[Nithael]

Hi everyone!

Well, I recently won [Archaedas' Lost Legplates] from an Ulduar guild run, and I didn't notice when I won these, but they had absolutely no defense whatsoever! I now have got my defense back to 540 through re-geming etc. but I've been wondering... What if I used [Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight] and re-socket my gems with stam? The sigil gives you a buff whenever you cast icy touch which is 53 defense rating (roughly 10 defense). In my case, I cast icy touch a lot, and since the buff lasts 30seconds it would be normal for the buff to be up all the time following my normal rotation.

Opinions?

[Martie]

Risky - the moment you can't get the buff you get crittable.

On the other hand, Icy touch should be kept at 100% uptime.

[sillypuddy]

its definitely possible i use that sigil im uncrit 24/7 don't worry it'll be fine

[Nibbs111x]

yeah you're absolutely right in thinking it can come up with the extra def rating you need. as long as you remember to cast it asap so you aren't caught with 530 defense at the bat you should be fine lol

[Feanorr]

note: you gain the buff everytime you cast Icy touch; even if it miss, mob is immune, whatever, it's not important, you still got the buff. So as long as you dont use the glyph of disease to refresh your diseases, you should be totally fine. I dont use it on my regular gear but I do with my resist gear (for hodir, in fact).

[Satorri]

This has been discussed in the past. The general feeling was:

1.) It works, it will fill your need for defense/crit defense.

2.) The most hardcore tanks will cringe at the slightest possibility that you could become so crittable. You can be crittable, even if it takes an odd set of circumstances, so use this at your own risk.

[Voodan]

My biggest concern with this would be on an aoe pull with elites involved for example. If you gear for defense, then those elites would be able to crit you at under 535 defense if I'm not mistaken. This means generally speeking one of the two following situations would occur:

1. You would have to consistently work in IT to your aoe rotation. This may hamper your aoe threat (what if D&D is off CD and not ticking, and you have an aoe pack coming in for example?)

2. You accidentally put all frost runes on CD and the sigil buff falls off (i.e. you cast a D&D and don't realize it has cost you a frost rune)

Overall, yes you can get it to work. From a min/max perspective is it worth the extra stam? That depends on how much it costs you to work in an upgrade (i.e. with your legs, how big of an avoidance/stam/threat upgrade were they versus your old ones?) If you are replacing something weak, then it might be worth it to accomodate those. If you're replacing Malygos 25 legs, then that might not be the best idea for example.

[Feanorr]

Source: Voodan 1. You would have to consistently work in IT to your aoe rotation. This may hamper your aoe threat (what if D&D is off CD and not ticking, and you have an aoe pack coming in for example?) 2. You accidentally put all frost runes on CD and the sigil buff falls off (i.e. you cast a D&D and don't realize it has cost you a frost rune)

The buff last 30 sec, 2x more than IT (without epidemic); so you only have to cast IT once every 3 rune rotation.
Plus, on most trash, you should survive a 0,2% chance of crit ^^
For 2, you can always use blood tap.

But yes, it can happen but the risk is really low.

[Satorri]

Side note: this trinket does NOT play nicely with Glyph of Disease should you use it.

[GravityDK]

Source: Satorri This has been discussed in the past. The general feeling was: 1.) It works, it will fill your need for defense/crit defense. 2.) The most hardcore tanks will cringe at the slightest possibility that you could become so crittable. You can be crittable, even if it takes an odd set of circumstances, so use this at your own risk.

Fair assessment.
I use it only on Hodir, for my Frost Resist set, so I can really go overboard on stamina gems.

[Nithael]

Source: Satorri Side note: this trinket does NOT play nicely with Glyph of Disease should you use it.

Sigil.*



Thanks for your comments everyone, I think I'll just stick with 540 defense without the Sigil just to be 100% sure.

Off topic : I just got T8 legs, those gave me more than enough defense to fill all my sockets with stam .

[WarTotem]

Source: Satorri Side note: this trinket does NOT play nicely with Glyph of Disease should you use it.

