How can I improve my Frost DK tank?

[clifdog]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ne&cn=Fearknot

That is the link to my DeathKnight. I would like to think that I do ok when tanking. I can tank pretty well as far as trash goes in ICC. Didn't have much luck in regards to the boss the one time I tried it as a tank. I do believe that was more of a product of us not knowing what we were doing though.

I am just looking for any worthwhile advice to help me be a better tank. I don't raid much but basically have it set up to the best of my ability with the items that I have and based on what information I have read.

I can of course tank darn near anything and rarely have threat issues as I have runestrike macro'd to almost every attack. Fantastic tip! Works like a charm now.

I tried tanking in 25 ToC once and was met with abysmal failure. I totally felt like a noob. Just got cracked like a bad egg. I realize lots of factors are involved but it was a bad experience nonetheless and it was a pug. No excuse on my part.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Fearknot.

[mangaart1st]

Couple things that jump out.. I would 5/5 bladed armor, drop hungering cold and 2/3 Scent of blood. Hungering cold is mostly a pvp talent with limited use in pve raiding.

Make sure to drop unbreakable glyph and pick up Obliterate glpyh asap. Oblit is the core glyph all Frost Dks must have.

With that out of the way I would like to help more but you didnt give much info specifically about what the problems your running into are. Survivability?.... threat?... experience tanking? Need to know whats actually going on to help further.

One last thing, any reason why you've chosen to go 2h Frost instead of DW. Most frost dk's these days go DW as a lot of the talents in the frost tree that are tailored to DW. It's arguably a simplier frost tanking spec due to single disease rotation that still maintains high threat and good survivability. I'm not knocking 2h frost which, I know for a fact, can work just as well. I simply tend to see 2h tanking go the blood or to a lesser degree unholy route.

[Theotherone]

Personally, I think your glyphs are fine; pick up Obliterate if you have some threat issues, but otherwise Unbreakable Armor is core to survivability. I'm a Frost and Blood DK and I dropped DW, just too many misses and I saw no real benefit. Some really like it, but I prefer the 2h route. Also, since you have HB glyphed, you have what you need for a single disease rotation, although there's nothing wrong with hitting PS then spreading the love with Pestilence.

No need for Epidemic or three points in Scent of Blood - 2 in Scent of Blood is fine, you could even get away with 1, but traditional wisdom is if you're going to take it, put 2 points there. You want to max out Bladed Armor for threat; I agree Hungering Cold is a bit of a waste in PvE. 3 points in Killing Machine would be fine, it will proc a lot or you can remove points from Chill of the Grave if you've taken Scent of Blood, it becomes Runic Power overload. Here's my armory, I'm spec'd pretty vanilla in both Blood and Frost. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...cn=Theotherone

[Evilcabell]

You could use a little more expertise and hit rating. at least 21 of the former and 263 of the latter. That will help a lot with aggro and will make your "snap" aggro much more reliable. The valor neck piece can help with hit rating though you'll be shaving a couple of your other stats. The onyxia sword will also put you at expertise cap if you're lucky enough for it to drop. Also pick up the frost belt whenever you can.

The above spec suggestions sound pretty solid to me.

Here's my spec: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...&cn=Evilcabell
My frost core is pretty solid. The difference between the 2nd tier unholy and blood points is the difference between group aggro and single target aggro respectively.

I also wouldn't feel too bad about anything that goes down in a 25 man pug. Try to learn what you can from the experience but don't beat yourself up over it.

[Harmacy]

I also wouldn't feel too bad about anything that goes down in a 25 man pug. Try to learn what you can from the experience but don't beat yourself up over it.

Agreed.

There is a lot of good advice in the above posts, however I have to disagree with taking 3/5 Killing Machine. KM procs are a crucial part of Frost threat, and really where are you going to put those two points that will have more impact on either threat or survival?

I would move the point from Hungering Cold into Deathchill (which is fantastic for snap threat, used in conjuction with glyphed Howling Blast for instant AoE threat for instance), and two points from either SoB or Epidemic into Bladed Armor for more threat. I would replace the Frost Strike glyph with Obliterate, the Oblit glyph is stronger for threat. (especially since you have 3/3 SoB and 2/2 CotG, you should not have much problem managing RP)

The Onyxia trinket is terrible for a DK, because of the high diminishing returns on your parry rating. Replace it with a stam or armor trinket - the Triumph trink is extremely nice. On that same note, never ever ever gem parry for a DK. If you need to use a purple gem, make it dodge, agility, or expertise. In my opinion, every gem should be either a blue stamina gem, or a green or purple ?/stamina gem.

Your defense is way over the minimum, time to replace your shoulder enchant with the +30 stam PvP one.

I'd recommend replacing boot enchant with Tuskarr's - this is optional, but the move speed really comes in handy on a lot of fights, really in any fight where you need to get from point A to point B quickly (example - getting out of the fires on Marrowgar).

I'm a Frost and Blood DK and I dropped DW, just too many misses and I saw no real benefit.

The extra misses only occur on your auto-attacks, which are a small portion of your threat. The hit cap on your melee special abilities is still 8%, dropped down to 5% by a mandatory DW talent in the Frost tree. Your Rune Strikes and Oblits (the majority of your threat) actually have a higher chance to connect as DW (unless you get 8% hit from gear).

[Theotherone]

Agreed.

I have to disagree with taking 3/5 Killing Machine. KM procs are a crucial part of Frost threat, and really where are you going to put those two points that will have more impact on either threat or survival?

I don't disagree, but if he's going to max out Bladed Armor (as he should), put a point into Death Chill (which I agree with), DW and get points into Scent of Blood; something has to give - my preference is to steal 2 points from Killing Machine; but I also like Morbidity a lot and I know there's been a lot of heated discussion about that talent.