Dk Tanking, Wtfbbq?

[JonBeMerkin]

Started a DK to try out tanking and seeing DKs shred up PvP and Dungeons thought i would start one up and try it out. I'm not much of a quester so i'm planning on doing dungeons to 85 so i'll be tanking. Thing is, i can't seem to hold aggro without death and decay.Also i have like 8 cooldowns and a 10 spell rotation it can be overwhelming sometimes...

Heres my rotation without death and decay: Icy Touch>Plague Strike>Pestilence>Hear Strike 3- or Blood Boil 3+.

Takes 3 GCDs to get up my diseases and seriously by the time i catch that icy touch i have already lost aggro. Any tips or suggestions someone can give me or just heads up? My main is a bear tank its a fairly simple rotation with not many CDs to handle, if Dks are really CD dependent then maybe i need to re-roll...

Oh i'm also level 69, heres my armory if it helps at all http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...n/Faynt/simple

[Korlash]

use Heart Strike. it works kinda like a cleave

[Diokhan]

you should have deathstrike and heart strike in blood tree.
Those are your agro makers + runic strike (uses runic power)

Those attacks should keep you on top of agro.

[Aydinx2]

Heres my rotation without death and decay: Icy Touch>Plague Strike>Pestilence>Plague Strike 3- or Blood Boil 3+.
Oh i'm also level 69, heres my armory if it helps at all http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...n/Faynt/simple

Why are you not using Deathstrike?
Deathstrike -> spread diseases -> win.

[Deleted]

When tanking with my DK at low levels I mostly just ignored diseases by the time you spread them you've lost aggro it's more trouble than taking a bit more damage, just use heart strike / death strike and rune strike or blood boil for big groups.

[JonBeMerkin]

Sorry i meant to say Heart strike not Plague Strike lol

[Riavan]

Yeah, I normally spread the diseases as soon as possible. Doesn't one of the strikes hit multiple targets with a glyph or something?

[JonBeMerkin]

When tanking with my DK at low levels I mostly just ignored diseases by the time you spread them you've lost aggro it's more trouble than taking a bit more damage, just use heart strike / death strike and rune strike or blood boil for big groups.

Yeah, takes 3 GCDs to get them up sometimes i just wait for Death and Decay to come off cooldown even when people are like go! i have to make an excuse why i have to pause for a few seconds

[Aydinx2]

Sorry i meant to say Heart strike not Plague Strike lol

Well then just HS sooner.
HS -> BB (two times perhaps) -> diseases if you got the time.
Don't worry with diseases untill you have Death and Decay, then you can start with diseases.
At lvl 85 i always: bone shield -> horn of winter -> pull with DnD -> Deathstrike -> outbreak -> pestillence -> runestrike/heartstrike to keep aggro.

[Deleted]

At lower level it's probably better off using a Blood Boil at the start for some initial snap agro, then diseases ---> Pest --> Heartstrike/Deathstrike

[JonBeMerkin]

At lower level it's probably better off using a Blood Boil at the start for some initial snap agro, then diseases ---> Pest --> Heartstrike/Deathstrike

I don't know what it is but i tried that,i think it can be that there just doing too much DPS since its mostly people with full boas but i tried just spamming blood boil on pull didn't work :\

[Blackmist]

At that level, just DnD when you have it, and Heart Strike/Death Strike when you don't.

Things die very quickly at that area, and you'll be short on abilities/runes. Was the same for DKs at the very end of Wrath. Everything took so long, they were getting kicked from groups for being too slow, when the alternative was running in with nothing to grab aggro with and getting kicked for being a shitty tank... ¬_¬

The packs tend to last a bit longer in Cata so there it's less of an issue. And you get Outbreak as well for those diseases.

[Arcanimus]

Personally, I've been leveling as Blood in DPS gear, and have only lost aggro when people intentionally ignore what target I'm hitting. And I let them die, and it never happens again. I usually pull large and open with DnD, and pop a cooldown, be it Vampiric Blood, Icebound Fortitude, or Dancing Rune Weapon. I don't bother with diseases, and usually do DnD, Blood Boil x1, Death Strike x1, Blood Boil x1 or Rune Tap, then Death Strike and Blood Boil as runes come up, dumping RP into Rune Strikes as I exceed the DS glyph maximum(50), or if all runes are on cooldown.

[shadowkras]

Takes 3 GCDs to get up my diseases and seriously by the time i catch that icy touch i have already lost aggro.

Blood Boil twice, problem solved. They will be dead before you lose aggro.

[Septik]

Yea id agree, don't worry about disease tanking untill u get outbreak(i think thats its name), that puts all 3 on a once. Even then id still start out with a dnd/bloodboil to get initial aggro. On low lvl stuff i only used diseases on boss fights cause trash usually died too fast to worry about it. Only really used dnd, heart, death & runic strike in my rotation, I had the other strikes on bar as filler/rune dumping, but rarely used them.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I normally spread the diseases as soon as possible. Doesn't one of the strikes hit multiple targets with a glyph or something?

yeh, ur thinking of howling blast, top tier Frost talent
not much use here

at that level, like others have said, dont worry about diseases
heart strike up to 3 mobs, bloodboil more than 3, easy aggro

[duselette]

make sure you are in blood presence while tanking...

