Block and Tackle

While levelling my Paladin as a tank, I've been looking into the best way to gear him up.
Tanking isn't always as straightforward as DPS.

With most DPS classes, you focus solely on Attack Power, or on Spell Power or on a particular stat that equates to the same. With Tanks (particularly Pallies), it's more of a juggling act.

You need the +Hit to make sure you're not missing the mobs, and they're not Parrying your attacks, which makes them attack faster.
You need +Defense to reach the point where mobs cannot slam you into the floor with one shot.
You need +Stamina to enable the healer to have time to heal you up before the mobs belt you with their next round of attacks.
And +Spell Power comes in handy for Paladins who need to generate enough threat to keep the mobs on them, and off the squishies. (Presumably Warriors have a similar problem, but use Attack Power or something similar to do the same).

So which is more important? They all are.

+Spell Power is probably the least important of the bunch, since it basically just for extra DPS. If everyone is using Omen, and isn't a noob, they shouldn't pull much aggro anyway.

+Hit isn't as essential, but it helps alot. When mobs parry, they attack quicker, which means they're going to do more DPS to you. Which is never a good thing.

+Stamina IS essential but, while not quite subject to the rule of diminishing returns, once you reach a certain point do you really need any more? If you have 40k HP and your healers can keep you up against any raid boss, is having 50k HP actually of any more use? Yes, but it's minimal.

+Defense IS defintiely essential. Getting critted by Heroic and raid bosses is never a good thing. And if one crit takes you from 100% HP to dead, the group is going to wipe.

But then there's other things to consider. +Block, +Dodge and a whole host of other things too. So what should you aim for with Enchants and extras?

In the post before this, I claimed that the +Block from Titanium plating was better than +Stam. (The -50% Disarm is also a great Bonus stat) And here's why:

Block reduces the amount of damage from melee attacks from mobs standing in front of you (It doesn't work from behind, or too much from the side, that's why you see tanks re-positioning themselves alot when surrounded by trash... or why you should see them re-positioning alot).

The amount of damage that's blocked is basic maths: Amount Blocked = Block Value + (Strength / 2) and that is done after all other reductions from armor, dodge, parry, Righteous Fury etc..

(BTW: These are totally random numbers I'm using here)
So if a mob hits for 1000, and I don't dodge it, my Armor mitigates 60% of that, so the amount that actually gets to me is 400. But I also Block some of the damage, so with 100 Block Value and 100 strength (really 200 but halved) only 200 damage actually reaches me.

1000 Damage - 600 from my Plate Armor - 200 from my Block = Only 200 Damage that hits me.

You don't always block, it's a % chance, but for a Tank, it's a very high %. And those figures soon start to add up to alot more than +18 Stamina would give me.

Using my analogy from above - I have 34k HP SelfBuffed, in good groups I have reached a little under 40K fully buffed. The healers no longer have much of a problem keeping me alive. So adding more HP doesn't really add to my usefulness.
However, when grouped with good DPS'ers I struggle to hold the aggro.
Adding +Block not only reduces the overall amount of damage I'll take throughout a fight, but also adds extra DPS to some of my abilities. For example, my Shield Slam, does more DPS the higher my Block is, so it's not only protecting me, it's increasing my threat generation too. Win -Win.

My other choice of Enchant. The weapon 'Potency' one, is a little bit more straightforward, but continues where the last one left off. 'Strength' directly increases the amount of melee damage I do, and increases my Block Value. So more strength is always handy. The melee damage increase for a Pally is minimal, since most of my threat comes from magical damage, but it all adds up, especially in longer fights.

So does that mean I should ignore Stamina, and Dodge, and Parry, just because I can survive on the Armor and Block stats alone?... No.

That's why there's 2 main schools of Tanks. Mitigation (Who can take huge amounts of damage) and Avoidance (Who try to take a little damage as possible).
If I can dodge an attack, I get zero damage, and that's even better than only 20% damage. If I Parry an attack I might still get some damage, but I also get to attack faster myself.

The problem with trying to increase those stats though is that they're more difficult to do. And even if you manage it, they're subject to the rule of diminishing returns. That means that every time I dodge / parry an attack, I have slightly less chance of dodging / parrying the next one. (Block doesn't have that problem).

As an avoidance tank, eventually you WILL get hit, and when you do, if you've sacrificed too much mitigation that hit is going to hurt... alot... and then some more... and then again.... and your healer isn't going to be able to keep you up.

So Balance is the Tanks best weapon. In one particular boss fight, an avoidance tank might do better, in another mitigation is the answer. But overall, balance is everyones freind.

The Munqui's aren't a hardcore raiding guild we're not likely to start pulling extra tanks out for individual boss fights. Although raid guilds do, and this is why.

A word of advice for would-be tanks though. If you're new to tanking or freshly-dinged level 80. +Stam and +Def are the key to survival. The rest of it is just icing on the cake until you're geared up more. If you go tanking heroics with only 20k HP (like I first did) you'd better have alot of healers in your freinds list, because they're going to be exhausted trying to keep you alive.

So for now, I'm happy with my Tank design. I won't be trying to ebb every last point of one stat or another, I'll just go with the flow. As long as my Defense stays at 540, I'll take the rest of my stats a little less seriously.