If I was choosing between two tanks with comparable block, armor, and defense rating, why would I pick the one with less HP?

Guess those raiders will have a hard time ever doing ToGC Anub without a block tank on adds but yea some RL clearly don't read or try to understand the mechanics of an encounter.

For precisely the thing that all these models and simulations don't account for.

PLAYER SKILL.

I'll take a reliable, slightly undergeared Death Knight over an unskilled paladin any day.

(Healer permitting)

The reason is probably because there is alot of magic based damaged in ToC, which armour, block, etc. has not effect on reducing, and you just have to take the damage right in face, which more stamina helps with.

*sigh* What is your unbuffed health?

Last person I saw complaining that people wouldn't take him to ToC10, and how unfair everyone was, and how people are big jerks for judging him based on his gear instead of his skill...

Had 25k HP unbuffed.

That guy pissed me off so much. I started Naxx with 28k HP unbuffed, back in December, before we had all these fancy new bracer enchants, epic gems, and conquest badges from heroics. I started ToC with around 36k HP unbuffed.

And it seems more often than not, when someone is complaining about people not giving them a chance, it's because they are horribly undergeared, and have no comprehension of their own limitations. So let me ask you... are you horribly undergeared and have no comprehension of your limitations?

@Grak
You're is actually kind of right. Half the reason EH has become so popular is the last two raids (ToTC especially) have thrown out a lot of mechanics that avoidance can't save you from, and that is no fault of the players and all of the design team. It's so much purely magic damage as it is unavoidable damage, like Gormak's impales or a Jaraxxus fireball or a Twin's orb or Anub's frozen slash. Sadly no amount of avoidance, even if stacked correctly, can dodge Anub's frozen slash, and so a tank needs enough EH to be able to take that without dying.

I don't like it, at all, but its not really the tanks fault, and my guild does TotGC with a warrior/DK tanks and we have no problems.

And remember, the point of avoidance is (in most normal fights) to avoid not every hit, but to avoid a string of hits, which is often the main reason for a tank going down. The more avoidance you have, the higher the chance you won't get hit TWICE in a row, and even less so three times in a row, and even less so four times in a row.

@Grak

It's important to note that magic damage doesn't throw effective health out the window and make it strictly about stamina. Magic damage just changes the still-complex calculation used to determine effective health. A tank might have 50,000 health, but that's not his effective health even against magic attacks. Take my paladin for example, and assuming I actually had that much health to start with....

TALENT: Improved Righteous Fury: all damage taken is reduced by 6% . . . Now my effective health is 53191

BUFF: Blessing of Sanctuary: Reduces damage taken from all sources by 3% . . . Now my effective health is 54837

TALENT: Argent defender: all damage taken below 35% health is reduced by 20% (works out to a flat 8.75% increase in effective health) . . . Now my effective health is 59635

TALENT: Shield of the Templar: Reduces all damage taken by 3% . . . Now my effective health is 61479

I won't even go into the effects of divine protection, because that's just begging for an argument about what should and shouldn't count towards effective health

Other classes have different sets of talents and buffs unique to themselves. I've seen DK tanks that have two separate tanking specs, just because unholy has more magic mitigation so they switch to it for that kind of boss, then back for physical bosses.