Given that I don't see any Warriot Tank QQ threads complaining about the wasted +hit itemization on their tanking gear (i.e. frayed tether, the gruul shield drop, etc), I find the statement rather curious, as I would think Warriors, with all the extra threat tools they have, incl. more snap aggro, would be more prone to be upset about this. In fact, this seems to be the case, with a general sentiment lamenting the lack of +hit on their tanking gear.

If our ideal raid role is the Tank whose mob is burned down first, due to our great threat generation, so that we can shift and heal and/or dps/innervate, etc., it would seem that +hit, so that first mob can be burned down quicker, would be beneficial. Mileage may vary, but if you are trying to grab and hold 2 Hydross adds, for example, missing might be fairly messy and desirable to avoid.

The difference is in the rage and mitigation mechanic. Warriors use parry and block which negate a portion of rage that bears wind up getting through mitigation.

To be honest, you have more problems with dodge/parry/block than with miss when tanking and +Hit only erodes one of those four possible avenues of mitigation. As discussed in the warrior thread, +Skill is what you want when tanking if you wish to increase your threat generation; however, Druids are not warriors--we actually crit things (hard) while tanking them and our threat scales with damage, making it spiky but higher, in general. With Earthwarden (~+6 Skill), you gain roughly 1.32% additional 'hit' (0.24% less chance to be dodged/parried/blocked (each; so that's a net of 0.72%), 0.6% Hit, on a +1 or higher mob, and some additional crit as well (0.1% per +Skill?)). That's a good chunk of additional threat right there and, going by the +skill comments in the warrior thread, it's much more threat than one would expect.

I agree that +hit is a less than desirable MTing stat, but I wouldn't go as far as to put it in the same category as strength. It does take (some) of the edge off the spikiness of our threat generation, although I would REALLY like to see some +feral skill itemization besides 3 items total -.-

Besides, what else are you going to take in your yellow sockets >.>

Surely everyone has some empirical opinions on tanking with zero or low +hit. I've been tanking with zero or low hit rating for a long time now, and I'm pretty much in no danger of ever losing aggro. The only situations where I sometimes wish I had +hit are on bosses with aggro wipes (like Leotheras), where you can have some bad luck.

Pre-TBC, you could also have problems with a bad pull and a string of miss/dodge/parries. That's not so much a factor anymore since hunters can help the pull out with misdirect. Once aggro is established, druid aggro generation is spectacular, even with zero or low +hit.

I never said you should make some great sacrifice for that hit, it's incredibly easy to include a agi+hit gem in a socket or opt for the ap+hit enchant (and ask yourself why most choose that enchant over dodge+defense and don't tell me it's because hit is useless to a tank). As another poster mentions below skill is more useful to combat parry/dodge/miss but that isn't available (give me the itemisation and I'll use it). I want to minimise the times I'm unlucky and get a string of those while it's rare I've sat there and watched the misses rack up while the DPS start catching up. I'm not trying to derail this to OT roles but we don't get gear just to argue a preference on these forums and as part of this class we have to consider more than just 1 very narrow role, I did it on my Warrior as MT and I do it here.

I don't see much difference from that argument than gearing yourself up on pure avoidance, you itemise for the worst case scenario. There's plenty of times where the other tank has just had a bad string of miss/parry/dodges this is why tanking gear moves beyond simply armor, stamina and dodge but I still fail to see how many of you can derive no merit from making the other half of tanking a little bit more reliable.

I don't think that Blizzard would get many complaints if they added/created a yellow +Skill (Generic or Everything) gem...

But yeah, like Liar said, +12 Sta or +8 Agi goes everywhere.

False.

With enough defense / resilience you will NEVER be crit in PvE by a +3 mob.

This is verified by combat logs with many tens of thousands of hits recorded and no crits occurring.

However, the character sheet rounds up, so if you have 414.8 defense skill, it will read 415 and you might get crit. Always be save and make sure the total crit reduction in the sheet is at least 0.01% higher than needed when you add it up.

Well, I had 2.86% from defense, 0 resilience and 3% from talent while the combat log did say melee crit. Unless there's something about that mob (disarm?), I can't see any logical explanation for that crit. Used almost same gear on a full Kara clear and never got one crit.
This is my current gear . Changed 1 4 def/6 sta gem on leggings to that 5 dodge/4 hit and Umberhowl with +4 all stats to Forestheart with +12 sta

There's a bit of speculation over in the Hydross thread in the general forum that melee attacks that are magic damage may be ignoring the crit reduction of SotF. Unproven, though I'll throw it out as a possibility, can't remember whether Grand Warlock has non physical melee attacks, been a long time since I've tanked the fight.

I have also heard numerous reports of people (warriors as well as druids) supposedly crit immune taking the very occasional (once over weeks of raiding type of level) crit, haven't experienced it personally though/don't have any comprehensive sources to offer unfortunately but I certainly wouldn't discount the possibility of there being a tiny chance to be crit regardless out of hand.

Did anyone find out how much honor the new PvP bracers are and which tokens you need for them (Veteran's Dragonhide Bracers)?