help with blood spec and a small gear question too.

[FizzyCarter]

so basically yeah, i'm a frost tank.
because I just don't get how blood tanking works.

I have a spec for blood tanking, I got it from a friend
who's a blood tank and he's like "oh it's awesomeness"
anyway i'm kind of afraid to try tanking in that spec 'cuz
I have a habbit of pulling big and everyone's always telling me
it's (blood) for single target tanking.
I tried it on sounfang and it was pretty fun thought I didn't
feel it was any different than my frost spec
aside from missing unbreakable armor.

I certainly don't mind having 2 tanking specs 'cuz well i stink at dps
always have, so I tank.
Anyway so he basically told me a rotation and when I asked about
runestrike he said never to use it, which really confused me
I use it heaps, like everytime it's up i use it as frost and
the 264 sigil is tailor made for it so I don't understand why I shouldn't
use rune strike as blood spec.
basically why bother with the 264 glyph if i'm not supposed to benefit
from it's effect is what I don't get.

in any case I changed the rotation he gave me
to fit rune strike into it and i liked it better but there's
some akwardness now with the CD's on my runes.

could maybe someone who's really good at blood tanking
explain why I shouldn't use rune strike and maybe help
me with a rotation please ?

here's my armory link
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...rms&cn=Othalla

[Dannyl]

Bungles me tbh. Never heard of anyone, ever say don't use Rune Strike cause it generates loads of threat. I almost never physically hit the button for it, cause I have it macro'd to all my single target attacks, but to not use it at all, I have no clue. Looking at your spec, something a bit off there, at least for my eyes.

You are missing Hysteria, which is an awesome dps boost for melee DPS. By default, I give it to our top rogue, or fury warrior if no rogues are present. Blood worms is shite in my opinion, so would suggest swap that out. I'll link my armory, so you can have a look what I've done differently. I would also swap out your glyph of disease and glyph of death and decay. No matter how you slice it, AoE tanking is crap on blood and can't hold a candle to frost. Since you have two tanking specs, use frost for trash and blood for bosses. As for replacement glyphs, I'd suggest glyph of rune strike and glyph of vampiric blood. The second one isn't necessarily a must have, but I find it useful on fights like Festergut and Sindy, where I need to max my CDs.

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-ta...on&cn=Durithim

Good luck.

[Mitnacht]

First off, your friend/guildy needs to come to this site. His advice is just a little off.

1. Rune Strike - Your new BFF. Just as you thought, as a tank, this is your main threat tool, or at least your best. You should always have 20 RP to use this when it activates. In the beginning of a pull, you may not have enough RP as you set up, but after you get going you should make sure you always have at least 20RP so you can use RS when it's available.

2. Your spec is good. Personally, I don't use Sudden Doom or Morbidity, and instead have points in Rune Tap and Imp. Rune Tap, as well as Mark of Blood to ease healer stress during high-damage fights, such as Festergut after Inhale Blight and Phase 3 Putricide.

I don't find the random damage of Sudden Doom reliable for threat-building, so I don't use it.

Unless Bloodworms mechanics have changed, they will kill you on fights like Sindrygosa, due to parry haste. (Boss parries their attack, the boss's next attack will come faster. ) I would put those 3 points into something else. Subversion would be the best choice.

You're missing enchantments on some gear (A disservice to you and your raid.) and your gemming is wrong. As a tank at your level, you shouldn't be using orange gems. You also shouldn't be gemming for defense. If your gear alone doesn't have you at 540 defense, then go to enchants. Titanweave to cloak to start with, followed by Greater Defense to chest if you're still not quite there.

For yellow gems, you should be going for Guardian's Dreadstone if you're not expertise-capped. Vivid Eye of Zul is good. Some people here may tell you you don't need to be hit-capped, but I would disagree. With the 30% buff now, there's no reason to not be hit-capped, especially for fights like Sindrygosa and LK where taunting is crucial. (You'll want the glyph for those fights since taunts are on the spell hit table for the rest of WotLK. )

If you're curious, here's my wow-armory link:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...awn&n=Raevihel

I do enjoy frost-tanking, hence the offspec, but it's more for heroics.

Finally, read the section devoted to Blood, if not the every section, in this amazing guide written by Saate: http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...ing#post337860

[Miste]

Rune Strike: Use it always. Macro it to every ability and use it. It is your number 1 threat ability and should consume as much RP as possible.

Rotation: IT-PS-DS-HS-HS / DS-HSx4. Repeat. Use death or blood runes for vampiric blood or rune tap as needed based on the encounter. Use Death Coil if you have 60+ RP.

Big Pulls(aka AoE tanking): Blood is fine, especially with the glyph of DnD and 3/3 Morbidity(2 pc T10 bonus helps too). Drop DnD, spread your diseases and use BB for each blood or death rune while you have 3+ mobs alive.

Spec: Take out points from Bloodworms and Sudden Doom. Stick the 5 points in Rune Tap, Imp Rune Tap and Subversion. I personally don't care for hysteria, but other DKs love it.

Glyphs: Replace Dark Death with Death Strike. Dark Death is a terrible tanking glyph. Replace Disease with Vampiric Blood. With the bonus threat to Icy Touch, you want to FF by reapplying it with IT. DnD is a personal choice glyph, but it has no value on a single target fight. If you are tanking a single target boss, you should consider swapping it for RS.

Gems: Get rid of the defense and hit gems. Replace them with +30 stamina. The only green gem you should keep is a +def/stam gem in your helm for the +12 stam bonus. For your red gem to activate your meta, keep the expertise/stam in your shoulders.

Gear: Replace the Bitter Balebrew Charm with the triumph badge armor trinket or the organ from Putricide-10. When you replace the neck with a tanking piece, you may need to reassess your expertise situation. The Cataclysmic Chestguard(frost badges) is much better than heroic Ghoul Commander's.

Enchants: No excuses. Fix the bracers, chest and cloak. Bracers - Major Stamina. Cloak - Mighty Armor. Chest - Powerful Stats or Super Health. Use defense on cloak and/or chest if you are below 540. Change your glove enchant to stamina armor kit or expertise depending on your needs.

[Dannyl]

Spec: Take out points from Bloodworms and Sudden Doom. Stick the 5 points in Rune Tap, Imp Rune Tap and Subversion. I personally don't care for hysteria, but other DKs love it.

Just a note, Hysteria isn't actually for you as a tank. I know some DKs use it as a threat booster but it should really be used to buff the DPS. That's where it serves a better purpose.