WotLK Tanking on Lordaeron

[psychephy]

I am almost lvl 80 on my DK. My plan was to tank from lvl 70-80 and go full tank once I hit 80.
I haven't seen a single DK tank on Lordaeron, why is that? Is there something wrong with DK tanks compared to warrior/paladin?
What would be the bext spec once I hit 80 and start hitting heroic dungeons as a tank?
Is it even worth it to tank as DK, or should I just roll a warrior, if I ever want to raid tank?

[taralej]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with DK tanks, it's just the stereotype of the class and everybody prefers to pewpew instead of tanking. If you like tanking, then go ahead and tank.

Blood is good, but it's still too early in the progression to make the most from it.

Unholy is very decent, but it requires a lot of management and I do not recommend it if you're new to the class.

Frost is balanced and is considered the best choice for the current progression.

[Kemii]

I am a DK tank.

DO NOT tank as frost, it's atrocious atm. The lack of avoidence from pre-raid/naxx gear just isnt enough, healers cant keep you up.

I rolled blood, Im in full savage gear (no def rating at all, but crit capped from PvP Resilience) and had no issues with too much damage.

Here is me in action on Loken in HOL HC (known Tank Killer) - The voice is my healer and his disbelief over healing every other type of tank and watcching them just melt to this boss.

[lanrien]

I would like to know your DK blood spec btw.

I actually like a few skills some recommend not to take, such as mark of blood and rune tap, hence I wanna know your build and also how you feel about them.

[psychephy]

How do you deal with AOE threat as blood? Every guide I see is all focused around ICC, can't really find anything for heroic dungeons/naxx - So I would really like to see a DK Blood spec aswell.

[taralej]

Kemii, dude, for the first time in my life - what the actual ****??? Are you serious?!

You're tanking a HC dungeon boss with 23k HP in a 78lvl PvP crafted set, you're getting absolutely raped, that boss is caving his fists in your skull with every 7-8k hit, and you're advocating for Blood tank? Were you drunk when you posted this or what??? The only reason you survived this was you used all your cooldowns, even AoD, and had a Disc Priest basically spam-healing you. Jesus christ, man...

Frost doesn't need avoidance, unlike Unholy for Bone Shield. Frost has less self-heals, but more avoidance and more mitigation. There is absolutely no problem for a Frost tank to tank any WotLK content. I really really don't remember ever dying to this boss on my retail FDK tank back on 3.1.

@lanrien & psychephy - Here you go. Balanced Blood DK tank spec. Morbidity allows you to use D&D in every pull. Rune Tap and Mark of Blood are both good, especially when used well. Even if you don't like them, there's not much else you can pick in the tree, honestly. Bloodworms and Improved Blood Presence are crap, Vendetta is for leveling, Spell Deflection is weak, Butchery and Scent of Blood are useless because you don't need more RP, Subversion is a pure DPS talent, Dancing Rune Weapon has its own aggro so it's useless for tanking.

If you want, you can go Blood-Frost hybrid (like most scrubs will tell you to do), but then you won't have Morbidity and your threat will be significantly lower - all for the price of 3% more avoidance => GG.

[lanrien]

Kemii, dude, for the first time in my life - what the actual ****??? Are you serious?!

You're tanking a HC dungeon boss with 23k HP in a 78lvl PvP crafted set, you're getting absolutely raped, that boss is caving his fists in your skull with every 7-8k hit, and you're advocating for Blood tank? Were you drunk when you posted this or what??? The only reason you survived this was you used all your cooldowns, even AoD, and had a Disc Priest basically spam-healing you. Jesus christ, man...

Frost doesn't need avoidance, unlike Unholy for Bone Shield. Frost has less self-heals, but more avoidance and more mitigation. There is absolutely no problem for a Frost tank to tank any WotLK content. I really really don't remember ever dying to this boss on my retail FDK tank back on 3.1.

@lanrien & psychephy - Here you go. Balanced Blood DK tank spec. Morbidity allows you to use D&D in every pull. Rune Tap and Mark of Blood are both good, especially when used well. Even if you don't like them, there's not much else you can pick in the tree, honestly. Bloodworms and Improved Blood Presence are crap, Vendetta is for leveling, Spell Deflection is weak, Butchery and Scent of Blood are useless because you don't need more RP, Subversion is a pure DPS talent, Dancing Rune Weapon has its own aggro so it's useless for tanking.

If you want, you can go Blood-Frost hybrid (like most scrubs will tell you to do), but then you won't have Morbidity and your threat will be significantly lower - all for the price of 3% more avoidance => GG.

Yeh, that hybrid build is not my cup of tea, by a long shot, so much useless talents just to get that sweet 3% ? No way, rather have... pretty much anything else, srsly, the only good thing in frost is toughness and, if by some miracle you can get icy talons so you have raid utility, but I can't see a reasoning of losing so much just for that either...

As for the blood one, yea thats pretty much what I would use and used in the old lordaeron.

Yea I agree there, people don't appreciate DnD enough to spend those points in morbidity but it's well worth it.


