Frost Tank Spec?

[Subpar]

I am a little embarrassed to be posting here but I do need some help. The DK tanking thread wiki on this site hasnt been updated since January and i want to make sure I am on the right track. Unlike most guilds my guild has 0 Death Knight tanks and have no regular raiding enhance shammies or dps warriors. So I have potentially (unless you tell me I am way outta my mind) made a Frost build with IIT. I would really like some experienced DK to take a peak at it and see what they think. I know from looking every DK tweaks their build a bit, and I have too. But my guild is weekly in ulduar and have everything before ulduar clear. Before I get to that content I dont want to find out I havent taken some major skill that I should have. Again my guild theorycrafts a bit but have no tanking DK to chat with. Thanks in advance for looking....


http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...&version=10026

[keeprock]

The only serious issue is see is the lack of Bladed Armor in the Blood Tree. Putting 5 points in there is roughly 700+ AP. You might be fine without it, or it might be an issue threat wise. If you feel you absolutely need the rest of your talents I'd give it a spin and find out. If your still tweaking, the best place to get the 5 points would probably be from the Unholy Command and Morbidity (you also don't need the Lichborne point).

Generally I think that the tanks that feel they need Unholy Command and Morbidity have not mastered their tanking abilities. I personally don't use them and have never felt the need to have them. I use my glyphed Howling Blast and Blood Boil to pick up additional mobs since most mobs run in packs anyway.

Other than that, the rest looks plenty useable.

[HootyElune]

This is my talent tree.

The World of Warcraft Armory

I dont tend to have an issue with threat unless there is aoe mobs, or one uber geared warlock\mage(without threat reduction). If I was to respect I would give up Icy talons and redistribute to Annihilation\Blood of the north, and Epidemic\Ravenous dead. To me the sent of blood is a must to increase runic power (most of the frost abilities are dependant on this), spam FS and you will have no problems with single target threat.

My glyphs as HB, FS, and UA. HB is essential for aoe threat. FS is essential for single target threat, and UA for surviability.

I admit I do have some issues with multispawn threat due to cooldown issues, due to no talents in improved D&D (an example is the arena for thorim), but for the most part you do not require these talents as the D&D, HB, BB combo is sufficent to maintain threat.

In my build I do not use OB simply because i get almost as much dmg with DS. Given the healing benefits and no loss of diseases I feel it is a better combination.

It was not specifically mentioned about but Icy talons is not required as it does not stack with shaman totums.

[Kurtosis]

I'd suggest something like this instead. Frost tanks don't need Epidemic, Morbidity, or Unholy Command, those 7 points are much better spent on Bladed Armor (+700 AP that buffs your spells, strikes, white damage, and diseases) and talents in the Frost tree.

Between Howling Blast, Blood Boil, DnD, Dark Command, and Death Grip, you should be able to hold aggro and retrieve runners without any consistent problems. And if you glyph Howling Blast, Frost Fever will get refreshed roughly every 8s (or sooner when Rime procs), eliminating the need for Epidemic. You can usually get away without even using Blood Plague, since it costs two gcd's and two runes (plague strike and Pestilence). I recall an Elitist Jerks post where they calculated more damage as Frost glyphed HB and no Blood Plague, but don't remember where it is atm.

[HootyElune]

I'd suggest something like this instead. Frost tanks don't need Epidemic, Morbidity, or Unholy Command, those 7 points are much better spent on Bladed Armor (+700 AP that buffs your spells, strikes, white damage, and diseases) and talents in the Frost tree.

I recalced the bladed armor and yes it does make more sense to do this (I must have done a previous count on my dps set because they seemed about equal at the time)

However these are the big question... do you take 2H specialization or bladed armor. Unfortunately its not really viable to do both without sacrificing runic power generation.

[Kurtosis]

Without taking the time to figure it out mathematically, my guestimate is take Bladed Armor and pass on 2H specialization. IT and IIT are buffing your melee dmg already, albeit via haste rather than % dmg increase, so that may compensate somewhat for the loss of 4% 2H weapon dmg. I'm just loathe to pass up a talent like Bladed Armor that buffs every single damage ability a DK has, especially for a spell-heavy tree like Frost.

But the real way to answer that question is fire up Recount, and test both specs on a boss target dummy, and see what the diff is.

[HootyElune]

But the real way to answer that question is fire up Recount, and test both specs on a boss target dummy, and see what the diff is.

lol yeah i just dind want to sped 100g to find out