Blood or Frost tank

[Revohh]

Hi guys,

I'm posting this to ask a question with regards to Blood and Frost tanks.

I'm a DK re-rolled from a warlock and decided to go for a tank spec as my main. I currently have 26.5k hp unbuffed, thats with naxx 10, 25, ulduar 10 and some other random epics from other bosses. My current spec is Frost with my talent spread 10/52/9.

Now, because of my low hp i seem to get alot of people either kicking me from group or complaining that my hp is nowhere near high enough for certain raids. I know that it is as i am main offtank for my guild....that includes ulduar 10! Ok granted it's not the best, but i do have 25.69% dodge and 19.1% parry.

I was wondering if i could get much of a hp boost by going blood and wether or not it would be worth changing from frost tank to blood?

Also any suggestions of talent specs would be appreciated.

Thanks

Revohh

[PatrikL]

You are unfortunately logged out in dps and/or pvp gear so I cant comment specifically on you tank gear but I can give you some hints on gemming in general so it might apply to your other gear also:

1. Never use AP gems (they dont scale with buffs like BoK)
2. Its very seldom a good idea to stricly gem for the socket bonus. For tanks Stam gems are the way to go most of the times for tanking (no matter what the socket color is) and Strength gems are the gems to use for DPS (for DKs and some other classes.
3. Use epic gems. Your gear is very low so far so I understand not using them so much yet.
4. Enchant all your gear. You might not want to use the best ones yet if you are emblem grinding for vendor gear but at least use one of the cheaper enchants then instead.

Comment about 1: There is always an ongoing debate about Stam vs Avoidance but most tanks gem/enchant for Stam.

Comment about 2: This is after you have reached the "caps" you need (for example minimum 540 def and maybe 263 hit and 26 exp a little depending on you spec)

Other than that your professions arent the best unfortunately. JC/BS or JC/Ench are the ones I think I best (because of the extra stats they both can give).

[Theotherone]

Frost DK's are the only real tanks, the rest just try to be like us

[PatrikL]

Frost DK's are the only real tanks, the rest just try to be like us

Feel free to ignore that comment Revohh :-)

[Kriline]

Frost DK's are the only real tanks, the rest just try to be like us

I've been a Frost tank since DKs were introduced, and I now hate it. I've actually given up on tanking until I can acquire better tanking gear. Something about OP paladin tanks...and warrior tanks. I've actually considered going Blood, just to try out a new spec/style in case I like tanking it more.

[PatrikL]

I've been a Frost tank since DKs were introduced, and I now hate it. I've actually given up on tanking until I can acquire better tanking gear. Something about OP paladin tanks...and warrior tanks. I've actually considered going Blood, just to try out a new spec/style in case I like tanking it more.

That's funny because I have heard a few ppl complain about beeing outthreated by palas but I dont seem to have that problem. When tanking groups of trash next to a pala with roughly the same level of gear I steal non targeted mobs from them as often as they steal from me (my impression anyway). I have tanked as frost since I hit 80 but I have changed spec a few times to adapt to patches. To be fair I've never even tried tanking in blood or unholy yet.

[Theotherone]

Frost DK's are the only real tanks, the rest just try to be like us

For those who take this stuff way too seriously, I was kidding around, being light hearted, goofing etc. Feel fee to NOT get your panties in a bind.

[Kriline]

For those who take this stuff way too seriously, I was kidding around, being light hearted, goofing etc. Feel fee to NOT get your panties in a bind.

It's not that, I just don't feel I am a viable Frost tank anymore. I just 'feel' way to squishy in raids, and healers tend to have a hard time keeping me alive unlike my Paladin/warrior counterparts. I figure it's time to try something new and see how bad it could be. I can always go back to Frost if I don't like it.

[Revohh]

Ok, so i tried changing to blood spec today...it gave me about 600hp.....thats it.

Looks like i need to rethink. Most likely new gear as most of the stuff that i have is only lvl 213.

i don't think i could get anywhere very quickly with regards to retraining professions such as enchanting and JC

any other suggestions

[keebz]

Blood and Frost are great both tanking trees. Blood really begins to shine after you have a good gearset, though. At the time, it's probably best for you to stay Frost spec.

Frost is more forgiving and will allow you to get a feel for DK tanking. Blood will cause you some problems probably from what you're describing about your gear and playstyle (you logged out in your DPS gear, so I can't point out exactly what you need). Another thing to keep in mind is that since you are the main offtank for your guild, Frost is great for offtanking (Blood and Unholy are too, but Frost really shines in that position when you are still gearing up). When you reach 32k+ unbuffed (believe me, it'll happen soon), you can consider going Blood as at that level, your threat should be alright (although nowhere near as good as Frost with or without Glyph of Howling Blast).

Regarding your question about the Blood stamina boost, quite frankly, the stamina boost isn't so great, especially with 26.5k unbuffed. You are better off going with Frost which will give you more mitigation, and that's great when you are at your health level. Like I said in the preceding paragraph, when you are at about 32k+ unbuffed, then the stamina boost begins to shine. Until then, however, the mitigation and avoidance of Frost will be much more beneficial.

Your stamina seems really low compared to your relatively large amount of avoidance. I don't know if you're doing ToC10, but since you said you are doing Ulduar, avoidance is good. However, if you are gemming things like +20 dodge, +20 parry, +10 stamina +10 parry, that is not the way to go. If this is the case, then you should regem such that:

Blue slots: +30 stam (run heroics for Emblems of Conquest or PvP [WG/Battlegrounds] to get your uncut gems, or just buy them from the AH)

Red slots: +10 stamina +10 dodge

Yellow slots: This is the tricky one. If the socket bonus for that gearpiece is +stamina, then you can put in a +stam +hit or a +10 hit +10 exp. This is only if you need the hit and stamina. Personally, I just go with +30 stamina. As a tank, you really want to minimize gemming for hit/exp as you should get that from your gear.

This will significantly increase your maximum health pool.

Hope this helps, and best of luck!

[Revohh]

Thanks alot for that keebz, it's helped significantly. Next time i log out i'll do it in my Tanking gear so you can see it.