New Demon Hunter tank, need advice

[Nilokeras64]

So I'm tanking for the first time in WoW, have always been a DPS. I like tanking on my DH, but still taking lots of damage. I'm currently stacking Vers>Haste using the Dreadleather set for the time being.

My main question is after looking at the guide on this forum, should I go ahead and start stacking Mastery>Crit instead of Vers>Haste? What is the difference in stacking Mastery>Crit instead of Vers>Haste? Is it just that much better? Why only for Mythic+? Does this stacking work for raids too?

Any other general tanking advice would also be great while playing as DH. Thanks guys!

[Erelaun]

You’re stacking crit & mastery i mythic+ for more damage not for survivability while vers & mastery are for the lather. Honestly if you just started with tanking just go with the highest item level.

Other tanking advices: Make clever usage of your cool downs. Especially meta with 50% life leach can make a difference on large trash packs. Other than that try to keep at least one stack of demon spikes rolling.

[Deleted]

you want around 24% haste for demon spikes uptime just a heads up

[Stormwolf64]

Thats the problem with demon hunter tank. If you don't play it perfectly, you suck.

[Marhault]

Thats the problem with demon hunter tank. If you don't play it perfectly, you suck.

You can argue that about a few of the tanks though.

Even the "easier" ones can really suck if they don't play it well.

[Nilokeras64]

You’re stacking crit & mastery i mythic+ for more damage not for survivability while vers & mastery are for the lather. Honestly if you just started with tanking just go with the highest item level.

Other tanking advices: Make clever usage of your cool downs. Especially meta with 50% life leach can make a difference on large trash packs. Other than that try to keep at least one stack of demon spikes rolling.

Gotcha. Well, as I said, I'm currently at ilvl 803. I'm currently running normals to get more experience and so far it seems to be going well. Must be doing something right haha.

I usually try to space my Demon Spikes out so that a charge is about halfway done once my current spikes end.

you want around 24% haste for demon spikes uptime just a heads up

Awesome, good to know and noted!

Thats the problem with demon hunter tank. If you don't play it perfectly, you suck.

Yea, I've noticed that while I was playing DPS. My healer friends all have problems with DH tanks and I would like to play one and give them as little trouble as possible.

[Marhault]

Yea, I've noticed that while I was playing DPS. My healer friends all have problems with DH tanks and I would like to play one and give them as little trouble as possible.

I've heard this on the forums a lot. My guess is a combination of people are bad but also that healers aren't expecting their health to spike, which is just going to happen by design. If you get used to it, you can time Soul Cleaves to heal yourself right back up.

[Munkky]

you want around 24% haste for demon spikes uptime just a heads up

This is an arbitrary number, there isn't a minimum to get and we can't reach the max.
@Nilokeras64

[Nilokeras64]

This is an arbitrary number, there isn't a minimum to get and we can't reach the max.
@Nilokeras64

Ah I see, I guess I'll just keep stacking then.


Is there a way to increase the spawn rate of soul fragments? It feels like sometimes they spawn very fast and other times not so much. I know I can use my artifact ability and constantly use it cooldown.

[Munkky]

Theres only 5 ways to spawn souls
RNG from Shear (roughly every 4)
Soul Carver
Fracture (Talent)
Chance on killing a target
Fallout (Talent)

Fracture is the only way to "increase the spawn rate" since Soul Carver is part of the rotation and is generally used on CD.

[Nikkaszal]

Theres only 4 ways to spawn souls
RNG from Shear (roughly every 4)
Soul Carver
Fracture (Talent)
Chance on killing a target

Fracture is the only way to "increase the spawn rate" since Soul Carver is part of the rotation and is generally used on CD.

Also the Fallout talent

[pmkaboo]

- vers > haste > mastery > crit
- dont forget to use the artifact skill
- fiery brand is a defensive cooldown
- fel devastation is a defensive cooldown

[minihalla]

On mythic+, you can stack Mastery>Crit. But if you enjoy raid, stack Vers>Haste.

- Don't use demon spikes while the boss use magic skills. Simple but important thing

[Munkky]

Also the Fallout talent

thanks
/10char

[Nilokeras64]

On mythic+, you can stack Mastery>Crit. But if you enjoy raid, stack Vers>Haste.

- Don't use demon spikes while the boss use magic skills. Simple but important thing

Well, I won't be doing raids for a little while. Still getting comfortable with dungeons and such. Should I go ahead and ditch the vers>Haste and start getting gear with Mastery>Crit on it?

[Bladeweaver]

You may need to experiment because there are different views on what works best. It's also symbiotic with the talents you take and your playstyle.

If you want to keep DS rolling back to back almost, mastery and haste may be a good investment along with talents like Feed the Demon that help reduce DS cd.

You can also choose to use DS as active mitigation for when its needed.

I personally prefer that route with a vers/haste route which seems to give my Healers less of a heart attack.

[Rawkfist]

The most important thing for not getting 2 shot by bosses is Demon Spikes uptime, woven between CDs (like Fel Devastation and Soul Barrier)

You'll see a mix of people swearing by soul leech and the other half swearing by Feed the Beast (since they're exclusive to each other, along with Fracture, but fractures really not that great) Ive tanked every dungeon, up to M+7, and Im our Off-Off-tank for Mythic Raiding (dps on the 2 tank fights) and Untill I get my set bonus I will swear by Feed the Beast. its a drastic difference on Demon Spikes uptime, and all of our healers who have healed me and our GM tank (DH who swears Soul Leech is better) say they prefer when Im tanking over him, and diggin through our Warcraftlogs info backs it up.

[Erelaun]

The most important thing for not getting 2 shot by bosses is Demon Spikes uptime, woven between CDs (like Fel Devastation and Soul Barrier)

You'll see a mix of people swearing by soul leech and the other half swearing by Feed the Beast (since they're exclusive to each other, along with Fracture, but fractures really not that great) Ive tanked every dungeon, up to M+7, and Im our Off-Off-tank for Mythic Raiding (dps on the 2 tank fights) and Untill I get my set bonus I will swear by Feed the Beast. its a drastic difference on Demon Spikes uptime, and all of our healers who have healed me and our GM tank (DH who swears Soul Leech is better) say they prefer when Im tanking over him, and diggin through our Warcraftlogs info backs it up.

Actually I use both.

Soul Leech: For Mythic+ dungeons since the healing with many mobs to hit is just awesome.

Feed the demon: In raids where I most of the time tank only one mob. (There I consider the 50% life leech just not worth it).

[Rawkfist]

Actually I use both.

Soul Leech: For Mythic+ dungeons since the healing with many mobs to hit is just awesome.

Feed the demon: In raids where I most of the time tank only one mob. (There I consider the 50% life leech just not worth it).

in M+'s if I dont have spikes up I get rocked luckily im almost always with a druid so when I know a shortage is coming I can call for a barkskin, I feel like it'd have too much downtime without FtB.

[Erelaun]

in M+'s if I dont have spikes up I get rocked luckily im almost always with a druid so when I know a shortage is coming I can call for a barkskin, I feel like it'd have too much downtime without FtB.

Well I’m running with a druid too. If I know that I’m going to pull a big group and thus going to eat a shit load of damage I use the meta cd on purpose (the 3 minute one) and than heal up with the leech. Also sometimes I tell my healer to deliberately let me die to prog last resort. Most of the time, at such large trash packs, I heal more than my healer.

But this I’d I’ll probably give soul barrier and feed the demon a try. Together with Fallout. But this is because of the necrotic debuff we have this ID.