Unholy DK tank in doubt

[Eternity]

Hey all!

After first playing a hunter, lots of pewpew.. my main now is a shadowpriest with healing disc offspec. This is ofcourse not the point I'd like to discuss.

My next upcoming alt is a DK which I specced twice in Unholy. Once as a tank what I'd like to become my mainspec, and once as dps.
->Armory Link (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Darkmoon+Faire&n=Skeluntes)<-

I always liked being Unholy tank but a guildmate made me doubt the viability of Unholy as tank. She is specced Blood tank and she makes it seem as if Blood is the only viable spec for a DK ever.. even for dps.
Since that doubt crept into my mind I've been reading a lot about DK-tanking but most stuff is outdated or proclaims Frost to be the tankingspec.

So I'd like to hear a couple of your opinions on this topic.
- Is Blood really that much better to tank with? Why? Or why not?
- Is Unholy really that bad? Why / why not?

I don't know, I can't answer these questions myself so I hope some more experienced DK-tanks are willing to share their thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

[Hayledge]

To start off, Blood is not THE only Deathknight spec. Please don't start to buy into that.

The other tank in my guild (Deathknight, and I'm not just speaking through him, my primary alt is a DK as well, which I've messed around with tanking on but am now full time dps when I play) goes dps for our hard modes and is constantly switching around his tanking and dps specs to test them out and see what works best. Really, it depends on what your raid needs. I tend to see more Blood DK's at Main Tanks than Frost or Unholy anymore, but for practical purposes, do what you feel best with and have the most fun as. Each spec has their ups and down for certain. None are 100% better than others. It's very situational. Blood seems to be able to soak up damage better than other specs whereas Frost can get ridiculously high avoidance. I haven't seen any clear calls on Unholy yet though. From what our tank said, it seems to be inbetween the two. The one thing he has specifically commented on was getting more threat out of it than Frost (though he didn't have any issues in Frost either).

Tonight I actually helped him try out DW Frost though and it jumped his threat up above Unholy so we'll see how that goes. He's been DW Frost for his dps spec for a couple of weeks now and seems pretty happy with that, but I've seen some ridiculously good Unholy DK DPS.

World First Tribute to Mad Skill (25) By Paragon. Top two dps: Rogues
Third place: Unholy DK
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2009/september/madskill-dmg.jpg
The World of Warcraft Armory (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Lightning%27s+Blade&n=Liha)

I could be wrong as there is a blood spec as well, but I've been told it was done in Unholy :P

Just try some stuff out and see what you like. DK's are quite versatile. Remember, min/max'ing comes with the goal of still having fun.

Oh, p.s. From my experience, as far as gearing goes, Blood seems to put out pretty good numbers very early and is ridiculously easy to gear for.

[Eternity]

As it seems that there are no negative marks (yet) against Unholy tanking I'll stick to it for now.. see how I do when I'm getting gear and experience.

Thanks for taking your time to answer this.