World of Warcraft®

I have been attempting to research which meta gem is best for shield tanks, most specifically for protection paladins, but it would be nice to know if the same stuff applies to warriors.

As far as I understand, the three viable metas (assuming CTC cap) are:

Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond
Austere Shadowspirit Diamond
Effulgent Shadowspirit Diamond

The Effulgent was suggested to me by a warrior tank who points out that there is a lot of magic damage going out in DS, including some huge hits like Psychic Drain on Zon'ozz and constant magic like Twilight Instability on Ultraxion.

So, I checked many theorycrafting sites including Maintankadin, Elitist Jerks, Tankspot and even checked out Ask Mr Robot, and none of them even mention Effulgent as an option. There is a formula available for whether the Armor or Block Value meta is more appropriate on a personal level, but I'm not enough of a math buff to begin to understand how it works or how anyone came up with that mess of numbers.

I personally am a near-BiS heroic DS protection paladin, and I have 102.46% CTC and go for stamina after CTC rather than pure avoidance.

So, my question to the community is: Which meta gem is best for a shield tank, assuming CTC cap and DS-level gear?

Efflugent isn't an option.

In theory, Eternal beats Austere once you're approaching block cap (for Warriors, although Paladins should be similar); I'm sure someone will pop up with a link to the calculator shortly.

You can use Effulgent for a couple fights in DS, but it's only useful for those few fights and at specific points.

Whereas the other two are ALWAYS useful. Bosses never stop meleeing.

Thanks! I'm just curious why I see warrior tanks in guilds like vodka and Exodus using the 2% armor meta if the 1% BV is supposed to be better. I haven't found a prot paladin yet that isn't using the Eternal meta though, so that's comforting. ^.^

Anyone else with shield tank experience have input on the matter?

The damage that the block value meta works on is damage that we're already strong against. As an example, Eternal will help us against Blackhorn, where we already excel. But Eternal does nothing against Focused Assault, which is a far bigger threat.

The meta gems allow you to mitigate more damage, but each one does it in a slightly different way. The very fact that the Effulgent mitigates spell damage doesn't mean that it's the best choice when you're taking spell damage. You have to compare its mitigation value to the mitigation values of the other two options.

It's also important to note that we care more about mitigating burst damage than mitigating overall damage, in the current stage of the expansion. Yes, Zon'ozz damage is mostly physical, but the real killer is a Psychic Drain + melee (+ another melee possibly). That killer combo has a large part of its damage coming from spell damage, and because of that the spell damage meta may prove more useful than the physical metas. On the flipside of that, though, is Ultraxion's aura. That aura is not burst damage, but rather minor, coincidental damage that happens at regular intervals all throughout the fight. The physical metas are going to be better, here.

I prefer the Austere gem, because there are some bosses with physical attacks that are unblockable, but still mitigated by armor, such as Hagara and Morchok (not Madness, though, Impale ignores armor).

The magic reduction gem should only even be considered on yor.

Edit: Read below posts. My logic was tarded in relation to the CTC cap.

04/24/2012 01:39 PMPosted by Arij

Also, keep in mind Austere gives extra mitigation 100% of the time. Eternal is still reliant on RNG due to the impossibilities of having 100% block passively.

I have 100% block chance passively.
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Attack tables, CTC, diminishing returns and you!
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2489160859

CTC cap and block chance are not the same thing. Considering the meta only adds 1% damage reduction to each successful block (Block Value) I fail to see your point?

04/24/2012 01:49 PMPosted by Arij

CTC cap and block chance are not the same thing. Considering the meta only adds 1% damage reduction to each successful block (Block Value) I fail to see your point?

I dont think you know how blocking works.

Enlighten me, maybe I'm wrong here. Never said I wasn't.

04/24/2012 01:39 PMPosted by Arij

Also, keep in mind Austere gives extra mitigation 100% of the time. Eternal is still reliant on RNG due to the impossibilities of having 100% block passively.

...

At block cap the only RNG that does anything to Eternal mitigation is the exact same RNG that does the exact same thing to Austere mitigation (on parries, dodges, and misses, both are equally useless).

Derp. You are right. However it still stands that for Stomp (mitigated by Armor) and Focused attack Austere is the better choice. Not sure what I was thinking. Not enough coffee clearly.

Edited for tardedness.

You mean Austere but yes.

You're still a bit backwards there, I think you mean Austere :P
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Attack tables, CTC, diminishing returns and you!
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2489160859

I did mean Austere. As I said...having my coffee now gd it. I meant whatever the Armor one is (Austere). Herp..derp.

But to answer the original OPs question, without my retardedness:

Block Value meta only really shines approaching or at/beyond the CTC cap. Armor is the clear choice prior to this, and tanks continue to use it in H DS for the reasons mentioned above.

If they had made mechanics like Focused Attacks blockable, it may actually be a different story.

Awesome! Thank you for the input guys!

Efflugent isn't an option.

In theory, Eternal beats Austere once you're approaching block cap (for Warriors, although Paladins should be similar); I'm sure someone will pop up with a link to the calculator shortly.

im pretty sure theres no block cap for warriors...is there?