Satorri's Big Build Shop: Blood Tanking!

[Edgewalker]

Getting to that level of direct character control (keybinds allow for your character moves to be near-muscle memory/non-reflective actions) definitely opens doors on your level of play. I find it is essential in pvp, not required for pve, but pve really benefits from it.

It's not required, but every clicker we have ever had has been slowly removed in favor of someone else. Your DPS goes down, you die a lot more to random AoE effects, and reaction time in clutch moments is always slower.
It makes you pretty much terrible all around with the way encounter are currently designed

[vine]

Also it gives you a much greater sense of your overall TPS in burst scenarios.

Forgive me but this sentence makes no sense to me.

[Edgewalker]

Forgive me but this sentence makes no sense to me.

If an add is a fresh spawn and you have a chain of no dodge/parry, and thus no rune strikes, you are more apt to realize this without RS being on a macro. You can take the appropriate steps from there

[wazdaa]

If an add is a fresh spawn and you have a chain of no dodge/parry, and thus no rune strikes, you are more apt to realize this without RS being on a macro. You can take the appropriate steps from there

I got a threat meter for that.

to everyone his own i guess, after years of mashing heroic strike, being able to macro RS feels like a relieve. not to mention there is virtually no downside to it, apart from perhaps having to interupt a cast in first few seconds of fight but that's easily overcome by having a druid fill your rp up b4 pull or have a dps catch first cast.

[vine]

If an add is a fresh spawn and you have a chain of no dodge/parry, and thus no rune strikes, you are more apt to realize this without RS being on a macro. You can take the appropriate steps from there

For you maybe, I'm always aware of RS procs with my UI layout. Also as mentioned you have a threat meter for a reason. I prefer not having to hit a separate button for RS seeing as it procs so often, much less hand movement.

[Edgewalker]

Threat meter will always be slower and less reliant than the human brain, but it's really irrelevant. There is virtually no difference in the overall effect if you have keys bound and are good at tanking.

[Wars]

Let's not less this get into a pissing match about rune strike and threat meters and who uses what.

Whether you run rune strike macro'd, have omen cover 1/2 of your screen, or not, doesn't translate directly whether you get the job done or not. That is up to the player. Helpful tips are something but everyone's going to do some things differently.

Personal preference is all it is, personal preference.

[Divajl]

Hello Guys.
Can someone link a nice overall tank specc and rotations ? Can't really find one. There's so damn many out there atm. Doing heroics/Ony/VoA atm, so no serious raiding.

The World of Warcraft Armory

Thanks
Púcko

[Edgewalker]

Hello Guys.
Can someone link a nice overall tank specc and rotations ? Can't really find one. There's so damn many out there atm. Doing heroics/Ony/VoA atm, so no serious raiding.

The World of Warcraft Armory

Thanks
Púcko

Have you ever considered reading earlier posts in a thread ABOUT DK tanking?

[Satorri]

Pucko, if you're not going to read the thread, or any of the other many offered here, take it to another forum. At bare minimum, the Halp forum here, but still the problem remains.

It is actually a bit insulting to post this at the end of an extensive guide.

[Divajl]

Pucko, if you're not going to read the thread, or any of the other many offered here, take it to another forum. At bare minimum, the Halp forum here, but still the problem remains.

It is actually a bit insulting to post this at the end of an extensive guide.

I'm really sorry, but i've read through your guide. It's just so many speccs/rotations etc, so its difficult to choose one. Sry if it was insulting, did'nt really mean it.

[zaubade]

Well Pocko you might want to reconsider your choice of tanking class. DK's have a lot of choices and you have to do a bit of research and thinking to come up with a spec that works for what you do. as far as rotations, there are no set rotations only prioritized lists of what should be done.

re-read the spec guide perhaps ask questions on the help forums about anything that confuses you. then try the spec you come up with.. if it does not work to your liking.. try again

[vine]

I'm really sorry, but i've read through your guide. It's just so many speccs/rotations etc, so its difficult to choose one. Sry if it was insulting, did'nt really mean it.

