(DK tanking) Frost vs Blood for me...

[sicariusdracus]

wowarmory/Darkendiel

I'm an expert in Frost. I've been frost for quite a while now. I'm even frost for pvp But I've noticed that I'm a rarity. 90% of the top DKs are blood. Am I boning myself for not going blood? I love frost's aoe threat, and if I'm right, Blood is more like a warrior tank, hitting 2 targets mainly.

I guess from all the searching I've done, I've not really found a reason to switch. (howling blast crits at 10k? yeah baby.) Will I be losing threat if I go blood?

[Disturrbed]

I tank in frost on my DK I wouldn't have it any other way. You can always try a blood build and see how it works but I say stick with what works best for you.

[Surtr]

While i tank as blood, the poster above me is right, try blood but stick what you do best, since i've been blood since late 09' i've gotten used to it, but if you say you're good at frost you should probably stick with it.

[Doomsoul]

Having tanked as both blood and frost for extended periods of time, and raided with them in ICC I can definitely say that both are viable. However, I have abandoned my frost dw spec for blood at this point.

Here's the way I see it:

Frost

* Strong Snap Aggro for AoE tanking thanks to howling blast.
*Improved Icebound Fortitude

Blood
*Higher base HP, with self healing abilities = easier to heal.
*More flexible rotation due to Heart Strike only costing 1 rune; runes feel much more plentiful.
*2h focus, dont have to worry about all of the dw issues like the need for higher hit/expertise rating.

Everything else is pretty much a wash, though Blood still has the edge in single target threat I believe. Once you get used to AoE tanking with blood, as opposed to frost, it's really not that hard to give it up.

[Flegetonte]

I've been all three tanking specs since wrath came ot (oh the glory days of bone shield, and howling blast doing double dmg to diseased targets) but yea, it al comes down to frost vs blood for serious tanking. And the differences between the two are almost negligible in a raid environment. If you enjoy frost over blood, you will play better. I do sort of miss blood for the single rune OPness, but I am in love wth dw frost. EspeciAlly come tuesday. We'll see who has more single target threat when frost gets 20% more haste, 10% more offhand dmg and 5% more obliterate dmg!! Muahaha!

[Bosk]

It boils down to the extra health and healing. If I play right I get over 700hps which is about half our least geared healer.

If you pug the health gets you invites...

[Schmevan]

Honestly, I have 0 aoe issues as a blood tank, as long as you are speced for bloody strikes, which all blood dks should be and your diseases are up on the entire group, which they should be, then blood boil=thunderclap for threat, plus you have death and decay which is like a mini-concecrate, only class that can pull off me as long as my diseases are up are the freaking warriors that always build threat on that one mob that has been hit less than any other mob...sigh. I'm not saying frost isn't better for aoe threat...it is, but blood does just fine in end game content, and I find blood better for the boss fights due to the high EH requirements for fights like festergut and the fact that I can supplement heals with a rune tap or a couple death strikes if needed. I used to tank in frost though and loved it for heroics, just couldn't get my survival rotation good enough for toc, which was the end content before I switched to blood. I would prefer a frost tank over myself on a fight like saurfang...where every point of damage you can mitigate is one less blood power, but in my opinion a frost tank has to really know what they are doing to hold threat as well as a blood tank.