[Guide] Active Mitigation Hipsters - 5.4 DK Tanking

[Ianus]

are dks still prone to dieing of spike dmg like in cata or that chance has been reduced? cause i'm thinking on reroling back again lol

[Deleted]

It's all about using your cds and death strikes properly, if you do you'll feel safe in almost every situation, if you don't you'll end up dead real quick.

[Reniat]

We are still technically the most likely to take spike damage (with the possible exception of druids), but we are also a lot better equipped to handle it. Through proper timing of CDs we can minimize the spike damage we take, and through proper timing of Death Strike we can achieve stability by consistently recovering from the spike damage we do take. For content where spike damage is a real threat (25H progression for example) our entire playstyle revolves around the idea of being stable and minimizing the impact of spike damage.

[Izonami]

So it seems I'm going to the tank of a raid (usually DPS). The only issue I'm having is with threat and DPS (compared to a prot warrior).

I recently reforged to be hit and expertise (soft) capped, but I'm not sure if that's enough? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

[Deleted]

@ Izonami:

I co-tank with a warrior who is hard exp capped plus hitcapped. Sometimes, her pull threat very strong when she pops recklessness and you notice a huge threat spike if they pop an early dragon's roar. We also, till recently didnt have a hunter, nor a tricks for the tank.

So my opening was always: AOTD, HoW, prepot, taunt, DS/HS until I can pop DRW, outbreak, dump runes and use ERW if i dont need it for later.

If threat is still an issue with that, maybe it is a gear differential. If you are MS DPS, you might also considering using one DPS trinket for a nice strength proc on pull to counteract low vengeance.

[Izonami]

Hmm, true. Doesn't help that I only have a 489 sword for tanking. Been very unlucky with Sha of Fear drops.

If the 502 Mastery (Agi) Staff drops before that, is it worth taking for threat/mastery?

[Deleted]

The easiest way to solve it is simply to have the tank with the weaker threat gen pull the boss, apart from that just chill a bit and/or swap stance/presence.

[Enosh]

my 3k valor is almost ready

assuming i can kill a boss in the first week, what's a good place to start with on the valor stuff?

http://www.wowhead.com/news=210532/5...hadopan-amulet

I have done all the normals and some heroics, not that great geared, 499 atm

the neck seems kinda "meh" hit/parry, but I guess it's an upgrade over the 502 stone guard stuff
ring seems okay, dodge/mastery and atm have some crappy 489 ones since none of the HoF ones ever droped -.-

how is the trinket? passive mastery and some on use dodge stuff, which doesn't seem all that great

[Deleted]

Not sure about the speed at which you gain rep, but the ring is definitely a must have. To me the trinket seems solid, more passive mastery than my 2/2 hc vial and on use. I actually really like the fact that it starts out at a high dodge rating and goes down, functions as a mini (and admittedly a bit unreliable, like all avoidance) emergency button, definitely beats the proc on vial for me. Ring+trinket are also two slot items, meaning that you need two outright upgrades to replace them (and hence they might be useful for a little longer). I'm actually leaning towards picking up the "dps" neck over the tanking neck, mastery+haste over parry+hit. I'm expecting to be able to get three pieces before reaching honored, which means that the wrists get the short straw, no mastery and the protector ones are great.

At honored and above, the hands are obviously great (and our tier hands have no mastery, I will probably use 3 offset pieces and 2 set t15), and I'll prefer the dps cloak over the tanking one. Quite shitty stats on the rest of the things, so I'll probably just spend the valor as soon as I get it, no real incentive to wait for the higher rep rewards.

[jettzypher]

I have a question I hadn't particularly seen asked. How high should I let mastery go before cutting it off and going into other stats? I currently have 100% and not sure if I'd want to go over that or not. Thanks in advance.

[Reniat]

there is no (reachable) cap for mastery.

If you are looking to boost survival, mastery will always be your best secondary stat outside of fights like Lei Shi where you only take magic damage, but that's a special case.

[eranwe]

Hi all!

