SSG vs SS

[bloodomen]

Hey guys,

I have been doing much contimplation over the DK runeforge weapon enchants for my tanking.
Here is my armory:
The World of Warcraft Armory

Currently I use Rune of Swordshattering - Spell - World of Warcraft. The 4% parry is very very nice since it suffers not diminishing returns. I feel however that since I do not use Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle - Spell - World of Warcraft that I am missing out on a useful trinket because I am forced to used Repelling Charge - Item - World of Warcraft.

Now I have gone over my current gear and I have 3 options,
~I can replace 3 stam gems (90 stam total) for 3 def gems (60 def total) and re-enchant my chest for def(22 def) over +10 stats.
`I can replace SS with SSG whcih give 25 straight def rating, freeing me of some def and allowing me to get a new trinket.
~Or I can just keep SS and suffer with the high def trinket.

So at this moment I am torn, do I want more stam with the SSG enchant freeing me up for a very useful trinket and even freeing me of some def gems or do I want to keep the midigation which effects how often Im hit and also balancing me with threat (more parry = more runestrikes = more threat).

Well thought out imput would be much appreciated, Thank you all for your time

[Insahnity]

The whole point to Blood DK tanking is to have a huge health pool and heal it back yourself, with some help with healers. The real beauty to SSG is the extra stam bonus, it's massive and pretty much mandatory for blood DKs (if not all 2h DK tanks). It is also important to note that the 25 defense SKILL (not rating, this is a whopping 123 RATING) is not subject to DR either.

The only time you would ever consider SS would be if you could somehow make a DW frost tank work, and that is the 1h version. The 2h SS pretty much is forgotten after level 72. You just can't beat a stam bonus AND the 25 SKILL not subject to DR.

The other thing to note, under the current mechanics, stamina is superior to avoidance for all tanks, but doubly true for bears and blood DKs. if you have any opportunity to cram in more stamina, do it. If you would like to try an avoidance tank, you should consider being unholy or frost.

Other points of note
-IBF gets stronger with defense, being over 540 as a DK has its uses.
-Defense also increases chance to be missed, although it is not readily apparent in the paper doll.

[bloodomen]

Yes sorry for my misconseption of the "rating" I ment to say the skill, and I do realize it has no DM (the beauty of Runeforgeing). Thanks for the imput, I had really started to notice this would be a def problem when I found that my gear revolved around 1 trinket (and since I have my eye on some high stam trinkets) The real whole basis of my consern was that avoidance and the threat that comes from Rune Strike. When I get home after work I do plan on changing this enchant around crunching some numbers (even emptying some pretty pennys for new gems)

Thanks, and I am still up for more imput if other are willing to give.

[Insahnity]

Don't throw out repelling charge. It has one great use, keeping def capped while in icebane gear. I know people can faceroll saph now without FrR gear, but if you want to tank it in FrR gear to make your life easier, toss on that trinket to make it work.

[bloodomen]

Oh no worries with that, I'm a sort of pack rat when it comes to gear, It will sit in the bank, with all my other naxx/os/maly/pvp/badge gear.

[Kensu]

SSG gives about 3% avoidance on top of the yummy Sta it grants. This is assuming you maintain the 565 defense. Since 540 defense is the problem you are solving at the moment, you are going to loose the bonus avoidance. However you are freeing up a gear slot then you are gaining whatever you are putting in the gear slot.

What it boils down to is what do you want to gear for? This is a question I ask myself on a boss to boss basis. Some bosses need more threat (Hodir hard mode) while some bosses need as much EH as possible (Heroic ToC content comes to mind...). I carry around an extra bag or so of tank gear to meet the needs for differant fights.

[bloodomen]

So I changed my SS to SSG and how nice it is. When taking off SS I did not notice any lower tps or any real difference except the fact that I now have more hp, a free trinket space that I can change as I please and a nice cussion of defense. I did notice however that when I took SS off I didn't lose 4% parry but more like 3.something %(can't tell exact but was noticibly less than 4%) so it seems the trade off was very well worth it, Thanks a bunch
~Bloodomen