What's the typical tank spec now?

[dreameer111]

Has the regular spec changed since last tier. I just remember it being 31/8/2, or is that still the way to go this tier.

[Deleted]

Has the regular spec changed since last tier. I just remember it being 31/8/2, or is that still the way to go this tier.

Most will drop the free interrupt in frost tree and put it in blood f.e. crimson scourge, bcb, ab,.. since there's no need to interrupt (frequently).

[Darsithis]

There is no one consensus. You can check out my spec (click on sig image) for a perfectly fine I was using in T13 to tank until I switched to DW frost. Unlike other classes, we have a lot more optional talents. You don't have to take lichborne (I don't), you don't HAVE to take disease talents, you can up dps with some of the blood talents..

As long as you take the non-crit and survivability talents along with at least 2/3 Scent of Blood, you're fine.

[Darkfrosty]

Should deff pick up Lichborne though especially if you are going to be tanking heroics. HM Yorshaj alone its amazing for since you have to solo tank and that debuff can stack up pretty high.

[Skygoneblue]

1. It may help to know the comp of the OP's raid group to know if he needs to spec Abom's Might, etc.

2. We don't need another Lichborne vs. No Lichborne thread.

[SSHA778]

All of these are absolutely mandatory:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/tal...haVbb!!!bhQklm

Your best personal option for the filler is Blood Parasite, as it does the most DPS and it does incidental healing, so I'll just assume you do that.

Then you reach this point:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/tal...VbeQV!!!bhQklm

Where you have to put in 2 fillers. Filling out Blood Parasite should be a given if you're using the same logic as the first time. After that, your best option is probably 3/3 Bladed Armor. Then you have to put in 2 points into Epidemic.

Which leaves you with 8 floating points to put anywhere. Figure out what your and your raid's needs are, and spec accordingly. Personally, I would never give up a cooldown, which is why I have Lichborne, even if I rarely use it.

[flashur]

Should deff pick up Lichborne though especially if you are going to be tanking heroics. HM Yorshaj alone its amazing for since you have to solo tank and that debuff can stack up pretty high.

With blood shield for melee attacks, VB/Mirror/AMS, you really don't need Lichborne on that fight.

[Lichborne]

All those saying you don't "need" Lichborne are simply wrong. An extra CD, even as situational as Lichborne, is better than anything else you can get. If you want to slack and not play to the full potential of your class, don't get it. But it's exactly like saying "Oh, you don't need that 397->410 upgrade, its only a bit of mastery/avoidance". I'm sure you will never pass on HC items .

With the 500% threat modifier making threat generation obsolete, surviving is our number one responsibility, followed by DPS (Which is a very minor thing in 25m, and only minor in 10 - if playing with proper players). Anything you can add to our arsenal of CDs is more than any extra DPS/threat, especially if your healers are not overgearing the fight you're progressing on (I assume we're talking progression here).

The proper survivability oriented spec would be this, with 2 extra points. You can put 1 in SoBlood if you're not feeling like you have too much RP (More RP = more RS = more RE procs = more DS). Abomination's Might if none brings it for some odd reason. BCB for extra DPS, or Crimson Scourge for easier AoE and some extra RP. For the 3rd major glyph, its not a really important choice anyway. You could go with BS/AMS/DRW depending on what you're lacking.

By the way, don't look at my spec, its currently my off spec and I'm only using it for the lulz and ranks

[MorphexEU]

I am currently running with this specc. And it's working pretty good for me. It's built up around damage output and runic power regeneration, and I've therefore specced into Crimson Scourge.

Now you probably wonder why I have specced into Crimson Scourge instead of Abomination's Might, concerning damage out put. Or into Butchery for runic power regeneration. Well, the answer is that each blood boil generates 10 runic power (which in the end of a raid boss fight is more then butchery generate). Blood boil also deals a nice amount of damage, ~10k hits and ~20k crits from blood boil which is even free to use.

On for instance our last Ultraxion HC kill I had 16 proccs from Crimson Scourge, that equals to 160 runic power over a 5 minutes and 58 sec long fight, where butchery would have generated 143 runic power.

I could have dropped Virulence, but I find my diseases dealing a lot of damage with 3/3 in virulence. My diseases dealt more damage then heart strike, and almost as much as rune strike on the fight linked above.

[Barael]

Lichborne is a pos cooldown that requires you to sit on a huge amount of RP that you could instead be using to proc more RE and get more Death Strikes. And all that for just 6 talent points you say? A bargain at twice the price!

[Nillo]

All those saying you don't "need" Lichborne are simply wrong. An extra CD, even as situational as Lichborne, is better than anything else you can get. If you want to slack and not play to the full potential of your class, don't get it. But it's exactly like saying "Oh, you don't need that 397->410 upgrade, its only a bit of mastery/avoidance". I'm sure you will never pass on HC items .

With the 500% threat modifier making threat generation obsolete, surviving is our number one responsibility, followed by DPS (Which is a very minor thing in 25m, and only minor in 10 - if playing with proper players). Anything you can add to our arsenal of CDs is more than any extra DPS/threat, especially if your healers are not overgearing the fight you're progressing on (I assume we're talking progression here).

Yeah how dare anyone refuse to pick up a talent that costs a few thousand dps from many wasted talent points and a glyph spot just to pick up a cd that requires sitting on rp and you may or may not need at all.

It's ok in 25 man where a few thousand dps from a tank won't matter, but try doing that on 10 man bosses when you're still struggling with enrage timers.