Nothing is set in stone. Try a spec, try a rotation, see how it goes. If it blows and you don't like it, try a different one! Get creative rather than asking for your hand to be held.

[Nayru]

I've already tanked my way through Wrath as a Protection Paladin so I'm not new to tanking in general, but tanking as a DK is a new chapter to me. With 3.3 and ICC only hours away as of this writing, I'm looking to put the offspec gear I've stashed up on my DK lately to good use for farming as many 5/10-mans as possible, and this thread has provided invaluable insight and information on the various aspects of tanking as a Blood DK. There's a good amount of reflection behind every statement, and I really appreciate this way of presenting the subject and letting us draw our own conclusions from it, rather than the seemingly ever so common "this is the best way of doing it, and if you claim otherwise you are wrong" approach. So thank you, Satorri, for taking the time to put all of this together - it's an amazing resource indeed

[bambou1000]

I have a question (and I can't find answer in other forum), I'm blood tank dk and I've spell deflection.
I have choose the Sigil of Virulence is it a bad choice ?
Should I prefer the Sigil of Insolence ?

Another question, with the debuff in the new Citadel dungeon, diminushing returns will be better for parry ? Because this debuff will be apply on the total amount of dodge...
Should we prefer parry to dodge ? In fact it could help dk tank with spell deflection too

Sorry for my bad english

Thanks for all

[Satorri]

Chill of the Throne does not affect diminishing returns in any way. The standard rule applies:

If your Dodge rating is:
Less than ~1.85 times your Parry rating, Dodge rating is better
More than ~1.85 times your Parry rating, Parry rating is better.

But as a DK, let me give you the simpler answer. Thanks to Forceful Deflection, we never get more out of Parry rating than we do out of equal points of Dodge rating.

That said, if you're looking to really buff Spell Deflection specifically, then yes, more Parry will help that. I don't know if it's worth it in the long run though as that is only one small gain in a bigger picture.

[bambou1000]

Thanks for this anwer

Have you an advice for my question about the sigil ?

[Satorri]

The sigil choice is simply a threat vs survival decision. Each has one they're strong at, but offers some small measure of the other.

Virulence gives you a big chunk of strength which is great for threat. That Str also turns into a little parry which doesn't hurt for survival.

Insolence gives you a big chunk of dodge which is great for survival. That dodge also gives you a little bump in RS procs which doesn't hurt for threat.

Neither is *the* better choice, it's just a matter of which side of the balance you want to favor.

[jere]

Chill of the Throne does not affect diminishing returns in any way. The standard rule applies:

If your Dodge rating is:
Less than ~1.85 times your Parry rating, Dodge rating is better
More than ~1.85 times your Parry rating, Parry rating is better.

But as a DK, let me give you the simpler answer. Thanks to Forceful Deflection, we never get more out of Parry rating than we do out of equal points of Dodge rating.

That said, if you're looking to really buff Spell Deflection specifically, then yes, more Parry will help that. I don't know if it's worth it in the long run though as that is only one small gain in a bigger picture.

Just a quick correction:

If your (character_sheet_dodge% - 10):
Less than 1.85 times your (character_sheet_parry% - 10), dodge rating is better
More than 1.85 times your (character_sheet_parry% - 10), parry rating is better

Though as you highlighted, DK's only use dodge.

EDIT: Those -10's work for paladins and warriors. For DK's, you don't have enough dodge to make the equation work anyways, but the -10 on the parry side would be technically incorrect.

[bambou1000]

Thanks you two

So for me : Dodge : 23.44
Parry : 17.59

(P-10)/(D-10) = 1.77

So I need to have min 24.04 in dodge after I will look parry and dodge at the same level (to keep this 1.85).

Just one question why -10 ? Is it the debuff of Chill of the Throne ? Besause it seem to be -20 and just for dodge.

Ty