Guidance Please - DK Blood Tank hopeful...

[Vyktohr]

Hello Everyone, EXCELLENT community here, long time reader first time poster

Here goes:

The World of Warcraft Armory

I am super casual at the moment, in the coming weeks I'll have time to play more and do heroics and what-not.

I have a pretty good idea of the enchants and gems I'll be needing in the near future. So, I need assistance in choosing the right talents to be a blood tank, or a clear concise reason to change to another spec. I would also like to know what gear to go after to hoard the Def rating so I can focus on other stats as well without gimping my defense. Forgive me if I sound naive, I'm pretty new to the tank game and I feel I need some help....you guys seem to know what you are doing.

If you think I have the wrong Idea, clear it up for me: point me at other posts or whatever you think I should look at.

Thanks guys, see you around.

[Urrick]

You will want to get to 535 for heroics to be uncritable, and 540 for raids. Right now its difficult to start out but your gear is the right choice. Keep working Wyrmrest faction for the BP and Boots. The next patch will help with the new runechat that will add 25 D.
Run Halls of Lightning for Loken's Defensive trinket. Other factions that are nice are Argent Crusade for the helm chant, and Sons of Hodor for the shoulders.

Blood tanking will be improved in the next patch. For that check the theory forum as there are some posts over there talking about blood specs.

[Ðööm]

You want 540 period. There is only one def cap and it's 540.

[Nayre]

No defence cap, but there are crit caps.

Crit cap for raids (level 83) is 540 defence, while for heroics it's 535 defence (bosses specifically).

Anyhow, you can also check out Cider's 540 guide (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f97/4...ear-guide.html), as it's a great list of helpful, fairly easy (RNG aside in a few places... >.<) to acquire pieces.

A few things off the top of my head are the titansteel boots (one less defence rating from what you have, but much better stats overall, such as a 51 stamina boost). Like Urrick said, the trinket from the end of HoL is quite nice for a good boost in defence. There's also a nice belt somewhere in H-AN if you can get a group for it (if you run with some guildies, you should be fine with your stats, assuming you're not in frost presence).

Otherwise, I can't think of any gear things off-hand, and would have to (again :P) agree with Urrick in that you're on the right track.

[ttocs]

Your level of defense has been discussed fairly well already. If you haven't done any normal instances, I'd work your way into those first. Once you've done a few and are comfortable, you can walk into some of the easier heroics - even if you aren't at the "cap".

If you have some time to quest, don't forget about the Axe of Bloodstained Ice - Item - World of Warcraft. You'll take a bit of a DPS hit, but that should put you high enough to be uncrittable in heriocs.

It's part of a long chain, but on horde side I know it starts at Koltira Deathweaver (so Alliance side it's probably Thassarian, or whatever his name is).

As far as specs... you can tank OK in heroics as blood. Your talent selection looks pretty good, though I'd try to find some way to get Death Rune Mastery somehwere in there for more flexibility (i.e. "oh, they pulled an extra pack, let me drop a DnD or a pestilence to pick them up"). I'd probably drop Bloodworms to do it, but that's more personal preference than anything.

Just be aware that until 3.0.8, your AoE will be limited (DnD, then IT/PS/Pest, obviously), and not as high as that of a Frost or Unholy build. When dealing with "AoE first, blame the tank later" puggers, it'll probably be a bit of a headache - and they'll probably be a little upset if you keep asking them to CC.

As a blood spec, you may be perceived as more "squishy" than a Frost/Unholy tank. Due to the reactionary nature of Blood (i.e., it deals with returning health to you, which has to occur AFTER you get hit), you'll occasionally spike and make the healers freak out. When you're missing frost's extra avoidance, and Unholy's extra Damage reduction, healers may perceive you as "too squishy". I would suggest starting off with a healer you know and trust, and get feedback.

This will likely change with the patch, but I'm just letting you know of this so you can be aware.

[Ray]

1. your Gear looks like its coming together pretty well, following Cider's guide will get you the rest of the way.

I will say that you will want to invest in a good weapon. Get the Titansteal hammer. you will not replace it for a very long time (unless they make the new weapons BoE but I would still use the hammer due to human racial).

2. DONT spec blood for herorics. I know it looks cool (I thought so for a long time) but herorics are about 2 things. pulling aoe packs with no CC, so lots of tank control and SELF mitagation of incoming damage. Being a self stated causal, I would assume some PUGs in your future and well, Id rather mitigate the damage myself than trust someone I dont know to heal me through it. Also, hero's are all about tank control of the mobs. Plain and simple its on you if your group gets through or not. Ive seen plenty of good healers go with average to bad tank and not get through the harder herorics. Blood cant do it right now, not even sure about the upcoming patch either. Personally, if I was just tanking herorics, id roll with a standard frost build

Heroric Frost build

If your set on blood, then I would suggest this as a good heroric build

Blood Tank

That build has everything you need to do very good single target threat and a short CD on DnD to help with your gimped AoE threat. Glypth your OB, IT, and possible DnD (the fear is nice for hero's to reduce incoming dam) and use OB as your death rune machine. Hysteria is in there for a quality DPSer to help burn the boss faster. I dont like Blood worms for tanking due to there AI being very dumb. I see lots of parries from them.