[Zao]

I suggest two things:
1. Mark a skull. By the time skull is dead, you'll have enough threat on the rest.
2.don't bother with disieases before you have Outbreak. As people said it simply takes too long to spread them. BB can also be safely ignored unless it's a really large pack. Try using HS all the way through an RS the ones you didn't get with the cleave.
An addon like threat plates will help you greatly with that.

[Insonia]

When tanking with my DK at low levels I mostly just ignored diseases by the time you spread them you've lost aggro it's more trouble than taking a bit more damage, just use heart strike / death strike and rune strike or blood boil for big groups.

if your losing aggro then your doing it wrong easiest way to get your diseases about is simply this outbreak on the main target when you run in and spread the seocnd you get there then go to your other moves and keeping your diseases up is gonna be even easier next patch coz you can sped for outbreak to have a 30 second cooldown

[kerghan]

Oh god, where to start...

Ok, as a career DK tanker and active reader/researcher, I feel like I have some authority about how to do this. I also leveled in cata, exclusively off dungeons.

1) Diseases are good, they are not god.
-- it's a DoT. DoTs are damage. Damage is not your problem. What they do give you are debuffs that reduce target damage, etc etc. Diseases are a secondary priority once you have firm aggro. Outbreak at later levels will help this a lot.

2) Getting aggro
-- a known problem at low levels. Essentially you have to start every pull with DnD, BB's when necessary, and do your fair share of tab-targeting. Keep everything in your frontal cleave if possible. Footnote to that: do not use grip to pull. Use grip to grab a caster, or yoink a runner.
-- You do not have rune strike right off the bat, nor do you have dark command. Essentially you are tanking without "Taunt." But your "Concecration" / "Tunderclap" is very OP by comparison, so don't worry about it.

3) Strikes
-- I never want to hear you say words like "necrotic strike," "plague strike x(anything more than 1)," or any strikes involving an unholy or frost rune unless it's death strike. Really, they made it stupid-simple. If you're frost, you use frost runes. Talents actually remove blood runes entirely. Unholy uses unholy runes. Blood... you guessed it, is 100% dependent on your blood runes.
-- The core of your rotation is heart strike. HS HS HS. It is a cleave. It generates aggro like mad, it only costs one rune. Use it. Second priority is Death strike. It's a self heal, and it's OP. Or rather, it is what compensates for you not having a shield*. "Normal" tanks simply dont take damage. You soak it and heal through it. Your health bar will never stop moving, and if the healer doesn't have experience with DK's they will shit brix at first. It's groovy. If you're on top of your cd's, you're still bloody unkillable. (ba-doom, ching)
(*once you get mastery, it literally does make a shield. Then it gets a smidge more complicated on the timing, but not heavily)

4) Defense
-- Bone shield up on cooldown. While it's up, you take 20% less damage. That's massive.
-- You should have Dancing Rune Weapon pretty early on. Use it almost equally on CD. Increases parry by (a lot), and with the glyph also increases threat generation.
-- Other CD's like rune tap, IBF, AMS, and VapBood are used situationally. IBF comes when you either a) know something big is coming, or b) your healer OOM'd, dps are dead, and the general shit flyith everywhere, and you have to "lock it up" and pray whatever it is dies soon. AMS is way strong, but only on magic. Fire is magic too. Rune tap and Vamp blood have glyphs. Use them. The vamp blood glyph removes it's instant-heal, but increases the effectiveness of heals on you and your party to a lesser degree. It's a "quiet" CD, but powerful in a pinch.

5) Runic
-- at the beginning you will sit around with a lot of RP and not much to do with it. Your choices are DRW (cough, which is on cooldown, cough), and deathcoil. DC doesn't do you a helluva lot of good since it won't heal like a warlock's, and it's damage is underwhelming. But it's ranged, so you can use it to start a pull or snipe a runner. Once you get Rune Strike, you can almost flush DC except for situational ranged. Runestrike becomes your primary dump once you get it. Build up 2-3 hits worth of runic (around 80) and then tab-target spam it. Builds lots of aggro, and gives your runes a sec to recharge. This is usually followed by deathstrike, and then a heartstrike, and maybe another heartstrike, and look - time for more runestrikes.
PS: Blood strike is "supposed" to be your single-target strike. Except that it costs the same as a heart-strike, and HS's damage on the primary target is waaay more than BS's. So... why bother?


Unfortunately I can't give you a better "rotation" than that, since tanking is about situation and priority. But hopefully I cleared up a few things.

You'll also want to check out Elitist Jerks at: http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t125290-...e_tanking_4_x/ It's geared for end-game raiding, so take it with a grain of salt for leveling and 5-mans. (example: they are a fan of lichborne and self-deathcoils as a heal. This is sillytalk now that healers don't suck. Put your points in diseases and DnD (unholy tree) where it can do you some good in a 5-man)