[DK] The DK Tanking thread

My DK is in heroic/crafted blues/epics with 1 to 2 Naxx 10 pieces.

He was leveled to be dps/PvP but has since been dps/tank PvE to play with my friends because my tankadin needed nothing from heroics anymore.

I specced Frost for last night. Boy does my butt hurt. I lost nearly 7% HP, not sure the exact amount of DR from armor - a noticeable amount, and was really feeling the IBF nerf.

With the badge change and some of the new 5-man rewards, I have some incentive to use my Paladin to tank with that group... but at my gear level, I felt pretty darn squishy last night on my DK. I'm simply rotating CDs on trash rather than keeping one in reserve for 'oh crap' moments and dps was dying because of the attention I required from the healer.

Small query regarding the new Frost DW - Are we tanking with tank or dps 1-handers? Considering that DKs are balanced with dps weapons normally and threat can be an issue, it seems a valid question.

amh wrote:Could Rune Tap crit before this patch? It crits all the bloody time now - very nice surprise.

Nevermind, it isn't critting at all. Both my MSBT and Recount show it as crits, even though it's healing the correct amount every single time.

Looks like my post was lost in the rollback.

I noticed recently playing my DK that even though he is specced 2/3 points in Scent of Blood, he's always getting three charges on the buff when it procs - the tooltip for 2/3 states that he should get it for 2 swings, not 3. Is this a bug, or something to do with all the changes and slow tooltip updates this talent keeps getting?

The tooltip's been wrong for Scent of Blood for aaaaages now.

So what, then, does the number of points in the talent currently change?

Uhmmmmmmmm, either the amount of Runic Power you get per swing or the chance for it to proc. I'm not entirely sure, since I've been tanking as Blood who doesn't really need the RP, so doesn't spec it.

I think I had one point in it... A long, long time ago :) I'd consider picking it up just to do even more stupid threat on Algalon (my rune strikes are actually resource limited there), but I generally don't need it at all.

I have a talent question for you guys. I am currently 13/54/0, would it benefit me more to spec into unholy for the extended disease time, SS crit, spell hit, and DnD cool down as opposed to my blood talents?

I'm still pretty fresh at 80 but I can tank any heroic no problem, the Paltress is the only one who gives me trouble and that's more or less a health issue.

My armory link is tied to my signature, any advice or information would be appreciated. Thanks

I'm gunna assume that post's a joke, playing into the stereotype of Death Knights being fairly retarded.

Since I got told off for calling the joke posts, I'll now go through it in a fashion that would surely score me a 3 day ban on Elitist Jerks for horrible formatting.

TonicTank wrote:I have a talent question for you guys. I am currently 13/54/0

For starters I would advise you to spend the entire 71 points you have access to (13+54=67), and to make sure you're getting the Big4 Death Knight tank talents. (Blade Barrier, Toughness, Anticipation, Improved Icy Touch)

TonicTank wrote:would it benefit me more to spec into unholy for the extended disease time, SS crit, spell hit, and DnD cool down as opposed to my blood talents?

Frost tanks do not possess SS, Epidemic is a very good place to spend points. Morbidity is acceptable for Heroic farming in Frost specs. Virulence is a very poor talent point investment for Frost tanks. Since you noted you're mostly in Heroics, which are a giant AoE clusterfuck, I see no reason to move points from the Blood subspec to an Unholy one, especially with the Glyph of Howling Blast, allowing you to run a single disease spec for trash. Scent of Blood, Bladed Armor and 2HWS are all good threat generators for Frost.

TonicTank wrote:My armory link is tied to my signature, any advice or information would be appreciated. Thanks

And this right here is what tipped me off to this being a joke instead of a total retard Death Knight, since his armory is of someone who has the basic idea of how to spec and gear.

Maddok wrote:So Naxx[10] went pretty smooth, anybody have any hints or suggestions for an addon or something else to help manage a rotation (Frost Tank Specced incase it matters)?

I can recommend this addon, Face Smasher, but its *usually* associated with highest dps. The catch, it gives you two options. One for single target high dps, and one for AOE target high DPS. As you are looking to keep up your TPS, often opting for the AOE DPS choice can help you AOE tank. It takes into account your spec, and has options for how you want to customize it. (Like if you want it to recommend using IT for death runes, etc). If you want to produce good dps/tps, this is a good addon

I've been working on my DK for a little over two weeks now; have tanked two ToC10s. Was 2h Frost, last night tried DW Frost. I wasn't very pleased with my TPS, but not sure if it's just because I was DWing iLvl 200 weapons (Red Courage and Champion's Seal Axe); previously I'd been tanking with the 219 weapon from hToC and was doing ok.

Spec and glyphs:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0xbZhge ... 0xh:aoT0MV
(7/56/8 // Oblit/DnD/HB)

Armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... hadowraith

I didn't have the defense last night to use the VibroBlade (currently farming for a second; also farming U10 FL and XL for their 2Hers and ToC10 for a pair of Ardent Guards ...

I tend to DnD -> IT/HB on the pull, followed by Blood Boil on AoE packs, else I'll start with the Obliterates and Blood Strikes, with Frost Strike as a dump.

