Snap aggro as dk

[onklen]

I seek advice on DK tanking and being able to get aggro on mobs fast.

I am currently playing as 2hand frost: The World of Warcraft Armory

My concern is that I often feel I dont build enough threat on groups during pulls. The same is the case when doing adds on bosses like Freya HM, Thorim HM etc where adds have to be picked up ASAP to be nuked down even faster.

I'm used to playing a warrior and really miss the snap aggro of a charge/thunderclap/showckwave while spamming cleave.

On my DK on normal pulls I drop D&D while running in and IT the first mob. Then I follow up with PS, pest, BB and either BB or HB when available. After the pull I keep having all my diseases up on the group with pest and spamming HB and BB.

On small groups like the 3 elementals on Freya I pop HB (maybe a crit) to get the initial aggro and then start putting up both diseases and spreading them with pest. FS/RS is spammed when possible.

Still I seem to have aggro trouble when the dps is capable of putting out 5k dps or more now and then.

I haven't tried yet but does anyone have experience with DK tanking and doing events that require FAST aggro? For example I dont have a problem doing the gauntlet in the tunnel at Thorim on HM as warrior, but I cannot even begin to imagine doing it as a dk...

Can anyone with this kind of experience give me some pointers? Should I consider blood instead as it seems everyone are giving that tank spec praise these days? Imo it will have an even harder time picking up groups fast but I have not tried it, so what do I know...

All help and constructive critizism is more than welcome as I am currently at a crossroad trying to decide whether to make my DK or my warrior my main. Both have gear at about equel levels. I like the new and different approach of DK's but warrior tanking sure is uniqe with the abilities to charge/intervene/fearbreak and hs/cleave spamming and instant effect abilities.

Thanks in advance

[vine]

Try swapping out your Frost Strike glyph for Howling Blast, it will infect your target(s) with Frost Fever and save you wasting runes on Pestilence.
Howling Blast should be more than enough to get the attention of any new mobs, follow it up with a Blood Boil or a D&D for sustained threat. Macro your Deathchill to HB for big numbers.

[onklen]

Hmm dunno if dps'ers in my guild are too trigger happy but quite often it is not enough opening with HB... Especially not on Freya on HM at the 3 elementals.

Anyone have experience doing the gauntlet in the tunnel on Thorim as dk?

[Fourier]

I've tanked Freya, both regular and hard mode, adds as frost and haven't really had much trouble with threat. Howling Blast glyph is definitely your friend here. A quick howling blast and blood boil, as Vine mentioned, should be good enough for initial threat.

As for Thorim gauntlet, where do your problems arise? And on 10 or 25?

[onklen]

I was thinking about when running through the tunnel to start the event on HM. I have only done it as warrior. Was just thinking it would be hard building enough threat on the packs in there to stick them to me while moving on to the next pack.

Doesn't seem to be enough time to apply diseases, so maybe HB glyph is the way to go again... Just a bit hesitant about that one as most standard builds don't recommend it and dunno which one I could spare to swap it in...

Or are you doing the tunnel with another spec than frost?

[Fourier]

I've done the tunnel with frost. The first portion of the tunnel, the adds should just be nuked, so there wont be too much tanking going on. After the first boss, as soon as the doors open the first healer should be killed (again nuked, not much tanking) and the bigger guy CC'd. then the whole group just runs to the top and engages the boss, HB should be enough for whatever shows up as there shouldn't be DPS on them until you're in position up top. Basically, the healers don't need a whole lot of tanking, they should die quickly. This is how we've been successful anyway. not sure how other guilds have done it.

[Hades]

As far as Blood tanking goes, if I understand it right (I tank in Frost), it's gonna be more like you're used to (Warrior tab-tanking) but without the added mobility of charge and intervene. However, I'm not experienced in Ulduar (Just broke into Naxx yesterday) or Blood tanking (tried it, hated it). I use a single disease (glyphed HB) frost rotation, and even with trigger happy 3k-4k DPS I have no issues maintaining aggro. Open with DnD, HB, and BB, then spend RP as needed. Makes things go real smooth.