For those willing to wade through high level math and theorycrafting to figure out how to tank better:

sacredduty.net

For the pally tanks that want to figure out stats and what not:

Tankadin Spreadsheet

Yell at me or something if you want explanations or just read Theck's blog.

Thaaaaaaank you! Thankyou!

:D
Wait, holyshit. I need a dumbed down version of that. >.>

Thaaaaaaank you! Thankyou!

:D
Wait, holyshit. I need a dumbed down version of that. >.>

Pils guide to tanking...make Jaannaa tank. Done.

I knew I could rely on you, Pils!

Since we're starting raids, I figure a TLDR type of thing on this might be useful.

FOR SHIELD TANKS ONLY:

Since we're not bleeding edge types, we look at 2 basic styles of gearing.

1. Mastery based: overall you take a little more damage than the other style but your incoming damage is smoother.

2. Avoidance based: lots of dodge and parry here so you don't get hit. Streaks still happen and you get more damage spikes than the other style.

Regardless of which you choose, I highly suggest getting at least 7.5% hit and exp so you can actually hit the boss to generate resources to mitigate damage.

For pally tanks:

- If you're really ambitious, you can try 7.5% hit, 15% exp, stack mastery and haste, use shield slap a lot.

(Yes, I said haste)

Edit-----
Almost forgot, dodge and parry balance is all out of whack this xpac. Dodge is now on a different diminishing returns curve. To balance the two, you should have a dodge to parry ratio of about 1:3.5 before diminishing returns. For pally tanks check out the spreadsheet linked above, make a copy and try out your stats.

I have reforged for my Hit and xpertise. I will tool the rest as I go on. I think i need a couple of enchants, and then I'm good to go.

This is a good script I found on Elitejerks which can be used in game when adjusting parry dodge ratio. I just made a macro and use it when reforging.

/run ChatFrame1:AddMessage(format("Ideal pre-dr parry/dodge ratio: 3.597, yours is %.3f%%, if too high reforge more parry to dodge",(GetParryChance()-3.67)/(GetDodgeChance()-5.01)))

Shamelessly stolen from Theck's new post regarding tankadin gearing in 5.2:

TLDR:

Advanced tanks will gear for Control/Haste or Control/Mastery, probably depending on encounter specifics and gear availability. Your BiS gear will probably involve a lot of hit/haste and expertise/haste retribution gear.

Intermediate tanks will probably stick with Control/Mastery for better stochastic mitigation. For these tanks, there’s probably no need to chase haste gear.

Beginner tanks will likely stick with traditional tank gear that’s high on avoidance and mastery.


Original post: http://sacredduty.net/2013/02/28/patch-5-2-tankadin-smoothness-simulations/


PS. Advanced tanks refer to those that actively look for advantageous times to use shield slap. In other words, those that are very good at this active mitigation business.

Anyone that wants more info on how high level pally tanks are gearing / playing, have a listen to this podcast: http://converttoraid.libsyn.com/-95-convert-to-raid-prot-pally-epic-sode-with-lore-and-sloot

We're more interested in the second half.