Doesn't blood tanking mechanic seem complicated to you?

[Haven]

Recently I found myself in a predicament. As I was trying to explain to a person who's been out of this game for several years how blood tanking works... I had to spend several minutes explaining the whole deal. And like the title says, doesn't the whole set of rules and conditions around the core devices of blood tanking seem a bit too much of a clusterfuck?

In essence, blood DK tanks using a strike that deals damage to an enemy and heals you for percentage of the damage you have sustained from non-player sources during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 7% of your maximum health), cannot be parried, and each time you heal yourself with it while only in Blood Presence, you gain a percentage of the amount healed as a Physical damage absorption shield, and this value is increased by a mastery stat. In order to actually be able to take advantage of this mechanic, you have to use add-ons like Bloodshield Tracker.

In comparison, Warriors tank using shields that block 30 or 60% of damage with certain chance depending on mastery. Note how this takes only one short sentence, while DK's one took four lines of text.

I was thinking of something more simple. What about the following:
Death Strike healing for a fixed amount, say, 10% of DK's max health.
Mastery would increase the heal depending on how low DK's current health is.
A passive ability would allow him to store overhealing received from his own abilities for 5-6 sec in a manner similar to Vengeance (so that it neither adds up infinitely nor vanishes all at once).

Don't be too harsh judging this concept, it's very rough, but I offer it as an alternative to the existing mess (a working mess though, I have to admit).

[Airwaves]

No... Nothing is complicated in wow.

[Count Zero]

You can make anything sound more or less complicated.

"DKs tank by healing and shielding themselves with Death Strike" is as simplified a version of how they work as "Warriors tank by using a shield to block a portion of some attacks".

[Bullettime]

The current design isn't complicated.

When you break down the "science" of it and get some practice, it's not bad to manage at all. But it certainly takes more work to pick up and do correctly than other tanks and is more timing dependent, giving the spec a slightly steeper learning curve for the new Blood. Monks are similar in that regard with an absolutely massive difference between a good and bad player.

Basically, Blood just has a higher skill floor than say a Warrior, Paladin, or Druid.

[bals]

I feel that all three choices are bad and you should feel bad.

[SlippyCheeze]

No. I agree that the blood mechanisms are mostly pretty simple. The real complexity is in the runes and runic power. Now, monks, they have complex abilities in comparison but a fairly obvious power system. Easypants ya.

Death strike doesn't need an addon to play either - it might help with optimal use but you can play quite competitively with "ds when you get hit hard" without anything but your brain.

[Firebert]

In order to actually be able to take advantage of this mechanic, you have to use add-ons like Bloodshield Tracker.

Not particularly. Just Death Strike on cooldown, as it gives RP, which you can spend on Rune Strike, which refreshes runes via the level 75 tier, which means more Death Strikes.

[Nangz]

Its complicated because that one description you provided includes the mastery description as well as the ability description. A Monk's blackout kick is similar in its lengthyness where the description could be written like this

Monks primary active mitigation is by maintaining shuffle, this is applied through blackout kick and various other mechanics. Blackout kick deals damage and gives the caster shuffle which grants 20% parry and 20% stagger for 6 seconds. Stagger is a unique monk mechanic that allows for the monk to shrug off physical damage taking a percentage of the strike immediatly and the remaining percentage divided over 10 seconds.

One can elaborate further by explaining how Purifying Brew interacts to remove stagger from the monk but you get my point.

[Taralack]

It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. I've tanked at max level across the expansions as a warrior and a druid, but DKs are by far the most fun, and the most flexible.

[eskilfm]

Not complicated at all for me. Death Strike lets you use Rune Strike, Rune Strike gives you Death Strike, basically.

[Realsykes]

It's not complicated at all...

and it's actually entertaining, as a prot pally I've been bored as hell, it's too easy.

[Dasani]

It's fine.

You heal back 20% of the damage you've taken in the last 5 seconds and get a physical absorb shield equal to your mastery % of how much you healed.

Whenever I explain blood tanking to someone I just say its like blocking, but better, because you not only mitigate a % of the damage you take, but you heal at the same time and spell damage taken increases your physical bubble as well. Its not uncommon to take so much magic damage from a boss that your blood shields get and stay so large you're virtually immune to the physical damage it does. Coupled with a 45 sec CD that reduces magic damage by 75%, DKs are beastly at tanking anything with high magic damage.

- - - Updated - - -

Also have you ever tried explaining monk stagger to someone?

A % of your physical damage taken is applied as a cumulative dot to yourself over 10 seconds, continuously adding and refreshing as you take more physical damage, while the remaining % is applied instantly. The % of damage staggered is equal to 20% from ox stance base, +20% from shuffle (provided you maintain it), + your mastery %.

That is as clean and simple and efficient as I can explain stagger and it's certainly more complicated than blood shield lol.

