Thoughts on Tanking and Blood going into Legion (LONG)

[Saybel]

More tanking dps nerfs incoming. And as blood DKs we know it will also nerf our survivability. Man just getting ready to abandon tanking alltogether this xpac.

Same, I'm not surviving another expansion of this shit. I will just roll Unholy at the first given moment.

[ShiyoKozuki]

And with the recent post where they said they are further nerfing Tank DPS, its going to move the blood DK from having an edge in at least one area to now being completely useless. All the other tanks take less damage but at least we had some dps out there. Im leveling another tank as we speak because I simply feel like the other tank classes just have so much better toolkits than blood right now. Prepare to see further nerfs to Death strike, consumption and or blood boil here in the next few days.

Fuck this dev team. They are blind.

Pretty close to just quitting now, honestly.
They're doing that thing where they listen to whining entitled casuals+mythic raiders who have no idea how the game works and ruining it.
Tank DPS nerfed because whining casual DPS.
Mythic+ nerfed and kara being dead on arrival loot wise because mythic raiders.

They sold a great game and now they seem to have lost their mind and have no idea what they're doing at all.

[siyX-]

The real tragedy here is Gift of Haste (cloak) got nerfed to 2% movement speed.

[Deleted]

Mythic+ nerfed and kara being dead on arrival loot wise because mythic raiders.

What.


Also I think I'm going to level a DH or Druid at this rate. Tried Warrior and it felt so much better than BDK already.

The real tragedy here is Gift of Haste (cloak) got nerfed to 2% movement speed.

It's fine, the 0.1% that got aggramar's will be able to play BDK as long the +speed is good! You might even be able to pretend you're on a horse!

[Deleted]

Same, I'm not surviving another expansion of this shit. I will just roll Unholy at the first given moment.

Pretty close to just quitting now, honestly.
They're doing that thing where they listen to whining entitled casuals+mythic raiders who have no idea how the game works and ruining it.
Tank DPS nerfed because whining casual DPS.
Mythic+ nerfed and kara being dead on arrival loot wise because mythic raiders.

They sold a great game and now they seem to have lost their mind and have no idea what they're doing at all.

I honestly just hate how Blizz was all like "WAIT GUYS, WE NEED DATA BEFORE BALANCING" and then, not even a couple days later "tanks doing too much damage hurr durr, we nerf them".
All of this just before the opening of raids. Yeah, not like I've spent the last three weeks gearing and progressing my Blood dk. If I didn't have the responsibility of being my guild tank I would have already switched to unholy or shadow priest.

[Grishnok]

I honestly just hate how Blizz was all like "WAIT GUYS, WE NEED DATA BEFORE BALANCING" and then, not even a couple days later "tanks doing too much damage hurr durr, we nerf them".
All of this just before the opening of raids. Yeah, not like I've spent the last three weeks gearing and progressing my Blood dk. If I didn't have the responsibility of being my guild tank I would have already switched to unholy or shadow priest.

A lot of tanks are going to be in this boat. I myself as well. Spent all my in game time getting my Maw upgraded and my gear ready to go. I am an officer in my guild and I am already in the process of looking for a replacement tank for me because Ill either go unholy or play a different class. Ill just tank as my blood dk in raids only on raid nights till whatever I choose to do catches up.

Exactly what they said they wanted to avoid this xpac with nerfs and making players feel like they wasted their time and AP on a spec that then becomes nerfed and unfun to play is happening before the first fucking raid tier even comes out. Its clear this dev team hasnt the slightest idea what they are doing and dont fully understand the impact such changes will have on the game. INC LONG ass queue times for dps and healers after the nerfs go live.

[Deleted]

Sky is falling...again. You know, even if they nerf damage they can boost survivability aka self heals by large margin.

[xpire]

Sky is falling...again. You know, even if they nerf damage they can boost survivability aka self heals by large margin.

and then the healers will cry "BUT THERE'S NOTHING TO HEAL ANYMORE, GUIEZ?????" and then Bob the casual is like "Blizz I'm being beaten by a DK on Skada as a healer, fix it"

[FertsBlert]

Sky is falling...again. You know, even if they nerf damage they can boost survivability aka self heals by large margin.

