I'm having difficulty with Gold Tank Proving Grounds as a Blood DK, Can anyone help?

[Marsc92]

I cleared Bronze/Silver with ridiculous ease but I have troubles between Waves 4-8 on Gold and no matter how hard I try I can't pass. A few major issues that I've had:

1. Lava/Fire. Is there any particularly efficient way to drag mobs onto fire without dying myself? I've just been walking over the top of the lava and popping AMS to position them directly on it. Can I jump over it and do something similar?

2. Dying. I seem to just take WAY too much damage. Should I reforge for Dodge/Parry + Mastery and ignore Exp/Hit entirely? Would this make a massive difference? I've been popping cooldowns regularly and have all 12 keybound.
Ambushers are the largest issue I have. I feel like maybe I should try to kill them faster but I can't see anything obvious that I've done wrong.

3. Talents/Glyphs. Are their any in particular I should be taking over others?

[Lighto73]

I cleared Bronze/Silver with ridiculous ease but I have troubles between Waves 4-8 on Gold and no matter how hard I try I can't pass. A few major issues that I've had:

1. Lava/Fire. Is there any particularly efficient way to drag mobs onto fire without dying myself? I've just been walking over the top of the lava and popping AMS to position them directly on it. Can I jump over it and do something similar?

2. Dying. I seem to just take WAY too much damage. Should I reforge for Dodge/Parry + Mastery and ignore Exp/Hit entirely? Would this make a massive difference? I've been popping cooldowns regularly and have all 12 keybound.
Ambushers are the largest issue I have. I feel like maybe I should try to kill them faster but I can't see anything obvious that I've done wrong.

3. Talents/Glyphs. Are their any in particular I should be taking over others?

I have only done a couple attempts at gold and ran into a similar problem with ambushers. The other tank in my guild said he let the monk take a few hits from them and would kill one first so that he wouldn't be killed by them.

I'm going to give it a try this week and see if that helps, seems a little dumb for the tank proving ground to require you to not tank something and let a healer/dps tank it but whatever.

[Deleted]

I have only done a couple attempts at gold and ran into a similar problem with ambushers. The other tank in my guild said he let the monk take a few hits from them and would kill one first so that he wouldn't be killed by them.

I'm going to give it a try this week and see if that helps, seems a little dumb for the tank proving ground to require you to not tank something and let a healer/dps tank it but whatever.

I know it's possible to finish gold without it but, I still let the NPC take a few hits.

Another solution is to try to kite as much as possible. Remorseless Winter is very good for that.

[Hellkung]

I cleared Bronze/Silver with ridiculous ease but I have troubles between Waves 4-8 on Gold and no matter how hard I try I can't pass. A few major issues that I've had:

1. Lava/Fire. Is there any particularly efficient way to drag mobs onto fire without dying myself? I've just been walking over the top of the lava and popping AMS to position them directly on it. Can I jump over it and do something similar?

2. Dying. I seem to just take WAY too much damage. Should I reforge for Dodge/Parry + Mastery and ignore Exp/Hit entirely? Would this make a massive difference? I've been popping cooldowns regularly and have all 12 keybound.
Ambushers are the largest issue I have. I feel like maybe I should try to kill them faster but I can't see anything obvious that I've done wrong.

3. Talents/Glyphs. Are their any in particular I should be taking over others?

Go Asphyxiate and RW as said above and try to kite the mobs and have RW stun them inside the lava pools, this requires precise timing. Asphyxiate is good for the ranged mobs, as if there are two you can stun one and DG the other. Use Asphyxiate frequently, especially on the big bugs as they have a nasty knock back.

I made it to Endless wave 17 like this without changing reforges, just talents.

But I also have this inkling feeling that Endless tank will be much much easier on my BRM.

[Deleted]

1. Fire/Lava - to get stuff in the fire I quickly move them next to a puddle, once I'm stood next to a puddle I run a semi-circle around the edge of the pool and the mob pathing takes the mob to the middle of the pool.

On some waves you can position yourself so when new mobs spawn and you taunt them their path takes them over a puddle.

Deathgrip has such a short cooldown that on waves that don't have the knockback insect you can grip them to puddles.

You can also just AMS if you have it up and walk over the puddle, the adds will follow you and you can just stop when you reach the edge of the puddle and the mobs are still inside.

