The Eternal Balancing Act

Ulushnar has too much gear. No scratch that, Ulu has too much comparable gear.

Thanks to the lousy, unitutive nature of Protadin itemisation, the priority list goes thus:

1. Do I have enough Defense Skill to eliminate Critical strikes? (This is 490 for Raid bosses and 485 for five mans/heroics)
2. If I'm raiding does my chance to Dodge/Parry/Block/Be missed add up to 102.4% with Holy Shield active?
3. Once those two thing are taken care of how much Stamina can I stack?
4. Oh, don't forget to stack in some Spell Damage/Spell Hit where possible to boost your threat output. After all, that's where our hype lies.

So as it stands, number 1 is fairly straightforward. Most tanking gear out there gives some +defense, so you can normally stack 490 Defense fairly easily. Similarly for number 4, before you start getting access to class-specific armor and tier 5 instance drops, the most spelldamage a Paladin can stack is in their weapon, a couple of enchants and maybe a piece or two of the Righteous set. The problem with the Righteous set is that whilst it stacks some Defense, it doesn't have much avoidance, so it hurts priority number 2.

The conflict between priority number 2 and 3 is the biggest problem for the low rung Protadin. Protadin's already have the lowest base health of the tanking classes, and the need to stack a massive amount of avoidance & block to reach uncrushable status causes us to neglect more. I've found this thread in particular helpful for noting the relative usefulness of various items in avoiding crushing blows.

For example, at present, Ulushnar has three breastplates available to him:

In an ideal world, I'd wear Breastplate of the Righteous, since with three +12 stamina gems, it gives me a whopping 66 base Stamina, as well as some more spelldamage and a nice set bonus since Ulu already has the Shoulders. Sadly the lack of Crushing Blow Avoidance (CBA) means that I'm forced to relegate this to my five man/heroics set.

So for raiding, it comes down to a choice between Jade Skull Breastplate and Vindicator's Hauberk. In terms of pure numbers, I should almost always pick the Jade Skull. It's CBA is about 0.5% better, and it has 11 more Stamina. That said, sometimes I'd still take the Hauberk for times I want pure avoidance over the JSB's block rating.

I'm also torn on the ring front. If I equip my long-saught Elementium Band of the Sentry over the "well no-one else wanted it Shermanar Great Ring then I lose 12 Stamina and 223 armor, but I gain 0.8% CBA.

Equipping both those items gives me the CBA to allow me to equip my Battlescar Boots over my Boots of Elusion, which whilst they lack avoidance make up for it with extra Stamina thanks to two more +12 Stamina gems.

The grand effect of these changes is to allow me 17 more Stamina whilst maintaining Crushing Blow Immunity at the cost of 223 Armor. I think this is the best balance currently available to me. Of course, being a finicky bastard, I'll probably change my mind in a day or two, or when the next gear upgrade forces me to examine the careful balancing act of my gear.

I'm honestly not sure how much thought non-Paladin tanks have to put into their gear.