Post by Aadramelekh
Answers:
a) Protector of the Pack does not offer any percentage point increase to your damage reduction. The 12% DR is applied to the received damage calculated AFTER armor based DR. For instance... You have 60% DR (against a lvl 80 target) and a lvl 80 mob hits you for 1000 base damage. You take 400 damage. If you spec into PotP as well, the next time the mob hits you it will to 400*0.88 = 352 damage, which is equivalent to ~64.8% DR (it is as if you had some extra armor that would raise the DR by 4.8%). Keep in mind that Protector of the Pack reduces any kind of damage (magic as well).
b) 25K armor and 30% dodge is enough to begin heroic dungeons. But as
DoubleDose suggested, the place where you would find the fastest upgrades is Trial of the Champion (normal, since you don't have the stats for heroic).
c) PvP gear is very good for tanking as it offers plenty of the two main tanking stats: agility and stamina. The crit and AP are also great for boosting Savage Defense. It's only drawback is the lack of hit and expertise. For these I suggest using standard tanking PvE pieces such as
necklaces,
cloaks,
rings,
belts etc. All these that I listed here can be bought for emblems of conquest or valor. ToC5 (normal and when possible heroic) will offer excellent items as well.
d) Survival of the Fittest increases your attributes by 6% and reduces the chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks by 6% in any form.
If you have some gold, buy some crafted latex pieces - my two suggestions would be
these shoulders and
these boots. Those shoulders have an excellent itemization for their ilvl, they should only be replaced by
T8 shoulders (if you get to YoggSaron or get lucky with Emalon in the Vault of Archavon) or lvl 245
T9 /
vendor shoulders.
Post by Aadramelekh
pretty much has no
mitigationPlease stop using terms you obviously don't understand...
Polar Vest, for instance, has 578 armor. For a fully talented Bear, it offers 3974 armor in Dire Bear Form. That armor
is mitigation. What it does not offer is agility. The primary benefit from agility is dodge chance and that is
avoidance. So yes, you could say that this piece doesn't offer any avoidance. But it has a ton of mitigation otherwise.