Tankadins New to Kara! =DFollow

Hey all, I've noticed a lot of people asking a lot of questions about Kara and starting out as a tank for this raid, which is really awesome. I love seeing our community get bigger. So I thought I'd share on a couple more "close calls" on gear for those starting out and who were unsure on what gear to go with as I used to be. I bring to you....*Heavy Metal*

Calculations of a Mathadin!!!! *guitar solo*

First up! - Tier 4 Justicar Handguards VS Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden

Justicar Handguards
944 Armor
+24 Intellect
+34 Stamina
Equip: Increases defense rating by 23 (0.38916% NPA)
Equip: Increases damage and healing by up to 27
Equip: Increases the block value of your shield by 35


Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden
906 Armor
+39 Stamina
Red Socket (12 Stam Blue)
Yellow Socket (12 Stam Blue)
Equip: Increases defense rating by 16 (.27072% NPA)
Equip: Increases your shield block rating by 17 (2.1560976813394157377314972138884% Block)
Equip: Increases the block value of your shield by 38

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And here is the comparison if you choose the Tier 4 hands:

+38 Armor
+360 Mana
+.11844% Block, Parry, Dodge and Miss
+35 Block VALUE

-2.1560976813394157377314972138884% Block CHANCE
-290 HP

I'd like to apologize for the mixup previously. This is a harder choice and I think I've 180'ed my decision on this entirely. It's all completely dependent on your gear makeup, but if you're sporting the Darkmoon Card and the new trinket from the MaTe Heroic and you find yourself hurting for some avoidance then you'll want the extra Block Chance on the Maiden's Gloves. The HP amount isn't enough to make a fuss over, but neither is the mana/armor difference either. The block value(if 35 is added to every block) is pretty nice. But as I said before, I'm not sure what the calcs are for block value, and I have yet to find anything definite on this.

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Next up! - Tier 4 Justicar Faceguard VS Eternium Greathelm

Justicar Faceguard
1227 Armor
+24 Intellect
+43 Stamina
Yellow Socket (12 Stam Blue)
Meta Socket Meta Socket (Powerful Earthstorm Diamond, 18stam, 5% Stun Res)
Equip: Improves your dodge rating by 24 (1.2698412698412698412698412698413% Dodge)
Equip: Increases defense rating by 29 (.49068% Non-Pure Avoidance)
Equip: Increases damage and healing by up to 27


Eternium Greathelm
1178 Armor
+31 Strength
+48 Stamina
Red Socket (12 Stam Blue)
Yellow Socket (12 Stam Blue)
Blue Socket (12 Stam Blue)
Equip: Increases defense rating by 34 (.57528% Non-Pure Avoidance)

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So if you choose Tier 4 again, here's what you get:

+49 Armor
+360 Mana
+1.2698412698412698412698412698413% Dodge Chance
+27 Spell Dmg

-1.5 Block VALUE
-110 HP
-.0846% Block, Parry, Dodge and Miss

This one is a little less of a no-brainer. Despite this Tier 4 piece having yucky intellect, this piece seems to be better overall. For the helm will give you a little less HP, and a little less NPA, but in it's place you get pure avoidance - dodge. A whopping ~1.3% Dodge chance. And the icing on the cake, extra threat. I'd say by the time you're taking down Prince, the Tier 4 helm will always be the better choice.

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It's early and I didn't double-check my work. So correct me if I'm wrong in a calculation.

As always, good luck tankadins!

***EDIT***

I have editted this for stupidity-noted conversion. Thanks all =P

Also, as punkspider noted, you can trade out the stam gems for other gems for extra avoidance respectively. I just leave them as stam as I haven't had to use anything but with careful calculations beforehand. That, and I'm always looking for more HP =P

Edited, Apr 4th 2008 5:05pm by TacticalRage

***** the -370 hp when you get 360INT. but as for the block yes i belive it's the number it says but dont forget str adds to your block value so if the gear that adds the block value also has str where other piece dont it goes up that much more. i changed from the lvl 65 blue think it is "the warword footman" or something like that great crush stats to the badge shield and picked up over 100 block i think so now blocking 298damage wich helps since i get hit for about 2-2.5k in heroics.