2. I tried reforging out of all of my haste in favour of avoidance and it did not make a noticable difference for me.

Make sure you're keeping your big CDs for the waves you need them, when I'm doing endless I know which waves I want to save the longer CDs for.

3. Honestly didn't give much thought to my glyphs, sorry.

Like the poster above me said, Asphyxiate and Remorseless Winter are awesome - every mob aside from the Conquerors when they enrage (make sure you have a CD up when they do enrage) can be stunned. This means RW is basically a 5 second immunity CD which is very powerful - especially on waves with lots of mobs. Asphyxiate is very strong since you can use it 1 or 2 times per wave depending on spawn timers / wave type.

If you care about credentials I'm currently on 3,870 on endless.

[Deleted]

For me it was wave 10 that was utter chaos. I reforged into mastery and used 2 stam trinks. On wave 10 I stunned them with RW after I collected a good bunch of them trash and while they were stunned I popped army and then chanined my cds until they started dying. Wave 7-9 were not much compared to that 10. Keep RW them as much as possible and they will die.

[CausalXXLinkXx]

Do not use purgatory you instantly fail your challenge.

[Deleted]

I went up to endless wave 13 or 14, I failed to the 3 mobs that keep knocking you back. They all cast the knockback at the same time, which almost one-shot me, were it not that I was already on 60% hp. I did not have RW or Asphyxiate though, nor did I bother changing my reforging. The best advice I can give is to keep running when you have the enraged mobs on you, even when they're not enraged. With the knockbacks and their casted cone attack, they won't hurt as they'll spend most of their time catching up with you. Again, I didn't have RW. And thanks for the tip on the mobs taking damage from the lava pools, I always interrupted/DG'd them so they stopped casting.

The best advice however, is going back to the "old and proper" way of DK tanking, which means you should wait with your DS untill you take alot of damage, thus maximizing your selfheals. Spamming DS is not beneficial as your dps doesn't matter, as most of it is done by the monk.

[Yeew]

1 - AMS + Deathgrip. Dont jump over the fire, the mobs will follow you

2 - Mastery > Avoidance build + Purgatory + Track and timing death strikes

3 - Remorseless Winter was good


22 endless tank here

[Deleted]

One thing I'll add that others haven't mentioned yet

The npc in the middle can be controlled, after her mob dies or there less than 3 and she stops aoe'ing she will ALWAYS go for you target, meaning if you've got an ambusher and a pushback mob up, always target the ambusher, as as soon as shes finished she will swap to them for you, the control here is brilliant, and helps kill the ambushers

Also remember to change your target BEFORE it dies, as the npc will take you next target, which can be what ever one hit you next, unless you have it selected before the last dies

[Nessydk]

Some Tips:

Waves 2, 6 and 9 are usually the hardest.

Wave 2, Remorseless Rinter can help reset stacks of the bleed debuff.
Wave 6, don't overlap cooldowns or stuns. Their knock backs can be used to stall time. I usually killed 1-1.5 of the 3 Mantid Troopers before the time runs out. Then kill the remaining in the fire the next wave.
Wave 9, precast Army of the Dead in the last few seconds of round 8. After that use cds as needed.

One thing to note is you are not there to do a lot of damage, that is the npc's job for the most part. As tanks in proving grounds, we need to focus on staying alive and holding aggro off of the npc. Timing Death Strikes when you start spiking is important.

Use your stuns often in Proving Grounds. Remorseless Winter is amazing with a lot of mobs. You can even stun the Mogu Warlords before they become enraged (they can still cast it while stunned). When they enrage, be prepared to use cooldowns.

I generally didn't kill off the caster mobs first because I wanted the fire on the ground to last as long as possible. Use AMS when running through puddles, and position the mobs in them. They die a lot faster in them.

Use taunt and death grip wisely. Mobs can reset aggro often if you are not careful and the npc can die very fast to some sets of mobs.

Gear scales down like in challenge modes. The more sockets the better.

As Death Knights, we have many short cooldowns, some we can use every wave (Vampiric Blood, Bone Shield, ~Dancing Rune Weapon (1.5), Remorseless Winter)

Don't forget about Health Stones!

I have made it to wave 32 in endless.
My spec: Rolling Blood, Purgatory (works and saves lives), Asphyxiate, Death Pact, Runic Corruption, Remorseless Winter
Glyphs: Regenerative Magic, Dancing Rune Weapon (helps a lot if taunts are down), Death and Decay (for vermin packs)
Stamina Food and Flask

Stats: Mastery>6%hit and exp>dodge/parry

[Forgettable]

I completed this last night on my blood dk. I did it in full dps gear, which honestly I probably should have changed to tank gear, but meh.