I'm actually building a Frost tanking DK with Glyph of Disease while still using IT.
Reason is that I don't take epidemic, but instead rotate my 2 Blood Runes constantly with Pestilance & Icy Touch, while I keep Frost/Unholy runes for Obliterate and Howling Blast. On an AoE pack I tend to open with HB, IT/PS, then Pestilence & BB, which gives snap aggro at the start, followed by more overtime spread out. Second rune rotation is usually another HB, D&D and then Pest

[Satorri]

Mmm, nice trick. I'm not a big fan of Disease for Frost just because IT hits nicely (and there are too many delectable glyphs), but I love hearing people's tactics they come up with.

Personal touches of conscientious players help balance the 60% of the DK population who just want a canned spec and rotation so they don't have to think (which inevitably leads to a sub-par DK).

[coe]

I'm keeping my glyph of disease as well. I use Pestilence with BS to change blood runes to death runes. If I refresh diseases with Pest, I can use one more Obl in next cycle. But I'm not sure about this, additional BS+IT+PS deals more damage than single Obl... And I could swap this glyph with glyph of IT.

[WarTotem]

Update on my latest build;

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
rotation is pretty much 2xOb + IT/P
That's my current spec, haven't figured out yet where I will steal the 3 extra points for the DW dmg next patch.

With the new Blood Strike buff, I will replace IT with BS, except for KM (if I will still have it) and in AoE situations use BB instead.

Haven't concidered going a Virulance IT/PS double cycle yet, but by the looks of it, doing IT, PS, 3 Ob & 2 BS over 2 cycles vs 2 cycles of 2xOb, BS + Pest seems relatively similar dmg (Ob vs IT+PS) while still requiring a more complex rotation and 2 extra points in Unholy. Not to mention you spread the love way more
At most I see the dps/threat buff from swapping Disease glyph to IT, but 10 RP every 2 cycles is worth 1 point in SoB, while I need to lose 2 points for Virulance.

[lyd]

Source: Satorri Personal touches of conscientious players help balance the 60% of the DK population who just want a canned spec and rotation so they don't have to think (which inevitably leads to a sub-par DK).

agreed. if i had a nickel for everytime someone criticized me for using unconventional specs/strategies, i'd be a rich man...


personally, i use the sigil to stay crit-capped and i also use glyph of disease. with the press of a button, all of my diseases are refreshed instantly, including my current target. i find this infinitely useful on aoe packs. i just need to make sure that i hit IT at least once every 30 seconds.

as far as your hard defense score, i generally don't like letting my natural defense drop below 535. Currently, it's 539. that way, in the highly unlikely event that i don't have the relic proc up for some reason, at least i'll know that the mob still only has a >1% chance to crit me.

[Edgewalker]

It should be noted that resilience is still effective for crit reduction. For Thorim it's actually significantly more effective

[SevereMojo]

Well with the loss of hit rating that where on your tier legs, I didn't find these legs worth it... I mean I was already exp capped too though. I found using the tier legs, keeping full gems, was better than loosing hit (Plus 2 gems possibly 3),than gaining exp, and parry


Keep the tier legs wait for Ulduar 25 Saronite Legs.... Also use Stam dodge gems in any red slot and stam gems anywhere else... Once dodge at about 30% unbuffed.... change everything to stam gems

Thats what I seen some DK tanks doing to get max surviabilty with how hard ulduar is / was

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[Splug]

I forget, does the sigil fire on a resisted icy touch? If not, you always need to be aware that the first swing of an encounter will potentially be the most dangerous; you'll be running in without the sigil effect, and a string of resists means not only is the boss swinging full speed and your threat low, you've added short-term critical hit vulnerability to the list.

Barring long speech or kiting sequences which recreate the above scenario, it is the only time the sigil should be a concern.

-Splug

[Satorri]

It works simply when you cast IT, regardless of the outcome. The target could resist, it could miss, it could even evade, and the proc still goes.