MT gear progression

Add Iron tusk Girdle to list of tanking belts:

http://thottbot.com/i33279
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I'm currently using S4 Lamellar Bracers and S3 Lamellar Helm as my PvE tanking pieces because I just can't find anything that really suits a Tankadin well in those slots until you get to Shade of Akama for bracers, and are able to access T6 Helm. All the good gear in those slots lack spell damage and just seem more warrior based. I've gemmed the bracers w/ +12 d-rating and enchanted them w/ +12 d-rating. The helm is gemmed w/ the d-rating meta and enchanted w/ glyph of the defender. Are these viable options? I'm going to upgrade to S4 helm in 2 wks when I get the arena pts. Would the ZA tuskguard helm be better than S4 helm? I'm currently 0.08% shy of being uncrushable. Something that will change when I swap my shield enchant from stam to block rating. My guild is currently working on Vashj, Kael, and Kaz'Rogal but have not been beyond those bosses yet and have not begun BT. I don't believe the T5 Helm is better than S4, nor do I think the bracers of the ancient phalanx can hold a candle to the S4 bracers. Am I flawed in my thinking?
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http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Nazgrel&n=Balian

well, gear doesn't have to get spell dmg to be good you know.
in fact, I found that scarifying about 30 spell dmg over some expertise and hit rating gives me more threat on single targets.
Think about it, 1% more hit on the boss with seal of righteousness is a big difference in threat, since holy shield and consecrations are not based on your spell dmg, but a % of your spell dmg.

I'm trying to keep around 400 spell dmg, and 2 % hit rating and 5% expertise.

My guild is at 4/6 in SSC, 2/4 in TK, and nearly 2 in MH, about the same as you, but we began BT this week.

Look at my armory if you want to compare, I'm full pve, but a single pvp gear.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Burning%20Steppes&n=Ragingsoul


looking at your gear, you have the T5 gloves that I still don't have, about the same avoidance (48%), and about the same defense, but I have 1k more hp that you.
ok, you have more spell dmg, but no hit and almost no expertise, so on single targets, bosses or trash, you will do about the same aggro than me, even less maybe when we have a sheep in our feets, and can't use consecration.

Hey guys.. At last, Eternium Shell Bracers dropped for me.. Anyway, Im currently wearing the Seeker's Wristguards.. After equiping the shell bracer, my shield block rating drops to 14% and dodge increased to 28%

Which should I go for? Is 13% shieldblock unhealthy? I only have bv of 391 though..

If you are already uncrushable, shield block rating is the first thing pushed off the combat table anyway, so you're really not "losing" anything
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Thing is if you're using daggers in both hands and Sinister Strike isn't recommended then how would you build combo points?

A lot of maintankadins have very high dodge and very low block. Nothing wrong with that.

That said, a friend in a guild quit recently and sold his account to another of my friends who just wanted it for the alts, but his paladin tank was a trash tank in a t6 guild. He almost never maintanked anything, unfortunately, and what I would call his main tanking set has less avoidance than my main tanking set, and I've never gotten any gear outside of T4/ZA/Badge loot. However, he has a lot of excellent block pieces for trashtanking in Hyjal and BT. But if you're maintanking, having little to no block is FINE.
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Feel the need to interject something here. People talk about how blocking gets pushed off the combat table after you're uncrushable and they're right when you're talking about mobs that crush. But in other situations it doesn't mean it's *wasted*.

If you're tanking trash....and lot's of it...since trash won't have crushes in it's combat table they have a much higher chance of hitting you. So in those cases it's not *worthless* to have extra block rating past uncrushable.

I think this is mostly obvious to those of us here but I rarely see it stated.
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the non crushing mob's combat table just replaces the percent that would be crush with hit so its effectively the same thing as what would happen if you pushed off crushes with extra blocks.
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