DK Tank fine tuning help needed

[Pallacious]

Hello folks.. new poster to the site but an avid reader.

I'm come from a good background of mainly Pally tanking. After taking a faction and class hiatus I am now playing a Human DK.

I understand the importance of maintaining a 540 defense cap while, presumably stacking the highest Stam possible. Avoidance and mitigation are always an equal factor as well. I have used RAWR as a tool to help me optimize my current setup for a while. I've been tinkering with some extra drops I had in my bags and my defense is a tad under (to be corrected) until I correct this.. but I do use the sigil as a +def need. I know I'm slightly behind the current content that's out.. which I'm not worried in being able to catch up. I haven't really found an updated guide showing what anticipations of ICC are recommending DK tanks to gear towards.

I've lately kept the simple formula 540 (nothing more nothing less) then STAM! I've noticed the trend is lately avoidance/mitigation hybrid gems w stam if socket bonuses have a +9 or +12 Stam bonus to compensate. I've always gone this route assuming the given stats of gear was sufficient, but wanted to know if this trend has changed. I've found mentions but nothing quite clear on this matter.

Is this the same old tank plan? or is there a newer plan formulating?

Lastly any other suggestions a 5-6 month rusty DK Tank should anticipate coming forward? namely ICC or any nerfs


Thanks fellas! Awesome community!

[Oranuworu]

Stacking defense slightly above 540 is not a terrible thing. The Icebound Fortitude damage reduction does scale up as defense increases. As well stacking more defense adds more dodge and parry as well i believe at 0.04% per point of def rating.

ICC is going to have a debuff similar to Sunwell Radiance (-20% dodge), so stacking slightly more avoidance won't hurt you. Blizz has made a change to mechanics for ICC in that bosses will do the same dps but they will hit more often for less as opposed to having tanks one shot if bosses use an ability at the same time as a melee swing and there not being a massive heal at the same time.

[Pallacious]

Stacking defense slightly above 540 is not a terrible thing. The Icebound Fortitude damage reduction does scale up as defense increases. As well stacking more defense adds more dodge and parry as well i believe at 0.04% per point of def rating.

ICC is going to have a debuff similar to Sunwell Radiance (-20% dodge), so stacking slightly more avoidance won't hurt you. Blizz has made a change to mechanics for ICC in that bosses will do the same dps but they will hit more often for less as opposed to having tanks one shot if bosses use an ability at the same time as a melee swing and there not being a massive heal at the same time.

Interesting.. very good to know! Is this -20% applicable to all tanks? or simply a DK tweak? Seems DKs will have the worst of this.. since all other tanks have a nifty secondary mitigation (shield block or boatloads of armor).

hmm..

[Ulosthegame]

Interesting.. very good to know! Is this -20% applicable to all tanks? or simply a DK tweak? Seems DKs will have the worst of this.. since all other tanks have a nifty secondary mitigation (shield block or boatloads of armor).

hmm..

Do DKs not have boatloads of armor? I've noticed having more than my guild's warrior tanks in raids ( me at almost 30k, them at almost 29k)

This debuff is across the board to bring down avoidance levels so they can reduce boss burst damage.

[Pallacious]

Do DKs not have boatloads of armor? I've noticed having more than my guild's warrior tanks in raids ( me at almost 30k, them at almost 29k)

This debuff is across the board to bring down avoidance levels so they can reduce boss burst damage.

I was talking druids for armor. Assuming we have average armor in frost presence and -20% dodge taken away.. leaves us with diminishing return parrys. At least Warriors and Pallys have block and block value ya know?