Trust me, you WANT the Meta Socket. You NEED the Meta Socket.

If you're looking for a tanking head drop, and just can't get a good one, I recommend dropping the forty badges on the Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm. In terms of tanking, the stats are better than the T7.10 Helm. It's only when you look at the socket bonus that the tier helm pulls ahead, in terms of survival. Of course, you could just do PvP and get a better helm, but if you have the emblems to spare and don't have a good enough arena team, go for it. I personally had a ton of emblems from the fact that I had nothing to spend them on. Still waiting for those gloves to be an upgrade.