Re: Gorget vs Chain

I actually had Gorget for a while until Heritage dropped in Naxx (still waiting on the KT one, though) and loved it. Gorget and Chain are pretty close to each other, and I honestly think it's more a case for Rawr than anything else. I do miss that +hit.

Staff of Trickery vs. Enraged

Enraged still beats Staff for tanking purposes, just not by as much as it used to. We don't have to prioritize armor as *much* as we did previously but it's still a big deal and returns more per point than any other stat.

The beauty of the 3.0.8 changes is that you can swap between these staves and lose a lot less than you did earlier. Trickery, depending on the DPS you're bringing, might be the better choice for 5-man tanking due to its superior threat generation. Enraged is better for most raid bosses unless they're the casters of Naxx, etc. and they hit like pansies, but if you would rather have the threat gen from Trickery, you won't be penalized as heavily as you were pre-3.0.8.

"Also, if you wanna be a bear... Jewelcrafting. The heaps of Stam from the trinkets (and prismatics) is just amazing and very accessible. Until you can get the Darkmoon card (which is silly good), these will keep you very happy."

Agreed. Jewelcrafting -- especially when combined with Leatherworking -- blows a small hole in the theory that professions are supposed to be more about fun than raid utility. A colleague of mine grabbed both for this expansion and that's what enabled him to hit 50K health raid-buffed in regular tank gear fairly early, which shocked me.

With that said, the only time you're really going to need 50K+ life buffed is tanking a 3-drake Sartharion, which you can usually manage with a mixture of the Polar Set + decent gear elsewhere. While the buffs from LW and JC *are* amazing, you don't need them to tank well. They add a ton of health that looks great on paper but doesn't actually make you any easier to heal than a bear using blue gems (and my colleague had in fact gone for these professions primarily with an eye toward 3D Sarth tanking -- and I do the same thing with the Polar set).

Now, if I'd just hit 80 with two gathering professions on my main and were preparing to make the leap into professions that would help me raid -- I'd be sorely tempted to pick up JC and LW. But my main's had Herbalism and Alchemy forever and a day with a lot of rare recipes, and I've never really felt punished for doing so (OK, I'll grant not having leatherworking for drums in Sunwell was kind of a pain in the ass, but we were farming the place anyway so in the end it was a moot point). I *love* Lifeblood (especially popped with a glyphed Frenzied Regen and Mixology, and eventually epic gems will be introduced that will cut the advantage of JC's (but not Leatherworkers, I think) somewhat.

So, TL:DR - if I were leveling professions from scratch I'd pick up JC and LW, but the advantage they confer is primarily one of health, and makes a difference on only one version of one fight, the effect of which can be duplicated anyway with resist gear. So I don't worry too much. I also heal a fair amount and am rarely impressed by tanks who have sacrificed everything at the altar of stamina.