Here are some things to do:

1. Spec Remorseless Winter and Asphyxiate if you have not done so already.
2. Use Remorseless Winter whenever you have 2+ mobs on you. Make sure Asphyxiate is available when new waves start so you can use it on the casters to interrupt their fire spewing.
3. Avoid the fire. You don't need to drag the mobs into it. It gives you less to worry about.
4. Always save a death strike. Wait until you're approximately half health, or less, then death strike. You should heal to full health.
5. Make sure for wave 10 you have icebound fortitude and remorseless winter available for the two big adds. Pop remorseless once the adds have been alive for 10 seconds, and pop icebound fortitude the instant they enrage.

[solid77]

Do not use purgatory you instantly fail your challenge.

not true, it works fine.

[Soularpower]

I only died on Gold I think 2 times last Tuesday, all I did was make sure to use remorseless winter and ... I barely remember it, so that's the only tip I have!

[Wrathnruin]

I have made it to wave 8 using GF as I thought it would help with grabbing the banana chuckers. Going to hit again tonight with RW.

[funf]

hello guys,

I went to 28 endless (dies at the end of wave 29). Currently I can't clear the 6th wave...

I had trouble clearing gold too. I can recommand a thing : use flasks/elixirs they really help a lot since you loose so stats (I also have 2 stamina trinkets).
I had only trouble on the 10th wave in gold. Having IBF + VB + BS available on that wave help me finishing it.

I use GF to put all the mobs in the fire (I grip the caster inside it without CC and then I grip the rest of the mobs inside). I find it really helpfull. The only problem with this is that there aren't that many wave with it. I think I'll retry endless with RW and see if it helps.

I don't know if it matter but I use my DPS weapon and the DPS cloak.

[Wrathnruin]

Tried again yesterday after switching GF to RW. Was working my way through wave 9 with no problems when my world latency hit 1500. <sigh> Guess I am starting over. lol

[Aughyssul]

hello guys,

I went to 28 endless (dies at the end of wave 29). Currently I can't clear the 6th wave...

I had trouble clearing gold too. I can recommand a thing : use flasks/elixirs they really help a lot since you loose so stats (I also have 2 stamina trinkets).
I had only trouble on the 10th wave in gold. Having IBF + VB + BS available on that wave help me finishing it.

I use GF to put all the mobs in the fire (I grip the caster inside it without CC and then I grip the rest of the mobs inside). I find it really helpfull. The only problem with this is that there aren't that many wave with it. I think I'll retry endless with RW and see if it helps.

I don't know if it matter but I use my DPS weapon and the DPS cloak.

For waves X6 of endless (6, 16, 26, etc.), I just tend to use army of the dead. Waves X5 have a flamecaster, so I just let him finish his lava spewing, then use the pools to quickly kill off any mobs. This leaves me with 4-6 seconds before X6 starts, allowing a full channel of AotD. The ghouls usually last until one mantid is dead, which makes the wave a whole lot easier.

Edit: Am I the only one who had absolutely zero trouble with ambushers? I didn't kite them, stun them, anything. I just got them away from her and...Tanked, I guess.

[Belloc]

I can't comment on the DK stuff but, for lava, I've been positioning myself on the other side of lava and grabbing mobs as they spawn/run to the middle, so they have no choice but to run to me and stop in the middle of lava. If, however, I'm already tanking them, I just pop a speed boost (if it's up) and run through the lava, take a couple stacks, and let them sit in it.

Aside from grabbing them after they spawn and having them run through the lava to get to you, there's really not much finesse in it. It's usually safe to take a few ticks, especially if you have a stun or something that you can use to give yourself a break from the damage. Or you can stun them in advance and then move around a lava pool, causing them to run to you after you've already positioned yourself.

[Deleted]

1. Remorseless winter
2. anti-magic shell and walk just over the fire, so the mobs following you have to go into the fire and stay in the fire, while you're safe. OR
3. Stand behind the fire and strangulate a flame add
4. Use your trinkets/cd's to reduce incoming damage
5. Dancing rune weapon is free to use now.
6. Be sure to use army somewhere where you're getting a LOT of damage
7. As for the ambushers: remorseless winter and run away when theyre stunned.
8. "forget" to taunt (kind of cheating imo)