My Death Knight Tank

[Shortest]

Hello, I am kinda new to Tankspot.com. Since I don't really get much help from the WoW Death Knight Forums, or the WoW Tank Forums, I decided to ask here for some suggestions for my gear. I have 25k hp unbuffed, and 534 def unbuffed. When I use IT, however, my def goes up to 545, so I know I'm ready for Naxx on that part.

What I was mainly wondering was, do I have enough armor, hp, and dodge/parry to OT 10m Naxx? I know my shoulders have shield block rating, and my trinkets aren't really that great for tanking, but is the other gear fine?

(I might have logged out in some of my PvP stuff, so I'll have to go in and put my tank gear on.)

Here is the link to my DK:

The World of Warcraft Armory

Edit: Alright, I just put on my tanking stuff, but it might take the armory a while to update.

[Zivh]

25k hp and def capped is all thats really required to main tank Naxx 10...though you may want to seriously consider purchasing a Titansteel Destroyer, as I can never recommend going into a raid instance wearing a green weapon ^^ There is a really nice blue axe De-Raged Waraxe even that is a quest reward from The Amphitheater of Anguish quest chain in Zul'Drak if you cannot afford the Destroyer.

Best of Luck!

[Bonehand]

Hi there, just want to know if i am geming corect, because i have read up about hit and expertise ( the more u hit the boss, the more agro u gen ).
is the way, i have gemed corect? sacrificing stam for hit, or should i gem for stam??

advice on tree is also welcome ty

The World of Warcraft Armory

i do have a titansteel destroyer but was messing with the swords hehe

[Shortest]

Yea, I do have the De-raged Axe, but I mainly use it for PvP. If that is better, then I'll use it, but it'll take me down a few hp. I am still trying to get 900-1000g to get the Titansteel Destroyer.

[Freeagent]

Also it's very bad to rely on a Sigil (even with 100% procrate and 30s uptime) to have your defense capped. As you might get stunned,silenced or just plain forget to reapply IT.

Those resulting you in getting quickly 1 shotted (okay maybe 2 hits)

As Zivh already noted, you will most likely run low on threat resulting in everyone over-aggroing you. As a quick threat buildup is important for some encounters (as MT or OT it varies between thsoe) in Naxxramas.

[Bonehand]

ok wat would u sujest i do??

[Shortest]

ok wat would u sujest i do??

I believe he was talking to me, but I may be wrong.

Back to my problem, what sigil do you suggest I get? And is there something I can get that'll prevent DPS over-aggroing me?

[Zivh]

Hi there, just want to know if i am geming corect, because i have read up about hit and expertise ( the more u hit the boss, the more agro u gen ).
is the way, i have gemed corect? sacrificing stam for hit, or should i gem for stam??

advice on tree is also welcome ty

The World of Warcraft Armory

i do have a titansteel destroyer but was messing with the swords hehe

Bonehand, you may want to start your own thread for your own toon, as this one will be primarily focused on Shortest's questions. I can however say that your hit rating is *almost* capped (off by I believe 4 HR) and your Expertise is not hurting for now. I see you have a Titanguard so I assume you are pushing towards Uld25 content, so once you get a few pieces in there, your Expertise should cap out relatively quickly thereafter. Not to say I have done everything perfectly on my toon, but I gem for Stam and Stam/Expertise as I am *almost* at exp. soft cap but not quite there, and I do not gem for HR as I have enough to be capped with a Draenei in my group.

While some people are all about caps and making sure everything is there, I really have not had much of a problem holding aggro at any point during my tanking career and there have been times when I was FAR off of my cap goals, so I'm always for the situational advice. If you have trouble keeping aggro, gem your hr/expertise to cap, and follow up with your Stam/Avoid from there. If you are dying easily but rarely have threat issues, go the Stam/Avoid route and forget about the HR/Exp gems.

[Zivh]

I believe he was talking to me, but I may be wrong.

Back to my problem, what sigil do you suggest I get? And is there something I can get that'll prevent DPS over-aggroing me?

I ran with Sigil of Haunted Dreams until I had enough Valor badges to snag Sigil of Awareness. I agree with Freeagent on the notion that you should not have to count on your Sigil to cap out, but if you are just barely lacking enough def to cap, then there is nothing wrong with doing so until you can get another piece or two with enough defense to drop it.