That doesn't fix the fact that 90% of the content in the expansion will be a mind numbing grind when your damage is that low it takes the same length of time we kill elites\rares in now (and no we are most definitely not the only ones and in fact it's not even just tanks doing that) to kill normal World Quest mobs.

[Deleted]

and then the healers will cry "BUT THERE'S NOTHING TO HEAL ANYMORE, GUIEZ?????" and then Bob the casual is like "Blizz I'm being beaten by a DK on Skada as a healer, fix it"

Well let's introduce Bob to mythic+ 15 then...

I'd rather have much more survivability at the cost of damage since the amount of AoE crap that is going on in the dungeons will make alot of healers cry. If I'm self-sustainable that means healers can focus more on a party.

- - - Updated - - -

That doesn't fix the fact that 90% of the content in the expansion will be a mind numbing grind when your damage is that low it takes the same length of time we kill elites\rares in now (and no we are most definitely not the only ones and in fact it's not even just tanks doing that) to kill normal World Quest mobs.

Normal mobs are melting away really fast now, elites do take ages to kill but we will get better gear so most of them will be trivial.

[Cirayne24]

Sky is falling...again. You know, even if they nerf damage they can boost survivability aka self heals by large margin.

That's because everyone is Cassandra when it comes to a class they are passionate about and things change. That's fine and perfectly acceptable, as no one wants to see, or perceive, changes for the worst... but it's an MMO and this is a roller coaster of buffs/nerfs. However, it's also a game filled with theory crafting so people will always attempt to game the system.

Honestly I love Blood and whenever I try to level another tank it feels boring or too different from my comfort zone... which is why I can't get my Warrior and DH to 110, even though it's easy and always good to have an alt or two. But even my casual level and my fondness for my class still makes me "cry" a little at changes I deem are unnecessary or potentially a detriment to other BDKs. No one wants to be the BrM of tanks

[Deleted]

Sky is falling...again. You know, even if they nerf damage they can boost survivability aka self heals by large margin.

Everything is up in the air at the moment: we don't know if Blizz will nerf blood, and how hard.
The panic is more than justified however. Most people in this thread are in a safe zone, in the sense they are not touched by the "most guilds won't take blood as a tank" argument, since we are all more or less already occuping a tank spot, but this time there are more than a few reasons to panic:
- Blizz is rather adpet to the "axe nerf" method, not knowing how to cut things moderately or to give compensation in return (Blood Boil nerf is a good example of this)
- damage, especially aoe, is what keeping blood from falling to BrM levels of badness
- damage is also the only thing that really distinguish blood from the other tanks, by nerfing it to standard tanks level they would effectively make us sub-par under every aspect
- unless they make huge buff DS heal and/or mastery there is actually very little room for improving our survivability, considering our flaws
- by nerfing damage, they actually cut off part of our selfhealing too

So again, the sky is not falling (yet), but all the people here that invested time and efforts on this spec (not only in Legion, but previous expansions too) have all the rights to be worried and angry about the incoming nerf. As Cirayne said, no one wants to be the BrM of the expansion.

[believesteve]

Well let's introduce Bob to mythic+ 15 then...

I'd rather have much more survivability at the cost of damage since the amount of AoE crap that is going on in the dungeons will make alot of healers cry. If I'm self-sustainable that means healers can focus more on a party.

- - - Updated - - -



Normal mobs are melting away really fast now, elites do take ages to kill but we will get better gear so most of them will be trivial.

This is a blanket hotfix nerf that leads me to believe it isn't going to be very well thought out. Don't assume that you are going to be compensated with anything after the nerfs.

[Deleted]

So those of you who are maining Blood DK. To a person who is off-speccing it. What traits would you say is a must have to be really good?

