DK tanks, 2 1h'ers or 1 2h'er?!?!

[DKTankaholic]

So basically i'm asking as a dk tank, whats better overall, 1h's or 2h's? Currently i'm using a 2h'er with the rune for def to 2h weapon, What is the effective way to go when it comes to a frost tank. Want both advantages and disadvantages to both. Thanks

[Rialév]

Lichloathe actually touched on this topic fairly well on the DK Forums on his stickie... Though I can't quote it word for word, I can say that as far as it's performance goes...

A single wielding 2 hander is generally going to outclass a duel wield tank. There's a couple reasons behind this. Coming from a threat tank, my biggest pet peave with duel wielding is weapon damage contributes to a very very large portion of our threat. That being said a 2 hander is going to hit harder than a 1 hander. Thereby producing a higher overall top end TPS (from weapon damage)

As far as frost goes, I know there is quite a bit of magic damage thrown into the mix from Howling Blast (and perhaps frost strike? with a small amount of extra frost damage) However even the FS runic power dump is based on 60% weapon damage +Frost Damage.

Another good reason that a 2 hander is generally going to outperfrom the duel wield is the Parry Haste Factor. Wherein when a mob parries your attack they gain a slight haste to their swing timer. I believe it is 40% if I'm not mistaken. Unless the parry haste would reduce the mob's current swing timer to less than 20% of full duration.

So basically when you duel wield you are doubling your chances to be parried, thereby doubling your chances to recieve a parry haste attack... taking more incoming damage, and placing more stress onto your healers.

Now I'm not saying that it CANT be done. A lot of people have proven otherwise, I'm sure it can be done, but it would be very dependant on gearing. Wherein the hit cap for a single wield melee is 8%, a duel wield is 25%.

264 Hit Rating vs. ~891 Hit Rating.

And to truly avoid recieving a lot more incoming damage you'd really have to focus on hitting the expertise hard cap of 57. Or at least something higher than the standard 26 for it to be truly more effective.

I imagine that with the correct theorycrafting and numbercrunching it could perhaps actually do better than a 2 hand DK tank, but that number crunching is well beyond my ability. And for someone starting out into DK Tanking, it would be well beyond their own ability as well to make it truly efficient.

[Dr8ven72]

I would have to say that although many have implied that tanking by a DK should or was intended on being a 2h weapon way of doing but i that was true then why does the frost tree have a 2 1h talent available very early in the tree. This build Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
is being used by some of the better DK tanks I have raided with at least on the Dawnbringer server. With that being said they are still using 1 2h dps weapon. I am still in the embrionic stages of getting my DK to tank with 2 1h weapons and it was looking like I might not have much luck with it until I found this Killing 'em Slowly: Frost DW Tank Spec and Glyphs (3.2)
This small article breaks many of the 2 1h weapon myths or thoughts down to a very simple to understand theory. If using 2 1h weapon for tanking please take a chance to read this .

[Jadage]

Just because the frost tree has a DW talent doesn't mean that DK's should DW tank. That talent was considered worthless for a long time (after the original DW spec nerf and before ToT was implemented). With the addition of rune strike into ToT's effectiveness, I agree, it looks like blizzard is trying to make DW tanking viable, but that doesn't make it better than 2h tanking.

I do not know any DK tanks in top guilds on my server that use DW tanking, this is more than likely due to the reasons listed by Rialev, who did a very good job of explaining DWing pitfalls. Parry haste and threat are issues with DW. This is not to say it can't be done, but a starting DK would find it much easier to start as a 2h tank, if for no other reason, because of rune of the stoneskin gargoyle.

I have found no reason to believe that DW will ever outperform 2h tanking, and all of the disadvantages listed for DW tanking are erased by 2h tanking, without adding any disadvantages. My perspective: 2h tanking offers more tps, more health, and more avoidance than DW tanking, why would anyone DW tank?

[Wilhem]

I've read a few things that suggest DW Tanking is actually ahead of 2H Frost tanking TPS by a small margin.

Also, from what i've read, once you reach 30 expertise the parry haste argument becomes moot. When 1H SSG goes live I am willing to bet you see more DW DK Tanks.

[Halgreg]

Also it depends on how you get gear. If you want to DW tank, ask yourself...is getting 2 of the hottest tanking weapons going to make you twice as good as a tank who has 1 hot 2 hander tanking weapon? I feel this way too with Titan Grip fury warriors who get 2 of the best DPS weapons but simply can't or won't do twice as much DPS as a DK or Pally who has 1 of those weapons.

Bottom line is quit hogging the loot if it won't dramatically improve your overall performance.