Best Gems for a Paladin Tank to Socket in World of Warcraft (WoW)

Itemize Your Gear to Maximize the Most Important Stats for a Tankadin

You've led your group through the instance. You stood up to the big, bad final boss. You've done your job as a Paladin tank very well and now it's time for your reward. You scoop up a brand new chest piece, full of sockets and waiting for gems.

So now comes the tough decision - what precious gems are you going to spend your money on?  

Focus on the Best Stats for a Tanking Paladin (Tankadin)

First you need to identify the stats that you want to maximize as a Tankadin. The most important ones are - defense, stamina, agility, and spell damage. Intellect and mp5 can be useful, but they shouldn't be a major focus.

Raising your defense increases your overall avoidance - chance to dodge, block, parry, and be missed. Agility can also increase your avoidance - by increasing your chance to dodge - but you get less avoidance per item value.Stamina is always a favorite stat for tanks. Many warriors will sacrifice everything else to maximize their stamina - don't fall into that trap. Avoidance is as necessary as hit points in end game raid tanking. Paladins need even more avoidance, because Holy Shield is underpowered. Try to balance your stamina gains with defense/agility.

Don't over-emphasize the spell damage. It is an important stat, but the clearly the fourth most important. For most purposes, a Paladin can tank fine with about 200 spell damage. You can achieve that with a nice weapon (i.e. Continuum Blade or Crystalforged Sword) and a plus spell power to weapon enchant.

Once you are uncrushable (or very close) and have a lot of hit points, you can diversify some of your item value into extra spell damage. You'll eventually need it, but not until your fellow raiders are decked out in tier 5 or tier 6.

General Gemming Advice

It's generally a good idea to fit each socket with the correct color gem. The socket bonus may not be much, but it is a free bonus. +3 dodge rating isn't a lot - until you have it on five different items.