[DK] The DK Low Level Tanking thread

[KysenMurrin]

DRW is actually not as bad as it used to be for a tank - the threat it generates is applied to you not the pet now.

[Vorianloken]

DRW is actually not as bad as it used to be for a tank - the threat it generates is applied to you not the pet now.

When was this changed?

[cds4850]

DRW is actually not as bad as it used to be for a tank - the threat it generates is applied to you not the pet now.

I still view this as a threat boost once every minute and a half that I couldn't use on a boss pull (considering the 60RP cost.)

[KysenMurrin]

DRW is actually not as bad as it used to be for a tank - the threat it generates is applied to you not the pet now.

When was this changed?

It's a fairly recent change - sometime in 3.3 or after, I think. From what I'm reading it is unaffected by Frost Presence.

[blakk]

Thanks for the input so far. I'm pretty proud of my little guy now:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... s&cn=Herbz

To date I've only been thrown out of one ToC25 PuG on account of GS (whatever that is.) I do have a couple questions about talent point allocation. After reading what the guys at EJ have put together for endgame blood tanking, I question a few of their last point allocations:

http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t44638-suno ... e_tanking/

Their build is linked midway through the first post. The first thing that strikes me as off is their choice of grabbing Dancing Rune Weapon. I do not see the benefit of having DRW as a tank, so I've dropped that point from my build. So where to place that bastard talent point? Their build also has one point in Sudden Doom, and a point into Scent of Blood, either could be a possible home for my newly freed up talent point. So, which would yield more threat per point? What about putting that extra point into the unholy tree to grab Ravenous Dead for the added 1% strength which will contribute to threat output as well as a marginal parry gain? Of course, there's always the option of taking out those three points in question and placing them in Spell Deflection, but I have a feeling there is some thorough post that shows that talent, even at 3/3, to be a flawed allocation of points.

My question really boils down to this: is there a DK equivalent to Thecks talent breakdown?

Over at pwnwear there is sortof but I'm not sure if it's outdated or not

[Brute]

So... my Frost DK uses the following on a trash pull: DND, (wait for things to assemble if needed), HB, BB. Then runes come back up and I prioritize HB, OB, BB. I use Rime procs whenever I see HB come up prematurely... basically I use HB whenever I can, either with runes or w/o, and I never time it intentionally w/ KM, but I don't ever use IT, and most of my RP is used w/ RS (FS occasionally), so I'm pretty sure HB gets most of the KM procs.

Am I doing it wrong? Do I need to DL some addon to help me sync up the KM+Rime procs? How are things going to change when I hit 80 and am no longer beating everyone on damage, because up to this point, as far as threat goes, I could tank in blood spec.

[vertinog]

So... my Frost DK uses the following on a trash pull: DND, (wait for things to assemble if needed), HB, BB. Then runes come back up and I prioritize HB, OB, BB. I use Rime procs whenever I see HB come up prematurely... basically I use HB whenever I can, either with runes or w/o, and I never time it intentionally w/ KM, but I don't ever use IT, and most of my RP is used w/ RS (FS occasionally), so I'm pretty sure HB gets most of the KM procs.

Am I doing it wrong? Do I need to DL some addon to help me sync up the KM+Rime procs? How are things going to change when I hit 80 and am no longer beating everyone on damage, because up to this point, as far as threat goes, I could tank in blood spec.

I personally use power auras and setup a few for KM and Rime. I don't wait for KM to use Rime though. As far as I can tell you aren't doing anything wrong.

[Gracerath]

Not that it really matters but if you open up with Howling Blast instead(assuming you've glyphed it, and as a tank, who wouldn't?), you'll get 15% more damage from the first few ticks of Death and Decay with the Tundra Stalker talent instead of having the first few ticks be normal damage. Not really a huge deal but when trying to maximize dps/tps, it counts. In the same vein, I notice a lot of unholy DK's opening up with death and decay instead of getting blood plague spread around with pestilence before using it(DnD) with the Rage of Rivendare talent.

[Kelaan]

I notice a lot of unholy DK's opening up with death and decay instead of getting blood plague spread around with pestilence before using it(DnD) with the Rage of Rivendare talent.

It might be that getting uniform threat on everyone to stay ahead of the group is more important to them than optimized overall damage. D&D takes 1 GCD to drop, whereas getting plagues spread is 3 GCDs, followed by another second or so for things to start ticking.

[Levantine]

Dps should never DnD as their first move, tanks can depending on their spec. I personally got FF up on the pack first, but that's because Howling Blast is overpowered. <3 Blood and Unholy tanks probably should be DnDing first.

[Gracerath]

I notice a lot of unholy DK's opening up with death and decay instead of getting blood plague spread around with pestilence before using it(DnD) with the Rage of Rivendare talent.

It might be that getting uniform threat on everyone to stay ahead of the group is more important to them than optimized overall damage. D&D takes 1 GCD to drop, whereas getting plagues spread is 3 GCDs, followed by another second or so for things to start ticking.

Yar, I meant that more from an unholy DPS DK standpoint. Sorry for the confusion. As a non-frost tank, I generally always up with death and decay