Feb 17

Today I am going to lead you on a discussion about the two major tanking runes for Death Knights: Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle (SG) and Rune of Swordshattering (SS).

Diminishing Returns

One key contept to understand in this debate is that of diminishing returns. Diminishing returns on avoidance stats, new to WoTLK, is a method of making a certain attribute less useful the more you have of it.

For example, let’s pretend that 100 dodge rating increased your dodge chance by 1%. For your first 100 rating, you’d have a 1% dodge chance. But because of diminishing returns, the next 100 rating might only give 0.95% dodge chance. The third 100 rating might give 0.90% dodge chance, and so on. This is an oversimplification of the topic, but it gets the point across–if you’re interested in more, check out this thread at TankSpot.

Why Does it Matter?

It matters because both runes provide their avoidance outside of diminishing returns. That means that the 25 defense skill from SG provides a straight 3% avoidance (1% miss, 1% dodge, 1% parry) and SS 4% (straight-up 4% parry).

Benefits of Swordshattering

Swordshattering, as mentioned, provides a plain 4% parry chance, while Stoneskin Gargoyle provides only 3%. Furthermore, 2% HP is not a lot, though it certainly shouldn’t be discredited–for a tank with 30,000 health, 2% would only be 600. Furthermore, since Rune Strike only becomes usable after a parry or a dodge (not a miss), Swordshattering is a slightly better threat rune (extra 2% chance to activate Rune Strike).

Benefits of Stoneskin Gargoyle

The major benefit of the Rune of Stoneskin Gargoyle is the ability to build your tank set without worrying so much about remaining at 540 defense (the soft cap for being uncrittable by level 83 raid bosses). Although technically not superior to SS, SG allows you to gem and enchant for things other than defense rating, and gives you freedom in your gearing choices–especially since it is hard to remain uncrittable as a death knight once you start upgrading to epic pieces with better avoidance.

Conclusion

The conclusion is this: there is no definite conclusion! (I told you this was a “discussion”!) If you can remain uncrittable and use the Rune of Swordshattering, great! However, if you feel you want more gear/gem/enchant options, or need to reach the defense “cap”, by all means use the Rune of Stoneskin Gargoyle, there’s nothing wrong with it!

Related posts:

1. So, You Wanna Play a Death Knight: Tanking
2. Chill of the Throne: Sunwell Radiance 2.0
3. So, You Wanna Play a Death Knight: Gear
4. Two Pugs Enter: Stupidity vs. Ignorance
5. Patch 2.4