Quote Originally Posted by Apatheist View Post
Should be a no-brainer, really. You get 20% flat chance to block from Precept of Refuge and Safe Haven alone. Plus 30% of your spellpower as block, plus 10% non-physical damage reduction (this plus 3 points into Shaman are the only forms of non-physical damage reductions Justicars have access to).
But in the end, the analysis is not that clean.

While Spell Power increases Block, when talented it also increases Dodge and Parry. Typically, the Spell Power of 2-handers is far greater than a 1-hander and shield (huge itemization problem, IMO). By far greater, I am talking about typically DOUBLE the Spell Power from a 2-hander. Once you spec 3 points into Devout Deflection, the bonuses your get to avoidance seems to offset the loss from Block (+60% to Dodge, +90% to Parry).

I'm not sure anyone has really done a parse of this debate though. I also think that a lot of the early discussions were at a time when Devout Deflection gave a higher mitigation percentage than what is currently listed.

Personally, I notice that I suffer from a LOT of burst damage with a 2-hander so I abandoned 2-handed tanking. However, now that my curiosity is piqued, I may spec 2-handed tanking and give it a whirl to compare.