I'm tanking in a 10 man guild, currently 4/12, with a DK and i'm a little bit confused with the reforges and the gems/enchants. I've read the thread but I don't have reached any conclusion.
I cant post any links so, if you want to hel me , the name of my char is Porriss, Eu-Dun Modr and my guild for the logs is NothingToLose Eu-Dun modr.
I'm having some issues with dmg taken and with the dps. My RL and me are trying to maximize my dps without letting my dmg taken reach high numbers.

Thanks for your help.

[Nillo]

Hi all!

I'm tanking in a 10 man guild, currently 4/12, with a DK and i'm a little bit confused with the reforges and the gems/enchants. I've read the thread but I don't have reached any conclusion.
I cant post any links so, if you want to hel me , the name of my char is Porriss, Eu-Dun Modr and my guild for the logs is NothingToLose Eu-Dun modr.
I'm having some issues with dmg taken and with the dps. My RL and me are trying to maximize my dps without letting my dmg taken reach high numbers.

Thanks for your help.

First of all - stop with the stamina gemming - you have 100k more hp than I do and I never felt like I needed that much hp on any off the throne fights. Also secondary stats have may more value on gems than Stamina anyway. You're also missing out on easily achievable and decent bonuses like the 160 haste on your belt....
Also Stoneskin Gargoyle is generally a really questionable choice (it's only good against high physical burst damage) - I'd generally go with Fallen Crusader since it's a good overall mix of bonuses.
With proper gemming you should be able to get to over 150% mastery (your mastery is incredibly low) while maintaining hit/exp soft cap.

After that you have to decide for yourself if you can sacrifice more defensive stats for Exp hardcap or some Haste.

[Reniat]

First of all - stop with the stamina gemming

While I agree that OP shouldn't go with stamina based on the circumstances on his post, stamina builds is still completely and 100% viable.


@eranwe
If you were asking just about dps, i'd agree with nillo about doing a mastery>accuracy>haste build with FC, however since damage taken is also a concern perhaps not all at once.

First try to get your mastery up and use RC over BT (it's about a 10% increase in dmg over BT) and get just hit soft cap. If that is stable and you aren't taking too much damage, then go for exp soft cap and add FC. If that's not a problem, start sacrificing more defensive stats for haste. You don't have to have the perfect build right away, and you may need to tweak it for a while before you find the sweet spot between defense and damage output.

[Nillo]

While I agree that OP shouldn't go with stamina based on the circumstances on his post, stamina builds is still completely and 100% viable.


@eranwe
If you were asking just about dps, i'd agree with nillo about doing a mastery>accuracy>haste build with FC, however since damage taken is also a concern perhaps not all at once.

It may be, but certainly not to that extent in 10m :O

[Reniat]

It may be, but certainly not to that extent in 10m :O

depends on the gear level and the healer comp. It may not be as useful as in a 25m scenario, but it's still there.

[Reniat]

Sure for fights where there is magic damage

the concept of EH and %dtps vs real dtps applies outside of magic fights as well.

[eranwe]

Thanks for everything. I've duplicate my dps and now I get less dmg .

I've change gems/reforges and now I have +150% mastery. But I have a new question. I use askmrrobot for reforjes, as it maximizes the stats, is it a good page for DK blood? I use the hit/exp build and it says to be undercapped on hit and exp stats. Is it recommended? I can get +30% mastery if I let those stats fall under the caps. like 7.25% hit and 6.68% exp.

Thanks again

[Reniat]

TI can get +30% mastery if I let those stats fall under the caps. like 7.25% hit and 6.68% exp.

Think of it like a dial. On one end you have survivability, and on the other you have dps. By going that little bit more into accuracy to cap each you are turning the dial towards dps, and if you take the mastery you are turning the dial towards survivability. 30% mastery is nothing to sneeze at, but if you honestly feel you don't need it then it might be worth going into the extra 1.07% accuracy.

[Nillo]

But I have a new question. I use askmrrobot for reforjes, as it maximizes the stats, is it a good page for DK blood?

It is okay if you enter the values yourself - the base settings on the other hand were utter crap the last time I checked it (value of armor too low -> it recommends the wrong meta gem)