I am pretty happy about how my gear has been progressing and now am getting into a optimizeation phase rather than acquisition phase. I am running around 14k unbuffed with 15.5k AC and about 50% total avoidance. I am writing this for advice and in giving it please assume that 490 Def and uncrushability are not an issue any more.
When it comes to gemming, enchantment and equipment choices it generally comes down to stamina, avoidance or in some cases AC. With 50% total avoidance a 1% increase in avoidance decreases damage taken by 2%, now if my hp are 15k is it reasonable to apply the 2% to that and say 300HP ~= 1% avoidance and use that as a basis for choosing gems etc? This formula automatically weights HP more if they are lower and less as you get more, at 10K HP 1% Avoidance is only worth 200HP.
For example the Crystalforge Shoulderguards have 2 Red slots and a 4 Sta bonus. It seemed pretty straight forward for me to gem 2 SSoE for 24 Sta/312HP, but gemming 2 Red +8 Dodge Gems gets .85% avoidance and 4 Sta/52HP bonus. This amount of avoidance decreases incoming damage by 1.7% so could be(?) equated to 265HP, adding 265 and 52 we get 317 which is very close to 312. Is this a coincidence or does Blizzard use this type of reasoning when adding slot bonuses?
As you progress the mobs hit harder and harder, at what point can you say that your HP pool is large enough to be fairly safe? I would suggest this is somewhere around 4 times the mobs std damage for mobs you fight singley and about 8 times if you fight multiples, once you reach this are you better of taking mitigation than HP? For example if you have 17K HP raid buffed and are fighting mobs that hit for 3k unless your healer screws up you will not die, at this point avoidance would seem to be the choice, or is it?
Using this logic some of the enchants that I would never have considered like the 240AC enchantment on gloves now don't seem so bad, the AC decreases damage by about .87% with 16K AC now 15K Hp x .87% = 130Hp, which just happens to be the same as the 10 Sta Armor Kit which is the best Sta enchant for the item.
So, do I keep slapping in SSoE's to most of my slots and pump up the HP or do I throw in some green def/sta and some red +8 Dodge gems to up my avoidance.
Thanks
Kang