Fresh 80 DK Looking for some Advice

Hey Guys and Girls.
Im a freshly Dinged 80 Deathknight, wow, one of a million there right.

It seems im struggling in general with the whole tanking thing.
After reading a lot of stickies and threads i've learned a lot about the class and how it tanks, but for some reason i always die really easilly in a heroic.

Im prety sure its my gear though.
Armory Link - The World of Warcraft Armory
Recently hit the defense cap, Hell yeah!, But my stamina seems so low for an 80.
(im aware of enchants currently, but rolling on a new server i have to grind gold again, *in progress*, and i cant afford 400g stamina leg enchants and stuff yet so making do with the best i can afford)

My Rotations currently (as frost):

Multi packs - Drop a death and decay > Howling Blast(glyphed) > Bloodboil > Blood Tap > Bloodboil.. then bloodboil every blood rune.

Single Target - Icy Touch > Plague Strike > Bloodstrike x2 and Obliterate.. Then using howling blast if i get a proc and frost strike on killing machine procs.

Im assuming these are correct, i dont seem to have too many threat problems, but worth checking up.

Basically cutting short for the sake of wall of text, Im looking for some experience to give me some advice about where i should go from here.
Currently it seems, i cant get heroic groups due to lack of gear/health and nobody does non heroics so im a bit stuck.
Not really helping that its a new server roll for me so i know nobody that i can actually tag with for heroics.

Thanks if you read this, and double thanks if you reply.
Jack :)

Hey! Congrats on the 80ness by the way.

When you mentioned rotations I thought right away of a thread I read about DK rotations and specs. It wouldn't hurt to take a look over it and try out the rotations (they really work, I tried them on my DK! <3)

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f14/4...rotations.html

For gear, I'd suggest grinding your reputation with factions. Some great defense gear can be achieved through wyrmrest (chestpiece that I used right until ulduar haha!) and argent vanguard/whatever it is in northrend. Reputation always gives nice upgrades on survivability until you can get better items in heroics/raids.

And yes, of course, gem and enchant as much as you can ^^

Hope I could at least help a bit.

The only thing I can add to the rep grinding advice (which is good advice - factions do sell some nice tank stuff i.e. gloves from Kirn Tor and have necessary echants i.e. Hodir clan shoulder 'chant and Argent Crusade head 'chant) is tank. Tank anything you can, regular Dungeons and heroics. It's something you can only learn by doing.

With your spec, I'd get rid of Hungering Cold (really a pvp spec); Litchborne (not much use anymore since the dodge buff was removed) and put the points into Merciless Combat. I went to that exact spec yesterday, since I found myself being starved for runic power and put points into Chill of the Grave - some argue Scent of Blood is the better choice, some like Imp Icy Talons, I don't miss it.

For professions, unless you have an mule, I'd look into Blacksmithing (socket gloves and bracers); Jewel Crafting (Dragon's eye gems); or Enchanting (enchat rings stamina, among other things). Herbilism and Inscription are not optimal for tanks.

GL

Thanks Both of you for the replies.
Seems Rep Grind is the only way to go.
Still one thing puzzling me, and thats my health, i honestly think my warlock when i leveled him had more hp dinging 80 than my Tank Geared DK had.

Noticed a few upgrades from the rep vendors cause me to drop below defense cap, so do i have to use these upgrades for the stam and be slightly undercap for a bit or keep my current gear until i have enough upgrades to equip and be both capped and gain health ect?

What some people don't realise is that health isn't all there is to being a tank. Defense is cap is the first and most important thing to be looking at. Absolutely.

This came up as an issue with my tank last night, when a raid leader didn't think I had enough health. He really should have known better if he was all that he said he was. I am avoidance capped (50%) and defense capped and I'd choose that by far over 2k more health.

Your health will be fine. Heroics and regular Level 80 dungeons like CoS and HoL and UP, 21k is certainly acceptable. You will encounter elitists who will refuse to go with you, but you'll always find understanding people. (I started heroics as a tank because I refused to change my holy spec to ret so I could 'carry myself as dps'. I told them to screw themselves hahaha. I wanted to tank!!)

Some heroics to stay away from: H UP, H CoS, H HoS, H HoL, H ToC. They're difficult on a different level, and sometimes I even have trouble with them (>_>). For those you need good groups all over, and no idiots. I have had plenty of those! xD

Keep at your defense. If a certain piece brings you below defense cap, see what enchants you can afford for health or defense, as well as which piece you can enchant that you won't replace soon.

Also, keep pieces that are upgrades but don't fit with your set yet (i.e. bring you below cap). Later on you will find other pieces of other slots that have more defense and then you can pull out those pieces!

Do you have at least 10k honour points? There is a stamina shoulder inscription available in Stormwind's pvp vendor section.

Stone Keeper's Shards? A few inscriptions available there too.

Enchant, enchant, enchant!

Talk with a random high level enchanter just to take a peek at what stuff is available, and then search the materials on the Auction House of your realm. Look for what you can afford, or soon afford, but always keep gold for flights and wipes.

First enchants to get would be +22 defense to chest, titanweave (+16 defense) to cloak and any defense gems if you have slots.

Oh, yeah, gems. Don't gem to the specific slot if you can. You don't need to. If the socket bonus is +6 stamina and you have to use a dodge gem to get it, don't for now. Just stack stamina and/or defense. You don't need to buy the best of the gems either. Save the best of the gems for tier pieces and/or raid pieces. I still socket with blue (rare) gems. Only have one (and my first) epic gem and that's on my tier 8.5 chest, recently obtained.

So.... yeah. Please feel free to keep up the discourse here! I'm happy to help as much as I can as a paladin tank to a DK tank. :P

Thanks Again, Really appreciate it.
Gonna grab the Legs from Argent Crusade first i think.
Nice stam gain and a gem slot, but a loss of some Strength.
Grab myself a chest enchant for def, think i can afford that atm.

Appreciate the answers, its always embarassing to ask for help with things, but you've helped nicely, thank you.

Oh, don't worry about strength! Heroics, survivability is the only aim! :D Well, and threat. Here's the order I upgraded in:

Survivability (Defense > Health), Avoidance (Parry, Dodge for DK), Health, Threat..... THEN dps.

Honestly, you don't need to dps. Your goal is to keep the mobs/boss off the dps so they can dps. Hehe!

But yes, later in the game it's fantastic to have high dps as a tank too. Fun times!

Feel free to PM me anytime for help.