Ideal LK10 build for my role?

[branwell]

I'm tanking the King encounter with a DK as my co tank.

P1.
The DK picks up the King and I pick up the adds, large and small.
The DPS focus on the king exclusively.
The plague and me kill off one of the large adds and many small ones.

Transition.
I sometimes have the second large add left and a few small ones.
The DK grabs the first and second Enraged Spirit.
By the time the Spirits die, the adds I am holding are dead and I pick up the third spirit.

P2.
The DK goes after the king and I have the spirit.
DPS focus on the valk that comes up and then the spirit I am holding.

Havent gotten much further than that, so can't describe how we fight it, but the plan is once the Spirit I am holding is dead, I will join the DK and do a taunt rotation after Soul Reaper.

My question is. Is there an ideal build for this fight?

I see a lot of tanks specking 2 points into POJ. Is this to help run after the Valks ( I use Tuskars at the moment for speed increase )?
I see people specing into Improved Hammer of J, but so far, unless a Valk spawned on me, I don't see how I could get to one to use it.

Always looking to improve my tanking. Any advice appreciated.

[d503]

The standard 0/53/18 threat build talked about on here since 3.2 should suffice. Heroic LK 25 is a different story...

Using your standard build means that if you have to tank LK or your DK dies, you won't be at a disadvantage.

[Donahu]

I see a lot of tanks specking 2 points into POJ. Is this to help run after the Valks ( I use Tuskars at the moment for speed increase )?

The PoJ is just all around more survivability than Tuskars (7 more stam, + kings, + talents, etc.)so people go for it instead. It's in the standard talent build of most tankadins. On top of that, it's more movement speed than Tuskars so no - it's not to chase around Valks.

I see people specing into Improved Hammer of J, but so far, unless a Valk spawned on me, I don't see how I could get to one to use it.

That extra spirit you have *should* be dead before the second Valk spawn which means you are free to be melee'ing the boss, keeping up vidication, judgement crit buff, judgement mana/life return, etc. You'll be in range for sure for the Valk at that point. If you spec 1/2 Imp HoJ the CD is lowered enough that you can use HoJ on every single Valkyrie that spawns. This gives you the 6 second stun guaranteed (as long as no one else is stunning at the same time) and should be the first stun used. With 30% buff and a 6 second stun, you should not see any issues saving people from falling off (ensure you still have someone hamstring/slow the Valk).

Just curious, what is wiping you at that point in the encounter so we can offer a bit more advice? I know it's the wrong forum but could kill two birds with one stone .

[branwell]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I thought the Valks spawned every 30 seconds requiring 2 points in Improved?

Either way, in last nights attempt, there where several times when I could have stunned but couldn't because it was on cool down. I'll definitely spec into it for the next attempt. Are you sure 1 point is enough?

Donahu. Could you elaborate on this plz.
( The PoJ is just all around more survivability than Tuskars (7 more stam, + kings, + talents, etc.) )
I assume you mean more stam from using a pure stam enchant. I am not sure I understand the rest of your statement relative to Tuskers. I am a noob so please forgive.

Where are we failing you ask
We are just a group that was running ICC progression, kicked a@#, and found ourselves at the king's door.

We had not planned a king fight so the group is not optimized for it.

No one in the group has done the fight before. We have no Hunters for misdirects and slows, no Locks to do the Valk cliff drop off trick, and I am the only one with a stun.

Our healing compliment is two Shammies and a Druid.

We roll P1 and the transition, but P2 is hard going.

Infest is getting us as well as getting used to DPSing/slowing/stunning the valks while keeping out of the defile.

To help with infest, we had one of our DPS bring in his Disc Priest alt, and had one of the Shammy heals go DPS. The problem with that is the Shammy heals is not used to DPSing, and the Disc Prist is not used to healing hahahaha.

It feels like we just need more time on it to get used to what is going on, however, ANY suggestions anyone has are more than welcome.

[Donahu]

Sorry, I don't watch these boards much. You probably already found the answer but in regards to PoJ being more survivability...

If you use Tuskars you gain 15 stam and movement speed.

If you use pure stam you gain 22 stam and more movement speed than Tuskars through PoJ.

The gain is 7 stam, but then you multiply that gain by the other effects you gain such as kings and Sacred Duty so it is a bit bigger.

**Disclaimer - PoJ feels faster than the Tuskar's but I'm not 100% on how much Tuskar's gives (think it's 7 or 8% vs the 15% from PoJ?)

