What stat to gem/stack as Frost 2H death knight tank

[razorfinn]

Hey Everyone,

So I'm the off-tank in my guild for all our raids, and we have a paladin main-tank, which is very nice. I know that death knight tanks can get a bit squishy, as I saw when I had to main-tank the first 4 bosses in ICC, with another dk as the off-tank. Our paladin tank has recommended to me to stack stamina, so I put stamina gems in every slot, and therefore skip the socket bonuses.

You can see my character/gear at the armory:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...rond&cn=Zhaffa

So my question is: should I continue to stack stamina, or should I mix some dodge in there as well? I feel that our paladin has 4 stats for mitigation: block, parry, dodge, and miss, and I only have 3: parry, dodge, and miss, and therefore stamina would be great for him. But since, as a death knight, I don't wear a shield, I feel like i should maybe add on some dodge. So what should I do? Perhaps socket dodge gems in my red sockets? Or switch in a dodge trinket for my Bubbling Brightbrew Charm? Any help would be nice since I feel so squishy, I've gotten fast at activating my cds, e.g. IBF, unbreakable Armor, death pact, etc, especially on the Festergut fight, where the tanks switch off after the 8/9 stacks :/

Thanks in advance!

[Skarrde]

The stance that I have read from many dks and that I have taken myself is, if the socket bonus is greater than +9 then match the sockets, if it is less then stick with stm. Personally I will use dodge/stm gems for red and defense/stm gems for yellow even if I am def capped at 540 just to get the extra mitigation. Only other thing to mention of course is match your meta gem. This of course could go out the window once 4.0 is released.

Sent using Tapatalk.

[uglie]

I personly stack straight stam except 1 agi/stam gem to activiate my meta.
i also use http://www.wowarmory.com/character-t...e&gn=Marauders for my spec. I've found no need for the glyph of dnd. If you use power auras like i do and keep an eye on your KM and rime procs trash will all be yours.

[Arencey]

Hey Everyone,

So I'm the off-tank in my guild for all our raids, and we have a paladin main-tank, which is very nice. I know that death knight tanks can get a bit squishy, as I saw when I had to main-tank the first 4 bosses in ICC, with another dk as the off-tank. Our paladin tank has recommended to me to stack stamina, so I put stamina gems in every slot, and therefore skip the socket bonuses.

You can see my character/gear at the armory:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...rond&cn=Zhaffa

So my question is: should I continue to stack stamina, or should I mix some dodge in there as well? I feel that our paladin has 4 stats for mitigation: block, parry, dodge, and miss, and I only have 3: parry, dodge, and miss, and therefore stamina would be great for him. But since, as a death knight, I don't wear a shield, I feel like i should maybe add on some dodge. So what should I do? Perhaps socket dodge gems in my red sockets? Or switch in a dodge trinket for my Bubbling Brightbrew Charm? Any help would be nice since I feel so squishy, I've gotten fast at activating my cds, e.g. IBF, unbreakable Armor, death pact, etc, especially on the Festergut fight, where the tanks switch off after the 8/9 stacks :/

Thanks in advance!

Aoe tanks are squishier in general than single target tanks, I assure you that dks can be some of the toughest tanks in game, you just have to have a good blood spec heavy on self healing. Since you're acting as the off tank I'm guessing that you need the aoe threat of frost, to keep it simple just stack stamina, that's what pretty much every tank does and there is a debuff in icc that lowers dodge by a percentage.

Just make sure you get the meta and don't forget that in cata frost and unholy are not going to be tank specs anymore so your ability to off tank will be hindered if not erased, from the looks of things dks are joining the ranks of prot warriors as tough single target tanks. Unless you plan on becoming a main tank I would suggest investing some time into leveling a paladin or druid before cata gets here.