WotLK BiS Gear for Protection Paladin

[Loadsamoney]

I mean, you are obviously relatively new to this. People who have done reading, theorycrafting, sims, hundreds, even thousands LOD's and halions, cleared everything with every role and geared dozens of chars - are giving you advice, with reasoning and explanations. You go: sovereign gems go to sacred shield or whatever. Yeah, we know. Have fun, try builds, it's pretty fun, but what are you trying to do here in this topic, what is your message?

I just don't like seeing the mentality of "you must be 100% cookie-cutter with scientifically backed numbers to be a WoW raider." It doesn't have to be 100% cookie cutter or nothing.

And I'm new to this server, not to WotLK raiding.

[angrylol]

Of coarse it doesn't have to be, but tell me this - would you rather take someone with "scientific" numbers[objectively and demonstrably better] or someone with some "I'm really smart" numbers? It's logical and inevitable way humans operate. You are not playing alone, to find and stay in a good guild you have to compete with dudes who will do the "scientific numbers"(literally 1min to read answer that was provided 10 years ago). Not to mention, even if you get past that, most of your raid buddies will have "this dude cant get even his base stats right" stigma. You have sort of "responsibility" to do your best with tools at hand.

Use the 4pt10, gem proper sockets. After you establish your gang, it's clear to everyone that you know what you are doing, then you can do your sacred shield builds and all that stuff. You can play any way you like, that's all fine, but that comes with hurdles.

[Gnimo]

@Loadsamoney

If you are using this build for example:

Helm: Sanctified Lightsworn Faceguard
Neck: Bile-Encrusted Medallion
Shoulders: Sanctified Lightsworn Shoulderguards
Back: Sentinel's Winter Cloak
Chest: Sanctified Lightsworn Chestguard
Wrist: Royal Crimson Cloak
Gloves: Sanctified Lightsworn Handguards
Belt: Verdigris Chain Belt
Legs: Pillars of Might
Feet: Treads of Impending Resurrection
Ring: Ashen Band of Endless Courage
Ring: Devium's Eternally Cold Ring
Trinket: Sindragosa's Flawless Fang
Trinket: Petrified Twilight Scale
Weapon: Mithrios, Bronzebeard's Legacy
Shield: Icecrown Glacial Wall
Libram: Libram of the Sacred Shield

You can use 10hit15stamina in Cloak, Gloves, Wrist, Ring and 10exp15stamina in Neck, Shoulders, Ring and Shield, on top of Helm, Chest and Belt and still be able to tank anything from 30% to 0% Icecrown Citadel Lich King 25m HC.

You will have 168 hit from gear which you can further increase with 40 hit food, 20 hit gloves enchant (if you dont have Engineering), maybe leave it at 238 hit with Food and 3x 10hit15stamina gems.
When it comes to expertise, you will have 19+ (depending on Race and Glyph choice).

Its not the "MOST OPTIMAL" build, but it still overgears all of the content in the game, yes even the 0% Lich King 25m HC, so you should be able to tank it regardless.

I would not go for 10def 15stamina gems, unless you need couple for the 540 cap, which is not a "BIS" list issue, and for sure I would not recommend any of the 10dodge or 10parry 15stamina gems.
10strength 15stamina are questionable, but I would rather have Expertise so that the Hammer does not get dodged in times of need for a big chunk of Aggro.

I guess Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings and Bloodvenom Bladecan also be used for some "extra TPS", hit, and/or god knows what, but it is again a matter of personal choice/preference.

I doubt anyone will kick or replace you with this kind of gear and gems if your performance is flawless, so yea...

Again, its not "THE MOST OPTIMAL" and the gear with highest EHP, but it is still an item build that overgears the content and is able to tank anything that WOTLK as a whole has to offer...

[Loadsamoney]

In regards to Expertise, is there any reason to push beyond 26 for the bosses where Parry Hasting is not a serious concern? I know the magic number is 56 for bosses like Halion, but is there any benefit for going beyond 26 against bosses that don't Parry Haste?

I guess the way I could handle it would be to gem red/yellow sockets for Hit/Stam and Expertise/Stam until capped in both, and then, as long as I'm Defense capped, I can be free to mismatch the remaining sockets for pure Stamina.

I also use the Righteous Defense glyph, so I think I only need about 8 or 9% Hit to guarantee successful taunts? That's around 236 hit rating or so, I believe.