The run I go with also has no hunters for misdirects or slows. You can use the shaman's earthbind totem to help or just have 1 dps hamstring, crippling (if you have to), or chain of icing the Valks.

Infest is healable w/o a disc priest but it *SUCKS*. Our first kills were resto druid, resto shaman, and holy priest. Double resto shaman and a tree would be a rough combo but doable if you got them to put priorities on who they are responsible for.

Defile is your biggest threat as that just takes lots of practice and getting used to it. The rest you can overcome .

[branwell]

Haya,

Things I learned.


1 point in IHOJ is enough

Disc Priests are seriously nice to have for Infest mitigation with bubbles.

The Lock trick no longer works.

The fight is about practice and patients.

[Nikachelle]

The Lock trick no longer works.

Explain?

We did this for weeks, and in every single one of our kills (granted, the number is not massive). Is it possible your lock is just doing it improperly?

[branwell]

It doesn't seem to matter where she stands, the Valks rarely pick her up, and yes, it is entirely possible we are doing it wrong.

I'd love to know how you are doing it. I'd love for it to work.

[Nikachelle]

The lock has to stand close enough to their portal for it to even work. They stand on the very outskirts of the raid, right next to their portal. If they're picked up, everyone ignores the Valk and he portals as soon as he's dropped. Of course, the valk doesn't pick someone based on distance - it's entirely random who they snatch.

Let me see if I can find one of our videos for you.

[Treck]

Its just a matter of chance.
IF the warlock gets picked up its easier, theres no saying the warlock WILL get picked, not over anyone else.

[Nikachelle]

http://www.youtube.com/fatdorowl#p/a/u/1/JpF6ICGwgYs

@ 4:11 you can see the location of the lock and his portal. His portal is on the very edge of the platform and he's standing just a bit closer to be in range of the LK.

Around 4:30, you can see him again at the edge. 6:48 is a great shot of him directly at the edge, standing on his portal.

Unfortunately, this video also did a great job showing him not getting picked up. :/ However, you can see where he stands and where he puts his portal.

[branwell]

Thanks for the response and vid.

Got a couple questions if I might.

In the vid, I see the Kings Tank dragging the King along as your raid chases down and kills the Valks.

The tank looks to move too fast to be moving backward.

Is he/she turning their back on the King and simply running after the Valk?

Looking for an edge here.

Why is the tank dragging the king to the Valk rather than staying in the middle?
On the one hand, it looks like it might make the mdps job easer, on the other, it looks to have everyone closer to the edge when the next Valk comes?

[Nikachelle]

Thanks for the response and vid.

Got a couple questions if I might.

In the vid, I see the Kings Tank dragging the King along as your raid chases down and kills the Valks.

The tank looks to move too fast to be moving backward.

Is he/she turning their back on the King and simply running after the Valk?

Looking for an edge here.

Why is the tank dragging the king to the Valk rather than staying in the middle?
On the one hand, it looks like it might make the mdps job easer, on the other, it looks to have everyone closer to the edge when the next Valk comes?

I was side straffing. Never back up unless you absolutely have to (which is practically never). I always dragged the Lich King to the valk so that my excess dps can hit the valks (Hammer, consecration, etc.) and that the aoe from certain classes will affect the LK as well. I was sometimes stunning the valks as well if need be.

There's no sense me standing in the middle with the LK being useless.

When it's time for a valk, we all gather up in the middle, except for the lock. When it's defile, we all spread out. If we're all at the edge and a valk comes, we're pretty much fucked, but I've yet to see us be THAT bad.

Edit: Actually, I'm pretty sure I actually SWITCH targets to the valk and let aoe hit the LK.

You should be doing the exact same thing on stuff where it matters. Like Putricide slimes. Heroic Jaraxxus. Anub and his adds. Just because you're a tank doesn't mean that your dps is useless.

[theckhd]

The Lock trick definitely still works, I used it successfully at least once on my own warlock on Monday night.

I don't usually move LK with the Valks when I'm tanking him, but that's mostly a function of the encounter. Since you can get situations where you get Defile during the Valk burn, I prefer to have one less potential target underneath the Valk spot.

On putricide, where that's not an issue, I'll DPS the ooze and get cleave damage on Put. Even there, gas bombs can be annoying, but they're less frequent and more easily avoided.