Warrior needs a little advice regarding workable Hit/Expertise numbers

[Phlynt]

Hi folks, long time lurker, and infrequent poster. Been a long while since i last tanked... anything, let alone a raid, so looking to get my facts straight here first.

i'm a little perplexed by the hit/expertise figures, according to the FAQ in this segment they should be somewhere around 8% hit/26 expertise, (i notice this info is quite dated now though), but according to a thread on MMO-C:

Define "need". You shouldn't need hit/expertise as threat stats. Other tanks don't either. They are nice for not missing on interrupts and miss/dodge/parry can't proc savage defense.

You'll notice this is specifically about Bears, but applies this even statement to all tanks.

Add to this that both RAWR and a certain Robot both advise reforging Hit into other stats, as well as a tank with 182k and a minimum of a Halfus kill, (my goal for this guy when i ditch the last of his green gear) has 3.62% hit and 9 expertise, and i'm left a little too far in the 'did i miss a fairly important change?' zone.

Any clarification on this would be great, if it's been asked often enough to warrant it, maybe a change to the FAQ to save someone else looking like a dolt might be cool.

Thanks for your time.

[Katzazi]

You don't need hit or expertise im most situations. Some tanks switch over to some more hit or expertise for some heroic encounters to help beat stuff faster, but in most cases it's not needed. Only exception is hit before patch 4.1. if you are the only one who can intrrupt something. But even then I would not advice to cap it via normal gear but to try to get it with food, elexiers, trinket change or a switch of single items for more hit.

Taunt does not miss anymore, interrupts will not miss after 4.1.

[Phlynt]

You're a star Katzazi, thanks for the swift and simple response.
Looks like my best bet is to crank mastery/avoidance for now then.

Thanks again

[ácerimmer]

Hit for tanks isnt generally important. i have a pala. i am hit capped, and soft capped on expertise (thru my seal of truth glyph) but i havent let my other stats slack. got 15% dodge 11-12% parry(cant remember which) and bout 35% mastery. the hit cap makes sure u hit your targets. and the expertise cap makes sure they dont dodge ur attacks. i hate seeing miss appear on screen.
but as a rule i generally follow. i find ur better off having your avoidance and stamina enuff to survive but hit is better rather than expertise as you wanna make sure u keep as much aggro with hits as u can

[Katzazi]

Exactly. Go for as much mastery as you can get and push everything else to get good avoidance levels. Let your parry be about 1-3% over your dodge (buffed). If you have very high mastery levels, parry gets even better because of Hold the Line. But before this, it's better to let them stay close together because of diminishing returns on dodge and parry. (They have the same diminishing returns, since Cata).

You should not need more stamina than what you get with your gear before heroic raids.

[Katzazi]

Expertise is better than hit for threat/dmg. It gives you double the amount as hit does, because it reduces dodges and parries. Hit reduces only misses at the same rate.

[swelt]

Just adding the obligatory "don't have just 1 item set" post. There is plenty of value to be had in keeping a few pieces with hit/expertise and building a 'threat' set. It's easier than ever in Cata, as quite a few DPS pieces can dual-purpose as threat tanking pieces (hit/mastery or expertise/mastery plate can easily be dual-purposed and is often not BIS for the pure DPSers).