Need help from a high end dk tank

[Deathspet]

I have been dk tanking since the beginning of wrath with the heroic gear in ice crown I am having a delima all the other tanks have almost 70k health where i am at only 61k health in a 25 man my geming is speced for midigation when i start putting in the new high end gear 277 ilevel do i still need to keep gemming midigation or can i go for stam I want to be useful to the guild and the raid.

[Airowird]

When it comes to gems: Gem all Stamina unless it's 9 or 12 sta socket bonus, then use 1 gem, preferably dodge/agi.
For enchants, EHP enchants where possible.
Forget about mitigation really, as a healer I can guarantee you, the healers assume you don't have any anyway.

[Theotherone]

Aggathon did a very nice job proving that EH is king http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...king-mechanics).

Personally, I'm a stam/EH convert - blue, blue and more blue with a Nightmare tear to activate the meta; forget socket bonus', forget everything about mitigation or balance or even the hit/expertise caps - in the end EH rules.

[Satorri]

Would you mind providing an armory link?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by spec'ing and gemming for mitigation.

There's no reason you can't gem plenty of stamina, most people do, but if you're over 60k health I don't think it's a real concern either way.

[Felycitas]

Sheesh. I got super excited when I finally broke 50k raid buffed.

[Theotherone]

Damn, Satorri you scared me, I thought you were going to ask me to prove that Stam/EH was king and I'm mathematically challenged.

Was in a 25 ICC Saturday and on the second set of trash to the Gunship, with the Banner up, the warrior tank popped Last Stand for the fun of it and it 100k HP; I swear, a warrior with 100k hp; I was on my hunter and and my jaw just dropped. On Theotherone raid buffed in 25 if I pop Vampiric Blood I get to around 74-76k (I'm just shy of 46k unbuffed in Blood now); I have to try it on VB on the gunship trash tomorrow after the lockout expires and see how high I can get.

[Deathspet]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...i&cn=Deathspet as you can see i am midigation gemmed with the socket bonuses with my health i tried gemming striaght stam at the beginning of icc and found it quite difficult to get past festergut on 25 man when he opened up.

[Edgewalker]

Dodge gems are pretty terrible, replace them with stamina gems.
Also for progression Blood is just flat better, especially with a two hander.
Armsman is a bad glove enchant compared to 18 stamina or armor.
Corpsetongue coin is inferior to the Black Heart in ToC, or Glyph of Indomit. from badges.

[zaubade]

I will second Edgewalker on this. I count 7 pure dodge gems in your kit... replace with stam.. unless the bonus for the socket is more than 9 stam... then use a hybrid stam/(something) gem... I am currently using stam/hit and stam/dodge for the socket bonuses I want and the mete requirement.
(stam/hit for me on a few as I like to have my "hit se"t at the cap and some of my gear pulls double duty.. this is a personal choice)

[zaubade]

on another note I do wonder why this was posted in the theory section......

the halp section is that away -------------------------------> http://www.tankspot.com/forumdisplay...-I-need-advice

[Satorri]

the warrior tank popped Last Stand for the fun of it and it 100k HP; Theotherone raid buffed in 25 if I pop Vampiric Blood I get to around 74-76k (I'm just shy of 46k unbuffed in Blood now);

Last Stand at +30% health (double that of Vamp Blood) goes pretty huge when you get that double buff, it's fun. A friend of mine likes to put on his Scarab so he can pop the on-use health, then pop Last Stand and see how far he can push it.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...i&cn=Deathspet as you can see i am midigation gemmed with the socket bonuses with my health i tried gemming striaght stam at the beginning of icc and found it quite difficult to get past festergut on 25 man when he opened up.

Ok, just to be clear, avoidance is not mitigation, but that isn't terribly relevant.

Glancing at your gear and specs, here is what I'm catching:
1.) Your setup right now is sufficient to probably clear most anything. But I wouldn't say it is ideal for specs or setup.
2.) As Frost there's nothing wrong with loading up a bit of avoidance since you clearly have plenty of health (not that more would hurt you at all). If you are running in Blood though I'd definitely not favor such raw avoidance focus (i.e. pure dodge gems). Generally, as a tank, I would favor getting every bit of Stamina you can in gems slots, though my personal slant doesn't neglect socket bonuses for pure stam gems. So, I'd avoid pure Dodge gems and at most only grab dodge/stam gems. That will give you the full value of socket bonuses but let you jack your health up.
3.) There are a lot of things I'd pick on in your specs and glyphs, but you didn't ask for that so I will refrain unless you actually do (though that would be better suited to a HALP post.
4.) Armsman is fine if you need threat, but you should consider if that is really the case because if it is not, the enchant is pretty well wasted (10 parry rating is very minor compared to the alternatives).

As much as anyone will tell you that you should just load up on health and nothing else, for Blood there is absolutely more incentive provided you are making any use of your self-healing. The entire Blood tree is benefited by bigger health totals.

As far as Festergut, I know the pleasant feeling of being abused less thanks to avoidance, but there is a line to walk, and I've generally come to the place where I feel like your gem sockets are probably not going to make *that* big a difference for winning or losing Fester25 at your gear level (maybe if you were in weaker gear and stretching with your guild/pug). The deciding factor really is CD coverage on the third inhale and prepared heavy healing. If you're doing it as Frost you'll be well set if you have IBF and UA ready to go. You can start UA up before the end of the 2nd inhale, and watch its duration putting IBF up at such a time to cover the remainder before the Pungent Blight. That padding from UA and the major reduction from IBF will do far more than a bit of dodge or a bit of health on your gear will for making you easier to heal.

[Edgewalker]

2.) As Frost there's nothing wrong with loading up a bit of avoidance since you clearly have plenty of health (not that more would hurt you at all). .

He's relatively close to one shot range from Sindragosa or LK in anything but a 12 minute perfectly executed fight, and it sounds like he is almost progressed to those bosses. I wouldn't tempt fate myself.

[Kazeyonoma]

Moved to HALP!