Both mechanics are fine, mind you.

[Haven]

Also have you ever tried explaining monk stagger to someone?

It's actually simple. A monk postpones a certain percentage of physical damage received as a 10-sec debuff on himself. It's not more complicated than blood shield becuase it's just one mechanic.

Blood tanking mechanics has evolved over time, growing more and more conditions (such as working only in blood presence), exclusions (such as heals only working from NPC-inflicted damage), layers of mechanics (a strike that procs a heal that procs a shield), etc.

Mind you, I never said that it didn't work or was hard to adapt to; it becomes intuitive, especially with blood shield tracker for optimal timing. I just thought we could use something more... elegant.

[Deleted]

Well, i think the understanding of "how it works" ain't as important as the "well it works" because they made it so intuitive. I can't begin to understand how for example an algorithm works and yet, I know when I press X or Y i get smashed potatoes or laminated ones =) ofc blood mechanic aint rocket science to have a good grasp of it but in the end it feels so natural and works so well that i'm happy with it.

[Nangz]

It's actually simple. A monk postpones a certain percentage of physical damage received as a 10-sec debuff on himself. It's not more complicated than blood shield becuase it's just one mechanic.

Blood tanking mechanics has evolved over time, growing more and more conditions (such as working only in blood presence), exclusions (such as heals only working from NPC-inflicted damage), layers of mechanics (a strike that procs a heal that procs a shield), etc.

Mind you, I never said that it didn't work or was hard to adapt to; it becomes intuitive, especially with blood shield tracker for optimal timing. I just thought we could use something more... elegant.

and one could make blood less complicated too by saying "Death strike heals based on damage taken recently and provides an absorb based on that heal." If you add the specifics to any of these you can make them complicated.

[Meteoric]

In comparison, Warriors tank using shields that block 30 or 60% of damage with certain chance depending on mastery.

Wait, what? You literally didn't even mention warrior AM, which is strange since you just gave the full technical description of Death Strike mechanics and usage. The technicalities of Shield Block/Shield Barrier ("you have a chance to block, except when you SBlock then it's guaranteed, and blocking prevents 30% except based on Mastery it can prevent 60%, and SBlock has a 9-second cooldown and lasts 6 seconds and can build 2 charges, and meanwhile you also have to know when to use SBarrier instead of/in addition to SBlock and when to use fast small barriers instead of saving up for big ones, and by the way SBarrier scales with stamina and attack power but SBlock is just a percentage of incoming damage, but you can't block magic") are not significantly less complex than the technicalities of Death Strike.

More importantly, you don't need to explain all the details to somebody who has never played a DK before. You use Death Strike to heal yourself, the end. Once they've got that down, then they can start worrying about the fiddly bits.

[Zka]

BloodShield Tracker? Why?

[Haven]

Wait, what? You literally didn't even mention warrior AM, which is strange since you just gave the full technical description of Death Strike mechanics and usage. The technicalities of Shield Block/Shield Barrier ("you have a chance to block, except when you SBlock then it's guaranteed, and blocking prevents 30% except based on Mastery it can prevent 60%, and SBlock has a 9-second cooldown and lasts 6 seconds and can build 2 charges, and meanwhile you also have to know when to use SBarrier instead of/in addition to SBlock and when to use fast small barriers instead of saving up for big ones, and by the way SBarrier scales with stamina and attack power but SBlock is just a percentage of incoming damage, but you can't block magic") are not significantly less complex than the technicalities of Death Strike.

Going in depth describing all class colldowns would be a bit too much. I'm talking about the fundamental basics. Besides, there's a way to put it simple - Shield Block gives you 6 seconds of guaranteed blocking, with two charges that add up, and Shield Barrier gives you an absorb.

BloodShield Tracker? Why?

I found it to be a useful tool because it helps to indicate the potential shield gain and maximize it by timing Death Strikes better with spikes of damage. Sometimes it makes sense to postpone DS a bit, get hit hard, and then compensate for the received hit with two or even three DS in a row for a huge shield.

[Meteoric]

Going in depth describing all class colldowns would be a bit too much. I'm talking about the fundamental basics. Besides, there's a way to put it simple - Shield Block gives you 6 seconds of guaranteed blocking, with two charges that add up, and Shield Barrier gives you an absorb.

Death Strike heals you and creates an absorb shield. There, fundamental basics covered.
My point is, Warrior AM is not dramatically less complex than Death Strike unless go out of your way to skew the presentation.

By the time you get to talking about mechanical details and optimal usage, almost anything in this game is fairly complex. I don't think this is specific to Blood tanking, nor that it's even a bad thing.

[Deleted]

Id definately say blood tanking is the easiest "starter tank spec". No shieldblock/savage defense uptime to worry about. But maybe its a bit hard to play so that its viable.