curent blood tanks

[jb7090]

Since we've got alot of stuff on farm, id like to use this time to mess around with a blood tank spec. Ive been frost and unholy in the past and really havent specced blood since i was leveling. If any blood tanks out there could sound off id appreciate it, i was thinking of something like this

WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Death Knight -> Talent Calculator

Few questions though...DRW, yes or no? I like to have some kinda dps cooldowns on fights that only require 1 tank(lotheb, saph, etc) Necrosis? Seems that since most of bloods dps is physical anything that boosts that is nice. Any input would be appreciated, thanks.

[Armstrong]

Moved to the correct forum section. Please see "http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/4...e-posting.html".

[jb7090]

oops, sorry

[bloodangels]

The think i like about being a blood tank is that you can successfully fill 2 roles ina raid without having to do much changing. In my dps set (only heroic and quest items) i run 1800 dps and in my tank set i still do 1400 dps. Neither these numbers are high but i've only been inside naxx/os twice and only have 1 piece of gear out any of them.

Within spec i would recommend you get Rune Tap and Imp Rune tap just for a 20% health oh shyt button every 30 seconds at no real cost to you. Also in the blodo tree is will of the necropolis which if you get to low health gives you a 15% damage mitigation. Also if you can get out of the unholy tree, epidemic to increase your diseases by 6 seconds, may not be much but that extra 6 seconds is a whole nother cycle beforey ou have to refresh them.

Currently Sudden doom i find i hardly ever use but come 3.1 when its auto proc it will nice. Also i tend to forget about putting Hysteria on people to get its benefit. Other talents that depending on how you feel about them to get rid of would be Bloody Vengeance and Dark Conviction.

WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Death Knight -> Talent Calculator

This is the spec currently that i will be using come 3.1. Depending on how big the groups are in Ulduar may be wise to put the 2 points i have in dark conviction into Vendetta for a little bonus to your health when tanking bigger groups.

[Anselme]

I suppose I'll take a crack at this. As an Unholy tank I've debated going Blood for a while now (With 3.1 it looks like they are removing the reliance of using Obliterate for threat with Death Strike for the tree, seems more fitting) and have played with a few builds.

My favorite build is WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Death Knight -> Talent Calculator

Understandably some tanks may choose not to take Spell Deflection but when you have about 30% parry raid buffed, that's a 30% chance on spell hit to reduce the damage by 30%. This being without AMS up.

All in all I think it is a decent build not only for single target threat but Morbidity allows for 45sec DnD's. Great idea for AoE pulls.

[malevevely]

Spell deflection is actually more of a pvp talent. In a pve environment most magic damage is from a cone(breath etc.) or aoe attack, these forms are unmitigated by spell deflection. Here are my two builds for blood tanking:

Pre 3.1:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/deathknight/talents.html?tal=03550215330033122010013130030502001300000000000000 00000035200000000000000000000000000
This is based on IT>PS>OB>HS>HS>OB>HS>HS>HS>HS>HS>HS rotation

Post 3.1:

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
This uses the new buffs to DS

[Anselme]

Spell deflection is actually more of a pvp talent. In a pve environment most magic damage is from a cone(breath etc.) or aoe attack, these forms are unmitigated by spell deflection. Here are my two builds for blood tanking:

Pre 3.1:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/deathknight/talents.html?tal=03550215330033122010013130030502001300000000000000 00000035200000000000000000000000000
This is based on IT>PS>OB>HS>HS>OB>HS>HS>HS>HS>HS>HS rotation

Post 3.1:

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
This uses the new buffs to DS

Good call! I've always tanked as Unholy so I wasn't sure of the mechanics of the talent though it sounded nice on paper. Thanks for clarifying that up.

In fact I do believe I'll be testing out your Blood build tonight, for some reason I am really intrigued by Blood tanking. Especially seeing all the buffs in the tree having to do with Death Strike (Finally no need for Annihilation!)

[mindflayer]

I like Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

You can see my current build here: http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/4...ation-drw.html

[Shake]

I have been seeing allot of builds lately that include Might of Mograine. Is the threat gain enough to make a difference? I've always speced with the thought in mind that I'm tanking, not dps'ing. But if the tallent points are better spent in MoM as opposed to Virulence, I'd like to know

[Anselme]

I have been seeing allot of builds lately that include Might of Mograine. Is the threat gain enough to make a difference? I've always speced with the thought in mind that I'm tanking, not dps'ing. But if the tallent points are better spent in MoM as opposed to Virulence, I'd like to know

Virulence is a wasted 3 points for a Blood specced tank since it does not affect melee hit, only spell and there are practically no spells in your Blood rotation (Other than the occasional DC).

As for speccing with the mindset that you are tanking, this is what sets Death Knights apart from the other tank classes. Whereas Paladins spec for survivability and such, Death Knights have most of their survivability talents available to them at the start (Think IBF, AMS, Death Strike, etc). Therefore you are speccing for improved means of survival (Bone Shield, Unbreakable Armor, Magic Suppression, Will of the Necropolis, Vamp Blood, etc) and threat rather than general survivability.

What I am getting at here is that if you look at DK tanking as "Spec for survivability" then your threat gen will suck. Now, if you look at it as "Spec for improved survivability while also dps" then you will be able to tank effectively and hold aggro real well.

In short, yes, MoM is imperative for tanking in the Blood tree as the extra damage on crit = more threat generated. Besides, where else would you throw those points? Blood Gorged? lol

[Shiika]

Spell deflection is actually more of a pvp talent. In a pve environment most magic damage is from a cone(breath etc.) or aoe attack, these forms are unmitigated by spell deflection. Here are my two builds for blood tanking:

Pre 3.1:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/deathknight/talents.html?tal=03550215330033122010013130030502001300000000000000 00000035200000000000000000000000000
This is based on IT>PS>OB>HS>HS>OB>HS>HS>HS>HS>HS>HS rotation

Post 3.1:

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
This uses the new buffs to DS

Hi,

In your Post 3.1 Build, why do you take Vicious Strikes and where do you see any new DS buffs ?

That new talent called "Improved Death Strike" was part of the "Vicious Strike" talent and has juste been moved to the Blood Tree.

I don't think I'll be using it instead of Obliterate.

[Magnarosh]

I suppose I'll take a crack at this. As an Unholy tank I've debated going Blood for a while now (With 3.1 it looks like they are removing the reliance of using Obliterate for threat with Death Strike for the tree, seems more fitting) and have played with a few builds.

My favorite build is WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Death Knight -> Talent Calculator

Understandably some tanks may choose not to take Spell Deflection but when you have about 30% parry raid buffed, that's a 30% chance on spell hit to reduce the damage by 30%. This being without AMS up.

All in all I think it is a decent build not only for single target threat but Morbidity allows for 45sec DnD's. Great idea for AoE pulls.

i use to run this spec until i no longer had a need for lichborne (i.e. i hadn't pushed it in 3 weeks.)

currently my standard build is as follows

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

i've used this build to tank everything in-game but Sarth with all 3 drakes up.

[Voodan]

Virulence is a wasted 3 points for a Blood specced tank since it does not affect melee hit, only spell and there are practically no spells in your Blood rotation (Other than the occasional DC).

Just to clarify spell hit actually affects IT as well. Nevertheless the point remains the same, most blood tps comes from melee attacks (RS, PS, Oblit, and HS)