This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
[3.3] Intro to Death Knight Tanking
Post Reply
Return to board index
Post by
260375
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Liquoid
did you guys not understand my question or dont anyone know? :p
*creepy silence*
Post by
331979
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nystali
Unholy tanks do fine and are completely acceptable tanks. The first DK that I really started to heal heroics for was unholy and it was a breeze to keep him up. In the coming patch, a lot of our cooldowns are getting nerfed which I think brings all the tanking specs closer together as right now deep frost has the most to use. Bone shield has taken a huge hit since it first came in, but its still a very suitable tanking cooldown. And to compensate for all our cooldown nerfs, frost aura has been given a nice boost. I rarely use my unbreakable armor and lichborne as is. In fact, there are some cases where I can go through an entire heroic run without using my IBF. Of course, I don't do that for raids and so there the extra time on IBF and the extra cooldown in unbreakable armor is a slight advantage. But don't forget that your bone shield has the potential to last longer than my talented IBF if you have enough avoidance on bosses.
Don't worry so much about your defense skill as you level up. If you get gear with lots of stamina and strength you are doing good. If any of that gear you get has defense on it, you are doing better. Leveling content does not require you to be uncrittable (though it helps). When you get to level 70, invest in the cobalt set and you will be good to go as you replace it with dungeon drops, quest rewards (only dungeon quests typically have +def tanking gear), and then the tempered saronite set.
Post by
331979
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nystali
Well, at this point you can search on wowhead and compare your current defense armor to the BS made sets I mentioned. If there is more Stamina and more Defense then you can opt to get a BS to make a replacement piece for you.
The tempered saronite set is something you can get well ahead of time. The only problem with it is that the level restrictions range from lvl 74ish to 78ish so you might get the pieces made ahead of time only to get a dungeon drop that is better than something you already had made.
And yes, BSs can make both sets for you and you can often find them in the AH.
Post by
339703
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nystali
I don't like talenting for Death Grip (seems to be more for a PvP use).
Lichborne isn't needed for a tanking build anymore in the new patch (it is also more exclusively for PvP now).
Blood of the North is more required now than before due to increased damage to Frost Strike.
This
is what I've been leaning towards for a frost tank.
I really like what I've read so far about changes to Scent of Blood.
I've decided to forgo Acclimation this time around since its so limited in use.
The one thing I've been debating a lot is whether I would like to drop two points in either Runic Power Mastery or Chill of the Grave (depends more on how Scent of Blood ends up) for either 2H Weapon Specialization or Epidemic (leaning less towards epidemic since disease duration has been buffed a little).
I've also been debating about Killing Machine, but I dunno if I wanna drop a fairly nice group buff that I might possibly be the only one bringing to a raid/party in Imp. Icy Talons.
Post by
339703
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
329577
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nystali
For the most part I want all my targets to get to me faster so I can get my aoe done faster and have all the mobs stuck on me so the DPS can get to their job faster. There are time that I already have issues with DPS wanting to get their Divine Storm, Whirlwind, etc. off the second they run up to the group so making them wait even more isn't such a good thing. Chillblains is meant to be much more of a PvP talent to help you kite around some classes. I'm pretty sure most if not all bosses will be immune to this effect.
Hungering Cold is a talent I've wanted to play with, but I could never convince myself that I couldn't use that point somewhere else. The key problem with the ability is that you're way too dependent upon your DPS realizing what has happened and completely stopping their attacks. Therefore, it is a solo/pvp ability with very limited use in parties.
Post by
331979
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
338055
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
340904
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nystali
as a tank do we worry about crit and what i mean is how much damage we have apotential of doing. and what should my attack power be? last night while in a dungeon a mage pulled agro off of me why is that? Can anyone tell me how to add my stats on the wowhead site so i can show u more easlity what i have and therefore u could probably give a better ananysis on what i need to do? thanks again and happy tanking.
Never itemize for crit specifically. I am by no means a powerhouse even when I put on my DPS gear (which has a few items that are at the proper level but a lot of it is from leveling quests and instances). Amusingly enough I have just as much if not more AP when I'm in my tank gear (which is the better of my two sets and which I believe is currently in my armory profile below).