[Grishnok]

So those of you who are maining Blood DK. To a person who is off-speccing it. What traits would you say is a must have to be really good?

As of now none are "really good". Unending thirst is completely useless. UE is okay and the right gold trait is okay if you have a lot of crit. Blood DK artifact is pretty sad overall. Like our toolkit.

[Rainbowdaesh]

So those of you who are maining Blood DK. To a person who is off-speccing it. What traits would you say is a must have to be really good?

Blood is my OS, but I went down the right side to pick up Blood Feast, then went Grim Perseverance and Skeletal Shattering which you can get before the big AP jump and it improved my survivability a ton.

Planning on getting UE via Iron Heart and Veinrender next but I'm holding off on putting any more AP into my Blood weapon until I get my next rank of research done since I'm close to unlocking Shambler on my UH weapon.

[Cirayne24]

As of now none are "really good". Unending thirst is completely useless. UE is okay and the right gold trait is okay if you have a lot of crit. Blood DK artifact is pretty sad overall. Like our toolkit.

That's what my lock friend says about his artifact too... that the golden traits weren't even the best. No clue if what he said was right, but there's definitely nothing cool like the "Fueled by Pain" and the "Charred Warblades" talents DH have.

Man, if only I liked playing them! I think my dislike comes from them being so similar to how DKs used to be... change Demon Spikes to old Bone Shield, Immolation Aura to Unholy Blight, and Soul Cleave to Death Strike.... wait what?!

[ShiyoKozuki]

I honestly just hate how Blizz was all like "WAIT GUYS, WE NEED DATA BEFORE BALANCING" and then, not even a couple days later "tanks doing too much damage hurr durr, we nerf them".
All of this just before the opening of raids. Yeah, not like I've spent the last three weeks gearing and progressing my Blood dk. If I didn't have the responsibility of being my guild tank I would have already switched to unholy or shadow priest.

IMO the problem is just that this entire expac has just been a gigantic bait and switch.
"We want mythic+ to be a separate form of progression and will focus heavily on 5 man content this expac"

• Mythic+ loot nerfed to ilvl850 1 week before releleasing it
• Kara loot in 7.1 is only ilvl 850, dead on arrival
• Mythic+ loot nerfed to 2 items per run instead of 5

Next up they said "We won't do huge sweeping changes to classes and won't make people feel like they wasted time on their artifact"

• Nerfing tanks damage

Finally "We don't want set bonuses to be as impactful as HFC"

• Buffs set bonuses to extreme levels
• Unholy 4 piece is now insanely strong and probably over 10% damage by itself.

Just...bait and switch. Get people to buy the expac with false promises, then completely change their mind before even the first content patch is released.

[Saybel]

IMO the problem is just that this entire expac has just been a gigantic bait and switch.
"We want mythic+ to be a separate form of progression and will focus heavily on 5 man content this expac"

• Mythic+ loot nerfed to ilvl850 1 week before releleasing it
• Kara loot in 7.1 is only ilvl 850, dead on arrival
• Mythic+ loot nerfed to 2 items per run instead of 5

Next up they said "We won't do huge sweeping changes to classes and won't make people feel like they wasted time on their artifact"

• Nerfing tanks damage

Finally "We don't want set bonuses to be a impactful as HFC"

• Buffs set bonuses to extreme levels
• Unholy 4 piece is now insanely strong and probably over 10% damage by itself.

Just...bait and switch. Get people to buy the expac with false promises, then completely change their mind before even the first content patch is released.

This pretty much, I've gone from really happy to really disappointed in 3 days. I never thought a few patch notes could destroy my will to play so much.

[Grishnok]

This pretty much, I've gone from really happy to really disappointed in 3 days. I never thought a few patch notes could destroy my will to play so much.

Im exactly the same. Guild was asking where I was in discord yesterday. As an officer and guild MT they were pretty let down to hear that I had lost the majority of my desire to play at all knowing that the spec/class that I had invested so much time into over the last 3 weeks was probably about to be rendered useless and even more ineffective.