I generally use a Nightmare's Tear as well.

[Gnimo]

There is no need to go over 26 to be honest, and the only 2 bosses you want to have 56 for are Halion and Sindra 25m HC (I made the list on "page 2" of this topic for 56 expertise build).
You should be fine even on 24 expertise for other encounters, since the only thing it does is reduce the chance your Hammer will fail to hit.
I look at it as a double gain until 26, since it reduces both Dodge and Parry.

You should be fine with 236-238 hit with or without the glyph to be honest.
Generally you want to take the 3% hit debuff also in to the account (something I found out recently), so you just need 6% spell hit from gear with the glyph for taunt to hit almost 100% of the times.

As for other gems, again, I would not suggest using them. Nightmare's Tear included, its just a complete waste of a gem slot if you ask me (and as you see I dont have high standards for gems).
If you really have a bad case of OCD that every color must be matched, you could go for 10def15stamina for the lulz, but as Horde, I would still go for 10hit15stamina gem since you are still not melee capped at 238, where as Alliance you can ask for a Draenei and fix that problem and go for that "extra avoidance".

10hit/10expertise and 15stamina are the only gems you can use, mainly to make sure that your abilities Hit the target and nothing else, from my point of view.

But in the end, if your gameplay is god-like, it wont matter which color or gem is the last one you use, just as long its not 20spirit or some random stat that has nothing to do with spec or role...

[Loadsamoney]

There is no need to go over 26 to be honest, and the only 2 bosses you want to have 56 for are Halion and Sindra 25m HC (I made the list on "page 2" of this topic for 56 expertise build).
You should be fine even on 24 expertise for other encounters, since the only thing it does is reduce the chance your Hammer will fail to hit.
I look at it as a double gain until 26, since it reduces both Dodge and Parry.

You should be fine with 236-238 hit with or without the glyph to be honest.
Generally you want to take the 3% hit debuff also in to the account (something I found out recently), so you just need 6% spell hit from gear with the glyph for taunt to hit almost 100% of the times.

As for other gems, again, I would not suggest using them. Nightmare's Tear included, its just a complete waste of a gem slot if you ask me (and as you see I dont have high standards for gems).
If you really have a bad case of OCD that every color must be matched, you could go for 10def15stamina for the lulz, but as Horde, I would still go for 10hit15stamina gem since you are still not melee capped at 238, where as Alliance you can ask for a Draenei and fix that problem and go for that "extra avoidance".

10hit/10expertise and 15stamina are the only gems you can use, mainly to make sure that your abilities Hit the target and nothing else, from my point of view.

But in the end, if your gameplay is god-like, it wont matter which color or gem is the last one you use, just as long its not 20spirit or some random stat that has nothing to do with spec or role...

In all honesty, I do have pretty bad OCD, and no doubt that has an influence on the way I gem and enchant my gear. It feels wrong to mismatch my sockets, regardless of the class/role I'm playing.

[Fmtansei]

There is no need to go over 26 to be honest, and the only 2 bosses you want to have 56 for are Halion and Sindra 25m HC (I made the list on "page 2" of this topic for 56 expertise build).
You should be fine even on 24 expertise for other encounters, since the only thing it does is reduce the chance your Hammer will fail to hit.
I look at it as a double gain until 26, since it reduces both Dodge and Parry.

You should be fine with 236-238 hit with or without the glyph to be honest.
Generally you want to take the 3% hit debuff also in to the account (something I found out recently), so you just need 6% spell hit from gear with the glyph for taunt to hit almost 100% of the times.

As for other gems, again, I would not suggest using them. Nightmare's Tear included, its just a complete waste of a gem slot if you ask me (and as you see I dont have high standards for gems).
If you really have a bad case of OCD that every color must be matched, you could go for 10def15stamina for the lulz, but as Horde, I would still go for 10hit15stamina gem since you are still not melee capped at 238, where as Alliance you can ask for a Draenei and fix that problem and go for that "extra avoidance".

10hit/10expertise and 15stamina are the only gems you can use, mainly to make sure that your abilities Hit the target and nothing else, from my point of view.

But in the end, if your gameplay is god-like, it wont matter which color or gem is the last one you use, just as long its not 20spirit or some random stat that has nothing to do with spec or role...

you get exactly 26 exp if you use hc mithrios , 3/3 combat expertise and 20 exp gem in helm (to activate meta) and considering you use sov glyph, which everyone should