Gemming for pure stamina

You don't always need to take another full hit from a hard hitter. You're already getting FoL spammed by one Paladin, with another druid's HoTs, and probably catching other people's Prayers of Mending and Chain Heals. Some people are fans of maximizing EH with reason (I am), and others look at it your way. I gem for straight stamina.
_________________
Stormreaver US

Modus | Governor

I think the reason he's using such gemming is because he needs sunwell uncrushability for twins. And you can probably gem for int and still manage pre-kara.. that doesn't mean it's the best way to do it.

The reason you should gem for stamina is because you get a less avoidance from a gem than you'd get stamina, and if you need avoidance it's usually more beneficial to get it somewhere else, like enchants or swapping your stamina trinket for an avoidance trinket.

For example, your best stamina trinkets have around 50 stamina, but there are also avoidance trinkets with 50 avoidance rating, and spell damage trinkets with 50 spell dmg. A gem is 10 avoidance for 15 stam but a trinket is 50 avoidance for 50 stam... The same goes for enchants, you use 2% threat on gloves (a bit more than 20 spelldmg worth of threat) instead of 10 stamina and your bracer enchant is 12 stam or 12 defense rating.
_________________

Yeah he is gemming that way to get over the -20% factor.

But in answer to your question why gem for more stamina its for the ohhh crap factor. In a normal situational fight you are right you shouldn't need the extra stamina but its the ouch healer just died or dc'ed or someone just pulled a second pack.

Twice as much EH buys you the ability to survive the damage twice as long or twice the damage for the same amount of time.

Twice the avoidance *MIGHT* buy you extra time provided the damage isnt magical, you aren't stunned, the mob is infront of you .... thats alot of if's.

The other point is it will depend alot on your trinket you prefer I use my trusty moroes pocket watch so I can already go high dodge for a short period so I have a bit each way with my bets.
_________________

You should socket for the bonus if you are still using blue gems and the socket bonus is huge. Not worth bothering if it's say +3 stamina or +2 dodge. If that is the case, pure stamina all the way.
However, say the amani helm or 75 chest has a bonus of +6 stamina. Rolling with a 12 stam, 5 def/6 stam, 5 dodge/6 stam gem loses a total of 6 stamina but gains 5 def 5 dodge.
If you slap on epic gems then :

15 stam, 5 def/7 stam, 5 dodge/7 stam -> 35 stam

15 stam, 15 stam, 15 stam -> 45 stam

Up to you which you find more useful, either 128 (after talents/bok) health or 5 def, 5 dodge. At t4/5 level, you are balancing a lot between uncrushable/critable. at t6 level you have avoidance/uncrushability coming out from everywhere and anywhere and can go max stam everywhere
_________________

Stamina is mitigation, and it's "always on" mitigation. Ardent Defender/Commendation work at low health and the bigger that window is the less damage you'll take. I've had a skilled healer hold me at 30% health for long periods of time on purpose to give me insane mitigation (early heroic MgT Kael fights, 5k fireballs -> 3k fireballs, lawl) but that only works if you still have enough health to be reasonably safe at that low of health.

Like has been stated, you get stunned you lose all the benefits of your gems except for the miss rate from defense and stamina, same with fear or not having the mob in front of you. While in most fights you can control this and it isn't a concern, I don't see why you'd take the option that works only most of the time when there's a viable one that works all the time. Also, gemming for more avoidance gives you even more mana issues whenever you start to outgear a place, whereas when you're outgearing a place the healers have no mana issues, so who cares if they still need to heal you more?

The only places I've seen my healers go OOM is when the entire raid is taking massive amounts of damage, the damage a tank takes isn't enough to throw most good healers OOM. And most raid healers are spamming heals on you no matter what, dodging an attack just gives them overhealing, not mana conservation.

And finally, stamina is always useful. There are fights where avoidance means less, as you're going to take static amounts of unavoidable damage, as well as heavy magical attacks which defense/dodge has no effect on.
_________________

Oh well now it's starting to make sense,cos i use 2 stam trinkets...don't have a slightest problem with crit/crush immunity even without libram tho,but well...i didn't have any luck on avoidance trinkets yet so i didn't come across that idea On the other side,i like having nice stam from gear and spelldmg+defense from gems and being able to switch trinkets for these poor avoidance/threat ones i have, but that's cos i outgear anything i tank cept these weekly hyjal pugs
_________________

Because when I tank a raid boss I can get well over 20k health while keeping my other stats in check. If Im not mistaken it also increases the effectiveness of my armor which I also stack. Even 19k feels low to me now if I try to add some avoidance/spell damage. My tankcore has a lot of warriors going for ridiculous avoidance levels and they sit at around 17k hp buffed. They are about equal to heal but more prone to disaster if a mistake is made.
It increases the range of ardent defender and allows for spike damage which is bound to happen regardless of your avoidance. I have stam on just about everything and could probably add a little more.
_________________




6/6ZA 2/2GL 1/1ML 3/4TK 5/6SSC Doomwalker:)

I'm in line with Mr.Duck. Get enough stamina, and after that work on whatever needs the most work be it threat or avoidance. If you're going OOM and not holding the DPS back then by all means +stam away, I would.

At the very least, don't be like the tool warrior I pugged ZA with that kept going splat on Halazzi with his 22k HP because he literally had nothing but stam gear and like 17% dodge. He was taking large sums of damage in short duration and the healers could not keep up. 18k is sufficient for that fight, 20k if it doesn't cause you to lose too much avoidance. There's no need to wear two stam trinkets when you are already at 22k HP.

Sometimes stacking stam is the most appropriate option. Sometimes it's not. I think most tanks on these forums know when stacking stam is the best choice.

Don't ever sacrifice other stats for stam blindly. Make sure you're doing it for a reason and that you know what the impact will be on you and your raid.

Edit: And if you're looking at my sig and laughing, I was holy spec when that was taken so my health is low.
_________________

Well, a warrior shouldn't stack stamina if their dodge is only 17% especially on a fight like Halazzi. Although I'm not sure if he can crush or not (and may not...) but if he can frenzy would own the hell out of a warrior. Hell, I'm not sure how you can have gear so bad you only have 17% dodge and 22k health, was he using PvP gear or something? I don't gem for avoidance at all (I either stack stam or def/stam gems) and my dodge almost can't go below 20% and doesn't if I'm in an uncrushable gear set.
_________________

Warrior: 2 Shieldblocks / 5 Secs. Always a Chance to eat a crushing Blow. With lots of instant hits also high chance for parry haste.

What follows is: High Chance for Insta-Gib. Only Solution: Massiv HP + Armor

Paladin: 8 Shieldblocks / 10 Seks. Low Chance to eat a crushing Blow. With no intant hits also low chance for parry haste.

What follows is: Low Chance for Insta-Gib. Solution: Go for Balance.

Whenever I see a paladin that gems straight for STA, I always know: He wants to be a warrior. Or he is just to stupid to press his Holy Shield in time. But it is not needed at all.

Yes, STA rocks. Sta rules. But not above all.