Hey all, my first post here. I am currently a lvl 80 DK tank, and I prefer the playstyle of a frost build. Here is my current spec...
World of Warcraft Europe -> Info -> Classes -> Death Knight -> Talents
So Ive really been having some issues with single target threat, even though I am 3/5 T7.5 and properly gemmed and chanted, etc. My hit with Draenei aura is just about .5 % less than optimal, but I don't think this alone was enough to cause the problems.
So last night, I knew we would have 2 shaman in our raid, I respecced to the above spec and dropped Icy Talons/ ICT in favor of killing machine... WOW!
My threat has always been sot of spiky, usually anywhere form 4-5K TPS on the average boss...sometimes even less, enough that it has had me worried, but not last night. On Patchwerk, I usually OT, but the policy is if you've got aggro, go all out. So I start out as a soaker, within 20 secs I blow past our MT and other OT (prot warrior and a feral druid, both very good players), and look down at Omen and I am pushing almost 7K, with spikes to 9 and 10K. At the end of the fight I had about a 30% lead on both other tanks, and no DPS was within 40% of me.
Now, I know Patch isn't typical of every boss... but the improvement was tangible and measurable. KM is the only thing I did different. It seemed to proc left and right. It felt like every other Ob was a crit. I was also tanking with Demise for the first time instead of my trusty Titansteel Destroyer, but those weps are very similar. I wish I had WWS running, but the guy who usually does it wasn't there and I didn't have it going.
I also MT'd Noth and had no threat issues, where normally I am always sweating a couple DPSers.
Anyway, my question/comment is... have any other frost tanks messed around with KM since the patch, and if so what has been your experience? If you haven't tried it you might want to, unless something is seriously askew my threat problems are over.
I used to be a Blood tank, but nobody would really take me seriously, so I went Frost.
And I love it.
My threat output from KM is far beyond anything I could get from instant Death Coils or Heart Strike. KM seems to proc a lot, defiantly worth while.
I was originally against KM as a tank spec and only used it in the OT capacity to add extra dps when I wasn't tanking. However, with the change to chance on swing to proc, its a huge threat booster and is up constantly. When tanking multiple mobs, I can get a KM proc and hit every mob with HB for 5-5.5k each. No AOEer is pulling from that. 6k FS on bosses is nice too.
KM + haste effects is insane yes. It's good enough where i wouldn't be surprised to the see the PPM rate nerfed down.
(BTW OB isn't effected by KM...that's just it's naturally high crit rate.)
Thanks to KM, frost strike is becoming less of an RP dump and more of a... well, our main single-target high threat, high damage ability. Its got to the point where WWS is saying that my frost strikes against boss mobs are my #1 damage dealer, with OB a close second and RS/Auto attack a distant third.
Yep Im definitely staying with it whether I am OTing or MTing... as long as we run with an Enh shaman theres no net loss to raid efficiency anyway.
ah yes I meant HB not Obs, pulling packs of mobs and seeing back to back to back 5K HBs seems win.
Im glad I tried it out hope everyone else does too... now if only we can dodge the nerf bat.
I had never used KM up until a few days ago, and now I can't see me _not_ using it. I just works so well, and it allows you to pull off some big hits for both Ob or HB.
Killing Machine does not effect Obliterate!Originally Posted by a3n1ma
i meant frost strike
KM is truly amazing for tanks, since we have a very low "natural" crit rate from spec and gear. I can't live without it now, gotta love seeing those high numbers going up when you pop a KM'ed HB.
I've also found KM to be a huge boost to my threat in the last week. Even moreso once they fixed the stupid HB bug and I knew exactly when I could use it or not. =/
One thing I'd like to throw in here is a note on Deathchill. I need to do some dummy testing to be sure, but I'm about 90% positive that the game is smart enough not to actually use Deathchill if KM buff is on. I have Deathchill macro'd to my HB button for initial snap threat. But whenever I get KM to proc off the opening IT, the ensuing HB with Deathchill crit only eats the KM proc. This leaves my Deathchill up for the next HB / Ob. Has anyone else noticed this? Anyone know if KM will always be used before Dchill if they're both active?
Since I'm still level 77 on my FrostTank, I've ran Violet Hold with and without KM spec'ed in. Without KM, my HBs just wouldn't get enough threat sent back to me, but after spec'ing into it, I've had no problems with AOE threat. I just spam HB as much as possible, and AOE threat is now becoming a lot easier.
Not quite understanding this unless you're just meaning that you are in melee range when you're using the IT. KM procs on a chance per swing, IT alone isn't going to proc KM, i.e. pulling from range, so I don't quite understand the comment.
Yes it will. I've had that happen many,many times - pull, IT->PS->KM procs->Deathchill->HB - And then the Deathchill buff will still be on. Very very nice
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