that causes loss of flexibility (I believe that the melee version of the LW pattern is AP which is suboptimal, but i could be wrong there) Also compared to the current 40 stam to bracers its like having mining plus your bracers enchanted with stam, but if you wanted to enchant with say expertise for threat you lose your extra 50 stam alltogether.

[Bryan1218]

Makes sense, I should have read what class he is, I'm looking at it from a Druid stand point, we usually end up with an insane amount of Expertise.

[Damonvile]

There is always going to be a yellow or red socket in our gear and prismatics should always be used in them when gearing for stam. NEVER put a prismatic in a prismatic slot unless blue would be your only other option

JC gives you the trinket and a much more useful range than mining does but it wont give you more stam...most of the time.

[Kalbitang]

Depending on where you are in progression, the extra slots from BS can be very useful. The crafted plate tanking pieces have a lot of defense, but very little other tanking stats. As you being to replace these with raid loot, your defense will start to drop dangerously low. One way around this, is to have some extra gem slots for defense. The FR fight in Naxx is another place where some extra def gems help out.

Once you get past this area, JC/BS is probably the best bang for your buck. It depends on your personality and how quickly you can level a farming alt, though. The idea of needing to either change my professions or leveling another toon quickly in the next expansion was a turn-off for me. For other people, not as much.

[Tankette]

JC/BS beats JC/Mining in flexibility to provide for multiple specs. As far as usefulness goes mining falls behind for anyone but a tank.

From a purely tanking point of view JC/Mining beats JC/BS until they release the epic cuts mentioned above. At that point, however, JC dips a little in value depending on how much you are getting from socket bonuses and not having to socket for your meta.

*EDIT*
Dubzil, Mining was changed to 50 stam some time ago.

So if I am only concerned about stamina JC/Mining gives me 2 more stamina than JC/BS.

That said, I think I will go with JC/BS. I am currently Mining/Alch. I just need to level up an alt to take over those 2 professions I am dumping and then I'll make the switch.