So, I did a little number crunching about 2.3...

by the way, people who are talking about magic damage;

magic damage as a factor of any real significance for the tank's incoming damage (say on Kael'Thas) negates the discussion for the most part anyway.
Magic damage may negate a bunch of avoidance, but it's also negating all your armor.

Its taking us on a tangent.
No one contests that the only real thing you're capable of stacking against magic damage is raw stamina.
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"five hundred guys gagging on firemen in speedos."
-PsiVen

Well, stamina gems are good not only because we initially lack stamina, but especially because stamina is very itembudget friendly in TBC.
Additionally stamina is increasing your AD value so there must be a very good reason why to swap +12sta gem with let say +8dodge.

All TBC fights are easily doable with average gear for that zone and without extensive min-maxing. As such, there was no need to stack let say avoidance to some horrid levels. You just pick gear as it comes and you are fine.
What I am trying to say, that if encounters will be the same like now, the only better tanking stats than 25k HP and 50% avoid would be 30k HP and 50% avoidance
But we will see, I am looking forward to try Sunwell...
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And remember the lesson you learned as a child... If you dont QQ - you have to sit there in your piss.

I'm gonna start regemming some 5 sta 7 def in yellows and 10 dodge in reds where the socketbonus is STA in preparation for illidan, should be able to maintain around 23k buffed if I do it propperly
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LoL, a paladin tank!

Unlike most of the stickies, this thread isn't in guide format, but it's an excellent read for anyone interested in EH/avoidance gearing issues and philosophy. I'm gonna sticky it for now for lack of a better idea about it's placement.
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Basically EH to me, should be described in terms of how many hits you can take from a boss without heals.

If a boss hits for 4k, and you have 17k hp buffed, you can take four hits from him without heals, and survive.

In that situation, having 18k hp is not a great deal better than 17k, because you can still only survive four hits. In that situation, its better to get avoidance.
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better to tank in hell than DPS in heaven

IDK about the rest of you but Who Cares how much Health you can max out at, its More Important how much Aggro you can generate so no one pulls aggro off you. if anything this new patch has upped the standards as to what gems we need now.

+Spell Hit
+Spell Damage
Stamina
Intellect
Spirit or Mana/5 Regen

You can only use ONE Potion Per Battle.

Well that stamina part was pretty right at least...
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