Thanks Maulgak, fixed.



This was actually supposed to be mana as Maulgak found =P. But in any case as a raiding tankadin Int is pretty useless to you. It's nice here and there, but for the most part I would take a lot of things over extra mana when I have an unlimited amount.

As for your statement on block with STR, that is also useless. The STR to Block Value ratio for us is literally 10:1 if I remember correctly. It's saddening..

Edited, Mar 31st 2008 8:23am by TacticalRage

yes but every little bit counts. not saying go out and pick up every str piece of gear just saying if it has it on there it may help out your block value more than what is just listed on the item. and i know you ment mana i was being a smart ***.

Where are you finding these 16 stamina blue gems?

The ones I have are 12... Solid Star of Elune

now going by what you said for stats,your comparison is wrong for chooseing t4 gloves

when chooseing t4 gloves what you get is
+38 armor
+360 mana
+.11 non-pure avoidance???(is that miss or is that what the deff has for miss dodge block parry added up over the other gloves??)
- 3 block value
- 2.15 block chance
- 50 hp (not includeing the 16% from spec)
no gem slots to change as you need on t4 helm. ie 12 sta gems in maiden,or as i plan on doing to give more room to play with crushing blows and deff. i put green gem in yellow slot +4 deff rateing +6 sta, red gem in red slot +8dodge rateing.
also would like to point out if you go the route i'm going you get +6 block rateing i belive from socket bonus. so really maiden is better for hp and crushing blows t4 threat and mana and little more armor.

your helm math looks good besides the -~3 block think that goes up with the gloves.

also would like to point out looks like your gemming only for as much sta as you can. you could put some right colored gems in the slots and take advantage of the +4dodge rateing on the helms. true not much but for those skateing on the line of crushing blows it may make the diff between picking up another piece of gear with even more sta than the 60 hp you get from gemming 12 sta in yellow when you could have done 4 deff rateing and 6 sta green in there and get the +4 dodge rateing from bonus. thats on the t4 helm.

normaly when peeps compare gear they dont list what gems to put into the slots they compare them gem free and just list the slots/ socket bonuses. at least online. just for the fact if you do socket like you did you ddint even mention the bonuses from doing the right color in right gems for bonus wich could play a diff on the desion the person would make.

all in all not bad though like you said it was morning you did it and if i'm wrong on something please correct me also. i picked the IGOTM over T4 gloves but would pick the T4 helm over the EG if i had the choice


Edited, Apr 2nd 2008 5:55pm by punkspider

i was thinking same but at same point think he means it's not just one specific stat like dodge or miss or parry or block. think he means combo since deff adds to all those as it goes up so do they. but all them invitualy are pure avoidance except block thats more like a buffer or shielding i guess.

Fixed =P

Thanks for catching me on this guys. Much appreciated!

Wait... wearing a threat set on bosses? Did I miss something? Did Blizzard somehow make radical changes to the way we generate threat?

I've never seen any of the Paladin tanks I've played with (nor have I experienced it myself) having threat issues when main-tanking a boss... I don't understand how you can have threat issues pushing 800 threat per second and nearly 1800 TPS when you literally blow EVERYTHING you have including wings...

Threat is a Paladin's *****, staying alive is another story... I'd wear survival gear against bosses.

This is because Paladins can frontload a lot of threat, but it isn't as high throughout an entire boss fight. On trash there just simply won't be enough time to out threat a Paladin, while bosses there is. This can/should be countered with DPS being more disciplined on boss encounters, giving the tank a few more seconds to build up their threat, and more liberal use of aggro wiping/reducing abilities (if your class has them).

Paladins have a harder time maintaining the avoidance stats required to tank bosses, while keeping our threat up as well. Hell, I've been uncrushable for a while now, but I just got a new weapon, belt, and trinket, and putting them all on made me crushable o.O Replaced Crystalforged Sword with Cudgel of Consecration and the Badge belt with the crafted one from SSC (forgot names). I had to bank my crafted belt and swap one of my rings to an old ring I keep in the bank to keep myself uncrushable. ARGH! Frustrating.