I sit at around 2000AP without Bladed Armor talented unbuffed. On some dungeon runs the other day someone's DPS chart showed me steady at about 1300 DPS for 2-3 dungeons. Some of the warrior tanks that I've run with through 10man Naxx and generally range from 1000-1200. I'm sure more uber geared DKs can produce a lot more DPS and TPS, but I find at my current level I am able to build a sizeable lead of threat on most DPS without problem and I generally don't use DnD much unless its a fight that warrants it.
If you want to link your armory, just hit the globe button in the middle and that will pop up a link window. Then insert the armory page into the link. When that does, you see something pop up that is surrounded by brackets in the text field. In between the link and the /url boxes (were your cursor automatically goes after clicking ok), insert something like "My Armory" and that will make it show up on the post like
My Armory
.
As for your mage problem, without knowing your stats and level and his level it could have been a few things.
He is higher level than you and is better geared and able to produce way too much DPS for you to keep up. I had a case like this once where I was too low for a normal VH run I was tanking. I kept missing the bosses and trash and had to use a lot of taunting to keep the mobs off a hunter which might have been 80.
You do not have enough hit rating. This ties into the example I just mentioned in that you have a greater chance to miss an NPC that is higher level than you and so you need more hit to compensate.
Your AP is too low. Even without seeing your armory, I don't think this is a problem. When I was tanking in my Tempered Saronite Set (str, stam, and def on all pieces) I had more than enough AP and therefore threat output to proper handle lvl 80 dungeons and the DPS that came along. Some DPS might have come closer to me as they were that much better geared, but for the most part threat still wasn't an issue.
Was it a multimob pull that the mage pulled one of the secondary targets because he was aoeing, or was it a boss he pulled off you? If it was a group, then its partly the mages fault. But you also need to figure out a proper way to get enough threat on everything to prevent that from happening (generally the hardest part of tanking). If it was a single mob/boss, then it might be the final and most likely candidate...
You need to work on your rotation. A lot of problems that a DK can have with less DPS or TPS than they should be capable of can be fixed by doing a proper rotation. Obviously it varies a lot by spec but for the most part the rotation I listed should be capable of keeping stuff on you if all of the above items are not playing a factor.
My totally blind guess would be a combination of not enough hit (which can be harder for leveling tanks to maintain), and rotation.
Post by
Nystali
To Efrenjr:
If you are DWing, you wanna respec with nerves of gold steel instead of 2H Weapon Mastery as you are going to need a LOT of +hit and any talents that help that are a godsend. The most important thing I read is that you are more comfortable with DWing. If it works for you, it works. But I want to point something out.
Its nice you can get 71 defense rating from your two weapons. But compare with Titansteel destroyer with SSG:
Your two weapons only have 2 more Stamina (push)
Your two weapons have 75 less strength (about 4 gems)
Your two weapons have 28 less hit rating (about 2 gems)
Your two weapons have 19 more expertise (about 1 gem)
Mostly importantly your two weapons do have +71 defense rating which translate roughly to 14 defense skill which is 11 skill points less than what SSG gets you, which translates to 55 less defense rating (about 3 gems).
In the end, by using 2 weapons, you are having to use
8 more gems
(assuming you are using 1 gem with the Destoyer to get roughly the same expertise from your two weapons) to get the same +def and +hit and +str that using the Destroyer with SSG gives you. These are gems you can't stack more +stam, +hit, or +exp with. In my current tank set + destroyer with SSG, I use 0 gems for +def. I also use 0 enchants for +def (although I'm thinking about titanweave for my cloak to give myself a little buffer) and I am uncrittable.
In the end, if you were in the exact same gear/enchants I am, using 2 weapons instead of my one, you would be losing out on these stats just by having to gem differently: 96 stamina, 40 hit rating, 40 expertise rating.
The only thing you would potentially gain over me is +1% avoidance from swordshattering on both weapons.
Post by
340904
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
340904
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
220785
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
340904
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post Reply
You are not logged in. Please
log in
to post a reply or
register
if you don't already have an account.