DK gearing up to start off tanking raids.

http://www.wowhead.com/profile=us.greymane.draxandecaey is my profile


I have been searching and looking for what route to go into and based off of the info I received here before,mastery seems to be the cake. My big thing is: I rotate my CD's effectively and still take huge damage spikes. Currently I am working on clearing deepholm to get therazine enchants and rings.


Any suggestions? BTW is there a standard on mitigation vs. Avoidance yet? I would like to have the solidified standard these days.

First off your spec is very strange, no Blood Worms? Even your glyph choice is a bit off.
You haven't done any reforging at all, Tanks don't need Crit on their gear, that should be reforged away to something way more useful (dodge, parry, mastery).

You do know that an actual link to your Armory will provide us with alot more effective information, like how far along on your reputations you are, so that we could recommend working on a certain rep over another.

Two places to look for information, especially on Spec.
http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t110102-...e_tanking_4_x/
http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...=DK+Tank+Guide

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ndecaey/simple
hope that helps, and I understand that crit does nothing for tanking. Just want some input. The EJ thread is what I was looking for but couldn't find it. Thank you so much.


Fire away at what you advise. I am all ears.

I would change your spec somewhat, go into the Frost tree and pick up Lich Bourne, it's bulky to use but it does work. You will find a standard spec from EJ, and it will include that. Pick up the macro as well.

Drop the Expertise enchant and go for Mastery. Try to stay away from pure Stamina gems and go with all hybrids, or if yellow go straight Mastery. At your level of gear you need the Shattering forge, the 4% parry added will really be a big difference. Once you are in all 359 gear and working heroic modes raids you can think about Gargoyle.
When you get that Rune forge try to keep your parry 4% above your dodge, this will take reforging some parry to dodge. When you have that done everything else goes to mastery, if you have no mastery on your gear, reforge to it.

It's small, but dropping Mining for Leatherworking, Engineering or Jewel Crafting will get you a little more min maxing, but it's costly.

The boot enchant is a poor choice, get Lava Walker, or +50 mastery.

Grind dungeons until you get rings and trinkets, those are hurting you somewhat. In this situation it's very important to be using CD's every pull, try to have some plan for having something up for every pull, or wait until it's ready before pulling. I can't stress enough how important Bone Shield, DRW, Vampiric Blood and IBF are, along with Earthen Armor pots and food, probably dodge food for you.

Prime Glyph's: Drop the D&D glyph and pick up Death Coil for Lich Bourne. Death Strike Glyph should be traded for Heart Strike, rune strike is ok and should be used. You should never worry about pooling runic power for the Death Strike Glyph, you will be using runic power for Lich Bourne and DRW.

Majors: Always keep Vampiric Blood glyph in, the others are optional. For 5 mans DRW for the added threat is huge, and it gives you 20% added parry, another CD that needs to be used. Bone Shield glyph is situational, I use it for certain raids but I'm not sure it's of use in 5mans. Rune Tap helps your healers, so use it if needed.

Head: Change reforge to Parry to Mastery; Get enchant
Neck: Remove reforge
Shoulders: Remove reforge; Get enchant
Wrists: Get enchant
Hands: Change them to tank hands
Waist: Remove reforge
Legs: Change reforge to Hit -> Mastery
Feet: Change them to tank feet
Finger: Change to tank finger
Weapon: Get with mastery as default stat
Relic: Change gem
Dodge 893 vs Parry 1489 is way too big difference but after removing those reforges will be 1242 vs 1244 which is way better.

Spec is arguable as all main points You have and others are just for "how You feel comfortable"
As for me Endless Winter for 10m raids is important for bosses like - Omni.Def.System, Maloriak, Halfus Wyrmbreaker, Twilight Council, Cho'gal. In 25m it shouldn't even be considered as option. Also I use Lichborn for phases when all raid have to move and healer cant throw heal. But its all arguable and not "must have".