[Bonehand]

aaaa ty will see how things work out in ulduar 10 tonight and will make changes ty for your time

[Shortest]

I do have an actual tanking helm, it'll put me at around 24k hp, but I will have 547def. Would it be better just using that?

EDIT: Here's my tanking helm: The Crusader's Resolution

[Zivh]

That is actually a really nice tanking helm...the expertise alone may be worth it. One thing I did notice just now also after looking at your armory is that with your 63 resil from that PVP helm, that is a 0.77% chance to not be crit...combined with your 5.38% from your defense, I think you are already uncrittable even without the Sigil. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that you just need 6% reduction in chance to be crit, whether it is from def or resil. Note though, that Resilience does NOT Reduce your chance to be HIT but only CRIT, so it is not as effective a tanking stat as having straight defense, imo.

[Ragefury]

Naxx10 doesnt require much. Generally you should aim for defense cap and stack stamina along with avoidance stats.

Dont worry about expertise and hit yet

There are quite a few upgrades available in heroics, some tank expericence u can gather there is valuable as well.

Shoudlers would be Pauldrons of Reconnaissance - Item - World of Warcraft , as you dont use much block

Easy to get trinket is Essence of Gossamer from 2nd Boss in AN, Heroic badge one would be the second choice unless you are JWC/Alchemyst

No need to wait for the Destroyer, you can easily get epic weap by doing Colliseum daily quests

There are nice tank rings in DKT and Goondrak if I remember correctly

You will be taking lots of hefty hits, so rotating your cooldowns on trash as much as possible would be good idea. U can replace some of your Obliterates with Death strikes as well when you are low on health (but watch threat, if the heal doesnt proc its rather low threat move)

Gems of choice are those with defense, stamina and dodge. The enchanted tear is a no no

[Shortest]

Gems of choice are those with defense, stamina and dodge. The enchanted tear is a no no

What should I use instead that fits a Belt Buckle?

I've been trying to run H Gundrak for some stuff, haven't been able to get a group for H AN just yet. I am working towards the wep from Argent Tournament, but first I still need 19 more Valient Seals =P.

And should I use De-Raged Waraxe instead of Thorim's Crusher


The tanking helm would be better than the PvP helm, correct?

[Ragefury]

There are no epic pre-raid helms. Crafted Titansteel is better than naxx10 tier helm, so its a very good investment

The blue axe is definitely better choice for now. Depends on people you are going to raid with. If they are on same gear lvl, threat wont be an issue, however if you have some seasoned dpsers with you, you might run into trouble with green weap. You shall see yourself what the feedback u get from dpsers

[Shortest]

There are no epic pre-raid helms. Crafted Titansteel is better than naxx10 tier helm, so its a very good investment

I'll be sure to farm some gold for that, as well as the Destroyer or Argent Wep.

Is there any other problems with my gear or spec that you can find?

[Zivh]

What should I use instead that fits a Belt Buckle?

Any gem fits in a belt buckle. I would go with 24 stam.

I've been trying to run H Gundrak for some stuff, haven't been able to get a group for H AN just yet. I am working towards the wep from Argent Tournament, but first I still need 19 more Valient Seals =P.

And then 25 Champion's Seals. But yes, Claymore of the Prophet is definitely a great tanking weapon, if you have the patience to do dailies every day for weeks

And should I use De-Raged Waraxe instead of Thorim's Crusher


The tanking helm would be better than the PvP helm, correct?

Yes, and yes. If you lose a little bit of stam, don't sweat it...Naxx 10 does not have a lot of super hard hitting bosses other than Patch, and as a DK with your CDs you should be fine in all fights through the raid, especially as you accumulate more gear. Start in Spider, go to Plague, then take your pick between Military and Construct and you should honestly be fine.....remember, Naxx10 is THE entry-level raid, aside from OS10, which you should be doing anyway, and probably pugging OS25 just for the chance of getting some nice upgrades.

[Shortest]

Any gem fits in a belt buckle. I would go with 24 stam.

I always thought you needed a prismatic gem or something for the Belt Buckle. So it can handle any color gem?

[Zivh]

Any gem indeed!

[Shortest]

Sweet! Is there anything else you can find that I need to fix?