DK tanks and Runeforging for Garajal the Spiritbinder, please help

So im in a bit of a discussion about my abilities and ways mitigate dmg taken on this fight. Unless im missing something the majority of the dmg taken by the tank is Shadow dmg. The reason this is in question is because of the VooDoo dolls. My current logic is that using Fallen crusader to provide myself an additional heal plus the 2% parry i gain is more beneficial then SSG because currently i gain about 2k armor. Unless I am mistaken the 2k armor would reduce the dmg taken by so little its almost not doing anything. Then you have Swordshattering, 4% parry once again this does nothing to negate magical dmg taken but would reduce the physical dmg taken. Then we have Spellshattering 4% of all spell dmg taken. This to me seems huge on this fight. SO my question, what is actually better? I would do this but actually I do not have the knowledge to run numbers on this.. please help.

You can parry his shadowy attacks, i'd take either spellshattering or SSG for the extra stam though.

Something I did not say before was that the shadowy attacks cannot be absorbed. so that would take Spellshattering out of the running, or is it a special ability that actually does?

Damage reductions aren't the same as absorbtion effects, and both can be limited to either physical or magical damage. Bloodshields are limited to physical damage absorbtion. Spellshattering is a a magic damage reduction. the vast majority of the damage in encounter is physical, however the spikes are magic damage. For maximum total damage reduction Sword shattering would seem to be the best choice, for minimizing spike damage Spellshattering would seem to be best, and SSG is best for effective health, of you're dying to spikes take spellshattering, if you dropping from a single blow take SSG, if healer mana is and issue take sword shattering.

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Originally Posted by Dominators

Unless im missing something the majority of the dmg taken by the tank is Shadow dmg.

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I was a bit confused by this. I went back to a log, and for me in a normal 25m Garajal kill see 73% of damage taken as melee. His special moves are shadow, but they are not the lions share of the damage taken.

I don't think Fallen Crusader is ever a good tank enchant, unless survival is a non-issue and you want more dps. You get more avoidance out of swordshattering and the heal is trivial compared to your regular self healing. If you are trying to limit voodoo doll damage, then swordshattering is probably best, but I don't think either runeforge is going to make as much difference as good use of cooldowns. Dancing Rune Weapon (with one use coupled with army), bone shield, on-use avoidance trinkets and Icebound fortitude would be the cooldowns to include in your plan. That said, if you have trouble killing the spirit in time (which you shouldn't) then you could save DRW for that, which will trivialise it.

The nature of DK tanking (ie. the reliance on self healing) is always going to mean that DK tanks result in more voodoo doll damage taken. Use of cooldowns, and good timing of death strike (to get the most out of blood shields) are how you mitigate that.

ways to reduce shadowy attack damage on the tank:
- you can dodge/parry/block them
- you can use damage-reduction style cooldowns (personal or external, on players or on the boss - IBF, bone shield, demo shout & banner, PW:Barrier, get a pain suppression, get safeguard)
- you can BOP the tank (garajal fixates so the aggro loss from BOP won't do anything)
- you can re-direct them (i.e. Vigilance, Hand of Sac, Intervene at the right time)

stuff that doesn't work:
- magic damage reductions (i.e. AMS),
- can't shield/absorb them (i.e. PW:S, blood shield)
- pretty sure they ignore armor


due to the timing, each tank will take 8 shadowy attacks before being banished. each shadowy attack comes at an 8s interval. if you time it right you can use 1 damage reduction CD for 2 shadowy attacks - i.e. IBF can last through 2, a PW:S can last through 2, etc. if you can keep a Bone Shield up for 1 or 2 hits, that's also pretty great. DRW should be used, but not relied upon - you just use it to reduce overall damage, but it's not going to do anything if the RNG doesn't work out for the shadowy attack.

basically, while being able to parry them is great and that should be your gearing approach, they shouldn't change your approach to the fight which will still be to use CDs through the shadowy attacks.

AMS is an absorb not a magic damage reduction.