Tanking Helms and Meta Gems

[Gutboy]

[item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

All tanks must get this now. Let me know if you're short any of the mats for an earthstorm - I might have some extra.

GB

[fiere redfern]

[item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

All tanks must get this now. Let me know if you're short any of the mats for an earthstorm - I might have some extra.

GB

Not all tanks, GB I'm fat and happy with my [item]Powerful Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

[Gutboy]

[item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

All tanks must get this now. Let me know if you're short any of the mats for an earthstorm - I might have some extra.

GB

Not all tanks, GB I'm fat and happy with my [item]Powerful Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

Fair enough, all tanks with actual shields. 

GB

[Melonni]

So where are we supposed to get these epic uncut gems at?

Gem vendor at Phase 3b, 15 badges per gem. Hyjal/BT. Maggie also drops a bag of epic gems now ([item]Black Sack of Gems[/item]) post 2.4

[kajunlady]

im lost maggie??

[fiere redfern]

Magtheridon =) The big blue beastie similar to Onyxia and Gruul in terms of location/instance type (very few trash mobs, then boss)

[Darkstar]

[item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

All tanks must get this now. Let me know if you're short any of the mats for an earthstorm - I might have some extra.

GB

Not all tanks, GB I'm fat and happy with my [item]Powerful Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

Is the new gem better for a paly tank then the 18stamina one?

[capnpop]

[wowitem]Ember Skyfire Diamond[/wowitem] isn't that good imo... (although for spirit/int regen classes it may be a bit better. my "not so good" opinion is based on my perspective as a pally healer)...

600 int * .02 = 12 extra int = 180 more mana = 1 more heal (for me) or 198 more mana (talented int for pallies).  Stick with your +heal with threat reduction or the int + chance for mana return for you pallies out there.  (12 more int = 4.2 more +heal/+dmg...so that's hardly anything).

[kaylasb]

[item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

All tanks must get this now. Let me know if you're short any of the mats for an earthstorm - I might have some extra.

GB

Not all tanks, GB I'm fat and happy with my [item]Powerful Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

Is the new gem better for a paly tank then the 18stamina one?

The new tank gem is all about how you plan to use it.

If the rest of your gear has a very good BV and you can use the +def rating to play with other stats (stamina  ) then with talents you could rise your BV very nice. I could use [item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item] for AOE situations.

The +18 stam is worth around 227 hps (with kings), very nice imo for main tanking.

[Darkstar]

Aye, but the reason i ask, is because Block Value decreases the amount of damage that you take when you block....so say I have 300 BV with this gem it bumps it up to 330 BV.  During a boss fight, is 227hp overall more survivability, or absorbing that extra 30dmg every block with it sitting around 58% block, plus the 12 def rating increasing my other avoidance as well.

[Gutboy]

OK, I got a little excited about the [item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item], since I love SBV and things that scale with gear.  But when it comes to my own gear (and gold), I'm a little less certain what I should do. I have the [item]Warbringer Greathelm[/item] and the [item]Tankatronic Goggles[/item] available, and I'm wondering which metas would be most effective in each, and for what situations...

My first thought was to put the Eternal into the T4 (since it also has SBV), and use that in a high-SBV/high SSlam damage/high threat set. The [item]Powerful Earthstorm Diamond[/item] could go in the goggles for max stam (effective health).

(I shouldn't have any trouble hitting 490 defense in either case.)

Any thoughts from other tanks?

GB

[kaylasb]

I understand your point, but that why i say that the BV is a litle more usefull in AOE situations, cause you are taking multiple non-lethal hits and the BV scales very good.

With a raid boss that hits for 4-6k the 270 hps are more important than the 30 hps from the block.

[kaylasb]

Agree. One set for high aggro via BV and one set for high stam/pure avoidance sounds great.

It could be great to schedule Sunwell Plateu trash runs in search for the [item]Hard Khorium Goggles[/item] and other plans, drops, etc

[khader]

Not sure of the mechanics for a pally but for a warrior the +10% shield block value is huge bump for threat generation.     As a pecentage increase it scales with your gear - more shield block from other items the higher 10% becomes.

Why is this so important - the more threat a warrior can generate the more DPS the rest of the raid can dish out.  This makes shield slam a for more potent attack and should be used every time its up.

Dropping a boss faster is a good thing especially on new content where you're not over geared for the encounter.  Allowing for higher raid DPS should help drop bosses faster.

For the mitigation of incoming damage. Not much difference in blocking 300 or 330 damage when you're being hit for 8k damage.  Sure over the course of a fight it adds up but on a per hit basis its not significant enough to matter much.

[Trismus]

[item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

All tanks must get this now. Let me know if you're short any of the mats for an earthstorm - I might have some extra.

GB

Not all tanks, GB I'm fat and happy with my [item]Powerful Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

Fair enough, all tanks with actual shields. 

GB

Actual shield? Does [item]Platinum Shield of the Valorous[/item] count? =P