WotLK Tanking on Lordaeron

[taralej]

Trm, you meant Will of the Necropolis, I guess? Might of Mograine is a strong talent aggro-wise only.

Frost has a bit more mitigation from Frigid Dreadplate and Improved Frost Presence. Acclimation is reliable on fights with continuous spell damage so the talent can stack up and remain stacked. The problem is that there aren't that many fights, most notably LK's transition, Kele tanking and Sindragosa. Festergut's aura damage is already mitigated by spores, PP's damage is healable, Rotface never chooses to spit on the tank, BQL's air phase is easy enough with AMS, Lady's Frostbolts are too rare to stack up the talent.

But that's talking about ICC - there are plenty of bosses before that on which Acclimation is very useful - Sapphiron is a clear example on which you get a fully stacked Acclimation through the whole fight. Some VoA bosses are also a very good opportunity. And of course there are a lot of heroics where this talent plays a big role.

I am very willing to tank with Unholy once I get a 80 DK on Lordaeron. I've done it before and I have been very successful at it. Bone Shield is absolutely insane with sufficient avoidance - that's like a constant Icebound Fortitude on me as long as I can manage it correctly and have enough avoidance. And then we have the magic reduction from Magic Suppression and the amazing raid tool which is Anti-Magic Zone.

At the end of the day, once we reach ICC, Blood will be the best spec - there's no doubt about that, that's pretty clear from the way the spec works with the ICC buff and how much the other two specs suffer from the debuff. But before ICC I'd say we can play around with Frost and Unholy and be just as successful, if not even more successful than Blood.

P.S. - Regarding Frost weapons - Broken Promise is everything you could ever wish for at this content as a FDK tank. 2.50 speed, +64 stamina, defense, hit and expertise... I mean, seriously WOW. And it's not Unique. And it sheathes on the back. And it's priority for DKs over Paladins. Warriors may also want it, but it's still best for DKs. I remember when I got it on my retail DK and I was like "oooooohhh myyyyy god".

Spoiler: Show

Then also you have this beauty from UK Hc and for a start - this axe from this quest in Zul'Drak. These weapons, together with Broken Promise, are more than enough for the current content.

Apart from that, the only reason you would want to DW fast tank weapons is if you're below the def cap. Some people also advocate for a DPS MH and a tank OH so you can retain the high threat while also having some defensive stats. At the end of the day two DPS weapons will yield the highest threat.

[lanrien]

Oh yea I had forgotten about those, indeed good items for FDK tank.

As for UH dk tank, im sure there's a spot for it and working one at that, I will probably try it eventually, but damn I love blood way more, once I get a DK that is.

[trm90]

Trm, you meant Will of the Necropolis

yes thank you

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.

^ yea just this, unlike other tanks we aren't as much reliant on weapon damage compared to them thanks to IT, I also enjoy tanking with fast weapons more much more FS procs really nice specially when tanking around 1-4mobs, u can spread ur FS nicely.

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

well the thing about necropolis it's really good cuz it reduces damage that will bring you below 30% too but calling it a 15% reduction passive is an overstatement. and I completely disagree about blood being the most powerful tanking spec especially this early on pre ICC where avoidance is put into account in much higher value

[taralej]

@jendah - for Protadins there is absolutely no relation between weapon speed and threat because their only weapon based ability - HotR - was quickly changed in early WotLK to be DPS-based rather than hit-based. For warriors a slower weapon basically means higher Devastates, but that's about it - for HS and Cleave you actually want a faster weapon so you can spam them more for their added threat. That's why I'm saying that weapons like Broken Promise should hold priority for FDK tanks, then very far behind - Warriors, and then, at the very end - Paladins. These two classes are far better off with Last Laugh, whereas for a DK Broken Promise is stronger, even though it's one tier lower.

[jendah]

@jendah - for Protadins there is absolutely no relation between weapon speed and threat because their only weapon based ability - HotR - was quickly changed in early WotLK to be DPS-based rather than hit-based. For warriors a slower weapon basically means higher Devastates, but that's about it - for HS and Cleave you actually want a faster weapon so you can spam them more for their added threat. That's why I'm saying that weapons like Broken Promise should hold priority for FDK tanks, then very far behind - Warriors, and then, at the very end - Paladins. These two classes are far better off with Last Laugh, whereas for a DK Broken Promise is stronger, even though it's one tier lower.

war: it makes devastate and deep wounds deal almost double threat -> even though you loose a bit of hs threat it makes you deal > 10% more threat in total.

pala: other ability that significantly scales with slow weapon is Seal of Vengeance (both proc and dot part -> proc is triggered by autos and all abilities) also significant threat boost.

All that I wanted to say is that all tanks (except bear, who doesn't care) benefit significantly from slow weapon. I agree, that frost would get more as more of his abilities scale with weap speed, but that doesn't change the fact that blizzard didn't create many good tanking weapons (slow + tanking stats).

[Selaya]

Slower weapons will also make parryhaste much less threatening, provided it exists at all. There is little to no reason to use a fast weapon as a tank, especially if parry haste is working.
(No idea whether it does on Lord tho)

[Offbeat]

Both UH and Frost are perfectly fine, and not just for messing around. Both bring some fairly interesting and useful utilities and survival options.

UH, for example, have a HUGE survival tool in Bone Shield, it does so much to smooth out your damage intake, and even if you simply use it as an additional cooldown, it us still a powerful tool.

Frost has extra avoidance, flat damage reduction and a cooldown that is perfectly suited to the threats in the current content (particularly Patchwerk).

There is no reason to be a sheeple and stick to Blood "because it's best", because in the current content it simply isn't as clear-cut as that.

[taralej]

There is no reason to be a sheeple and stick to Blood "because it's best", because in the current content it simply isn't as clear-cut as that.

There's no arguing about that, yes. To me rolling Blood at this content shows a lack of knowledge or initiative with the class.

The issue with Unholy is that without proper Bone Shield management it's even squishier than Blood because it doesn't have Will of the Necropolis. With sufficient avoidance and correct BS usage, Unholy can easily become the best DK spec mitigation-wise.