Block Value for Maintanking

Don't really have any questions, just wanted to share my experience and open a discussion

Since the 3.2 block value changes I had been wanting to use some of my BV pieces in a main tanking set to try it out. I've been loving it!

Before I was in an avoidance set, 28% dodge, 19% parry and 1000 block value.
After a few gear swaps I am at 24% dodge, 19% parry and 2000 block value.
Hit points remained roughly even when switching gear, slightly favoring the BV set.

It occurred to me that for most normal fights that is actually 1000 more effective health since I will either block or avoid every hit with holy shield up. From a mitigation vs avoidance standpoint and after looking at my damage taken comparison charts, I'm really starting to appreciate running with some block value gear with the 3.2 changes. Damage taken overall was actually very close for the 3 fights I reviewed, but the damage taken in my avoidance set was very spikey on all accounts, but with the block value gear damage taken was much more steady and predictable.

However this wasn't the part I was most pleased with. My threat has had a noticeable increase in the block value gear. Our hunters, mages and rogues can all pull 6-7k on a single target and on trash they were really riding me before. Even on some bosses I had to work to keep threat and even throw salv out. No longer! I tanked Hodir the other night and stayed between 12 and 15k TPS with spikes up to 20k for the first time I was able to hold a clear lead over our DPS on that fight. Granted they were still using their threat wipes, but there wasn't any point in time I felt we were going to have problems. It was a nice change!

I think I'm going to set a goal for 2400 Block Value since that is where the threat diminishing returns kick in. Then I'll keep the rest of the gear avoidance, maybe this will help spread out tanking stats so that I suffer less overall from diminishing returns. Not sure if I'm going to count procs like LOO or the 4pc t8 bonus or if I'm going for 2400 raw BV but either way I'm liking the way it's going.

I certainly won't turn down gear with strong EH, some defense and other avoidance, and block value. It's gear that wastes points on block rating that galls me. Unfortunately most of what I have right now as "block gear" is leftover iLvl 213 stuff that has too much block rating.

When my primary gear is mostly 245 and my leftover gear is mostly 226 stuff, I'll have enough gear to really play around as you describe.

Really it didn't take a lot, the belt from razorscale, hands from iron council and the random drop boots. Unfortunately yes they are full of block rating, as long as warriors need it I don't see that changing a whole lot. I also put the titanium plating on my threat shield and I'm using that at the moment.

Will probably get the gloves for the 4pc bonus if I can get my hands on them and call it good.

I've collected a pretty nice BV set while waiting for 3.2

I almost have best in slot BV form everything. And the 245 tanking BV shield helps.

Unbuffed I have 3100 BV

It's pretty good honestly. for things that hit between that 2500-5000 range its amazing. up to 10k per hit i say its comparable. But for uld 10 or 25 I would still gusse that avoidance would be a more potent stat for over all damage reduction.

And threat is easy if you are good with your taunts.

As of last night, my EH set has NO block rating or block value.
So ive only got around 11% block rating, and ~1200 block val.
I tank U25/Toc25 fine.

Heroics though - on goes the blockset!
41.7% block rating, 2641 block val, 3000 with libram up.

In my experience a block value set is nice. But not something that I am going to put on for Algalon fight or indeed any fight where i am taking a lot of damage.

My reasoning is quite simple: Id rather avoid 3%-*% more attacks than have 1-2k more effective hp's. In a long fight, I overall take a lot less damage from my avoidance. This is why block value remains a broken, but nice, stat.

Also ofcause.. Block value is fun in PvP, but that is a other conversation.

I have 3 different sets when it comes to BV, my maintank set has none at all. My "threat" set has around 1700-1800 BV with the 4 pc t8, then there is the heroics set, I run 3500 BV unbuffed in that tone. I use that for running undergeared heaelrs through things, as in most heroics nothing touches me

Since the changes, I really like some of the new BV pieces that are avoidance/BV (i.e Warlord's Depravity and our T9 helm as well as the shoulders from faction champs). The big thing for me is going to be swapping to T9 legs, which are hugely threat-based: high strength, lots of hit, and a TON of BV.

I run two sets as it is right now and my "main" tanking set (the one I have on the armory) has 1334 BV unbuffed, which is really relatively low. My block value set has over 3500 and has somewhere around 3500 attack power as well. I'm hoping to get some of the high-BV pieces (including the 258 Forlorn Barrier) for my main tanking set in the future to have more unbuffed BV and help the threat a little bit.

The other big difference between my sets is that my "MT" set has over 200 hit rating while my BV set has under 100.

Same, my MT/EH set has a metric crapload of dodge/parry, with hit comming out my butt. think im up to 290 hit without trying just getting good avoidance gear.

Blockset though is at a pretty feeble 65 hit rating, but threat ususally isnt an issue in heroics where i use my blockset, plus 7-8k SoR crits tends to take care of any threat issues

I never really got a block gear set because the block value pieces cost full dkp for me, and by the time I had everything I wanted from 25-man Ulduar, the block pieces never dropped again -_-

I just wanna see what one of these sets does in a BG .

I'd say it's probably secondary to EH for actual Maintanking, purely because most things you'll maintank hit for massive amounts of damage, which is not what block is designed to mitigate. However, this doesn't mean you should overlook its EH contribution - it just isn't worth focusing on.