DK Tank spec.

Bringeroflight

Bringeroflight

New Member
I wanted to start up discussions on DK tank specs for raiding since I had heard that the guild preferred spec for tanking was going to be Blood.

I see these discussions leaning toward the age old DPS debate on RET Pally's. In the old days, it was hard for a RET pally to get respect. Ask Proud ;)

So right now, as a lvl 77 frost, I can maintain aggro control over lvl 80 dps with no problem. The only problem I have ran into is someone tags the incorrect mob out of my cone. That is easily fixed with commanding shout, but slows down my rotation to save that person.

Anyways. What's the dealio with DK Frost Tankage?

PS...I also need some numbers to shoot for as far as Defense.
 
According to Elitist Jerks debate, to compensate for lack of armor, Death Knights have a Frost presence, not unlike a druid’s bear form, that increases the armor gained from items.

So, it would seem Frost would be the tanking spec.
 
yes 540 is the magic number. if you want the more "technical" explanation. Go to your character sheet (hit "C"). Go to your defenses tab and mouse over defense, redundant I know. But what should pop up under your mouse include the verbage "decreases chance to be critically hit by...". This number should be greater than 5.6% to be "uncrittable" by all raid-type bosses. 540 happens to be that magic number for those of us outside of druid tank who have a talent which pushes that number automatically to 6% if i remember correctly.

*breathes finally*
 
Thats the thing... the next patch is moving blood specs over to tanking as well. Frost isn't the only spec that can tank. You can be blood and use frost presence anyways.
 
Howling blast is getting it's cooldown removed in this next patch so that should help a LOT with AOE tanking.

Really all specs should be able to tank and currently only Unholy or Frost do it really well. Blizzard is buffing Blood tanking a lot in this next patch to help them out.
 
Angryson said:
540 happens to be that magic number for those of us outside of druid tank who have a talent which pushes that number automatically to 6% if i remember correctly.
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Yes, druids get an automatic 6% with the correct spec.
 
Lloren said:
Something about this seems OP.
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Not really, DK's still have to make choices with talents for whether they want to tank or DPS. It's a lot like feral druid talents. You can either be a really good Cat or Bear but not really both.

I do feel like DK's are a little more powerful then other tanks because they don't really sacrifice any damage to be in "tanking" mode. Frost presence is going to be the PVP "stance" because they get such survivabilty from it. Defensive stance reduces the damage you do and more importantly locks you out of many of your offensive abilities. DK's don't have these limitations and they also don't need to be beat on to generate the ability to smash faces, they will do the same damage regardless of incoming damage. Personally I'd like to see DK's get some of the same treatment as other tanks so that Frost Presence isn't so dominant and should only be used for TANKING.
 
Well, that part about them doing the same damage isn't entirely true, since blood presence increases damage by 15% and unholy increases attack speed and lowers the GCD. Still, DK tanks do pretty decent damage when in frost presence.
 
blood presence increases damage by 15% but as I said previously all of the same abilities are still available. Also Beserker stance for warriors grants 3% crit AND has a negative side effect in that they take 10% more damage. DK's do not have these side effects in fact they get healed for the damage they deal. For Warriors and Druids in tanking mode they have serious limitations on abilities. Prot Paladin dps is not very good when not tanking and they are fairly easily ignored in PVP.

Personally I think there should be a lockout of certain abilities in Frost presence OR an overall damage dealt reduction. Less damage but more threat just like other tanks.
 
Tankspot.com and Elitistjerks.com are good places to go for everything you've ever wanted to know and more.
 
Proudfoot said:
blood presence increases damage by 15% but as I said previously all of the same abilities are still available. Also Beserker stance for warriors grants 3% crit AND has a negative side effect in that they take 10% more damage. DK's do not have these side effects in fact they get healed for the damage they deal. For Warriors and Druids in tanking mode they have serious limitations on abilities. Prot Paladin dps is not very good when not tanking and they are fairly easily ignored in PVP.

Personally I think there should be a lockout of certain abilities in Frost presence OR an overall damage dealt reduction. Less damage but more threat just like other tanks.
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from what i've read DK tanks dont build up threat like normal tanks do. they dont have a realy "taunt" so to say, we just need to DPS the targets to build aggro and when your in frost presence because it increases your aggro generated.
 
Proudfoot said:
blood presence increases damage by 15% but as I said previously all of the same abilities are still available. Also Beserker stance for warriors grants 3% crit AND has a negative side effect in that they take 10% more damage. DK's do not have these side effects in fact they get healed for the damage they deal. For Warriors and Druids in tanking mode they have serious limitations on abilities. Prot Paladin dps is not very good when not tanking and they are fairly easily ignored in PVP.

Personally I think there should be a lockout of certain abilities in Frost presence OR an overall damage dealt reduction. Less damage but more threat just like other tanks.
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Don't forget that only in tank mode (Def stance or bear) do we get a bonus to threat.
 
noname said:
from what i've read DK tanks dont build up threat like normal tanks do. they dont have a realy "taunt" so to say, we just need to DPS the targets to build aggro and when your in frost presence because it increases your aggro generated.
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DK tanks build threat just like other tanks, and they have 2 taunts.
Dark Command and Death Grip.
They do not have an AOE taunt, but they build significant AOE threat through D&D, Howling Blast, Unholy Blight, Pestilence, and Blood Boil.
 
Proudfoot said:
DK tanks build threat just like other tanks, and they have 2 taunts.
Dark Command and Death Grip.
They do not have an AOE taunt, but they build significant AOE threat through D&D, Howling Blast, Unholy Blight, Pestilence, and Blood Boil.
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dark command and death grip are "oh crap this mob likes other people!" attacks, not taunts used to build aggro

howling blast is a frost only thing while unholy blight is a unholy thing so its not like any ol person can use all those attacks at once.
 
Proudfoot said:
Personally I think there should be a lockout of certain abilities in Frost presence OR an overall damage dealt reduction. Less damage but more threat just like other tanks.
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they do get a DPS reduction while in the "tank mode" normaly if you where in blood presence you would do 15% more damage then when in frost presence they dont do bonus damage.. as far as thats concerned if you really think about it they do get a damage nerf while tanking.
 
noname said:
dark command and death grip are "oh crap this mob likes other people!" attacks, not taunts used to build aggro

howling blast is a frost only thing while unholy blight is a unholy thing so its not like any ol person can use all those attacks at once.
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I think you've been playing a hunter too long. A hunter's pet taunt isn't a true taunt. A tank taunt is a look at me NOW ability. It transfers the highest persons threat to them and causes the target to stay on them for 4-6 seconds. Taunt isn't used to build aggro, it's used when aggro is lost or when it needs to be transfered to another tank.

I know howling blast is frost, and Unholy Blight is unholy. What I was saying is DK's have AOE abilitys that specifically say they are high threat. Soon Blood will have an AOE of sorts (Heart Strike will be similar to cleave).

they do get a DPS reduction while in the "tank mode" normaly if you where in blood presence you would do 15% more damage then when in frost presence they dont do bonus damage.. as far as thats concerned if you really think about it they do get a damage nerf while tanking.
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It's true that they don't do as much damage in frost presence but I wasn't speaking about while tanking. I was speaking specifically about PVP and that DK's have much more versatility and put out a lot of damage while in "tank" mode. Going into defensive stance for a warrior severely limits the abilitys they have at their disposal. Imagine if when you went into frost presence you couldn't use obliterate anymore. Being in "tank" mode for all other tanks is a failing endeavor in PVP, but DK's are just fine. They gain survivability and lose almost nothing.
 
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