I'm stil unsure about will of the necropolis, the talent is obviously amazing, but I'm not sure how good it may be, since no one is confortable sitting at 35% hp. Sounds a bit too situational for me, like healer busy, or OOM and you need to squeze those last seconds.. Not sure about it, but I also confess that I don't know where I would put those points either, just thought to share that.

[jendah]

I'm stil unsure about will of the necropolis, the talent is obviously amazing, but I'm not sure how good it may be, since no one is confortable sitting at 35% hp. Sounds a bit too situational for me, like healer busy, or OOM and you need to squeze those last seconds.. Not sure about it, but I also confess that I don't know where I would put those points either, just thought to share that.

It reduces the hit that takes you below 35% as well. (f.e. if you are @60% and got hit for what should be 30% of your hp this talents reduces it as well)

[Kemii]

http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#j0ErqIhIsbRrsotbxZ0x

Is what I've been using.

Kemii, dude, for the first time in my life - what the actual ****??? Are you serious?!

You're tanking a HC dungeon boss with 23k HP in a 78lvl PvP crafted set, you're getting absolutely raped, that boss is caving his fists in your skull with every 7-8k hit, and you're advocating for Blood tank? Were you drunk when you posted this or what??? The only reason you survived this was you used all your cooldowns, even AoD, and had a Disc Priest basically spam-healing you. Jesus christ, man...

The point being I have absolutely no gear, no tank trinkets, nothing tanky at all. I've got better gear now, Def cap and it's so much easier.

We had a frost tank in Naxx and he was dying while being spam healed by 3 healers, so squishy it actually caused us a lot of issues.

[taralej]

@Kemii, idk then that guy was doing something very wrong, man.

@lanrien, that's a staple tank talent in general (not just for DKs). The reason it's so good is because it makes you very hard to kill and because, as jendah said, it also reduces hits that WOULD take you below 35%, not just hits while you're already below 35%. A clear example is Scourgelord Tyrannus's Forceful Smash - a Blood tank is FAR more unlikely to die on him than an Unholy or Frost tank.

[lanrien]

I'll always be a blood tank, it imprinted on me ever since I was the last one surviving on sindragosa once and taking out I think 100k or 50k left on her thanks mark of blood, lucky parries, and generally healing a crapton with vamp blood.

What I do love about frost tanking is acclimation, and now that resistances work, it might prove useful on certain fights, but for me, blood will always be my n1 spec for tanking.

And assuming Dancing rune blade is working, once ICC gear kicks in I might even try blood dps see how it goes.

[trm90]

I agree with taralej, blood's most prominent talents are Vampiric Blood (nice 60sec cd) and Might of Mograine, Fdk has better passives that's for sure, in addition to unbreakable armor being really good atm especially when glyphed since atm no way we will be over capping unlike with icc gear. FDK also have other advantages for instance dual wielding 2x tank weapons to help with the low tanking stats for new 80s. and seeing that spell resistance is fixed more win for frost. at the end it all depends on play style and encounter that's true, but right now imo frost>blood for sure till icc gets released anyway...

[lanrien]

I agree with taralej, blood's most prominent talents are Vampiric Blood (nice 60sec cd) and Might of Mograine, Fdk has better passives that's for sure, in addition to unbreakable armor being really good atm especially when glyphed since atm no way we will be over capping unlike with icc gear. FDK also have other advantages for instance dual wielding 2x tank weapons to help with the low tanking stats for new 80s. and seeing that spell resistance is fixed more win for frost. at the end it all depends on play style and encounter that's true, but right now imo frost>blood for sure till icc gets released anyway...

All tanking 1h are too fast meaning low damage, so I'm not sure if they're worth it for the stats, a 1.6 tank wep vs a 2.6 sec dps wep is significantly different in terms of weapon damage which is what you need for obliterates, rune strikes, frost strikes, pretty much every ability.

I remember that fdk tanks had to use dps ones because of that reason, not sure if its right or wrong.

Yes I know tanking weapon have...well..tanking stats, but with the major drawback of lower damage output on all your abilities it also means lower threat... so not sure which one is right.

[jendah]

All tanking 1h are too fast meaning low damage, so I'm not sure if they're worth it for the stats, a 1.6 tank wep vs a 2.6 sec dps wep is significantly different in terms of weapon damage which is what you need for obliterates, rune strikes, frost strikes, pretty much every ability.

I remember that fdk tanks had to use dps ones because of that reason, not sure if its right or wrong.

Yes I know tanking weapon have...well..tanking stats, but with the major drawback of lower damage output on all your abilities it also means lower threat... so not sure which one is right.

All plate tanks get significantly more threat with slow weapons. That being said def cap is your first priority - after you reach it you can experiment a bit. If you do enough threat with 2 fast weapons use those. If you are lacking you can use slow mh and fast oh, or 2 slow. You can even swap weapons mid-fight if you want to.

[angrylol]

What is better, 15% less any damage taken passive and vamp blood or... what frost DK has? Armor.. and uncontrollable proc magic resist. Maybe UHs bone Shield may be somewhere close in effectiveness if used with mad skills and prophetic sight.

There is no doubt blood is most powerful tank, not counting some very specific encounters, where blood is viable too nonetheless.

IMO frost and unholy is just "messing around from boredom because I know every talent and every number and every encounter"

Good luck tanking.