[Death Knight] Am I ready to raid?

[Ehawee]

Am I ready to raid?

Item level: 357
Health: 146,331 (unbuffed)
Armor: 29,915 | -53.43% (unbuffed)
Dodge: 13.60% (unbuffed)
Parry: 18.40% (unbuffed)
Mastery: 21.73 | 135% (unbuffed)
Hit: +0.85% (unbuffed)
Expertise: 11 | -2.75% chance of target to dodge/parry (unbuffed)
Spec: 31 | 8 | 2

Armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...quamb/advanced

General Information

I have yet to even set a foot inside of a cataclysm raid with this character, it was nothing that I had intended on doing at first. I do have some tanking experience from WotLK, but I feel that might as well have been another game, so at this point I'm clueless on what I would be capable to tank.

While I haven't done any raiding with this character, I have cleared Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight on my Mage, heroic mode for Chimaeron and Halfus. I've also done Conclave of Wind in Throne of the Four Winds with my Mage, no attempts at Al'akir. I've also done Argaloth in Baradin Hold with my Paladin (holy), Mage and Warlock. I've yet to try Occu'thar though.

I know the tactics for the raids mentioned above like the backside of my hand, especially from a DPS point of view, but I've been reading up for the past 3 days on how to tank them properly.

I've been reading up on Firelands and feel confident enough that I know what to do there as a tank, but I feel that is out of reach due to my gear and raid experience as a Death Knight tank.

So, my question to you is this, am I ready to raid Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight and Throne of the Four Winds with my current gear? Do you see anything that is 'off' with my gear, enchants and gems?

Every and all tips are greatly appreciated, I'm eager to hear what everyones thoughts are and hopefully to learn some more.

And I'll be honest, I haven't really read up much on what spec to have, how to enchant, gem and reforge.
I've done more or less everything by following my gut feelings - so things may really, really be 'off'.

Note: I quit WoW for a while and returned not too long ago, so I missed the arrival of Firelands as well as Occu'thar in BH.

Update note: I just downed both Argaloth & Occu'thar in Baradin Hold, with no problems at all. I'll continue to update this thread like this, it could be useful if someone ever pose the same question with roughly the same gear - they'll know what they should be capable of then.

[Kemanorel]

Go for it. My main is a hunter, but I love tanking on my DK as long as I have a semi-competent group. Alt runs are a blast, I love experiencing content from multiple roles. This is my DK tank:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ornne/advanced

Besides, what is the worst that will happen, you wipe a bit?

All I can recommend is to level your professions high enough for the raid buffs from it, and use the 50 dodge on your bracers instead of the hit enchant. Tanking tips I stand by :

Cooldowns do no good unused. Make sure you know when and how to employ them effectively.

Communicate with your healers especially, as well as the rest of the raid.

Try to time Death Strike to land right as/after major damage.

[Tengenstein]

Tier 11 pre nerf was balanced around being down with ~346 ilvl so you're geared, Tier 12 is tuned around having ~359so should provide. I would however have a read of satorri's DK guide (over in the article forums) its a little out of date. You've chosen a lichborne spec without taking GoDC, might want to change that to get the most out of that mechanic. I'd change up the gemming a little (hit the head socket bonus, and try to get the dodge/parry ratingss closer to eqaul when fully buffed (try to get a pally/druid to kings/mark you) and have HoW up when you

[Ehawee]

Go for it. My main is a hunter, but I love tanking on my DK as long as I have a semi-competent group. Alt runs are a blast, I love experiencing content from multiple roles. This is my DK tank:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ornne/advanced

Besides, what is the worst that will happen, you wipe a bit?

All I can recommend is to level your professions high enough for the raid buffs from it, and use the 50 dodge on your bracers instead of the hit enchant. Tanking tips I stand by :

Cooldowns do no good unused. Make sure you know when and how to employ them effectively.

Communicate with your healers especially, as well as the rest of the raid.

Try to time Death Strike to land right as/after major damage.

True, one could only wipe and I don't mind that bit, but unfortunately not everyone is up for wiping some, hehe.
As such, I figured it would be a good idea to get some advice and thoughts on it first - it would be a bit rude towards the other players if I wouldn't have done 'my part'.