I find myself sitting for 1-2 GCDs waiting for runes to come up, which I'm told is fairly normal for a DK. Are my threat issues just gear related -- I was tanking for people in mostly 245 (had trouble specifically with a lock and a boomkin) -- or am I doing it wrong?

Dual wielding, you're likely to have threat problems with fast weapons. Your strikes will be hitting for significantly less, and there just aren't many slow tanking weapons. You might want to compromise and use a slow dps weapon in your main hand.

KysenMurrin wrote:Dual wielding, you're likely to have threat problems with fast weapons. Your strikes will be hitting for significantly less, and there just aren't many slow tanking weapons. You might want to compromise and use a slow dps weapon in your main hand.

Hmm. So slow DPS weapons for DW Tanking, and make up for the lost Def with a def trinket?

That's unfortunate. Guess I'll have to go back to 2h.

Have you macroed Rune Strike to a couple of spammable abilities? I have it on HS and PS, just so I can mash those between GCDs to get RS going. Leave it off a couple of other abilities so you can still generate RP in a pinch (in my case, IT and DS).

Edit: How come you have the DnD-glyph? Unless we're specifically talking aoe-threat, I would rather glyph for RS or Frost Strike for single target threat.

I have Rune Strike macroed to pretty much everything but IT; I don't use DS generally, except in specific situations (e.g., tanking Anub).

I feel like I'm as reliant on DnD as a 2.0 paladin was on Consecrate. I try to keep it down all the time, and a static 20% on DnD seemed more worthwhile than cost on FS or 10% crit chance on RS ... I don't know if the math says otherwise?

I'm pretty much done running heroics on this char so don't mind swapping out the DnD glyph if something else is going to be more useful. I just haven't found a site with as much condensed DK tanking theorycraft as this side; googling turns up a bunch of slobbering DPS epeen strokers or old (outdated?) posts dumping on DW, etc.

If in doubt, always check (stalk) Splug's armory. Might get unlucky and get some sort of experimental build, but it's usually good.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-tale ... te&group=1

(HB, FS and Obliterate-glyphs)

IMPORTANT NOTE!

It'll probably be good to use the Rune Strike glyph after the patch when Rune Strike is added to Threat of Thassarian, until then it's probably the worst threat glyph.

Levantine wrote:Saving you brain from confusion

I apologise Lev. It was 3am here in Iraq and I was running on a monster and chips.

My spec is in my sig I dont remember being at work and the image is blocked.

I mean PS and not SS.

I put together a new spec in the calculators on wowhead last night keeping 2HWS but putting the remaining points into the unholy tree. I am probably going to switch to this spec tonight. It seems more viable for my current instance groups.

Also, I am having a slight threat issue, I know there are still huge upgrades for me to get but people should climb up on me in threat like they do. My rotation is:

IT>PS>Pest>BB>HC=FS>HB>repeat multiple
IT>PS>BS>BS>FS>FS>OB>BS single

It seems to me like a good rotation, uses rune cooldowns effectively and still uses RS to proc my sigil. Maybe my latency is finally getting the best of me.

Thanks for the help Lev and sorry for the confusion.

You're overcomplicating your AoE rotation somewhat. Frost has it the easiest in this regard, in that our AoE rotation is probably the simplest of the three specs.

HB -> DnD -> BB (This assumes the Glyph of Howling Blast)

I would personally recommend THIS as a balanced spec between AoE and Single Target. Bladed Armor is your best threat investment beside Annihilation and Frost Strike at low gear levels, PLEASE don't get rid of it. Scent of Blood keeps the Rune Strike spam happening which is important when Frost tanks like to spam their runic power dump.

Single taget threat rotations go something like:

PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> OB -> Dump
OB -> OB -> OB -> Dump

But what it really boils down to is keeping diseases up, keeping your Blood Runes on cooldown, and spamming Obliterate/Frost Strike. Macro Rune Strike to everything, it accounts for a majority of your threat as a tank on a standard fight (Standard as in not a stinky caster that your threat's GOING to suck against).

I need a few advice

First one,on equip upgrades http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=runetotem&n=chilled

I'm sitting there with 53 emblems of triumph but i dont know what to take
-Sigil?Sure,it would be a huge upgrade over the heroism one
-Another pice of T9?The legs are a nice upgrade but i fall well under the expertise cap if i change them...Is it worth it,since i already feel quite weak in single target threat?
-And third...Should i switch the mh peacekeeper with an adelaar battlestar? (again,threat problems,this should help )

The second one is on aoe rotations...I usually start HB->DnD->BB-> then i get lost in the runes reloading and i just keep burning them as i can;what's the best way to use them at that point?

Your armory link is the brokens, but you've pretty much got the AoE rotation down pat. :3 It's basically just use whatever you can in a priority similar to:

Frost Fever (Generally through liberal use of Howling Blast) > Blade Barrier > Death and Decay > Howling Blast > Obliterate (Rime procs quite a bit

Meh,seems the eu armory is going up and down every few minutes

This http://armorylite.com/eu/runetotem/chilled one should work,but armorylite has all the spec messed up after 3.2 changes