Gem suggestions -- TankFollow

Yes, that is the Meta you want by far. The Armor makes up for the 15 lost Stamina in the Red gem, by far.

Always prioritize Stamina. If there is a worthwhile socket bonus you can go for something else. I don't advise ever gemming Stam/Parry, but it's up to you if you want to gem for threat or not. I don't like it, but there's nothing WRONG with it per se (and it's okay for Heroics, though I strongly urge against it for raiding if you can help it).

But yeah, socket bonuses are important, too.

A /x gem gives 15 Stam. It's up to you at what point you are willing to cut off their use. There is, of course, a Time-To-Live value associated with them that you can use. But I don't know what it says. My DK is full stam with two / gems--one to get a socket bonus of +12, one to activate a meta (and get a +6 stam bonus). One is /defense and one is /dodge.

I disagree. Parry is better than nothing, sure. But it's so much worse than Dodge/Stam that it's frankly unacceptable to gem for it.

[EDIT]

*It seems I'm wrong--please disregard.

Because the OP may not understand, I'll elaborate.

Parry has worse DR than Dodge, yes. But that's only part of the reason it is bad. The other part is actually way worse.

When a mob goes to attack you, it goes through various checks:

1. Miss
2. Dodge
3. Parry
4. Block
5. Crit
6. Crushing Blow
7. Ordinary Hit

Due to mechanics/the gear you should have, 5 and 6 are normally impossible. DKs can't Block, so we'll ignore 4 too.

So, now we have:

1. Miss
2. Dodge
3. Parry
4. Ordinary Hit (isn't this so much prettier?)

Now, let's say your chance to be missed is 10.5% (which, if I recall, is what it is at 540 defense).

So, 10.5% of swings are going to miss (but I'm just gonna pretend it's 10 to make things easier). This means that 90% of boss swings will move down the chart. And so we come to dodge. Say you have 25% Dodge. That means 25% of the remaining 90% of swings are dodged, so only 67.5% of the remaining swings go on. Then we come to Parry. Say you have 20% (DR). That means 54% of hits will go on to the next check (which is a normal hit).

So, say there was 1000 swings.

# of misses with 10.5% chance to be missed: 105 (895 swings go on)
# of dodges with 25% chance to dodge: 224 (671 swings go on)
# of parries with 20% chance to Parry: 135 (536 swings go on)
# of regular hits: 536

That means each % of Miss is 100% effective.
Each % of Dodge is 89.6% effective.
Each % of Parry is 67.5% effective.

When you translate effectiveness to rating points, Parry is WAY lower than Dodge. It is totally not worth gemming for it ever if there's any other choice. And since it is a red gem, using a /str gem is just better. You get a quarter of it as parry rating and you get threat.

[EDIT2]

It seems I am quite wrong here. Please disregard.

Edited, May 3rd 2010 7:41pm by idiggory

Edited, May 3rd 2010 7:47pm by idiggory

You're right--I looked it up. Though there seems to be proof that special attacks use at least two separate rolls. This article goes into it, but I don't have the patience.

[EDIT]

Well, I read the conclusion of the article. His point is that it is far more likely given his testing that Blizz uses one roll to determine whether or not a special attack lands and another to determine if it crits.

[EDIT2]

Apparently, Ranged attacks may also use a two-roll system.

Edited, May 3rd 2010 7:51pm by idiggory

Well the questions was if I should get /expertise on any gems. Parry was really never a consideration.

Expertise is really more of a threat stat for DK tanks. If you are having serious threat issues, then consider gemming for more expertise (though 26ish should be fine).

But, basically gem for more Stam. As it stands, that is the "go-to" gem for tanking.