And ops, as far as professions goes, I completely forgot about those! Thanks for reminding me, I'll get leveling those asap.

Thanks for the tips, I'll be sure to keep it in mind at all times.

Tier 11 pre nerf was balanced around being down with ~346 ilvl so you're geared, Tier 12 is tuned around having ~359so should provide. I would however have a read of satorri's DK guide (over in the article forums) its a little out of date. You've chosen a lichborne spec without taking GoDC, might want to change that to get the most out of that mechanic. I'd change up the gemming a little (hit the head socket bonus, and try to get the dodge/parry ratingss closer to eqaul when fully buffed (try to get a pally/druid to kings/mark you) and have HoW up when you

I'll most definitely take a look at that guide, and thanks for reminding me about GoDC, I actually do have it and use it - I just replaced it with the Death Strike one for that little extra DPS while soloing Lord Marrowgar. I didn't realize I accidently put in my orange gem rather than my green gem in the head socket slot, thanks for pointing that out for me.

As for the dodge/parry ratings, would it be worth exchanging Rune of Swordshattering for Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle to make them closer to each other? I'm thinking that perhaps that extra 4% armor and 2% stamina could come in handy, but not sure if it's worth the loss of the 4% parry just to get dodge/parry on equal grounds as well as gain the attributes mentioned earlier? Though, this is all without having looked at that guide, I'll go do that right away and see if I can pick some stuff up, thanks.

[Couladin]

The easiest way to get dodge / parry in line is to reforge the higher stat. The best item to reforge it on is an item with master and parry or dodge (the higher one). You can't reforge the parry / dodge to mastery on this item, so best to reforge the higher into the lower one.

[Tengenstein]

Its the ratings that need to be balanced not the percentages. As RSS adds a percentage it has no effect on the deminishing returns ergo the choice of runes is irrelevant to the doge/parry ratings balance, you'll need to balance them some other way. Generally one should use RSS unless the vast majority of the damage your taking is unparryable, or you lack sufficient health to reach the minimum HP pool required for the fight (mainly fights that you undergear).

[Ehawee]

Its the ratings that need to be balanced not the percentages. As RSS adds a percentage it has no effect on the deminishing returns ergo the choice of runes is irrelevant to the doge/parry ratings balance, you'll need to balance them some other way. Generally one should use RSS unless the vast majority of the damage your taking is unparryable, or you lack sufficient health to reach the minimum HP pool required for the fight (mainly fights that you undergear).

Aha! Thanks for clearing that out for me. Any recommendations on how big the gap can be without me having to worry too much?

[Tengenstein]

Depends on the Fight and your healers, shannox 10 i wouldn't be afraid of goin in with around 120k fully buffed, whereas i wouldn't want to go in with less than 180k on 25, for 10 man FL you should be fine and if you feel the need for more stam take a stam trinket.

[swelt]

If you don't start raiding soon, you won't have many upgrades left to get from BWD/BOT

Dodge enchant on bracer.

I would recommend that you do baradin hold dailies for the mirror trinket, and if you can face doing that many dailies then there are some decent items from the molten front as well.

[Ehawee]

Depends on the Fight and your healers, shannox 10 i wouldn't be afraid of goin in with around 120k fully buffed, whereas i wouldn't want to go in with less than 180k on 25, for 10 man FL you should be fine and if you feel the need for more stam take a stam trinket.

Maybe I'll just give it a try, much like someone said earlier - the worst thing that can happen is that the raid group wipes, and I'm willing to pay their repair bills if that happen, so perhaps it might not be all that bad as I originally thought it would be.

If you don't start raiding soon, you won't have many upgrades left to get from BWD/BOT

Dodge enchant on bracer.

I would recommend that you do baradin hold dailies for the mirror trinket, and if you can face doing that many dailies then there are some decent items from the molten front as well.

Then I definitely better start raiding soon, hehe.

Ah yes, I forgot about that, thanks for reminding me! *grins*

I'm actually doing the Baradin Hold dailies and the Molten Front dailies every day, it doesn't take that long as a Death Knight I've noticed, most of the "Kill x amount of <mob>" can be done in a single pull. 94 Mark of the World Tree so far, just a little bit more for Baradin Hold.

Thanks again for all the help people, I really appreciate it.