[Guardian] Tanking Kor'Kron Dark Shaman HC

[Deleted]

Hello there

I main feral spec, but will likely be the third tank for heroic Dark Shaman 10 man progress next week.
While I know how to play guardian, I've never had to tank any serious progression content with it, and as such am not completely updated on the newest theorycrafting.

First off this is my armory:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lkarl/advanced

1. Will it be necessary to regem my gear? Which other gemming choices have I got, when one of my trinkets is a rune of reorigination? Stamina? Haste?
2. I'll be re-reforging my gear for this priority, correct me if it's wrong: Hit/exp (hard caps) > Crit (100% crit with rune procced preferably) > Haste > Mastery
3. Damage pattern for this fight. Spiky I would guess (I'll probably be tanking the guy who spawns the elemental lines)?! Any significant damage is magic?
4. Cooldowns are best saved for specific moments?
5. For how long does the tank swap debuff last?
6. Any specific talents/glyphs/trinkets you would recommend?
7. Anything I should know about the fight/tips.

Thank you.

EDIT:
8. Should I be getting the tanking legendary cloak for this?

[Deleted]

You stack the debuff to 5, however it doesnt hurt that badly, use barkskin for the appplications, or whenever dmg is getting intense, avoid tanking blobs, they hurt, and yeah reforge to crit and just keep rune, it's pretty neat as guardian

[Braindwen]

2. I'll be re-reforging my gear for this priority, correct me if it's wrong: Hit/exp (hard caps) > Crit (100% crit with rune procced preferably) > Haste > Mastery

You'll probably be WELL over 100% crit with rune proc'd, but that's fine. Rune's pretty terrible in Soo gear for bears, but it shouldn't be too bad. The rest of the stats you listed are right.

5. For how long does the tank swap debuff last?

30 seconds. You'll typically be swapping at 4 stacks, though the debuff wears off ~1s before his 5th cast so you might go to 5 on occasion.

6. Any specific talents/glyphs/trinkets you would recommend?

DoC works well to help top off the healers/other tank up there. You won't really need it for yourself (FR too OP), but it's a handy backup if you're in a jam too.

8. Should I be getting the tanking legendary cloak for this?

It's definitely better than the DPS option, though if you have healers up there with you it shouldn't matter.

It's really not a bad fight for the group with Haromm. Maybe for the healers if you have any up there, but not for the tanks .

[exochaft]

1. Will it be necessary to regem my gear? Which other gemming choices have I got, when one of my trinkets is a rune of reorigination? Stamina? Haste?
...
3. Damage pattern for this fight. Spiky I would guess (I'll probably be tanking the guy who spawns the elemental lines)?! Any significant damage is magic?
4. Cooldowns are best saved for specific moments?
...
7. Anything I should know about the fight/tips.

Figured I'd attempt to answer the questions that weren't addressed directly.

1.) You shouldn't need to regem, especially since you're going to be on Haromm anyways (I'm making this assumption since tanking Wavebinder is likely a normal tank's job, it's more technical and requires more gear).

3.) This is going to depend on your healers and how your raid deals with the mechanics. In my raid, we always go to 10-stack of the debuff because... I won't lie, it's a boring tank fight for the first 50% of the encounter. Beyond the tanking debuff, it's rather easy to get hit by Foul Stream under the boss, even if it doesn't target you. Once the boss drops below 50%, the Ash Totem is the source of potential spike damage since everyone gets hit by the Falling Ash detonation, however this is more problematic on DPS/healers since they could have Iron Tomb and/or Toxic Mist on them at the same time. The tank debuff is pretty much the most intensive "burst" you'll see.

4.) There's no real mandatory time to use CDs, maybe if you have a high stack of the debuff and the Falling Ash is about to detonate at the same time. Otherwise, I save them for... refer to #7.

7.) About the only deviation from a pure tank-and-spank specifically dealing with the tank is the Ashen Wall. To clarify, after he finishes the cast, he will create that wall on top of the active tank parallel to the front of the boss (and their "melee" range is fairly decent). While this is purely optional, my co-tank and I stack the walls on top of each other, which is where I tend to use my larger survival CD's. Otherwise, the most damage-intensive part of the encounter as a tank occurs at 25%, since the boss uses Bloodlust.

On the off-chance that you're actually tanking Wavebinder instead of Haromm, most of the encounter is managing space and not standing still when the boss uses Foul Geyser.

I'm not sure how much of a DPS check the encounter is on 10man, but execution generally makes more of a difference than odd gearing choices towards DPS as a tank. I find the damage very low as a tank, so using the DPS cloak isn't that big of a deal. If you only have the DPS tanking cloak and money's tight, just use it unless you're dying a lot and the tanking cloak proc would've saved you. For our initial kill, I was completely DPS-oriented and had no issues.

[Kraineth]

I tank this for our Heroic Dark Shamans kill every week in just feral gear. With the 3 tank strat tanking Haromm(walls/tank debuff) You tank swap every 4 stacks of the debuff. Damage is laughable on tanks outside of the 4 applications, which the last two can be barkskinned. The only dangerous part of the fight comes after 50% when placing the walls and Falling Ash lining up with the tank debuff.

Overall a very boring fight for the two tanks on Haromm, but at least its a consistent strat that just needs decent dps to pull off.

As a side note, the only time we took tank debuff higher than 4 stacks was right after moving haromm into that corner in the north of the room. Moving him there can delay his ability enough that the tank who takes him after the move should take 5 so the other tank doesnt accidentally refresh, had that happen a few times to me but Survivaly instincts was enough to take it up to 8-9 stacks and barkskin+Might of ursoc was used for 6-7.

[Deleted]

Thanks a lot

- - - Updated - - -

Just two quick questions:

1. I have the normal mode talisman of bloodlust. I guess this will this be a better choice than RoR normal double upgraded?!
2. I managed to get myself the guardian 2 piece, but my hp seems awfully low compared to what other tanks have. Is this any reason for concern on this fight?

[Deleted]

If you have a caster weapon then HoTW is pretty potent for this fight. It allows you to hurricane spam the 2 dogs and 2 bosses on the pull for around 400k dps (in my gear). Then later on use a Drums of Rage or if you have a Resto Shammy up there healing with you, pop Hero with HoTW again and wrath spam Haromm letting your co tank get to 7/8 stacks.
Allowed me to rank like 60th in my shitty 540 offspec Guardian gear.