My base spec looks something like this:
http://wowtal.com/#k=1uAb1NUh.bqj.deathknight.
remaining points go to either of those:
Crimson Scourge: AoE damage + RP generation
Scent of Blood: RP generation (usually 1 point on fights with lots of adds or downtime between boss attacks and 2 for the rest)
Runic Power Mastery: Allows for DS at 100 RP to make the best use out of Glyph of DS and overall more RS due to being able to pool more RP.
Blood Caked Blade: Single target dps.

[SSHA778]

The proper survivability oriented spec would be this, with 2 extra points.

Glyph of DS does far more damage than Glyph of HS.

---------- Post added 2012-01-27 at 12:46 PM ----------

Lichborne is a pos cooldown that requires you to sit on a huge amount of RP that you could instead be using to proc more RE and get more Death Strikes. And all that for just 6 talent points you say? A bargain at twice the price!

Pooling RP barely, barely, barely, affects your total DS output. If pooling your RP is affecting your DS output, you don't know how to pool. Give up 2 RS's at the start of a fight = 60 RP base, treat as your "zero," and you've given up, on average, 1 extra rune for an on-demand 35k+ heal, with another coming shortly after it because another 20 RP isn't hard to get in a pinch. Given that you shouldn't be using Lichborne reactively in the first place, you should be able to have that 20 RP already for 2 DC's. After that, a DS should be up shortly and that will sustain you.

[Yoshimiko]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lent/secondary

This is the spec I use. I found blood worms were regularly under 1% of my healing, Butchery gives more survival, by giving more RP, which gives more rune procs. BCB is for the added damage, although Abombs might is more survival(only very very very slightly though).

I tried playign with crimson scourge, but honestly - you don't have the free GCDs to use it. I sat on many procs for their entire duration, so I dropped the talents all together. Endless Winter is an okay talent at best, I don't think it's worth it personally - because in my spec I'm swimming in RP. I've thought about going for virulence, but I just don't think this is worth more dps than my other set.

33/6/2 is the spec I use. Ignoring Abomb, hand of doom, Crimson Scourge, and Blood Parasites. I find this spec brings everything I want.

---------- Post added 2012-01-27 at 06:17 PM ----------

Lichborne is a pos cooldown that requires you to sit on a huge amount of RP that you could instead be using to proc more RE and get more Death Strikes. And all that for just 6 talent points you say? A bargain at twice the price!

Pooling (if done properly) doesn't lower your DS usage at all. 3/3 Runic Power Mastery instantly makes Death Strike glyph A LOT better. Ignoring that, My guild compares Lichborne to Lay on Hands, and quite accurately I feel. 1 Lichborne is worth roughly ~250k healing for me, sometimes higher depending on procs. Calling that worthless...well I just have to laugh at you for that. :P

We've even started using other dks death coil when needed, though this is fairly uncommon. We use it on Zon'ozz, and we used it on Chimaeron, but that's about it. Nothing like 500-600k mana-free heals, at the loss of..maybe 500 dps over the entire fight?

[SSHA778]

I found blood worms were regularly under 1% of my healing, Butchery gives more survival, by giving more RP, which gives more rune procs.

I don't think this is as significant as you are making it out to be.

2/2 Butchery = 24 RP / min

(24 RP / min) * (1 RS / 30 RP) * (92 landed_RS / 100 RS) * (.45 runes / 1 landed_RS) = .3312 runes / min

--> 3.02 minutes per 1 rune

Bloodworms may not heal you much, but they do heal the raid, and they do contribute some DPS. You probably do get healed by your bloodworms for more than 1 DS over the course of a fight.

[Yoshimiko]

I don't think this is as significant as you are making it out to be.

2/2 Butchery = 24 RP / min

(24 RP / min) * (1 RS / 30 RP) * (92 landed_RS / 100 RS) * (.45 runes / 1 landed_RS) = .3312 runes / min

--> 3.02 minutes per 1 rune

Bloodworms may not heal you much, but they do heal the raid, and they do contribute some DPS. You probably do get healed by your bloodworms for more than 1 DS over the course of a fight.

They are both EXTREMELY minor, I just prefer butchery over blood worms. It's all preference.

[Wih]

Butchery also gives you some free RP on a KB which isn't taken into account, which could be an extra RS on half the fights in DS. It's only a little bit more, but needs to be remembered. Also, unless you're hit capped you lose a minor amount of RP when you miss a RS, having Butchery gives you an incremental amount of RP so you don't end up capping from 96/116/126 RP - it saves you RP in the long run.
All said, I wouldn't drop Bloodworms for it. But Butchery is worth consideration for at least 1 point.

[Wingwraith]

Yeah how dare anyone refuse to pick up a talent that costs a few thousand dps from many wasted talent points and a glyph spot just to pick up a cd that requires sitting on rp and you may or may not need at all.

It's ok in 25 man where a few thousand dps from a tank won't matter, but try doing that on 10 man bosses when you're still struggling with enrage timers.

This.
I'd rather have the extra dps. It's kind of important on fights like H Boat and H Spine.

[Firebert]

This spec here also works for players of my persuasion.

[Mawaru]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...talent/primary

I've been running with that spec since the middle of Firelands or so. There's a lot of variations of blood DK specs that work fine, it really just depends on what you need in particular. My guild's DPS is low on average, so my spec is based a lot on increasing my DPS (which is the same reason I use Gurthalak a lot of the time).

[Deleted]

best right now is blood thanks to blood shield

Don't troll, please