Mastery Build vs Avoidance Builds for DK Tanks

[Kaleion]

What is the better build, and also I read somewhere that some Blood Dk are stacking there DPS gear with there tank gear is that a viable build just to do raids.

[Drahalah]

From what I know, a mastery heavy build is more helpful for bosses with slower, stronger swings (which with the exception of spine I think is all in DS) as this will allow you to heal up after the big hit and get a bigger shield with death strike. Parry/dodge would work better where there are more swings against you as there will be a larger chance that they will not hit you and that if they do you will not get as large of a blood sheild from it. In addition, the top-off heal that you got from your death strike will not last as long.

As for building in some DPS gear, I would not recommend doing that with the exception of the DPS valor ring which before you go into a raid is a good second ring.

In short: mastery heavy build, no DPS gear except for the ring.

[Theotherone]

I prefer to go heavy mastery; I've gotten my Blood Shield up over 252k on Skittles. Make sure if you go mastery that you glyph Blood Tap and make liberal use of it. For something like Blackthorn I pop on the Spine Dodge trinket and the Great Moon Card, Earthquake for more dodge. That said in our main raid group where I heal on my Pally, our DK tank is a believer in avoidance (we argue over which is better all the time) and he does just fine; although I do find him a bit spikey to heal at times, yet it seems like on H Haggra the avoidance helps compared to when we have our warrior tank it.

I personally think, if you play the DK well, it comes down to a personal preference at this point, especially with the nerfs.

[Tengenstein]

And how far into DRs we are on avoidance ratings

[Theotherone]

And how far into DRs we are on avoidance ratings

I have no idea how far into it he is, I don't even want to look We've been in 4 guilds together since the start of WoLK; so we're pretty used to each other's play style, that probably makes up for a multitude of sins when I'm healing him.

[Tengenstein]

Indeed we've got so much of everything on gear now that its silly what you can get away with, shy of putting the the PW:B in the wrong place it doesn;t really matter, on some fights like, exactly as you mention, Blackhorn, avoidance will win for total damage reductions on others the blood shields can be delightfully good.as the adiditional magic damage taken buffs the size of the blood shield easing the difficulty in maintaining 100% uptime

[Leucifer]

Quick hit: The only real "DPS" gear you should consider for a DK tank is as follows:

1) Weapon. If it's a 2H weapon and the weapon has mastery on it.... gtg. Especially if its primary stats are better.

2) Trinkets. If you're having little issue with survival on a fight, but the group as a whole could use more dps.... consider a swap out on a trink.

3) Rings. If the ring has a buttload of mastery, strength, and stam compared to what you're currently equipped with, run with it

4) Any other gear that is a significant step forward with mastery/strength/and stam compared to your current. Say.... you're a brand new 85 and you're tanking, your shoulders are the crappy-ass 346 set from heroics..... and you get a fat juicy set of t13 shoulders or t12 equivalent shoulders with mastery/expertise.... wear them.

Hell, even if it's not an ideal pairing, if the new set has enough of a secondary stat that you can reforge to mastery..... or keep the mastery and reforge say crit to dodge..... use them. The stat increase between say, t11 and t13 is such a big jump, you almost have no reason to NOT jump up and reforge.

The main idea is this: if the gear gives a significant performance gain, and can be reforged to be competitive or to minimize the performance loss on mastery/avoidance. you might want to try it.